Ruby Franke

In early 2015, Franke created a YouTube channel called 8 Passengers in which she documented her family life in Utah with her husband, Kevin, and their six children.[3][4][5] She originally posted five days a week at 6:00 AM.[3] As of June 2020, the channel had almost 2.5 million subscribers;[6][7] it amassed 1 billion views.[8]

Beginning in 2020, when one of Franke's sons said that he had been banned from his bedroom and made to sleep on a bean bag for seven months, viewers became concerned about Franke's disciplinary methods, which also included withholding food,[4][7] sending a child to a wilderness camp for troubled teens, threatening to behead a stuffed toy, and telling two children that Santa Claus would not be bringing them anything for Christmas that year because they were too "numb" to respond to other punishments.[5] A Change.org petition was launched reporting perceived child abuse and neglect.[4][5][7][9] Ruby and Kevin Franke posted in defense of the discipline, saying the incidents had been taken out of context.[6] The 8 Passengers YouTube channel declined in popularity in 2021.[4]

In 2022, the Frankes separated, and Kevin Franke moved out of the house. Franke deleted 8 Passengers[10] and began working as a mental health coach at ConneXions, a company run by Jodi Nan Hildebrandt, a counselor.[2][5][9] They launched a new video channel together in 2022[11] and partnered in an Instagram account called Moms of Truth[11] and in offering parenting classes.[4] Neighbors and the Frankes' oldest daughter, a college student, observed that Franke often left the children alone at home and called authorities to check on them.[10]

On August 30, 2023, Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested in Ivins, Utah, and on September 1 both were charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse, a felony.[1][2][4][5][12][13] According to a statement from the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department, Franke's 12-year-old son, who appeared emaciated and had "open wounds and duct tape around the extremities", had climbed through a window of Hildebrandt's house and asked at a neighboring house for food and water.[1][2][4][12] Emergency services found Franke's 10-year-old daughter in the house, also malnourished; both children were taken to a hospital, where the boy was treated for severe malnourishment and "deep lacerations from being tied up with rope".[1][5] A search of the house found evidence "consistent with the markings" on the 12-year-old, and the Utah Division of Child and Family Services took the boy and girl and two more of Franke's children into care.[1][2] Police later reported that according to the boy, cayenne pepper and honey had been used to dress his wounds.[10][14]

Franke and Hildebrandt are being held without bail. Initial virtual hearings for both were held on September 8, 2023, in St. George, Utah;[15][16] a status review hearing scheduled for September 18 was postponed at their attorneys' request. Hildebrandt surrendered her license as a counselor pending resolution of the court case and a disciplinary investigation.[10]

YouTube later said that after her arrest, Franke had been banned from the platform and two channels linked to her had been deleted.[17]

The Frankes are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[3][4] Their oldest daughter has stated that she has long disapproved of her mother's parenting strategies.[2][4] Franke has three sisters who are also parenting influencers;[2][3][4] they disassociated themselves from her actions in a joint statement[2][4][11] and later in individual videos.[18]

• FamilyOFive
• Fantastic Adventures scandal