Law&Crime Sidebar - ‘Nearly Killed Me’: Niece of Ruby Franke’s Business Partner Reveals Shocking Cycle of Alleged Abuse

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

The niece of Ruby Franke’s business partner revealed shocking allegations about their aunt to The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber. Jessi Hildebrandt claims their aunt, Jodi Hildebrandt, “nearly killed them,” would duct tape their mouth shut and make them sleep outside in the snow. Jessi Hildebrandt tells all on this latest episode of Sidebar.HOSTS:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberAngenette Levy: https://twitter.com/Angenette5LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. And she would tell me all the time, if you just confess, I will stop. You confess I will stop, which is torture. Jody is, in my experience, one of the most intelligent human beings I've ever come in contact with. She knows exactly what she's doing. There has been a lot of talk about Jody Hildebrand, the disgraced mental health therapist accused of abusing the children of YouTuber Ruby Frankie.

But now we sit down with her niece, Jesse Hildebrand, where we hear some chilling allegations of mistreatment. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Ruby Frankie and Jody Hildebrandt. At this point, they're almost household names in the true crime community. The pair were thrust into the spotlight at the end of August when Frankie's two young children were found in Hildebrand's residence in terrible condition. To give you an idea, Frankie's 12-year-old son escaped from a window, went to a neighbor who called 911, and they saw the boy emaciated and had deep lacerations from being tied up.

His 10-year-old sister was found by authorities in similar condition. Hildebrandt, Frankie, they were taken into custody. They were each charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse, which, by the way, each charge carries up to 15 years in prison. That's what we're talking about here. Now, we've been focusing so much on Ruby Frankie. We want to switch gears and focus now on Jody Hildebrandt. So Frankie's co-defendant and also her business partner at her connections company that

provided counseling services to people. And we had the unique opportunity to interview Jody Hildebrand's niece, Jesse Hildebrand. You see, their father is Jody's brother. And by the way, Jesse uses they, them pronouns. Now, I had this unique opportunity to interview Jesse, and they were not only so generous with their time, but also so open with what happened to them. And really, we want to thank them again for coming on, and there's a lot to get into. So let's get into it.

I want to warn you right now, though, that the allegation, spelled out by Jesse are very disturbing. All right, let's lay this out. And we're going to start where Jesse started off by explaining how they even wound up living with Jody Hildebrand in another state. And they knew that something might be off with Jody. So I was 16 years old when I was left in her care.

I was typical angry, angsty teenager, very strict family, very letter of the law. very doctrinally influenced upbringing, and I was kind of a wrecking ball, I think, to my family, or at least to my parents, because I questioned things. So I was living in Corona, California. We go to Utah for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. I had a big party, and I got into a fight with my mom, and I went downstairs, took her phone, and woke up.

I like fell asleep and woke up to a knock on the door that my parents had left and that I wasn't going with them and that my life as I knew it was about to change. So it started off with me at my grandparents and that Jody's on the weekend and then it quite quickly became me living with her full time. So imagine that. According to Jessie, their parents essentially gave up on them and they ended up living with their Aunt Jody Hildebrand who didn't seem to be the nicest person. Ruby Frankie's case is being widely covered everywhere right now.

In fact, there were over 40 articles published in the last month on her charges alone. And often stories like this, they become sensationalized and finding objective and balanced coverage can be pretty difficult. Well, that's why we're excited to tell you about this app and website by Brown News. So in one place, they combine local and international news and show context like how factual the reporting practices are and even who all. owns the entity so we can compare coverage and get the full picture. For example, on the website, we can see that more than 80% of these sources are highly factual and more than half are media-owned companies. So it's interesting to compare the headlines with this context where we can see how legitimate a source is, who funds them, and how certain word choices can alter our

understanding of a story. Ground News is on a mission to hold the media accountable by providing all sides of every story, and we believe what they're doing aligns perfectly with our mission. They even have a feed. It's called the Blind Spot Feed, where they highlight stories that are being covered primarily by only one side of the media. We find this tool extremely resourceful, and we think you will too. You can check it out for yourself at ground. Dot News slash LCN for free or subscribe through our link before October 31st for unlimited access, all to support holding the media accountable. The link is in the description. Now, keep in mind that when Jesse went to live with Jody,

Jody didn't have her connections company yet, but she was working as an independent therapist. And as Jesse explained about their aunt's techniques, this took a very dark turn. Jody is very smart in how she approaches her therapeutic modalities. Because they are so extreme, if she were just to start out with those things, everyone would recognize it and they would be shocked and it'd be like absolutely not but she's very subtle she's very subtle and she's very calculated and she's um it's like a frog being boiled in in water you know you start off with the cold water and slowly turn up the temperature much how it was so it started off with me at my grandparents and at jody's on the weekend and then

it quite quickly became me living with her full time and um and then i was i was pulled out of school. So I wasn't allowed to go to school. So I would just be with her at her office. She would put me into this little side room where I would just wait there and while she, like up to 12 hours a day. And the abuse, according to Jesse, started with psychological techniques. And then the other thing that she had me do is she would give me a piece of paper and she would have me write out my sins. So then she could then read them back to me, have me get on my hands and knees and beg for forgiveness as she read them to me. Pretty startling to hear. But then Jesse says it got so much worse, that it was this

campaign of isolation, manipulation, and self-doubt. Her belief is that if you find identity in something, if you feel good about something externally of yourself, that is it is a distraction to the core issue at hand. And in her mind, that means sin. So she strips you of identity. She strips you of credibility and she isolates. And so she's saying everything that you say is a lie. Everything that you say is manipulation. You're manipulating everyone around you. You're lying and destroying everyone's life. So for the sake of everyone else's safety, we're duct taping you. You heard that right. Jesse alleges that Jody duct tape their mouth so that they couldn't speak. Think about that.

And as we know, at least one of the Frankie children were allegedly tied up and had these open wounds. So that's kind of an eerie fact right there. But according to Jesse, it also got more physical. I turned around to walk and she punched me in the back and I fell down onto the ground. She ended up going inside, which in hindsight is like pretty wild that she did that. Now you might be thinking, that's pretty bad. But I want you to listen to this because Jesse explained. that she was forced to sleep outside in the cold.

So I was sleeping outside in the snow. I wasn't allowed to have a bed. I was sleeping in a, what she told everyone that it was like a mummy bag, you know, sub-zero type of sleeping bag. No, it was absolutely not. This was a like $20 Walmart store brand.

You use that sleepovers kind of sleeping bag. Outside in the snow, in the middle of winter in Utah. And her justification, because I ended up going to the police her justification to the police was that she was preparing me for outdoor wilderness therapy and this was like a kindness

to me to give me one more opportunity to confess to sin I'll tell you this right now when I heard that I thought that this was again chillingly eerily similar to the allegation from Ruby Frankie from years ago that she took her son's bed away

for months as a form of punishment that was a video that when viral as part of her eight passengers YouTube channel. People really honed in on that. I thought it was a form of abuse. That's when they started contacting authorities. And I just, when I heard that from Jesse, just collect eerie coincidence, similarity.

But I have to tell you that in my conversation with Jesse, one of the saddest things was how they perceived what was happening to them. And my own perception of what was happening was so, like, messed up and skewed. And I didn't even know. understand again like what was going I there was like a part of me that knew that that was wrong that what Jody was doing but when everyone around you says it's okay when everyone around you because people saw people saw the abuse happening and did nothing they did nothing and when you are passive when you are a passive passive passive observer of abuse you are unintentionally saying

this is okay that is what you're telling the victim we've seen this before in these kinds of cases where abusers make the victims feel like it was their fault and they did something wrong. Again, these are allegations at this point, but again, that's just something we've seen in the past. And Jesse would say, as you just heard, that there were opportunities to stop this, but no one helped them. Now, things at the Hildebrand home eventually became so dire that Jesse felt they had no choice but to run away.

But it wasn't so simple. Jesse told me that there were multiple times they tried to run away. they once went to a neighbor's house and a move reminiscent of what ruby frankie's child did but the outcome was very different so i ran away to my neighbors jody did find me and this neighbor was like look you're a minor i have to tell her that you're here i don't want to and this neighbor also was like very straightforward with jody saying that she didn't she didn't believe anything that she was doing was correct and so i ended so then i was um when i would go to jody's work with her She would put me in this little room, had no windows, and she would have me, I wasn't allowed to read unless it was books that she would assign.

And then there was another time when Jesse apparently went to the local police. They say at first that they thought the officers would help, but after they spoke to Jody, they told Jesse they had to go back with her. They said that it was kind of like a 180, that the tone shifted, the mood changed when the officer spoke to Jody Hildebrand. Jesse apparently though even begged for the officers to just lock them away And I was just I just shut down and I told her I was like well can you just arrest me like can you put me in jail Please like I will I will go rob something just put me in jail like I will Please and she was like that's not really how it works So as we continue to break down my interview with Jesse Hildebrand the niece of accused child abuser Jody hildebrand

business partner, co-defendant, Ruby Frankie, there's a lot more to get into because they claim that they were victims of intense psychological, emotional, physical abuse at the hands of their aunt. But after multiple failed to escape attempts, finally, Jesse saw an opening. The last time that she ran away,

she managed to hide out in a church and get some rest before she came in contact with a man who fortunately wanted to help her rather than hurt her. I ran. I mean, I just ran. I ran and I ran. And I ran. And I was so terrified that she was the entire time. I was like, she's right behind me. She's right. She just walked in the room. She just, she knows. She knows she's right behind me. And in all reality, she probably didn't know that I left for hours and hours. Because she didn't, she wasn't looking at all me. And I, Thanksgiving point, there's a, there's a golf course. And the golf course is. grounded by a large fence. And I had unintentionally ran into the golf course.

And I came and I, when I realized that I was fenced in, I just collapsed. I fell apart because I was so terrified. It's like those dreams you have when you can't run, you're running away from somebody, but you can't really run. That's what that was like. That's what that felt like where like this one little mistake I made is going to send me back.

But then I thankfully she didn't find me and I just started walking and running and I ended up sleeping in a church. I ended up walking along the highway and I'm sure I looked just a mess. I had a skirt at this massive jacket. I had these ear this ear thing. I had these purple tights and moccasins where my feet were coming through the bottom. That's what I had. And like this like striped shirt. And I'm sure I just like was a, just a mess. And this man stopped along the highway and was like, hey, do you need a ride?

And I was like, no, I'm good. I'm so good. Like fresh 18. I was lying. I lied about my age and I lied about my name because I was so scared that I would be sent back. And this man was just, he was very sweet. He was just like. something's wrong and he knew it he knew something was wrong the only phone number i had was a friend

um my friend chambot who helped me escape went like this will help me escape the streets like when i did end up going to a homeless sheltering that is an incredibly harrowing story there and you just feel what those years must have been like for jesse hildebrandt and how tough that must have been for them. But also, I have to tell you, feels like a horror movie if we take all of these allegations is true. So with all of that in mind, I asked Jesse about the current situation with Ruby and Jody and what it's like to suddenly see one of your family members on the news for child abuse. Here's what Jesse Hildebrand had to say. I was in shock, not because of what they were saying about Jody, but the fact that she was being held accountable was completely

decent, just, it's still, I'm still having a hard time coming to terms with that and making it make sense in my brain. This is something that I have been trying to talk about for almost 15 years and no one in authority, no one in my, not that no one in my family, but the people that needed to hear didn't listen. Nothing was done. So for it to be, for 15 years to have something be so minimized and marginalized and invalidated and then to wake up to a headline to making it national news is just whiplash. And it's full of the extent. But here's the thing. And it's very important to state this that even though these two children were rescued, in fact, the four youngest children of Ruby Frankie, they've all been taken into state custody,

it doesn't end. The long-term effects don't end. That's something Jesse told me, that they fear the long-term repercussions that Ruby Frankie's children may have to deal with for the rest of their lives. And once they turn 18, once they're no longer children, it doesn't stop. This nearly killed me. This has affected every aspect of my life. Every single part. my ability to have friends my ability to have partners my ability to hold jobs i've i mean i have

complex PTSD from this well now that jody hildebrand is in jail without a bond at least for now i asked jesse what their hopes are the future i want her to never have access to vulnerable people ever again and more than just what i want for jody what i want for the community for the the the the to recognize that trust your instincts, build up that muscle of intuition because the things that you're feeling are true. Again, I want to thank Jesse Hildebrandt for such an incredible interview. We will, of course, continue to follow any developments in the Ruby Frankie and Jody Hildebrand case.

Everyone, thanks so much for joining us here on Sidebar. We really do appreciate it. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.