On Tuesday (20th February), Ruby Franke, a YouTuber who ran a parenting-related channel ‘8 Passengers’ was sentenced to up to 60 years in prison in a child abuse case. The vlogger was accused of keeping two of her children in a ‘concentration camp-like setting’. The children were 9 and 11 years old.
Ruby Franke received four consecutive sentences of one to fifteen years for four counts of child abuse. Meanwhile, her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt received the same sentence for her role in the child abuse.
During the sentencing on Tuesday, Eric Clarke, the Washington County attorney said that the vlogger denied her children adequate food, water, entertainment and beds, and isolated them from others. Moreover, she also forced her children to do physical tasks in extreme heat, without shoes, socks or water. The attorney stated that they were beaten and constantly shackled by their hands and feet while made to stand on hot concrete in the summer heat for hours if not days. The children’s injuries were severe enough that they were required to be hospitalised.
“Had the older of the children not had the courage to run away and ask a neighbour to call the police, heaven only knows how much longer he could have survived in that situation,” Attorney Clarke said.
Meanwhile, the YouTuber-turned tormentor of her children Ruby Franke said, “I am humbled and willing to serve a prison sentence for as long as I need. I am committed to unlearning my toxic behaviour. For the past four years, I’ve chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion.”
Franke and her husband, Kevin Franke, built a sizable online following after starting their YouTube channel ‘8 Passengers’ in 2015, where they documented the experiences of raising six children.
Franke later collaborated with Hildebrandt’s counselling company, ConneXions Classroom, to provide parenting seminars, start another YouTube channel, and produce content on their Instagram account, “Moms of Truth”.
“Dark was light, right was wrong”
During the hearing Ruby Franke apologised for the crime she committed as she said, “I … believed dark was light and right was wrong,” she said, “I would do anything in this world for you. I took from you all that was soft, and safe and good.”
“To my babies, my six little chicks. You are part of me. I was the mama duck who was consistently waddling you to safety. I can see now that over the past four years, I was in a deep undercurrent that led us to danger,” Franke said while apologising to her children.
She also admitted to having a “distorted version of reality” and said that it went unchecked since she would isolate herself from anyone who “challenged” her.
In December 2023, Franke and Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse, after initially facing six counts of felony child abuse. Franke had already volunteered to testify against Hildebrandt in exchange for the county attorney’s neutrality in future proceedings before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
Both of them were arrested in August 2023 after police discovered one of Franke’s children starving, with open wounds and restrained with duct tape around his wrist and ankles. Franke’s 12-year-old son had fled Hildebrandt’s home and reached a neighbour’s home. One of Franke’s daughters was also found malnourished in Hildebrandt’s home.
Convict Ruby Franke, who has over 2.5 million followers, then admitted to forcing her child to work outside all day in the blazing hot sun while depriving him of water and food as punishment. To keep him from fleeing, she chained his arms and legs. She also admitted to assaulting her 9-year-old daughter using similar cruel methods.
The 12-year-old child informed investigators that his mother would bound him with ropes. When the handcuffs cut him, he stated that she would heal the wounds with cayenne pepper.
Franke also ‘disciplined’ one of her boys by removing him from his bedroom and forcing him to sleep on a living room beanbag for several months. The mother allegedly cancelled Christmas one year and threatened to decapitate her daughter’s stuffed animals as a form of control.
After the partner’s guilty plea, Franke’s attorney attempted to shift the blame to Hildebrandt, claiming that the therapist “systematically isolated” the mother from her family and pushed her towards abuse. However, Franke decided to apologise to her children.
Following the arrest, Franke’s husband Kevin filed for divorce, expressing hope that both his wife and Hildebrandt would receive the maximum punishment. He claimed to have been unaware of his wife’s torture treatment of her children as he stayed away from home for a year before her arrest.
Although Frakne told the court that she would not argue for a shorter sentence, she and Hildebrandt have 30 days to appeal their sentences.