[imagesource:instagram]

The Mormon mommy blogger, Ruby Franke launched her now-defunct channel, 8Passengers, in 2015, documenting her idyllic family life with her husband and their six children.

Then in the summer of 2023, Ruby’s two youngest children were found far away from home wounded and emaciated. That December, she pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse.

Before Franke’s dramatic fall from grace, she had amassed millions of followers on social media while showcasing the highlights of her family’s life in the lakeside suburb of Springville, Utah, over the years. Ruby, her husband Kevin, and their delightful, if chaotic, family life captivated a diverse audience, ranging from fellow parents to teenage girls, single women, and anyone intrigued by the ins and outs of Mormon culture. Devoted fans congregated in vibrant online forums, where they dissected the intricacies of the Franke family’s life with fervent enthusiasm. They passionately debated which of the kids should be allowed to date and jubilantly celebrated every birthday milestone, forming a tight-knit community around their shared fascination.

Then, in 2019, sceptics of Franke and her husband Kevin Franke’s 8Passengers page began to grow worried about the Mormon family’s strict household. These devoted fans became the first to sound the alarm as the tone of 8Passengers‘ posts shifted, growing colder and more severe. Their concerns intensified when Ruby and Kevin abruptly halted their YouTube updates altogether in 2022.

The situation took a sharper turn when Ruby updated her Instagram profile picture to feature her therapist and new business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt. This change prompted viewers to voice their growing unease about the safety of her children.

“There needs to be an investigation into the 8 Passengers kids,” a viewer wrote on Reddit. “Their mother, Ruby Franke, is not just strict but a downright control freak.”

It all started to unravel real fast when Franke’s malnourished 12-year-old son escaped from a window of Hildebrandt’s home and showed up at a neighbour’s door asking for food and water. The neighbour called the police, who, in their affidavit, later described the boy as emaciated. He allegedly had open wounds on his body and duct tape wounds around his ankles and wrists.

Investigators also found Franke’s 10-year-old daughter in Hildebrandt’s home, similarly malnourished. According to police, both children appeared to be in her direct care with Franke’s knowledge.

At that time, the children were rushed to the hospital and placed under the protective care of Utah’s Department of Child and Family Services, alongside their two younger siblings. In a shocking turn of events, Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt faced initial charges of six counts each of felony child abuse.

In a statement following the arrests, the Washington County Attorney’s Office in Utah accused both women of “causing or permitting serious injury” to the children via “a combination of multiple physical injuries or torture, starvation or malnutrition that jeopardizes life, and causing severe emotional harm,” crimes that carry up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 per count.

As noted, viewers of 8Passengers had accused Franke of child abuse long before she was taken into custody, citing cruel parenting techniques like withholding food as punishment.

News of Franke’s arrest last year was met with relief from her sisters, fellow parenting influencers Ellie Mecham, Julie Griffiths Deru, and Bonnie Hoellein, who said in a joint Instagram statement that the arrests “needed to happen.”

Franke’s eldest and estranged daughter, Shari, shared a similar sentiment on social media. “Finally,” she wrote via Instagram Story after her mom’s arrest, per Insider. “Me and my family are so glad justice is being served.”

Finally, both women were sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, the maximum consecutive prison term in the state of Utah.

Franke had met her partner in crime, a local Mormon therapist, Jodi Hildebrandt when she joined the ‘ConneXions’ parenting advice podcast with her. The two women roused tons of backlash across social media by posting videos with their divisive thoughts on parenting, religion, sexuality, race and other social and political issues. When they were arrested, everyone said it was a long time coming.

Hildebrandt’s niece, Jessi Hildebrandt (who uses they/them pronouns) alleged in an interview with KUTV on September 11 that their aunt had abused them while under her care for roughly a year when they were a teenager.

“The things that I experienced while living with Jodi — I experienced being tied, I experienced being duct taped, I experienced being blindfolded, I experienced severe isolation, I experienced severe emotional, spiritual and psychological abuse,” Jessi alleged. “I experienced being told I shouldn’t be around other people, being told that I was dangerous to be around. People were afraid of me to the point where I was afraid of myself.”

Jessi recalled they were “isolated for up to 12 hours a day” and were once “forced to sleep outside in the snow” while under Jodi’s care, as well as alleging that Jodi “accused me of being a sex addict” and “of being addicted to masturbation.” Jessi decided to speak out about their experience after reading a report last week about Franke’s claims of sexual abuse within her family.

“I’ve never met Ruby … but the things that she is saying and regurgitating are very, very familiar to me,” Jessi said. “The philosophies and the therapeutic modalities that she is using are Jodi’s and these are not new. This is a pattern.”

In a statement to Fox 13, Ruby’s attorneys blamed Jodi for taking “advantage” of her and influencing her to abuse her two youngest children.

“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,” Franke’s attorneys’ statement to Fox 13 reportedly said.

Shari also recently spoke to the Utah House of Representatives about giving child influencers more protection, per The Independent saying “I don’t come today as the daughter of a felon, nor a victim of an abnormally abusive mother. I come today as a victim of family vlogging.”

Shari continued: “If I could go back and do it all again, I’d rather have an empty bank account now and not have my childhood plastered all over the internet. No amount of money I received has made what I’ve experienced worth it.”

The Cut details all the shocking truths and distortions that caused Ruby’s decline from a mother trying her best to a misguided control freak tapering into child abuse.

[sources:people&thecut]