The daughter of former YouTuber Ruby Franke, the mother who was sent to prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of aggravated child abuse, has spoken about the punishments she used to inflict upon her children.
Franke was sent to prison last year along with business partner Jodi Hildebrandt after the pair were arrested on charges of child abuse in August 2023.
The police had been called after Franke’s son, a young boy, had escaped from Hildebrandt’s house in Utah and gone to a neighbour asking for food and water.
The boy had duct tape around his wrists and ankles, and his body was covered in lacerations, while the man who answered the door to him described the boy as ’emaciated’.
Arrests followed, and Franke’s eldest daughter Shari said that she’d ‘been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this’.
Others who’d attempted to raise the alarm included some of the viewers of Franke’s YouTube channel who had expressed concern when one of her children said he’d been forced to sleep on a bean bag instead of a bed for seven months.
Among the other things she did to her children for her videos were withholding food, threatening to chop the head off their toys and telling them Christmas was cancelled.
A petition was started to demand an investigation and Utah’s child protection agency was called, but legal action was not taken at the time.
Now Shari has written a memoir, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom, and in it details her experiences with Ruby Franke.
Speaking to People, she said that Ruby was ‘never warm or kind’, and that over time her punishments towards her children morphed into ‘grand gestures and prolonged periods of deprivation’.
She said that when she was a younger child her mother’s punishments were ‘really physical’ and involved ‘a slap to the lip’ or a ‘slap to the cheek’.
In her book she recounts her mother telling her: “They’re old enough to take care of themselves. This is about you, Shari. Your jealousy, your need for attention.”
After she learned that her mother had been arrested Shari’s priority was ‘just making sure that the kids were alive’.
At the trial prosecutors said that Franke kept two of her children in a ‘concentration camp-like setting’ where the infants were ‘regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in, and virtually all forms of entertainment’.
Franke confessed in court to holding her son’s head underwater, covering his mouth and nose with her hands and kicking him while wearing boots.
She also forced her young son to work outside in scorching conditions without sunscreen and with little food or water.
Hildebrandt said she was complicit in the abuse Franke’s children suffered, and that she forced Franke’s youngest daughter to ‘jump into a cactus multiple times’ and walk barefoot on dirt roads until her feet broke out into blisters.
Full timeline of the Ruby Franke case
Starting a YouTube channel and initial suspicions
Franke started her parenting YouTube channel ‘8 Passengers’ with now ex-husband Kevin, amassing over 2.5 million subscribers before it was deleted in 2023 following the arrest.
Several subscribers became suspicious of child abuse, with a petition being signed for the police to investigate the family, citing the numerous questionable videos uploaded.
Franke joins ConneXions with Jodi Hildebrandt
The mum told critics in a 2021 interview for The Wrap that she was showing everyone ‘what a responsible mother looks like’.
She stopped uploading videos to the channel in 2022, joining Mormon therapist Hildebrandt’s ConneXions podcast.
Their divisive opinions on subjects such as eating disorders, blaming rape victims, and criticising immigrants drew the wrong kind of attention.
Franke and Hildebrandt’s arrest
Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on child abuse charges in August 2023.
The Santa Clara Public Safety Department were called to the Ivins neighbourhood in Utah after a neighbour was alerted by Franke’s ’emaciated’ 12-year-old son, who escaped to knock on their door to ask for help.
He had visible marks and wounds from duct tape put around his ankles, and asked for some food and water.
Police found his 10-year-old sister in a ‘similar physical condition of malnourishment’ in Hildebrandt’s house.
Family members speak out
Franke’s oldest daughter, Shari, wrote on Instagram on the day of the arrests: “Today has been a big day.”
She continued: “Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up.”
In November, Kevin also officially filed for divorce from Franke, and called her actions to their children ‘horrific and inhumane’.
Franke and Hildebrandt are charged with six counts of child abuse
Just one week after their arrests, the pair were charged with six counts of felony child abuse.
YouTube banned Franke, deleting both 8 Passengers and ConneXions channels and blocking her from the social media platform.
Franke blames the abuse on Hildebrandt
Her attorneys released a statement that said: “Initially, Ms. Franke believed that Jodi Hildebrandt had the insight to offer a path to continual improvement. Ms. Hildebrandt took advantage of this quest and twisted it into something heinous,” according to Fox13.
It blamed Hildebrandt solely for isolating Franke from her family completely, distorting her morality.
Franke pleads guilty
Just three days after the statement was released, Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. A court had heard how she had tried to convince her youngest children they were ‘evil and possessed’.
Franke and Hildebrandt are sentenced to prison for child abuse
On 20 February 2024, Franke and Hildebrandt were convicted and given four separate prison sentences for one to 15 years, with the length of each sentence decided by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
During sentencing Franke apologised to her children and said she would ‘never stop crying for hurting their tender souls’.
She said: “My willingness to sacrifice all for you was masterfully manipulated into something very ugly.
“I took from you all that was soft and safe and good.”
The two women will not serve more than 30 years in a Federal Penitentiary because of a Utah law about consecutive sentences.
Additional words by Anish Vij.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.
