Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt Child Abuse Case

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Overview

The Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt Child Abuse Case is a child abuse case against family vlogger and YouTuber Ruby Franke, known for the Mormon family channel 8Passengers, and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, which began after Franke's son, malnourished, wounded and with duct tape around his ankles and wrists, escaped their home and reported her to a neighbor in August 2023. Before this, some viewers of the channel believed Franke's parenting style was abusive, resulting in several compilations of her perceived abusive behavior being uploaded to the site as early as 2021. In December 2023, Franke appeared in court where she pleaded guilty to four felony charges of child abuse.

History

Background

Ruby Franke is a YouTuber and family vlogger who was known for the family blogging channel "8Passengers" on which she vlogged her life with her family in Utah, which includes six children. Franke also worked as a business partner with Jodi Hildebrandt, the founder of the "mental fitness" and relationship coaching company ConneXions.^[1]^[2] She and Hildebrandt co-hosted the Connexions parenting podcast together.^[3]

In January 2021, prior to Franke and Hildebrandt's arrests, YouTubers began compiling footage from 8Passengers videos as alleged evidence of Ruby and her husband Kevin Franke being abusive towards her children. On January 7th, 2021, YouTuber^[4] Cece Spills posted a compilation titled "8 PASSENGERS WORST MOMENTS – PART 1" compiling clips including Franke threatening to take dinner from one of her children, her husband going through one of the children's texts, one child claiming he's been sleeping on a beanbag chair for seven months after Ruby took his bedroom privileges away and Franke threatening to cut the head off her daughter's stuffed animal, and refusing to bring a lunch to school for her daughter after she forgot hers. The video gained over 378,000 views in two years (shown below).

On January 9th, the /r/8passengersnark^[5] subreddit was started to collect further evidence against Franke and generally "snark" the YouTubers, garnering over 43,000 members in two years. On February 28th and March 6th, two more compilations of purportedly abusive and "crazy" moments from 8Passengers were uploaded to YouTube,^[6]^[7] garnering over 783,000 views and 690,000 views in two years (shown below, left and right).

The 8Passengers YouTube channel reached over 2.3 million subscribers before it was removed sometime in early 2023 for an unknown reason. The channel was reportedly removed before Franke and Hildebrandt's arrest.

August 2023 Arrest

On August 31st, 2023, NBC News^[8] reported that Ruby Franke and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested on child abuse charges. According to the report, the police made the arrest after finding one of her children "malnourished" and with "open wounds and duct tape on their extremities." Police were alerted of the incident around 10:50 a.m. local time on August 30th. The wounds were reportedly so bad that the child was sent to the hospital. Evidence related to the incident led cops to the home of Jodi Hildebrandt, where another child with signs of neglect was found. The Department of Child and Family Services took four minors into their care.

Family Member Responses

Reportedly, Franke's eldest daughter Shari made a post to her Instagram Story on August 30th, 2023, the day of the arrest, sharing a photo of the police captioned "Finally," later writing on her story, "Hi all. Today has been a big day. Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up" (shown below).

@2023dancemoms shari frank recent insta post #8passengers #childabusawarness #cps #8passengersshari #shari #fyp #fypage ♬ this feeling – Øneheart

On August 31st, Ruby Franke's purported sisters, Elle Mechem, Julie Griffiths Deru and Bonnie Hoellein, made a joint post to Instagram^[9] in which they wrote that her arrest "needed to happen" and claimed they knew about the issues but kept quiet for years, garnering over 137,000 likes in four months (shown below).

On October 17th, 2023, Shari Franke made a post to Instagram^[10] in which she wrote that her life had been "upside down" since the incident, thanking God and therapy for getting her through. She wrote, "Tomorrow is another big court day, and I’d appreciate your prayers and thoughts for my family and myself."

On November 30th, People^[11] reported that Ruby's husband Kevin had filed for a divorce. Notably, Kevin was not charged for abuse alongside his wife and Hildebrandt.

For the last 3 years we have kept quiet on the subject of our sister Ruby Franke for the sake of her children. Behind the public scene we have done everything we could to try and make sure the kids were safe. We wouldn't feel right about moving forward with regular content without addressing the most recent events. Once we do, we will not be commenting on it further. Ruby was arrested which needed to happen. Jodi was arrested which needed to happen. The kids are now safe, which is the number one priority.

Ruby Franke Blames Jodi Hildebrandt

On December 15th, 2023, Fox 13^[14] reported that Ruby Franke's attorneys, in a statement, "appeared" to place blame for the abuse on Jodi Hildebrandt and claim Franke was manipulated by her. The statement purportedly reads, "Initially, Ms. Franke believed that Jodi Hildebrant had the insight to offer a path to continual improvement. Ms. Hildebrant took advantage of this quest and twisted it into something heinous." It goes on to claim that Hildebrandt "systematically isolated Ruby Franke from her extended family, older children, and her husband, Kevin Franke," subjecting Franke to a "distorted sense of morality."

Ruby Franke's December 2023 Plea Hearing

On December 18th, 2023, Ruby Franke appeared in court for her plea hearing. The KUTV 2 News Salt Lake City YouTube^[12] channel uploaded a video of the hearing that day, garnering over 70,000 views in four days (shown below). During the appearance, she pled guilty to four charges of aggravated child abuse. Originally there were six charges, but two were dropped in the plea agreement.^[13] Before pleading guilty to the fourth charge, Franke said, "With my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children, guilty."

Sentencing is set for February 20th, 2024.

Sentencing

On February 20th, 2024, Franke and Hildebrandt were "sentenced to four consecutive fifteen-year sentences for child abuse"https://gotfunnypictures.com/news/popular-mommy-vlogger-ruby-franke-and-counselor-jodi-hildebrandt-found-guilty-of-child-abuse-sentenced-to-four-consecutive-15-year-prison-sentences. Due to Utah law prohibiting consecutive sentences being served over 30 years, the two will serve 30 years in prison.

Online Presence

Ruby Franke's August 2023 arrest became a major topic of discussion online, inspiring reactions and further compilations of her allegedly acting abusively in old videos. For example, on September 5th, 2023, Ray William Johnson posted a video to YouTube^[15] about the arrest that gained over 9.9 million views in three months (shown below).