The rise and fall of Ruby Franke
The 2010s were an exciting time for social media companies. Several new platforms burst onto the scene, including Instagram and Snapchat, while content creation suddenly became a viable career path. Vlogging, in particular, experienced a boom in popularity as YouTube replaced traditional viewing methods.
The conditions were perfect for a woman like Ruby Franke. In early 2015, she created a YouTube channel called 8 Passengers, where she documented her family life. Her videos were innocuous at first, but they soon took a much darker turn.
Who was Ruby Franke? What did she do? How did social media influence her downfall? Keep reading as the team at Crime+Investigation answers all these questions and more.
Family vlogger and momfluencer
When Ruby Franke created the 8 Passengers YouTube channel in 2015, she could never have imagined how quickly it would grow. Over five years, she amassed a staggering 2.5 million subscribers and 1 billion views, sharing wholesome content about morning routines, birthday celebrations and family holidays.
Ruby's friendly, first-person narrative felt refreshingly unscripted. She had an adoring husband, a gaggle of healthy children and a beautiful home in Springville, Utah. However, she didn't shy away from discussing the challenges of parenting, and it was this authenticity that fuelled her popularity.
Escalating abuse
Like many social media stars charged with crimes, Ruby Franke's life seemed perfect on the surface. But as her following grew, so did her erratic behaviour. She became less tolerant of her children and punished them for not wanting to be on camera. Much of her anger was directed towards her teenage son, Chad.
He later told reporters: 'I just wanted to be with my friends...I really didn't want anything to do with YouTube...I was being controlled. I purposely said the wrong lines. I purposely tried to make my mum as pissed as I possibly could…[but then] she would pull out the belt, pull down my pants, whip me.'
These increasingly unfair punishments ultimately led to the downfall of 8 Passengers. In a 2020 video, Chad revealed that Ruby had removed his bed for pranking his siblings. She also admitted she withheld food from her children.
Ruby and her husband defended their actions, but the damage had already been done. A concerned follower started a petition against the couple, demanding an investigation into the children's well-being.
Jodi Hildebrandt and ConneXions
Not much came of the investigation, besides the suspension of Ruby’s YouTube channel in 2022. In many ways, this was the worst thing that could have happened — free from public scrutiny, the emotional and physical abuse became even worse. Around the same time, Ruby met Jodi Hildebrandt, who was a counsellor for ConneXions.
The pair launched a new channel where they gave controversial parenting advice centred around morality, obedience and 'truth-telling'. Bad behaviour, they said, was the work of evil spirits and possession.
The arrest
On 30th August 2023, a bleeding 12-year-old boy knocked on a neighbour's door, asking for food and water. Although frightened, he eventually explained what had happened: he had escaped from a nearby home where he had been tied up, starved and abused. This home belonged to Hildebrandt.
When officers raided the residence, they found the boy's 10-year-old sister hiding in a bathroom closet, catatonic and deeply malnourished. It took police nearly four hours to coax her out of her hiding place.
Ruby and Jodi were charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse. In court, the jury heard how Ruby forced her son to work outdoors in the blistering heat without sun cream or water. She believed her children were possessed and often used ropes and chains to restrain them for days at a time.
Both pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse and will serve between four and 30 years, as determined by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
The aftermath
How did this apparently devoted mother descend into child abuse and torture? Many believe it was a combination of fanatical parenting beliefs, largely shaped by Jodi Hildebrandt, the pressures of social media and a desire for control.
Ruby's oldest daughter, Shari Franke, was delighted at the sentencing: 'Today has been a big day. 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. [We’re] glad they finally decided to step up.'
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