Utah authorities discovered a so-called “panic room” in parenting blogger Jodi Hildebrandt’s $5.3 million desert home in Ivins, according to a trove of documents released over the weekend.・Mr. Franke had his children living there.
Franke, a 41-year-old mother of six, and Hildebrand, a 45-year-old mother of two, were co-owners. Parenting and lifestyle YouTube channel It’s called the Connection Classroom. Both men pleaded guilty in December 2023 in a St. George courtroom to four of six counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse.
In a March 22 statement, the Washington County Attorney’s Office said, “The investigation revealed that religious extremism motivated Ms. Franke and Ms. Hildebrandt to commit this horrific abuse.” . “The women seemed to fully believe that the abuse they inflicted was necessary in order to teach their children how to properly repent of their imaginary ‘sins’ and exorcise evil spirits from their bodies.”
On August 30, 2023, Utah State Police were dispatched to the Ivins residence after one of Franke’s young sons escaped from Hildebrandt’s home through a window and called for help from a neighbor, but the neighbor The boy appeared to be severely malnourished and had duct tape wrapped around his ankles, according to the report.
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Utah State Police discovered a “panic room” inside Jody Hildebrandt’s $5.3 million Ivin home, and Ruby Franke sent her children there to live in Hildebrandt’s home. (Washington County Attorney’s Office)
“Mrs. Hildebrandt answered the door and we asked her to leave. Mrs. Hildebrandt was on the phone with her attorney,” a police report released by the Washington County Attorney’s Office said. ing. She reported to police that there was a second boy in her home.
Another police report states that “security was conducted at the residence” that day.
Utah mommy blogger Ruby Franke pleads guilty to four counts of child abuse
Ruby Franke and Jody Hildebrandt abused Franke’s two children at Hildebrandt’s home in Ivins, Utah. (Washington County Attorney’s Office)
”[T]There was one boy still missing here. I was tasked with conducting a secondary search to find a missing boy. A warrant was drawn up for the house as officers searched for the missing boy as the house had a “panic room” and no one could enter or contact anyone on the other side. . ”
”[W]It was impossible to penetrate or contact anyone on the other side. ”
A separate police report said the “safe room” was located in the basement of Hildebrandt’s home and had a “secure door.”
Photos and police body camera footage show a bleak room hidden behind a vault-like door beneath Hildebrandt’s basement. There, a small room was equipped with a murphy bed, cabinet, refrigerator, sink, and some cleaning supplies.
Police found Franke’s daughter in Hildebrandt’s bathroom closet.
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Ruby Franke used to run a YouTube channel called 8passengers, representing herself, her husband, and their six children. (True Moms/Instagram)
Police offered the girl pizza, but the girl also appeared malnourished and emaciated, and one officer noticed that she ate the entire small pie before asking for more.
In the Aug. 30 dispatch call, also released by the Washington County Attorney’s Office, a police officer said, “There is a panic room downstairs in the garage and underneath the garage. He calls it the safe room.” I can hear you there.
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Other audio and video recordings, phone calls and documents paint a dark picture of the abuse Franke’s children suffered under the care of two parenting bloggers “in a work camp-like environment.”
The abuse included forcing children to perform manual labor, restricting their diet, shackling one child’s hands and feet, and inflicting psychological harm. Franke and Hildebrandt told Franke’s children that they were the bad guys and needed to be punished.
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After Franke’s youngest children were rescued from Hildebrandt’s home on Aug. 30, Springfield police and other local authorities recovered Franke’s four other children, who were not with Hildebrandt at the time. began a search. They contacted the two older boys, Chad Franke and Shari Franke (both of whom were living away from home at the time of the incident), to locate the other two boys.
Authorities eventually found the two children at another adult’s residence. American Fork, Utah.
Ruby Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, were arrested and charged on Aug. 30 after Santa Clara police received a dispatch call for help around 10:50 p.m. (instagram/moms_of_truth)
In dozens of YouTube videos and social media posts, Franke and Hildebrandt, in their soft voices from their living room couch, coach parents on how to raise their children in truth. did. In a video posted shortly before her arrest, Hildebrandt said pain can be a good thing for children of a certain age.
“It’s abuse to make a child sleep on the floor,” Hildebrandt can be heard saying to an unknown person, “It’s ridiculous. I can’t even raise my child anymore,” in a phone call made public by his law firm. .
“I can’t even raise a child anymore.”
Franke said in another call that adults have “a very difficult time understanding that children can be full of evil and what it takes to fight it.” I don’t know of any other adults who are willing to see the truth.”
In previous videos, which did not feature Hildebrandt, Franke complained about how her children’s schools were using TikTok to teach about things like dancing, the dangers of sleepovers, and bullying. Some of her videos feature her husband, such as a “Live Couples Workshop” on managing your finances. (YouTube/Connection)
In a July 2023 diary entry, Franke referred to the children as “the devil’s children.”
“Good deeds must be accompanied by pain, or service becomes another distraction,” she wrote. “I learned that my children are descendants of Satan and spent a day of fasting and prayer for me. R was out of control. Peeing, pooping, lying, stealing, running away. E. cried, whaling (sic), I didn’t know what was going on.” This is what it would be like if you weren’t here. ”
”[M]Your children are descendants of Satan. ”
The documents and videos also revealed that Ruby’s husband, Kevin Franke, had been living apart from his wife since July 2023, about a month before the children were found at the Hildebrand home.
Jody Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to four of six counts of aggravated child abuse. (Sheldon Demke/St. George News/Pool)
He told police that he loved and trusted his wife and that they separated due to “addictions,” including “pornography.”
“I don’t know anything about what’s going on in their lives, what’s going on,” Kevin Franke said in a police interview.
Franke previously ran a blog called 8Passengers, which represents her family of six children and two parents, for years, but she closed the page after backlash from some of the controversial videos. I stopped posting. In one such video, she said that as punishment for her actions, which Ms. Franke described as selfish, she made the decision for herself and her husband to withhold Christmas presents from her two youngest children. told his followers about what he did.
Ruby Franke pleaded guilty to four of six counts of aggravated child abuse. (Sheldon Demke/St. George News/Pool)
“My children are literally starving,” Ruby Franke, wearing red lipstick, said in one video in front of a Christmas tree. “I’m hesitant to say this because it makes me sound like a mean savage, but I told my kids I wouldn’t even let them eat breakfast until I finished my chores.” ”
In other videos, Franke talked about withholding food from her children, forcing her son to sleep for long periods in a bean bag chair instead of a bed as punishment for naughty younger brothers, and other discipline she devised. Bad behavior.
