- “8 Passengers” mom vlogger Ruby Franke is the subject of a new Hulu docuseries.
- The former influencer was convicted of abusing her children and sentenced to prison.
- Here’s what to know about her case, where she is now, and what happened to her marriage and kids.
The darkest side of family vlogging is at the heart of Hulu’s new docuseries “Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.”
The three-part series focuses on Ruby Franke, who created the popular, now defunct “8 Passengers” YouTube channel. Franke posted videos with her husband, Kevin Franke, and their six children, Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, and Eve, and became wildly successful as a mom influencer.
However, the public turned on Franke over revelations about her parenting style, with many of her followers calling Franke’s form of “discipline” abusive. But Franke doubled down rather than apologizing and trying to win back her fans.
Ultimately, she and Jodi Hildebrandt, a therapist she’d hired to work with her family, were convicted of abusing Franke’s children and sentenced to prison.
The new docuseries features firsthand accounts from Kevin Franke and the two oldest Franke children.
Here’s what to know about the case and where Ruby Franke is now.
Who is Ruby Franke? The once-beloved mom vlogger became controversial for her parenting methods
Franke lived with her family in Springville, Utah, where they were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the Mormon church. As Kevin Franke recalls in interviews for the new Hulu series, the two first met in August 2000 and were married by December 28.
By 2015, the couple had six children and Franke had started a YouTube channel chronicling their lives. She called it “8 Passengers” — a reference to the family of 8 traveling through life — and posted videos showing interactions between her kids, cooking for her family, and homeschooling her oldest son, Chad.
The Franke family‘s first popular video was of one of their kids climbing out of her crib, but soon vlogging became a big income source for them. At its peak, Kevin Franke said in the docuseries, they were bringing in over $100,000 a month just from YouTube revenue.
The idyllic family life presented on Franke’s page was incongruous with reality, and cracks began to show in 2020, when Chad said in a video — shown in the docuseries — that he was made to sleep on a beanbag in the basement for seven months as punishment. Amid backlash, Franke removed the video. In an interview at the time, Ruby and Kevin Franke defended their actions and pushed back on child abuse accusations.
The family recounts in the docuseries that around the same time, Chad had been expelled from school. The Frankes brought in a therapist, Jodi Hildebrandt, who a family friend recommended to help Chad.
Hildebrandt’s harsh methods appeared to work, and Chad said in the docuseries that he straightened out under her care. From then on, Hildebrandt became entangled with the family: “I learned to love her and trust her,” Chad said in the series.
At the same time, Franke’s punishments became more extreme. In the docuseries, Chad Franke says his mother would spank and whip him with a belt. In a separate interview, Franke’s oldest daughter Shari recalled helping Chad clean blood off the walls after one particularly brutal beating.
As Franke’s family recalls in the docuseries, she believed it was her religious calling to help parents save their children and ensure they go to heaven. She and her husband got involved in ConneXions, Hildebrandt’s business, and Franke ultimately became a counselor there and Hildebrandt’s second in command.
Franke pivoted away from the “8 Passengers” account, which is now defunct, and created a new Instagram and podcast called “Moms of Truth” with Hildebrandt. In it, the two shared parenting “wisdom” and espoused the value of harsh punishments. In one video shown in the docuseries, Franke admitted she “loves principles more than my children.”
Ruby and Kevin Franke’s relationship began to deteriorate as she grew closer with Hildebrandt, with Kevin alleging that he was asked to leave the family home at the same time a then 17-year-old Chad was kicked out for viewing pornography. Shari, then a college student living at Brigham Young University, also said in the docuseries that she was cut off by her mother and told not to contact anyone in the family.
Ruby Franke’s arrest, child abuse conviction, and sentencing
In the docuseries, Franke’s neighbors recall becoming concerned about the welfare of her four youngest kids after Kevin left the home, alleging the Franke kids were left alone for hours at a time. They shared their concerns with Shari Franke, who called the Springville Police Station in September 2022 to request a welfare check on her siblings, Business Insider previously reported.
A case was opened with the state’s Department of Children and Family Services, but it was eventually closed when they couldn’t find any witnesses of physical abuse.
The situation finally came to a head in August 2023, over a year after Franke had asked Kevin and Chad to leave their home and cut off Shari.
According to a witness statement shared by the Santa Clara-Ivins Police Department, on August 30, Franke’s youngest son escaped Hildebrandt’s home in St. George, Utah, about four hours from the Frankes’ Springville home. He asked a neighbor to take him to the police station. The boy was emaciated and had duct tape around his ankles.
The boy — whose name, along with the names of the other Franke minor children, was concealed to protect his privacy — said that his youngest sister was also at Hildebrandt’s house but that he hadn’t seen her in person for over a month.
Police recovered the girl from Hildebrandt’s home and found the other two children at the home of Franke’s friends near the family’s Springville house. They also recovered a detailed journal Franke had kept in which she recounted the abuse. In the journal, Franke wrote about her belief that her two youngest children were possessed by the deviil and the methods she and Hildebrandt had undertaken to correct their “deviant” behavior, including starving the kids under the guise of “fasting,” making them stand in the hot sun barefoot for hours, and having them run in the desert.
Both Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on aggravated child abuse charges that day, according to Washington County Jail booking documents.
Per a press release from the Washington County Attorney’s Office, both women were charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse each on September 1, 2023. In December, they each pleaded guilty to four counts as part of a plea agreement. They were sentenced in February 2024 to serve four consecutive sentences of between one and 15 years each — a total sentence of at least four years, but as many as 30 years, with the precise length of the term to be determined by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
The Board didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement at her sentencing, Franke acknowledged harming her kids, calling the officers who had rescued them “angels.” She also pointed the finger at Hildebrandt, saying she had been “led to believe that this world is an evil place.”
“My charges are just, they offer safety to my family, accountability to the public, and they did show mercy to me,” she said.
Franke is incarcerated at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. She is scheduled for a hearing with the parole board in December 2026.
In January 2025, a former ConneXions client who attended couples therapy with Hildebrandt sued her, Franke, and ConneXions for fraud and racketeering. The suit, viewed by BI, claims that Franke, Hildebrandt, and other ConneXions employees, both “known and unknown,” manipulated “vulnerable individuals” like the plaintiff into paying exorbitant fees for their “fraudulent services.” The complaint demands monetary relief for damages.
In the latest filing, on February 28, the judge granted the motion to extend the defendants’ time to file an answer to the complaint. Hildebrandt, Franke, and ConneXions now have until March 19, 2025, to respond to the complaint.
The lawyer representing Hildebrandt, Franke, and ConneXions didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ruby Franke’s husband filed for divorce and has been fighting to regain custody of their 4 youngest kids
Kevin filed for divorce from his wife in November 2023; as of February 2025, he told People it is not yet finalized.
The couple’s two oldest kids, Chad and Shari, are adults and living on their own. The four youngest Franke children are minors and have been in DCFS custody in Utah since Franke was arrested in August 2023. Kevin’s lawyer, Randy Kester, told People that as of April 2024, they were still in the custody of the state but that he had been fighting to get them back.
As of February 2025, it’s unclear whether the younger kids are still in DCFS custody, living with their father, or living elsewhere. A representative for Utah’s DCFS said via email that the department “affirms law enforcement reports of our involvement in the Franke case.” They declined to comment further on specifics of the case or the whereabouts of the Franke children “in order to protect the integrity of the necessary working relationships with those we serve, and to respect the privacy of children and families.”
Kester, Kevin’s attorney, didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment regarding the status of the custody case.
In her statement during her sentencing, Franke called Kevin the love of her life and called the ending of their marriage a “tragedy.”
Franke also addressed her children directly.
“To my babies; my six little chicks — you are a part of me,” she said. “I was so disoriented that I believed dark was light and right was wrong. I would do anything in this world for you. My willingness to sacrifice all for you was masterfully manipulated into something very ugly. I took from you all that was soft, and safe, and good.”
How Ruby Franke’s parents and siblings reacted
Two of Franke’s sisters, Julie Deru and Bonnie Hoellein, are also vloggers. In September 2023, each shared videos saying that they were not aware of her actions. They recalled how, in 2020, Franke abruptly cut off her family when she started working with Hildebrandt.
KUTV reported that Franke’s parents and brother said in statements to the court at her February sentencing hearing that she had radically changed after employing Hildebrandt to help Chad and referred to her as “brainwashed.” Her parents wrote that they’d only had “brief communications” with Franke the last several years.
“She was delusional. She was so deeply brainwashed we could not recognize her,” they wrote. They also asked the judge to show Franke mercy in sentencing and expressed their hope that she would repair her relationships with her kids.
Franke and Hildebrandt’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke” is streaming on Hulu.
Read the full article here
