Who is Ruby Franke? 8 Passengers family vlogger arrested on child abuse charges
Former family vlogger Ruby Franke of YouTube channel 8 Passengers has been arrested in Springville, Utah on aggravated child abuse charges.
According to the Washington County Sherrif's website, Franke was arrested yesterday at 9:33 p.m., along with business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, who co-founded parent advice and counseling YouTube channel and service "ConneXions."
Both were charged with two counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse, intentional or unknowing.
Franke garnered national attention in recent years when viewers of the now-deleted "8 Passengers" YouTube channel she ran along with her husband, Kevin Franke, began to speculate the couple were mistreating their six children. The Mormon couple's infamous family vlogging account had nearly 2.5 million subscribers at its peak before it was removed from the platform.
The Franke's eldest daughter, Shari, has been somewhat vocal on social media about contact with her family in 2022, a fact that led to further rumors and theories to crop up online. After the arrest on Wednesday, she shared a photo to her Instagram story of a police car outside of a home with the caption "finally."
Who is Ruby Franke?
Ruby Franke is a Utah mother of six and a formerly popular family vlog YouTuber. One of the stars of the "8 Passengers" YouTube channel that once raked in millions of views and followers, she became the subject of widespread criticism online for her parenting choices.
The pushback intensified when Franke co-founded parenting advice and support program "ConneXions," which has been called a "cult" by some online. Many found the parenting style promoted by the pair to be extreme and harsh. The frequent inclusion of what has been called homophobic, racist and transphobic comments did not help their popularity.
In one oft-referenced example, Franke told viewers that children do not deserve and should not receive unconditional love.
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What is 8 passengers?
"8 Passengers" was a YouTube channel started in 2015 that documented the lives of mom and dad Ruby and Kevin Franke and their six children: Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, and Eve. At its peak, it boasted 2.5 million subscribers and was known as one of the most famous - or infamous - family video channels.
The channel was removed from YouTube earlier this year. Kevin continued to post on a separate, less popular channel.
While their content has attracted controversy for a number of years, the last three have been specifically damaging for the family, as viewers began circulating petitions and reporting what they saw as evidence of child abuse and neglect to local authorities.
Amongst some of the most infamous incidents were one in which Franke refused to bring food to school for her 6-year-old daughter, who had forgotten to pack her own lunch, and another in which one of their sons said he was being forced to sleep on a beanbag after playing pranks on his brothers.
In another, she took Christmas away from one of her young children as punishment for being "selfish." In many instances, she could be seen threatening to withhold food or otherwise punishing her children in a way viewers found to be too severe.
"8 Passengers" has been cited by activists as just one of many examples of family vlogging channels that have left children unprotected and easily exploitable. In response, Illinois recently passed a law meant specifically to introduce protections for minors appearing on their parents' monetized social media.
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Why was Ruby Franke arrested?
According to local affiliate Fox 13, arrest documents said that a child climbed out of the window of a residence belonging to Jodi Hildebrandt around 10:50 a.m. and went to a neighbor's house asking for food and water.
The neighbor noticed duct tape wrapped around the child's wrists and ankles and called police, according to Fox 13.
When police arrived, they found a child they reported as being "severely emaciated and malnourished, with open wounds." After that child was sent to the hospital, police found another in the home that was also malnourished, reports Fox 13.
While serving a search warrant, police found evidence in the home "consistent with the markings found on the juvenile." The documents also said that Franke had been seen filming in the home days before, meaning she was aware of the condition of the children, said Fox 13.
She is being held without bail at the Washington County Jail.
Franke's oldest daughter, Shari, shared another post on her Instagram story celebrating the arrest, saying: "Today has been a big day. Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We've been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up."
In another, she requested that anyone with links or recordings of "questionable or concerning" videos from "8 Passengers" or "ConneXions" share them on a Google doc that is being used to compile evidence.