New video, photos of Ruby Franke’s son reveal disturbing details that led to her arrest, conviction

Mommy vlogger Ruby Franke holds a digital camera with one hand and locations her different hand round her son. He grins ear-to-ear as she pronounces the multi-day celebration that she has deliberate for his tenth birthday.

Within the video, posted to her standard “8 Passengers” YouTube channel in 2021, Franke says: “We’re simply going to be celebrating his birthday all week.”

MORE: YouTube vlogger Ruby Franke sentenced in baby abuse case

On August 30, 2023, just a little greater than two years after that video was posted, Franke’s son arrives on the doorstep of a home within the picturesque Crimson Rock valley of Ivins, Utah. He’s 250 miles away from his household residence in Springville, Utah.

In newly launched Ring digital camera footage, first obtained by ABC Information, the boy’s look is in stark distinction to that proven within the vlog. He’s markedly thinner, with out footwear, and is described by first responders as “stoic.”

That digital camera video is only one piece of proof that was launched by the Washington County Legal professional’s workplace right now. This comes 30 days after Franke and her former buddy, therapist, and enterprise companion, Jodi Hildebrandt, had been every sentenced to as much as 30 years in jail.

They’d beforehand pleaded responsible to 4 felony counts of second-degree, aggravated baby abuse in December 2023.

The victims are Franke’s two youngest youngsters, who ABC Information is referring to by their initials: R, the 12-year-old boy who first escaped from Hildebrandt’s sprawling 10,000-square-foot residence in August, and E, a 9-year-old-girl who was present in the identical residence later that day.

There was no proof discovered on this investigation that the 2 oldest youngsters — Shari, 21, and Chad, 19 — or the center two teenage daughters, had been bodily abused. Shari and Chad had already moved out of the household residence, whereas the center teenagers had been nonetheless dwelling in Springville at that household residence.

Nonetheless, even in 2020, a few of the viewers of the “8 Passengers” channel expressed concern for the Franke youngsters’s well-being. A lot of the criticism focusing on the parenting fashion that Ruby offered on-line.

A Change.org petition from Might 2020 referred to as for the Utah Division of Youngster and Household Providers to test on the youngsters’s wellbeing. It cited punishments that Ruby spoke about in her movies, together with taking away bed room privileges for her eldest son, Chad, and forcing him to sleep on a bean bag chair for months after he pulled a prank on a sibling. That petition garnered greater than 18,000 signatures.

However authorities would later uncover that Ruby Franke’s and Hildebrandt’s actions in the summertime of 2023 went far past the bounds of strict parenting.

The newly launched proof contains never-before-seen physique digital camera footage, interrogation tapes, crime scene images and jail calls. It paints an image of, as Washington County Legal professional Eric Clarke describes it, “horrific abuse” perpetrated by each Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke.

Clarke mentioned that the abuse resulted in “bodily long-term results” for R and was what one prosecutor referred to as “one of the extreme emotional abuse instances” he had ever labored on.

This proof explains how Hildebrandt entered the lives of the Franke household and particulars the abuse. Franke chronicles her and Hildebrandt’s actions in a journal – a group of unlined pages lined in neat handwriting. It is a manicured, day-by-day account detailing how the ladies remoted E and R from the surface world, stripped them of meals, water, and shelter, and bodily and emotionally abused them.

MORE: Video exhibits police swarming Ruby Franke’s residence on day of arrest

Franke describes in her journal a 2023 birthday for R that was very completely different than the one in her sunny vlog from 2021.

In July 2023, Franke writes, “It is [R’s] birthday & he would not even know what month it’s.” She continues on a later web page: “I instructed R[] that he wants God. I invited him to quick & pray.”

Deputy Washington County Legal professional Zachary Weiland instructed “20/20” that on R’s birthday, the boy wakened and was instantly made to face on the again patio.

“Now, thoughts you, that is Ivins, Utah,” Weiland mentioned. “It was extraordinarily scorching, and he stood on that again porch all day.” R’s birthday happened two months after Franke introduced R and E to Hildebrandt’s residence, in Might of that yr. Washington County attorneys imagine that this was when the abuse started.

In an all-new “20/20,” airing March 22 and streaming the subsequent day on Hulu, ABC Information’ Juju Chang tells the story of this extended emotional and bodily abuse, offering the primary in-depth protection of this story because the information first broke.

In Chang’s report, first responders and prosecutors clarify the proof and share their first-hand accounts from final summer season and the months that adopted. The consensus amongst them: R is the hero of this story, and his and E’s path to freedom started when he rang that neighbor’s doorbell.

However the neighbor’s Ring digital camera video reveals R didn’t assume he was about to be free. In reality, he anticipated to be taken to jail.

When the aged home-owner opens his door, R asks him for a favor: “Are you able to lead me to the closest police station?”

Investigators instructed “20/20” they imagine that R requested this not so he may obtain assist, however fairly so he may full the repentance course of that his mom and Hildebrandt instructed him was required to absolve his sins.

“They instructed these children that you must repent first after which you are going to jail,” Weiland mentioned.

Clarke instructed Chang that each E and R had been satisfied “that that they had accomplished atrocious acts.”

In her journal, Franke describes the youngsters as “possessed” and refers back to the abuse that she and Hildebrandt inflicted on them as their likelihood at repentance.

Investigators say that R tried to flee for the primary time in July. Earlier than leaving the property, although, Franke writes in her journal that he took the time to spell out in small pebbles: “Jail. I’ll name after I get there.” Pressured to sleep open air, he’d left the message subsequent to the spot the place he had been sleeping on the concrete.

Weiland mentioned this motion exhibits that R was each satisfied he wanted to be locked up and that no matter he would expertise in jail can be higher than the circumstances at Hildebrandt’s residence. Video exhibits the neighbor who met R after his second escape dialing 911 to get assist, as his spouse steps in to convey R water and a snack.

That is when he describes R’s situation for the primary time: “He has duct tape round every ankle, there’s sores round them.” His voice breaks with emotion as he continues, “This child has clearly been – I believe he is been, he is been detained. He is clearly lined in wounds.”

Physique digital camera footage captures the second EMTs arrive on the scene and make their preliminary evaluation of R.

“That first take a look at him,” Maddee Ickes, an EMT with Santa Clara-Ivins Hearth and Rescue, mentioned, “it simply hit that there was one thing mistaken.”

R is taken to the ambulance for therapy, and physique digital camera footage exhibits him on a gurney. He is carrying a blue button-down shirt that hangs off his physique and a baggie of pretzels sits at his aspect.

Proof images taken by officers that day present the extreme open wounds on R’s wrists and ankles that had been beneath the duct tape. Clarke mentioned the injuries had been wearing a honey, cayenne pepper combination.

Santa Clara-Ivins Police Officer Simon Pikyavit mentioned that, upon questioning, R instructed him that his mother and Hildebrandt had “certain his arms and his ft to weights on the bottom” that restricted his motion.

Officers later realized that R additionally had been handcuffed at his wrists and ankles earlier than the duct-tape had been utilized.

Whereas R is being handled, he tells officers that two of his siblings are nonetheless in Hildebrandt’s residence. A gaggle of officers, together with Pikyavit and Sgt. Nick Tobler, rapidly drive down the block to Hildebrandt’s residence.

Physique digital camera footage captures the second that Hildebrandt lastly swings open her giant, wood entrance door. She is wearing shorts and a sweatshirt and holding a cellphone as much as her ear. Her first phrases to police are, “I’ve my legal professional on the cellphone.”

Hildebrandt’s demeanor in that video is vastly completely different than her calm, polished on-line persona. She is the founding father of the defunct on-line life teaching enterprise ConneXions. The corporate posted publicly accessible movies to social media and supplied different assets like psychological well being workbooks behind a paywall.

Hildebrandt and Franke are seen collectively in dozens of ConneXions movies, most notably in a sequence referred to as “Mothers of Fact with Jodi & Ruby.”

In these movies, Hildebrandt and Franke sit aspect by aspect on a sofa discussing matters like parenting and providing self-help suggestions.

The ladies continued posting content material up till August 16, 2023. Two weeks later, on the day of R’s escape, Hildebrandt is bodily faraway from that residence.

Officers enter with no warrant, citing exigent circumstances primarily based on the tip from R that his siblings had been nonetheless inside the house. They rapidly make their method via a maze of a number of bedrooms, bogs and hallways.

Minutes later, they uncover a toddler with a buzzcut sitting cross-legged on the hardwood flooring of an empty closet.

“We at first thought it’d’ve been just a little boy sitting there,” Tobler instructed Juju Chang, “simply staring up at us.”

The kid wouldn’t say who they had been or how they ended up in Hildebrandt’s closet. Hoping R may assist establish the kid, Tobler referred to as his colleague, Detective Jessica Bate, who was nonetheless with R.

“I started asking R, ‘Hey, do you could have just a little brother?'” Bate instructed Juju Chang. “He mentioned, ‘No, I’ve a youthful sister there.”

That was when officers realized: the kid within the closet was R’s sister E – the spunky, youngest Franke baby who was recognized by followers for talking her thoughts within the “8 Passengers” movies. However the baby that’s seen on physique digital camera footage is quiet and reserved. Officers instructed ABC Information that she appeared scared and was initially unwilling to go away her spot on the ground.

Physique digital camera footage exhibits first responders taking turns, every one making an attempt to entice her to rise up. Solely these phrases from Tobler catch her consideration: “I wager you want pizza.” E nods her head.

E is timid to eat at first, however finally she eats a complete private pizza and half of a giant one. Lastly, after 4 hours, she leaves the closet with the EMTs.

“The abuse that E had acquired, lots of it was emotional, and it was very laborious to even discuss with E at first,” Weiland instructed ABC Information.

Whereas E is being taken to the hospital, Ruby Franke lastly arrives on the residence. For hours, Hildebrandt and Franke sit, ready in separate rooms as officers end their search. Detectives discover handcuffs, ropes, and Franke’s journal within the residence, however they don’t discover Franke’s different two minor youngsters – who at this level are nonetheless unaccounted for.

Police finally situated the 2 women, unhurt, 4 hours from Ivins, in American Fork, Utah. They’re discovered with Pam Bodtcher, the president of ConneXions.

Bodtcher has not been charged with any crimes linked to this case and Springville Police say she absolutely cooperated with their investigation.

Whereas Hildebrandt and Franke look forward to officers to complete their search again in Ivins, officers instructed ABC Information that neither lady requested in regards to the security of the youngsters. Bate finally determines her workforce has collected sufficient proof; she locations each Franke and Hildebrandt underneath arrest and they’re pushed to the police station.

However hours earlier, another person had arrived at that station, asking in regards to the youngsters.

“The identical day that we positioned Ruby Franke and Jodi underneath arrest, Kevin Franke additionally got here to the police division searching for his children,” Bate mentioned.

And on the time, Franke’s estranged husband Kevin was thought of a suspect. Putting interrogation footage captures the second officers inform him about R’s situation, saying he was emaciated and “skinny, scrawny.”

“I am sorry, what?” Kevin Franke asks, seemingly surprised.

Investigators study that Kevin Franke had moved out of the household residence and had not seen his spouse or youngsters in over a yr. He says that underneath Hildebrandt’s steerage, Ruby Franke had requested him to maneuver out in July 2022.

Investigators rapidly decided that Kevin Franke was not a suspect on this case.

“He was off the hook fairly rapidly, as a result of there simply wasn’t any proof,” Clarke mentioned. “We had a journal saying every little thing that had occurred within the [Hildebrandt] residence over the summer season, and it by no means mentioned he was within the residence.”

Almost seven months later, Kevin Franke is looking for to regain custody of his 4 minor youngsters, and he is filed for divorce.

“20/20” has realized that R and E have been positioned in foster care collectively and Bate instructed Juju Chang that they’re doing a lot better. Bate mentioned, “They’ve placed on weight, they appear wholesome, they’re pleased, they’re again to their hobbies.”

Disney is the father or mother firm of ABC, Hulu and this station.