Graphic evidence shows severity of abuse in YouTuber Ruby Franke case

(NewsNation) — In a newly released video, a malnourished and badly bruised son of parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke politely asks a neighbor to take him to the nearest police station.

The 12-year-old son of Franke, a mother of six who dispensed advice to millions, had escaped through a window and approached several nearby homes until someone answered the door, according to documents released Friday by the Washington County Attorney’s office.

Crime scene photos, body camera video, witness statements and interrogation tapes were released a month after Franke and business partner Jodi Hildebrandt were each sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.

A police investigation determined religious extremism motivated the women to inflict horrific abuse on Franke’s children, Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke announced Friday.

“The women appeared to fully believe that the abuse they inflicted was necessary to teach the children how to properly repent for imagined ‘sins’ and to cast the evil spirits out of their bodies,” Clarke said.

In handwritten journal entries also released Friday, Franke chronicles months of daily abuse that included starving her son and 9-year-old daughter, forcing them to work for hours in the summer heat and isolating them from the outside world. The women often made the kids sleep on hard floors and sometimes locked them in a concrete bunker in Hildebrandt’s basement.

Franke insists repeatedly in her journal that her son is possessed by the devil. In a July 2023 entry titled “Big day for evil,” she describes holding the boy’s head under water and closing off his mouth and nose with her hands. Franke tells him the devil will lie and say she is hurting him but that she is actually trying to save him.

She later justifies withholding food and water from her son, writing, “I will not feed a demon.”

While speaking in court last month, Franke was emotional, thanking the court for the opportunity to be held accountable and saying she was willing to spend as much time in prison as it would take for her to unlearn the “misinformation” she believed and promoted.

“I’m sorry for twisting God’s word and distorting his doctrines,” she said.

The women were each charged with six counts of felony child abuse after two of Franke’s six children were found malnourished in the basement of Hildebrandt’s home. Each pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree child abuse.

In her plea agreement, Franke admitted to torturing her son, including depriving him of food and water and subjecting him to physical labor, isolating him from others and depriving him of any entertainment.

She also admitted to kicking him, holding his head underwater and cutting off his oxygen by putting her hands over his mouth and nose, as well as binding him after he attempted to run away.

While her daughter was not subject to the same physical attacks as her brother, Franke admitted to also denying her food and water and subjecting her to long hours of physical labor in the summer heat without any protection from the sun.

Franke became famous for the “8 Passengers” YouTube channel she ran with her husband, documenting her family life and offering parenting advice.

But the channel came under criticism for Franke’s harsh parenting tactics, including taking away a child’s bed as punishment and refusing to bring her 6-year-old child lunch at school after she forgot it.

When “8 Passengers” ended, Franke teamed up with Hildebrandt, a licensed counselor, to start a new counseling-focused channel called ConneXions Classroom. Hildebrandt surrendered her license when she pleaded guilty to the child abuse charges.

Stephanie Whiteside contributed to this report.