Trigger Warning: This article contains details of child abuse that may be disturbing to some.
About a month after former YouTube influencers Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were sentenced to prison for child abuse charges, new evidence was released showing the severity of the abuse and neglect that Ruby’s two children suffered at the hands of their mother.
Ruby, 42, and her estranged husband, Kevin Franke, are parents to six children, Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, and Eve. The Utah mother ran a YouTube channel, “8 Passengers,” which garnered millions of views as Ruby and Kevin documented their lives with their six children
Ruby Franke and Family Therapist Jodi Hildebrandt are serving the same sentence of up to 30 years in prison
Image credits: moms_of_truth
Image credits: moms_of_truth
"8 Passengers" had about 2.5 million subscribers at the peak of its success. But Ruby eventually received backlash as her audience began questioning her parenting techniques and pointing out that her disciplining methods showed signs of abuse.
Ruby was arrested last year after her malnourished son escaped from the home of Jodi Hildebrandt — a self-improvement counselor who was also Ruby’s former business partner.
Ruby and Jodi pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree felony aggravated child abuse in December, and they were given the maximum sentence under Utah state law in February.
A slew of new evidence, including interrogation tapes, diary entries, and surveillance footage, was released on March 22 in connection with the case involving Ruby and Jodi.
Newly released evidence, including body camera footage, diary entries, and surveillance footage, showed the severity of the abuse that Ruby's children suffered
Image credits: ABC News
The evidence included footage of Ruby’s 12-year-old son, who had escaped Jodi’s house and ran to the neighbor’s home to beg for help.
The child, captured with duct tape around his ankles, was filmed by surveillance cameras walking to one house and ringing the doorbell several times before heading to a second house. When a man eventually opened the door to the child, the boy asked if he could do him a favor and take him to the nearest police station.
“I was just wondering if you could do two favors?” the child asked. “If you could take me to the nearest police station. Well, actually, just one [favor] is fine.”
“What’s going on?” the man asked the boy.
While a woman from the house emerged and reassured the child, the man called the police and informed them about an "emaciated" child with "tape around his legs," who was "hungry and thirsty" and asking for help.
The abuse came to light after Jodi's malnourished son escaped from Jodi's house and begged his neighbor for help
Image credits: Law&Crime Network
Investigators eventually found that the boy was being held captive at Jodi’s home nearby and had escaped by climbing out of the window.
The boy’s daring escape led to the arrests of Ruby and Jodi within hours.
Newly released bodycam footage also revealed how Ruby's petrified daughter was found by the police while they were searching Jodi's home. The 9-year-old girl sat in a closet for about four hours while officers attempted to bring her out.
Ruby's "petrified" 9-year-old daughter was found by cops, who spent hours trying to bring the child out
Image credits: Law&Crime Network
"The officers responded to Ms. Hildebrandt’s home, placed her under arrest, and conducted a search of her sizable property where they found Ms. Franke’s 9-year-old daughter, petrified and hiding in a closet," the county attorney’s office said in a statement about the newly released evidence.
The evidence also included Ruby’s diary entries, in which she chronicled the daily abuse that her son and daughter, aged 11 and 9 at the time, suffered while living in Jodi’s house.
“Big day for evil,” she titled a diary entry from July 2023. It was the same day she wrote about holding her son’s head underwater and blocking his nose and mouth.
“These selfish, selfish children who desire only to take, lie, and attack have zero understanding of god’s love for them,” Ruby wrote in her journal.
The mother would also starve her children and justify her actions in her journal by writing, “I will not feed a demon.”
The horrific diary entries went on to reveal that Ruby forced her children to work for hours during the hot summer and forced them to sleep on hard floors. She also documented locking her children up in a concrete bunker in Jodi’s basement.
Ruby's diary entries revealed how she starved her children and locked them up in a concrete bunker in Jodi’s basement
Image credits: Law&Crime Network
Along with the newly released evidence, the police also put out interview footage of Ruby’s estranged husband, Kevin, who was interrogated after he showed up at the Santa Clara-Ivins Police Department on the day his youngest son escaped from Jodi’s house.
"I haven't seen them for over a year," Kevin told the police about his children, appearing visibly upset.
Kevin explained in his first interview with the police why he and Ruby separated. "The reasons are because of ways that I treated my wife and some of my own addictions that I was working through and seeking help on with um, with uh, pornography," he said.
Kevin cried in front of officers after they revealed that his son was found malnourished and duct-taped after running to a neighbor’s house for help.
Ruby's estranged husband, Kevin Franke, broke down in front of police officers after hearing about how his son escaped from Jodi's house
Image credits: Law&Crime Network
“This feels like getting run over by a steam truck, what you’re sharing with me today,” he said.
“I love my wife,” he said during the same interview and didn't mention anything that would incriminate her.
However, about two weeks later, Kevin once again showed up and told the police that he no longer defended his wife. During the second interview, he said he had an “in-home separation” from his wife at one point, and Jodi was living with them at the time.
Kevin revealed how he was subjected to rules and, at one point in time, couldn't even come back home until Ruby gave him permission
Image credits: Law&Crime Network
“Every week was just hell, psychological hell, and Jodi was running it,” Kevin said.
"I could leave when I wanted, but I couldn't come back until Ruby gave me permission. I couldn't come into the kitchen to eat until Ruby gave me permission. And the upstairs where Jodi roamed was completely off-limits. I couldn't go upstairs anymore in my own house," Kevin was quoted telling the cops.
He said Ruby eventually left with the children and moved into Jodi’s home.
Since the abuse came to light, Kevin filed for divorce and is seeking custody of his four youngest children, who were placed under state custody.
Ruby and Jodi believed the abuse was necessary to teach the two young children "how to properly repent for imagined 'sins,'" an attorney said
Image credits: Law&Crime Network
Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke said on Friday that Ruby and Jodi were motivated by religious extremism to abuse the two young children and subject them to a "concentration camp-like" setting.
"The women appeared to fully believe that the abuse they inflicted was necessary to teach the children how to properly repent for imagined 'sins' and to cast the evil spirits out of their bodies," Eric said.
Ruby and Jodi Hildebrandt are now serving the same sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
People online were absolutely disturbed by the new evidence that revealed the extent of the abuse
