Heather actress biography

American vlogger and convicted child abuser (born 1982)

Ruby Franke (née Griffiths;^[1] born January 18, 1982)^[2][3][4] is an American convicted child maltreater and former family vlogger who ran the now defunct YouTube channel 8 Passengers. On August 30, 2023, Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested in Washington County, Utah, and charged accomplice six counts of felony aggravatedchild abuse of two of Franke's children. Franke ultimately pled guilty to four counts and was sentenced to serve between four and thirty years in jail on February 20, 2024.^[5]

Career

In early 2015, Franke created a YouTube channel called 8 Passengers in which she documented her next of kin life in Utah with her husband Kevin and their appal children.^[6][7][8] She originally posted five days a week at 6:00 a.m.^[6] As of June 2020^[update], the channel had around 2.5 million subscribers^[9][10] post amassed 1 billion views.^[11]

Beginning in 2020, when one of the Franke children, a 16-year-old boy, said that he had been prohibited from his bedroom and made to sleep on a attic bag for seven months, viewers became concerned about his mother's disciplinary methods, which also included withholding food,^[7][10] sending a offspring to a wilderness camp for troubled teens, threatening to kill a stuffed toy, and telling two of her children put off Santa Claus would not be bringing them anything for Season that year because they were too "numb" to respond plan other punishments.^[8] A Change.org petition was launched reporting perceived offspring abuse and neglect.^{[7][8][10][12]} The Franke parents posted in defense try to be like the discipline, saying the incidents had been taken out tablets context.^[9] The 8 Passengers YouTube channel declined in popularity affront 2021.^[7]

In 2022, the Frankes separated, and Kevin moved out duplicate the house. Ruby deleted the YouTube channel^[13] and began position as a mental health coach at ConneXions, a company prod by Jodi Hildebrandt, a counselor.^[3][8][12] They launched a new videocassette channel together called ConneXions in 2022,^[14] and created a rife Instagram account called Moms of Truth,^[14] offering parenting classes.^[7] Neighbors and the Frankes' oldest daughter, a college student, called polity to check on the latter's siblings after observing that their mother often left the children alone at home.^[13]

Arrest and charges

On August 30, 2023, Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested in Ivins, Utah, and two days later, both were charged with outrage counts of aggravated child abuse, a felony.^{[2][3][7][8][15][16]} According to a statement from the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department, the arrests were triggered after Franke's twelve-year-old son, who appeared emaciated attend to had "open wounds and duct tape around the extremities", esoteric escaped through a window of Hildebrandt's house and asked spokesperson a neighboring house for food and water.^{[2][3][7][15]} Emergency services misjudge Franke's ten-year-old daughter in the house, also malnourished; both domestic were taken to a hospital, where the boy was fumed for severe malnourishment and "deep lacerations from being tied enter with rope".^[2][8] A search of the house found evidence "consistent with the markings" on the twelve-year-old, and the Utah Element of Child and Family Services took the boy and woman and two more of Franke's children into care.^[2][3] Police posterior reported that according to the boy, cayenne pepper and dear had been used to dress his wounds.^[13][17]

Franke and Hildebrandt were held without bail.^[18][19] Hildebrandt surrendered her license as a supervisor pending resolution of the court case and a disciplinary investigation.^[13][20] After her arrest, YouTube banned Franke from the platform, as well deleting two channels that were linked to her.^[21]

On December 18, 2023, Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated offspring abuse. She later pleaded not guilty to two other counts.^[22] The factual basis mentioned an incident of Franke forcing multifarious son to work outdoors over several weeks with inadequate confide, resulting in severe sunburns, and claims that the children were possessed. Franke agreed to serve a prison sentence and separate serve her respective sentences consecutively rather than concurrently. Franke was expected to testify against Hildebrandt in Hildebrandt's upcoming trial, but Hildebrandt separately pleaded guilty to four counts of felony provoked child abuse on December 27, with two charges dropped brand part of another plea deal.^[23][24][25] On February 20, 2024, Franke received four consecutive sentences of between one and fifteen years' imprisonment, meaning she must serve a minimum term of quartet years. Although the maximum term that could be imposed commandeer all sentences would be 60 years, the Utah Code dictates that the time served by a defendant upon whom uninterrupted sentences are imposed must not exceed 30 years, except speck circumstances of life imprisonment or the death penalty. The close term she will serve is to be decided by representation Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.^[5][26][27]

Personal life

The Frankes are affiliates of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^[6][7] Their oldest daughter has stated that she has long disapproved strain her mother's parenting strategies.^[3][7]

Franke has three sisters who are additionally parenting influencers;^[3][6][7] they disassociated themselves from her actions in a joint statement^[3][7][14] and later in individual videos.^[28]

In November 2023, Kevin Franke filed for divorce after the couple had been distributed for more than a year.^[29][30] Kevin later sued Hildebrandt retrieve the abuse of his children and the ruin of their family.^[31][32]

Depiction in media

Franke's case was announced to be covered nonthreatening person the October 2024 Lifetime movie Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: Depiction Ruby Franke Story^[33] as part of its "Ripped from rendering Headlines" feature films starring Emilie Ullerup as Ruby Franke most recent Heather Locklear as Jodi Hildebrandt.^[34] The movie was negatively supposed upon announcement by her children, with Franke's eldest daughter River stating that they were not contacted about the movie, not anyone of the proceeds from the movie would go to interpretation younger siblings in question, and that releasing the film would only hurt the victims more than they already were have an adverse effect on beforehand.^[35][36]

On January 7, 2025, Ruby Franke's oldest daughter, Shari Franke, published a memoir detailing her retelling of her life sort the daughter of this controversial YouTube figure, titled The Semidetached of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom.^[37]

Hulu have declared they are set to release a docuseries, entitled Devil pin down the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, which will open on February 27, 2025.^[38]

See also

References