Editor's Note: This article contains sensitive topics including child abuse.
If there’s one case that has rocked the nation more than any other over the past year and a half, it’s the case of Ruby Franke.
A documentary titled, “A Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke” premiered on Hulu on Feb. 27 and tells the story of the public life of Ruby Franke, her family and her criminal accomplice, Jodi Hildebrandt.
In August of 2023, Franke was arrested alongside Hildebrandt and charged with six counts of child abuse. Both Franke and Hildebrandt pled guilty and were convicted with four counts of felony child abuse in February of 2024. They are serving sentences of four to 30 years in prison.
However, the story doesn’t start like this.
In 2015, Franke posted her first YouTube video on her channel which she called “Eight Passengers.” Eight Passengers chronicled the lives of Ruby Franke, her husband Kevin Franke and their six children.
It began innocently - just a mom sharing the daily lives of herself and her family. She would vlog about their days and about big moments in the children’s lives and the channel gained immense popularity.
In 2022, their channel had amassed over two million subscribers and had more than one billion views.
For a long time, people saw the channel as a loving mother that wanted to share her life with the world, but over time a very different story emerged.
The beginning of the end for “Eight Passengers” came with a video in which their oldest son, Chad Franke, revealed that his parents had taken away his bedroom. Chad Franke said in the video that he had pranked his younger brother and, as punishment, his parents made him sleep on a beanbag for seven months.
Fans of the channel, along with the general population began to worry about the health and safety of the children, and backlash against the Franke’s parenting style grew.
Hundreds of videos have been made on the topic of Ruby Franke and her parenting practices, along with her suspected child abuse, which was only alleged at the time. However, the documentary provides further context with behind-the-scenes footage.
More than 1,000 hours were submitted to the producers of the series and showed a very different side to Ruby Franke. In many clips she would be seen filming videos alone or with her kids, putting on a happy face, yet when she was interrupted, she would scream at the children. This footage gives further context to how Ruby Franke was as a parent and why she would give her children such harsh punishments.
Around the time that Chad shared his punishment, a new person was introduced into the Franke family’s life: Jodi Hildebrandt.
Hildebrandt touted herself as a renowned therapist and became a close friend of the Franke family. She initially served as a therapist for the Franke children and father, as well as a mentor for Ruby Franke. Eventually, Hildebrandt moved into the Franke home and became fully enmeshed in their daily lives.
Hildebrandt, though previously a therapist, had her license revoked and was not legally allowed to be a therapist. Despite this, she began a program called “Connexions” which was a Mormon “therapy” program aimed at helping people live in “truth” rather than “distortion.”
The “Connexions” program taught extreme parenting strategies and was based heavily on guilt. Anything people did that fell out of what Hildebrandt believed to be right was considered “distortion.”
Ruby Franke joined Hildebrandt as a public face of “Connexions,” and they made YouTube videos about life, parenting and relationships; always centered around their ideas of “truth and distortion.”
Hildebrandt’s ed has since been identified as a cult-like environment by psychologists and law enforcement; citing that the program isolated its members and Hildebrandt exerted a high level of control over the program’s members.
After joining “Connexions” Ruby Franke disowned her eldest daughter Shari Franke and kicked Chad and Kevin Franke out of her house. This left just her, Hildebrandt and her four younger children in the home.
In August of 2023 Ruby Franke’s youngest son, who was being held at Hildebrandt’s home, escaped to a neighbor's house. He was emaciated and asked the neighbor to call the police. This began an investigation into Ruby Frake and Hildebrandt’s treatment of the children.
The Franke’s youngest daughter was found in Hildebrandt’s home and the middle two children were found in the home of a friend of Ruby Franke. The two youngest children were found emaciated, with wounds on their wrists and ankles; the middle two were found physically unharmed.
In the documentary, both Chad and Kevin Franke talk about being so brainwashed by the narratives taught by the “Connexions” program that they believed that the two youngest Franke children were possessed by evil spirits.
In the time since Ruby Franke’s arrest and criminal conviction, Kevin Franke has filed for divorce yet says in the documentary that he is still in love with Ruby.
Only two of the children are interviewed in the documentary because the rest of them are still minors.
Chad Franke has since built an online presence as a realtor and makes occasional videos speaking out against the treatment he faced at the hands of his mother.
Shari Franke has released a book about her childhood and growing up with Ruby Franke as a mother titled, “The House of My Mother” and she has become a vocal advocate against family vlogging.
The documentary covers more than a decade of information in its three episodes. It dives into the Franke’s religious beliefs and why they are an important component of the story. It uncovers the history of Ruby and Kevin Franke’s relationship, and it tells the story of the children’s lives growing up in the public eye.
For people interested in the case of Ruby Franke and the Franke family, the documentary “A Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke” is available to stream now on Hulu.
