This article contains descriptions of child abuse.
Last month, former YouTuber Ruby Franke was sentenced to up to 60 years in prison for felony aggravated child abuse.
Ruby, 42, is mom to six kids — Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, and Eve — all of whom she shares with her now-estranged husband, Kevin Franke. She previously ran a parenting-focused YouTube channel named “8 Passengers,” with many of her videos sparking backlash over the years.
Ruby was arrested and charged with six counts of felony child abuse in August after her youngest son escaped the home of her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt.
At the time, it was reported that the little boy was “emaciated and malnourished, with open wounds and duct tape around the extremities,” when he approached a neighbor for help. The cops then purportedly found another one of Ruby’s children — who was also malnourished — at Jodi’s house too, and Jodi was subsequently arrested and charged with the same counts as Ruby.
In December, Ruby and Jodi pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree felony aggravated child abuse. Several horrific details about the case came to light at this time, which you can read all about in detail here.
Following a court hearing on Feb. 20, which was streamed live, both Ruby and Jodi were given the maximum sentence under Utah state guidelines.
And now a heap of evidence from Ruby’s case has been made public by officials — including footage of the moment her youngest son escaped from Jodi’s home.
In a new video shared by Law & Crime, Ruby’s 12-year-old son can be seen approaching Jodi’s neighbor’s house and asking for help.
The little boy — who appears underweight in the footage, with duct tape visible around his ankles — can be seen walking up to a first house and pressing a doorbell numerous times before leaving when no one responds. Then, when he approaches a second home, he is shown asking the neighbor if he could be taken to the “nearest police station.”
When the neighbor asks what’s going on, Ruby’s son states that it’s “personal business.” The neighbor goes on to question the child further about his well-being, later noting that he could smell the flesh from his wounds. The child also had no shoes on, and purportedly wore a ragged top that had bloodstains on it.
The neighbor ultimately contacts the police, with the audio recording of the phone call being released for the first time. “I just had a 12-year-old boy show up at my front door asking for help … He’s emaciated, he’s got tape around his legs, he’s hungry, and he’s thirsty,” the man says.
He goes on to detail that the boy came from Jodi Hildebrandt’s home, noting that there have been issues at her house before. Meanwhile, another neighbor, seemingly from the same house, can be seen offering the little boy food and comforting him before emergency services personnel arrive.
Another video shared by Law & Crime shows the moment cops found Ruby’s youngest daughter hiding in Jodi’s home.
The little girl, whose hair had been shaved off into a buzz cut, was sitting cross-legged on the floor in Jodi’s bathroom closet in complete silence when the cops found her. She remained quiet for a long time, in an apparent state of shock, refusing to speak with any police officers.
Meanwhile, more footage documented the arrests and police interviews of both Ruby and Jodi.
Ruby remained eerily silent in the new bodycam footage from the moment she was arrested, searched, and interviewed. She pointedly refused to answer the simplest of questions — including how many kids she has — and instead blinked repeatedly at the cops questioning her.
Meanwhile, Jodi largely refused to answer anything without her attorney present.
The jailhouse phone calls made by Jodi and Ruby were also released to the public, with Ruby stating in one recording that her children were “full of evil.”
“Adults have a really hard time understanding that children can be full of evil and what that takes to fight it,” she can be heard saying. “And so, I don’t know any other adults who are going to see the truth.”
Ruby also describes herself in another call as a “good woman,” saying, “I don't do naughty things.” Meanwhile, Jodi seems shocked that they were being accused of child abuse. She can be heard saying in one call, “So now it’s abusive to make a kid sleep on the floor? It's ridiculous. You can’t even raise your kids anymore.”
In another newly released video, Ruby’s estranged husband, Kevin, who was not charged in the case, can be seen being questioned by the police amid her arrest.
In the footage, Kevin states that he hasn’t seen his kids in over a year, noting that he’s been separated from Ruby. He says that he trusts Jodi, describing her as an “honest, truthful person” whom he respects.
Kevin claims that he did not know about the child abuse, telling police that it sounded like a “made-up story” and a “horror movie.”
What’s more, it has also been revealed that Ruby kept a handwritten journal during the months that her children were being abused.
Salt Lake City local CBS affiliate KUTV obtained the 60-page document, which has been heavily redacted. In the disturbing diary entries, Ruby talked about punishing one or more of her children by making them stand outside in the sun, shaving off their hair, pushing them into the pool, and more.
The handwritten entries, dated between May and August 2023, mainly focused on Ruby’s 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter, who were referred to as "R" and "E," respectively.
One entry noted that “R” was “to stay and sleep outside,” seemingly for refusing to do anymore “wall sits.” In another, Ruby appeared to describe her son as being “in and out of possession.”
“I told R that he needs God. I invited him to fast & pray. R is in and out of possession,” she purportedly wrote.
In another entry, Ruby purportedly began by stating that it was a “big day for evil.” The entry reads, “R was told to stand in the sun w/his sun hat… He is defiant. ... R, or I should say his demon, stays in the shade. I push R into the sun. R comes back. I come back with a cactus poker. When I poke his back to get in the sun R doesn't even flinch. I poke him on the neck. He is in a trance & doesn't appear to feel anything. Jodi taps him on the cheeks to wake him up. The devil doesn't like when you get your subject to agree to truth.”
Ruby later wrote that "R" was pushed into the pool and recalled putting her hand “tightly over his nose & mouth.” In a separate entry, she seemingly described cutting her daughter’s hair and dousing her with water "in the dog wash."
In July 2023, Ruby detailed finding her son “walking on the left side of the road” in the middle of the night in an attempt to run away. She later wrote, “In order to keep my son, I will need to put him under sedation.
"The demon is still here and I purposefully put R back into a slumber. Hybernate. To watch R go into the aweful state of compliance, knowing the demon he harbors in his heart is so so sick like stitching up a patient you know you didn't get all the cancer out,” she added.
You can see all of the newly released evidence from Ruby’s case in further detail here.
If you are concerned that a child is experiencing or may be in danger of abuse, you can call or text the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 (4.A.CHILD); service can be provided in over 140 languages.