chrsnd applause ] whose idea was it to kill your mother? >> mine. >> why did you want to kill your mother? >> because i wanted to be free of her hold on me. >> so instead of planning an elaborate escape, you planned a murder. >> tonight on "20/20" the gripping story that became a national obsession. >> just chaos. >> it set off a roller coaster story. >> now the latest chapter on gypsy blanchard. the young girl who grabbed the hearts of millions. celebrities like blake shelton, miranda lambert rallying around the princess in a wheelchair. >> happy endings are not just in fairytales. >> there's a reason i was born. to be a mom. >> completely dependent on her doting mother who was suddenly found murdered.

>> found dee dee blanchard deceased. of a violent nature. >> what happened with your mom that night? >> i don't know. >> tonight, all-new details on the recent trial. >> the girl looked 12, sounded 5 and had a 40-year-old attitude. >> how can this young, sick girl who can't walk be involved in her mother's death? >> reporter: we're taking you inside prison to see the stunning transformation. how did you go from this to this? >> plus the mystery man who came between mother and daughter speaking out for the first time. >> hi. >> one of the most elaborate con games ever. >> how was dee dee able to get away with this for so long? >> she wants to get out. ain't going to happen. >> good evening, everybody. i'm amy robach. >> and i'm david muir. this is "20/20." >> tonight, the heart breaking,

twisting family tale. >> is gypsy the villain or the victim? >> are we still on? >> reporter: home movies capture the vibrant spirit of a young teenage girl. >> so where are you going today? >> i'm going to children's mercy hospital to see my dentist for my teeth. >> reporter: full of enthusiasm and effervescence, but behind the smiles life for gypsy blanchard and her mother dee dee is one replete with hardships and challenges. gypsy is in a wheelchair. >> they were local darlings. i mean, they were the shining star in this town of people who can outlast adversity and get through everything. >> reporter: the mother-daughter duo are local celebrities. the subject of countless local news profiles and articles. >> gypsy and her multiple illnesses and diseases. leukemia, muscular dystrophy,

she had learning disabilities, had not been able to be out of a wheelchair since she was 5 years old. and so the community really embraced them. >> reporter: dee dee's originally from louisiana, a one-time beauty queen. and nurse's aide. she marries rod blanchard at age 24. together the couple welcomes a beautiful baby girl. >> perfectly healthy pretty little baby. named her gypsy rose. i was excited and very scared. i'm not going to lie i was scared. i'm 18 years old and i got a baby here. >> but she was beautiful and perfectly healthy. >> yeah, she was. nothing wrong with her. she looked perfect. >> i see you. you want to blow me a kiss? very good. >> reporter: but the relationship was far from perfect. and the couple broke up. >> and not long after dee dee was saying that she was sick,

had problems sleeping, epilepsy. and it just progressed from there. leukemia. paralyzed muscular distrophy. and she would have seizures. gypsy was probably 7, 8 years old. she's in a wheelchair now, she needs a feeding tube. >> was dee dee a good mother? >> i told dee dee she was the best mother. there's no way i can do what she doing -- you have a sick child, it's constantly 24/7 taking care of her and everything i mean, i always praised her and told her, "good job." >> reporter: rod and his new wife kristy would have sporadic visits with gypsy, but they are never alone. >> all the visits, dee dee had to be there the whole time. something never felt right about it. dee dee was so controlling of her. >> reporter: this is the last photo taken of rod with his daughter before fate would seemingly deal gypsy and dee dee another cruel blow, leaving the pair displaced and depleted by hurricane katrina in 2005. >> in some areas the water is

now 20 feet deep. >> reporter: their home ravaged by the storm and floodwaters. they took refuge at this nearby special needs shelter. >> i learned from dee dee that they were homeless. no place to go. so mercy hospital loaded them up on the helicopter and flew them up. >> reporter: they were evacuated here to springfield, missouri. birthplace of route 66, a tight-knit community in the buckle of the bible belt. with dee dee a full-time caregiver, they're forced to piece together a life largely from donations, disability payments, and child support from gypsy's dad. a turning point seems to be when the family gets this home located at the aptly named intersection of hope road and volunteer way. >> i remember my mom had gave me this little glass house. and she said, one day this will be real. and now, it finally is.

>> the blanchards moved into that house, built by habitat for humanity. a wheelchair ramp was built just for her. >> she was like one of the happiest people i had ever met and yet she was the most sick that i had ever met at the same time. >> reporter: in between hospital stays, gypsy frequently jet-sets across the country. ball games. galas. the most magical place on earth, disney world. >> make a wish, they were taking her down to orlando, all expenses paid and everything. >> hi, everybody. right now i'm in cinderella's castle. eating some real mashed potatoes. mm! ♪ >> reporter: she even got to meet country superstars miranda lambert and then-husband blake shelton. >> miranda lambert came to springfield a few times and i think she gave dee dee and gypsy money. >> reporter: yes, she did. look at this $3500 check from the singer's personal account. but that wasn't all.

>> what must i do? >> reporter: check her out posing with her favorite actors, elijah wood and sean astin from "lord of the rings." >> no! no! >> that sounds like a really awesome life, but, i mean, again, like, i mean, it, it's not worth like what condition her health was in. >> reporter: but in private gypsy just wants to be regular teen and find love according friend and neighbor aleah woodmansee. >> she would show interest in like different boys and try to ask me advice on like, you know, how, how do you approach them? how do you like kiss a boy? >> reporter: aleah says mom dee dee didn't approve of the girl talk. >> said my daughter has the mentality of a child. like you're talking to her about teenage girl things. >> reporter: but gypsy ignores her mother going behind her back and sets up this online dating profile. she soon connects with this man and pours out her soul. >> i need to tell you something. i'm no model. i have a medical condition. so i can't walk. i have a chair i use. is that an issue? >> why would that be a problem?

you are an angel in my eyes. it will never make any difference in how i see you from the inside out. >> reporter: and with a few strokes of the keyboard, a secret online relationship blooms. but when we come back -- >> ain't gonna happen. >> reporter: -- mother and daughter are nowhere to be found. >> oh, my gosh. mb has kidnapped gypsy. >> reporter: the little pink house becomes a crime scene. >> things aren't as they always appear. >> next. take an extra 15 or 20% off!

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♪ i believe there are angels among us ♪ >> reporter: at a relay of life event to raise money for the american cancer society. >> you're the reason i was born, to be a mom. >> reporter: but the sickly and often secluded gypsy believes she, too, has found her guardian angel. not at home in her mother, but online with a man. nick godejohn. >> she was in love with him. she thought that he was going to be the prince that came and finally saved her. and got her out of her locked tower and they'd live happily ever after. >> reporter: look at some of the messages the love-struck teenager sends a friend about her prince charming. >> i met a wonderful guy. he's my first boyfriend. he gives me poems and is so romantic. >> she was talking about this new guy that she was now in love with, and that they had met on a christian dating site and that they were already planning on naming their children after him. >> reporter: but on their shared facebook page, the harsh reality is what people saw.

>> dee dee presented as a very doting mother. this was her child. she knew she was sick, and she was just going to love her. unconditionally, until she couldn't anymore. >> reporter: but then comes the day when family friends kim and david are horrified. when something very different popped up on gypsy and dee dee's facebook page. a very vulgar post. >> it said the bitch is dead. >> i, instantly took it as, their facebook account had gotten hacked. >> then we saw the second one, which said, "and i raped her sweet daughter, too." >> reporter: kim and david race to the little pink house. no one seems to be home, but their new car is in the driveway. >> we circled the house, knocked on all the doors and windows. >> i called the police and let them know that we needed a wellness check done on a disabled mother and daughter. and they said that they would send somebody out. >> we have breaking news.

the body of 48-year-old claudenia blanchard has been found. >> gypsy is still missing this morning. >> you just can't forget the pink house with the wheelchair ramp. >> i see a stretcher coming out of the house. and there's a sheet over a body. and i just start sobbing. i thought it was dee dee. >> we found dee dee blanchard deceased and of a violent nature. we're still actively looking for gypsy. >> then we really panicked because oh, my gosh, somebody has kidnapped gypsy. >> tell me about the moment when you heard that something happened to dee dee and that gypsy was missing. >> you know, i was shocked? i was like, what? really? couldn't understand it. >> why would somebody do this to this child? no wheelchair. no medication. they gonna just leave her for dead. >> reporter: authorities move quickly and hit pay dirt when they trace the ip address of those profane facebook posts to

a small house 600 miles away in big bend, wisconsin, at the home of nick godejohn. gypsy's boyfriend. who is nick godejohn? >> he's functions at about 15 or 16-year-old. he is a kid that is similar to gypsy from the standpoint of not really having a normal social interaction history that most kids would've had up to that point. they go to the house. there's some sort of standoff for a period of time. they have to bring the s.w.a.t. team there. >> reporter: when authorities enter the home they take both into custody. >> we started hearing from various sources, that gypsy wasn't a victim. she wasn't kidnapped, that she was actually involved in this somehow. it was beyond shocking. >> we have located gypsy i she is okay. we do have another person of interest in custody. >> i'm detective hancock. i'm from the county sheriff's office.

your mom is dead, okay? she's deceased, all right. now, what i want to ask you is, did you have involvement in this? >> wait, go back. what? >> what happened with your mom that night? >> i don't know what happened with my mom. why don't you just tell me? >> just listen to me, okay, sweetheart? you know what happened to your mom, okay? you know exactly. i'm not going to play around with this. >> reporter: while gypsy keeps mum in the interrogation room, what does the other one say. >> from what she told me, her mom kicked her out of her house. >> all right. >> reporter: what happens next leaves everyone in springfield stunned. >> back to the newsroom, and it's just chaos. okay this story has completely done a 180. i bet my mouth was -- >> reporter: and, what a transformation. you'll hear from gypsy herself, next. i have three words for migraine...

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this is the house where clauddinea blanchard was found stabbed to death. it set off a roller coaster story. >> what would drive gypsy to want to plan the murder of her own mother? >> reporter: local teenage hero gypsy rose blanchard could be the most unlikely murder suspect ever. a supposed paraplegic suffering from muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, leukemia, and confined to wheelchair. is now under arrest both she and her boyfriend nick charged with killing her mother. >> people were saying, well, maybe she was tricked into doing this. she met somebody online.

he wanted to take her away and the mother wouldn't let her. they fought. somehow the mother was killed. it was still the prevailing thought that she was really innocent. >> reporter: the princess outfits now replaced with an orange jumpsuit. >> my vision was still of this fragile little girl and that was, that was shattered. >> it was hard to wrap your brain around. how can this young, sick girl, who can't walk, be involved in her mother's death? so it was shocking beyond shocking. >> things are not always as they appear. >> reporter: the people of springfield might think they are witnessing a miracle, when astonishingly -- >> versus gypsy blanchard. >> reporter: -- check out gypsy's first appearance in court. yes, that's her walking. no wheelchair. no signs of distress. not even a limp. >> gypsy crying through the proceedings and shocking many of those who know her because she

was walking and not using a wheelchair. >> i still did not want to believe that she could walk when they showed her on the news. in fact, i rewound it and played it multiple times. because that's not who we knew. >> just when you thought the dee dee blanchard murder case couldn't get any stranger. we've covered stories where you find out that someone you thought was so sweet, and innocent, and turns out there's a different side, but it was like a prize fight, where it's just one hit after the other. >> i was happy she was walking. big red flags. i felt so stupid. if she can walk, what else have we been lied to about? >> reporter: later in this hour, we'll show you the astounding extent of those lies. but one thing that is real, her voice. >> 1003 west volunteer way. springfield, missouri. >> there were comparisons to cartoon characters saying that she was forcefully talking like

a baby. it sounded a little like maybe she had had some helium. >> reporter: take a listen, as gypsy calls her father from jail. >> daddy, i understand that we haven't had a chance to get close in a long time, probably my whole life. >> i have a lot of questions, obviously. you know, i'm confused. >> the stuff they say in the news is horrible and not true. you know that i love my mama. and you know that i would never hurt her. just know that i'm innocent and know that i'm still your little girl. >> reporter: we're here in missouri. we're driving to visit gypsy rose in prison. the big question, is she a murderer? or is she a victim? when she walks into the meeting room, i'm immediately struck by her radically changed appearance. she has long, curly hair. makeup. and her once frail frame has filled out.

she tells me about the genesis of that relationship with nick godejohn. meeting him online and quickly falling in love. even hatching an ill-fated plan to introduce him to overprotective dee dee at a screening of "cinderella." how did it go? >> awful. oh, my god. she got jealous, because i was spending a little too much attention on him and, she had ordered me to stay away from him. and needless to say that was a very long argument that lasted a couple weeks. >> reporter: an argument that lasted a couple of weeks. what does that look like? >> yelling, throwing things, calling me names. bitch, slut, whore. >> did you hate your mother at that point? >> i didn't hate her. >> you wanted her dead. >> yes, but it was not because i hated her. it was because i wanted to escape her. >> reporter: nick traveled to springfield from wisconsin. that's him checking into a local days inn motel.

where he waited for gypsy to give word dee dee is asleep. >> the [ bleep ] is going that go down tonight. just the gloves and knife? >> duct tape, too. to muffle her. >> i'll pre cut it. >> how are you feeling? >> honestly, terrified, but then i had taken some medication that was not prescribed to me to calm me down. >> reporter: gypsy says she hands the items to nick and hides in the bathroom while he goes into the bedroom. matching nick's story to police. >> okay, i'll admit it, i did actually stab her mom. i will admit it. >> so when you're stabbing dee dee, where is she at? >> she's on her stomach. >> did she scream or holler? >> yes, she did. >> what was she saying? >> first she said help. >> and then what did she say? >> and then she called up for gypsy.

but gypsy didn't do anything. >> i heard her scream once, and there was more screaming but not like the kind in a horror film. just like a startled scream, and she called out my name three or four times. and at that point, i wanted to go help her so bad. but i was so afraid to get up. it's like my body wouldn't move. then everything just went quiet. >> reporter: just moments later, incredibly, the couple says they had sex on gypsy's bed. dee dee's body in the room next door. before taking a cab back to nick's motel -- and there they are, caught on surveillance cameras. >> it's disconcerting to see how quickly they were able to turn off any kind of impact from the murder. it seemed there was no effect on them. >> reporter: were you afraid of getting caught? >> that never crossed my mind. i honestly didn't think we were

gonna get caught. >> reporter: oh, but they did. captured time and again on video cameras. every step documented in receipts and eyewitnesses. >> this is like a crime i call hansel and grettel. where you drop the clues as you go. they couldn't have laid it out better for police. >> she was in a dark black hoodie. she had a very odd looking wig on. it was an old-looking cher wig. which i found very -- unnormal. the girl looked 12. sounded 5. but had a 40-year-old attitude. because she was not afraid to tell me off. i just knew there was something wrong. >> reporter: it might seem like an open and shut case, but next we go inside the little pink house. >> it was filthy.

>> the thing that shocked me the most was the closet inside gypsy's house. >> reporter: and what is found behind this locked door might unlock more than a decade of dee dee's closely held secrets and hold the key to freeing gypsy. >> i was like, holy [ bleep ]. y'all need to get over here right now and look at this. >> reporter: stay with us. this week at target, the the more you save!toys save $10 on swift toys. save $10 on surprise toys. save $10 on action toys.

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i'm going to children's mercy hospital. >> reporter: gypsy blanchard is caught in a web of secrets and lies. even her age is in dispute. >> my medical insurance has 23. >> okay.

so how old actually are you? >> 19. me and my mother are hurricane katrina survivors, and my birth certificate was washed away in katrina. and unfortunately, they messed up the paperwork. >> reporter: she's behind bars and charged with murdering her mother. 48-year-old dee dee blanchard. known to the community as a loving caregiver for a sickly gypsy. >> how did you go from this to this? >> i only see as a fall from grace. i thought, back then, that i was a good person. and now i just see it as that was a fraud. and i made a horrible mistake. >> reporter: a horrible mistake, because it turns out that little pink house, on hope and volunteer way, was actually the nerve center from which the so-called doting mother perpetrated an elaborate scam, preying on the sympathies of

countless good samaritans. >> we have unearthed the appearance of a long financial fraud scheme, along with this tragic event. >> reporter: celebrities, charities, even cartoon characters, all conned. >> i was disappointed that i had been duped. >> reporter: what medical conditions did you believe you suffered from? >> leukemia, asthma, both vision and hearing impaired, muscular dystrophy and seizures. >> did you always know you could walk if you wanted to? >> yes. >> she told you you had to stay in a wheelchair when you could walk? how did she convince you to do that? >> i was so young. so, me looking up to her so much and just believing she knows best. i didn't question it. >> did you believe you were sick? >> there are certain illness

that i knew i didn't have. i knew that i didn't need the feeding tube. i knew that i could eat and i knew that i could walk. but i did believe my mother when she said that i had leukemia. >> tell me about dee dee. what kind of mom was she? >> uh -- very protective. >> do you think she protected you? >> no. not in -- in certain ways yes, in other ways no. i think that she was very sick in her mind. for a long time i believe, like, we were like best friends, and when i was younger she was my best friend. >> she was your only friend. >> yes, other than my stuffed animals. and so i thought that she was a great mother. no complaints, we got along so perfect. you know, i saw her as an angel that can do no wrong. >> reporter: but as gypsy got older and became curious about

life outside the little pink house, she says mom dee dee began exerting more control. what happens when she got upset with you? >> it would go into an argument that would last a couple days or it could be something where she wouldn't feed me for two days, or so. >> was she ever physical with you? >> it started to be physical in 2011. she would hit me with a coat hanger sometimes. >> did you ever fight back? >> no. because i was too afraid to. >> reporter: gypsy says she did try and run away once. but dee dee found her a few hours later. and, there were consequences. >> she physically chained you to the bed? >> she physically chained me to the bed. and put bells on the doors. >> reporter: did you ever consider, in a public place, if you stood up out of your wheelchair and walked, dee dee's fraud would be completely exposed? >> i honestly didn't think about that. >> it never crossed your mind? >> no. >> so, instead of planning an

elaborate escape, you planned a murder. >> yes. >> reporter: public defender mike stanfield has the extremely daunting task of coming up with a legal defense for gypsy. the evidence against her keeps mounting. >> in my ten years of practice, this case by far had the most discovery that i've ever had. close to 100 cds worth of papers, photos, and digital information. >> reporter: but it's a field trip alongside gypsy's dad and stepmom he says proves to be the most helpful. while the outside of gypsy house is pretty in pink, the inside a chaos of clutter. >> frankly it was a disaster. there was stuff everywhere. >> i could tell dee dee did a lot of just, hoarding. and stuff piled up. i mean like, chest high to the

back of the room. >> one of the bedrooms had so many items piled into it that you couldn't even walk into it. >> reporter: but amongst the photos on the wall and the den of disorder, some clues. >> the thing that shocked me the most was the closet inside gypsy's house. >> i was like, holy [ bleep ] y'all need to get over here right now and look at this. i mean, my mouth dropped. from the top to the bottom, full of so many medications. >> reporter: this isn't your ordinary medicine cabinet. it's dee dee's personal pharmacy. a large linen closet fully stocked. >> she had even written on several of the bottles of gypsy's medication as if she was writing it for a child. for the anti-seizure medication it would say, "shaky baby." the organization of the medications was shocking to me.

because in every other area of dee dee's life, it appeared that she had absolutely no organization or cleanliness. except when it came to these medications. it let me know from the very beginning that something here was seriously wrong. >> reporter: you're in a better place now than you were? wrong because it turns out not only can gypsy walk, she says she's never been sick. not cancer. not epilepsy, not anything. >> the only thing that i have wrong with me is i have a little bit of a lazy eye. not all the time, but i have better vision in this eye than i do that eye. that's it. >> that's it? >> that's it. >> nothing else? >> nothing else. >> reporter: when we come back, how did more than 100 doctors not figure this out? did they fail her. and later, the trial for that boyfriend. where two star-crossed lovers square off. >> whose idea was it to kill

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they like taking pictures that's for sure. >> reporter: rod and kristy blanchard try to piece together the puzzle of his daughter gypsy hunting for clues in photographs and home videos. >> you're the reason i was born, to be a mom. >> oh, god, that makes me sick. >> reporter: to sort out fact from fiction. do you think that dee dee came up with this idea. these movies created sympathy, which generated news coverage which generated money and free things. >> yeah. >> this one right here i don't think she meant for anyone to see that. >> i'm about to dive off our porch into the pile of snow. you ready?

>> everybody can clearly see she's moving her legs. >> reporter: but those old pictures only begin to tell the story. >> too many to freaking count. >> reporter: the paper trail is where the really fresh breadcrumbs are in this hansel and gretel fairy tale. >> hope kids, jason's dreams for kids, kids wish network, so she would actually look up foundations and stuff that she could hit up and get help with. >> fake birth certificate. this one says she's born in '95. everything else is correct except the year. >> you can totally tell she changed the date. >> but she didn't change it here. >> so it was '91 and changed it to '92 and then to '95. she just wanted to make gypsy younger and younger. >> right. >> reporter: and that's not all dee dee forged. located under her bed -- >> was the prescription pad that dee dee stole from the hospital. >> reporter: but while the paperwork might be fake, the

pills and procedures were dreadfully real including multiple gastrointestinal operations, eye surgeries, even the removal of her salivary glands. >> reporter: medical records reviewed by abc news show gypsy was treated by at least 150 different doctors. walk me through what that appointment would typically be like. >> i would have a doll or a stuffed animal that i would play with, and mom would say, don't talk. just play with your stuffed animal and we'll do something fun after. >> the one thing that is absolutely common across every single medical record is that gypsy never spoke. every single medical record says, "mother reported," "mother states." "history by mother." >> brain scans. muscle scans. blood tests. c.a.t. scans. and you looked healthy. so how would she get the doctors to understand, when none of it

was true? >> she had a very sweet personality. very convincing. she would call it southern charm. and she would use her southern charm to get them to be friendly. and get on their good side. >> and then she had no records. >> no. because of hurricane katrina wiped out all the records, supposedly. >> the biggest question was though, how was dee dee able to con the doctors? >> reporter: hospitals we contacted declined to comment but we tracked down one of her former neurologists dr. bernardo flasterstein -- >> my initial assessment, i saw a girl, a 14-year-old girl that was sitting in a wheelchair. >> reporter: who examined her for muscular dystropy and cerebral palsy and immediately saw red flags. >> the testing didn't seem to show the same type of disabilities that gypsy should be showing. >> there was nothing there to support either. that kind of made me very suspicious.

>> reporter: and his suspicion only grew when he told dee dee what should have been exciting news. gypsy's prior diagnoses were wrong. >> but the mother was not happy with that. and she left the office in a storm and told my nurses that i don't know what i'm talking about. and that she's not coming back. >> dr. flasterstein, ultimately said, "i believe that the mother suffers from munchausen by proxy." that was one of the things that, i believe he bolded and underlined in that letter. >> what is munchausen by proxy? >> munchausen by proxy. it's essentially when a caregiver will fabricate an illness or induce an illness in their child in order to get medical care. dr. jamye coffman is a board certified child abuse pediatrician. >> it's abuse on the child, but it's to obtain attention or some kind of secondary gain for themselves. >> sometimes it's financial. >> it can be. the most common, though, is actually emotional gain.

i look at it kind of like an addict who needs that fix. >> when you have a suspicion and you think that harm is being caused to the child, you can report that to social services and say, i have a suspicion. i, at the time, did not think that i had enough information for us to call. >> reporter: dr. flasterstein didn't call child protective services. but someone else later did. according to this police report obtained by "20/20" a doctor alerted authorities when he "could not find any symptoms that support what dee dee alleges to be wrong with her daughter. two case workers later did visit the blanchard home. but they found nothing out of the ordinary and closed the case. how was dee dee able to get away with this for so long? >> most of the time, these mothers are pathologic liars. they're very difficult to detect. they're very manipulative. i think she probably did like most of these parents, these mothers. she moved around from doctor to doctor.

they go to different hospitals and different institutions. >> reporter: that's exactly what she did after storming out of dr. flasterstein's office. she moved gypsy's care three hours away to kansas city. why did your mom do this? >> i think that she was constantly seeking attention for herself because she didn't feel loved. so let's make this baby girl sick so it forever needs you. and that's what i think it's from. >> you know a lot of people see this and just wonder why. why didn't you say anything? >> i know. i -- i -- i beat myself up about that all the time. but i have to understand my mind frame back then. i was always so afraid of her. afraid of the consequences after. next, two love birds now

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this is their only selfie together. gypsy blanchard dressed as cinderella. nick godejohn her prince charming. but their happily ever after, may never come true. the once loving couple now at odds and facing the possibility of life behind bars for the murder of gypsy's mother dee dee blanchard. >> there's a big difference between someone who asks someone to kill someone and someone that actually does it. >> is there? >> i think so because i would never kill somebody. i would never physically go through with killing somebody. i can't. >> my codefendant was putting my name out there in a bad light. >> reporter: that's nick himself, speaking to me via videoconference from jail. describe for me what gypsy's role was in the murder of dee

dee. >> she was basically the mastermind behind it all. i was basically a hired hit man. in its own weird sense. >> do you still love gypsy? >> the reason why i did do this is because i was, for one, so deeply in love with gypsy at the time. i still do love her. >> how do you feel about nick now? >> if you would have asked me that a, two years ago, i would have said, "i'm still in love with him." but now, i don't hate him. i feel sorry for him. >> why do you think he did it? >> he was very much like my mother. in certain ways. both of them were very controlling. and i feel like i was trained my whole life to do as i was told. >> we begin with breaking news this morning. gypsy blanchard has pleaded guilty to her role in a plot to kill her mother, clauddinea "dee

dee" blanchard." >> in a courtroom stunner prosecutors cut gypsy a deal. >> how do you plead to the class a felony of murder? >> guilty. >> sentenced to ten years in a missouri department of corrections. >> ten years in prison. because of the unpres dentd abuse from her mother. nick is in court just last month. he endures a four-day trial. >> dee dee blanchard, judge. >> reporter: once star-crossed lovers. gypsy is now ironically the star witness. forced to testify for nick's defense. >> whose idea was it to kill your mother? >> mine. >> why did you want to kill your mother? >> because i wanted to be free of her hold on me? >> who planned this murder? >> i did. >> this whole thing comes back to gypsy's determination to do whatever it took to get out of that home. >> reporter: she may have

planned it, but he committed it. after two hours of deliberation. >> we the jury find the defendant nicholas godejohn guilty of murder in the first degree. >> reporter: guilty. but unlike gypsy, he gets a mandatory life sentence. you're actually a prisoner now. how do the two compare? >> in some ways, they're the same. but, now i'm so much more freer. the prison that i was living in before with my mom. it was like, i couldn't walk. i couldn't eat. i couldn't have friends. over here, i feel like i'm freer in prison than living with my mom. because now, i'm allowed to just -- live like a normal woman. >> prison is not normal. >> no, not for most. but for me, it is. >> what do you think she would want to say to you?

>> i don't think it would be anything nice. all i can hope is that -- from wherever she is, that she still loves me in some small way. and i want her to know that i am sorry. i'm so sorry. ♪ >> wow. what a tragic story all the way around. >> it certainly is. for the family. and for the charities. we spoke with many of them, including the celebrities. all of them say they were duped. that's our program for tonight. thanks for watching. i'm amy robach. >> i've david muir. thank you for watching. have a good evening. good night. a man was shot while driving

on a busy east bay freeway. >> why the chp is