ST. GEORGE, Utah (TCD) — A judge sentenced two parenting vloggers to a minimum of four years in prison after they both pleaded guilty to several counts of child abuse for torturing and starving two children.
KSL-TV reports Judge John Walton ordered Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt to one to 15 years each for four counts of aggravated child abuse, and the sentences will be served consecutively. The two women were arrested in September 2023 and initially charged with six counts of child abuse.
“Franke said she “gained my freedom the moment she was arrested and claimed the officers were “angels” for rescuing her children.
Franke pleaded guilty a few days before Hildebrandt and agreed to testify against her in her trial.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Franke and Hildebrandt will serve a maximum of 30 years behind bars due to state laws that do not allow consecutive sentences to last more than that term, with some exceptions.
On the morning of Aug. 30, Santa Clara-Ivins Police Department officers received a call from someone who said a juvenile, who “appeared to be emaciated and malnourished, with open wounds and duct tape around the extremities,” went to their home and asked for help. Officers responded to the caller’s house and transported the male victim to a hospital. Police learned there could be other potential victims, so they went to a home and rescued a juvenile female “in a similar physical condition of malnourishment.”
Police then arrested Franke and Hildebrandt on suspicion of child abuse.
According to Franke’s guilty plea, the abuse occurred approximately between May 22 and Aug. 30, 2023, and involved a 9-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy who turned 12 in the process. The boy, who was referred to as RF, was reportedly forced to work outside in the sun without shoes, stand in direct sunlight for several days, carry heavy boxes of books up and down stairs, and more. He was reportedly not allowed to drink water and was punished if he was caught hydrating.
The boy reportedly tried to run away from the home in July but was unsuccessful. As a result, Franke and Hildebrandt bound his feet and hands, sometimes with handcuffs or weights.
The plea agreement says, “At times, with RF lying on his stomach, ropes were used to tie the two sets of handcuffs together so that his arms and lower legs were lifted off the ground.”
The handcuffs caused muscle and tissue damage, but the wounds were “treated with homeopathic remedies and covered with duct tape. Then the bindings were placed on top of the duct tape.”
Other punishment included kicking the boy, holding his head underwater, and cutting off oxygen.
Hildebrandt and Franke “sought to indoctrinate RF and convince him that he was evil and possessed, and that he needed to willingly be obedient to avoid punishment.”
According to the court documents, RF was “told that everything that was being done to him were acts of love.”
The 9-year-old girl was subjected to similar treatment, including being isolated outside and denied food and water. She was “repeatedly told she was evil and possessed, the punishments were necessary for her to be obedient and to repent, and these things were being done to her in order to help her.”
The abuse reportedly occurred at Hildebrandt’s home.
Franke gained popularity from her YouTube channel, “8 Passengers,” which had over 2 million subscribers at one point. The channel came down in 2022, and then she started collaborating with Hildebrandt on their program called ConneXions. Hildebrandt was a mental health counselor but forfeited her license following the charges.
According to KSL, Hildebrandt said at the sentencing hearing, “I sincerely love these children.”
Judge Walton told Hildebrandt, “Adults with specialized training, in particular, are supposed to protect children. You didn’t do that in this case. In this case, you terrorized children.”
The Salt Lake Tribune reports Washington County Prosecutor Eric Clarke described the victims’ living situation as a “concentration camp-like setting.”
Clarke said, “Had the older of the children not had the courage to run away and ask a neighbor to call the police, heaven only knows how much longer he could have survived in that situation.”
MORE:
TRUE CRIME DAILY: THE PODCAST covers high-profile and under-the-radar cases every week. Subscribe to our YouTube page and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also subscribe to our True Crime Daily newsletter.
