Ruby Franke is/was a mommy vlogger who had a YouTube channel with her husband called “8 Passengers.” In August, her twelve-year-old son ran to the neighbors’ house begging for food and water. The neighbor immediately called the police because the child was emaciated, had bruises and wounds and duct tape on his extremities. When police arrived they called for an ambulance to see to his care. They learned his ten-year-old sister was still tied up, held without food and water at home. The police entered the home, rescued the little girl and arrested Franke.
The level of abuse and mistreatment is shocking. Her business partner, Erin Hilder/brandt, a Democrat, recorded a video with Franke at the time the children were being abused and did nothing. She’s a therapist, a mandatory reporter. Not only did she not report the abuse. She participated in it, typing ropes on the children’s feet and hands. She, too, was arrested and has surrendered her counseling license.
She was a controversial mommy vlogger because she stressed harsh punishments. In 2020, she took her oldest son’s bedroom away for seven months, making him sleep on a bean bag chair in the basement. She also talked about withholding food as a punishment. It seems the people who raised concerns in 2020 should have been paid more attention rather than being written off as cancel culture run amok.
- Law & Order: ‘8 Passengers’ mom bound ’emaciated’ kids with duct tape until one escaped from window and reached help: Cops
- NBC: Ruby Franke formally charged with 6 counts of felony child abuse
![Utah's 'free-range parenting' law supposedly kept - Salt Lake Tribune, The (UT) - September 19, 2023 - page 1
September 19, 2023 | Salt Lake Tribune, The (UT) | Jordan Miller
At least twice last year, a Springville woman spoke with child welfare officials because she was worried about
YouTuber Ruby Franke's kids being home alone for extended periods — but, the neighbor told The Salt Lake
Tribune, staffers of Utah Division of Child and Family Services told her there was nothing they could do.
An agency employee, she said, specifically cited Utah's landmark "free-range parenting" law, passed to ensure
child neglect statutes don't block kids from playing outside unattended or being home alone. Children need
to be old enough for that independence, the law emphasizes, and they still must be adequately cared for and
fed.
But the DCFS staffer said the law meant the agency could not pursue any action unless a child left alone was
injured, the neighbor said. She provided voicemail and text message records documenting her interactions
with DCFS, sharing her concern that the Franke children were being neglected.
Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, were arrested Aug. 30 on six felony counts each of
aggravated child abuse after Franke's 12-year-old son escaped Hildebrandt's Ivins home. A neighbor called
police because the boy was malnourished and had duct tape on his ankles and wrists, charging documents
state.
Responding officers said they then found Franke's 10-year-old daughter malnourished inside Hildebrandt's
home. The two children were taken to a hospital for medical treatment, court documents said. They and two
of Franke's other children have since been placed in DCFS custody.
The Franke family home is located more than 250 miles north of Ivins, in Springville, court documents
indicate. The Tribune is not identifying the Springville neighbor who contacted DCFS, to protect her family's
privacy. However, she has been named in police records and The Tribune verified her identity.
Though DCFS declined to release any reports connected to Ruby Franke, the neighbor said at least one other
Springville neighbor reported being concerned about the children, because a DCFS official referenced that
separate report to the first neighbor in a follow-up conversation.
Police records also show Franke's oldest daughter, a Brigham Young University student, requested a welfare
check in September 2022 because she was concerned that her younger siblings had been left home alone for
at least five days.
According to a statement DCFS released Tuesday, every referral the agency receives must go through a
screening process. "This screening process uses facts and information known at present time to either accept
or unaccept for investigation," the statement read. "It is important to understand that every DCFS referral is
handled individually to support the unique facts to each case based on information provided."
DCFS further stated that a child protective services investigation for "non-supervision" falls under the
category of neglect. But an investigation is only opened "when the information reported includes a
description of a specific occurrence or allegation that a child is subjected to accidental harm, or an
unreasonable risk of accidental harm," because of a failure to supervise the child at a level "consistent with
the child's age and maturity."
The agency in its statement Tuesday also cited Utah's "free-range parenting" law, noting that the law is
intended for parents to teach children independence and resilience "based on the child's age and maturity,"
but does not "absolve parents from supervising their children."
The neighbor said that the abuse allegations since filed against Franke have made her feel that DCFS missed
opportunities to investigate the welfare of Franke's children.
"Several of us tried to help," the neighbor continued. "I know people left food on doorsteps knowing the kids
might not be eating; I know people were making phone calls to DCFS, to the police — people really did try and
care. No one was looking the other way."
The Frankes move to Springville
The neighbor recalled that Ruby Franke and her husband, Kevin Franke, moved to Springville in January 2020.
Neighbors knew Ruby Franke was a YouTuber, known for her since-deleted parenting advice channel called "8
Passengers," where she video-blogged the lives of her family. Some were apprehensive about having a
content creator so close, the neighbor said, worried that it could affect the community's privacy.
"They were fine at first," she said of the family, recalling that all six of Franke's children moved in at the time.
"I mean, as normal as you can be if you're famous YouTubers."
The neighbor said that, initially, the Franke children interacted with the local church community and
befriended other kids in the area. But over the years, they were eventually pulled out of school, the neighbor
said. And after Kevin Franke moved out of the family home around August 2022, she said, she observed that
the four youngest children were repeatedly left home alone.
Kevin Franke's attorney, Randy Kester, told The Tribune that Kevin and Ruby have been separated for about a
year, which is why Kevin moved out. He has since moved back into the family home, said Kester, who is
representing Kevin as he seeks custody of the children placed in state care. Ruby Franke remains in custody
at a Washington County jail, where she is being held without bail.
The neighbor said she and others noticed when Ruby Franke came and went from the home because Franke
would park in the driveway. Residents would often check in with each other, the neighbor said, asking if
others had seen Franke in a while, especially when her children could be seen outside on their own.
Sometimes neighbors would ask the kids directly where Franke was, the neighbor said, and they would say
she was in St. George, or that she wasn't there.
Hildebrandt's home in Ivins is just outside St. George. Before their arrest, she and Franke ran an online selfimprovement
program called ConneXions, which Hildebrant, a licensed clinical mental health counselor,
founded.
The neighbor said it appeared to her that Franke "would leave her kids for days to weeks at a time," and
added, "I didn't know if they had access to food and care."
That, combined with the understanding that the children weren't attending school, the neighbor said, is
ultimately why she decided to contact DCFS.
"I was looking for like ... what are the rules here?" the neighbor recalled. That's when an agency staffer she
spoke with first cited Utah's "free-range parenting" law, she said.
Division of Child and Family Services involvement
Utah in 2018 became the first state in the country to pass a "free-range parenting" law, which changed the
state's definition of child neglect.
The legislation added a section to state code explaining that a child "whose basic needs are met and who is of
sufficient age and maturity" can engage in independent activities without it being considered child neglect,
such as walking, running or biking to and from school, or being home alone.
The law did not specify what a "sufficient age" is, and only green-lit those independent activities so long as
kids were adequately fed, clothed and cared for. Supporters at the time said the legislation was intentionally
vague, so police and prosecutors could evaluate possible situations of neglect on a case-by-case basis.
The neighbor said she worried about whether the children were being regularly fed, but she told DCFS that
she never saw the children hurt.
But a few days later, the neighbor said, she got a follow-up call from DCFS, after a different neighbor had
contacted the agency, reporting that they were also concerned for Franke's children.
The staffer said it was worrisome that the children were being left by themselves so repeatedly and for so
long, but said that it was "not necessarily something we can do something about," the neighbor said.
Last September, Franke's oldest daughter, Shari Franke, requested a welfare check to the Springville home
because she concerned that her sisters and brother had been left home alone for five days while Franke
visited a friend in St. George, police records obtained by The Tribune show.
When officers arrived, the children would not answer the front door, records show, but police could see
through windows that the kids were home and on a phone call with someone before they went upstairs, out
of view. At the time, neighbors also told responding officers that Franke often left the children home alone,
police records show.
The neighbor who spoke with The Tribune estimated that officers remained in the area for about an hour or
two, but the children never answered the door.
As soon as police left, a car pulled up to the house, the neighbor observed. A woman ran up to the home, the
children let her in, and they shut the door behind them, the neighbor said.
After that incident, the neighbor said, the Franke home's blinds were always closed, and what appeared to be
paper was placed over the windows. Neighbors also never saw the kids play outside unattended after that,
she said.
"There's a general sadness, because we were all like, 'What the hell just happened?' We tried to help, and it
looked like it got more buttoned up," the neighbor said.
Sometime around May, the neighbor said, she noticed Franke began taking her youngest kids — the 12-yearold
and 10-year old who were hospitalized upon her arrest — with her when she left the house on days-long
trips.
The neighbor learned of Franke's arrest, she said, when police surrounded Franke's Springville home last
month, guns drawn. An officer who spoke to the neighbor asked if she had seen Franke's two middle
children, she said, quoting the officer as saying the two youngest were found in Ivins in "really bad shape."
"It is incredibly frustrating, and so disappointing, and [I have] a feeling of hopelessness around it," the
neighbor said. "What needed to happen?"
Editor's note This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local
journalism.
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September 19, 2023 | Salt Lake Tribune, The (UT) | Jordan Miller
