When one of Ruby Franke’s six children turned up emaciated on a neighbor’s doorstep, with open sores and duct tape wrapped around their limbs, it shocked the millions who had watched her “8 Passengers” YouTube channel.
The Mormon mom had delighted fans — and earned into six figures — by appearing to be a great mom with a posse of kids and a husband who loved her, until the neighbor in Santa Clara, Utah, called 911 and brought her influencing career to a catastrophic end.
Now friends are telling how before her dramatic fall, Franke, 41, buddied up with rigid self-help guru Jodi Hildebrandt, 54, and, according to one of Franke’s sisters, “the crap hit the fan.”
Both are charged with child abuse, but to those who knew her, Franke’s relationship with Hildebrandt had long since set off alarm bells.
It bills itself as an internet-based education program. ConneXions claims to work on relationship problems and anxiety, among other issues.
According to Julie Deru, one of Ruby’s sisters, “Three years ago, Ruby was getting counseling [from Hildebrandt].”
“You can be whole,” Hildebrandt said in a promotional video. “You can experience feelings of being whole, centered, liberated, connected, empowered and free.”
But Franke’s estranged husband Kevin, a former Brigham Young University professor, believes that none of that is true.
Randy S. Kester, the attorney representing Ruby’s husband, Kevin Franke told Pvnew, “Jodi held herself out as this expert who could heal people and families by humiliating them. My client thinks she destroyed his marriage and destroyed his family.”
Other men made similar claims to NBC News, saying that Hildebrandt diagnosed them as being addicted to sex, pornography or lust, and ruining their marriages.
Apparently, Franke was not shy in sharing her lessons from ConneXions, which was founded in 2007.
“We all felt weird about this Jodi lady,” Deru said on her YouTube channel, the Deru Crew. “We didn’t like the teachings that Ruby was bringing to family functions. We came close to saying something but didn’t.”
“They went on trips for days at a time,” said Kester. “They would go on what they characterized as business trips. Kevin stayed home with the kids. He was a devoted husband and would not stand in the way of her self-development.”
While, according to Kester, there has “been speculation [about Jodi and Ruby being more than friends and colleagues],” he added, “I don’t have anything to indicate that. My client has not seen any sign of that relationship – other than videos where [Jodi and Ruby] were holding hands.”
Asked if the bonded Ruby and Jodi were a real-life version of “Thelma & Louise,” he responded, “It’s a fair characterization.”
On August 30, everything unraveled when police were called to check on the welfare of the Franke child.
“I just had a 12-year-old boy show up,” the neighbor told an emergency dispatcher. “He’s emaciated. He’s got tape around his legs. He’s obviously covered in wounds. He says what happened to him was his fault.”
Considering what went on in her aunt’s house, and the relationship between Hildebrandt and Frank, Jessi said, “Ruby supports [the duct taping and starvation] but it comes from Jodi. I hope that Jodi is not able to slink away and fade into the background. Jodi is the foundation.”
Ruby’s long-time friend does not disagree: “No one is perfect, and I can see Ruby being rehabilitated out of this mindset and misinformation. But Jodi, not so much. I’d like to see Jodi gone forever.”
