Ken Urker Dead at 34 After Louisiana Welfare Check
Ken Urker, the on-and-off partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, was found dead at his Louisiana home on his 34th birthday after relatives asked police to check on him. Authorities said an investigation is underway.
RACELAND, Louisiana — Ken Urker, the on-and-off partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, was found dead at his home on Thursday evening, his 34th birthday, after relatives asked police to conduct a welfare check. The Lafourche Sheriff’s Office said an investigation is underway.
The death drew immediate attention because Urker was the father of Blanchard’s daughter and had been tied closely to one of the most widely followed true-crime stories in the U.S. authorities have described it as an apparent drug overdose, and investigators are now piecing together what happened in the hours before he was found.
Police found him after relatives called for help
According to a sheriff’s office report cited, Anita Blanchard 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 report said Urker was not breathing and was “cold to the touch.” Deputies later wrote that they could see him from the living room area lying on his back in bed, and then found paraphernalia, including syringes and a spoon, in the bathroom next to a brown powdery substance.
Authorities also found a syringe and a handgun on the nightstand beside the bed. The sheriff’s office report said Urker “appeared to have been there for an extended period of time.”
Blanchard says she believes it was an overdose
In an interview with People published on Friday, Gypsy Rose Blanchard said 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,” she said, adding that Urker “was not in a good state of mind lately.”
Blanchard also posted a statement on her Instagram story on Friday saying Urker “endured an unimaginable level of public scrutiny and relent,” according to the Guardian. CNN quoted her as saying, “I’m in disbelief. I can’t think,” and “I’ve screamed until my throat burns.”
She asked for privacy and compassion for their daughter, their families, and “everyone grieving Ken during this incredibly painful time.” The sheriff’s office has not publicly announced a final cause of death.
Why his death drew wider attention
Urker’s death landed in a case that has long attracted intense public interest. CNN reported that Blanchard met Urker while she was in prison serving eight and a half years for helping in 2015 to kill her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. Dee Dee had convinced doctors and others that her daughter was afflicted with illnesses she did not have, including leukemia, muscular dystrophy and asthma.
That history made Urker a familiar name to people who followed Blanchard’s story through documentaries and interviews. It also means the latest death will be watched closely by true-crime audiences, even as authorities continue their investigation in Louisiana.
The sheriff’s office said the case remains open.
