Ruby Franke

The backstory

The arrest

On Aug. 30, 2023, Franke’s son, then 12, climbed out a window of Jodi Hildebrandt’s home in Ivins, in southern Utah, and asked a neighbor for food and water, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.¹¹ The neighbor saw open wounds and duct tape on the boy’s wrists and ankles and called police.¹¹ Police found one of Franke’s daughters at the home, and both children were taken to a hospital; the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said a search of the house found evidence consistent with the boy’s wounds.¹¹ Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested that day and each was charged with six felony counts of aggravated child abuse.¹¹⁸ Four of Franke’s minor children were placed in the custody of the Utah Division of Child and Family Services.⁸² Both women were held without bail.¹²

What she admitted

On Dec. 18, 2023, Franke pleaded guilty in St. George to four counts of second-degree felony aggravated child abuse, and Judge John J. Walton accepted the agreement.⁸ Two other counts were dismissed under the deal.¹⁰⁵ Admitting the last count, she said, “with my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children, guilty.”⁸¹⁰ She agreed to consecutive prison terms and to testify truthfully against Hildebrandt; the prosecutors agreed to remain neutral at her future parole hearings.⁹

The plea agreement’s statement of facts is summarized here as news reports described it. The abuse took place at Hildebrandt’s Ivins home over a period of months in 2023, and Franke admitted that she knowingly or intentionally took part.⁹ Both women admitted inflicting, or allowing another adult to inflict, serious physical injury on two of Franke’s children.⁶ According to the agreement as reported, her son was made to do physical labor for hours, outdoors and barefoot in the summer heat, and was denied adequate food and water; he suffered repeated, serious sunburns.⁶⁵ After he tried to run away, he was regularly restrained, which injured his wrists and ankles.⁶ Franke admitted kicking him and holding his head under water, the Associated Press reported.⁵ Her daughter was also made to work outside barefoot in the heat and was denied food and water.⁸⁶ The children were told they were “evil and possessed” and that the punishments were needed for them to repent; the agreement says the boy was told that what was being done to him were “acts of love.”⁶⁹

Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to the same four counts on Dec. 27, 2023.¹ County Attorney Eric Clarke said that resolving both cases with prison sentences meant no child would have to testify at a trial: “One of the toughest things we ask victims of alleged abuse to do is testify in a trial against their abusers.”¹

The sentence

On Feb. 20, 2024, Judge Walton sentenced Franke to four consecutive terms of one to 15 years in prison.⁶⁷ Hildebrandt received the same sentence.⁷ Utah law caps consecutive sentences, so neither woman can serve more than 30 years, and the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole decides how long each actually serves, the AP reported.⁵

Clarke told the court the children had been kept in a “concentration camp-like setting” for months.⁷ He said Franke had shown remorse and cooperated, while Hildebrandt had not and continued to blame the children.⁵ He argued for consecutive sentences on the basis of the severity of the abuse.⁷ The judge said Hildebrandt had “terrorized” the children and, as an adult with specialized training, should have protected them, KSL reported.⁷

Franke’s parents and brother wrote to the court before sentencing asking for leniency; her brother wrote that she “has been taken advantage of by Ms. Hildebrandt.”¹⁷

Her statement at sentencing

Franke addressed the court before she was sentenced. “For the past four years, I’ve chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion,” she said.⁶ “I was so disoriented that I believed dark was light and right was wrong.”⁷ Speaking to her children, she said, “I’ll never stop crying for hurting your tender souls,” and “My willingness to sacrifice all for you was masterfully manipulated into something very ugly.”⁵ She thanked the police, doctors and social workers who helped her children, calling them “angels.”⁵ She said, “The moment (an officer) handcuffed me was the moment I gained my freedom,” and apologized to her then-husband.⁷ “I take full accountability for my choices, and it is my preference that I serve a prison sentence,” she said.⁶ She also told the court that Hildebrandt had been employed as her son’s counselor and that she had paid Hildebrandt to be her mentor in 2019 and 2020, and that Hildebrandt was never her business partner.⁶

Restitution and other proceedings

Before sentencing, her then-husband went to court to keep Hildebrandt from selling or transferring her assets while restitution was decided, and Judge Walton barred her from acting on her Ivins property until sentencing.¹³ After sentencing, the judge allowed the home to be sold but barred Hildebrandt from touching the proceeds while the restitution amount was decided.¹⁴ The sources reviewed do not report a final restitution order.

In August 2025, her ex-husband filed a medical-malpractice lawsuit against Hildebrandt; Franke is not a party, KUTV reported.¹⁶ The sources reviewed report no outcome.

Personal backstory

Family and the channel

Franke and her then-husband launched the YouTube channel “8 Passengers” in 2015 to document raising their six children, the AP reported.⁵ It had nearly 2.3 million followers before it was taken down in 2022; the reason for its removal is unclear, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.¹¹ She lived in Springville, Utah, and was 41 at the time of her arrest.¹² The sources reviewed give no sourced account of her childhood or schooling.

Hildebrandt and ConneXions

Hildebrandt, a licensed clinical mental health counselor, owned ConneXions Classroom, a counseling service, and she and Franke often made videos together, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.¹¹¹² Hildebrandt was first hired to work with one of Franke’s sons, according to the AP.⁵ Franke’s lawyers said the abuse occurred while she was under Hildebrandt’s influence, and that Hildebrandt led her to “a distorted sense of morality.”⁸ Hildebrandt’s lawyer has said there are two sides to the story.⁷ No court made findings on the relationship between the two women beyond the facts in the pleas.

Her then-husband’s lawyer said in 2023 that the couple had been separated for about a year.¹³ He filed for divorce in November 2023, and the decree was signed in March 2025.¹³¹⁵ Under an earlier juvenile court order, he has full custody of the four children who are still minors, and Franke is barred from contacting them.¹⁵

No mental-health diagnosis testified to or found by a court appears in the sources reviewed.

In custody

Franke was held at the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane, Utah, from her arrest until after sentencing, when she was moved to the custody of the Utah Department of Corrections.¹⁰¹⁴ A corrections spokesperson said in 2025 that she and Hildebrandt are housed apart and that Franke has no listed disciplinary actions, Biography reported.¹⁷ She has taken courses in web and graphic design and in robotics, KUTV reported in October 2026.²

Her ex-husband and two of her older children took part in Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, a three-part Hulu series released in February 2025.¹⁸ Netflix released Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story on Dec. 30, 2025.¹⁹¹⁷

The parole question

Under Utah’s indeterminate sentencing, the length of Franke’s term is for the parole board to decide.⁵ “The board is going to have a tremendous amount of control on the amount of time that they serve,” attorney Clayton Simms told KUTV, adding that the board may not set a release date right away.² The plea agreement commits prosecutors to neutrality at her parole hearings, and at sentencing Clarke credited her remorse and cooperation.⁹⁵ Clarke later supported a 2025 state law that toughened penalties for child abuse, saying it signals to the parole board how long lawmakers intend such offenders to stay in prison; Biography reported that the law does not change Franke’s convictions.¹⁷

No statement from the children who were the victims, made for publication, appears in the sources reviewed.