Law&Crime Sidebar - Ruby Franke’s Daughter Breaks Silence on YouTube Mom's Child Abuse Charges

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. The last six months have been difficult, but I have felt everybody's prayers, lots of therapy, lots of writing. I've written a ton, and it's helped a lot. And I'm ready to start sharing my life again. Ruby Frankie's eldest daughter breaks her silence after her mom, a now accused child abuser, is arrested. KUTV 2 News's Brian Schnee is back with us to make sense of Shari Frankie's new Instagram post. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime.

Starting point is 00:00:45 I'm Jesse Weber. All right, so we want to do a bit of a reaction to the new update in the Ruby Frankie case. Frankie, of course, is the former Utah YouTuber who documented her life with her husband. husband Kevin and their six kids on a now defunct channel called Eight Passengers. The controversial videos presented parenting and child care advice that many saw as strict and even potentially abusive. It's interesting considering now that Ruby and her business partner Jody Hildebrand have each been charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse. After two of Ruby's kids were reportedly found malnourished, her son even was displaying

Starting point is 00:01:23 lacerations from being tied up. But now Shari Frankie, this is Ruby's oldest daughter, has broken her silence after her mom's arrest. Shari had her own social media accounts where she documented her life. She took a break from posting videos, but posted in January, saying she's ready to share some of her life again. I got a chance to interview once again, Brian Schnee, who is an anchor and reporter from KUTV 2 News.

Starting point is 00:01:47 He's been covering the Ruby Frankie case, and we talked a little bit more about this update. So now before we get into what Shari said in this most recent Instagram post, can you just provide us a little bit of context about what we know of the relationship between Shari and her mother Ruby, Frankie? Yeah, I mean, basically what we know is what you've seen play out over the years on social media or on YouTube, right? Because this is a very forward-facing family in the public eye with eight passengers. I personally was not an eight-passengers viewer before this. know a lot of people out there, a lot of people who will see this, have definitely scoured the internet and seen the videos between either the, I guess the relationship between Ruby and Sherry or Ruby and Chad. Those are your two oldest children out of the six passengers, if you will.

Starting point is 00:02:38 So it's a very interesting dynamic and I think we're seeing it play out almost day by day here with just the changes as of late from Kevin Frankie's body camera video of wanting to charge Sherry with a theft after she took some items to them walking down the steps together at a recent hearing, it's hard to tell if it's all for show or if it's legitimate at this point. But I think time will tell and we'll figure it out. We want to thank Morgan and Morgan, the largest injury law firm in America, for sponsoring this video.

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Starting point is 00:04:47 spoken with said, hey, I haven't had a dialogue with this side of the family in years. And it sounds like both the Ruby's sister said the same thing, right? Bonnie Holine said the same thing. Julie DeRue said the same thing. Both of them have very large YouTube channels and followings and they put videos out, kind of expressing some of the same thing of, oh, we haven't been in touch over the last three years or so. And if you were to do the math on the timetable, that suggests it has to do with this relationship with Jody Hildebrand. Right. Okay, so let's get into this Instagram post.

Starting point is 00:05:18 So Shari writes, and I'm going to read two parts of it, but this is the first part. Quote, there's literally not even words to describe how upside down my life has become. I've cried, had an infinite number of panic attacks, had way too much ice cream, and yet life goes on. Therapy has literally saved me, but God has too. My life is somehow becoming more beautiful and fulfilling, despite all the terrible things going on. I've tried to live my life to the fullest, the last few weeks, even though all I want to do is hide away in my apartment. I do have my days.

Starting point is 00:05:50 Brian, let's start right there. What's your reaction to that part of the statement from Sherry Frankie? Well, she's human, right? I mean, she's obviously going through a really difficult time. So many people have reached out to her, whether she wants to hear from them or not. I think this is one of those things. It's about time we're hearing from her, right? There's so many people that are involved in this as just a consumer or even a family member.

Starting point is 00:06:12 that just want to know how she's doing it's pretty obvious that both sherry and chad have perspective on what was going on to some degree right just how much they want to share is totally up to them as it pertains to their mom ruby and even if kevin had any involvement in any of this right i think that's still the question mark here but when it comes to what she said she's a devout member of the church of jesus christ to latter day saints that is very forward facing on her instagram page but i'm not surprised that she's had kind of this tug of war with how she's feeling, but it's good to hear she's doing okay, considering her family is in the spotlight, not the spotlight any of them probably wanted. And we have to remember that when the news broke of her mom's arrest, the first thing she did was she posted on her Instagram story, a photo of the police, and it wrote finally. And I thought that was a very, very big statement. So it's not like this is the first thing she's posted since the arrest. It was the finally that was the first. first post? Was there anything else in between? Because that was a very big development and a very big statement for her to make that after her mom's arrest. No, haven't seen anything. And it's been,

Starting point is 00:07:20 what, six going on seven weeks. I mean, this is really over the last month or so, kind of just dragged out a little bit because we haven't had court hearings. We haven't had a lot in this process to understand where the actual child abuse portion of this and these allegations are moving forward. So we've been trying to rely on is people's perspective on all of this. And Sherry is definitely one of those key members. We'd love to know what she's thinking. We'd love to know what she knows. You're right, though. The most punchy part of all of this was when she had one word on the screen with Springville Police outside of the home there and said, finally. And we hadn't heard from her sense. So I think this is really encouraging that we are hearing from her finally again after what

Starting point is 00:08:04 six, seven weeks. And there was a second part to her Instagram post as well. She wrote, tomorrow is another big court day, and I'd appreciate your prayers and thoughts for my family and myself. And again, she wrote words can't express the gratitude. I feel for you all, and I feel your love. Now, we should note that this post was made a few days ago. What is she talking about here in regards to the court day? Yeah, she's talking about the day where you ultimately saw in some of our video play out where Kevin, which is Sherry's father, Chad, who's Sherry's brother, and then their two attorneys all walk down the steps. They went into a courthouse in Provo, Utah, to the fourth district court here in Utah County. And it's about the child welfare situation as it pertains to

Starting point is 00:08:49 the four remaining passengers, right? So we'll refer to it that way. Mom and dad are one and two. Sherry and Chatter, you're two eldest. And then there's the four that are underage. So really, the child welfare portion is what she's referring to. We do know the day that Ruby was, you know, placed into custody, they decided, the DCFS worker decided, hey, we're going to take these two children that we found at American Fork. We're going to either put them with Sherry, so they're staying with family, or they're going to be put in state custody like the two other children were in Ivan's, Utah, which is keep in mind here, four and a half hour south. I mean, really a big divide here in just the state of Utah. So I think Sherry has had a lot on her plate, right? She wants this to

Starting point is 00:09:31 work out for her family. There was kind of that visual show. with dad and brother coming down the steps and they also exited together too there was some laughter there was a family dynamic there which we hadn't seen before yeah and let me if i can give you my perspective on honestly not a psychologist don't know what's going on between but the timing of the post i find to be really interesting in light of everything that we've seen and you mentioned it so when this story broke and all the reporting indicated that there was this kind of acrimonious relationship between sherry and kevin you said it that at one point there's this video that comes out where Kevin was wondering why Shari wasn't arrested.

Starting point is 00:10:07 He thought that she stole these various items from the Frankie home. She ended up returning the items like tablets, cell phones, cameras, journals, passports, police at the time said to Kevin, she had no intent to steal. She was holding onto these items, possibly for safekeeping. He hadn't been living at that residence for 13 months. So this wasn't a crime. And so now when she writes this post that says, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:31 there's been basically signifying a. lot that she's gone through. And then the next day, she is walking with Kevin Frankie. And we know from Kevin Frankie's attorney, Randy Kester, that there seems to be some kind of reconciliation. That's what that signifies to me. Is that post, to me, signifies there is some sort of reconciliation between Kevin and Sherry. That's what I'm reading between the tea leaves. Well, there has to be something going on behind the scenes, right? And you would hope because for all of this to play out, listen, the cliche time heals all. It's not really the case. But a lot of work had to have been done when you're thinking about Kevin Frankie and the two

Starting point is 00:11:14 eldest children to go in there and obviously, I don't know, duke it out with mom as it pertains to figuring out what to do with the children. Either they did this or they're working on this or it's just because we were out there. I mean, there's different ways to look at it. But the post is really telling that some sort of mending has gone. gone on in that family. It's just not clear exactly to what depth, right? This relationship is really secured. But it is a major part in how all of this will unfold as it pertains to the child abuse allegations from the initial day, August 30th in southern Utah. And Brian, by the way, you're an anchor reporter for KUTV2 News. My understanding is you guys tried to get a comment from

Starting point is 00:11:58 the Frankies after court, but no comment, right? Yeah, no comment. I mean, I mean, the one day that we did hear from Randy Kester was one of those earlier hearings, which was about a month ago now in mid-September, after the initial hearing on the seventh, I believe, was the date for the child welfare case. There was the attempt. I know that one of my colleagues has had a real quick exchange in dialogue with Sherry just in passing, but it wasn't anything noteworthy of, hey, we're going to chat, we're going to talk about this, we're going to put this out there.

Starting point is 00:12:28 They don't want to say anything. And I think that they can't say anything about the child well. welfare situation because the judge sealed the case. And ultimately, that is because of early media coverage from some very, very, very large-scale outlets that came into town and shook things up. And that's why we don't know what's really happening in that courtroom anymore. And look, it's kind of hard to imagine in light of everything that's happened, what Shari Frankie is going through. And that post kind of gives a little bit of an indication. But look, we're going to continue to follow this. I know you're going to continue to follow it. And

Starting point is 00:13:02 hopefully we learn a little bit more about this family and about how everything seemingly ended up happening. But Brian Schnee, really appreciate you taking the time coming back here on sidebar. Always good to see you. Glad to be here. At the end of the day, look in your comments. A lot of people are on Team Sherry and they're not afraid to say it. I'm not surprised by that because the allegations against her mom and Jody, very, very bad. And at this point, from a legal perspective, it's hard for me to find a defense. Ryan Schnee, thank you so much. Thank you. all right everybody that's all we have for you right now here on sidebar thank you so much for

Starting point is 00:13:37 joining us please subscribe on apple podcast spotify youtube wherever you get your podcast i'm jesse weber speak to you next time you can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - Ruby Franke’s Daughter Breaks Silence on YouTube Mom's Child Abuse Charges

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