Kenan Urker, the partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who was imprisoned for the murder of her abusive mother in a case that thrust her into the national spotlight, was found dead in Louisiana on Thursday, the authorities said.
Mr. Urker was discovered in a residence in Raceland, a community in the southeastern part of the state, Capt. Brennan Matherne, a spokesman for the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, said. Thursday was Mr. Urker’s 34th birthday.
Investigators responded after receiving an emergency call at about 6:15 p.m. local time. The call was initially received as a reported overdose, according to a log shared by Captain Matherne on Friday. But he added: “We are continuing the death investigation. To this point in the investigation, we have found no evidence of foul play.”
The Lafourche Parish coroner, Kayla Breaux, said that an autopsy had been conducted on Mr. Urker on Friday and that toxicology test results were pending. “At this time, there is no definitive cause of death,” she said.
Mr. Urker’s death was reported on Thursday by TMZ.
The authorities from the sheriff’s office were dispatched to the house at 107 Double H Drive, Lot 4, in Raceland, after Anita Blanchard, the wife of Ms. Blanchard’s brother, Dylan Blanchard, called them to ask for a welfare check.
Mr. Blanchard had gone to Mr. Urker’s house and saw him through a window lying on a bed, not moving, according to an incident report from the sheriff’s office.
Deputies found syringes and a spoon in the residence’s bathroom, next to a brown, powdery substance, as well as a syringe and a handgun on the night stand, according to the report, which was released on Friday.
The deputies questioned the Blanchards and an acquaintance who had gone to the home with them. They told law enforcement officials that Mr. Urker had “made comments of being depressed and upset” on Wednesday, when he was at church with them.
Mr. Urker’s boss reported the next day that he did not show up for work.
Ms. Blanchard, 35, and family members of Mr. Urker could not be reached by telephone on Friday. Ms. Blanchard posted images of Mr. Urker on Instagram on Friday morning with the caption: “You will always be my greatest love story. You will be remembered and loved forever.”
In a separate Instagram story, she wrote: “Ken was an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved.” She also referred to him as “my soulmate” and said they had “a connection that time, distance, and even death can never erase.”
She added that public scrutiny and “relentless cyberbullying” had a “profound impact” on Mr. Urker.
Since she was released from prison in 2023, Ms. Blanchard has attracted millions of followers on social media, where she documented her personal life, including an earlier marriage and her relationship with Mr. Urker, with whom she shared a daughter, Aurora.
In 2016, Ms. Blanchard was sentenced to 10 years in prison, under a plea agreement, after she was convicted of helping to kill her abusive mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, in Missouri in 2015.
Her boyfriend at the time, Nicholas Godejohn, was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison. Investigators found evidence suggesting the couple had planned the murder together.
The murder became widely publicized and inspired an HBO documentary and a Hulu mini-series, making Ms. Blanchard a household name.
In 2022, she married Ryan Anderson, a special-education teacher from Louisiana, who exchanged letters with Ms. Blanchard while she was imprisoned at the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri. Ms. Blanchard filed for divorce in 2024.
On Lifetime’s “Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up,” which premiered in 2024, she spoke about her efforts to adapt to the responsibilities of raising a child as a new mother.
“I have been hit with the question, ‘How are you going to tell your daughter about what you did?’” she said tearfully. “And I just want to know that she is going to love me and forgive me for what I did in my past.”
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