Authorities accused a Utah lady, Ruby Franke, on Friday of six felony counts of severe child abuse after two of her children were discovered beaten and emaciated on a once-popular YouTube channel.
Ruby Franke, whose now-defunct YouTube channel “8 Passengers” recorded her family life, was detained Wednesday night in Ivins, Utah. She was arrested at the house of Jodi Hildebrandt, who runs a counseling firm that teaches individuals how to improve their lives by being honest, responsible, and humble. Hildebrandt was also detained on Wednesday and faces the same six allegations of child abuse.
Franke appears with Hildebrandt in YouTube videos released by Hildebrandt’s counseling company, ConneXions Classroom.
Prosecutors claim Franke and Hildebrandt either caused or permitted the torture of Franke’s 12-year-old son and the injury of her 10-year-old daughter. Prosecutors said that both youngsters were hungry and mentally traumatized.
According to court records, both ladies are being held without the ability to post bond.
According to an affidavit submitted by an officer with the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department, Franke’s son crawled out of a window in Hildebrandt’s home and fled to a neighbor’s house, asking for food and drink.
Ruby Franke was charged on Friday of six felony counts of severe child abuse after two of her children were discovered beaten and emaciated.
According to the complaint, a neighbor noticed duct tape on the boy’s ankles and wrists and alerted police. The youngster was brought to a hospital and placed on a medical hold “due to his deep lacerations from being tied up with rope and his malnourishment,” according to arrest papers.
Officers stated Franke’s daughter was found emaciated in Hildebrandt’s home and transported to the hospital. According to the affidavit, two of Franke’s other children were placed in the custody of child protective services.
The Franke family was chastised online for their “8 Passengers” video blog, which showed parenting mistakes such as excluding their oldest son from his bedroom for seven months for pranking his younger brother and sending him to a wilderness therapy camp for unspecified reasons. In earlier recordings, Ruby Franke discussed refusing to carry lunch to a kindergartener who had forgotten it at home and threatening to chop the head off a young girl’s plush toy to punish her for cutting objects around the house.
In one video, Franke stated that she and her husband informed their two youngest children that they would not receive gifts from Santa Claus that year because they had been selfish and were not responding to punishments such as being held home from school and cleaning the floorboards.
Ruby Franke was charged on Friday of six felony counts of severe child abuse after two of her children were discovered beaten and emaciated.
“It’s because they’re so numb, and the more numb your child is, the bigger the outcome they need to wake them up,” Franke explained in a video.
Some detractors began an online petition to get child protective services involved. According to social media posts, the Frankes’ oldest daughter has severed connections with her parents.
The YouTube channel began in 2015 and was shut down after seven years.
According to the affidavit, Franke sought an attorney and did not talk with officers after her arrest. That attorney has yet to be identified publicly as of Thursday.
A voicemail left at Ruby Franke’s husband’s phone number seeking comment on the arrest was forwarded to his attorney, Randy S. Kester. Kester stated that he represented Kevin Franke’s interests in keeping his children together and in his custody and could not comment on Ruby Franke’s arrest.
On Thursday and Friday, voicemails left with Hildebrandt’s counseling firm seeking comment still needed to be returned.
While the children were discovered at Hildebrandt’s home, Franke was seen in a YouTube video filmed at Hildebrandt’s home and posted two days earlier, indicating that Franke was there at the property and was aware of the abuse, malnourishment, and neglect, according to arrest papers.
SOURCE – (AP)
