Ruby Franke portrayed the image of awholesome family life – but the truth was disturbing...
Sharing wholesome videos of her brood with 2.5 million YouTube subscribers, Ruby Franke was the epitome of a mummy blogger.
Setting up her channel 8 Passengers in 2015 with her husband Kevin, she shared a snapshot into her chaotic but loving life with six kids.
Posting five days a week, followers got a glimpse into her parenting style, tips and tricks and a blow-by-blow of their lives as a family of eight.
Living in Springville, Utah, the couple were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, and shared their discipline and home-schooling as a Mormon family.
Sharing posts of the kids in matching outfits, cooking up treats in the kitchen and playing together happily, they looked like a picture-perfect family.
As time went by, they grew in popularity and brands were flocking to Ruby to promote their products – turning their YouTube channel into a lucrative business.
But by 2020, it all came crashing down.
Viewers were starting to become concerned with Ruby’s parenting –in particular her discipline methods.
They were alarmed when one of Ruby’s sons said that he’d been banned from his bedroom and made to sleep on a bean bag for seven months, as a punishment for playing pranks.
Other concerning tactics used by Ruby included withholding food, sending her child to acamp for troubled teens and threatening to behead a stuffed toy.
AChange.org petition was launched, reporting perceived neglect and child abuse –the Franke’s said the incidents had been taken out of context, calling it ‘tough love’.
Child protective services even visited the family during the summer of 2020, but no charges were pressed.
The channel started to decline in popularity, and the Franke’s happy family began to unravel.
By 2022, Ruby and Kevin had separated, with Kevin moving out of the family home at Ruby’s request, and she deleted the family YouTube channel.
Agaunt boy ran from the house
But Ruby wasn’t ready to give up her influencing career.
Working as a mental health coach at parenting workshop ConneXions, run by Mormon therapist and life coach Jodi Hildebrandt, they launched anew channel together in 2022. Although Ruby’s children didn’t appear on the channel, she and Jodi promoted harsh parenting and discipline techniques.
Spending a lot of time at Jodi’s house, no one had seen the children and neighbours were concerned when they saw the windows had been papered over.
But in August 2023, it all came to a head.
Escaping through a window, a gaunt-looking, shoeless 12-year-old boy ran to a neighbour’s house, begging for help and aski
