Ken Urker, the former fiancé and recently reunited partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, was found dead Tuesday at age 34, according to police, who said the body "appeared to have been there for an extended period of time."
Officers discovered Urker's body during a welfare check after family members reported they had not heard from him for several days, police said. Authorities have not released a cause of death, and the investigation remains open pending results from the local coroner's office.
Urker, a Louisiana native, first connected with Blanchard in 2017 when he wrote her a letter while she was serving a 10-year prison sentence in Missouri for her role in the 2015 stabbing death of her mother, Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard. The two became engaged while she was incarcerated, though the relationship ended before her release in December 2023.
Blanchard, 33, married Ryan Anderson in July 2022 while still in prison, and the pair separated roughly three months after her release. She and Urker rekindled their relationship in 2024, and Blanchard announced in November that she was pregnant with Urker's child. The pregnancy was confirmed in a YouTube video that has drawn more than a million views.
Blanchard's case drew international attention after investigators determined her mother had subjected her to years of unnecessary medical treatment for fabricated illnesses, a pattern known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016 and was paroled after serving eight years of her sentence, a term shortened for good behavior.
Urker's death marks the second loss connected to Blanchard's inner circle in under two years. Her ex-husband, Anderson, has not commented publicly.
Police declined to say whether foul play is suspected, citing the active investigation. A spokesperson for the Blanchard family did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
Representatives for Blanchard have not issued a public statement. Urker is survived by his parents and siblings, who live in the New Orleans area.
