Law&Crime Sidebar - Top 7 Revelations About Ruby Franke’s Husband in YouTube Mom's Child Abuse Case

Episode Date: March 25, 2024

Within hours of Ruby Franke and her apparent business partner Jodi Hildebrandt being arrested on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse in Utah, Kevin Franke was at the Ivins Police Department trying to figure out what was going on with their children. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber analyzes the top new details we learned about Kevin Franke, and how his story changed, during two interviews with police.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: This episode of Sidebar is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/sidebar and get on your way to being your best self!HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - 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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that 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. I don't know why these things that you describe happen I don't know. It's almost like, I want to say, I'm sorry, you must have somebody else. I just want my kids. I just want my kids. He is at the center of a huge child abuse scandal, but he's facing no charges.

Kevin Frankie, the estranged husband of former YouTube mom, Ruby Frankie, says he had no idea his two youngest children were in the hands of monsters. Newly released evidence from Utah investigators shows this dad of six went from having nothing to say to spilling some insane secrets. We're breaking down the top seven outrageous new details we learned about Kevin Frankie during this investigation. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. We are still reeling from the revelations in the Ruby Frankie materials release from last week. These videos, body cam, audio journal entries. We did a whole sidebar on it.

Encourage everybody to check it out. It was a good summation of everything that was released. But there is one central issue that we want to focus on right now, and that concerns Kevin Frankie, the estranged husband of Ruby Frankie. He filed for divorce against her in the wake of her arrest. But what he said in his interviews with the Santa Clara Ivan's police force, the police investigators, is so fascinating. We're going to get into that.

Now, of course, the family rose to fame, starting in 2015 when Ruby and Kevin started the A Passengers YouTube channel, chronicled their lives along with their six children. Ruby posted dozens and dozens of videos offering advice and everything from marriage and child care to cooking to religion. But there was this backlash against the Frankies and A Passengers in the last few years after they were accused of child abuse and child neglect by people who watch these videos, especially after a video was published, seemingly revealing that the couple's oldest son,

Chad had been sleeping on a beanbag chair for months as a form of punishment. And that brings us to 2023. When Ruby had stopped posting to the A Passenger's channel, eventually YouTube took the whole channel down, although there was never a specific reason given for that. Ruby had been working alongside a Utah therapist, Jody Hildebrandt, on Jody's life coaching business called Connections. But then we fast forward to August 30th, 2023. That's when police arrested both Ruby and Jody.

They find Ruby's two youngest children, 12-year-old RF, 10-year-old EF, emaciated, malnourished injuries. In fact, RF had wounds indicating that he had been severely tied up. Her two middle children had apparently been left in the care of another connections team member, Pam Botcher when Ruby was arrested. The two oldest were over the age of 18. They'd moved out on their own. But the way this all went down is that RF managed to escape Jody's home, alert a neighbor to his dire situation.

which set this whole thing in motion. Yes. Hi, how is just wondering if you could do two favors? Well, what are they? Taking me to the nearest police station. Well, actually, just one's fine. What's going on, son? I have a seat there.

It's personal business. Have a seat. What's your name? The neighbor saw the condition RF was in, immediately called for the police, and when they got to Jody's home, she answered the door and seemed shocked to see a contingent of officers. Open the door! Jody? I need you step out.

I have my turn. That's great. step out of the house no i'm not going to step out of the house step on the house oh whoa whoa go we're just going to stay right now how do you come to my house right there inside the house officers found e f ruby's youngest child in what appears to be a closet possibly mistaking her for a boy due to her condition you come in love buddy i'm a police officer are you on for you in here hey you okay is this just you in here I'm Sergeant Tobler.

What's your name? I just have one. Officers arrest both Ruby and Jody, taking them down to the police station. Now, during all of this, Kevin Frankie, Ruby's husband, is nowhere to be seen. But he later shows up on the day of the arrest at the police department in Ivins.

And this is what we're going to get into, what he says to police. So police record their first interaction with him on video. But, you know, I have an understanding of Randa rights Before we start, we're just kind of ask you a few questions about your involvement. Okay? So, first, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you in the court of law.

Okay, you have the right to an attorney or to have him or a present wall of questioning. If you cannot afford to hire one, one will be a for, or hired to represent you. If you decide to answer questions, you can stop at any time. Okay. Do you understand your rights? I do. Okay. Do you wish to speak to me now?

Well, I want to pick up my kids. How about this? We're going to ask you some questions and if you don't want to answer them, you just say, hey, man, I'm not going to answer that. Sure. And we just say, hey, I'm not going to talk. That's not beneficial to you and then we're done. We're doing no way. I don't know where.

Sure. You understand that, right? Yes. Okay. What's a good address for you? Uh, my, well, I'm not comfortable giving my address right now. Okay. But you do live in Springville?

I do. What Kevin tells the officers about his relationship with his family over the last year seems to shock them. So are they all living with you or? No. I haven't seen them for over a year. Any of them? No. None of them.

For a year? Over a year. Okay. I've been in a separation. From who? From my wife and family. What's your wife's name? Ruby.

Rudy. Who's the last? the last time I saw her yeah was the 18th of this month we met to she requested me to sign over vehicles or the titles that she drives that were all in my name when the last time you physically saw the day that i moved out july 24th of 22 24th of 22th of 22 or july 25th joy so it's my understanding that at least home here in kent and ivans have you been to that home no you've not been to that home? No, I don't know.

I don't know anything that's been behind. Like, this is good, man. Like, I would love to be able to help you out with this, and, like, I'm seeing the light of you at home because I'm unaware of your involvement in what's really going on. So for you to say that you're unaware of the status of your kids kind of makes, I know that sounds kind of crummy to you,

but it sounds kind of good to me. Like, who lives in that home with your, is it X, Y, is currently a separated wife? Like, who lives in that home with your children? To be honest, I don't know. I know that she's there with four of the children and our two older children

has moved out. Now, we kind of knew about this when we interviewed Kevin's attorney Randy Kester back in the day because I asked him straight up like a lot of people were asking, where was Kevin? How did he not know about any of this? And as Randy Kester said, as Kevin just said, Kevin stayed away because he thought it was best for his family. Now, the investigators in this interview want to know how Kevin knew what was going on with the kids that day.

I received the message that I needed to come pick up my kids from a police department in highlands. And who was that message from? Well, I prefer not to say it right now. It would just help us a lot. I'll try to figure out who reached. out to you because it makes sense that that would happen. I'm just not aware of anyone who did that from our department. Right.

And I'm not comfortable saying right now who reached out to me. So again, we learned during our interview on Sidebar with Kevin's attorney, Randy Kester, that it was actually Ruby who called her husband to say there was an emergency and to come get the kids. It's not easy, listening to these stories, processing these stories. And when it comes to the victims who survive what happened. happens to them, think about the journey they have to go through. That's why I want to highlight the importance of mental health and taking care of your mental

health. It's not something that can be ignored. And our sponsor, BetterHelp is really, really terrific. They're a great partner of ours, and this is what they focus on. So BetterHelp is entirely online. It matches you with a licensed therapist. You can also switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. They've designed it to be completely convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. You don't have to go running out to different appointments, which is a great thing. And when it comes to therapy, of course,

it can be a place for traumatic events, but it can also be for anyone facing any kind of challenge in their life, especially in relationships, whether with friends, work colleagues, significant others. Therapy is just super helpful for learning positive coping skills, how to set boundaries. It can empower you to be the best version of yourself. So if you're interested, you can go to betterhelp.com slash sidebar.

Today, you'll get 10% off of your first month. All you got to do, fill out a brief questionnaire. You get started right away. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash sidebar. Kevin continued to insist that up until that point, he had no reason to suspect that anything was amiss. And then when all the kids left, Ruby took all of them? Yeah, she stayed in the house.

And did you ever try to reach out? to the kids, dropped by the home or was there? I honored the separation of boundary that we agreed to. So what was your separation? Did you have a no contact order in place? Order? No, this was between my wife and my... So what did Ruby ask of you when you separated?

What did she ask of me? Did she ask you not to contact the kids? Ruby invited me to leave the home. to leave the home while I thought about the choices that I've made in my life in a way that I've treated her. And so I left. And how long had you and Rudy been married before? We were married in 2000.

So about 22 years? When we separated, we were going on 22 years. Okay. And during your marriage, how was disciplining your kids? How would you discipline your kids? Yeah, I'm not going to answer that question. Okay, that's fine. Have you been since separated or since they lived here in the city of Ivins?

Have you communicated with your wife regarding disciplining with your kids or their care or their physical well-being? No. So is she doing this on her own and just telling you how your kids are? She's not telling anything about what kids. I want you to keep that in mind what he is saying. The idea of I was doing things that were wrong and I needed to stay away. But investigators want to know more about Jody Hildebrand and her connection to the Frankie family. Who's this female Jody that your wife lives with?

Do you know a female name Jody? She is a therapist and a life coach, I know. And she's... Do you respect her? Do I respect her? Yeah, I think she's a very honest, truthful person, yes. Okay. You place value on Jody?

I don't know what that means. Do you value what she says and how she treats as your wife a client of hers? Is your wife a partner of hers? Is your wife a roommate with her? Your kids are living in her house, is what I'm trying to say. I'm not aware of that, but I know that they've been in business for the last year filming. Whose day?

Ruby and Joby. They filmed podcasts. So every week a podcast goes up and I listen to it. What's the name of it? What's the name of it? Connections with an X. Like C-O-N. C-O-N-E-X-I-O-N-S.

Yeah. Do you support them in that role in doing that and having... Do I support them in the business? Yeah, like do you support them and think that what they're doing is a good thing or... Yeah, I support their business efforts, I think it's a good thing. Are you involved with their business efforts?

No. Are you aware of the physical? physical condition of your children? No. No, I've chosen to trust my wife with the children. That was part of the agreement of our separation. Is that you allow her to physically provide for the needs of the child? You just removed from that?

I mean, you pay support. I know this is personal questions, but... No, yes, my job is to financially provide for that. I'm just trying to figure out how much... How much of a role do you play in the caretaking of specifically of those two kids? I pay the bills. Okay. With my job, I provide the money, goes into a shared bank account.

Kevin tells the officers that he agreed to leave the home to work on his own problems, including an apparent addiction to pornography, in this interview, he appears to say it was Ruby, not Jody, who asked for the separation. Jody and Ruby have a close relationship, and Jody saw the need for me to get help. And frankly, I agree. The space has been exactly what I need to face to face, you know, my. own addictions and receive the support and help that I've needed. And so this space has been very, very good for me.

So when you stated that you and Ruby had this no contact that you guys just verbally agreed upon, was that an idea given by Jody that she recommended you guys have that space and not contact one another? I'm not aware of that. the invitation for me to leave and take space was from my wife. And then finally, more than 20 minutes into this interview, the police revealed to Kevin some of the details of what's going on. Well, you're the custodial parent of the show.

I don't see why we can't explain to you why we're involved. So I don't recall the exact time, but sometime before 11 o'clock today, we received a phone call from 911 on our dispatch that a 12 to 13 year old boy was knocking on doors in a neighborhood asking for food and water that he was severely emaciated that he had was emaciated skinny scrawny malnutrition not enough food not on water to sustain life so he He had duct tape on his extremities, on his hands, on his ankles, and those were covering rope burns that were used to tie him down. Take a second and think about what I just said. That's the condition of your son. Given that information, your son was taken to the hospital.

A warrant has been applied and granted by the Department of Child and Family Services to remove both from your wife's care. So no one right now is going to have access to these two children based on their physical conditions. physical condition. Do you understand that? I understand. Do you, would you condone that behavior? Would I condone that behavior? That's my job. My job is to find out your knowledge of the treatment of these these precious children?

No, again, I don't know the details or I don't know what's going on, But as you described that, that sounds... Horrible, horrible. Disgusting. No human beings should be treated like that. I, yeah, okay. That's my thoughts. But again, we might be different on that. Um... We're gonna like to stay here for a second, okay?

We're gonna go out and talk. Um, I'm not saying you're still not free to kill. you're still not free to code. Are you under arrest? Absolutely not. We just have lots of questions when we need to hear out. Lots. When investigators return to the interview room, Kevin wants to know what is going to happen to his wife, Ruby. What's going to happen with my wife? I love my wife. I don't know. I'm being honest with you. I don't know. Haven't had any of you. I don't have charges against my life. Possibly. I think given the circumstances, that's highly appropriate.

But again, I don't know your wife. I was hoping to gain some insects from you, but I don't necessarily know that that's something you wanted to... I trust her. A road you wanted to travel down with me, so... It's all without legal representation. Yeah, alright, I did it. But I love that wife and I trust my wife. snowline and so I mean this feels like you know run over by a steam truck what you're sharing

with me today yeah you can tell you're caught off guard I thought I was just coming here to pick up my kids and for what I don't know what or why but look I'm interested in facts but at the same time I'm I'm interested in all the facts but you understand our facts our facts that you have a child that is emaciated malnutrition and has marks i i didn't spend any time with her sergeant tobler did did you spend time with her i have not she went to she was requested to go to the hospital along with based on their condition. Folks, I don't know what to do. Like, I want to...

You realize that I have a picture of my found on my wall and I look at it every day, and I work, I work every day. So I can get back to my family and save my family. Everything you're sharing to me just sounds like a made-up story. Like I have no idea what you're talking about. Like, it just sounds like a horror movie. I don't know why these things that you describe happen, I don't know.

It's almost like, I want to say, I'm sorry, you must have somebody else because... It's like, am I in the right conference room here? That's what, it's, like, it's reality, you know, I have a hard time accepting this. We've had zero, like zero communications regarding the kids. Okay. I've had no reason to believe or think that there was anything going on. For all intents and purposes, I woke up this morning, looking at the picture of my family and making my commitment today, as I do every day, that I'm going to live an honest, a virtuous, and a responsible life today. And what you're sharing with me just feels like a sucker punch.

I am just heartbroken. what you all are sharing with me. And I just, I feel like, I feel responsible. Separating, leaving. It hurts. Okay. So Kevin has never been criminally charged in connection with this case. He has never been named as a suspect or a person of interest. And as Kevin left the police station, the officers told him that the children would be in the hospital for at least the next few days for observation and then he couldn't see them just yet. Now, his attitude, his demeanor, possible shock, not accepting what happened. That seems to be consistent with a purported phone call he had with Ruby. This is a phone call labeled September 1st, 23, only two days after Ruby's arrest. I am committed to our family.

I'm committed to you and our marriage, no matter what happened. Thank you. Thank you. I will be here to support you in any way that I can. Well, thank you for stepping up. Okay. Now, with all that, it seems that Kevin had changed his tune significantly by the time the police spoke with him

what is being reported only a couple of weeks later. This time, he went into a lot more detail about Jody's involvement in their lives, and he appeared to be quite critical of it. He says that Ruby started talking to Jody at the end of 2018, the beginning of 2019, after possibly being a therapist for one of the children. From there, the two started talking more and more. And then in 2019, Kevin was invited to a conference related to connections, and he didn't come away from it with a good feeling. And my impression at that time was this is absolute craziness. This is a bunch of man-hating women that are just looking for excuses to tear down their husbands. And I mean, that's what it felt like to me when I was in there.

Kevin says he agreed to join a men's group for three months, men on Zoom with Jody and other men dealing with various addictions. He says he didn't really feel like he belonged there. But others kept telling him that this type of therapy. but he could change his life. And that is when things took another weird turn, according to Kevin Frankie. When after a conference, a Connections Conference down in St. George, all the inner circle, all the people who were being trained as mental fitness coaches and stuff.

So that was Ruby and a bunch of other people and their spouses. we went out to like a dinner afterwards and that's where Jody really opened up to the women in a private conversation that she believed she was being tormented and haunted by shadow figures every night and that was spooky I gotta say like I'm a smart guy I'm an engineer I've designed and helped build some really big stuff I'm a college professor I can't explain some of the stuff that happened while we were there like crashes and in the basement while we were talking upstairs and and plates like in the kitchen just flying off by themselves like full speed smashing on the wall and falling to the floor by themselves. I can't explain it, but I saw it with my own eyes,

and I don't have any way to explain another thing. There's some crazy shit going on. Ruby was convinced that we could intervene and help Jody. Yeah, he is describing an almost supernatural element to Jody Hildebrand when they went to her house. Now, Ruby had decided at one point that Jody should come live with them for a while. Kevin protested. but was eventually convinced to let her move in.

It was weird, and I hated it. And I became the resident exorcist. That was the title I came up with myself. I thought it was kind of funny. But it was my job, like, go and give her lessons whenever she started to, like, go into a trance and go into possession, which started to be a lot. and Ruby would go up and check on her.

It started like every four hours at night, and then it moved every two hours a night, and it moved every hour at night. And then at some point, Ruby said, you know what, I'm just going to start sleeping in there. And if I need you, I'll come down and get you. I'm like, that's kind of weird, but okay. And that was that.

she's they started sleeping in the same bed just going back you said that she was having like these visions like what's what did we ever privy enough to understand or we told what those visions were a couple of them what were the two they should tell you about so like one of them she would was walking along the beach with jesus and jesus challenged her to go walk on the water and it was a whole lesson on walking on the water. Another, she would walk with Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother, and she learned about she had a pet lion in heaven named Charles. I don't know why I never forgot that name, but it was like this massive lion,

and she got to ride the lion and learned that, you know, all about who she was and this pet lion and all. there was another one where there was a lot of satanic ones where when she would go into possession mode she would talk in like different voices it was really creepy but the voices would say she's ours we're not letting go she is Satan's bride she's mine I'm going going to marry her. So yeah, according to Kevin, this weird stuff just kept on happening. And not long after that, in July of 2022, Kevin was asked to move out of the home and to have almost zero contact with anyone in the family from that point on. He explained how Jody isolated him, included kicking him out of the men's groups.

So it raises questions when he said in his earlier interview, who exactly was responsible for his separation from Ruby and the kids, and very different of how he initially portrayed Jody in his first interview. I can't describe to you what torture and hell it was to live an entire, it was more than a month really, in complete isolation, believing that I was like evil and manipulative and lying and selfish and that I had abandoned my family and that I was more interested in. my selfishness than my family. I wasn't doing anything different than the other man than the group. But they got her approval so they were praised and they were repenting and they were doing

everything right. I, on the other hand, was manipulative and selfish and enabling and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She became like the arbiter of truth, the arbiter of forgiveness, God's own. mouthpiece and it was just messed up well I'm glad that you're seeing clearly you know and I came out now I am sure there are those who could say this seems like a 180 right but to that I would caution we have heard a lot of allegations about manipulation and he too could be a victim of Jody Hildebrand. Maybe waking up to this, finally, getting out of this fog. So maybe it's not that surprising that he has this change in position. We know that in November that he had filed for

divorce from Ruby. The court paperwork is sealed, so we don't know the exact reason listed in the filing, but I don't think it would be too hard to guess what is going on. As far as we know, the minor age children are still in the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services in Utah, and he is actively fighting to regain custody. Okay, everybody, that is all we have for you right now here on this episode of Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us, as always. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber.

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