Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Ruby Franke /Jodi Hildebrandt Love Relationship? Daughter Tells All

Episode Date: May 4, 2025

Shari Franke's book, The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom, details her discovery of the relationship between her mother, Ruby Franke, and business partner Jodi Hildebrandt. In her memoir, Shari says that after her mother’s arrest, she found messages on her laptop confirming the true nature of their relationship. The abuse the children endured came to light when a 12-year-old boy climbed out of a window and ran to neighbors, begging for food and water. The boy is the son of Ruby Franke, a popular blogger known for the YouTube channel 8 Passengers. The home belonged to Franke’s business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt. Neighbors called police. Officers said the boy appeared emaciated and malnourished. They also noted he had “deep lacerations from being tied up with rope” and duct tape around his wrists and ankles. After searching Hildebrandt’s home, police found Franke’s 10-year-old daughter in a similar condition. Both children were taken to a hospital. Franke’s parenting channel, 8 Passengers, which once had over 2 million followers, offered parenting advice. In one video, she admitted to withholding food as a form of punishment. Both women were convicted of aggravated child abuse. Joining Nancy Grace Today: Donna Kelly – Former Utah Senior Deputy District Attorney and Attorney for Crime Victims Legal Clinic; Helped form the Utah County Sex Crimes Task Force Dr. Dana Anderson – Forensic Psychologist and consultant, court appointed expert witness, Twitter: @psychologydrcom, TikTok: @psychologydr Jason Jensen – Private Investigator (Jensen Private Investigations), Cold Case Expert (Salt Lake City, UT), and Co-founder: “Cold Case Coalition;” Investigations; Twitter: @JasonJPI, Facebook/Instagram: “Jensen Investigations”  Dr. Free N. Hess – Pediatrician/Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Child Safety Expert & Consultant, Founder of www.PediMom.com Emily Ashcraft- Reporter for KSL.com in Utah; Twitter: @emilyjaneen3  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. So-called mommy vlogger turned convicted child abuser Ruby Frankie new claims. Oh my goodness, does it never end with her and her buddy Hildebrandt? The Ruby Frankie prosecutor claims investigators, quote, questioned the influencer mom's relationship with Jodi Hildebrandt. The husband tells cops the two were sleeping in the same bed. Who cares if the two women were having an affair? I don't care.

I care what happened to the children. And there's more bombshell claims in the case. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Let's just get it out there. The prosecutor on the case of convicted mommy vlogger Ruby Frankie questioned the relationship she had with business partner Jody Hildebrandt. Okay, so they slept in the same bed.

Does that change anything about this case? Apparently, it's all revealed by Ruby Frankie's daughter, who caught mom, if you can call her that, Ruby Frankie, with another child abuser, Jody Hildebrandt. According to the daughter, of course, now estranged, bombshell new memoir is called In the House of My Mother, A Daughter's Quest for Freedom. Sherry Frankie, now 21, describes discovering the truth about her mom's relationship. Now, get this part. While Frankie and Hildebrandt condemned gay people to their millions of followers, according to the daughter, Hildebrandt's friendship with the Mormon mom of six, Ruby Frankie, while it started as business, quickly turned to sex. According to the daughter, Sherry, others were told the upstairs to the home was, quote, off limits, including to the husband, Kevin.

He could leave the house whenever he wanted to, says the daughter, but he couldn't come back without Ruby Frankie's permission. Even access to the kitchen for meals required her, Ruby Frankie's, approval. Before long, Ruby Frankie, according to the daughter, had moved into Jody Hildebrandt's room from the marital bedroom. Now, according to Jody, Frankie's daughter, Hildebrandt had very detailed visions, including some where she says she saw Ruby Frankie walking on the water beside Christ. Okay, now I'm getting mad. And others, Hildebrandt apparently envisioned herself riding a massive lion named Charles through the gates of heaven. Okay. You know, I've said a million times, Lord, I would be happy just to be a little mouse in the corner. Please let me into heaven.

Apparently, this one's going to ride through the heaven's gates on a lion named Charles. The two, that would be Jody Hildebrandt and Ruby Frankie, spent an incredible amount of time, quote, hunkered down in their upstairs sanctuary, leaving to take shopping trips to Mexico, returning with bags full of pills. I don't know what that's about. All I care about is whether the children were abused and starved, and according to a court of law, they were. Hildebrandt and Frankie sitting behind bars. I don't know why so much focus is on whether the two had a sex relationship, but I find it highly ironic that these two condemned gay people and their lifestyle, while according to the daughter, that was their lifestyle.

Why is everyone so worried about who other people are sleeping with? It's all I can do to keep my car in the middle of the road. Can we talk about the facts of the case, please? Let me remind everyone what happened to these children. Let's kick it off with our friends at ABC. Arrest documents saying the child escaped to a neighbor's home. The 12 year old child described by that neighbor in a phone call to police as emaciated and malnourished with open wounds. Court documents also describing deep lacerations from being tied up with a rope. He's also saying that there's two sisters are back at the home as well. Police say they

also found Frankie's 10-year-old daughter malnourished. Frankie is known for her strict parenting advice to millions of TikTok and YouTube followers. Police say a clearly malnourished 12-year-old child crawled out of the window of Hildebrand's Ivins area home. A neighbor called 911 when he showed up at their house asking for food and water. Officers say his wrists were duct taped. He had wounds from being tied up across his body. Investigators say they found a 10-year-old girl inside the same house who was also malnourished. You're also hearing our friends at KSL.

So we have at least one child who had apparently just turned 12 crawling out the window of the family home, starved. And believe you me, if you haven't ever seen it, I hope you never do. I pray to God you never do. Because when you see a child that has been starved, as I have. It's something you never forget. I remember when I was going to South Carolina just recently to cover the Alex Murdoch double murder trial. I passed a yard and there was a dog tied up in the front yard to a stake and I could see the dog's ribs. And it reminds me when I went to Aruba with Natalie Holloway's mother just recently to try to turn up new evidence for at the end of the island where the lighthouse is, there was a pack of dogs, maybe four or five of them that kept coming up to us,

chasing after us. And they looked like skeletons that their ribs were poking out. And it just, I've thought about them over and over and over. And when you see a child with their ribs poking out, clearly emaciated. I can't even get the dogs out of my mind, much less the children that I saw that way as a prosecutor. And not just once, over and over and over, food deprivation, starving your child. I think about this 12-year-old little boy to the point where he crawls out the window and goes to a neighbor asking for food. And the neighbor sees lacerations, lacerations where the child has been tied up. And then we learn that there's another child in the home, a 10-year-old

little girl with the same lacerations, malnutrition, malnourished, living in that home. Who in the hell is the mommy? Who in the hell is the dad that would do this to their children? Well, I hope you're sitting down. Take a listen to our friends at GMA. A Utah mom influencer arrested facing six felony counts of aggravated child abuse.

For the first time, we're hearing emergency responders as they see one of Ruby Frankie's children after he allegedly escaped through a window. With me in All-Star panel to make sense of what we know right now. But first I want to go to investigative reporter with KSL.com out of Utah. Emily Ashcraft is with us. Emily, thank you for being with us. Who is this woman? And we're hearing a lot about the mom, but as far as I'm concerned, the father can go straight to hell too. But first tell me, who is she? She is a family YouTuber, vlogger.

And the family actually, it's YouTube channel faded out or stopped recently. And she started up another YouTube channel as a counselor instead of a mom what is eight passengers so that's the family's youtube channel and you know she said in in a article ksl wrote oh years ago um that she started the channel because she wanted other moms who were kind of starting out with infants to see what it's like to have kids that are getting older, kind of the rewards of motherhood is what she wanted to show off in the 8 Passengers YouTube channel. Ruby Franke, YouTuber, mom of six, Ruby Frankie. F-R-A-N-K-E. How many followers?

I understand over 2.2 million subscribers to eight passengers channel. That's the numbers that I've seen as well. Okay. Who in the hay is drinking the Kool-Aid? That's what I want to know. And I want to go now to Donna Kelly, former Utah Senior Deputy District Attorney and lawyer for Crime Victims Legal Clinic. Donna, thank you for being with us. I've seen this over and over and over. It's not just a story.

It's not something we're reporting on. It's not some fiction or TV made for TV movie. Not only do you have the parents abusing the child horribly, but people around them, they know what's happening and they do nothing. What is wrong with these people? I mean, it's not as if this just happened and they suddenly say, oh, the child has bruises all over their arms. That's suspicious. They're starved. They're starved. That takes a long period of time, Donna Kelly, and nobody noticed. Yes, it does. And unfortunately, many abusers have the mindset that they work hard at portraying themselves as you know the good parent the the

parent you go to when you need advice that type of thing is not uncommon and so that appears to be what's going on here is that this particular set of parents decided that they were going to portray themselves as the ideal parent and put that out there to the world. And apparently a lot, at least 2.2 million people were fooled. Guys, I just want you to hear something. Take a listen to our friends at Fox 13. Independent journalist and YouTuber Katie Paulson tracks child abuse cases. She says Frankie's YouTube channel, Eight Passengers, caught her attention. And she was saying how she would send her daughter to school with no food.

And it was almost like she was bragging about it. She recalls another time when Frankie's son openly talked about his punishment on the channel. He was talking about how he had been sleeping on the floor on a beanbag chair and how his mom had taken away his bed and has taken away his door. That child had to sleep on a beanbag chair for seven plus months for pulling a prank on his brother. A prank, I might add, that didn't even cause any physical harm. What he did was he told the brother they were going to Disneyland the next morning and the brother got up and packed, put on his sunglasses and was ready to go.

It was a joke. They didn't go to Disneyland. That was the prank. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Bombshell claims that Ruby Frankie had a steamy affair with her fellow abuser, Jody Hildebrandt. The two can think about that behind bars. And FYI, don't care. I care about the horrific child abuse inflicted on these children. Reality check, this is what happened.

Here we've got a mom starving the children and bragging about it online what i i also don't understand to dr dana anderson forensic psychologist and consultant you can find her at psychology doctor.com she's bad enough but who are the 2.2 million people that tune in to watch her gibberish? Well, I can tell you, I certainly wasn't tuning in and I'd never even heard of Ruby Frank until this came up. But what's more deplorable is her sidekick, Jodi Hildebrandt, who's a licensed professional who's observing this the whole time. 2.2 million people are following this witch straight from hell. I want you to hear more of what we have learned. Take a listen to our friends at Fox 13.

Diane Nevins remembers being horrified at what she was watching on YouTube. It was kind of like every video there was something to be shocked about. Her son couldn't walk until he was like two and a half years old, and she never got him any help. And she admitted that at one point he had fallen off the couch or she dropped him. He had gotten no physical therapy, anything. Nevins says when she commented her concerns, she was blocked by Frankie. What exactly, to Emily Ashcroft joining us,

investigative reporter for KSL.com, what was found in the home after the neighbor has to call 911 when she gets a 12-year-old little boy who says his 10-year-old sister is inside with the same injuries, starved, starved, and covered in lacerations showing the child had been tied up. What did cops find when they go inside? They found a second child. The two youngest children in the family were both so starved. The one that didn't crawl out initially refused medical care,

but after interacting with her for a while, they kind of said, let's go to the hospital as well. And both of the women were charged with six counts, three for each child of aggravated child abuse. Authorities say that both children were described as, quote, their words, not mine, emaciated and malnourished with open wounds and duct tapes around the extremities, begging for food and water, begging for food and water. And this woman,

this woman actually has a YouTube channel where she dispenses advice. I'm just imagining the inside of that home and how the children were bound with duct tape. And apparently their skin was burned with ropes having tied them up. What kind of mothering and fathering is that? And it brings to mind the so-called house of horrors. Yes, the evil Turpin parents, their daughter crawled out of the house, out of a window and ran to call 911 to save her brothers and sisters. They were found in the same exact condition. Take a listen to our cut, 35 Hour Friends at ACGTN. Officials say when they entered the Turpin home, they found a modern-day horror. Foul smell,

extremely dirty conditions, and they say it was immediately clear that the siblings were malnourished. Authorities say they found three of the children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks, kept in dark and unclean conditions inside this Riverside County, California home. Deputies located 12 children inside the house as young as two years old. And upon further investigation, when authorities went to their last home where the Turpins lived, they found claw marks on the inside of closet doors where children had tried to claw their way out. And listen to this 911 call on our cut 36. This is a Turpin child that crawled out the window, much like this influencer's child did.

Okay, I live in a family of 15 people, and my parents are abusing, they abuse us. And my two little sisters right now are chained up. And how many of your siblings are tied up? Two of my sisters, one of my brothers. How are they tied up? With rope or with what? With chains. They're chained up to their beds. Guys, also, I can't forget the case of Jennifer Wolfthal. Take a listen to our cut 34. Our friend Stephen Helling over at People.com. According to an arrest report obtained by WFTV, Wolfthal was arrested that time after her husband

arrived at the hospital with their eight-year-old daughter who suffered from conditions including pneumonia, a staph infection, and liver failure. Authorities say the girl was also malnourished and had multiple bruises, a skin infection, and several open wounds. Wulffal is the author of the children's book, A Real Friend. It has been removed from sale by its publisher. See the connection I'm making right there? You've got this woman who is an influencer who has a YouTube channel about parenting.

She has mistreated and abused her children. They're starving. They're tied up with duct tape. When cops get there, they still have duct tape on their extremities. It looks like they have rope burns. And they're begging for food and water. Having to climb out the window to get to a phone to call 911, begging neighbors to give them something to eat. And here is this book author who has her child covered in bruises with skin infections, open wounds. You know what makes Ruby different from the turpin mom? Ruby Frankie

is glamorous. Yeah. She has this YouTube channel and boy, is she making the most of it. Guys, I want you to take a listen to Dr. Free Hess joining us. Ped pediatrician, pediatric emergency medicine expert, child safety expert. And you can find Dr. Free Hess at PDMom.com. Let me spell that. It doesn't look like it sounds. It's like pediatrician. P as in Peter, E, D as in daffodil, I. P-E-D-I, mom.com.

Dr. Frehas, thank you for being with us. What this woman has is hair and makeup. That's what makes her different from the Turpin family or the other mom. They're all Beelzebub, straight from hell. They're the devil's minions. Yeah, and that's actually a very big misconception that a lot of people have about abusers, child abusers specifically. I think a lot of people have in their mind that it's only a certain type of person that can do these types of evil things to children. And it's not.

It can literally be anybody. Yeah, you know, you think you know your neighbor. You think you know all about what's going on in your neighborhood. These children are being starved in their own home, assaulted, tied up with ropes and with duct tape that we know of based on the evidence we're hearing so far, and nobody did a thing, and people kept watching this woman online. Jason Jensen joining me, Salt Lake City, Utah, private investigator, owner of Jensen Private Investigations, co-founder of the Cold Case Coalition. And you can find him at JensenPrivateInvestigations.com. This is in your neck of the woods.

What do you have to say? Well, Nancy, there's a lot that can be said here. It's interesting that, you know, the outer image that was being portrayed is, you know, like you describe her, glamorous mom, raising six kids, wants to show off to the world how to do it right. like a Mormon household style image. Oftentimes in the church here in our community, they try to portray to the world a model style of raising a family. And unfortunately, this lady took matters way to the extreme. We're not just showing like discipline online, but goes to the extreme of child abuse Jason Jensen isn't it true that your children have actually watched this woman's YouTube channel what did they think yes Nancy actually my two kids

were the ones that brought Ruby Frankie to my attention because years ago when they were younger they watched and enjoyed the channel. And sometimes they got a kick out of it because she was such a gruff parent. She was always harsh on them. And it kind of gave them the is pertaining to the two younger kids, the victims of this recent arrest, is they said they could tell mom did not like these two kids very well. Guys, when someone did try to speak out against Ruby, Frankie, take a listen to what happened in Our Cut 17, Fox 13. Paulson also saying when she did a report on what Frankie and her kids were saying in the videos, she was threatened to be sued.

She forwarded me an email from Frankie's lawyer sent in 2020 that says, in part, we represent the family vlog channel eight passengers who continue to be harmed by defamatory videos uploaded to YouTube by your client and saying it resulted in a baseless visit by Child Protective Services. They always say, if you see something, say something. And in this case, when people said something, they were threatened. Let me understand something, Emily Ashcroft, joining us from KSL. Child Protective Services went to the home, even though now Frankie is claiming that was baseless. And what, they found nothing? They couldn't tell anything was going on? Yeah, they went to the home to talk about those claims that you brought up in videos. It was clear that she sent a child to school without lunch and had a child sleeping on a beanbag. And so they went to investigate those.

And that didn't lead to any charges at that point. You know, it's red flags, but I guess not. Red flags. I watched it. She brags about withholding food from her children. How is that okay? Take a listen to Hour Cut 22. This is Ruby Frankie in Eight Passengers.

Russell got the big bedroom and Chad got the smaller bedroom. And Russell's bigger bedroom also had a bathroom. But what you guys didn't know was Chad didn't get any room. He didn't get anything. He was sleeping on the floor in the family room. Abby, we took the phone away from Abby

in November. And you may never get the phone back. Probably not. And my kids are literally starving. I hesitate to say this because it's going to sound like I'm like a mean barbarian. But I told the kids, I said, I'm not even going to let you eat breakfast until you get your chores done. It's not just that she's withholding food. And it's not just because they didn't do chores one morning before school.

It's all the time. You don't get to a point of starvation when you occasionally skip breakfast. Isn't that true, Dr. Freehiss, pediatrician? Yes, absolutely. You don't get to be feeded by missing a meal or two here or there. And you don't appear to be that to outside people unless you're missing a substantial amount of meals and nutrition, which can then lead to a whole host of other things that unfortunately these kids may have to deal with. So in One Fill Swoop, we hear about withholding

food until chores are done in the morning, not giving one child a place to sleep. But there's a certain amount of bragging, of bravado, of joviality, of cheer in the way she describes how she's treating her children and what everybody just stands by and licks it up like they're a pig at the trough. Take a listen now and cut 24 more of Ruby Frankie. I just got a text message from Eve's teacher and she said that Eve did not pack a lunch today and can I bring a lunch over to the school? This happens quite often when you're having raising children because I know that her teacher is uncomfortable with her being hungry and not having a lunch. And it would ease her discomfort if I came to the school with lunch. But I responded and just said, Eve is responsible for making her lunches

in the morning. And she actually told me she did pack a lunch. So the natural outcome is she's just going to need to be hungry and hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her a lunch. And isn't it true that at that time, Emily Ashcroft, KSL, this little girl was only six years old? That's what I saw. This is a first grader,, first year she's bringing food to school probably. And later the mom said, you know, justifying it after Child Protective Services were called, she said, you know, it was, I didn't learn until two hours before the end of school and it was a 45 minute drive.

So getting it to her. Really? Because that's not what she said in her blog. But her attitude she said it was because the child didn't the six-year-old girl did not pack her own lunch changed said that she knew it would ease the teacher's discomfort if her child had food what about the child what about the child's discomfort now that's not all take a listen to our cuts 27, 28, more of Ruby Franke. Kevin and I, we have six children. The two youngest are showing long patterns of selfishness.

They have been showing through their choices, their unwillingness to repent, their unwillingness to feel sorrow over some pretty egregious choices that they've made. So Kevin and I have decided that we are going to give the gift of truth to them this year for Christmas. We are going to give them the gift of boundaries and we're going to give them the gift of repentance. So we sat down with them and we let them know how deeply sorrowful we've been because of the choices that they've been making and how it's affected their teachers at school. It's affected their peers. It's affected our home, the siblings.

And we just laid it out very clear. And we told them that this year they are not going to be visited by Santa. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Ruby Frankie's children speak out. Frankie convicted felon for horribly abusing and starving her children. Her children slamming, quote, unethical family vlogging, saying they will not follow in their mother's footsteps. According to her oldest son, Chad, this is him speaking on Good Morning America, I eventually want to have a family, and I've learned from my mom's mistakes. These poor children will be haunted forever by their mother and her henchperson,

minion from hell, Jody Hildebrandt's abuse of them. And I would like to add, following her children speaking out, that Utah has added protections for child influencers following Ruby Franke's child abuse conviction. That's right. A state legislature actually does something worthwhile. A few Tuesdays ago, Utah adds new protections for the children of online content creators. Governor Spencer Cox signed the law giving adults a path to scrub from all platforms digital content they were featured in as minors. And it requires parents to set aside money for their children that are featured in this content. Why? Because children cannot give informed consent to be filmed on social media.

Period. Even Frankie's husband joined in, quote, vlogging my family, putting my children in public social media was wrong and I regret it every day. Hey, then why did you let it happen? That's a good question, huh? Speaking of the husband, what is Ruby Frankie's ex-husband doing now Kevin Frankie he says he quote still loves her what how can you love somebody that mistreated your own children so horribly and p.s where were you during all of that okay all their mar their marital issues aside, this is what we know happened. We are going to give the gift of truth to them this year for Christmas. We are going to give them the gift of boundaries, and we're going to give them the gift of repentance.

So we sat down with them, and we let them know how deeply sorrowful we've been because of the choices that they've been making and how it's affected their teachers at school. It's affected their peers. It's affected our home, the siblings. And we just laid it out very clear. And we told them that this year they are not going to be visited by Santa. We let them know that Christmas morning, their four older siblings will be getting Christmas presents to open and that they will have the gift of love from their dad and I. Okay, let's just examine what we just heard. Donna Kelly joining me, former Utah senior deputy district attorney. Donna. She says the youngest two, which I believe to be around the ages of six and seven, were unwilling to, quote, repent. So therefore, while all the other children were visited by Santa, the two little ones were not.

Because they would not quote repent. I didn't make that up. She said that. And after you speak, I'm going to need to shrink on this. Go ahead, Donna Kelly and Donna. I know you've seen this as have I,

where one or more children are picked out as the targets. Although I think all of these children have been abused and mistreated. Seemingly, one usually is picked out as the most despised and hated. And they're tortured more than anyone else. These two children, as they watch their sisters and brothers get Christmas morning surprises. They get nothing. And then there are two children that are bound with duct tape and ropes and starved. I just want to get my hands around this woman's neck. Then not only does she do this to her children behind closed doors, she brags about it on a YouTube channel that has 2.2 million followers.

It's just absolutely heartbreaking to listen to her portray herself as the victim. You know, we told these two children that their dad and I were very sorrowful. And so she's portraying herself as the victim, which is a very common abuser tactic, you know, gaslighting the victim. And these are children. They need to learn by trial and error as they go along. And the parents need to be responding to them in that way, in a kind and loving way. And it's just absolutely heartbreaking. I can see why they were charged with severe emotional harm of these two children in the charging document. They're charged with not only torture, maltrition, but also severe emotional harm, which it absolutely is.

To Dr. Dana Anderson, forensic psychologist and consultant, what do you make of the other children, four of them, getting all their Christmas gifts from Santa and these two being left out on Christmas morning? One of the biggest days, one of the two biggest days in the Christian year, that being Christmas and Easter. And they're left out because they wouldn't, quote, repent. Yeah, she wants to make an example out of them, punish them, humiliate them. You know, it's all this sort of brainwashing gaslighting on a six-year-old gaslighting manipulating abusing a six-year-old child and her brother so let me understand something emily ashcroft the six-year-old child

that had food withheld would that be the child left behind in the home starving and tied up when the 12-year-old brother escapes through the window? That would be that same child. So this has been going on since the little girl was six and the little boy was eight? One of the things that Ruby Frankie said after her arrest was that those children weren't fit to be around other children. And I'm not sure what she means by that, but it seems like it was specific to those two. Where is the dad in all this? Ruby Frankie and her children were down in Ivins, which is probably about three, between three and four hours from Springville. We know that Ruby Frankie was

there because she shows up in a video and that's why she was charged. She was in a video that was posted shortly before. We don't know if the dad was down there in Ivins, up in a video and that's why she was charged. She was in a video that was posted shortly before. We don't know if the dad was down there in Ivins up in Springville, how long he hadn't been there, or maybe he was in Ivins. Did he not notice two of his children, at least two of them, were being slowly starved and tortured near death? I mean, when neighbors notice the child is starved and covered in duct tape on their extremities, she didn't know what's going on. And apparently this has been going on for some time, at least since the little girl was six. Guys, take a listen to our cut 30.

Torturing him. Stop it. I know you're not, but it looks like you are. Because he's screaming. Okay, Russell. I know you're not, but it looks like you are. I'm only going to say it one more time, and then you're going to lose the privilege to eat dinner. Okay. I hear the laughter. I don't know what's going on.

But I also hear you're going to lose the privilege of eating dinner. I hear Ruby Frankie saying that. What makes her any different from all the other abusive parents? Hair and makeup, two hours of hair and makeup before she gets in front of the camera. To Jason Jensen joining us, high profile private investigator out of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. Jason Jensen, how are we going to go about proving this case? Well, I think you hit most of it on the head. Basically, we have to show that there's a pattern, a history between the actor, the abuser, and her victim children. And we have that pretty well established from some of the outtakes of the YouTube channel, things that have been

brought up by fellow viewers and that we've discussed here during the program, there's a history of this type of neglect and abuse against these two particular children that have been slowly brewing over time where it was perhaps determined to be minor, not enough to remove the children from the home before. But now we're so severe that they're being bound and duct taped like abductees and they're not even allowed to venture forth from the house. And every time that they get in trouble, food is taken away as a punishment. Well, also, we're learning that one of Ruby Frankie's other daughters says her mother was reported to police years before for abuse.

Yes. And nothing was done. And sisters of Frankie, three sisters have also released statements admitting that they quote, kept quiet on the subject. What in the hay is that Dr. Dana Anderson that the family knows, but they choose to remain quiet and let the children continue to starve and be tied up and bound? Yeah, I can't say the extent of what the

family knew, but they certainly had some information. And I think it's interesting that they've quickly made statements to the public stating what side they're on. And I wonder if what the phone log would show of them attempting to reach out or call CPS or the police. Because they've issued a statement and I'm quoting them. We, quote, kept quiet on the subject. Now, the daughter, Sherry, has something to say. Take a listen to our Cut20, Fox 13. Frank's oldest daughter, Sherry Frank, posted to her public Instagram a photo of police with the caption, Finally. She added another story saying,

Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We've been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this and so glad they finally decided to step up. Kids are safe, but there's a long road ahead. Please keep them in your prayers and also respect their privacy. The sisters, who are also YouTubers, state this is their quote. For the last three years, we have kept quiet on the subject of our sister, Ruby Frankie, for the sake of her children behind the public scene. We've done everything we could to try and make sure the kids were safe. Really? Because they weren't the three sisters.

They were starving. They were being bound by ropes and duct tape. And what, if anything, did you do about it? Sounds like nothing. Because I have a very strong suspicion that if they had called DFACS, Department of Family and Children's Services, CPS, Child Protective Services in some jurisdictions, that there would have been a response. Would you agree, Donna Kelly? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Guys, there's another person arrested. Take a listen to our cut 18, Fox 13. Eight passengers was taken down earlier this year, and that's when

Frankie partnered with Jodi Hildebrandt, a licensed therapist in a channel called Connections, where they gave parenting and life advice, pictured in Hildebrandt's home, the same place Frankie's son escaped from, and where her daughter was found being held captive in the basement. It's heartbreaking. And I think it's heartbreaking for the community that watched this family, knew that something was wrong. So people watched the family and knew something was wrong and did nothing. Now, I want you to hear more of what the sisters said. We wouldn't feel right about moving forward with regular content without addressing the most recent events. Their sister getting arrested and her friend, Jody Hildebrandt.

But they say once we do, we will not be commenting on it further. Ruby was arrested, which needed to happen. Jody was arrested, which needed to happen. The kids are now safe, which is number one priority. Really? Their number one priority? You say you've remained silent for three years? Why? Did you stand by and let this happen to these children?

It seems like Ruby Frankie and Jody Hildebrandt just cannot stay out of the headlines. Headlines be damned. She mistreated, abused, beat, and starved her children. Ruby Frankie, Jodi Hildebrandt. I guarantee you, it ain't over yet. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.