The following content contains disturbing accounts of violence against children. Discretion is advised.
Ruby Franke loved filming her family life in Springville, Utah. And people loved watching it, in all its calming, charming mundanity—whether it was doctor’s appointments, trips to the zoo or a gender reveal for her sixth and final child.
And so, over time, Franke’s social media channel, “8 Passengers” earned an audience of 2.3 million subscribers between its launch in early 2015 and its termination in the summer of 2020.
But the channel had detractors as well as fans. In one video, Franke disciplines her children by withholding food from them. She would also make them do physical tasks for hours at a time, like carrying boxes of books up and down stairs
But whatever the line between authoritarian parenting and abuse is, it was unambiguously breached by August 30, 2023—three years after the channel shut down—at the home of Jodi Hildebrandt, Franke’s business partner.
That day, Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped Hildebrandt’s residence in Ivins, Utah, through a window, seeking help from a neighbor.
The Evidence of Ruby Franke’s Child Abuse
The neighbor was shocked by the physical state of the escaped boy. His wrists and ankles were duct-taped, and he was severely malnourished. He asked for food, water and police assistance. The neighbor complied, giving the child pretzels and candy while placing a 911 call.
Eric Clarke, the Washington County Attorney who would oversee the Ruby Franke child abuse case, said that the boy’s “most horrific injuries” were “open wounds” on his wrists and ankles from being handcuffed.
“If you watch the [police bodycam footage] from that day, [Franke and Hildebrandt] did a homeopathic remedy on his wounds—put cayenne pepper and honey into them,” Clarke tells A&E True Crime. “They put cayenne pepper into his wounds, wrapped it in Saran wrap, wrapped that in duct tape and then handcuffed and tied him up.”
Where the Abuse Took Place
After getting a search warrant for Hildebrandt’s house, investigators went into the home and discovered another one of Franke’s children: an emaciated 10-year-old girl. Perhaps most incriminating, investigators found a diary that Franke had kept for two months detailing the punishments she had doled out over the summer, at the Hildebrandt home.
According to Clarke, those punishments included making her children stand outside in the desert heat all day.
“It’s very hot here in June. We’re 100 miles from Las Vegas,” Clarke explains, adding that the boy was made to stand on a concrete patio with no food or water—and was punished when he tried to seek shade.
“There was clear evidence that the kids’ skin had peeled repeatedly,” he says. “The most shocking part [in reading the diaries] is how convinced Ruby was that what she was doing was right.”
Within hours of Franke’s son escaping and going to the neighbor’s house, police arrested Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on suspicion of child abuse.
Clarke says that Franke and the children ended up at the Hildebrandt’s home through an escalating series of events. First, Hildebrandt had been a family therapist serving the Frankes; she later became a marriage counselor to Franke and her husband. When the couple separated, Hildebrandt entered into a business partnership with Franke, working on ConneXions, a life coaching service.
Franke moved into the Hildebrandt home in May 2023, a few months before the arrests.
The Sentencing of Ruby Franke
For her crimes, Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse and received a sentence of 4 to 30 years in prison. Hildebrandt received the same sentence. As of press time, their initial hearing before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole is scheduled for December 2026.
“I don’t think [Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt] should be let out until both minor children are adults,” Clarke says.
Some note that Franke’s sentencing seemed to have come late.
In 2020, an online petition of “8 Passengers” viewers, with thousands of signatures, urged Utah Child Protective Services to get involved.
Takkeem Morgan, a spokesperson at the nonprofit Prevent Child Abuse America tells A&E True Crime that the government’s failure to intervene on behalf of the children earlier points to systemic issues in how child abuse cases are handled.
“Wealth and social status can delay or prevent intervention,” Morgan says, adding that the “public perception” of Franke as an influencer “masked severe abuse.”
Clarke says the abuses that did or didn’t happen on the “8 Passengers” channel prior to the Hildebrandt abuse was irrelevant to his case, because Franke’s home in Utah County—where those videos were all filmed—fell outside his jurisdiction. But he urges parents to be cautious with the way they expose their children to the outside eyes of an Internet audience.
“A lot of parents will post social media of, say, their kids on the beach at family vacation,” he says. “There’s obviously a huge difference between that and sensationalizing your parenting for the sake of a [social media] channel. But everyone should be careful in how you utilize your kids for social media.”
But then, if you’re parenting in the shadows that could indicate a problem, too.
“[Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt] were actively hiding these kids,” Clarke says. “Because they knew that what they were doing was wrong. If you’re not comfortable telling your neighbors about [the type of parenting] you’re doing, then you probably need to stop doing it.”
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