Imagine getting your room taken away and being forced to sleep on a beanbag for seven months. 

Imagine being hit so hard that you and your sister have to clean your blood off of the walls.

Imagine being forced to run under the hot Utah sun in the peak of summer by your mother and your therapist to expel the supposed “demons” in your body.

That is a life that the six Franke children didn’t have to imagine — they lived through it.

The Beginning, the Middle, and the Metaphorical End

Ruby Franke, the matriarch of the Franke family, was previously known as creator of the “8 Passengers” channel on YouTube in 2015. The family of eight became incredibly successful on YouTube, surpassing two million followers and amassing up millions of views over the years on the platform. The family had gotten their following from posting vlogs showcasing their “perfect” lives as devoted parents, Mormons, and content creators. Together, they had six kids. The two oldest, Shari and Chad, are over 18 and have freely spoken about the abuse they went through. However, the four youngest children are minors and will be referred to as they were in the docuseries (“A”, “J”, “R,” and “E”). 

People enjoyed the Frankes’ content; they kept creating it—a natural progression of things. However, beneath the facade that Ruby forced her family to put on for the YouTube channel was unending and unimaginable emotional and physical abuse. Most parents end up making their children do things they’d rather not do, but it gets to a point. Harassing your children for not wanting to be in videos or talk about their private life is a right that these kids deserved to have respected.

By June 2020, the “8 Passengers” YouTube channel had almost 2.5 million subscribers and one billion views, but their steady rise to fame quickly fell after a video that Ruby posted about her oldest son, Chad. At the time, he was 15, and it was revealed that Ruby and Kevin had taken away his bedroom and he was now forced to sleep on a bean bag in the basement for seven months. The sunny days of the “8 Passengers” YouTube reign were about to get a lot darker. 

Viewers were outraged—and they made sure Ruby knew it. But this wasn’t the first time Ruby had been caught in another scandal revolving around her parenting styles. Another time, she had refused to bring her six-year-old’s lunch to school after she forgot it. The thing is, she’s in kindergarten. She’s a young child, and mistakes are allowed to be made, like forgetting your lunch. Ruby refused to do so in a fit of righteousness that was false. And, arguably, the most severe of her punishments was sending Chad to a wilderness camp called Anasazi for months on end because of his behavior.

It was around 2019 when Ruby and Kevin decided enough was enough. Chad’s behavior was getting so bad that he either had to see a therapist or be sentenced to another wilderness camp for troubled teens—except this one went until he was 18. He chose to see a therapist, marking the beginning of the end for the Franke family. This is a decision that both Ruby and Kevin were in on, showing that they shared a similar parenting style. People say that Kevin is innocent from Ruby’s atrocious behavior, but being privy to all the yelling, hitting, and willingly sending his child to the woods for months proves otherwise.

The therapist in question was Jodi Hildebrandt, who ended up being Ruby’s accomplice in her child abuse crimes. Hildebrandt, though she ran an entire therapy practice called ConneXions that specialized in relationship and business counseling, had her license probated in 2012 because she “disclosed sensitive confidential information” of a former client to the LDS church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and BYU (Brigham Young University), only furthering concerns about her reliability. However, Ruby and Kevin didn’t mind—in fact, Chad claims they “fell in love with her” from their first Zoom meeting. From then on, Hildebrandt was involved in almost every aspect of the Franke’s lives, and she soon invited Ruby to become her business partner.

This was a clear breach in doctor/patient confidentiality, and it also made Hildebrandt a personal source. It’s unnatural for a therapist to become deeply involved with her clients’ families and get paid for it. She was supposed to be an outlet for the Frankes to vent their frustrations to and pave new paths for themselves, but she didn’t start or end her run as their therapist impartially. 

ConneXions was already a hit within the Mormon community, but the love only grew once Ruby started advertising her new lifestyle on her YouTube channel. Following their official “cancellation” online from 2020, in 2021, Ruby deleted the “8 Passengers” account and created a new platform called “Moms of Truth,” where she and Hildebrandt would offer rather questionable parenting, relationship, and lifestyle advice to anybody who would listen. 

Immediately, the backlash began. Their biggest critics came from TikTok, and they would post clips from the YouTube videos about their bizarre parenting styles and the negative thoughts surrounding children. The one thing you could take away from not only “Moms of Truth,” but also how Ruby and Hildebrandt acted was that they did not like children and Hildebrandt did not like men.

The Lead Up

After starting “Moms of Truth,” Hildebrandt moved in with the Franke’s and took up residence in the bedroom of Shari, the eldest Franke child and BYU-bound within two weeks time. In the wake of Hildebrandt’s move-in, she brought along the “inner demons” that plagued her, and she needed the assistance of Ruby and Kevin to exorcise it out of her. During the late hours of the night, Ruby and Kevin would perform rituals on her—soon though, Kevin’s help wasn’t necessary, and Ruby was doing the job alone. Helping Hildebrandt and her “demons” led to Ruby taking up residence with her in Shari’s bedroom, and it raised a lot of questions.

Because of this, both Kevin and Shari became suspicious of what was really going on with Ruby and Hildebrandt. In Shari’s autobiography titled “The House of my Mother: a Daughter’s Quest for Freedom,” she alludes to believing that Ruby and Hildebrandt were in a romantic relationship. Following Ruby and Hildebrant’s dubious midnight affairs and Ruby’s increasing devotion to Hildebrandt’s ideology, Kevin says that she “invited him to leave the house.”

Being “invited” to leave the house was simple—Kevin, in light of his increasing issues that he, Ruby, and Hildebrandt all claimed he had, was to cut off all communication with his wife and children yet still attend the men’s group ConneXions meetings that Hildebrandt held. This was in the summer of 2022, and this would end up being the last time Kevin would see his four youngest children until Ruby’s arrest.

The Arrest

On Aug. 30, 2023, the youngest son, “R,” of Ruby and Kevin was seen on various Ring cameras, going around the neighborhood of Ivins, UT, where he was being held captive in Hildebrandt’s house by her and Ruby. He was trying to get help. After ringing many doorbells, eventually Hildebrandt’s neighbor opened the door. Seeing the condition that “R” was in when he arrived, the neighbor immediately called the police. Once they arrived, “R” was taken into an ambulance where he was promptly transported to the hospital. It was clear that he was malnourished, but he was also emaciated and had severe wounds on his extremities which were covered up by duct tape and a honey-cayenne pepper mixture to supposedly heal them. 

While in the ambulance, “R” mentioned that he had a younger sister who was still trapped inside of Hildebrandt’s home, and they rushed to do a complete search-through of the house, where they found Hildebrandt at the front door and “E,” the little sister, with a shaved head inside of a dark closet. Ruby didn’t show up until much later, but when she did, she was immediately detained and brought in for custody by the police, along with Hildebrandt, while “E” was taken to the hospital.

At this point, the cops are only aware of two children, but there are still two others that are somewhere unknown—“A” and “J,” the two middle children. They were found at the household of another one of Hildebrandt’s followers and ConneXions ambassadors, physically unharmed. 

Before Ruby went back to Hildebrandt’s house, she called Kevin—the first contact they’d had since he left the house in 2022—and told him that he needed to go to the Ivins police station for the kids. He did as such, but he claims that he truly had no idea what was happening while he was away, and he was oblivious to everything that went down in Hildebrandt’s house, which may or may not be completely true. Based on previous behavior from Kevin, it doesn’t seem out of the question to consider that he knew everything that was happening and didn’t want to stop it.

As the case progressed, more evidence was coming to light about what Ruby and Hildebrandt did to “R” and “E.” On the bedside table in the room that Ruby slept in was a journal, detailing everything that happened since they moved in with Hildebrandt. Ruby and Hildebrandt believed that they both had “demons” and “devils” inside of them, which soon became the only way Ruby referred to them in the journal entries. Although there is a lot of incriminating evidence in these journals, there were obvious standouts that solidify how deranged Ruby and Hildebrandt were towards the end of everything. Ruby constantly denied “E” and “R” food—in one entry, she says that “she won’t feed a demon” specifically talking about “R,” and she even details how she took “R” by the shoulders and told him “Give your demon friend a message for me: I will not rest. I will not stop. I will not leave. I will fight him until the day you die.”

It’s clear that Ruby and Hildebrandt had no intentions of releasing these children from the abuse they curated to believe was helping them. Ruby had always shown abusive tendencies—she would yell at her family if they were talking too loud while she was filming, if they wouldn’t cooperate for a segment, and one time she slapped Chad hard enough that there was blood on the walls—but this abuse was otherworldly.

The Aftermath

Following Aug. 20, 2023, things were radio silent on Kevin and Shari’s part. Meanwhile, Chad,now a media personality, occasionally mentions his mom or Hildebrandt, often posting “Ask Me Anything” on Snapchat so that people are free to ask him questions. 

On Feb. 20, 2024, Ruby and Hildebrandt pleaded to four counts of aggravated child abuse in Feb. 2024. After that, the next thing put out into the media was when Shari released her autobiography in Jan. 

However, on Feb. 27, Hulu released a documentary called “Devil in the House: The Fall of Ruby Franke” (“Devil”) which gives perspective on how Kevin, Shari, and Chad describe their experiences growing up with Ruby and the erratic, religion-induced, perfection achieving abuse they faced at the hands of Ruby and Hildebrandt. There are also interviews from the Franke’s neighbors and the paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) that were on scene. 

Each episode relates back to the teachings that Hildebrandt instilled into her patrons and brought up in her podcasts, YouTube videos, Zoom calls, and seminars. Episode one is titled “Abundance,” episode two is “Distortion,” and episode three is “Truth.” 

“Devil” seems to have been created in close contact with Kevin, Shari, and Chad due to the limited interviews, staff, and episodes. As the end credits rolled, it was obvious that not a lot of people worked on this series, and that was likely intentional. Many documentaries, movies, and stories have been posted around regarding the story of Ruby’s arrest, the child abuse, and Hildebrandt’s involvement with the entire ordeal. Shari has posted on her personal Instagram discrediting these pieces of media, specifically the Lifetime movie titled “Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story” because they’re “trash” and “exploitative.” None of the proceeds from any movie, show, or book  (except for potentially “Devil”) went to any of the underaged, abused children. 

Even though there are six children, only four of them made prominent appearances in the show. Shari and Chad are overaged and are at liberty to say whatever they want online, and “R” and “E” were the catalyst for the Domino effect that took place following the arrest; however, the two middle children, “A” and “J” are never mentioned for reasons unknown, but they include pictures and videos of the entire family with the minors’ faces blurred out.

Overall, the docuseries, though short in comparison to the accumulated 1,000+ hours of footage they have, provides good insight into what they experienced after their family vlogging camera had been turned towards ConneXions and Hildebrandt, but the execution left something to be desired. The usage of repeated B-roll makes the editing process look mediocre at best, and the filming locations felt random and unimportant to the story. The message of this docuseries shouldn’t be overshadowed by its faulty editing and post-production mishaps, though—the message “Devil” conveys is beyond important and should take precedence.

The most memorable part of the documentary was at the very end in the last couple minutes of the episode when the interviewer asks the three Franke family members one question each that pertains to Ruby. These were the scenes that stuck out the most to viewers—because it then decided what narrative they were going to post on social media later, but also because it was the first time viewers were getting unknown information. 

Since the arrest, Shari has always stood firm on the grounds that she’ll never speak to Ruby again, and she only emphasizes that in the documentary. It was strange to hear Shari say that, because while “8 Passengers” was ongoing and in its prime, she took after Ruby the most with her filming tendencies and social media presence, meanwhile Kevin and Chad, who had opposite responses to Shari’s, disliked the act of YouTube more.

Kevin and Chad stand in murkier waters. The most controversial part of the series was Kevin’s response to the interviewer’s question of “Do you still love her?” Without hesitation, Kevin responded with “Definitely.” While it’s problematic and strange to still love someone, and go on the record saying you’ll always love them, after they viciously abuse your children, cheat on you, and essentially force you into doing YouTube videos and creating content, viewers, experts, and fans alike will never truly know one-hundred percent of what truly happened under that roof. Kevin’s side of the story, up to this point, was unknown. He stepped away from the public eye after leaving Ruby and the kids, and he hadn’t been heard from since then, unlike his two oldest children, who still post on social media.

Currently, Shari is an advocate for minors’ privacy online in the state of Utah, because that’s where most family vlogging stems from, and she’s vowed to never share her private life on social media again. In her Instagram post about her engagement, she wrote, “I’ve had my voice and agency taken for so long, and now, I’m putting my foot down.” Chad, on the other hand, posts daily on Snapchat about his day-to-day life and shares everything he does with his following.

“Devil” feels like an appropriate way to wrap up this tragedy. All of them, sans the minors, have said their piece and likely want to move on from this. It ties up the entire Ruby Franke/Hildebrandt story with a loose bow—there’s obviously still things lurking underneath the surface of it all, but it’s not for our eyes to see. This entire family, and the underage children involved, have a right to privacy, and there’s a good chance this is the last insider information that will be shared regarding Ruby from her family.