The ex-husband of Gypsy Rose Blanchard has said he was “shocked” by the recent death in Louisiana of her former partner Ken Urker – and that he would be there for Blanchard and her daughter “if she needs me”. Ryan Anderson made those remarks during an appearance on The Sarah Fraser Show podcast on Friday, providing a noteworthy reaction to the latest chapter involving Blanchard, who achieved an unusual level of celebrity after spending time imprisoned for a role in the murder of her abusive mother. Urker was found dead inside his Lafourche parish, Louisiana, home on Thursday on his 34th birthday in what was reported to the local sheriff’s office as an apparent drug overdose.
A Lafourche sheriff’s office report said Blanchard’s half-brother and his wife went to Urker’s home, saw him lying unconscious through an outside window, and called authorities. Deputies reported that they then went into the home and – among other things – found syringes and a spoon “next to a brown powdery substance” in a bathroom. Meanwhile, deputies also reported, Urker was dead in a bed next to a nightstand on which was a syringe and a handgun.
Anderson on Friday told Sarah Fraser that his initial reaction to the news of Urker’s death was one of disbelief. Anderson conceded to Fraser that “exchanges on the phone and … text messages” that he had with Urker “were never good”. But he said he nonetheless reached out to Blanchard’s father, Rod, after learning of Urker’s death.
Though Anderson said he “was always somebody who could make her laugh when she was sad or give her comfort”, he described being unsure whether Blanchard would take him up on his offer to be there for her as a friend “strictly”. A social media statement from Blanchard on Friday said Urker “endured an unimaginable level of public scrutiny and relentless cyberbullying across social media platforms, including TikTok and Reddit” before his death. Despite Urker’s death being reported to the local sheriff’s office as an evident drug overdose, a sheriff’s office captain said the case remained under investigation as of Friday.
Capt Brennan Matherne also said that investigators as of Friday had not discovered “any signs of foul play”. Blanchard spent eight years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in connection with the 2015 stabbing death of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. Dee Dee Blanchard was found stabbed to death in her home in Springfield, Missouri, in June 2015.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard gave her then boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, a knife that he used to kill her mother. Blanchard, who hid in a bathroom during her mother’s slaying, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Godejohn, whom Blanchard met online, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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