Multiple videos and documents have been released related to the child abuse case involving popular parent YouTube blogger Ruby Franke. Videos include one of Franke's sons asking neighbours for "food and water" which caused the neighbours to alert the police.
The Washington County Attorney’s Office released the documents, including Franke's diary, this week, detailing why prosecutors believe Franke and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt were motivated by "religious extremism" to inflict "horrific abuse" on Franke's children.
Utah mum, Franke, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse in December. She had vlogged the abuse of her children on her now deleted '8 Passengers' YouTube channel. The 41-year-old was initially charged with six counts but she pleaded not guilty to two of these counts as part of a plea deal to testify against Hildebrandt.
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The heartbreaking moment police found Ruby Franke's traumatized nine-year-old daughter 'petrified' and malnourished (Washington County Attorney's Office)In her own agreement with prosecutors, Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse, prosecutors have said. In one video released on Friday by the attorney's office, Franke's 12-year-old son climbed out of Hildebrandt’s house on August 30, 2023.
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Identified in the documents as 'R', the boy knocked on a neighbour's door to ask for "food and water" and he looked injured and malnourished, according to Franke's arrest report. The neighbour's witness account described how 'R' said "he needed a favour" when he knocked.
Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse on her children (8 Passengers/Instagram)The neighbour noticed duct tape around 'R''s ankles and wrists and then the boy "asked to be taken to the nearest police station". The neighbour then contacted 911. 'R' was then rushed to hospital by first responders and "placed on medical hold due to his deep lacerations from being tied up with rope and from his malnourishment." Officers then searched Hildebrandt’s home and found Franke's nine-year-old daughter, who was also malnourished, and was “petrified and hiding in a closet".
Franke's diaries detailed her abuse of her children, including shaving off her daughter's hair and withholding food and water from them (Washington County Attorney's Office)Franke's handwritten journal, which was also released on Friday but some of it was redacted, details months of abuse inflicted on her children. This includes making the children do wall sits, shaving the girl's head and withholding food, water and even oxygen. The children were also made to stand and sleep outdoors.
Writing in an entry on 11 July 2023, Franke said: “[R] was told to stand in the sun w/ his sun hat. He is defiant. ‘No.’ I tell him a couple more times. [R] or I should say, his demon stays in the shade.” In another entry she says, “I told [R] that he needs God. I invited him to fast [and] pray. Satanic choices lead one to becoming destitute – even in the most affluential homes." [sic]
Utah mum, Franke, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse in DecemberThe attorney's office wrote in their case summary: "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."
The father of the two children, Kevin Franke, who said he was married to Ruby Franke but they were separated, had not been aware they were living with Hildebrandt. He added that he had "not spoken with them or seen them in a year", according to a detailed incident report in the case.
Jodi Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke on the YouTube channel (YouTube)Franke and Hildebrandt were each sentenced to four consecutive sentences of one to 15 years in a Utah prison in February, CNN reported. The attorney's office said: “Because of Utah’s indeterminate sentencing laws, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole now oversees the length of their prison sentence."
Franke gave parenting advice to millions via a once-popular YouTube channel called ConneXions Classrooms alongside her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, 45. The pair pleaded guilty to four of six counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse in December 2023.
Franke gave parenting advice to millions via a once-popular YouTube channel called ConneXions Classrooms (Washington County Attorney's Office)Franke's daughter was found in a closet in Hildebrandt's bathroom and police offered her pizza as she appeared malnourished. Other audio and video recordings showed how the children were being subjected to doing physical labour, emotional harm and had limited access to food in what was described as a "work-camp-like setting".
Harrowing details of the abuse suffered by Franke's children were revealed in the sadistic diaries kept by the former YouTuber, who described torturing and humiliating her children. The now locked-up child abuser wrote how one of her sons "refuses to do wall sits - he says he is done", the day before declaring he "is to stay outside. Sleep outside." Franke was convicted for the abuse of two of her six children, with the redacted diaries seeming to centre on these two children, labelled as 'E' and 'R'.
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