The on-and-off partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who spent time in prison for her role in the murder of her abusive mother, was found dead inside his Louisiana home on his 34th birthday on Thursday in what authorities described as an apparent drug overdose.
The sheriff’s office in Lafourche parish, Louisiana, confirmed Kenan “Ken” Urker – the father of Blanchard’s daughter – was discovered on Thursday after relatives asked police to conduct a welfare check at his residence.
According to a sheriff’s office report on the case, Anita Blanchard said she and her husband – who is Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s half-brother – went to Urker’s home and saw him lying unconscious through an outside window.
A man who was with the couple then entered the house through a window and found Urker unresponsive. The sheriff’s office report obtained by the Guardian states that Urker was not breathing and was “cold to the touch”.
Authorities who arrived at the scene were “able to see Mr Urker from the living room area lying on his back in [a] bed”, the report said. Deputies reported that they then walked in the direction of the room where the bed was “and located paraphernalia (syringes and spoon) in the bathroom next to a brown powdery substance”.
Authorities also found a syringe and a handgun on the nightstand beside the bed. Besides being cold to the touch, Urker “appeared to have been there for an extended period of time”.
In an interview with People published on Friday, the 32-year-old Gypsy Rose Blanchard said that she believed Urker died from an overdose – though she said she did not know whether it was deliberate.
“I don’t know if it was intentional or not,” Blanchard said, adding that Urker “was not in a good state of mind lately”.
In a statement published to her Instagram story on Friday, Blanchard said Urker “endured an unimaginable level of public scrutiny and relentless cyberbullying across social media platforms, including TikTok and Reddit”.
“The cruelty directed toward him was something no human being should have to endure,” Blanchard wrote. “I believe the tremendous weight of that scrutiny and harassment had a profound impact on him, and I hope his passing serves as a reminder that there is a real person behind every screen, every headline, and every comment.”
The sheriff’s office report on Urker’s death confirmed the case had been called in to the agency as an evident overdose.
In a statement to the news media, Brennan Matherne, the Lafourche parish sheriff’s captain, said Urker’s death remained “under investigation” as of Friday. Matherne also said investigators as of Friday had not discovered “any signs of foul play”.
Blanchard previously 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 had provided her then boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, with a knife and hid in a bathroom while he killed her mother.
Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Godejohn, whom Blanchard met online, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Dee Dee Blanchard’s murder drew widespread attention after it was revealed that she had forced Gypsy Rose to pretend she was seriously ill and undergo medical procedures she did not need.
Blanchard met Urker while serving her prison sentence, from which she was released in late December 2023. She said on the We Need to Talk podcast in June that Urker had contacted her after watching Mommy Dead and Dearest, a 2017 documentary about Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee.
As Gypsy Rose put it, Urker sent her a “supportive letter, not on any kind of romantic level” and included his phone number. Urker proposed in October 2018. The pair later ended their engagement before reuniting in August 2019.
They eventually split again and spent several years apart. During that time, Blanchard married Ryan Anderson. Anderson and Blanchard later separated, with her announcing the split four months after her release from prison.
Blanchard and Urker rekindled their relationship in April 2024. Eight months later, they welcomed their daughter, Aurora Raina Urker.
Ramon Antonio Vargas contributed reporting
