Ruby Frankie and her husband Kevin began posting on the website YouTube dot com in twenty and fifteen. They posted family activities, tips, birthday parties, and cooking together as a family. They became an online sensation. Over the years, criticism began to mount on the way Ruby and Kevin were disciplining their kids. In twenty twenty four, Ruby, along with her business part of Jody Hildebrandt, were charged with aggravated child abuse. Oh God, this g is the rise and fall of
Ruby Frankie and Jody Hildebrandt. I don't know this story. A hot summer morning in Utah, a young, blondhaired boy knocks on a door. He's extremely malnourished and needed urgent help.
Oh God.
He has duct tape around his wrists and ankles, a bloodstained shirt, and he is extremely After the door is not answered right away, he begins to walk away when an old man answers the door and calls out for him to come back. The man had mobility issues and it took him some time to answer. There weren't a lot of kids in the community he lived in, so he thought it was a surprise to see him there.
For that poor kids. Well, going to get help.
And then the closest house was one hundred yards away, not right next to each other, and he knew that a single woman lived there. Her name was Jodie Hildebrandt. The young boy needed the police. The boy said his name and his age. The man called nine one one. I just had a twelve year old boy show up at my front door asking for help, and he is said, he just came out from the neighbor's house. He is emaciated and dehydrated. He's got tape around his legs. He's
hungry and thirsty. He has duckt around his ankles. There's saws around him.
Oh god.
The man's wife can be heard on the phone too. She is interjecting, saying they need urgent help. The man is choking back tears. The man's wife gets some food and he eats right away. The boy he's extremely happy to be getting some food. The police and ambulance arrived to rescue the young boy. He had severe wounds and it didn't look like he had been He would have lasted lasted much longer if he hadn't escaped and found this man. The boy had five other siblings and was
the son of famous YouTube personality Ruby Frankie. Her brand had changed quite a lot since she first started. When she began her YouTube channel, it was fun, it was vibrant, and it was personal. She updated everyone on the day to day lives of their Mormon family. There were eight people in the family, and so the channel was called eight Passengers. They soon had over two million YouTube subscribers.
It was a simple formula and it worked. But sadly, as time went on, Ruby became a very different person and believed her youngest son and daughter had been possessed by the devil.
Oh god.
The online world had seen her demise in real time, and the online world were worried.
What year was this?
Sorry? So this was in twenty fifteen when it all came crashing down? Really sorry, twenty fifteen. Yeah, they started in twenty fifteen, so.
Yeah, oh okay, but what year was this that he twenty twenty four? Oh shit, right?
Yeah, and when they were charged.
Really recently yeah wow? Yeah, okay.
So Ruby became a different person, believed her youngest son and our daughter had been possessed by the devil. The online world were really worried about her and the kids, and the safety of the kids. Her videos became more and more about discipline and how she would treat her children. This g is the story of Ruby Frankie and Jody hildebrand Now a lot of people kind of talk about Ruby Frankie. They always s Ruby Frankie, but it's important for me to mention Jody Hildebrandt in the same story.
I said to you the other day, I want to do a story about Jody Hildebrandt, And you thought, I said, Joe hilder.
Brand Is Can you talk about Joel He's an Australian writer and kind of political commentation media. He's a journeys Yeah, yeah, media commentator.
Conservative as yes.
Very conservative. I thought it was very funny that there was some I worked with him on Studio ten for I thought it was very funny that there was a new documentary about him.
He had done anything, so he's very conservative. A friend of mine, Declan fe had this podcast called The Sweetest Plum with Nick Maxwell, and if I could get it, I will play a bit at the end of Nick Maxwell going on and on about Joe hildebrand Very very funny. He just kind of it's about how much he doesn't like him, and it is one of the funniest rants I've ever heard. If I can play a bit, I'll try and play a bit at the end because it's very,
very funny. So gee, I didn't know much about Ruby Frankie before I started watching a documentary on Disney Plus for those in Australia, called The Fall of Ruby Frankie.
Disney Plus I have always had a subscription too, because of course that is where Hamilton is.
There are a few documentaries that have been released on the dark side of social media and in fact, kind of the coultish nature of TikTok.
Yeah, there was that TikTok Dances one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was yeah, and that was a big thing. I think there were Mormon as well, I'm pretty sure. And also people do that.
As a treat. Don't don't go and watch that listeners, We'll do it as a story.
Yeah, if you want to go viral on TikTok is, I'm cool with it.
Me. You're happy if I go viral on TikTok.
Do you dance recording?
Well, okay, I get up in a dance.
Are recording recording? No?
I mean the oh I can't get up and do it, so I'll just do it like a hand dance.
You look really happy when you did that. Can I just say that if you're watching YouTube, you go down for because Jesus did a viral dance. We don't know what we call the viral before it's even.
Jesus virals bacterial somehow.
So I didn't know about vologo families in particular of Mormon faith, which are quite a few in twenty fifteen, when this story actually starts. Mormons are the principal branch of the Latter day Saint Movement, which is a collection of independent churches, all originating from Christianity. Was started by Jesus Christer Smith in upstate New York in the eighteen twenties.
I can tell you the whole story about it.
And some in the United States alone there are over six million Mormons. Mormons believe that the christ Church was restored through Joseph Smith and is guided by living prophets and apostles.
And they believe that Joseph Smith found some golden plates he buried under a tree on a hill in his backyard, and that God had written on these plates, and it was like a third part of the Bible exactly, and he dug up the golden plates and told them, told everyone about them, but wouldn't show anyone.
Believe in the Bible and other books of scripture. Joseph Smith is going, definitely, I don't know.
I'll just copy them onto normal paper and you just got to believe me that they were on golden.
Plates, such as the Book of Mormon, the Book of They have a unique view. They have a unique view of cosmology and believe that all people are literal spirit children of God. Mormons believe that returning to God requires following the example of Jesus Christ and accepting his atonement through repentance and ordinances such as baptism.
I'm going to baptize her, going to be there in God's glory. Do you regret doing this story?
Yes.
Ruby Griffiths was born on January eighteen, nineteen ninety two. It's not very old.
Wow.
Yeah, and born well, I just say that because I because anyone. And born and raised in Utah. She was raised as a conservative Mormon, one of five siblings, and this influenced the way she would live her life, Wanting to have a large family when she grew older, Ruby Griffiths met Kevin Frankie at the age of eighteen at a hot dog stand.
And with he Mormon as well. Yeah, so Kevin is the name of Elder Price, Kevin Price. It's actually really good because it runs with heaven.
Ah.
Yes, it's a really good music.
All the book woman, it is really good. I know every word. I'm genuinely like, I know. It doesn't seem like I'm holding back, but I'm holding back so many quotes when you say that.
So Ruby and Kevin fell in love at this hot dog stand right away.
It's beautiful.
In December two thousand, not long after they met, they got married. They were both from large Mormon families in Utah. Kevin was hard working. He worked his way up to become a professor at civil engineering at the BRIDGERD. Young University. Kevin was also.
Brigham Young.
Young Brigham.
Yeah, I know that from the musical.
In twenty fifteen. Ruby Frankie was a stay at home mum of six kids in Springville, Utah. Sick kids or a beautiful young family. Ruby's blonde has a huge smile and really has a lot of like. She has a real charismatic personality. You can see this through watching the YouTube. Kevin was a handsome but very hands off dad. All of the kids themselves could be out of a catalog. All the photos you see if then they've got these big smiles on their face. They are all living this American dream.
I love that is a handsome but hands off describing as a parent of a father, I suppose as a YouTube father, it probably does.
They all went to church on Sundays, had a golden retriever and a beautiful home.
Ah.
They had from the outside a perfect life, living the Mormon American dream. In twenty fifteen, Ruby around thirty three at the time, started the She Couldn't have been. In twenty fifteen, Ruby started the YouTube channel eight Passengers. It was a vlog of their day to day life, all being passages of the ride of life. To bring joy and inspire others. They would film going on trips, attending church, or just having fun around the house, plus Ruby's tips
on parenting. She had a strict structure and people really seemed to relate to that, with religion being a huge part of what they were watching. It was a wholesome load of content. Really, it was really wholesome and you could you really kind of felt like you knew them through the screen. The documentary I watched shows the dynamic
between Ruby and care in a pretty interesting light. As time goes on, you can see that he is growing pretty tired and uncomfortable with having a camera pointed in his face as soon as he gets home from work. You can see her getting frustrated with him when he can't when he can't say like a simple line to camera. She gets really frustrated with him as time goes on, but he does persist with it.
Because for her it's work. Yeah, a full time jobs. He's coming home from having worked for.
Work. That's right. Ruby really loved it. She dove right into this new lease on life. She could add to the family income doing what she loved. She was good at it too. In the first year, Ruby posted one hundred and twenty videos of her and her family and it was pretty successful right away. It was fun at first, and the kids were loving it. They were showing off to the camera, and they were becoming known in their community.
Kevin Ruby's husband remarked in the documentary that she wanted to be seen as the perfect mum, and you can certainly see this. Kevin was in front of the camera as much as Ruby and the kids. But the family are all kind of childlike in the early videos. They play pranks on each other and genuinely seem to like kind of have a lot of fun together. Seeing this nuclear family, no one would ever guess how dark a story like this could go.
God Like, there are a few things in the world I would be less interested in watching that family.
No, I know, I know, but that's a thing, Like it's not I'm not the target audience. No, but I think now you look at like there are people that I've seen recently sell out the Palais Theater, the huge three thousand seater theater in Melbourne, that I go, Holy hell, I've never heard of that person. You look at their Instagram, you go, it's twenty million followers. You know, they've got their audience. And I think this is what this was. Oh absolutely, Like I'm not a family, I'm not.
A parent, normal man, you know, nor American.
Yeah, I know, you know. Of well, Ruby was the star. The viewers love the kids, and they all had their favorites. It's kind of like the Brady Bunch, I guess in that way.
It's like watching a TV show, but absolutely.
It's YouTube's never been the thing that I go to watch, but so many people do love it.
I suppose like this is not that all that different to like the concept behind their Kardashians. The only difference is that was a TV show, this YouTube.
I don't forget to make it pass on YouTube as well.
Don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube and you can see the beautiful dance I did before.
Not everyone loved them, of course, the comments started asking about consent of the kids being in the film. Should they be posting their kids on social media? They're not old enough to be making these kinds of decisions. Now, the kids do feature in the documentary I mentioned earlier, so well, we use kind of a few of their names, but not all of them, the only the ones.
If they speak in their interviewed.
But one. But we'll try not to use all of their names because some of them didn't consent and it wasn't their choice to be part of the story. Yeah, and I find that really interesting. I always find it interesting when your family will choose whether or not to post their children's face on social media. And that's different in every you know, Diggs did not have a choice to not just post his face NonStop.
You use an abuse his shay.
We're talking about Ruby Frankie's story on the use and abuse of digs.
You use and abuse Diggs's image for your personal and financial gain.
Financial let me tell you make some money. Of fact. What's interesting about this too is Ruby is filming her kids doing absolutely everything. She's filming them like brass shopping, just absolutely everything. So every every part of their lives was on display. Every single thing is content and there are favorites too with videos with one of her kids. Chad, who was fourteen, did really really well.
Chad is the most American nemage, it really is, and Chad Hunter is another like Hunter and Chad.
If Chad was in a video, it would do a lot better than others. Why he kind of liked his newfound fame too. He's a very handsome young boy with blonde hair and everything, looks like an American kid. He's getting lots of attention from girls and he's lapping it up. But that only lasts so long. There is some more questionable content, like Chad texting a girl and his parents reading out the text for everyone, embarrassing him. In front of the whole family.
Oh my god.
You kind of understand a little more if this was contained to the house, But to put this out there two millions of describers is very different. In twenty nineteen, YouTube removed personalized ads on kid content, so instead creators did more sponsored content. Eight Passengers did all kinds of deals with companies selling vacuum cleaners, rugs, nappies, anything. In one year, they were said to have made over two million dollars from you.
Yeah.
As time went on, we are doing this podcast wrong. Hey, we're not yet, not with your dancing. As time went on, Ruby spoke out more and more about her discipline. When one of her kids left a sock in the garden, Ruby shouted at him on camera, making him do press ups. She threatened another child that she's going to rip the head off her teddy bear.
Oh my god.
As time went on, more people started commenting about discipline, making people many people like kind of making their own videos like other people like commenters making their own videos about it and going what the hell's going on with his family? Another one of the punishments with withholding food, kids would lose the privilege to eat. Oh god, when her youngest daughter forgot to pack lunch one day, she
didn't take the lunch to her. She made a video instead, staying that she needed to learn a lesson and next time she won't forget to pack it.
Oh dear.
So the school actually called her like, you've got to bring a child. I'm not doing it. The video went viral and more speculation began to build online.
Yeah, I feel like that one didn't go viral for a good reason.
Was she being too harsh with her kids?
Not like my dance?
Is anyone checking in on her kids? Is there a welfare check? Chad is soon referred to as the trouble maker in the household. Chad isn't in the videos after a while, and Ruby explains openly that that's because he's being punished. He is sent to wilderness camp for wayward teens to be disciplined for an accumulation of bad behavior
the next video. In the next year, in a video, Chad is back in one of the videos, and the fifteen year old mentions that he has only recently been given his bedroom back and for the past seven months had been sleeping on a bean bag in the living room. As punished. Once seven months because he had pranked his little brother by pretending they were going to Disneyland.
So wait, the parents are allowed to do pranks for content for YouTube, but if the kid tries to feel prank o lucky.
A week after the video was posted, a change dot org petition was filed, which gained almost twenty thousand signatures. It demanded that there should be an investigation into Ruby, Frankie, and eight passengers, but even though the police were aware of the channel, there was no actual evidence of abuse. There was a big drop off in subscribers during this time because people started.
Going he was taking his room was taken away, I'm not supporting it anymore, and a lot of the supporters started to pull away because they didn't want to be associated with the allegations.
So the sponsors and everything soarted to pull away. Then Ruby started disabling comments and all of the videos, and even got her lawyer to send cease and assist letters to any of the people negatively vlogging about her and her family. Ruby and Kevin did an interview with Insider. In the interview, Kevin stated that the video was for all to see as an inspirational message of how Chad
had overcome the challenges that he'd faced. In twenty twenty one, Ruby and Kevin posted a video saying that their children are eight and ten years old, had been selfish for a long time, and that year wouldn't not be receiving any Christmas presents. They had to watch their siblings open presence on Christmas mornings forgot nothing themselves.
Oh my god, that's awful.
Ruby stated that she had tried a lot of things before this and had to go through with this as a last resort.
No, you didn't have to do that at all.
Despite the escalation in punishments, they were posting less and less. Then the channel went quiet. Four months later, Ruby started a new channel called Connecting Connections Classroom. Ruby had had a makeover and she was now calling herself a mental fitness coach. She was preaching and talking about living in truth.
Oh my, this isn't even a poor drupee. This is just something I hate say.
It's my truth speaking truth.
I'm like, there is the truth and there is falsity. There's no my truth.
Ruby wouldn't now give strict parenting advice to Mormon mothers. Here we meet Jody Hildebrandt. Jody was a licensed clinical mental health counselor in Utah. She got her license to practice in two thousand and three and then became a clinical counselor in two thousand and five. Her credentials alone lent to her ability to be able to understand humans
and their triggers. She was doing really well professionally when she started earning around thirty thousand dollars per month and founded a life coaching and counseling organization called Connections Classroom thirty grand a month.
We are doing Yeah, true, you're very rich because of Digs dix Is modeling.
The program aligned with what Ruby felt was the correct teachings for her kids, the premise that parents should have a strict moral principle with extreme accountability. She was working with couples and families as part of practice with addiction and struggles in their relationships. In Jody's teaching, she taught humility and honesty and the fact that a person cannot achieve a true connection with another human being if they
are in distortion. Distortion mean means addiction, hobbies, entertainment, living in lust, even being sexually attracted to your spouse is a problem.
What what what? What do he meant to be?
What do you mean Jody's right? Believe in Jody.
Please, You're not meant to be.
Or to sexually attracted only just.
Not horny, don't cheated, rivalry, Mormon community.
My goal feeling like you're not enough. It could be really anything like all these distortions. The other thing was that if you're in distortion, you're trying to manipulate other people. Jody then asserts that every single person in a distortion needs to go through her program. She encouraged her clients to get family members to join her sessions.
She been like, if you're finding your husband a bit sexy, come and pay me lots of money and I'll change that for you.
I think it's really buying into, you know, the commandments of you know, like Christianity and yeah, yeah.
Like using and abusing those like take these.
Vulnerable people absolutely. She would then make those family members call out any distortions that they saw in their partner. It would then create a divide and she would capitalize off this. She didn't see it of public shaming. Her teachings were absolute. If anyone would disagree with her, she would just say they would distort it, and if they disagreed with her teachings, she would say they were abusive.
Jodie also had a podcast, and Ruby and Hurt started working together to promote that and another show, a YouTube show called Mums of Truth.
Oh god, Okay, I lied before when I say there's not many things I would want to watch less than the family video, it's that I would less.
Jody, who was thirteen years older than Ruby, was no sense, no nonsense, and very strict. Also no sense, I think. As well as Jody and Ruby working together professionally, she was also hired in twenty nineteen to coach Chad. She would coach him through his behavioral issues she believes he had many. Jody also provided couple's therapy therapy for Ruby and Kevin. Then in twenty twenty, she moved in to live with them. Jody, did we totally normal stuff? Yeah? Would say that.
Six kids and a married couple, Oh my god.
Ruby had started talking about Jody's teachings a lot more on the eight Passengers channel. She was also a member of the Church of Latter day Saints. It was Jody's recommendation that Chad sleep on the beanbag so Jody actually suggests yes. But in twenty twelve, so going back a little bit, Jody's therapist's license was revoked. She had spoken openly about one of her patient's mental health without their permission.
This patient both publicly publicly on YouTube. This patient was well known for whistleblowing about sexual abuse in the Mormon Church. He and his wife had booked into Jody's sessions to work on their marriage. Jody began convincing his wife that he had abused children himself. Jody also claimed that her husband had an addiction to pornography, something that she would always claim with people. He was thrown out of his home.
Jody even convinced him to see her to give her sorry, to give her thousands and thousands of dollars before going around telling other therapists about him, so he could only work with her. So, oh my god, she had ruined his life and his marriage. And this was not the only time she did this. Another man in the group, a successful businessman, was made to feel like he was a monster because he was compelled to look twice whenever
he saw a pretty woman. The man had to move away from his family because he was a danger to society.
Because he would find a woman to look at. It distorted Jesus Christ.
This was all about control and making people believe that they had to use her services. She was the only option, and she was the only one that could fix them. She was a master manipulator. She saw what nobody else saw. Apparently this pattern left a trail of devastated people. Kevin and Ruby did not know about this before she moved in. Kevin would later say that as soon as Jody was under their roof, strange things started happening. Apparently, the lights
would flicker, floating objects, all kinds of things. Jody would also start having odd possession, a possession moment, so she would, like speaking, start speaking as the devil. She claimed that the devil wanted her, wanted basically her as the devil's bride. What the fuck are you talking about? The devil wanted to marry Jodie Hildebrns. Jody was okay. Jody would take care of Jody. Ruby would take care of Jody every single time. Then they had no choice but to sleep in the same bed together.
No, sorry, what do you mean they had?
They had no choice. We're about to care for Jody all the time so Ruby could take care of her. Kevin was confined to a room downstairs. He was then forbidden to talk to his wife. The only way he could communicate with Ruby was through Jody. By July twenty twenty two, Jody asked Kevin to move out of the home altogether because of his supposed pornography addiction.
Jody asked, yes, Kevin to move out of his own time, away from his family where she lived.
Correct.
I you know what, this might be controversial. I don't like Jody. It's a controversial thing to say.
You take that back. Well, welcome. Well, wait for Nick Maxwell at the end to talk to us about his hatred of Joe Bilderbred. It was their twenty second year of marriage at this point. Wow, they've been happily married up until recently. They didn't get divorced. They saw it as kind of a spiritual journey. Ruby told him that while both working on themselves, that they would try having no contact, and he honored it. She called it a
no contract boundary and he had to respect her. Kevin saw it as mending the relationship, and he believed he was in distortion. Kevin was the sole financial provider at this time when they stopped the eight passenger YouTube channel that resulted in losing ninety percent of their income that they had become used to. He took his job very seriously. After this, he had to provide for his family, even though he did not have any contact with his family.
Ruby would take care of the kids and he would work and pay all of the bills that Jody also lived in the house. Jesus Christ Ruby also said that he should not have contact with the children. He completely complied with that. It is pretty clear at this point that he was being manipulated in a pretty cult like fashion, so he.
Was also under her spell someone to.
Do all of this, He is very complicit in all of this. Yeah, Chat had also been kicked out of the family home for having a girl over, but still had to pay nine hundred dollars a month for therapy with Jody.
Fucking hell.
Jody was isolating Ruby more and more. The youngest kids were now being homeschooled, and Ruby was spending a lot more time at Jody's five million dollars estate where two hundred miles away. Ruby was now Jody's business partner at Connections, where they also in a relationship. There has been a lot of speculation that they were They were pretty flirty with each other in videos and were now sleeping in the same bed.
Very anti Mormon, very anti Mormon.
The oldest daughter was living away university and was continually contacted by concerned neighbors that her four siblings were being left at home alone for days on end while Ruby was away, and she ended up calling the police. When the police arrived, they saw that the kids were inside, but they wouldn't answer the door. They were terrified to Oh my.
God, police, I'm thinking she kin'd of been born in nineteen ninety two. No, maybe maybe it was not in eighty two. Yeah, we's got kids at university and they married for twenty two years. No, no, it kin'd of been right now.
Probably just made a little mistake there, so when.
She would have got married when she was like thirteen, I'm sure that's wrong. My mass is famously.
Oh no, no, let me have a look right now. But I'm gonna have to change there the top of this. Oh yeah, nineteen eighty two, you're absolutely correct.
Change it. We've corrected it.
Okay, we can I now mistakes, yes, and that's something we.
Can and I would never make one.
But unfind this you did. Police went back for so times, but the same thing kept happening over and over again. The kids just wouldn't enter the door. They couldn't get a search warrant because there was nothing wrong with leaving your kids at home in Utah. Apparently on the thirtieth of August twenty twenty three, my birthday. That's birthday to you.
Thank you so much for saying that.
The second that youngest freed himself to go and get help, he walked across the hot desert's and barefoot to get help. He had told them that Jody and Ruby had tied them up and on his wounds, which went almost to the bone, they smeared, Kay Kayen is it kayene ka Kyenne Pepper, Oh my god, Oh my god. He told them that it was all his fault.
Oh, the little boy said, it's my phone.
They descended on Jody's home. Within moments, she was already on the phone to a lawyer. This is all in the documentary. They began searching the house. It was a concrete maze. In the middle of a dark cupboard, they found Ruby's nine year old daughter. Her head was shaved and she was staring at the floor. Oh god. Police tried to get her out to talk to her, but she wouldn't make eye contact. It took the police four hours to get her to leave the property.
Oh.
The other two children were found at a house of another connection's employee, and they had been their cleaning. In the documentary as well, there's a kind of a bunker room and the police can't get access to it, and Jodi says, I don't know the code. Shut up, yeap. So Ruby finally returned home to be arrested three years after she was first reported. They were charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse.
So the word aggravated in that is pretty like yes. Really, child abuse itself is bad enough. If they're pointing out that it was aggravated.
And they barely spoke at all, humming hymns instead.
Oh yuck.
The police also found Kevin, who said he hadn't seen his kids in over a year. He had no idea what had happened to the kids and why they're in such poor health. He just didn't understand. He had a call from the police to pick up his kids. It alarmed him right away. The police said the kids could be released to him, and Kevin agreed. He asked for a little more information and the police read him his rights.
Kevin then felt really alarmed and cautious. They then started asking questions, but he was really unsure and on edge. When they explained what had happened, Kevin said it all sounded like a horror film. He had been told by Joji to leave the home and since then was not allowed to have contact with the kids and would need to still attend remote sessions with her to work through his porn addiction, which she told him. He how she
told him he had. He still loved his wife and wanted everything to go back to the way it was. He wanted to fix his family and simply not be distorted anymore.
So he really believed he was distorted. He wasn't saying like, I don't have a porn addiction. I don't. He was going, Oh, you're right, I must be.
Yeah, he believed it.
Oh God.
They asked who Jody was? Great question, I've got Yeah, I know everyone has that question, he said. He's She's honest and a life coach and a therapist. He had nothing but good things to say. He did not know that his kids were living at her house. The police tell him he won't be getting his kids now they're in state custody. When police arrived, they asked Jody about the panic room downstairs like I spoke about straight away, but claimed that she never used it and didn't have
any access. One officer went down pressed one, two, three four and was let rite in.
Oh my god.
What they discover was a torture chamber where Jody and Ruby conducted everything. The panic room had a fall down bear, toilet dressings, adult diapers, and the pepper and honey concoction that I spoke about before. They also found a diary of documented torture.
Huh.
They were sent to a work in the blistering sun and documented that they belie leave the kid's word demonic. There is a lot more detail here about abuse, and I'm not going to go into a lot of it's in the documentary, but believe me, it's awful. Jody's niece Jesse, has since spoken about the harrowing abuse she experienced when she lived with Jody at the age of just sixteen. She was also tied up and isolated for up to twelve hours a day, Jody also claimed that Jesse was
a porn addict. What Jody has had a lot of backing from the Mormon Church. Parents trust the church, and these claims were not believed at the time by Jesse god. In August twenty twenty three, Jody and Ruby were brought into police custody. They've both been hatching a plan to run away with the two young kids. Kevin told Ruby that they were in hospital. Ruby told him that it was just not necessary. That she thought the whole thing was a witch hunt and the devil was after her.
Jody also didn't understand why she was being charged with abuse. At first, Ruby stood by Jody, and then in a few months changed her tune, especially when Jonie denied having any involvement in the abuse. Ruby took a plea deal and testified against Jody, who promptly pleaded guilty instead.
So do you think it was a bit of like Once Ruby had had some separation from her, clarity returned and she realized.
Absolutely what had happened. Yeah. Jody claimed that she loved the children and prayed that they would move on to have beautiful lives. Ruby blamed also. Ruby placed the blame solely on Jody and gave very hollow apologies. A cousin of Ruby's claimed later that her grab parents were abusive to her and it was multi generational. They were both convicted with aggravated abuse of up to thirty years each.
Kevin divorced Ruby in twenty twenty three and is at last I could read about it is finding custody for his kids. Currently the children are in care of family services. That g is the story of Ruby Frame and Jody Hildebrandt. There are quite a few documentaries to watch about this. When on Netflix came out just last week called Evil Influencer The Jody Hildebrandt Story. I think her names get her.
I think her name gets left out a little in conversation sometimes, and I think it's necessary to mention her name in the same sentenceank for sure.
I want to look up what they look like. I don't know why I'm interested to see that, but I want to put a face to it. Did you say what sentence she.
Got up to thirty years? I don't know what the actual sentence is.
But Jody just looks like a really kind of average normal looking, like kind of dirty blonde haired lady in a yeah, and Ruby Frankie, Yeah, is really like young attractive blonde mo.
Yeah, Mormon mum. Is that interesting? It's a very interesting story. It's very it's awful, it's yeah, And that is the story that has been in a few documentaries and it so I find the whole thing so fascinating that that could go that far.
I was about to say, it's it's good they were in the public eye being on YouTube, because then this was all found out. But that's not why I was found out. It was because when the kids escaped help.
Oh god, that's and it led to that, that's what that's what had to happen.
And then sorry, what was her play deal? What did what was her Joe? Sorry, Rubies?
What was it was a diminished sentence if she play you know?
Yeah, but what was her sentence?
So it was up to thirty years?
Oh that was Rubies.
Yeah. So let me have a look right now and see what they both got. But so Jody Hilda Brand, I'll go first.
I can't believe she said like there was no abuse going on.
I know this had to happen.
What do you call putting cane pepper in a wound?
Yeah? Also, your Hilda Brand ultimately pled guilty to four counts and was sentenced to serve between four and thirty years in prison.
Between yeah, thirty four.
What is so she's still in there, but I don't know what the four and thirty.
Maybe maybe there were four different sentences for four of the chargers one of them one of them was four years and one was thirty.
Brand's first parole hearing is scheduled to take place in December twenty twenty six.
What what what.
Ruby? Frankie which is fr A n K E. So her, Yeah, same, ultimately pled guilty to four counts and on February to sentence to serve Yeah, same thing.
I don't understand that. If anyone understands the Utah legal system better than I ask ye, how there is a sentence of between four and thirty years.
On February twenty, twenty twenty four, Frankie received four consecutive sentences between one and fifteen years imprisonment, meaning she must serve a minimum term of four years, although the maximum term that could be imposed for all sentences could be would be sixty years. The Utah Code dictates the times served by defendant upon whom consecutive sentences are imposed. Must not exceed thirty years, except in circumstances of life imprisonment for the death penalty.
I don't get it.
It's long, isn't it like? I don't know. I don't know. I think that's like that seems a bit odd to have that sort of discrepancy in years.
What a story. I can't believe. I didn't know that it all happened last year, that it all came out. Yeah.
Wow, the documentary is out there. It's really interesting. I'm going to watch that, you know what. Maybe you should.
I don't really want to because it sounds awful, but I will.
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I've had to watch an inordinate amount of Studio ten whilst in Isolation, and Joe Hildebrand on that show, he is grotesque in a way that I can't put into words. He had this thing today where he said, what happens is everyone knows this, like because of the crisis in the lockdown, at about six o'clock at night, the internet just goes, it goes out to lunch or something like. Everything's just really slow to upload. So what we've done is I've bought a DVD player online and yeah, we're
going analog. We're watching DVDs. And I was just looking at him, going, what the fuck are you talking about? At six o'clock every night, nothing happens to my internet. Nothing, there's not a gust of air happens to it. But he's going, oh, oh, everybody knows. Everyone in the whole fucking world knows. The Internet dies at six o'clock at night, and it's like, Noah, doesn't you lying?
And who's he? Four The people watching Studio.
Ten, I assume, are like older women who are buying fucking shit house pieces of exercise equipment that do jack shit, or bowls to store old pies in. Why would they want to watch Joe Hildebrand