A Utah mother and popular YouTube Vlogger who gave strict parenting advice to parents will spend decades behind bars for abusing her children.
5th District Court Judge John Walton handed Ruby Franke four consecutive terms of one to 15 years in prison for the abuse of her children. Franke pleaded guilty to four felony counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse.
"This is a case about religious extremism. The defendants appear to have fully believed that the abuse they inflicted was necessary to teach the children how to properly repent for imagined 'sins' and to cast the evil spirits out of their bodies," said Washington State prosecutor Eric Clarke, according to CBS News.
On Aug. 31, 2023, authorities arrested Franke and her business partner and co-defendant, Jodi Hildebrandt, after Franke’s son escaped from their home to seek help from a neighbor. Upon the arrival of authorities, they found the boy emaciated with open sores after being bound with duct tape. Soon, authorities found another of the defendant’s daughters in the same situation as her brother.
While pleading guilty, Franke admitted to having held her son’s head under the water, kicked her son, and forced him to do forced labor while starving him.
Franke became prominent with her husband and six children on their now-defunct YouTube channel, “8 Passengers,” which had over two million subscribers. Then, in 2022, the defendant started the ConneXions channel with Hildebrandt, a Mormon life coach, reaching out to those lost in the darkness of distortion.
During the sentencing hearing, Franke apologized to her children and blamed her woes on the influence of her co-defendant.
“For the past four years, I’ve chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion. My distorted version of reality went largely unchecked as I would isolate from anyone who challenged me,” said Franke, reported NBC News.
Hildebrandt received the same sentence as the defendant and admitted to making Franke’s 9-year-old daughter jump into a cactus. However, Utah State law only allows a defendant to serve a maximum of 30 years in prison in cases of consecutive sentences.
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