Ken Urker was found with drug paraphernalia and a handgun at the time of his death, police in Louisiana confirmed.
The 34-year-old, who was engaged to Gypsy Rose Blanchard, died on October 1 at his residence in Raceland, Lafourche Parish. Officers from the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office responded to a welfare concern at approximately 6:18 p.m. That evening after family members reported he was not answering his phone or his door.
Sergeant Brandon Smith, Deputy Angel Tyler, and Lieutenant Aaron Montez were the responding officers dispatched to 107 Double H Dr Lot 4. Anita Blanchard, identified in the police report as the complainant, told authorities that the group was attempting to gain access to the residence.
Dylan Blanchard managed to enter through an unlocked bedroom window and spotted Urker lying unconscious on his bed. Once they realized Urker was not responding, Dylan Blanchard and Justin Daigle moved the blinds, climbed through the window, and found him cold to the touch in his bed.
The police report did not specify a cause of death or whether the handgun was loaded. The presence of drug paraphernalia alongside the weapon was confirmed as part of the official findings from the scene.
Urker’s death came on his 34th birthday. He and Blanchard had rekindled their relationship after her release from prison in December 2023, following her conviction in the 2015 murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. The couple announced their engagement in April 2024.
Blanchard had publicly expressed her devotion to Urker in the months leading up to his death. She stated that he would “always be her greatest love story,” a sentiment she shared on social media as their relationship drew significant public attention.
The couple’s romance had been marked by periods of separation and reconciliation. They initially became engaged while Blanchard was still incarcerated, but later split before reuniting following her release.
Blanchard’s mother, Dee Dee, had subjected her to years of medical child abuse, fabricating illnesses and forcing unnecessary treatments that confined her to a wheelchair and led to multiple surgeries. Blanchard, then 23, convinced her online boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn to kill Dee Dee in 2015. Godejohn is serving a life sentence; Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and served eight and a half years before her parole.
The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office has not released additional details about the ongoing investigation into Urker’s death. Toxicology results and a full autopsy report were pending at the time of the police update.