Ken Urker, the former fiancé and current partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, died Thursday in Raceland, Louisiana.
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Urker, 34, died on Thursday, his birthday, according to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities told TMZ they responded to a residence in Raceland around 6:15 p.m. Thursday after receiving a call. They found Urker dead when they arrived, and the sheriff’s office continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.
Though police have not announced a cause of death, Blanchard told PEOPLE that she believes Urker died from an overdose. “I don’t know if it was intentional or not,” she said. “He was not in a good state of mind lately.”
“I’m in disbelief. I can’t think,” she said. “I’ve screamed until my throat burns.”
Gypsy Rose Blanchard Devastated Over Loss of Ken Urker
Blanchard mourned Urker in a statement to PEOPLE and described him as an “amazing father” who remained deeply loved. She said she considers him her “forever soulmate” and expressed concern about the impact of online scrutiny and harassment.
“Ken endured an unimaginable level of public scrutiny and relentless cyberbullying across social media platforms,” she said. “The cruelty directed toward him was something no human being should have to endure.”
Blanchard and Urker shared a daughter, Aurora Raina Urker, whom they welcomed in December 2024. “I will make sure she grows up knowing how deeply her father loved her and who he was beyond what strangers on the internet chose to say about him.”
The couple first connected while Blanchard served a prison sentence for her role in the 2015 killing of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. Urker and Blanchard became engaged in 2018, but they later ended their relationship.
Blanchard subsequently married Ryan Anderson. She separated from Anderson after her release from prison in December 2023 and later reconnected with Urker. The couple resumed their relationship in 2024 and later announced that they were expecting a child.
Urker also appeared alongside Blanchard in the reality television series Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, which documented their relationship after her release from prison.
Blanchard has asked the public to give her family privacy as they grieve.