On her Youtube channel “8 Passengers”, Ruby Franke advocated strict child rearing and showed off her family with six children in Utah, USA. Over 2.4 million followers took part in her parenting tips.
In the summer of 2023, a darker side of the family’s life was revealed, when her son, malnourished and with signs of having been tied up, ran to the neighbor to ask for food and water. According to the police, the eleven-year-old must have escaped through a window and made his way to the neighbor.
The neighbor called the police, who came to the scene. A severely malnourished nine-year-old daughter was also found in the family’s house.
Sentenced to long sentences
In September, Ruby Frank, along with therapist and business partner Jodi Nan Hildebrandt, was arrested for child abuse. Now the verdict has been passed.
The influential couple are both sentenced to the maximum penalty for child abuse: at least four years in prison. Frank and Hildebrandt will serve a total of four prison terms, of one to 15 years each, reports BBC.
In court, prosecutor Eric Clarke stated that the two children lived in a “concentration camp-like environment” and called the mother a significant threat to society.
– The children were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in and practically all forms of entertainment, says Clarke.
The mother’s own words
Franke was in tears after the verdict, writes the BBC. She apologized to her children.
– I was so disoriented that I thought that dark was light and that right was wrong, says the 42-year-old in court.
– I was led to believe that this world was an evil place, filled with police who control, hospitals who hurt, government agencies who brainwash, church leaders who lie and lust, men who refuse to protect and children who need abuse, Ruby Franke continues.