Serialously with Annie Elise - 57: 8 Passengers | Ruby Franke: “Cult” Mommy Vlogger Charged With 6 Counts of Felony Child Abuse

Episode Date: September 6, 2023

In today's episode, we delve into the DISTURBING new allegations and reports that have surfaced regarding Ruby Franke, known for her Family Vlogger YouTube channel "8Passengers," which followed the life of her Mormon family. “8Passengers” blew up and quickly gained a following of over two million subscribers. However, not long after becoming a household name, her online audience started questioning her parenting style and whether family vloggers, in general, are problematic. The YouTube channel was eventually shut down, and instead, Ruby was involved in a parenting advice podcast called Connexions with Jodi Hildebrandt, a close friend and therapist. Ruby and Jodi were arrested last week in Ivins, Utah. Police alleged in a statement that one of Ruby’s children escaped Jodi’s house and ran to a neighbor, asking for food and water. Authorities say officers then found another young child who also appeared “malnourished” inside Jodi’s home. Both children showed signs of being taped and tied up. This is an ongoing investigation. All of the case facts in this podcast episode are alleged and cited by court documents, and anything else is my opinion only.  Your True Crime BFF, Annie Elise Merch Drop Link: https://shop10tolife.com/  All Social Media Links  https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_ About Me: https://annieelise.com/ SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/ For Business Inquiries:  [e-mail]

Hey true crime besties, welcome back to an all-new episode of serialously it's me annie your true crime bestie we are here to talk true crime today and the reason that this episode is being released out of the normal schedule is because it's way easier for me to edit audio rather than audio and video so the video version of this will be available on YouTube in a couple of days once I finish up that editing. But I wanted to at least get this audio out to you guys because this case is extremely important. I want you guys to hear about it. I just didn't want any delays. And we have got a lot to talk about today. For years, reality TV has captivated audiences by showcasing the

everyday lives of celebrities, often with a heavy dose of drama. However, within the last 15 years, a new form of reality TV has emerged, vlogging. Now, unlike traditional reality shows, vlogs allow viewers to peek into the lives of ordinary people, including families. The concept of family vlogging gained popularity around 2008. However, in recent years, parents running these channels have faced significant criticism. Many argue that these family channels exploit their children's personal lives for views and monetary gain. Concerns have been raised about the lack of regulations regarding the content featuring the children, since they are unable to give informed consent due to their age.

One of these was the popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, featuring parents Ruby and Kevin Franke and their six children. Over time, the Fran Frankie family received criticism for sharing their children's private experiences on the internet, sometimes even against their children's wishes. Moreover, Ruby and Kevin's parenting style has increasingly worried viewers who deemed certain tactics as cruel, harsh, and sometimes even bordering on abusive. Now things took a more concerning turn when Ruby Franke became involved with Jodi Hildebrandt, the founder of a self-help therapy program called Connections. Ruby's behavior became more radical, cutting off her extended family and

adopting even more extreme ideas about parenting. While Ruby and Jodi gained a supportive following, they also received a lot of backlash, with some even likening their group to a cult. However, no one could have predicted the extent to which they were willing to implement their ideas on Ruby's own children. Now, tragically, a series of events on August 30th, 2023 revealed that their ideas had turned physically harmful and disturbingly almost deadly. This shocking incident not only sheds light on Ruby and Jodi's group, but also on how you really don't know what goes on behind the camera of loggers. Now, while this case is extreme, it has also sparked crucial conversations about the ethics of involving children in YouTube content. So in this episode,

we will delve into everything we currently know about this tragic situation, try to figure out how it got to this point, and hopefully prevent things like this from happening in the future. 41-year-old Ruby Franke was born on January 18, 1982, to parents Chad and Jennifer Griffith. She is the oldest among her four siblings, Beau, Bonnie, Ellie, and Julie, and they grew up as devout Mormons in Utah. After high school, Ruby attended Utah State University, where she was majoring in accounting when she met Kevin Frankie. 44-year-old Kevin was born on October 9, 1978, to parents Donald and Sherry Frankie in Utah as well. Like Ruby, Kevin's parents were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has five siblings, Donald Jr., Kathleen, Alan, Eileen, and Aaron, and a stepbrother named Chris.

Kevin and Ruby met at a hot dog stand on the Utah State campus, and after striking up a conversation, they realized that they actually lived in the same apartment complex. So only after dating for a very short time, at 18 and 22 years old, Kevin and Ruby got married on December 28, 2000. After three years of marriage, in 2003, Ruby and Kevin welcomed their first daughter, a daughter they named after Kevin's mother, Sherry, who is now 20 years old. In 2005, they welcomed their second child, now 18-year-old Chad, followed by 16-year-old Abby in 2007, 14-year-old Julie in 2009, and 12 year old Russell in 2011. Ruby and Kevin experienced two miscarriages as well before welcoming their youngest daughter, 10 year old

Eve in 2013. In the early years of their marriage, Kevin was still in college and received his Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Utah State. From there, the Frankie family moved to Washington for Kevin to receive his master's degree, and they returned to Utah for him to earn his PhD from Brigham Young University. After starting their family, Ruby dropped out of college to focus on raising their children, and Kevin worked as a geotechnical earthquake engineering consultant before eventually becoming a professor of civil engineering at his alma mater, Brigham Young University. Just two years after their last child Eve was born, Ruby and Kevin posted their first YouTube video in January 2015. At that time, family vlogging

channels were extremely popular on YouTube, and after only two years, the Frankie family channel, called Eight Passengers, skyrocketed to 1 million subscribers. The family's channel, run primarily by Ruby, focused on the everyday tasks of a stay-at-home mom, like cooking meals, getting kids ready for school, going on outings, vacations, and to church. The 8 Passengers channel became one of the growing number of LDS or Mormon family vlogs vlogs which gave lds stay-at-home moms a way to earn money while taking care of their children and running a household unlike some channels who kept their religion more private the frankies were always

outspoken about their religious beliefs in the early days of their channel they attracted a loyal following of subscribers who found their content to be relatable and to be entertaining. And at their peak, they had a following of 2.5 million subscribers. Sponsors flocked to the 8 Passengers channel as well, as you can imagine, utilizing the demographic of moms to advertise all sorts of household products. However, after the infamous ad apocalypse on YouTube, videos featuring content for children were demonetized, and sponsors like this became crucial to the financial success of family vlog channels. Now, Ruby has said herself that sponsorships during this time earned their channel millions of dollars. After seeing the success that could be garnered by family vlogging, all of Ruby's siblings started their own successful YouTube channels as well. Now,

most YouTubers experience some level of criticism. Let's be real, I know I have. And oftentimes, viewers with genuine concerns do get labeled as haters or trolls. Now, since the beginning of the 8 Passengers channel, they have had their fair share of haters due to the type of content that Ruby and Kevin were choosing to post about their children. Ruby, who was the primary filmer and editor of the videos, included not only the fun, happy, and memorable milestones that you would think, but she also posted embarrassing moments, punishments, medical information, and details about the children's schooling. Many people thought that the Frankies were invading their children's privacy, and commenters often voiced

their concerns that their whole lives being online could eventually negatively affect their mental health. There were even times when Ruby would use her children for the sponsorship portions of the videos, even going as far as making her children talk about using overnight diapers for wetting the bed after they were already in elementary school. However, A-Passengers wasn't the only channel receiving this type of criticism. An increasing number of YouTube channels started popping up, with creators discussing the ethics of posting children online for financial gain. Now, to be honest, no one would watch a channel of just Ruby and Kevin going about their day.

It was the children that made the videos exciting, funny, and interesting. Unlike child actors who go to work for a set amount of time each day and then go home and can theoretically be normal kids, children featured on family vlogs are often subjected to a camera being shoved in their face from the moment they wake up to the moment that they go to bed. Some are even put on camera as soon as they are born. Literally. Ruby and other channels have put intimate moments online for viewers as well, such as the girls' first time shaving their legs, bra shopping, going on dates, going to the doctor, and even being sick on the bathroom floor. Now, I don't know about you,

but the last thing that I'd want if I was sick and throwing up would be my mom to come barreling into the bathroom and start filming me to put on YouTube for millions of people to see. There were also discussions about the lack of child labor laws, since technically when a child is being filmed for content, they are working, and there were concerns about children not being financially compensated for what they were bringing to the channel. Even though much of what was featured on some of these channels were the children, the parents were the ones receiving the money. However, it wasn't just the amount of content that was concerning the eight passengers' viewers. Over time, especially as some of the children were getting older, Ruby and Kevin began discussing their parenting styles and forms of punishments more and more.

There are countless examples of punishments and consequences that Ruby and Kevin came up with for the children, but some of them became more disturbing than others. Ruby and Kevin tried to enforce what they called natural consequences for their children's actions, which in theory can be, yes, a beneficial practice. However, these consequences obviously need to be age-appropriate and within reason. For example, one of the most viral videos of eight passengers was when Ruby received a text message from her then six-year-old daughter Eve's kindergarten teacher. The teacher told Ruby that Eve had forgotten her

lunch and asked if she could bring her lunch to the school. And this was Ruby's response. 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, hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her a lunch. So even though Eve was literally only six years old, she was expected to remember to pack her own lunch every day. And if she for some reason forgot it, like, I don't know, six years old do, she was just out of luck and would have to go hungry. So some people, of course, believed that this wasn't even a natural consequence and was just plain cruel. An adult who forgets their lunch at home would have the option of

then going and buying a lunch, going home to get a lunch, or asking someone to bring them a lunch if they wanted. A child with no money and who has no other option but to ask their parent or their teacher for help, which after all is what parents are for, then that's how she responds. However, this wasn't the only instance that Ruby used food as some sort of form of punishment. There was a time when her son Russell forgot his lunch. Unless you find a friend who's willing to share some of their food with you, I don't think you're going to be able to eat. But if you're not responsible for your lunch and your lunch money, that's the natural consequence. And I'm really sorry you're learning this the hard way.

I will have a wonderful, yummy snack. Just hang in there today and just make up your mind. You're going to be really careful and make sure you grab your stuff when you go to school next time. And maybe you have a good friend who will share some other sandwich with you or something. Russell, I'm really sorry. He sounded like he was going to cry. And times when Ruby would tell the kids that if they were doing something wrong, they would lose the privilege of eating. I'm only going to say it one more time, and then you're going to lose the privilege to eat dinner. Many people pointed out to Ruby that eating isn't a privilege and that food should never be used as a form of punishment or leverage

because it can quickly lead to food insecurity and potential disorder behavior. Some of these consequences were pointed out when her oldest daughter Sherry started counting calories in high school when she was nowhere near overweight. Others pointed out that it just always seemed like the concept of food and cooking was an annoyance for Ruby, even though once the kids were old enough to operate a frying pan, they did the majority of the cooking anyway. Viewers who consistently tuned into the Eight Passengers channel started to notice a pattern, that Ruby and Kevin's oldest son Chad and the two youngest children, Russell and Eve, became more or less labeled the problem children of the

family. They seemed to always receive the harshest punishments, many of which went viral as well. In one of these videos, Ruby and Kevin sat down to talk with their viewers about a decision that they had made for Eve and Russell due to them being what they quote as selfish and not humble. They told the children that for Christmas, instead of receiving gifts, they would be receiving the gift of truth and love. Because knowing people these days, I don't know if people are going to, you know, how they're going to respond. So Kevin and I, we have two, well, 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 so we sat down with them and we we told these two what our expectations were again. 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. So they will, and we prepped them. We let them know that the 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 because we want them to really have a visceral experience that hits them. So up until now, I was really hoping that like keeping them home from school and wiping the floorboards would like really bring pain like like oh my gosh I really want to change this behavior that I've been exhibiting and it didn't it didn't they like it wasn't painful for them they're like oh yay we

get to stay home from school and clean floorboards this is kind of fun it's like ah so you know they've had these visceral experiences uh you know, and they haven't affected them. It's because they're so numb. And so the more numb your child is, the greater experience, the bigger the outcome, they need to wake them up. You're not going to push a boulder with just your hands. You need some real leverage. And the biggest leverage that a little child has is probably Santa Claus. And so I expressed to them that I love your soul

more than anything in this world. And I literally would do anything to invite you into repentance. And I know parents say that I'll do, I would do anything for my kid, but really what I think most parents are saying is I would give anything to you. If I would pay any price monetarily, I don't know how many parents are actually willing to put any boundary in place that would bring a turnaround that would really bring repentance. So that is our gift. At the time, both of these children were under 10 years old. And based on footage that Ruby posted of them, they just seemed like normal kids. Every kid is selfish every now and then, maybe doesn't want to share, but these were not bad kids. And many saw taking away Christmas as an extreme overreaction. Most of us can remember

special Christmases as a child, and there is no doubt that those kids will always remember the one that their parents took away from them for an intangible concept like humbleness and selfishness, which are both character traits developed by example. There were videos like this where Ruby was seen harshly scolding Russell for simply leaving his socks outside and being made to do push-ups. You're gonna have to go find your shorts. Oh, did you see the socks you threw at the side of the garden? And you are not going anywhere unless you pick up your junk. You've got crap strewn all around.

Now, so you see now I'm using bad language. That's how bad of a mood I'm in. You get your socks picked up and don't you leave your stuff out anymore. Right over there. Run and go pick them up. And then give me 10 pushups. Put them in your pocket

so you can take them down to the hamper and drop and give me 10. Put your hands straight out. They're in, they're not supposed to be out. Shape your hands forward. There you go. One, two. Down further.

Bring your butt down. It was just bizarre that not only Ruby did things like that, but then also filmed it, edited it, and posted it online, like she was proud of it or something. Even though just these few examples seem harsh enough, really the most extreme punishments were directed at Chad. In many videos, Chad's parents would embarrass him by reading his text messages out loud at the dinner table and making him discuss things that should have been kept private. However, it was during

2020 when Chad was sent away that people started becoming ever more concerned with Ruby and Kevin's parenting. During the time that he was away, Ruby never explained why Chad was gone, but it was discovered that they had sent him away to a controversial wilderness camp for troubled teenagers. He programmed where he's going to spend the next eight to ten weeks living in the Anasazi desert. Yeah, the desert mountains of Arizona. And he'll be out. So you're probably wondering, what did Chad do? Okay, we're not even going to entertain that stuff.

But it's an accumulation of things over years well before we ever started youtubing or well before we ever got into social media and it's reached the idea is with wilderness therapy is if you can survive with these peers in the wilderness with nothing more than the clothes on your back and a couple of field supplies, then there's nothing in this world that you can't tackle. Chad was gone for a few months, and when he returned, there was a video where he discussed the reason for being sent away. So at first, it seems like Chad wasn't 100% sure the reason why he was sent to the wilderness camp, but he thought that it was for the Disney

prank that he played on Russell. Many people have said that siblings picking on each other, playing pranks, sometimes even mean pranks, is just a part of growing up. Should Chad have been grounded? Maybe. Sure. Should he have lost some privileges? Perhaps. But no one online believed that his prank constituted sending him away for months to a wilderness camp where children have actually died before. These types of camps have been heavily scrutinized in recent years after people came out with horror stories of mistreatment, abuse, and even torture. But even after Chad returned home, he was still forced to sleep on a beanbag in the middle of the living room. And he had his bed and his bedroom completely taken away for seven months. My bedroom was taken away for seven months and then you give it back like a couple weeks ago. I don't think our viewers know that. You've been sleeping on a beanbag. I've been sleeping on a

beanbag since October. And they gave my room back like two weeks ago. Oh, I'll give you the reason why I lost my bedroom. I think so. At least there's a reason. At least this is the reason that's been in my head. It's pretty funny, but now that I look back, it's pretty depressing. No, we never told our viewers.

That I woke Russell up at two in the morning and told him that we're going to Disneyland and he has to pack. And he got up and made his bed all neatly and then packed all his clothes in the suitcase and then he walked out the door and i'm like russell he's like why and he's all happy has his sunglasses on do you think it's funny because and then i walk out if you think it's funny then you that was seven months ago maybe you need longer without a bedroom it it was not funny. This, along with Ruby's philosophy on children having privacy, disturbed viewers who believed that taking away the bedroom door

and then the entire room was going way too far for a teenager. No, in this home, you don't get personal space because this is my space because I'm the parent. If you want your own personal space, you'll need to get your own space. This is mine. And as long as you're living in my home, it is my job to know everything about you. You don't get to sneak. You don't get to hide. You don't get to have secrets. Not in my house. Do you see how loving that is? Now, if you're in distortion, you're reeling right now. If you're in distortion, you're ready to pull your hair out right now. You're ready to scream. There was also the video where Ruby and

Kevin explained that since football seemed to be the only place where Chad could be humble and responsible, their words, not mine, they decided to take him off the team so that he would be humble and responsible at home. Some viewers became even more concerned when Ruby decided to homeschool the children and believed it was because of the school playing secular music. Over the years, there were countless more examples of this type of treatment. There were clips of Ruby stating that even if her kids were sick at school, she would not come and pick them up until they threw up at least twice, and times when she would blatantly avoid getting her children medical

treatment altogether when they were displaying signs of something serious going on. All of these examples and more caused there to be several reports by concerned viewers to DCFS and even a petition with nearly 18,000 signatures calling for an investigation into Kevin and Ruby for the alleged harm toward their children. However, at the time, all the reports were claimed to have been unfounded. After all of the revelations came out about Chad in 2020, it seemed like there was an even bigger spotlight on the Frankies and on their parenting, and their videos started becoming more and more sporadic. They went from posting every day to every other day, and then just stopped being on a regular schedule altogether. After this, Ruby attempted to start a clothing company called Ruby Do, but it ended up being largely unsuccessful. By 2022, there were no new videos being posted to the 8 Passengers channel, but Ruby wasn't gone from the internet or YouTube completely. After her unsuccessful

clothing line, Ruby began attending life coach and therapy sessions with a company called Connections, and then she eventually started making appearances on the business's YouTube channel called Connections Classroom with the founder Jody Hildebrandt. Jody was briefly mentioned in the video where Chad discussed his wilderness camp punishment and the loss of his bed privileges, and he referred to her as his therapist. I had a phone call yesterday with my therapist, and she taught me about truth and distortion. Mom probably talks about Jodi all the time. I've mentioned Jodi a few times. She has a podcast called Connections with an ex. So why was Ruby developing a relationship with a woman who previously had her son as a client? Well, it turns out that Jodi wasn't only Chad's therapist at one

point, but that Ruby and Kevin sought help from her as well when they were having problems in their marriage. 54-year-old Jodi Hildebrandt is a quote-unquote therapist who, like the Frankie family, is from Utah and is a member of the LDS Church. She was married for a short time in the 90s and had two children before she divorced, and she has been single ever since. In 2009, Jodi was placed on a list of recommended therapists for people in the LDS Church to seek help for various issues like marriage counseling and addiction counseling. Specifically, the LDS church views masturbation and viewing pornography, no matter how often, as an addiction that needs repentance and therapy. However, several clients who received services from Jodi claimed that she would relay their personal business discussed during therapy

with church officials. One of these allegations was actually proven, and her license ended up being put on probation for 18 months. This is kind of a long post, but I think it's important to get an idea of the types of things not just this person, but several other people, including some of Ruby's family members, have claimed about Jodi. A past client of Jodi's posted his experience and this is what it said. Hello Facebook. Years ago I was recently married with two small babies attending BYU which is Brigham Young University founded by the LDS Church. I had just changed the statute of limitations in Idaho for allowing victims to come forward, where I spoke with the governor at a press conference as he signed the new laws. Then I moved to Utah. I moved to the married

housing and joined a married ward at Y Mount Terrace, the same apartments I was born in. I was a pre-med student and an international relations student in the honors program, finishing up my junior year. Then catastrophe struck. Within months, I was single, not allowed to see my children, kicked out of school, not allowed to go to the temple anymore, so deemed unworthy and treated like a danger. At one point, I was arrested and in jail for 14 days with four felony charges against me. My court fees were above $200,000, almost all in the civil divorce court. I was ordered to take a lie detector test and an AFI co-sexual test, and I had a 500 page rap sheet at the BYU Honor Code office. Yeah, pretty much I was treated like a perpetrator of

children, of women, and of men, but the only problem was there were no victims. There was no crime or intention for one. I had crossed paths with the wrong people. Like nine months before it began, my then wife and I had just finished a settlement with Boy Scouts of America, so we had money and we were recommended to take marriage counseling. That court case, while going to school and taking care of a baby, was stressful on our marriage. So my bishop told me to go to Jodi Hildebrandt. My then-wife and I did. That was the single most destructive decision I had made in my life. I had no idea at the time what this charismatic lady was actually capable of. And second, I didn't understand what some high-up

church leaders who had been watching me closely as a whistleblower were capable of. And second, I didn't understand what some high-up church leaders who had been watching me closely as a whistleblower were capable of to hide the truth a whistleblower could bring out of Utah with laws that would have helped victims to come forward. I'm not going to go into my whole story here, but Jodi Hildebrandt was deeply embedded in the Mormon church with some leadership and was the main cause of the divorce with my ex-wife. She went illegally around spreading false information to my bishop, to the BYU honor code office, and my civil divorce proceedings about me to many more. She had secret meetings with Haya Mormon leaders who suppressed the child in BSA in southeast Idaho. This charismatic lady basically convinced many people

that I was super dangerous in response to me refusing the $2,000 a month counseling and asking questions in therapy group sessions that increasingly broke the cult. She totally violated the doctor-patient privacy rules and simultaneously started having a completely inappropriate relationship with my ex-wife, and she took huge amounts of money from us. patient privacy rules and simultaneously started having a completely inappropriate relationship with my ex-wife, and she took huge amounts of money from us. DOPL, the Division of Professional Licensing, charged her for having a dual relationship with my ex-wife, but it was too late. The damage was done. When my attorney subpoenaed her, she had no records as a therapist that I was dangerous,

so all the lies that she made up about me as her patient didn't only break privacy, but were unprofessional. I never got vindication for the damage and abuse that this woman did to my life. I just had to learn how to move on. This woman is an absolute... She is a complete psychopath, and her body count of people's lives that she has destroyed dwarfs any of the other abuses I have known. I pray to God that the good people of this land will be capable of holding her accountable. All Jodi Hildebrandt cares about is money and power. And the irony that her, the cult master of teaching boundaries no matter what, would cross those boundaries to teach her boundaries. That she would do this to children is just unconscionable. Now this isn't the only

past client with similar allegations about Jodi breaching confidentiality, and even Ruby's own brother made a review about her potentially discussing his sessions as well. So obviously, Jodi has had a large presence in the Frankie family and even extended family's lives too. Ruby's oldest daughter, Sherry, had been seen in connection sessions in the past as well, and there have been several other mental health professionals denouncing a therapist or any other health care worker for that matter forming a personal relationship with someone that they previously had a therapeutic relationship with. So after the 8 Passengers YouTube channel video started fizzling out, Ruby became a life coach and listed as a certified mental fitness trainer for Jodi's Connections company. It seemed like Ruby and Jodi were

very like-minded individuals because when she began appearing in videos on the channel, a lot of the messages were very reminiscent of how she already was in the past, just much more extreme. The website JodiHildebrandt.com thoroughly explains what connections is and what it strives to do for its clients. It says that the core teachings of connections is that for a person to achieve a true connection with another human being, they must not be in distortion. referring to people being addicted to something like work, shopping, games, sleep, social media, driving, receiving compliments, exercise, eating, drugs, alcohol, sex, porn, hobbies, or even their spouse. Really anything. Distortion can also be living in shame and denial, knowing that you are not enough, being codependent in your relationships, living in lust, being overly sexually attracted to your spouse, and controlling and manipulating others. Literally, you could find the definition to fit

almost any single situation, which my guess and my suspicion is that was her goal, because then you could tap into a client who is experiencing anything. Jodi explains that everyone is in distortion to some degree but that she can help you to overcome distortion and live in truth. Jodi teaches that there are three core principles which must be developed in order to truly connect with anyone and to avoid distortion. She says that boundaries need to be set to distance yourself from people in distortion so you are not drawn in with them. The three core principles of connections are impeccable honesty, rigorous personal responsibility, and humility. She encourages clients to refer family members to join the program so that they can also experience true connection. Each week, clients in connection are required by class members to call other students when they feel they are in

distortion. Each week in class, students are asked to publicly account for the number of phone calls that they made that week. Jodi teaches that the truth and the three principles are the only way to true happiness in relationships. Basically, instead of learning skills to solve problems with others, clients are instead required to reach out to the untrained and unlicensed individuals in their class on several weekly phone calls. Members of the group develop a bond by sharing vulnerable experiences with each other and validating each other's experiences. As they continue these patterns, they distance themselves from their families. Family and friends are confused about this new term, distortion, and a whole slew of other new terminology taught by Jodi as the only and absolute way to connect.

They are then encouraged to attend classes so they too can learn how to not be in distortion. If their friends or family ask questions or raise concerns about the teachings, the student often immediately makes a phone call to their connections support group to avoid being drawn in to that distortion themselves. If the family and friends don't learn these new skills for connection,

they will be cut off in the relationship for being in distortion. In addition to the Connections 101 classes, members attend group or weekly meetings with Jodi and other students to discuss in a more intimate setting how they were in distortion the previous week. The revenue from these group and connections classes that Jodi has made to discuss in a more intimate setting how they were in distortion the previous week. The revenue from these group and connections classes that Jodi has made was conservatively estimated to exceed $30,000 a month. So you can see why many people view connections as a cult, which, hearing all of that, my mind immediately goes to Lori Ballow and Chad Daybell and the dark spirits

it also goes to Scientology and I forget what they call those people like not an outcast I forget the word tell me in the comments but you know what I'm talking about like a bad being or whatever it is where it's like that's how they break the connection that's how they sever the ties from your friends and family who are the ones living in reality. Sorry, I'm getting a little heated, but I hate cults. They fascinate me, but I hate them and I hate the people involved in this case. Now, the other concerning component is that Jodi heavily weaves in her teachings and her truths with the teachings of the LDS church, cough, cough, Lori Vallow, like how Christians capitalize pronouns referring to God. In Connections truth is capitalized, as if to signify that her truth is the same or just as

important as God himself. Many people who have covered the topic of eight passengers, Jodi, connections, and other LDS family vlogs have noticed a pattern where it seems like Jodi comes in contact with a couple who is struggling and the man in the relationship is the one who ends up getting shut out and ostracized from their family. Some of these people believe this could be what happened with Ruby's husband Kevin because although the exact timeline is a little unclear it seems that the time Ruby started to become more heavily involved with connections was also the time that she and Kevin separated. He was allegedly kicked out, but

certainly not living in the family home located in Springville, Utah any longer. After this, there have been jokes that once Kevin moved out, Jodi moved in, just basically insinuating that once Kevin was out of the picture Jodi and Ruby started spending a lot more time together now I don't think there is any way of knowing but I did want to at least mention that some people online have speculated about there being some sort of special friend dynamic between Ruby and Jodi this based on their physical affection. But they could just be reading into platonic physical touch, I'm not sure, but I will say this though, their relationship is very bizarre, especially when we get more into the current situation. So around the time that Ruby and

Kevin's marriage started falling apart, Sherry had moved out to live in student housing at Brigham Young University. Not long after that, Chad moved out as well, and it's speculated that he's either on a mission trip or may have started college. Regardless, along the way through Ruby's connections journey, she eventually cut off all contact with her family due to them being in distortion and questioning some of Jodi's teachings. With Sherry being in college, exposed to different types of people and different ways of thinking, it became obvious to her that she would feel very spiritually drained and just not great after visiting with her family.

I honestly, I gave no indication that I disagreed with what was going on because I wanted to still be like included in things. Smart girl. And so again, for those like whole seven months, I was doubting whenever I'd go home, you know, it was like, Oh, we use this language. We talk about things like this. And then I noticed like when I would leave my family,

like I would just feel like spiritually drained. Like I just wouldn't feel great. Yeah. like I would just feel like spiritually drained. Like I just wouldn't feel great. I would like overhear conversations and just like find myself internally, like this isn't right, like this isn't okay. And so it got to the point where I was like, I can't keep pretending like everything's fine. Yeah, so that's hard.

And ultimately she decided to cut off contact with her parents probably due to a combination of bs brought on by connections and years of mistreatment sherry being the oldest she was always kind of thrust into a third parent role for the younger children so i think once she got to experience being out from underneath her parents' thumb, she realized how toxic they really were. Even after Kevin left Ruby's home, Sherry has not picked back up contact with him. So the connection's truths in regards to relationship also carried over into parenthood as well. And Ruby has even blatantly stated that she loves these truths more than her own children and she doesn't love her children unconditionally which let's just say i think most of us could already tell

i love principles more than my child yikes that's a really and and that is the truth that is the truth it's just so disturbing to hear someone literally say those words and talk about these made-up truths as if they are God. Ruby and Jodi would discuss all sorts of topics, but I think the ones pertaining to children and parenting disturbed people the most. If an adult wants to do culty stuff, believe whatever they want, do a bunch of nonsense, that is fine. But it's when children have ideas and toxic behavior forced on them that it becomes a bigger issue. They don't have a choice. They aren't able to just leave. And they're often the ones who get negatively affected by groups like this the most. So that kind of brings us to where we are right now, with all of Ruby's disturbing behavior magnified times 100 when Jodi came into the picture. While there have been channels

covering 8 Passengers, Connections, Jodi, and other problematic family channels for years, I don't think that anyone could have predicted that all of it would culminate into something so horrible. People have called out instances of verbal and emotional harm toward Ruby's children, and even physical harm in regards to the food withholding and the punishments. But what ended up taking place was so far beyond that, that it's shocking that it was able to go on for so long. Now I'm sure if you're watching this video you are already somewhat familiar with this situation and know that on August 30th Ruby and

Jodi were arrested. Now to make sure I give as accurate of information as possible I am going to quote some things directly from the affidavits. So Jodi owns an extremely nice home in Ivins, which is a city in Washington County, Utah. I actually found out that her home is worth over more than three million dollars, which on a single income is really impressive, and it just shows how lucrative her connections classes truly are. You can see how beautiful the landscape is in the photos and how far apart the houses are in this neighborhood. So on August 30th at 10 50 a.m 12 year old Russell Frankie climbed out of a window of Jodi's home and ran all the way to a neighbor's residence. Now the reason I am including the names of the children involved is because they are already known to the public,

and I think in this circumstance, the specific children involved do make a difference given the context. So when he got to the neighbor's house, he knocked on the door and asked for food and water. The court arresting documents read, and I quote, the neighbor observed duct tape on the child's ankles and wrists and contacted law enforcement. Upon arrival, law enforcement observed the wounds and the malnourishment of the child to be severe, and he was then transported to the St. George Regional Hospital. He was placed on a medical hold due to his deep lacerations from being tied up with rope and from his malnourishment. Ruby Franke was seen on a YouTube video filmed in Jodi Hildebrandt's downstairs, which was posted

just a couple of days ago. This observation adds to Ms. Franke being present in the home and having knowledge of the abuse, the malnourishment, and the neglect of the child. Ms. Frankie requested a lawyer and did not speak with us. With this information and the belief that Ms. Frankie had knowledge of malnourishment, abuse, and neglect, this charge will be enhanced to a second degree felony. I ask that Ms. Frankie not be allowed bail due to the severity of the injuries of her two kids located in the home and the fact that DCFS has taken four of Ms. Frankie's children into their custody, and I have yet to speak with them. Eve Frankie was found at

Jody Hildebrand's residence after Russell made contact with the police, the child was found to be malnourished and initially refused medical treatment. After approximately four hours, she agreed. She was determined to be malnourished by a medical professional upon arriving at the St. George Regional Hospital. In Jodi Hildebrandt's bathroom, I located gauze, which have been used. This observation adds to Ms. Hildebrandt's knowledge of the abuse in the home. Ruby Frankie was seen on a YouTube video filmed in Jodi Hildebrandt's downstairs, which again was posted two days ago. This observation adds to Ms. Frankie, the mother of Eve, being present in the home and having knowledge of the abuse, the malnourishment, and the neglect. With this information and the belief that Ms. Frankie and Ms. Hildebrandt had knowledge of malnourishment, abuse, and neglect,

this charge will be enhanced to a second-degree felony. I ask that Ms. Frankie and Ms. Hildebrandt not be allowed bail due to the severity of the injuries. Alright, I know that was a lot that I quoted, but I wanted to make sure there was nothing that got misconstrued there. So based on this narrative alone, the whole timeline of the situation was a little confusing. So by using the documents, police audio scanner, and witness statements, a probable outline has been determined, even though there may still be more details to come later. After the police found Russell and Eve, there were two other children, Julie and Abby, who were not present. The police

department then contacted the Springville Police Department, where the Frankie house is located, and they provided them with a warrant to go search the house for the other children. Seven police cars showed up outside the Springville home with guns drawn and they ended up having to put a hole through the door to get inside. Ultimately, the two other children were not located inside the home and were determined to be with a family friend in a city called American Fork, around 30 minutes away. Police went to locate the girls and found that they were both in good health and physical condition and they were taken into the custody of DCFS. The 911 call has been released

by KSL News Station. 911, the address of your emergency. Okay, and the phone number you're calling from? Tell me exactly what's happened. I just had a 12-year-old boy show up here at my front door asking for help. And he said he had just came from a neighbor's house, and we know there's been problems at this neighbor's house. He's emaciated. He's got tape around his legs. He's hungry, and he's thirsty.

Okay. Is your door locked? No, I'm sitting outside with him on the front patio. He asked us to call the police. So he's very afraid. What's your last name? . last night. He's 12 years old. Yes.

Okay, and can you ask him his date of birth? Can you tell me your birthday? Okay. And are the neighbors out of their home, or is anybody looking for them that you can see? No. We are homes far enough away. I'm not sure. How did you get out of the house?

He says he just left through the porch at the neighbor's house. Her name is Jody Hildebrand, and she lives two doors up the street. Yeah, I didn't tie into the houses are far apart. So he walked just under the block to get to our house. He rang my doorbell and asked me to call the police. Does he seem to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol? I don't think so, but he's very thirsty. Does he need an ambulance? I don't think he needs an ambulance, so I'll let the cops decide that, but his ankles are taped up, and he won't tell us why. Okay. But he has duct tape around each ankle.

Yeah, there's sores around them. I think there's a good chance he's been... Oh, and he has been around his ankles. I mean, his wrists as well. Okay, this boy has been... This kid has obviously been... I think he's been detained. He's obviously covered in wounds. Okay. Let's get the paramedics headed over that way, okay? Oh, that's a good idea, too.

Let's see. Has he told you where his mom or dad are? I haven't asked him, Dad. Yeah. Do you know where your mom is? Yeah, I'm sure that doesn't matter, son. Do you know where your mom and dad are? Well, actually, I don't know where my mom is, but I do know where my dad is.

He's not anywhere here. No, no, no. Nowhere. Okay. No, he doesn't seem to. He says he knows where his mom is. He doesn't know where his dad is. That's correct.

I think he knows where my dad is. Is his mom home? He just says he doesn't live where his dad is. That's correct. Is his mom home? He just says he doesn't live around here. Okay. Is his mom in this area? Is your mom around here? Have you seen her lately? He doesn't know where she is right now. Does he know his mom's name? What's your mom's name? Ruby Frankie. Ruby Frankie is his mom's name. Okay. How do you spell the last name?

F-R-A-N-K-E. F-R-A-N-K-E. Okay. And does she live in the area? No, I'm not sure where she lives. He's trying to help us, but he's... That's okay. We don't want to stress him out too much. The officers will go over over all these questions with them anyway i just want to stay on the phone with you until we get some help there okay yeah yeah what's your name Okay. Um, can you ask him if any other children were in the home he came from? Okay. Um, was there any other kids up at Jody's house? Anybody else? No.

Yeah, this is the 30th of the 29th of August. It'll be the 30th of August. 10 and 14, and they're still at this house. Are they tied up as well? What's the deal with... Are they being held? What's the deal with them? Are they being held? Do they have wounds on them as well?

Nothing bad is going on with them. Okay. It's just me. Okay. So they're able to walk around the house and everything? Everything's fine. Okay. They're able to walk around the house and everything. Well, okay. He says everything's fine with him.

Green salt. Okay. He says what's happened to him is his fault. That's not a problem problems. It's hard to hear. They're coming to you as quick as they can, okay? Okay, yeah. I just want to make sure. He's fine.

I've got him sitting here. My wife, we got him water and something to give him something to eat because he's really he's hungry and picked a young bent he said he's hearing his stalking feet uh so he he escaped oh i'm glad that he was able to make it to you on their way he could be safe they should just be pulling up now let me know when they're with you, okay? Will do. I hear a car, but they're not coming on the driveway. He did good. Enjoy that banana, okay?

Yeah, he just took a few seconds ago, so he might be waiting for his partner. I'm not sure. Is Jody up there right now? Yes. Okay. Jody Hildebrand is up there right now. Okay. Jody Hildebrand is up there right now. Okay. So she may come looking for him here soon, but she's not going to, obviously. We need the cops here as soon as possible. I'm just asking where he is now. Yeah, she's a bad lady. We didn't realize how bad. Okay, let's see.

I'm just asking where he is. Well, it sounds like he's making a phone call real quick to his sergeant. He is going to head up. Okay. All right. Well, if we have to take him inside the house, we will. We're just sitting outside right now because we have chairs out here, and it was convenient. That's okay. If anything, he's sitting out down your driveway and keeping an eye on the house. So if that's where you feel safe, that's where the child

feels safe, then let's just stay where you're at. Yeah. Yeah. I think we're doing this. Yes. Does he have anything with him? No, he's wearing a long-sleeved shirt and shorts, and it's way too big for him. Can you tell me what color the shirt and shorts are? Okay, the ambulance is here. Okay. So. Are they with you?

No, they're just not getting out of the truck. Okay. Okay. I'll go ahead and I'll let you go then. You did a great job. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Mike.

Bye. My heart broke hearing that 911 call, especially when it seemed like the neighbor was getting choked up and said he won't tell us why. This poor 12-year-old little boy is asking for help but won't tell them why his legs are duct taped. It just further proves how scared he must have been. One neighbor said that he believes Russell probably chose that neighbor to help them because they had been kind and given them cookies at Christmas and Russell probably believed they were safe enough for them to go for help to see if they could help them which would make so much sense when you look at

that through the lens of a child. Now I'm going to go ahead and play some of the police scanner audio because it gives some insight into how truly awful the situation was and what was being relayed via dispatch. I work. He said a 12 year old male showed up with tape around his legs. Thursday asking for help that he was afraid asking for police. Copy 17. Seven out of 17 as well. One on one to back. 10-4.

10-4, you can show me 17. 10-4, you gave the name of Frankie's unknown date of birth, or you did give us a date of birth, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to film in. I'll keep looking into that. The RP said he left through the porch of the neighbor's house. Stand for break. 12-X-11 and 17-10-14, the male does have duct tape around each ankle. He's not telling the RP why. And said that there's sores around his wrists and ankles he's

becoming or correction the RP is becoming emotional regarding the child's health I'm gonna go ahead and have medical stage on this one copy one X 43.3 12 X 11, 12 X 14, or 17, sorry. The ERP said that he left from a neighbor's Jody Hildebrand in Ivins, 54-year-old female. Not sure if they're related. When asking the ERP's parents, it's always said his mom is Ruby Frankie, unknown where she lives. Copy. 12X 11, 12X 17. I do have a Ruby Frankie spelling with an E on the end of Frankie. I

just thought of Springville. All the involvement was a traffic offense a couple of days ago. There has been some speculation in regards to what actually went down when Jody and Ruby were arrested. It's not 100% confirmed, but based on everything gathered so far and from the scanner audio, it seems like Ruby left Russell and Eve at Jody's house for some reason, and they have obviously been staying there for a while based on what neighbors have said. They were clearly taped and tied up, and then Russell somehow miraculously escaped from a window and ran to the neighbors. It's speculated that Jodi arrived home and found that the children weren't there, so she went driving to go look for them. While driving away from the home, she pulled up

alongside a police officer who began speaking to her and informed her that the children were taken to the hospital. So Jodi then quickly called Ruby to let her know what was going on, and Ruby tried to race to the hospital to speak with the children, obviously not out of concern for their well-being, but to make sure that they didn't talk more than likely. However, the police had already notified the hospital not to allow Ruby to see the children, and when she arrived, she was told that the police would speak to her in a minute, and so when that happened, she took off and booked it. On her way back to the Springville house, she may have called Kevin to let him know that something was going on, because when Ruby got

there, Kevin was there as well. Neighbors have stated that they witnessed Ruby and Kevin be placed in handcuffs, which caused people to speculate that they were both under arrest. But at that point, it's believed that Kevin was just being detained. After speaking with police separately, Kevin was released, and Ruby and Jodi were arrested and charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse. In Utah, aggravated child abuse is a second-degree felony, and it means that the defendant intentionally or knowingly inflicted upon a child serious physical injury or having the care of custody of such child caused or permitted another to inflict serious physical injury upon said child. Such serious physical injury includes physical torture and any conduct that results in starvation or failure to thrive or malnutrition that jeopardizes the child's life. Physical

injury includes conduct towards a child that results in severe emotional harm, severe developmental delay, or intellectual disability, or severe impairment of the child's ability to function, and any combination of two or more physical injuries inflicted by the same person either at the same time or on different occasions. So both Jodi and Ruby were denied bail because of all of this. So right now, all of the minor children are in the custody of DCFS. Now, what really caused people to catch on to what was happening was Sherry Franke herself making several Instagram posts, basically saying that she's glad her mother has finally been arrested. The first post was a photo of a law enforcement officer with a gun. You can see multiple cars in the background of this picture, and the caption

was a simple, finally. In the second post, she said, today has been a big day. 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. She also asked her followers to share any clips they had of Ruby to a public Google Doc as a way to collect evidence. With Sherry saying that and the way that Jodi's neighbor who called 911 mentioned on the call that there had been problems at the house brings me straight to my next point. It seems as if the extent of the mistreatment and blatant neighbor who called 911 mentioned on the call that there had been problems at the house brings me straight to my next point. It seems as if the extent of the mistreatment and blatant disregard for the kids' safety, well-being, and development maybe wasn't fully known, but for some of the

issues within the Frankie family and Jodi's ties to them, that maybe those were known, and it seems as if Utah DCFS already had Ruby and the Frankie family on their radar. Allegedly, within the past four years, the police have already been called over to the Frankie home at least 15 times, and at least five of those 15, the police were assisting DCFS. In April of 2022, an officer spoke with a DCFS caseworker who advised them that a call had come in about two kids running out in the road unsupervised. The caseworker requested the officer drive by. The officer drove by but did not see any children. Now here's where things get worse. In September of 2022, officers visited the home on a welfare check after Sherry told them that

her sisters and brother had been left home alone while Ruby was in St. George with Jodi. According to the report made, the kids had been alone for about five days. When officers visited for a welfare check, they saw the kids through the window, but they would not answer the door. Multiple neighbors came outside during that welfare visit and corroborated Sherry's claims that the kids were being left home alone for long periods of time. One neighbor even offered video proof of the kids being home alone. One of the officers made a report, and within the report, he wrote, and I quote, Everyone who came to the scene was very concerned about the children and them being left home alone. They expressed great concern about the two youngest children.

Obviously, we know those younger two children are Russell and Eve, who were the same children at Jodi's home where they were then rescued last week. The report went on to say that central intake was contacted and a report started. In the weeks following that September incident, the police assisted DCFS with house visits four more times. And I'm sorry, but this is where I get even more upset. This family was on their radar. Why weren't the kids taken in then? Why were all eyes taken off this family to the point where two of the youngest children were found emaciated, one with duct tape on his limbs and lacerations from ropes, almost a year later. These kids 100% fell through the cracks within the system, and there is no doubt that they are suffering greatly because of it. Ruby's three

sisters also came out with a group statement which said, 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 have done everything we could to try and make sure that the kids were safe. We wouldn't feel right about moving forward with regular content without addressing the most recent events. Once we do, we will not be commenting on it further. Ruby was arrested, which needed to happen. Jodi was arrested, which needed to happen. The kids are now safe, which is the number one priority. Ruby's sister Bonnie posted a video which ended up getting a lot of heat and was quickly deleted just hours after being posted. If you have the internet, you have seen news articles on my sister, Ruby, from the eight passengers. And my sisters and I, we are on the very same page.

We put out a message. You can read that on Instagram. And for the last three years we have truly clung on to each other and offering support to one another and I don't think any of us could have ever seen this coming. We all did as much as we could legally and you don't know what you don't know. I do feel a little bit numb at this point. I, the only thing that we ultimately care about is that our nieces and nephews are safe and they are. And that is the only thing that matters to any of us. It is going to feel weird for me to move forward. Um, and I think, I mean, do I just move forward? It's taking a day at a time. Who knows what anything, anything has in store, but we just know right now that those kids are safe.

I don't have any thoughts even for myself. I don't know what I would even tell myself, let alone tell all of you. I think times like these is where it really tests your belief in God. And I know that timing is everything. And I know that they will be taken care of. I know the kids will be okay. And I know our family will be okay. And things like this happen.

And somehow we each find a way to move forward. No matter what situation you're finding yourself in, the sun rises every day. The sun sets every day. And each day you move forward. That's all you can do. Many people criticized her statement, primarily because she started off by talking about her scheduled content and believed it came off like she was more annoyed that her regular scheduled programming was now thrown off and like this whole thing is just a big inconvenience coming in between their picture-perfect YouTube persona. People also heavily criticized the sisters for not doing more in regards to the children, but many people have forgotten that Ruby straight up cut off her whole family. Her sisters probably did know some of the things that Ruby was doing and that they

were wrong, but she cut them off any time they spoke up against her and the truth, and there really is no telling how long it's been since they've seen the children. I believe they have tried to report and do what they can from the outside, but if DCFS determines that their reports are unfounded, there wasn't much that they could do short of kidnapping Ruby's children, which would not have really been helpful either in the long run. There are other people who have said that the sisters should have used their large platform to speak out against their sister. And honestly, I just don't think any of us can know what they did or didn't do or how speaking out could have potentially made the situation for the children worse. I think in regards to the sisters, until

there is more information, we should just try to give them the benefit of the doubt right now and focus the outrage toward the people solely responsible for what happened. Ruby, Jodi, and possibly even Kevin. That's the other main question that has come out in all of this. Where the hell was Kevin? If everything was so bad with Ruby that not even he could take a living with her, why would he leave his children with her? Some have speculated that Ruby got custody of the children, but they weren't officially divorced, so it just seems really sketchy that he hasn't seen his kids in a long enough time for them to become emaciated. Emaciation doesn't just happen overnight. It takes an extended period of

starvation to get to that point. And ultimately, Kevin will have to answer to that and explain why he wasn't present or why he wasn't able to be present. We've heard how Jodi has manipulated families and wives before into ostracizing their husbands, and maybe that happened to Kevin. But he is still not innocent in all of this. There are years of YouTube clips of him actively participating in the exploiting, embarrassing, emotionally harming, and psychotic punishments of their children. This wasn't all just Ruby, and he needs to be held accountable for those things as well, even if the veil has lifted for him after being away from Ruby for so long and realizing how bad everything

was. His attorney made a statement which said, Kevin's current focus is simply to keep his children together under his fatherly care. And to that, many people have asked, uh, hello, where was that fatherly care before? Why weren't you doing that this entire time? Why weren't you demanding custody or at least partial custody of your kids? Why was it able to get this bad? But like I said, we don't currently have all of the facts on that. So I guess we're just going to have to see if he was complicit in all of this or why he wasn't able to be with his children.

Kevin's attorney did two interviews recently. The first was with Good Morning America. He's a good person. He's very gentle. He's a very gentle guy and no one's ever made any allegations that he's ever physically those kids or anyone else. His lawyer telling ABC News that Kevin's main objective is the safety of his kids. He just wants to do what's best for his kids, get them back, get them under his tutelage and his fathership and protect them. He also did an interview with News Nation. Kevin Franke's lawyer, Randy Kester, joins us now. Counselor, thank you for taking the opportunity. Thank you, Chris. First, what is your client's take on the behavior of the mother? Well, I'm sort of under certain constraints not to speak ill of anyone involved in this case.

We've had hearings with the juvenile court, and we all agreed that we wouldn't speak ill of one another or respond to allegations that have been leveled just in an effort to try to keep the kids out of social media and sort of tamp this thing down to do what we can to get these kids back to a good life. They've got their whole lives ahead of us. I'm with you. All due deference to the kids. The horse is out of the barn, all right? Your client let the mother put the kids' lives and all the discipline all over the place on YouTube. So that decision was just fine when they were monetizing it. Now, all of a sudden, they want standards and they want us to be careful about the kids. The careful

question here goes to whether or not they were careful with the kids. Did your husband have a role in the behavior that's now being charged? Absolutely not. How? When he's the father and he was in the house, how did he not know and not do anything about it? Mom had the kids for the summer and went out of the county with the kids. And if he had known enough or thought there was a going on, he would have been all over it. So is your suggestion that everything that has been charged happened after he left?

Correct. So none of the things that the mother has been charged with happened when he was in the house? That's correct. It happened in a house that was a couple of hundred miles away from where Mr. Franke was. One of the allegations is that the kid, Chad, wasn't allowed to sleep in a bed for seven months. Why did he think that was OK? I can't comment on that. I have a duty to my client to the court not to comment on that question. But that would have been while he was there. That's all I'm saying.

Did he have a different feeling about parenting that's changed at some point? I'm not certain when that happened, but my client was not around the children when this happened this summer. So is his position that these allegations are unfair and is he going to defend the mother? What does he want the kids and to keep h mother. If the allegation has never supported condo in a physical way toward think we're just gonna ha

system play that out. Cr down pretty hard on the a is pretty needed. In my personal opinion, that attorney is making excuses for Kevin. I get his attorney is supposed to be working for him, but Chris had a good point about Chad's bed being taken away while Kevin was still there. Kevin was clearly not doing anything to stop those harsh punishments. The excuses that he didn't see the kids this summer is honestly just bullshit in my opinion. As a parent, it is your duty to know what is happening with your kids and to protect them. If she wasn't letting him see them for whatever reason, he could have filed for divorce and custody and at least requested a supervised visitation at bare minimum. That would ensure that he saw his kids and could have

seen for himself that they clearly weren't being taken well care of or being fed enough. Also, if he doesn't choose to do the whole she was holding the kids from me excuse, then why didn't he drive to where Jodi's house was to see the kids? Yes, it's a couple hours away, but I can assure you my husband and no loving dad I know would just totally be cool with going months without seeing their children, who are a couple of hours a drive away. Like, get real. Yes, Jodi and Ruby are the main perpetrators in this whole thing, but I really don't believe Kevin should be let off the hook here, and I'm really curious to hear what your guys' thoughts are on that as well. There was a sighting of him at their family home,

where he arrived with some sort of overnight-looking bag and a pillow. There was also a person there who removed the eight-passenger's logo decal from the family's van. People were confused as to why Kevin was wearing his wedding ring when he and Ruby are separated, and she stopped wearing her rings a long time ago. And some people think that maybe it's some sort of message. Does he mean that he is going to be supporting his wife through all of this? I don't know about you but if I found out that my partner or my ex-partner was harming or knew about harm happening to our children I'd be ripping that ring off my finger and I'd probably

be putting all my fingers around their neck. Sorry I probably shouldn't say that but that's and I'd probably be putting all my fingers around their neck. Sorry, I probably shouldn't say that, but that's what I'd be doing. So what do you guys think that the ring means? Or does it maybe not mean anything? This entire situation is beyond disturbing, disgusting, heartbreaking, and I know it has to feel even more tragic for people who have followed eight passengers for years and literally watched these kids grow up. But at the same time, many of those same people are just starting to realize just how toxic the world of family vlogging really is and how children deserve privacy and to not be forced to work day in and day out. There are many cases that this situation has been compared to, and I'm sure that you can guess that one of them is Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell, like I said. Like Ruby and Jodi, Chad and Lori were LDS before they completely went off the rails.

Chad started by combining his fringe beliefs with LDS beliefs in order to gain church members' trust, and then eventually had them so brainwashed that their core beliefs were gone. It really seems like Jodi was in the making of becoming another Chad. One of the most creepy and deplorable things that has come out in all of this is that as Jodi was being arrested, she told the officer, and I quote, these kids should never be around any other children again. Now, it reminded me so much of how Chad and Lori labeled people as zombies and thought that JJ and Tylee were possessed. Obviously, Jodi and Ruby thought something was wrong with Eve and Russell because you don't just tie up and duct tape up kids with normal behavior problems. Honestly, I doubt they had any abnormal

behavior problems, and I'm just saying that in Ruby and Jodi's eyes, they must have done something that they deemed horrible, not making it right at all. It's like Jodi just substituted Chad's word zombie for distorted. Thank God these kids were able to escape before they too were buried in a backyard by people who were supposed to care about them. And honestly, if you think about it, if one or both of the children starved to death or died from injuries they inflicted, do you think they would have called the police and told on themselves? Or do you think that they would have tried to hide it? I mean, look at where Jodi lives. There is a lot of space out there to cover up something like that. And who knows how long it would have taken for anyone to come looking for those babies.

We also have to acknowledge just how brave Russell was to have taken such a risk to go get food and water for him and his sister who were literally starving to death. He was injured, emaciated, probably physically and mentally broken down, but he made the choice to try and go get help, knowing that if he was caught, there would be extreme consequences. And the other case people are comparing this to that sounds very, very similar is the tragic Turpin case. This case happened several years ago, and one of the children escaped through a window

and got help for her siblings who were tied up and being starved and tortured by their parents. We've covered that case a lot on this channel as well so I will link that in the description. For a child who has been through so much, especially a child who in their videos was always so sensitive and tender, to muster up the courage for he and his sister is remarkable. I know that at first they said it took Eve four hours to accept medical help. And honestly, I think it's because she's probably been brainwashed by Jodi and Ruby. And I think it's going to take a lot of professionals and love to undo what those two women have done. This is what love sounds like. When you see someone hurting, you acknowledge

the hurt. If your kid came to you on fire, would you say, I'm so glad you trusted me to tell me you're on fire. But if I put out the fire, that's going to really hurt and you're going to end up with scabs anyway. So I'm just going to love you where you are right now. No, you, you throw them on the ground and you start rolling them. You get a blanket and you start hitting the flames and they're going to say, you're hurting me. You're, you're beating me. You're controlling. It's like, no dear, hold still. I'm getting the fire out. That's what a loving parent does because nobody will do it. It looks to the world crazy. And because they've never been loved before, it looks like I'm angry to them. It looks like I'm

controlling. It looks like I'm militant. It looks like I'm a monster. It looks like I'm mean. It looks like I'm full of hate. It looks like I'm not accepting it because they don't know what love looks like or sounds like. One of Ruby's cousins spoke to Law and Crime after the arrest. She said she wasn't shocked about Ruby's arrest and then went into the family history. I suppose I wasn't expecting some of the details in that story to line up with some of the details in my own family history, I guess is what I'm trying to say, quite as well as it did while my mother handcuffed my sisters when they were young. And a lack of food wasn't uncommon, but it wasn't out of a lack necessarily of money. There were, there was a time when it could have been prevented, but it wasn't. Uh, the lack of food, I mean, and the handcuffing, uh, that happened to my family too with my own mother.

Your mother handcuffed your siblings and you? Luckily, I was not, but the others were. There's been a recording released by police, and you can hear them talking, you can hear talk about people being duct taped, children having duct tape on them. Has that ever happened to you or your siblings? anything specific being talked about before that. It was my siblings who told me that it happened. I didn't hear the 911 dispatch call. This is the first time I've ever heard of that, but I'm not shocked. When was the last time you saw Ruby? When I was very young.

And yeah, it was a long time ago. Do you have a ballpark on the number of years? Over 15. More than 15 years ago. That's the last time you saw Ruby? Yes. I know you want to protect your identity. There is a relation here. I mean, you're related to her.

Yeah. Would you consider yourself a distant relative? No. So what is the family's reaction, your family's reaction, to Ruby being arrested and charged with child molestation? Much the same as mine. I'm trying to form the words.

I guess disgust because this is something that is multi-generational. So my I am very privy to the way that I was treated and the way that my

siblings were treated. And so to see that further on down the line is not shocking, but disgusting. And that would be there along the ballpark of what they feel too. Do you feel that Ruby and your mother learned this from their parents? Or where do you think they came up with this type of thing? The handcuffing, the duct taping, the withholding of food. Where do you think they got that? Oh, speak in a metaphor? withholding of food. Where do you think they got that? Oh, speaking of metaphor,

I'll just say that the whole tree from the bottom of the roots to the tips of the branches, the whole tree is blighted. This is multi-generational. So suppose you'd have to read in between the lines with that. So from their parents, your grandparents, you believe that they learned this behavior? Yeah, I do. So it seems that Ruby's side of the family does have a history of harming children. I wonder if that will be brought up in the defense. The cousin didn't mention Ruby's mom being violent or anything like that, but I can definitely see Ruby trying to throw the blame on whoever she possibly can and say that she grew up in a violent home. Ruby and Jodi both have court on September 8th at 1 30

p.m. The hearing is an arraignment set for 1 30. There was a filing within Ruby's case called a public safety assessment report. In short, the assessment basically assesses how dangerous defendants are to society and whether or not they should be released while awaiting trial. Ruby's assessment came back with the recommendation that she should be released until her trial with the condition that she should check in once a month by phone. Now, most of you probably know Corey Richens. Well, her attorney actually weighed in on this assessment and what we can expect at the hearing on Friday. There were two additional children that were removed from the home by DCFS that had yet to be interviewed. So this could potentially be a case where we see an amended information alleging more counts. Local defense attorney Sky Lazaro, who's not involved in this case,

gives us some insight on suspects being held without bail. I don't think that that is unusual given the severity of what they're alleging. Police say one week ago, two of Frank's children were found malnourished and with deep cuts from being tied up. That day, a judge ordered Frank and Hildebrandt held without bail, writing there's clear and convincing evidence that Ruby Frank would constitute a substantial danger or is likely to flee the jurisdiction if released. But I've accessed the court safety assessment which grades someone's risk and if they should be released. It comes to a different conclusion, saying she's a fairly low risk and recommending her release before trial, just being required to check in once a month by phone. This could go either way.

Frank's initial appearance in this case is set for Friday. As part of that, her attorney could ask for the new judge to grant her bail. Hopefully they don't let her out of jail. And the fact that this has even happened in the first place is clear evidence that Ruby cares about no one but herself and maybe Jodi. But who's to say she won't try and hunt down her children because in her distorted brain, she probably thinks she's entitled to them. It doesn't make sense to ever release someone who is capable of inflicting such heinous, harmful pain on children. I haven't seen a public safety assessment for Jodi pop up on the court document portal. She also didn't retain counsel until the 5th, so I suppose her new attorney may be arguing for bond on Friday as well. Regardless, I will make sure to follow this case closely and provide updates as they come out in hopes of justice being served for the Frankie children,

because what they endured is awful, and I truly hope they are receiving the help, love, and attention they need to work through the trauma and move forward. There are so many examples of Ruby and Jodi spewing their awful messages and I was barely even to scratch the surface on the evidence that has been gathered against them here. So if you want a deep dive on this case, the disturbing world of connections, family vlogging, and even how the LDS church might play into all of this, please let me know in the comment section below. Because I've told you before, and I'll say it again, I think first and foremost, we have to be the voice for a lot of these children in these cases. But cults has always been something like a thorn in my side, not only curiosity, but I just like, I can't wrap my mind around how evil

these people are to inflict this kind of stuff on children and their beliefs on children so if you do want those deep dives let me know there are so many rabbit holes and avenues to go down when researching this topic and I'm just glad that the issues associated with family vlogging are finally being discussed now in the mainstream media. Please let me know what you think about all of this. Do you think that Connections is a cult? Do you think there is something more sinister going on here? I'm also curious if any of you think that the children will be better off back in Kevin's care or with a DCFS family. So please let me know your thoughts and hopefully Jodi and Ruby can find some humbleness and some truth of their own while sitting in jail.

I strongly disapprove of abuse. I think all of us could get on board with, yeah, I have righteous anger toward adults abusing children. see what's going on with children being exploited and and being used as tools as pawns of emotional you know like dishonesty I I could be dishonest and I think I'm getting away with it because nobody knows it might be five years ten years I might I might even take it to the grave with me my my dirty little secret. So it appears that I don't have any outcomes and I get away with it. Right. One of the outcomes that's immediate when I'm dishonest or irresponsible is that I send a message to myself that I am not able to be trusted.

So I won't trust myself and you should not trust me either because I don't have any problem lying to you. I don't have any problem dropping responsibility, which is also deception. And so it may not come to you and say, oh, you shouldn't trust me. However, that is an outcome. I'm not worthy of trust. All right, guys, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Serialistly. Please don't forget to take five seconds out of your day if you would be so kind to leave a rating and review of this podcast in the review. If you would just let me know what content you want to hear more about, if you want me to do more deep dives on cults, on family vlogging, on anything, let me know in that

review section, because I really do want to cater the content to what you guys want to hear about. So please, that is a perfect place to let me know. And I really appreciate you guys tuning in to today's episode. Thank you so much. I will be seeing you back bright and early on Thursday for headline highlights. And then of course, every Monday morning with a deep dive on a brand new case. All right, guys, thank you so much for tuning in and I will talk with you very soon. Signing off. Bye. you