Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
Ruby Franke’s YouTube channel “8 Passengers” was a portrait of social media success. For years, the wife and mother of six, amassed nearly 2.5 million followers documenting the daily life of her children. However, the image of the perfect family began to crack when her controversial videos displayed her strict parenting. In August of 2023, one of Ruby’s children, malnourished with duct tape and wounds on his wrists and ankles, escaped the home of Franke’s friend and business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, and asked a neighbor for help. A new “20/20,” with reporting from “Nightline” co-anchor Juju Chang, unravels the unimaginable abuse at the hands of Ruby and Jodi, told through never-before-seen body camera video, recorded calls, and Ruby’s own journal detailing the horrific abuse
it’s a hot summer morning in the Caya neighborhood of Ivins, Utah.
when a ring camera picks up a young boy not wearing any choes approaching a home. he rings the doorbell.no one answers.
a minute later another ring camera from the neighboring picks up the same boy.
he tries the doorbell, it seams like no one’s home at first . but then the door opens.
and what happens next will kick off an investigation that will rock this otherwise sleepy , picturesque suburb, in fact, it’ll shock the world.
one of the most gut-weenching things about that 911 -call , he starting to cry talking about the boy.
within minutes of the call. the EMTs and officers arrived.
the very first thing that stood out to EMTs the second they got on the scene, that first look at him it just hit them that there something wrong.
to the EMTs the boy looks malnourished, and has severe injuries.
to protect his identity his called ” R”. and what you’re about to see .
may be unsettling. he had duct tape wrapped around him and underneath the duct tape was surround wrap wrapped around both of his legs.
and both of his wrists were the samen.
sadness , was everywhere it was heavy it was felt by everybody around.
the poignant scene is unfolding in this quiet neighborhood with this stunning backdrop
EMTs tent to him and he was lining to any kind of paine when they lift his legs that indicated that he’s been through a lot of pain.
he was very calm , he never cried , the EMTs said that he was just stoic,like unwavered strenght from this kid.
you can seethe joints in his legs , they were ad normal , you can see malnutrition just not enough food not enough intake.
when the officer ask him how did he get the injuries he told the officer that his mom and jody are said that they bound his arms and feets to weights on the ground it restricted his movement.
later detectives learned that it wasn’t just the ropes that bound him and caused those wounds. it was also handcuffs.
he told detectives that he unlocked the handcuffs from his wrists and his ankles and then he exited through the sliding glass door of the room.
and told the dectetives that he was just hungry and thirsty at that moment and saw an opportunity to leave.
while R is being treated he tells officers that he has two siblings, hwo he thinks is still back at the house.
the police officer didn’t know if another sibling was in the same state of conditionor possible even dead in the home.
that house police learn doesn’t belong to the boy’s mother, but to someone named jodi. jodi hilderbrand.
and R s mother ruby so far is nowhere to be found.
the police get there , hop out the vehicles
they got to the front door. she finally answered the door.
when she answered ,she had a phone in her hand.
the police officers were able to enter jodi’s house due to the exigent circumstances ,that surrounded them finding R.
for exigent circumstances this is a life saving effort.
the officers entered the home begin clearing the house .
looking for the other children.
just over 10, 000, square ft , this home has multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, hallways , almost like a coumpound.
they entered a room that had a bed in it with an attached bathrooom and attached closet. it was empty ,there was no clothes hanging up none of the drawers are full.
and in the middle of the floor.
they first thought it might have been a little boy , sitting there cross-legged just starring up at the police officers. the child looked scared.
the officer with R ask him if he had a little brother. and he said no . he had a younger sister there 9 -year old and he said she had a shaved head and she had brown hair. the last time he saw her was over a month.
they were in the same home amd didn’t see eachother for a month.
at that moment the officers kind of connected the dotsthat was who sergeant tobler was sitting within the closet .
for over 2 hours tobler hasbeen sitting with E that ‘s how we’ll refer to her .
trying to make her more comfortable with his presence . yeat E remains motionless and afraid
but one suggstion gets her attention. pizza. she ate the whole thing so they ordered anonther one. she ate half of a large pizza as well along with a shake .
she was food deprived ,hungry, just like R was at the time.
while E remaines in the closet .officers are still searching for a possible second child in the home .
they don’t find that child,but they do come upon a large safe room.
they also found ….
rope …
handcuffs.
it was really set up like a private room .
more than 4 hours after police make entry into jodi’s home E finally agrees to leave the closet .
while E is led to the ambulance jodi hilderbrand is placed in a secure room in the house.
that’s when the children’s mother ruby frankie arrives at the home .
police officer’s were shocked.
and just who is ruby frankie? it turns out, she’s widly famous for all the wrong reason….
Ruby frankie ironically she’d been a highflying mormon mom influencer
attracting 2 and 2 million followers on her youTube channel:
ruby’ personal brand built around tough love.
but now ruby’s 12 year old son’s pain ….
brings this neighbor to tears.
the house the boy says he escaped from – jodi hilderbrandt’s hours south of ruby’s house.
jodi was a marriage counselor who also treated sex addiction through her work with the counseling network. life star.
she joined forces with ruby frankie on a life coaching business called :
after that 911 call , ruby’s 12 year old son and her10 year old daughter was taken to the hospital.
the police find laptops, tablets ,cell phones , they find ropes,they find duc tape , they find handcuffs.
jodie and ruby were arrested and charged with six counts of felony child abuse.
while the arrest sent shock waves some who knew jodi hilderbrandt have been raising concerns for years.
” we knew that jodi does this, we knew 14 almost 15 years ago that she’s already done this. to me .”
jessi hildebrandt who uses they , them pronouns has spent years finding a voice after suffering what they call brutal abuse at the hands of teir aunt jodie.
the 30 year old has built a life far away from a strict mormon upbringing.
she grew up in a very traditional mormon household.dad is the provider and her mom was a stay – at home – mom .her younger childhood was very happy .
but during adolescence, jessi started to rebel the conflicts came to a head, jessi’s parents decided it was best for jessi to go live aunt jodi and without warning they left their teenager at a family gathering.
at first jessi says they decided to give the new arrangement a chance after all jessi’s aunt was a licensed counselor.
jodi hilderbrandt has been one of the top recommended therapists by the mormon chuch in Utah for at least 15 to 20 years.
but at home jessi their aunt was an altogether different person.
she made jessi sleep outside int he snow.she duct tape jessi .she wasn’t alowed to speak to anyone.
the duct tape was in jodi’s own words an external reminder to jessi that she was a lier and every words comes out of her mouth is a lie.
in march of 2010 , jessi made it to the police station in american fork and filed a report against aunt jodi.
jessi’s statements in that report echoing the they told abc news.
police sent jessi to a teen safe homebut after one day jessi ended up back with aunt jodi.
after jessi went to the police the punishment got more and more severe.
after nearly a year living with aunt jodi their aunt brought jesse to work
and jessi like , ” it’s now or it is never” . and jessi grabbed a jacket and she literally just started running.
jessi never went back.
with dark accusations against jodi coming to light,scrutiny is also falling on her partner on connextions. rruby frankie.
people who watched eight passengers were the ones to first kind of ring the alarm as to this alleged abuse that we’re seeing now .
“people have been pointing out how problematic this family is for a while … “
” when does the way a parent, parents go from cringeworthy to child abuse”
” my bedroom was taken away for 7 months, and you give it back like a couple of weeks ago, i ¨ve been sleeping on a bean bag since october .”
after the controversy viewers were questioning ruby’s parenting style.
and her husband kevin’s , hwo often joined her on the eight passenger channel. the two have now been separated for more than a year.
many of the viewers of eight passangers over the past two or three years became more and more distubed and started turning ruby and kevin into child protective services in Utah.
in 2020 a change. org petition requesting that CPS check on the children received hundreds of signatures
impact has obtained records showing police responded to the frankie home more than dozen times over the past few years .
including several reports of juvenile probelms in 2018 and 2019, and multiple welfare checks in 2022.
and to the point where they felt like it was necessity to go talk to the family at least to the children to find out if there was any merit to this allegations
but police who investigated the case were unable to speak to the children and filed a request for a warrant to enter the home .
even though it was submitted to the judge the warrant was not signed and it wasn’t granted so there wasn’t much they could do at that point.
CPS is now being investigatted for their handling of the case by Utah’s child welfare legislative oversight panel.
through his attorny ruby ‘s husband kevin says those early complaints were nothing serious.
kevin felt like that they were just being harassed by people online , calling the authorities and having to come to their home . it was just a difference in parenting style . but nothing abusive up to that point.
after the shocking arrest there’s a growing chorus of people laying the blame squarely on jodi hildebrandt.
kevin feels like jodi manipulated the entire family.children included.
since her arrest jodi hilderbrandt has given up her counseling license. sitting in a striped prison jumpsuit jodi answered to a higher authority. a judge.
ruby frankie sat expressionless . …
a far cry from the bubbly mom influencer of eight passengers fame.
both ordered held without bail and neither have entered a plea.
impact reached out to both ruby and jodi’s attorneys. ruby’s attorney declined to comment. impact have yet to hear back from jodies.
just one count of aggravated child abuse is up to 15 years in jail at the same time they can say ” you know what ,we found you abuse them six different times.” you can really get to a high number here.
ruby’s four minor kids are in the state’s custody . but their father kevin seen here in these dailymail.com.is trying to win them back.
his hopes and his obective is to convince the state that he’s a good dad and that those children would be much better off with him than in state’s custody.