Mormon Mommy Vlogger Arrested for Child Abuse

A brief-ish history of Ruby Franke.

Ruby is a 41-year-old mother of six living in Utah. Her husband and the father of her children is Kevin Franke, who we will get to later.

In January 2015, Ruby decided broadcasting her children's entire lives was a great parental move, and founded the YouTube channel 8 Passengers. There's a popular sub-genre of so-called Mommy Vloggers centered around Mormon families, enjoyed both by other Mormons and people who enjoy snarking on them. Ruby's no-nonsense parenting style found success, and soon every personal moment of her kids lives was pasted online with the channel eventually reaching a peak of over 2.2 million subscribers. Between views and sponsorships, Ruby began making bank and was praised by many as a model mum. But wasn't long before criticism started to roll in too.

If you spend any time reading snark on Mommy Bloggers or Vloggers, you'll know accusations of abuse and terrible parenting flow freely. People can be accused of abuse for sins as mundane as refusing a kid a smart phone, or neglect for using canned spaghetti sauce instead of making it fresh. But unsurprisingly, the Venn diagram of the people who thinking exploiting their kids for clicks and legitimately destructive parents can indeed overlap—and sometimes accusations point towards situations of legitimate concern that are more than hot air. This is one such case.

As 8 Passengers continued over the years, viewers noticed a distinct decline in Ruby's mental health, and the growing mismatch between her kids 'bad behavior' and punishments. A young child might be threatened—on film—with having a stuffed animal decapitated unless behavior improved. A boy might have his bed taken away and made to sleep on a bean bag for months as punishment for a prank. A 6-year-old who forgot lunch might be left without food for the school day to 'learn a lesson.' The eldest boy was even sent to one of Utah's rather notorious 'wilderness therapy programs' for unclear reasons, but probably for behavior most dramatards would recognize as pretty milquetoast. You get the idea.

There's debate over why this is. Some speculated that Ruby noticed her views increased when she behaved erratically or devised odd punishments. Unfortunately, this self-aware theory has probably proved to be a little too optimistic, and recent events show she may well have just been spiraling. By 2020, the situation had gotten bad enough that people beyond fans and snarkers started notice and express concerns. Even her eldest daughter, who by that point was out of the house, leveled accusations, calling for the channel to be shut down and CPS to investigate. This lead to a loss of sponsors, subscribers, and money. But instead of taking this as a sign to step back to re-asses, Ruby kept filming until January of 2022, when she finally quit and took the channel down.

Now, you would hope that no longer being in the public eye would be a marked improvement for the kids. And that maybe, just maybe, Ruby might have seen the light and taken this time away from vlogging as an opportunity to get her life and parenting back together.

Unfortunately...not. In a tragic irony, it turns out that being constantly filmed and exploited may have been the only thing keeping the kids safe from far worse abuse.

This Wednesday, Ruby's youngest son escaped out a window to a neighbor's home and requested food, water, and police help. This was a truly heroic act by the brave young chad, who saved not only himself but a younger sister still at home by fleeing. I will spare the gory details, but suffice it to say the child was malnourished, wounded, showed signs of having been restrained, and was in such condition the neighbor was visibly upset while reporting to police. Both children were ultimately hospitalized.

Thankfully, Ruby was apprehended and placed under arrest without bail for aggravated child abuse. A woman named Jodi Hildebrant was also arrested. And while it's unclear what will happen to the children now, they're at least much safer than they were before Wednesday.

Dramatic Questions:

Where the eff was dad in all this? In the past, he was on board with Ruby's antics. More recently, it is speculated they were separated, and that he was living apart from Ruby and the younger kids with his eldest son. If true, Dad and the oldest boy being out of the house may be part of what allowed Ruby's abuse to spiral out of control.

Where the eff was the extended family in all this? The eldest daughter did try to raise the alarm, but was estranged and probably had no idea how bad things had gotten. The same appears to be true to some degree about the extended family—although it's debatable whether Ruby's sisters are telling the truth when they say they've worked behind the scenes to try to alleviate the abuse, or are just covering their butts. Either way, at least they aren't making excuses for her.

Who the eff is Jody and why was she arrested too? Part of what may have contributed to Ruby spiraling is her connection to a group called, well, ConneXions. Long story short, this shit is a 'mental health org' with accusations of being a scam and/or cult, on which Ruby presented herself as a "mental fitness trainer". I shit you not. Crazy child abuser lady wanted you to pay her shitloads of money to lecture you on mental health. Jodi created ConneXions, and—according to rumor—moved into the family home when Kevin moved out. It looks like the two fed the worst aspects of each other, while billing people for parenting advice, until they both ended up arrested.

And that, at least for now, is the tale of 8 Passengers and Rube Franke. I hope this effort post has caught everyone up on years of drama. It's my first post, so be nice.