UT - Parenting influencer, Ruby Franke, and blogger/podcast partner Jodi Hildebrandt, arrested for Child Abuse, Aug 2023

[Lusitana]

Are the younger children in the care of the father or in Foster Care?

Probably still at the hospital. Not sure how able to talk to LE and DCFS they were until now. Poor kids.

 

[tlcya]

I hope an investigation is done into Kevin as well. The fact he wants full custody is also alarming as everybody who watched them for years knows he was complicit as well. I am not saying he went as far as Ruby but he certainly never stopped her and stood up for them.

Mooo

I don't like the attorney statement that Kevin is focused on keeping his four children together "under his fatherly care" one bit.

They don't appear to have been better off when the two adults still shared a household, and his "fatherly care" seemed non existent.

 

[LaborDayRN]

Ruby Franke’s husband trying to ‘keep his children together’ after her child abuse arrest

"Kevin’s attorney, Randy S. Kester, told Page Six Thursday that his client’s urgent focus is simply to keep his children together under his fatherly care.'”

"Ruby — who will be held in Washington County jail without bail — declined to speak to authorities and instead requested a lawyer."

Maybe I missed it but are Ruby & Kevin living under the same roof? If so, didn't he know about the abuse?
Edited to add: I'm way behind so please forgive my questions. I'm only on page 2.

 

[LaborDayRN]

There were so many red flags, even in her videos from a few years ago, in the way she'd openly and proudly discuss her often times extreme 'punishments' for her children. These poor kids.

I'm curious if anyone watching the channel ever contacted authorities about her "extreme punishments" of her children.
My heart breaks for these children.

 

[tlcya]

I'm curious if anyone watching the channel ever contacted authorities about her "extreme punishments" of her children.
My heart breaks for these children.

unnamed sources in articles state that Ruby showed Kevin the door some months back. Subsequently she left the family home (that she allegedly made her husband leave) and began staying with her business vlogging partner, Jodi. When she began staying at Jodi's house she took the two youngest children with her. No clue if that means dad had custody of the two older (but still minor) children or not.

And yes, in 2020 several social media users reported her to DFC an investigation was opened. Ruby and Kevin even did interviews (maybe with people magazine I posted a link a page or two back) claiming it was simply jealous people making up stories.

 

[tlcya]

Although that “raised a big question mark” for neighbors, their biggest concern was that the Franke’s two teenage girls appeared to be left home alone for weeks on end, the neighbor claims. “It's like she went down to southern Utah [to Hildebrandt’s house] with the two youngest and then left the teenage girls home alone up here in Springville, which is about four or five hours away,” the neighbor alleges. “It's odd.”
Influencer Mom Ruby Franke's Child Abuse Charges 'Shocked' Neighbor — But She 'Saw Some Weird Things' (Exclusive)

so I guess the two older minor girls were left at home to their own devices while the youngest two were taken to Jodi's

 

[Elphaba]

Are the younger children in the care of the father or in Foster Care?

Hopefully NOT in the father's care. Before his exit from the scene, he was just as involved in the strict way Ruby lorded over and terrorized their kids.

 

[Teche]

I hope an investigation is done into Kevin as well. The fact he wants full custody is also alarming as everybody who watched them for years knows he was complicit as well. I am not saying he went as far as Ruby but he certainly never stopped her and stood up for them.

Mooo

Did the father’s employment end?

 

[Salah11]

Did the father’s employment end?

It seems nobody knows fully. He definitely isn’t working now at BYU. The also Erased his profile on the college website. It’s completely vanished.

I am from the UK so no idea how it works but he was meant to be Tenured as well so if he was fired that can’t be good. Ruby made a blog about the exciting news on his tenure years ago.

Husband of Ruby Franke, the 8 Passengers vlogger arrested on suspicion of child abuse, hopes to 'keep his children together' after wife's arrest, attorney says

Ruby Franke's husband, Kevin, has largely remained out of the public eye since the 8 Passengers YouTube channel shut down.

www.insider.com

The father was an associate professor at Brigham Young University in Utah, but a spokesperson told Insider his employment ended earlier this spring

 

[Howl]

No. But the “fatherly care” statement makes me angry.

MOO: 100% lawyer-speak statement.

I have confusion about who was where when. As I understand it, the two youngest kids were living at Jodi Hildebrandt's house when recovered by Utah's child protective services. As noted upthread by @tycla, Jodi Hildebrandt's home or a home is near St. George, in the SW corner of Utah. Is this the home where the two youngest were found? Her ConneXions thing is listed as being in Orem, my impression is that Ruby's McMansion house is in Springdale and the two middle kids were staying with "family friends" in (I think) American Fork. The home near St. George is about a 3 or 4-hour drive from the other locations.

 

[NeverPersonal]

I'm curious if anyone watching the channel ever contacted authorities about her "extreme punishments" of her children.
My heart breaks for these children.

Many of us did. I believe there was a Discord server purely for documenting Ruby's behavior, and I believe the person who runs it sent it all in to Ruby's daughter that is collecting the evidence.

 

[Skittles81]

No. But the “fatherly care” statement makes me angry.

That was definitely bad wording. I find it interesting Mom was arrested, her "therapist" friend was arrested, but the father wasn't yet the kids are in foster care. Poor kids have no family.

 

[Snoopster]

I had never heard of this family before today.
My heart goes out to the kids.
It sounds like Ruby was estranged from her sisters and her two oldest children and her husband. That is a huge red flag.
There are always abusive parents but I find it very strange in this case that this female 'therapist' was involved What a weird relationship between these two women.

Clearly Ruby didn't really like being a mom, but instead liked the "idea" of being a perfect mom with perfect, obedient children. Since she lacks empathy I wonder what her siblings thought of her when they were growing up.

 

[Gardenista]

I'll eat my hat if the kids aren't with a family member under CPS supervision,

 

[kittythehare]

I'll eat my hat if the kids aren't with a family member under CPS supervision,

Were they discharged from hospital, I wonder?

 

[Gardenista]

Were they discharged from hospital, I wonder?

good question

 

[Chimera]

I'm curious if anyone watching the channel ever contacted authorities about her "extreme punishments" of her children.
My heart breaks for these children.

Sounds very sadistic.
All of those children will be recovering for a very long time.
Not 100% sure if other family members tried to sound the alarm ... maybe they did ?
Omo.

 

[airportwoman]

I'm curious if anyone watching the channel ever contacted authorities about her "extreme punishments" of her children.
My heart breaks for these children.

I have seen many reports that they did, including to You Tube, and nothing was done about it.

 

[gitana1]

The whole influencer thing is crazy to me. Who decides who is a influencer? How can someone like her or the one who decided to eat 2 fruits to live off of and of course died.

How are those two influencers?

I actually think some of these people have followers because it’s like a train wreck, I guess.

But following these people fuels them. It makes it worse.

Snark sites or threads/ videos where people express concerns about families like this, compile footage and comment on the footage and that’s where I see it.

 

[gitana1]

my understanding is that the four minor children of the Frankes are in the custody of DCF and NOT their father.

Good. I hope they only have supervised visits with him until he takes court-mandated parenting courses.