Ruby Franke, a mom from Utah with six kids, known for giving parenting tips on YouTube, tearfully apologized to her children for hurting them. A judge might send her to prison for many years. Franke said she felt “manipulated” by her YouTube and business partner.
Ruby Franke, a mother of six from Utah, admitted to mistreating her children and apologized tearfully in court. She refrained from seeking a shorter sentence, expressing gratitude to local law enforcement, doctors, and social workers whom she referred to as “angels” for rescuing her children. Franke claimed she was manipulated by her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, who was initially hired as a mental health counselor for Franke’s youngest son before becoming her business partner. Hildebrandt received four consecutive prison sentences ranging from one to 15 years. Due to a Utah law limiting sentence duration, both women will serve up to 30 years, and the Board of Pardons and Parole will determine their actual time behind bars based on their conduct.
Due to a Utah state law limiting sentence duration for consecutive penalties, the women, Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt, will serve a maximum of 30 years in prison. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will assess their behavior during incarceration and decide the actual time each will spend behind bars.
“I’ll never stop crying for hurting your tender souls,” Franke expressed to her children, who were absent from the sentencing hearing in St. George. She acknowledged that her readiness to give up everything for them had been cleverly manipulated into something unpleasant. Franke admitted taking away all that was gentle, secure, and positive from them.
Franke, aged 42, and Hildebrandt, aged 54, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. They attempted to persuade Franke’s two youngest children that they were evil, possessed, and needed punishment to repent. The women were arrested at Hildebrandt’s residence in the southern Utah city of Ivins in August last year. The arrest followed an incident where Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped through a window and sought help from a neighbor, leading to a 911 call released by the St. George Police Department.
The boy appeared thin, had wounds, and was found with duct tape around his ankles and wrists. He informed investigators that Hildebrandt had tied ropes around his limbs and used cayenne pepper and honey to treat his cuts, as stated in a search warrant.
Prosecutor Eric Clarke characterized the conditions in which Franke and Hildebrandt kept the children as “resembling a concentration camp,” a term historically associated with the camps set up by the Nazis to mistreat and harm Jewish people and other minorities across Europe during the Holocaust.
Ruby Franke has expressed :
Frank has expressed regret and collaborated with attorneys, according to prosecutor Eric Clarke. However, Clarke mentioned that Jodi Hildebrandt has not shown remorse and still accuses the children. During the livestreamed hearing, Hildebrandt’s attorney, Douglas Terry, asserted that his client is not as heartless as depicted and takes responsibility for her actions.
Hildebrandt, in a concise statement, refrained from offering an apology but expressed love for the children and a desire for their healing. She reminded Judge John J. Walton that she accepted the plea deal to spare the children from reliving their trauma through testimony in a trial.
The mental health counselor entered a guilty plea in December, admitting to four of her six counts of aggravated child abuse, with two counts dismissed as part of her plea deal. Franke also pleaded guilty to four of her six charges and entered a not guilty plea for the remaining two.
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Franke and her husband, Kevin Franke, initiated the YouTube channel “8 Passengers” in 2015, garnering a substantial following as they shared their journey of raising six children. Subsequently, she collaborated with Hildebrandt’s counseling company, ConneXions Classroom, providing parenting seminars, creating an additional YouTube channel, and contributing content to their joint Instagram account, “Moms of Truth.”
Franke acknowledged in her plea deal that she kicked her son while wearing boots, submerged his head underwater, and covered his mouth and nose with her hands. Both Franke and Hildebrandt confessed to subjecting him to extended periods of physical labor in the summer heat with limited food and water, leading to dehydration and severe sunburns. The plea agreements revealed that the boy was told these actions were expressions of love.
Hildebrandt also admitted to pressuring Franke’s youngest daughter, then 9 years old, to repeatedly jump into a cactus and run barefoot on dirt roads until her feet blistered. Following the arrests, the boy and girl, along with two more siblings, were taken to the hospital and placed in state custody.
Before her arrest in 2023, Ruby Franke was a controversial figure in the parent vlogging community. The Franke parents faced criticism online for various parenting choices, such as prohibiting their eldest son from his bedroom for seven months as a consequence for pranking his younger brother. In other videos, Ruby Franke discussed incidents like refusing to bring lunch to a forgetful kindergartener and threatening to decapitate a young girl’s stuffed toy as punishment for cutting things in the house.
The “8 Passengers” YouTube channel has now concluded, and Kevin Franke has initiated divorce proceedings.
Both Franke and Hildebrandt have a 30-day window to appeal their sentences.
