Kept from society, taken advantage of, normal life was nowhere to be seen, these attributes are exclusively known to Gypsy Rose Blanchard. All said, is murder the only solution to escape this living hell?

“I cringe at it, I curl up at it, it makes my stomach feel turned. It’s just something that you don’t imagine happening ever. It’s just such a unique story but also so disturbing at the same time,” Senior Ashlyn Pomis said.

According to NBCChicago, in June 2015, Gypsy Rose Blanchard gave her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn a kitchen knife to stab her mother to death while she hid in the bathroom. As to why, Dee Dee Blanchard, Gypsy’s mother, suffered a medical condition known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. This condition caused Dee Dee to lie, and simply make up, various medical conditions that Gypsy “had” in order to gain money and attention. But the condition was only the start. Dee Dee depended on Gypsy to be “sick” because that was her main source of her income and, therefore, would never let Gypsy enjoy the life she should have had.

Once Rose was old enough to realize that she was being taken advantage of, Rose slowly fought back until there was nothing else left to do. She tried running away from home, which led her to being found by Dee Dee and being chained to a bed for two weeks. She tried even living with it and finding friends and relationships, but to no avail. 

In the Lifetime Documentary The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, Rose goes on to say that her mother used many forms of abuse, such as physical and even verbal, like “You will never be happy, you will never find love.” Dreams of having a normal life with friends and her knight in shining armor was the driving force as to why she had Godejohn ultimately stab her mother to death.

“It was either her or me,” says Rose.

Now being done with serving her punishment in jail, she plans to start a new life with husband Ryan Scott Anderson.

“Since my incarceration, I am finally free to build relationships and friendships.” Rose said.

“I think [people still care what happens after the murder and incarceration] to see where this young girl goes from here,” Psychology Teacher Jay Heilman said. “She’s had a pretty horrible childhood being intentionally afflicted by her mom. She takes action to then have her mom be killed and serves her time for that and now what? What does her future hold? Is she going to be able to have a normal life? Will things ever be normal for her? For someone that went through crazy trauma, what’s next?”

Rose and Godejohn were both put behind bars after the murder incident. While Nicholas was sentenced a life sentence without parole, Rose walks the streets after getting out after 7 years with parole. 

According to a survey of 333 Prospect students, 52% believe that Rose was justified in the murder of her mother. Now that Rose is released from prison she will be able to have the life she always wanted, unlike her now-dead mother.

“It’s kind of dynamic and you can understand why the daughter would want to [murder her mother] but at the same time, the taking of another life is immoral and unjust,” Heilman said. “You can even make a self defense argument because [Rose] was tormented.”

Although many believe Rose didn’t have a choice but to kill her mom, Pomis believes otherwise.

“I don’t think she needed to have her boyfriend kill her mom,” Pomis said, “It’s a really sick story on both ends. I feel really bad for what happened to Gypsy and I think what her mom did was absolutely horrible and it’s something I can’t fully comprehend like it’s absolutely disgusting but I also think at the same end [Rose’s] response to it was really extreme.”

Saying that the authorities should have taken care of it, Pomis believes there was enough evidence from the constant change of doctors along with other evidence for the police to work the situation out.

In parallel with the recent boom in true crime documentaries, teenagers seem to also love this Gypsy Rose case. 

“I’ve never heard of a story like this before,” Pomis said. “I also feel like it’s very culturally addressed. Everyone knows this story … it’s rare when you come across someone who doesn’t know who Gypsy Rose is … It’s all over social media, that’s our main form of communication, entertainment, everything … So I feel like when big stuff like this happens and when it’s a societal confrontation where people are going ‘she should’ve gone to jail’ or ‘she shouldn’t have gone to jail’ people get really interested.”

According to thechargerfrontline.com, teenagers are attracted to this type of genre due to its dark side, allowing them to feel more mature and make them feel more prepared for the real world.

“It gives me a perspective in terms of how I would view it and it makes me think about my ideals and what I think is right and what I think is wrong,” Pomis said. “Since I turned 18 this year I can vote now so it makes me think about more, as I’m going to college, as I am a senior, it makes me think more about responsibility and adulthood.” 

According to IMDB, the new Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard has 9.8 million total views. Comparing this show to others, this would be put significantly above average in terms of viewership.

“[The Gypsy Rose case] is just so intriguing because in one aspect [the murder] seems justified because this girl was, in a sense, defending her own life obviously to a very extreme measure by taking her moms life who had been doing this to her,” Heilman said. “So I think it’s that little ‘evil twist’ in the story that people seem intrigued by.”