Family vlogger Ruby Franke was sentenced to four consecutive sentences of one to 15 years in prison for aggravated child abuse.
“For the past four years, I’ve chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me to a dark delusion,” Franke said at Tuesday’s sentencing. “My distorted version of reality went largely unchecked as I would isolate from anyone who challenged me. I was led to believe that this world was an evil place filled with cops who control, hospitals that injure, government agencies that brainwash, church leaders who lie and lust, husbands who refuse to protect, and children who need abuse.”
Franke, the 41-year-old family vlogger from Utah, was arrested alongside her business partner, 54-year-old Jodi Hildebrandt, in August, after Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped the home and asked a neighbor to call the police. The boy was “emaciated and malnourished” and had duct tape around his wrists and ankles, according to an initial police report. Franke pleaded guilty in December to abuse.
Before Franke’s husband filed for divorce in November, Franke and her husband ran the YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which followed their family of six children. Hildebrandt and Franke were known online as “Moms of Truth” and together, they formed ConneXions, a parenting support group that offered paid classes and coaching.
Court documents detail the abuse Franke’s children suffered, including when the son and daughter were locked out of their house for extended periods and suffered “serious sunburns” with blisters, and were denied food and water. Franke’s son was regularly hogtied with handcuffs and duct tape, according to court documents, and Franke admitted holding her son’s head underwater, and suffocated him.
Franke’s lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment.
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.