 I'm going to be a mom, and I'm going to be a housewife, and I am going to be a good mom. To my babies, I can see none. Over the past four years, I was in a deep underground that led us to danger. I have betrayed sacred trust. My bedroom was taken away for seven months. You have something in the bag that you would like out. You can pay cash. You took the phone away from Abby. You may never get the phone back. There's a lot more trouble. They both get indicted for aggravating childhood. The question is, who's to blame here? In a world that is as cruel as it is to seek for, tragedy is ignored in pursuit of a happy mind. Those who seek more venture beyond the veil, lay venture into the vortex. Rested after breaking this 12-year-old son climbed out of a window, pleading for help. You don't get personal space. This is my space. You don't get to sneak, you don't get to hide, you don't get to have secrets. Not in my house. You see how loving that is? I'm not even going to let you eat breakfast. This woman is evil, like the treatment of her children is actually horrendous. She just openly admits, proudly, almost bragging about torturing her children. I was meant to know you. She was starved her daughter as a means of... I don't really go anywhere. Don't have any friends. No, I have some to meet. Welcome to the process. When I first started getting to know you, she's like, anger is my favorite emotion. I'm like, I don't know what I'm dealing with here. Use your choices to empower you to recognize distortion, and recognize truth. I'm on the address of your emergency. Tell me exactly what's happened. I just had a 12-year-old boy show up here at my front door, asking for help. Copy, 17. Have already given a name of Russell Frankie. On Monday, December 18th of 2023, Ruby Frankie of the 8 Passengers YouTube Family Channel, which once boasted over 2 million subscribers, pled guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. And to count six aggravated child abuse, a second-degree felony. With my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children. Guilty. And a Mormon mommy vlogger turned into a serial child abuser. The children were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in, and virtually all forms of entertainment. They were isolated from others and were hidden when people came to visit the house. Both children had extensive physical injuries from the abuse that required hospitalization to treat. We just understand for a minute what these kids psychologically now have to go through to not accept what happened to them. And would you believe that this all linked back to the Mormon church? And all of us were basically set up to be representatives for the church. Some of these families were even paid to do Christmas campaigns to market for the Mormon church. This is over the past 20, 30 years the most recommended therapist in the Wasatch Front by the Mormon church. Initially, the whole world saw a family that seemed to have a big home and a picture-perfect life. But the children were actually living a tragic life behind the scenes. Worst of all, according to those closest to the case, the story of the fracture of eight passengers all links back to one toxic influence. Jody is the mastermind here, not Ruby. Ruby is still responsible. This is Hildebrandt. This circumstance is tragic. It's largely, of course, of your making. This is Jody's therapeutic ideas. These are Jody's ideas that she has been doing for over 14 years. What happened to these children and your philosophy in dealing with them frankly seems detached from reality or any objective standard of decency. The manipulation of Jody Hildebrandt, a therapist, earned mentor who dug her claws into the family and ripped it apart from the inside out with Ruby as her co-conspirator. This is the story of eight passengers, and it's the most tragic story I have ever seen in my time on YouTube, as well as the most in-depth story I have ever covered. So strap in, because this is no joke. And content warning, we are going as deep as you can possibly get. So be prepared to be shocked at the depths and the darkness of humanity. Hello friends and internet acquaintances. Welcome or welcome back to another video on my channel covering controversial internet figures. If you like that sort of content as well as deep dives and analyses, then you might want to subscribe to this channel. Please don't show your butt hole to the camera. Now as I often say in videos that cover family channels and children as a mother myself, this content, this content subject tends to make me a little angry. It just hits close to home. And now let's get into the story of eight passengers. 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To start your two free week trial, also linked below in the description. Thank you so much to Aura for sponsoring this video and hopefully you all check it out and feel safe and secure while enjoying your online life. Ruby Franke, the mother of eight passengers, created the YouTube channel in the year 2015. The purpose of the channel was to make family style vlogging content of her, her husband Kevin and her six children, Sherry, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell and Eve, hence the name eight passengers. There are eight family members in their family in total and these family vlogs would often chronicle the Franke's daily lives which were sometimes very mundane and sometimes very dramatic. At its height the channel had been clicked on more than a billion times and became one of the most popular family channels on YouTube as well as one of the most controversial. Eight passengers was overall branded as an inside look into a devout and loving Mormon family. The charm of the eight passengers family channel initially was how average and sort of common their lives were. If you were to compare eight passengers to a channel like the Ace family who lived in luxury and would do often these extravagant trips and take things to the ultimate extreme on YouTube, the charm of the eight passengers was that they lived a very average life and would chronicle themselves doing things that most people could relate to like household chores or going to school. I want my children to grow up being hard workers and I think that they're going to have more opportunities given to them in life if they know how to work. Right? Do you hate that I work you crazy hard? Not really. I've gotten used to it. Their drama in their vlogs were over things that we've all sort of dealt with in our lives like sibling rivalries, forgetting to go to piano practice. And I had to walk home in the pouring rain yesterday. Yesterday mom forgot me at piano. Apparently I do a lot of forgetting. Or forgetting to pack a lunch. Eve did not pack a lunch today and can I bring a lunch over to the school? Even if the way that Ruby the mother dealt with these dramas wasn't something that we could all relate to. And hopefully, hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her a lunch. So I'm trying really hard to be as in truth as possible. Over time, critics of the eight passengers family channels started to notice that the mother of the family channel, Ruby Frankie, alongside the father, Kevin Frankie, had some pretty strange ways of going about parenting their children. And I have- You're pouring the way. Yes. That's my horn. What? What? You have something in the bag that you could like out. You can pay cash for it. There was the usual criticisms of exploiting their children at every possible turn, especially at the most vulnerable moments. But people became even more concerned the ways that Kevin and Ruby chose to parent their kids. It was this strange mix of expecting their kids to be very responsible for their age and yet also overly controlling their kids at every single turn. And that strange mix only intensified more and more as time went on in the eight passengers channel. And if the children somehow did not meet their parents' expectations, then they ruled with an iron fist with intense discipline and harsh punishments that to many audience members became abusive. I was really hoping that like keeping them home from school and wiping the floorboards would like really bring pain. Like, like, oh my gosh, I really want to change this behavior that I've been exhibiting. So if Ruby and Kevin are such bad examples of parenting, why did people watch eight passengers? Well, it could be argued that people enjoyed the eight passengers family channel because of the children. Ruby Frankie filmed her children so frequently that audience members became invested in the personalities of all the eight passengers' siblings. So who are the eight passengers' children? Sherry is the oldest child of eight passengers. And throughout the vlogs, people had very mixed opinions of Sherry, often thinking that she was going to grow up and follow in her mother's footsteps. That is, until the past few years, when Sherry distanced herself from her family and made her displeasure with her family's actions known, who fought for justice even when she was only an island. My four young siblings are living in Springville and my neighbors have been telling me that they have been left home alone for about four or five days. Chad is the eldest son and was known to be the rebellious child, often getting into trouble and receiving consequences from his parents. Three years ago, he was making choices that were going to wind him up in prison for life. And so I thought, hmm, do I step in and start holding my accountable in ways that are going to be disappointing for him right now? People's became concerned for Chad due to his parents' heavy discipline. We had a child who was showing up dishonest, irresponsible, not humble in the home, at school, at Pierce Homes. But there was one place he always showed up and that was at his sport or choice football. Because that's the only place he's showing up responsible. That's the one thing that he needs to get rid of. We need to get rid of it. But also rooted for him when he started to rebel against them. Abby, a middle child of eight passengers, loved to read books, but often struggled in school, particularly with math, which Ruby would vlog about but never seemed to get Abby any help for with a general philosophy that it's okay to let your children fail. It didn't really do good on my spelling test. That's because you never brought your spelling homework home to do it, right? So, do I make you do your homework or did I just let you fail? You let me fail. I did. I just let you fail the whole year, didn't I? Because Abby is still a minor, her face will not be shown in this video. Julie was known to be shy and reserved in the vlogs, a middle child who kept to herself. Julie's also very tall and plays volleyball. How long have you been playing volleyball? You like it? Yeah? Julie is also still a minor, so her face will not be shown in this video. Russell, the youngest son of eight passengers, was known to have angry outbursts from a young age. Again, because Ruby would often film his angry outbursts and put them in the eight passengers' vlogs. So grumpy! Good job! Though some audiences interpreted this as a character flaw on Russell, who is just a child, so that's pretty messed up, it really just could have been Russell trying to express the emotions of his family situation. Russell is still a minor, so his face will not be shown in this video. Eve is the youngest child of eight passengers. Since Eve is still a minor, I won't be showing her face in this video. So what led Ruby Frankie to vlogging her entire children's lives and then, years later, turning down a much darker path and becoming, well, abusive towards her children? What was Ruby's own childhood like while Ruby's childhood has remained somewhat of a mystery due to the lack of family vlogging available at the time? Ruby is the oldest child of Chad and Jennifer Griffiths. Like many Mormon families, Ruby's parents had several children. After Ruby came her brother, Bo, followed by her sisters, Bonnie, Julie, and Ellie. Ruby very rarely, if at all, got to live her own life or do things for herself. She was a third parent to the younger kids, and partially because her Mormon upbringing was strict and sheltered. So this redditor seems that Ruby may have been the child that had the hardest time in her family. Going as far as to assume, she may have had to raise her younger siblings. A lot of parents have the oldest children raise their youngest siblings. And it's a common trope that parents will often put a lot more pressure on the oldest siblings. It's so common, especially with daughters, that there's a widespread term for it called the oldest daughter syndrome. Oldest daughter here, Ruby's life was typical of those within the Mormon religion and culture. She did go to college and met Kevin, who became her husband while she was in college. Ruby and Kevin Frankie met in Utah and married in the year 2000. She got married at a very young age when Ruby was 18. I was young. When we got married, I was 18. I had just finished cradle robber. I had just finished high school and was going up to Utah State. And started having children almost immediately after getting married and then opted to become a housewife while her husband, Kevin, became a university professor. So Kevin is getting his award for teacher of the year. There was a Reddit post that analyzed a little bit more of Ruby's childhood and how that affected her and becoming a mother and her own philosophies with her children. Her childhood home was not one of much warmth or approval. And so the only approval she could scrounge was doing what the church expected of her. Having and raising a family and doing it in a way that her congregation and family would approve of. No, that's not to say that Ruby didn't choose this life for herself. According to Ruby, she chose and wanted to be a mother and a housewife. I just want to tell you an experience that I had in English class that you really can be and do anything you want. I was in an advanced English class, so everyone who was in the class was ambitious and we had a college prep person come and talk to us and we went around the room and we had to stand up, say our name and what we wanted to be when we grew up. And everyone who stood up said lawyer, doctor, all these wonderful, ambitious goals. And when it was my turn to stand up, I said, I want to be a mother. And the lady's like, that's okay. And what else do you want to be? And I said, a housewife. I want to stay home. And my teacher said, Ruby, I want to see you at the end of class. And he let me have it about how I was not being ambitious and how I was going to let my talents go. I was settling. And I think that day marked a time in my life where I said, you know what, not only am I going to do it and show him who's who, but I'm going to be good at it. I'm going to be a mom and I'm going to be a housewife and I am going to be a good mom. According to Mormon rules, Mormons believe we lived with God before we were born. We were spirits there. And in order to gain our bodies and to have special experiences necessary for our eternal salvation, we need to come to earth. For this reason, Mormons are encouraged to have children if they are able to do so. The church's official statement on birth control says, when husband and wife are physically able, they have the privilege and responsibility to bring children into the world and to nurture them. Ruby got married at 18. And I would guess it was at least half desperation to get away from her home life at the time and also a good part social pressure from Mormon women to fulfill their duties of marriage and having kids. I'm calling her and I'm like, Mom, remember that guy I was telling you about, that Kevin kid? Well, we're going to get married in a couple of months when the semester's over. Two weeks, two weeks from the day we met to the day we got engaged and set a date was two weeks. Ruby was pregnant with her first child Sherry at just 20 years old and was barely 21 as a first time mother. And after only two years of marriage, she was expecting her first child. And we do know that she went on to have kids basically every two years which as someone who had a child and that was an extremely harsh experience on my body, I can't imagine having a kid every two years. On top of that, Ruby had pregnancy loss in between of which she admits her husband was not sympathetic. Okay, some husbands, I'm not saying all husbands, but my husband was an idiot. Oh gosh, this has been really helpful for me to reminisce about my miscarriages. And this isn't to absolve Ruby, but just to give context of where Ruby started out in her story. The Mormon church is powerful, wealthy, and integrated within it is strong imagery of what a family should look like as well as what a wife, woman, and mother should look like. For those who may be born within it and have perfectionistic tendencies, anxiety or insecurity, I can imagine that it would be easy to internalize that or maybe even go the opposite way and project outward this idea that you are indeed living up to those standards and all the expectations that are placed onto you by your religion. It's because of you that I haven't been able to live my dream. Like my dream was to be a stay-at-home mom and to make dinner for my family and to have lots and lots of babies. I've also heard personally, at least, from peers who have grown up in the Mormon religion that Mormon culture places a strong emphasis on appearances and that especially with women, there's a lot of pressure in maintaining a traditionally feminine cisgender appearance and also appearing like you have this perfectly curated life. I spoke with Celeste Davis, who is a woman who used to be in the Mormon church in a sense exited and now writes really, really thoughtful essays. When we talked about the experience of growing up in a fundamentalist Christian community, the thing that was really striking to me was the way in which the drive to be perfect is something that is embedded in you almost subliminally. Davis told me that even when she was in the community, she could be aware of herself, aware of somewhere for more irrational drives, aware that it wasn't the end of the world if she didn't put mascara on for church. She could have that cognitive awareness and yet she still had to do it. She couldn't fight it. Of course, I don't have any personal testimony or knowledge in this and if you have any personal experiences in the Mormon religion, I would love to know your thoughts on this in the comments. Kevin and Ruby had been sporadically uploading YouTube videos since the year 2012 when they taped themselves at a rally supporting fast food chain Chick-fil-A's that's a mouthful, anti-gay marriage campaign. This is us waiting in line to eat a Chick-fil-A because we're supporting marriage between man and woman. Ruby announced into the camera, proudly, something very interesting about Ruby's entire family. Ruby's entire side of the family started to make YouTube vlogging channels, something that Ruby's younger sisters started at the rest of her family ended up adopting, including herself. We've been exposed to vlogging because Ellie and Jared had been vlogging for a few years. For years now. And so we've seen it. I mean, we knew what it was. The mom of Ruby has sisters that have channels as well. And all of these family members' content are vlog-style content centered on their day-to-day lives because we all need to know what the Griffiths are up to. It's all riveting information to know what these Mormon families living in Utah do on a daily basis. Whether they're going grocery shopping or doing school drop-offs, we must know this information. Write it down. Ruby's parents, Chad and Jennifer, who are now grandparents, have a YouTube channel called Grandma and Grandpa Griffiths. Their riveting content is centered around cooking videos and also advice videos. Some of their videos are adorable. I love to see grandparents doing grandparent things. And because they are grandparents and don't have children in their house 24-7, I would say that Grandma and Grandpa Griffith are the least problematic of all of Ruby's family's YouTube channels because oftentimes it's just them as fully-fledged adults filming their content without unconsenting children being filmed. Chad and Jennifer are still devout Mormons and also recently went on a mission in Serbia, which they filmed and documented regularly for their YouTube channel. We've been out on our mission for a little over two months and we've been in Serbia. About six weeks. Ruby's brother, Beau Griffiths, has a master's in electrical, electronics, and communications engineering. In 2006, Beau married Emily and they had three children together. Beau even briefly worked for NASA in 2008. And in 2009, he began working as an electrical engineer for Raytheon's space and airborne systems. I think, you know, once he saw his family members raking in that family vlog or cash, Beau tried his hand at family vlogging as well. And for a brief period of time, Beau ran a family vlogging channel titled a Griffiths Life Vlogs, which gained over 60,000 subscribers before his wife Emily took over the channel and renamed it to Emily Griffiths. Ruby's sister, Bonnie, met her husband, Joe Holland, while they were both in high school and the couple went on to get married and have four children together. Bonnie created her YouTube channel in 2013 and although the YouTube channel is just titled Bonnie Holland, Bonnie uploads what you could call the general traditional style family vlogging content of her entire family. Ruby's sister, Julie, married a man named Landon Daru and together the couple had five children. How many grandchildren do Chad and Jennifer have? Family reunions have to be insane. Julie is a registered nurse and launched her YouTube channel Julie Daru in late 2011, but started uploading consistently in 2014. Ruby can be seen in one of her sister Julie's birth vlogs, Ruby being there when Julie gave birth to her daughter. Ruby's youngest sister, Ellie, is married to Jared McCann. Together they had three sons and recently a daughter. The couple started a family vlogging channel in 2011. Ellie's fertility issues were recorded and posted on their channel, culminating in the birth vlog of their first child, which accumulated over 15 million views since its initial upload. Because of, I assume, their vulnerability in documenting their journey, Ellie and Jared's family channel became the second most popular in their family. Right behind Ruby and the Eight Passengers family channel before Eight Passengers was terminated. You can see with just the fact that every family member of the Griffiths family developed a YouTube channel about their special daily lives that their family is obsessed with image. No offense, these only identity is built off of looking like the perfect Mormon mother and wife. And that's how she can feel like she is good. The thing is, even motherhood, you can barely keep together. And Ruby knows deep down that she cannot keep a hold or maintain control of her six children and therefore her image. And when it all starts slipping, so does her anger, spiraling more and more out of control. Then Ruby becomes an angry person. Where does anger come from? Do you know someone who is angry constantly? Maybe it's you. How is anger created? What is it? Anger comes from living in a place of victim where I'm not responsible for the things going on around me. Life should be easier. Life should be better to me. I don't deserve any of this. So they're not willing to be vulnerable and they live in a state of drama where they are blaming things, circumstances, places, and especially people. I think Ruby was a person who was really dissatisfied with her life. She did what all Mormon good girls do. They follow the rules of their church and family. They get married young, start having children. Ruby did everything a good Mormon girl does, so why was she still unhappy? It must be her children's fault. And if she can fix them, fix them, maybe it'll all be better. Maybe she'll be better. Maybe she can be fixed. An internet forum titled YouTube Mama Drama claimed that the Frankie's first home was owned by the Mormon Church while I couldn't find solid information online to verify this without doing what would feel like a serious invasion of privacy, especially to blast any of that information that I found in a public video like this. The extent of the involvement of the Mormon Church in Ruby's family's YouTube channels as well as other Mormon family vlogger YouTube channels has been something that has continually come into question. In an interview on Cuomo, ex-Mormon, and YouTube content creator Carl Anderson spoke about his interactions with Ruby's entire family. We have an exclusive interview with someone who knows the family who says there is abuse in this family and not just by Ruby. And they believe the Mormon Church, who they were members of, knew about it and may have had the women involved in the family and with the abuse on the payroll. Joining me now is former member of the Mormon Church, YouTube channel of his own, Carl Anderson. Why do you believe the allegations? When we started as family YouTubers up in the Utah Valley, I was a member of the Mormon Church and kind of along the same lines, creating family content with my wife and kids and went to conventions and met this family as colleagues and other Mormon vloggers. Carl mentioned how all of the Mormon family vloggers that Carl Anderson interacted with were set up to be representatives of the Mormon Church. And all of us were basically set up to be representatives for the church. Some of these families were even paid to do Christmas campaigns to market for the Mormon Church. Even claiming they were paid or given gifts for some of their content by the Mormon Church. Though Ruby's family, according to Carl, was being partially funded or receiving gifts at the very least from the Mormon Church, were their content. When he spent time with them privately, they were not the Mormon family that they portrayed themselves as online. And ever since we started to get to know that family behind the scenes, they were not the Mormon family that they were portraying themselves to be on their YouTube channels. Carl even called into question Ruby's sister Bonnie's recent professions of naivety at the situation. We don't think any of us could have ever seen this coming. Claiming even Bonnie's content has been riddled with problematic and concerning posts with her children constantly having split lips and broken bones to such an extent that she had to go into YouTube headquarters and remove a good amount of her content. We all did as much as we could legally and you don't know what you don't know. A lot of people of her following probably remember many years ago probably clear back into 2018, 2019 when Bonnie herself was under a lot of heat and under allegations and was taken to YouTube headquarters and had to defend herself because she was constantly portraying her children with split lips and bloody noses and everybody was wondering like, are these people pushing their kids down the stairs or whatever? And they had to go back and delete a whole bunch of content related to division on YouTube at that time where they had to split into a YouTube for Kids app and YouTube for grownups and Bonnie Hullien and her content on that channel was a central focus of a part of that problem when it was going on. And the thing is this isn't something that just Carl noticed and called out. Beyond what Carl mentioned of Bonnie's children getting scratched and injured on her channel there's even more evidence of the sisters so more of the Griffith sisters laughing at their children's injuries on social media and these are horrific looking injuries that you might not be able to see because I will be blurring out this child's face for all children's privacy in this video but Bonnie posts a photo of her son who has scratches, really, really bad scratches all over his face not something you would normally laugh at a child having on their face and there's a photo post from Bonnie where she says, up all night with this guy the injury was so bad that she had to stay up all night with her child a nasty spill down the hill I was scrolling through Bonnie's Instagram trying to find a specific post and instead I found this picture of poor Cody from 2014 of his face scraped up from a fall and this is what Julie has to say about it and this is what the sister Julie replies oh my, it's sad but I still laughed out loud and then Bonnie, the mother of this injured child replies, oh at Julie it is so sad I kind of laugh at it but it really is so sad to look at him well what? there is nothing funny about that? poor boy must have been so scared and in so much pain and Julie thinks it's funny how insensitive could she be? many children within Ruby's family have had accidents at a young age don't get me wrong, children can be chaotic fall down, have accidents naturally not to compare though but my child has never had so much as a bad scrape the worst they've ever gotten is maybe a tiny scrape on their knee they are a very cautious child naturally by nature, still there are children that are a little bit more daring and they'll do more dangerous things when you're not looking so I get it that accidents happen which I think is why initially a lot of people didn't question why these families had so many accidents in their household but looking back the pattern can become concerning especially the situation when Ruby's son Russell who was only 6 months old at the time broke his femur from a fall in their home Russell fell off the couch when he was 6 months old and even though he was clearly in pain and crying he wasn't taken to the ER for a week according to Ruby Russell was going to start kindergarten it's a very late birthday where Russell didn't start walking until he was almost 2 years old he was like 21 months old he didn't start sitting up and crawling until he was 18 months old so I just thought I'm just going to give him that extra year to physically develop and he has been a rockstar if you are curious as to why Russell developed physically so slowly one of the reasons could be that he I'm saying it out loud because I still feel a little guilt over it I dropped him off the couch he didn't fall straight down but he rolled off he was not even 6 months old he was very young he was just an infant we were lying on the couch and I leaned up and he rolled off and I grabbed him so he didn't fall straight to the ground I kind of fumbled him and he fell to the floor so after he didn't stop crying for a couple days I took him into the hospital and they x-rayed him and they said it looks like he broke his beamer but the baby is still so quickly it's only been a day or two and it's already starting to heal so they put him in a body caster and they just said be very careful when you change his diaper don't lift from the legs and because of that he had a walking delay and didn't walk until he was around almost 2 years old a forum poster said I'd also just like to throw out as an ER nurse that this is still probably the single-handed most disturbing Griffith story I've ever heard the femur is the largest bone in your body a.k.a. the hardest to break and baby bones are more difficult to break because they still have some flex to them the mechanics of falling off a couch don't match up with a femur injury that is one of the most painful fractures out there I don't know how Russell wasn't screaming for an entire week and they didn't do something sooner I also don't know how no one at the ER investigated them of course maybe they did and just checked out as the typical overwhelmed but perfect little Mormon family if I saw this injury with a lame story like he fell off the couch I'd be making a call to CPS it was a week old that just makes it worse for the most part Ruby has always been the run running the show in the early years her vlog was rough around the edges it was basically a collection of personal home movies that she was storing online guys look as fast as you can now okay that's good Olivia that's good bet a bone mom I bet a bone my flower a lot of Ruby's home movies began to attract a small group of devoted followers mostly people who loved the children and the family and became parasocially involved and alive she was documenting the well-being of her children something that benefited Ruby initially because it brought in views from people that were invested in her family but would come around eventually to bite her in the ass as people became really upset with the way that she was treating her children because they cared about her children as people before long Ruby was posting 3-4 videos a week documenting trips to the zoo doctor's appointments homeschooling sessions and shopping excursions oh whatever it is so we just passed the Rocky Mountain goat so now I think we're going to the mountain lion next because Abby just got accepted into our school she doesn't have any of the school supplies that she needs so we're gonna start and we'll go from there they were just a jumbled mess really Ruby talked about her initial vlogging days but people started liking them it became apparent to me very quickly that people were interested in knowing how to respond to children it became for me a platform of teaching demonstrating mothers in action the power of mothers those who can't teach make really crummy family vlogging videos of their children the more and more Ruby recorded her content viewers began to notice how unlikeable Ruby was not only as a content creator but as a mother and a parent viewers noticed that as 8 passengers gained more followers and attention Ruby became so focused on vlogging content even more than showing up for her kids during a vlog Chad expressed disappointment that his mom wasn't going to be able to be at one of his sports games dad's taking you to the game right okay I don't think I'm gonna go are you okay with that? Chad do you want to feel bad? we won't say that our viewers gonna think I never come to your games that's true I come to your games last season you only came to like two games you're batting me out you're making me look good Ruby completely ignored him while filming content with Russell instead people immediately noticed this and saw this as yet another red flag in Ruby's parenting for Chad in today's vlog he looked like he was trying so hard not to cry he didn't even seem to feel bad about missing his games what else does she do that's so important that it makes her miss something that's obviously important to her son vlogging is ruining Ruby faster than I thought it would an interesting thing about the early days of 8 passengers is that though Ruby filmed the day to day lives of her children and her family life we would never film herself disciplining her children so over the last several videos I have had a lot of comments that have said Ruby you're so patient you're the most patient mom and I actually have to laugh all of the discipline takes place off camera at least from what you can find in archived videos and according to internet foreign posters she would often invade her children's privacy but would tell the audience that discipline was kept private I did think it was something important to know because eventually this would all change at some point in the 8 passengers journey and Ruby would just air everything out about her children online from the nitty gritty embarrassing things to the discipline that she carried out or at least the ones that she felt were appropriate to film something or someone that viewers often noticed was missing from the 8 passengers vlogs was the father Kevin Frankie who was gone somewhere all the time to the point where some viewers thought that Ruby was a single mother viewers noticed that Kevin was often traveling for work leaving Ruby home alone with 6 children because of this Ruby often had the older siblings in the family Sherry and Chad parent or look after the younger siblings Chad was often put in charge of looking after his younger brother Russell often sharing a bedroom with him and Sherry was put in charge of her younger sisters even sharing a bed with her youngest sister Eve so it seems that Ruby ended up eating the cycles that were inflicted on to her in her own childhood especially with her own eldest daughter Sherry viewers noticed that Sherry took on a lot of responsibilities that a parent is supposed to have in a household coming it seems a parentified child a parentified child is one that takes on some or all of their parent's responsibilities parentified children take responsibility for practical tasks like cooking cleaning and paying bills they put their younger siblings to bed and help them with homework the human brain isn't fully developed until our mid 20's so of course if you're a child you cannot effectively parent your siblings on top of that parentified children have to parent themselves they have to figure out how to cope with their own trauma feelings and growing up experiences which leads them to feel alone, overwhelmed, scared and angry Ruby branded herself in her vlogs as a minimalist buying very minimal clothes for her children not hanging photos up in her house literally there were no photos hanging up of her family, her children but to a lot of viewers this was seen as very cheap tendencies that often aired on neglect towards her children for example Ruby would often underfeed her children with the viewer for the sake of her budget she purchased minimal meats and vegetables but loaded her meals with carbs her grocery haul was pretty terrible no vegetables, a small bowl of fruit, little meat and a whole heap of snacks she definitely carb loads her meals with little real nutrition moral of the story is don't have more kids than you can afford and don't complain about your food bill when you have a ton of kids really, really really painful to up my food budget but it's necessary because I have to eat more I'm gonna eat more, I want to eat more, I don't like being hungry viewers also regularly expressed concern regarding the Frankie children's lack of clothes Ruby would get upset whenever her children tore their clothing or would come home dirty as children do because they enjoy playing and being outside and in nature but when her children would get their clothes dirty or tear a piece of clothing Ruby would refuse to replace their clothes forcing her children to wear the same outfits for multiple days a week that's something that always feels neglectful to me personally when children have to wear the same clothing to school for multiple days I couldn't imagine re-wearing the same outfit each week or the same shirt multiple times in one week I wonder if their friends or teachers notice people became even more upset when Ruby seemed to neglect her kids emotional needs on camera as well as disrespect a person who had recently passed through sharing way too many details of his passing in a vlog in a video Ruby decided to film herself talking about Chad's friend's father who had recently passed due to unaliving himself at least from Ruby's statements instead of being respectful keeping the situation very vague and sending her condolences Ruby decided to talk in depth about this man's personal life situation before his passing in an attempt to teach her children in real time on video about the concept of unaliving oneself and what causes someone to do that I suppose was the idea here and according to viewers Ruby spent more than half the video shoving the camera in Chad's face and her other children's face and talking about Chad's friend's father all for content Abby's looking at me funny come here do you think it's funny that I'm just sitting here staring at the camera I'm trying to decide if I if it would be appropriate to mention something or not did you hear about Chad's friend's dad his dad committed suicide do you know what that means no it means they killed themselves it's easy not to have regrets when situations come up like this if you haven't been kind you can feel a lot of regret when dealing with such a complex issue at such a young age is undoubtedly a really hard thing and Chad and the other children should not have had to do that in front of the camera they should have noticed the neglect in subtle ways at times there were other times where the neglect of the 8 passengers family in the early days shown in much more obvious ways for example there was the incident where Ruby was filming a vlog of her children going to the dentist the last time they went to the dentist Eve already had a few cavities and they were told to keep an eye on her cavity situation in the morning the situation got worse and Eve has 9 cavities I remember the last time we came in she had some cavities and we were going to watch them but you don't have good news for me do you Eve has 9 9? 9? cavities? yes Eve that just has to be painful she also seemed to take pride in her children's morning routine her oldest daughter Sherry woke up at 5.30 in the morning to practice her piano 5.30 Sherry gets up and practices then Ruby wakes up her children at 6 am so that they can practice their scriptures at 6 I go in and wake up Abby and Julie and Chad and we meet in the library so that we can read scriptures not for freedom of religion practicing what you believe but I have a belief personally that when you're a child you need as much sleep as possible because you're growing and developing when I was a child I also struggled to wake up before 8 am most days so I am a bit of a night owl to have your mother wake you up at 6 am every day immediately force you into reading heavy religious text right at 6 am in the morning I imagine that that would not be a very easy thing to do then right after they read their scriptures she has the rest of her children practice their musical instruments at around 6.15 am before they go to school 6.15 ok Chad go ahead and go get your violin and get practicing Julie you need to go get your flute and practice their musical instruments before school there is no need for a 7 year old to be out of bed at 6 am read scripture, practice the flute sort fold, put away laundry for a family of 8 people have breakfast, get ready for school make her lunch, make her bed do 20 minutes of reading and then go to school all day that may be tired just typing it out you have to wonder if Ruby to do so much before and after school at home is detrimental to their life at school Ruby would often talk about how her children were failing at school I wonder why I didn't really do good on my spelling test so do I make you do your homework or did I just let you fail you let me fail I did I just let you fail the whole year didn't I it was a topic of discussion for a while in our home it just happens to be in my house it's not very realistic for me to say okay I'm going to sit down and do homework with you because there are too many and we have way too much going on and so my way was to let Abby fail an article published by the University of Utah Health detailed that lack of sleep can also have a negative effect on how Ruby learns all of these moments in the early 8 passengers vlogs are in hindsight red flags but none of them would result in large enough backlash for the channel's growth to be stunted or for people to begin significantly calling out Ruby and her behavior as a mother on the platform but then Chad disappeared on the vlogs appearing in the 8 passengers summer vlogs and viewers noticed his unexpected absence and became well concerned so Kevin and Ruby responded to the concern by posting a sit down video where they explained why their then 14 year old son wasn't appearing in any of their vlogs you know it's a serious video when it's me sitting down and talking but if it's the two of us sitting down and talking it's like even more serious it's really serious he'd been allegedly expelled from school though Kevin and Ruby also claim that Chad has just been having problems for years and it's all been building up to this moment it's an accumulation of things over years well before we ever started YouTubing or well before we ever got into social media as a sort of punishment for his culmination of problems and issues they're sending him to 10 weeks at the Anasazi Foundation Wilderness Therapy Program an outdoor intervention camp that according to his website was designed to help 13 to 17 year old troubled youth as well as young adults up to 25 with depression, sub abuse and other emotional or behavioral concerns the idea is with Wilderness Therapy is if you can survive with these peers in the Wilderness with nothing more than the clothes on your back and a couple of field supplies then there's nothing in this world that you can't tackle Wilderness Therapy programs are a major part of the multi-billion troubled teen industry Wilderness Therapy claims to combine counseling alongside Wilderness experiences like hiking camping and other outdoor activities the thing is there's now a lot of testimonies into the troubled teen industry especially Wilderness Therapy programs and just how toxic they are as well as how unregulated their programs are for a lot of people basically their money-grubbing schemes that can do major damage to the teens involved in them the main philosophy of the troubled teen industry is that teens need to be isolated, deprived and broken in order for them to improve and this is done by making them participate in humiliating group activities forcing them into manual labor giving them small amounts of food and threatening them with violence to prevent residents from trying to run away in the night and outer garments are taken from them they're also given a very small amount of food and water at a time so if they did try and run away they would starve or run out of water quickly in an article written for Akona, Nicole Sakura detailed that since the year 2000 roughly 86 teenagers have died as a result of Wilderness camps these programs avoid branding themselves as mental health facilities to prevent being government regulated and monitored by the National Institute of Health and this strategic loophole allows wilderness therapy programs to freely do what they want with the teens in their care since they don't have to comply with federally mandated laws according to the Anasazi Wilderness Therapy Program's official website Anasazi's therapeutic wilderness program for teens provides an opportunity through a primitive living experience what does that mean does that mean that they're trying to do cultural appropriation or does that mean starving children and throwing them into the wild in the name of a primitive experience and a philosophy that invites healing at the hands of nature to affect a change of heart a change in one's whole way of walking into the world the participants called young walkers kinda sounds a little bit inhuman like they're dehumanizing the kids making them sound like zombies calling them young walkers spend a minimum of 49 days hiking in the wilderness of Arizona and camping with little manufactured gear they live a primitive lifestyle and learn the skills and technologies of the ancient ones what is this terminology this sounds like fantasy book lore but really it's all just cultural appropriation of a bunch of parents who chose this wilderness camp to basically abuse their children in the forest for thousands of dollars young walkers learn to cook their own meals food packs are replenished weekly and build shelters to protect themselves from the elements they may hike up to 10 miles a day and sell dumb camp in the same place for more than two nights that sounds brutal 49 days children are hiking up to 10 miles a day yeah, of course you come back a different person you don't even have time to think about depression you're too busy just surviving what is the therapy here programs are billed through a daily rate with also a one time fee of $2,750 eventually Chad returned from his primitive experience as a young walker in Anasazi and the thing is a lot of people felt like the level of promotion that the 8 passengers social channels made of the Anasazi foundation was fairly overkill tagging them in Instagram posts like these and making multiple video posts about Chad's experience at Anasazi guess what Chad is coming home like three days we read his room to kind of resemble the camp and the culture that he's been in this is our last prayer before Chad comes home I brought heels and no makeup to go to the desert you can't throw it 10 weeks old you can't throw it treating us to grape leaves don't look in the bottom of the cup don't look the amount of promotion that the family made about this wilderness therapy program made many people wonder if ruby was sponsored by them or at the very least if Chad was getting in for free in exchange for posts by ruby that all of the content surrounding the Anasazi videos going to pick up Chad Chad returning home and getting reunited with his family got way more views than usual for the 8 passengers channel and a lot of attention for the family channel so if you're curious and want to learn more you can search Anasazi foundation on google and they have a website lots of youtube videos and it's assumed that these videos weren't sponsored by Anasazi this isn't a sponsored video but we were very impressed with this program though that doesn't necessarily clarify if they got the program for free for Chad because of their social media status or if there was some other shady sort of deal set up you can't tell me there wasn't some undisclosed benefit from ruby and kevin promoting the crap out of Anasazi now the video of Chad parents is on all of Anasazi's social media pages a forum poster estimated that the grand total that the frankie family would have had to pay for Chad going to Anasazi would have been $22,450 for telling me that they dropped $22,000 to send Chad to the middle of effing nowhere the same family that doesn't even buy their children more than 5 pairs of shirts and carbo loads for a food budget all of a sudden dropped upwards of $22,000 to send their son into the middle of the desert to go camping for 49 days though of course I can't confirm or deny whether or not 8 passengers was comped for the Anasazi wilderness therapy program or whether they had to pay for it nevertheless Chad returned home and ruby ensured to document his heartfelt return on all of the 8 passengers socials he got letters from Chad he reports that he has never been happier or more at peace his words have been a testament to me that parents have divine inspiration for their children parents receive guidance from heaven that teachers coaches, viewers friends and leaders don't doing the best thing for your child sometimes means taking a stomach punch by everyone around you Chad, I would take a punch to the gut for you any day we documented and filmed greeting Chad in the forest after he spent 49 days out in the wilderness we and Kevin filmed what it was like for Chad being out in the wilderness of course in a very glorified way he's making cupcakes that made it seem like wilderness therapy programs are great and made it look like the program for Chad without any of the harsh realities behind it I don't want to go home without busting a cold I haven't seen myself in so long usually we'll find a water truck occasionally and we'll look in the rear view mirrors oh my goodness this is crazy this is bread in the amazon world you have to ration all your food out for a whole week and once Chad returned from the program Ruby decorated his room with tons of reminders of Anasazi the camp that he just attended three oh my goodness Anasazi what what what what what what I don't know but like find it almost disturbing how focused Ruby was on filling Chad's room with Anasazi reminders when for all she knows it could have been a really negative traumatic experience for him it could have been a message to poor Russell who has to sleep there too behave or you'll be sent away too according to viewers on the youtube mama drama site his sister Bonnie her instagram story she supported Ruby's decision in sending Chad to Anasazi saying something along the lines of trust your instincts Frankie's also took away Chad's instagram account following his return home a lot of people began to theorize and it was later confirmed by those within Ruby's close circle that the year 2019 is when Ruby began receiving parenting advice from the therapist Ruby Hildebrand someone who will become more and more involved in a sinister way later in this story people believe this because even though Ruby always had red flags in her parenting style around the year 2019 you can see a drastic shift in the way that not only Ruby chose to parent her children but also in the way that she proudly documented it all for the world to see as mentioned earlier in the past Ruby would never film herself disciplining her children and around the year 2019 she started strongly implementing her discipline into her family vlogs because of all of this many people now believe that Jody Hildebrandt was the one that told Ruby to send Chad to this wilderness therapy program as well as some of the other disciplinary measures that Ruby enacted and filmed later on this year when he returned from Anasazi Ruby recorded a sit down video with Chad Chad revealed that he gained 10 pounds during his time at the wilderness therapy program and this was while he was eating nothing but vegan food and walking in the desert I gained weight I gained 10 pounds right there I bet that's shocking to everybody Chad did come home Chad revealing this information added even more validity to the theory that Ruby potentially starves her children since while in the wilderness Chad had to ration his food and according to Anasazi walked up to 10 miles a day and yet he gained weight of course that led people to be very concerned about how Ruby fed her children in her home if while being away in a very harsh environment actually was able to thrive far more than he was in his home environment you can see in documented videos that Ruby has shown a pattern that beyond just budgeting food and having poor nutrition in her children's diet Ruby has shown a pattern of controlling her children's food intake and using food as a punishment once you hit 99 pounds you don't need any suckers anymore there's nothing to eat yeah I need to go to the store stop, just stop only you say it one more time and then you're going to lose the privilege to eat the center for discovery published an article detailing that children, teenagers and adolescents who have EDs are often heavily influenced by their parents' words and actions there's been research in particular how mothers directly influence their daughter's relationship with food and their view of their body while many parents have rules about when children are allowed to eat, research shows that children have set points in their brain that alert them to when they're hungry and full so it's important to let children feel hungry and full on their own so that they can adjust to their natural physiological set points and it seems that Chad in a while away at Anasazi was actually allowed to satiate himself and feed his own hunger maybe to a point that he hadn't been able to before before Anasazi, Chad was attending a private school and after he returned he begged his parents to let him go to public school this year I'm going to a public school well what made you want to go to public school so I went to their school, the private school right and there were like only literally 40 kids in my grade however behind the scenes there was a lot happening that viewers did not know about while Ruby was filming Chad's return from Anasazi as if everything was happy and sun shines and rainbows behind the scenes the honeymoon of Chad's return from Anasazi did not last long, Chad was staying in the same bedroom as his younger brother Russell and decided to play a prank on his younger brother by waking him up in the middle of the night and telling him the family was going to Disneyland when they were in fact not going to Disneyland because of this prank the Frankie parents decided that an appropriate punishment would be to take away Chad's bed from him so he had no bed to sleep on for about seven months however viewers wouldn't find out about this for quite a while in a Q&A with his sister Sherry Chad talked about how when he was away from Anasazi Ruby had donated most of his clothes we have like three shirts no I don't when I went to Anasazi mom got mad and there were tons of clothes on my floor so she donated all the clothes that were on the floor he was sleeping on the couch before moving to sleeping on a bean bag and he was sleeping on the couch because Russell kicked him out of his own room and around this time Chad was walking a mile to school in Utah in freezing cold conditions so it seems like Chad's time at Anasazi where he had to live out in the wilderness in harsh conditions was really just preparing him for his time when he had to go back to living at home meanwhile Ruby got to live a life of luxury in December of 2019 the eight passengers YouTube channel uploaded multiple videos documenting their new move into their home likely from an increase in income from their YouTube channel especially from all of those videos documenting Chad's experience in Anasazi which had an increase in viewership so how do you feel about the possibility of us selling this house and moving like leaving this house I'm super excited but if you think about it like moving into this house as far as I can remember like my childhood and this is where Nali lived like all of her life Anasazi but kind of sad too because I mean I literally only have two memories of our house before this and everything else has been here this is the house she grew up in I cannot wrap my mind around this like this is like my bigger bigger than my wildest dreams ever would have let me imagine Ruby had all of her dreams come true meanwhile Chad was living in squalor in the very same homes in the videos where she's talking about the move Ruby even mentions how she had become afraid that their good fortune and YouTube success was one day going to vanish foreshadowing the events that would soon come I figured out why I was so scared I'm afraid for some reason YouTube went away and I don't think it's going to honest to goodness truly I'm not that worried about it I love YouTube and I think YouTube loves their creators and I think that they'll always work out something between between us but I was worried that I might not be able to create the family soon faced a controversy that would cause their image to further shatter a clip of Ruby from one of their vlogs began to rapidly circulate on the internet people became outraged because Ruby refused to give her youngest child Eve food while Eve was at school Eve who's five years old at the time didn't pack a lunch for the day and her kindergarten teacher ended up texting Ruby asking her to bring something for her five-year-old because her daughter was hungry but Ruby refuses it's got a text message from Eve's teacher and she said that Eve did not pack a lunch today and can I bring a lunch over to the school this happens quite often when you're having raising children Eve is responsible for making her lunches in the morning and she actually told me she did pack a lunch so the natural outcome is she's just going to need to be hungry and hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her a lunch now people were obviously very upset by this because using food as a punishment is overall very harmful especially when you're young and growing and need food to nourish yourself and grow it also just sets up children with harmful beliefs in the future in an interview with The Wrap Ruby and Kevin backpedal a bit on the incident claiming that the real reason that Ruby didn't bring a lunch to Eve was because the school was 45 minutes away even though that's not the reason that she gave in the video my heart broke for her Ruby said and I told her oh honey my darling I'm so sorry you're going to be hungry and I'm so uncomfortable with this with you I'm going to be uncomfortable alongside you because I know you are so capable of picking up your lunch off the front door and taking it with you when you go get in the car and Kevin said that all of the children are taught how to prepare a lunch when they reach Eve's age and that this day Eve simply forgot to pick hers up and you know what she never forgot her lunch again so it's a way to teach our children responsibly and be masters of themselves rather than dependent upon somebody else to always take care of them I'm all for teaching children responsibility early but you have to anticipate slip ups and forgetfulness you don't let a 6 year old, Eve was 5 at the time go an entire school day without food that's insane my children's school never lets any child go without food no matter the reason I love that about their school this clip circulating online caused the 8 passengers reputation to fall even more but Ruby tried to continue forward and pretend like everything was normal continuing to post on the 8 passengers channel after renovations were complete in the new home the Frankie family moved in and all the children got their own room and weren't forced to share rooms anymore Dad and I have reconfigured where we want to put things and we decided everybody gets their own bedroom around this time Ruby and Kevin were seemingly still punishing Chad giving him a much smaller room than his younger brother and only giving him a couple of dollars cash for his birthday while in the midst of moving we filmed a new parenting technique that had people very perturbed we threw away her children's homework something they need to do well in school which you know affects their mental health and well-being and made them pay for it to get it back and she filmed it all and posted it being somehow proud of this was I went around the house and I have worn the way yes that's my homework wow so you're all like what I have your attention now is that it you're all you have something in the bag that you would like out you can pay cash for it so you learn the value of your items or you can give what Dad I'll let you take the conversation from here you can do an equivalent value chore to get it back and whatever isn't claimed by the end of the day goes in the garbage we explained on video that this was a new rule that would be put in place to ensure that the children treat their stuff with the utmost respect I feel like the only thing I would learn in this situation is to resent my parents for making my life extremely difficult especially until my teacher um sorry I don't have my homework my parents threw it away because I couldn't pay them also honorable mentions of outrageous things that Ruby has done that invaded her children's privacy is she filmed shaving her daughter's legs for the first time Julie has been asking all summer if she can shave her armpits and I Julie you should shave your armpits I think your armpits need to be shaved more than your legs do when you start speaking in this video the poor daughter seems so uncomfortable with the entire situation being filmed she also filmed her son's conversation when he was texting a girl I assume a crush saying out loud for the camera what they were texting back and forth to one another let me see it I really like you I hold on I did not say that who are you texting no one any girlfriend whoa whoa I really like you I saw you in my dreams last night which is humiliating and while those small clips angered viewers because of the clear invasion of privacy they weren't as much of a sign of neglect as this next vlog that Ruby posted was in a vlog where Ruby talks about a new routine for the children she homeschools she mentions that she hasn't bathed her two youngest children in a long time Russell when was the last time you took a shower or a bath you don't remember that's a pretty good indicator you need to go bathe normally I do not wake up Eve she normally wakes up on her own however I'm pretty sure it's been at least six days she's had a bath why would she tell everyone that her kids haven't showered in over a week God she's disgusting a six and eight year old aren't just going to shower unless someone tells them to she really is useless how far can it go until someone realizes her kids are being neglected it's terrible that on the surface they just look like a rich family in a super nice house with their needs seemingly met the neglect is not as obvious but it's sure there dad checked out a long time ago and would much rather escape to the gym or work than face his children mom used to be in charge of the kids but has decided that's not for her either maybe she got jealous of Kevin doing it the kids are expected to financially provide for many of their own needs and are emotionally neglected and exploited by their parents Ruby's therapy teachings with Jody Hildebrand through the colt like company connections started to leak out in videos viewers didn't really understand what was going on besides being very concerned by the terms and phrases that Ruby was using as well as the very concerning parenting that Ruby was doing the company connections is the colt like pseudo therapy that practiced and perpetuated a tax tactics that Ruby got involved in alongside Jody Hildebrand that ultimately led to her being charged and arrested for child you can see in real time the escalation of her extreme beliefs in her content take root and start to rot although Ruby would occasionally talk about how she was taking courses to become a mental fitness trainer viewers were not aware at the time of how deep and disturbing the connections teachings went I am doing some really fun and exciting things in the mental health field I'm really passionate about a place where I want to put my time so we'll get into the disturbing nature of connections teachings later in this video an example of a seedling of connections teachings sprouting in Ruby's mind is when her daughter Eve was sick at home and Ruby became convinced that Eve was only manipulating her until Eve eventually got a fever don't you hate it when your kid is sick but they don't have a fever until after the whining starts I just thought the whining was because she was manipulating not true she's not feeling well so instead of listening to her daughter who's saying I feel really ill I'm not feeling well Ruby instead was convinced that her daughter must be manipulating her again the term that continually pops into my mind is in hindsight red flag throughout the entire 8 passengers journey the 8 passengers children continued to struggle in school Abby one of the middle children has always seemed to struggle particularly with math and instead of getting Abby a math tutor or any extra help Ruby has simply stuck by her method of just letting them fail and then chose to call out Abby's poor grades in math one of the worst days that she could have ever call out that Abby was failing math Ruby was in the middle of vlogging Abby's birthday Abby was opening presents and was gifted a book series that she really wanted to read this is the one series of books that I really wanted so you really don't want this one as a book girlie who's been getting into books a ton recently I can relate that's one of the best feelings in the world having a good book series that you can dive into when Abby expresses that she was so excited about this gift and being able to read this book series Ruby takes that as a moment to say that Abby's teacher told them that she's failing math which Ruby has always known that Abby struggles with math so do I make you do your homework or did I just let you fail you let me fail I did I just let you fail the whole year didn't I but that Abby feeling math must be because she's reading too many books so this book series that she just opened she can't read I hate to do this on your birthday to you Abby but your math teacher has told us that you've been missing work and you read all the time so I'm like you're not allowed 15% in math she has an F in math it's too assignment and because it's her birthday you just can't read until you catch up with your math and you can see how immediately depressed Abby becomes Ruby knows that the book series was the present that Abby really wanted and was excited about and used her bad grades something that Ruby purposefully lets happen as she's already talked about before I just let you fail the whole year as a way to withhold the present that Abby was excited about from Abby and virtually ruin if not at the very least dampen her happiness on her birthday hey so you need to catch up with your math I found it shocking that Kevin let out a surprise what when he found out Abby was failing math goes to show how really absent of a father he is the fact that Abby is only 13 and her parents know close to nothing about how she's doing in school is upsetting though Ruby never butt in when it came to her children's school work and let them fail on their own when it came to her children's home lives privacy was not allowed for example when Chad was vlogging his bedroom reveal you could see that his bedroom door was completely gone or taken off of its hinges I've known some parents who do this though I don't agree with it personally because I've always loved to have my own private space but also according to an article written for psychology today children have the right to privacy the teenager may want a right to privacy when it comes to activities like self inspecting getting dressed having confidential phone conversations with their friends keeping personal possessions and taking time to oneself ultimately the Frankie's lives took a dark turn leading to the biggest controversy of all in the summer of 2020 when Ruby uploaded a video where she and her kids spoke about some of their family issues behind the scenes and this video resulted in a massive backlash for the family channel and mainly Ruby Frankie the video started out with Ruby talking about Abby's phone getting taken away and Chad was surprised that Abby still hadn't gotten her phone back the last video that we did on electronics um you guys saw that I took Abby's phone away I still don't know how she hasn't gotten that back Abby so in our house when we take something away it's because they have shown that they are not responsible enough to manage it and so we don't just turn around and give it back as soon as they start acting good Ruby claims that the reason they hadn't given Abby's phone back is because they look for a minimum of six months of changed behavior Chad says that must be a new rule which leads Ruby to ask when she's ever not taken something away for six months so Chad reveals on video that his bed was taken away from him for seven months Ruby just laughs saying I don't think our viewers know that it has to be consistent over a minimum minimum of six months and that's showing up consistent in every aspect of their life that's a new rule that's a new rule oh wait just a minimum of six months have I ever given something back more than six less than six months um my bedroom was taken away for seven months and then you give it back like a couple weeks ago I don't think our viewers know that Chad continues saying that he was sleeping on a bean bag all the while Ruby just laughs in the camera Chad talks about the incident which led to his bed being taken away in which he plays a prank on his younger brother Russell by waking him up and saying the family is going to Disneyland I think so I think this is the reason at least this is the reason that's been in my head it's pretty funny but now I look back and it's pretty depressing no we never told our viewers that I woke Russell up at two in the morning and told him that we're going to Disneyland and he has to pack and he got up and made his bed all neatly and then packed all his clothes in a suitcase and then he walked out the door and I'm like Russell he's like what? and he's all happy that's his sunglasses on and I was like we're not going to Disneyland and he started crying and hitting me and then he went back to bed into use then when the family moves Chad confirms that he was further punished by Russell getting a larger bedroom than Chad but also that Chad wasn't even allowed to use a bedroom for a period of time a lot of you are like hey that's not fair because Chad got the bigger the lesser bedroom and Russell got the bigger bedroom Russell got the big bedroom and Chad got the smaller bedroom and Russell's bigger bedroom also had a bathroom but what you guys didn't know was Chad didn't get any room he didn't get anything he was sleeping on the floor in the family room Ruby then talks about how Chad doesn't have any electronics as a teenager in the modern age and will probably never get any electronics on top of that Ruby says that her daughter Abby will probably never get her phone back as well Chad hasn't had a flip phone a smart phone any kind of phone and it's been over a year and um I still have no intention of returning a phone Abby we took the phone away from Abby in November and you may you may never get the phone back I don't remember The most heartbreaking admission in this video is when the two children Chad and Abby reveal on camera that they don't have any friends I'm sure was made even harder due to the fact that they have no technology or any way to remain in contact with their friends and now I have no friends you can play with friends no like I don't have friends I don't have friends either I literally like told my friends I'm not hanging out with them anymore apparently during the time that Chad was living in the same room as Russell he was told to be taken out on a therapist's recommendation it's now known that Jody Hildebrandt was working with the family at this time and also became Chad's therapist for a period of time so it can be somewhat inferred allegedly that the advice for Chad's bed to be taken away was most likely Jody Hildebrandt's advice the video goes on the Ruby disciplining her youngest son Russell and in this section of the video Ruby begins using connections phrases the phrase from connections that will come up a lot in this video is the word distortion which Ruby used Ruby even claimed that Russell was being manipulative and lying okay you guys I need to go have a talk with Russell the fact that he's not willing to sit with me and be humble and talk is a big is a big demonstration to me that he has some distorted views and that he is in a lot of shame oh there you are I was just talking about you do you want to come sit with me and talk I'm gonna get down on your level I've noticed that you've been hiding from me and you are feeling a lot of embarrassment and shame I don't know you tell me what you're feeling I'm mad because I really won't get anything for summer I won't be able to go anywhere I don't have any friends no iPads no TV nothing okay so I hear you that sounds like a lot to be taken away that sounds like it's going to be a miserable summer can I can I tell you what I see would you be open to hearing what I have to say I see that yes the iPads will be taken because you weren't responsible you were lying and be manipulative with them people were very disturbed by this video for a multitude of reasons it was just bomb drop after bomb drop of disturbing behind the scenes parenting displayed by Ruby Ruby defended the video to Insider saying that the previous video that they had posted where Chad had done a bedroom reveal where it shows him without a bedroom door showed just how thrilled Chad was to have a bedroom again he had done a bedroom reveal where he was excited that he had put LED lights up in his bedroom it never occurred to him that it would turn on us somewhat blaming Chad that revealing this information had caused the internet to turn on Ruby and her parenting decisions the video which was titled what we haven't told you was deleted and Kevin tried to explain to Insider that it was a moment of vulnerability and a part of Chad's story of redemption that showed his victory over the challenges that he's faced over the last several years the people who've been following us this whole time they would have perceived as such the problem is when individuals who aren't familiar with the narrative don't get the entire story they fill in the unknown with their own narrative and that's really where this blew up and this story did blow up the general public became aware of the eight passengers channel and just how concerning their parenting choices were and people began searching through their past videos and over five years worth of content to find other evidence of mistreatment if you search eight passengers on YouTube especially now you'll find tons of compilation videos of the Frankie's toxic and abusive parenting just go sleep on the floor in the bathroom sleep on the floor you did? you slept good on the tile floor I hate it when I'm talking and vlogging and the kids come up and they're like I want to talk to you I am not taking Eve babe, Eve unless you come and give me a huge apology it was not very thankful of you I was excited and I told you to go get on your shoes and your jacket to see a movie and you should say okay and be grateful instead of well what movie well I don't know, let me think about it that's not very grateful and I'm not going to take a girl who's not grateful did you, did she go with you? no, I just found her you just found her? Where have you been? I don't know these compilation videos became so widespread that the Frankie's began sending out cease and desist letters to try and take down these videos and as more videos came out highlighting the potential abuse in the eight passengers household more and more major news outlets also began to grasp the story another family channel getting exposed for mistreating and exploiting their children this past week family vloggers eight passengers have come under fire for the way they discipline their children and when I tell you guys I'm so frustrated hearing about all this stuff I just, I can't even process some of the things that she's done to her children I think that tough parenting is something that I can't really judge I can't judge the punishments that you're giving I could give my two cents but I can't tell you if it's good or bad or if it's abuse talking about the concerns of the eight passengers family and in response the Frankie's just continued to send out more and more cease and desist but in some way this controversy was good for business the eight passengers name was circulating now more than ever and at its height eight passengers had reached 2.5 million subscribers eight passengers was also at its peak pulling around 200,000 views a day generating by some estimates $1,600 a day in ad revenue or around $584,000 a year and YouTube was teeming with drama surrounding the Frankie's all their attempts to silence their critics but it shouldn't be forgotten that the reason everyone acted in uproar is due to Ruby and by association Kevin's actions there are extreme punishments which could be described as hostile parenting people immediately identified that their parenting style was wrong and damaging to their children researchers at the University of Cambridge and University College Dublin found that children exposed to hostile parenting at age three were 1.5 times likelier than their peers to have mental health symptoms which qualified as high risk by age nine and according to the University of Cambridge parents who frequently exercise harsh discipline with young children are putting them at significantly greater risk of developing lasting mental health problems the study detailed that hostile parenting involves frequent harsh treatment and discipline and can be either physical or psychological yet child maltreatment is not only a risk factor for mental health problems it may also affect cognitive functioning for example child abuse is related to delayed language and cognitive development lower IQ and poorer school performance interesting Marion Baker a psychologist who's worked with parents for 15 years told Insider that it often leads to the child not really understanding what they did wrong and also repeating their behavior it's simply concerned with getting the child to conform to a set of predetermined often poorly communicated and ever changing sets of goalposts so the child is almost doomed to fail Baker said that punishing a child by taking away their bed would be incredibly upsetting as illustrated by Maslow's hierarchy of needs we all seek a set of safety and security in our environments and taking away a bed strips this away entirely and leaves the child in trauma the Frankies claimed that Chad chose the beanbag because he found it the most comfortable the parents also claimed that he removed his door in an effort to be transparent and help regain his parents trust which the mental state that you have to be in to think that you need to remove your own door and have zero privacy in your life to regain your parents trust is really tragic the Frankies were met with a flood of backlash which Ruby and Kevin tried to address in an Instagram story where Kevin claimed that mental health professionals presumably and assumed that they mean Jodie Hildebrand agreed that removing Chad's bed was an acceptable punishment and counseled them to do it many of you are criticizing and calling abusive are actually things that mental health professionals have counseled us to do we got accused of child abuse when we sent Chad to Anasazi guess what, the first thing that they did was take a bed away they don't have beds they don't have beds Kevin claimed that the actions viewers called abusive were recommended to them by medical health professionals so it seems at this point the behavior that was causing Ruby and Kevin Franky so much backlash was already being pretty heavily influenced by Jodie Hildebrand the creator of connections Jodie allegedly recommended Anasazi she recommended Chad's bed be taken away and the question starts to form of how much influence did Jodie Hildebrand have over the eight passengers' decisions with their family but at the time of this controversy viewers still had no idea who Jodie Hildebrand was they only knew that Kevin and Ruby made some very horrible decisions with their children and they were very angry with Kevin and Ruby in the middle of doing damage control Ruby spent days deleting negative comments off social media and while initially controversy may have been good to spread the eight passengers' name and might have been good for business as the heat continued to rise the clicks started to fall and sponsors began to back away not wanting to be associated with child abuse sponsors like Clorox, Norton Sargento, Narwhal, and Ruggable all cancelled their deals with eight passengers and as soon as sponsors and viewers vanished the channel's value completely plummeted at one point because of that YouTube family-friendly higher value add-sense eight passengers' ad rate was as high as $11 per thousand views but following this flurry of controversy it fell to below $1 Kevin and Ruby talked about the controversy saying sponsorships were 90% of the business and that has gone away I never ceased to be amazed at how intense and ferocious these individuals and these cancel mobs are and overnight, Ruby went from confidently believing that YouTube would never go away to everything that she built up on the channel vanishing in front of her eyes simply over her children admitting on camera what punishments she was giving them behind the scenes I guess we know now why for years she kept her punishments private from what predictably a change.org petition was made demanding that Utah's division of child and family services investigate the Frankies and it quickly drew more than 16,000 signatures and on top of that a lot of people were calling CPS directly. The sad thing is none of this was effective and we've seen time and time again that none of these things are effective change.org petitions calling CPS directly if you're an online internet viewer aren't effective so what do we do if we see a b***** happening online and want to stop it or prevent it? Eventually CPS even did stop by the house but never took action Ruby claimed that CPS basically said they were getting around a thousand complaints a day it was taking up more of their time answering the phone than it would to just come out and pay a visit. I guess looks can be deceiving and the Frankie family passed as the perfect Mormon family that just got a bad reputation online so the 8 passengers family channel lost the reputation their YouTube income and Ruby and Kevin were floundering blaming cancel culture and refusing to yield against their parenting decisions but Ruby had more of an audience than maybe she ever initially intended and people were now tuning in to ensure the safety of her children and I think one of the most outrageous posts that had nothing to do with her children was the post that Ruby made about the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement Ruby tried to maybe partake in the movement in the most tone deaf way I'd ever seen but used George Floyd and Black Lives Matter as a means to reflect on her own parenting and somewhat tried to claim that she was being persecuted in the same way it's all just a wild take to take something so public and tragic that the entire world was sort of experiencing and going through and then make it about your own internet drama where you're being accused of child abuse. Ruby posted an Instagram caption that said I watched the news for the first time in 15 years last night my heart hurts for the things I've learned my heart hurts for the George Floyd. My heart hurts for the murder of police officer Nathan Leide my heart hurts for being accused of abuse when my motives have always been love and real abuse actually occurs on a daily basis throughout the world. The world is full of rage, anger and hate. I have never been more grateful for blanket forts and the innocent laughter of children. What did she think that was going to accomplish? Like we forgive you now Ruby I think that was the most white woman post and take that I've ever seen of all time. Ruby continued posting on 8 passengers even after the plummet and viewership and sponsorship cancellations but started slowly to pull back from the frequency in which she recorded content in an interview with the rap she said as far as the content I've been more aware of how things can be twisted. I haven't talked as much about holding children accountable which is something I used to talk a lot about. In an interview with insider Kevin claimed he had seen everything from threats to attempts to get him fired from his job. Interestingly enough probably around the time that 8 passengers received a drastic drop in their sponsorships and ad revenue it's been publicly documented that 8 passengers pulled out a PPP loan or a paycheck protection program loan. The paycheck protection program is a 953 billion business loan program established by the United States federal government in 2020 throughout the pandemic through the coronavirus aid relief and economic security act to help businesses self-employed workers and sole proprietors and non-profit organizations and tribal businesses continue to pay their workers that is the purpose of PPP Loans to be able to continue to pay your workers throughout the pandemic. Now first off how many employees does 8 passengers have? It's just Ruby with a camera and a lot of controversy came out with PPP Loans when people began misusing the system and especially a lot of content creators used it just to pay themselves. Ruby's production company which shared the name of her YouTube channel 8 passengers received 2 PPP Loans totaling the amount of $83,620 according to ProPublica's loan tracker. Bonnie Ruby's sister has a production company titled Holland Productions LLC and received 2 PPP Loans totaling roughly $53,000. He and Jay Productions run by Ruby's sister Ellie and her husband Jared received roughly $47,000 from 2 PPP Loans. I guess it's up to each individual person whether this is morally wrong or right. I just know that during the pandemic a lot of people were home and so content creators for the most part did very well during this time compared to other people and small businesses who were struggling and in general it's ironic to me that Ruby was so okay with blurring this moral line when Ruby specifically has often deprived her children of so much in their own lives. Luckily 2020 was the last bigger year for 8 passengers but unluckily Ruby became more involved with the parasite that is Jody Hildebrand. It's unknown how exactly Ruby met Jody Hildebrand. It's been vaguely claimed through multiple sources that both Kevin and Ruby were recommended Jody as a counselor through a mutual friend and there have been many signs of when exactly they met and how they well connected apart from what we've already covered in this video. One particular redditor's theory I believe personally is the most accurate after the research that I've done. Around the year 2019 Chad was acting out in school and at home pranking his brother not liking the school that he was attending wanting to be in public school with his friends Sherry the oldest daughter was well behaved, performed well at school. Sherry has always been really motivated but you're not motivated so Ruby had never encountered this sort of behavior before and started looking for resources for how to parent a child like Chad as well as mental health resources and this redditor believes that Ruby ordered a mental health course from Jody but Kevin's attorney has claimed that both of them were recommended Jody Hildebrand as a therapist through a mutual friend. Any idea how Kevin and Ruby got connected with Jody as a counselor? They were introduced to her by a mutual friend who recommended her as being this exceptional mental health provider and it was recommended that they take her advice and visit with her and like I said it wasn't just them it was their son also who's now an adult who was receiving therapy and counseling from her. Then it's pretty undeniable that Jody zeroed in on Ruby who had a few things that Jody could utilize social media following money to spend. You can find through research that Beau Ruby's brother left Jody a bad Google review. One star with critical in communication and professionalism. I am very concerned that what I've shared gets gossiped about among others I've scheduled an appointment that was cancelled without informing me Jody ignores my requests for a receipt of services so Beau, Ruby's brother started to feel nervous that Jody was a bit of a gossip and literally sharing his private information which he shared with her in therapy with other people which is illegal I'm pretty sure so Ruby started out as one of Jody's clients then became even further involved with Jody and Jody had Ruby become what she called the original 10 women who Jody trained to become mental fitness trainers and we have Ruby here and Ruby is is a part of the original 10 women that are being trained to become mental fitness trainers who from their own words were trained to teach others principles of truth so Ruby you want to tell us about what a mental fitness trainer is yes so we are getting mentally fit the same way your body would get physically fit by running and lifting weights and working with a personal trainer we are getting ready to be your mental fitness trainer we're getting truth really easy to teach we're making it very simple boiling it down to principles that's how you're going to understand truth is really knowing principles being able to put words to it and help you and you're going to feel so much better absolutely they also gave the option to train anyone who is interested in becoming a mental fitness trainer and any of you who are interested in becoming a mental fitness trainer we are going to open that up to train other people so give us a call or email us at support at connectionsclassroom.com and maybe you can come to the next retreat for the come work out with us put you to work eventually I think that this group sort of became the moms of truth group something that references the principles of truth that they spoke about in this video they even created instagram and facebook pages dedicated to the moms of truth teachings also as a forum that's what the professor points out the entire model of this mental fitness trainer sounds like a pyramid scheme jody literally is training non-professionals to become a mental fitness trainer so you're training people who have no background in psychology on how to help people with their mental health that sounds incredibly dangerous really really dangerous then those people who somehow train other people to become mental fitness trainers even more terrifying and dangerous also that sounds like a pyramid scheme and as ruby dove further and further into becoming this mental fitness trainer viewers started noticing more and more ruby's strange phrasing in her content especially in the way that she would continue to say that her very very young children were manipulating her and those around them did anyone else see ruby's insta stories today? apparently according to ruby eve was manipulating sherry into letting her eat more cookies i'm sorry we're talking about a 7 to 8 year old kid viewers started to notice that ruby's family members became distant and estranged from her as well didn't see any of ruby's siblings wishing her a happy birthday do they not want to be associated with ruby on social media and even ruby's own mother is very prevalent on social media but people began to analyze ruby's own mother's posts to find out that her own parents had distanced themselves from her on social media the difference in birthday posts that ruby's mother posted between ruby and her sister ellie is definitely very telling for ruby her mom posted happy birthday ruby this picture of our family huddled together balancing on a rock in the middle of the river thanks for being the oldest for her daughter ellie ruby's mom posted happy birthday to my baby girl i hope we can continue to cuddle till i am 90 and you are 60 but no matter where i am rest assured you will be in my arms because i will always be your mom there's definitely a difference there and her mother posted on her daughter julie's birthday i am so grateful for you you were born with a kind spirit and a soft heart you are smart and wise i value your opinion on so many things you amaze me with how much you can get done in a day you work circles around me you are beautiful julie and i think you get more beautiful every year and ruby just gets thanks for being the oldest people kind of assumed there may be some beef going on within the griffith family and the family was distancing themselves with ruby especially as her involvement with this strange therapy practice started to intensify because ruby started posting more and more of her mental fitness trainer teachings and they all got more concerning like when ruby posted that anxiety is a choice now i think the most upsetting belief that ruby had and perpetuated from her trainings as a mental fitness trainer is the belief that mental health can be controlled by the individual and therefore is their fault this belief was brought to light even more when ruby decided to make a video preaching this audacious statement that anxiety is a choice anxiety as horrible and abilitating as it feels you still have choice and that's one of the things that i am responsible for teaching my children these mental health videos she is doing have me outraged i wish it would get the hate it deserves i left a comment saying something like anxiety can also be caused by chemical imbalances and medication helps and it was deleted then from my burner account i posted one saying something like anxiety can be caused by medical conditions like low vitamin d medical professionals should always be consulted also deleted this is so so dangerous she is not putting disclaimers she is not consulting medical professionals she is claiming to be the professional this could have deadly consequences instead of listening to critics again ruby doubles down and preaches her take on anxiety a second time and says in a video that feeling anxiety and maybe even feeling paralyzed from anxiety is not only thinking with distortion that famous word distortion but also that you are an entitled person for living that way as far as being anxious and fear you know i i'm in because i am nervous about the christmas party tonight i'm entitled to stay in bed all day society will say that's kind of okay like no one's saying oh yeah that's really wrong or that's distorted um they're saying yeah you're entitled to that so it's all it's all entitlement i'm a person who's been going to therapy or my really intense anxiety issues and while i'm definitely not an expert on the topic since i'm still learning the only thing i can really say is that being more harsh on yourself because you have anxiety like telling yourself that you're an entitled piece of shit because you are anxious about going to a christmas party is only going to give yourself more anxiety like of course anxiety shouldn't be used as a crutch or a reason to treat anyone like crap but at least in my life i've found that being a little bit more forgiving on myself especially in hard or stressful times is essential so i don't spiral into this endless pit of anxiety and as ruby became more and more involved in connections she started to aim her disdain at the books that her kids were reading even posting an instagram with a caption that read when school started rustle read the charlie bumper series and i began noticing sassy words and entitled attitudes so i read a few pages of the books and came across the exact behaviors in the book characters found the same thing in eave series of junior b jones in january i did a thorough clearing of books endorsing sassy indignant behaviors and replaced them ruby began more and more exerting control over exactly how her children behaved and acted what they read eventually taking away most of their education altogether as ruby and the frankie family stopped appearing in ruby's sisters vlogs people began to wonder more and more about the relationship between ruby and her sisters ruby also stopped talking about her sisters in any of her videos which was odd because ruby used to talk about her sisters occasionally in her vlogs she also stopped visiting with them completely even though they didn't live too far away from one another on top of that if you remember at the beginning of this video i spoke about how ruby was in the room during her sister julie's birth vlog well julie had another baby and not only did ruby never show up to see this new baby but ruby didn't even mention the birth of this new baby in any content or any social medias instead of ever addressing this or becoming more involved with her family ruby becomes more emboldened with being a career woman even doing literature at one point at bringum young university which is a little bizarre to me because why why ruby but in this lecture she speaks about how at the height of the eight passengers controversy they hired a pr expert of sorts i assume to help them with their controversy and this person advised them to lie and ruby proudly stated that she refused to lie to help with over the controversy me that tells me two things the first thing is that this expert that they had hired had in my opinion probably determined that what they did was to a certain extent abusive and that they should probably lie and say that they did not do those things to their children if they wanted to regain their audience the second thing it tells me is that other youtubers in controversy have probably done this before and i wonder how many times they have also lied just lied to get out of controversy my mind is spinning wondering that slowly more and more ruby gravitated away from youtube and the family persona that she had and for a long time she was silent on eight passengers and gave no reason for the reduction in posting but in mid december of 2021 ruby finally shed some light on the situation with a video titled life changes ruby said that she was no longer posting as much because she was involved with the mental health community you may have noticed that i am not vlogging as much as i used to and that is because i have been getting um more involved in the mental health community and that she was working very closely with jody hildebrand and her company connections i have been working really close with jody over at connections classroom ruby said that she still wants to vlog but that it is no longer her priority and that she has found her passion with connections why ruby and kevin became so passionate about connections was quite a mystery the connections business was centered around making counselors, therapists and life coaches out of regular individuals who have no specialized trading or qualifications but either way both kevin and ruby became deeply involved in connections and all the therapeutic teachings of the company and began making tons of videos for the connections social medias a lot of these videos garnering just as much controversy as the eight passengers youtube content ruby and kevin's role in connections became mainly about filming couples workshops for the connections youtube channel in a two part series that was titled christmas with no presence ruby starts out filming a video with a lot of concerning connections language saying that her two youngest children russell who is nine years old at this time and eve who is only seven years old at this time are showing long patterns of selfishness and an unwillingness to repent kevin and i we have two well we have six children the two youngest are showing long patterns of selfishness they have been showing through their choices their unwillingness to repent their unwillingness to go sorrow over some pretty egregious choices that they've made so again in this very creepy nexions style phrasing ruby says that her and her husband kevin decided that they were going to give the gift of truth this year for christmas and the gift of boundaries and the gift of repentance kevin and i have decided that we're going to give the gift of truth to them for christmas we are gonna give them the gift of boundaries and we're gonna give them the gift of repentance they sat their children down this year they won't be visited by Santa and not their four older siblings will be visited this year, but they will not. We just laid it out very clear and we told them that this year they are not going to be visited by Santa. So they will, and we kept them, we let them know that the Christmas morning, their four older siblings will be getting Christmas presents to open and that they will have the gift of love from their dad and I, because we want them to really have a visceral experience that hits them. We even said that before this, she had tried to punish her two youngest children in other ways, having them stay home from school, not go to school, and instead clean the floorboards all day as a punishment. So up until now, I was really hoping that like keeping them home from school and wiping the floorboards would like really bring pain, like, like, oh my gosh, I really want to change this behavior that I've been exhibiting. But this didn't change their behavior. In fact, the children actually loved this because they didn't need to go to school. It wasn't painful for them. They're like, oh yeah, we get to stay home from school and clean floorboards. This is kind of fun. It's like, ah, so, you know, they've had these visceral experiences, you know, and they haven't affected them. It's because they're so numb. And also, isn't that sort of punishment just a detriment to the children who would become more and more behind on school? What good does that do? What sense does that make? The strangest and honestly downright scariest thing that Ruby says in this no gifts from Santa advice video, because that's the other thing. This is an advice video. Remember, the entire time that Ruby is filming this, it's through the lens of her trying to give this advice to other parents. The scariest thing is that Ruby says that Eve and Russell weren't affected viscerally. That Eve and Russell didn't have a visceral enough reaction her punishments because they were numb and that they needed a more devastating experience to wake them up. So the more numb your child is, the greater experience, the bigger the outcome, they need to wake them up. Now that is extremely scary to me. Talk about the red flag of all red flags in this video. Something about that, that is like ultimate alarm bells going off because Ruby in that video basically says, at least in my interpretation and in hindsight, that unless her children are extremely devastated by whatever punishments she's doling out, they're not conscious enough, practically dehumanizing them. When if you've had a really restrictive, strict or aggressive parent, you know that what happens over time is you just simply begin to tune out their punishments and just become really numb to everything. And you start to just detach from holding any sentimentality to anything since anything can get taken away from you at any moment. And for Ruby to now hold their detachment against them, which is probably these children's only safety mechanism that they have left to the point where she probably inflicts harsher and harsher punishments till she can get a reaction from them, really honestly makes me hate her truly and is so scary to me. Evan makes a second part to the No Gifts from Santa video in which at first he goes on a rather creepy rant for the first 30 seconds of the video. I just want to add into this, the world has these definitions of what love and tenderness look like. I watch all these Christmas shows that I used to just love because I feel all warm and fuzzy. And this year I watched them and I'm like, oh gross because warm and fuzzy in the show was always about at the end that the kid just got whatever they wanted. Evan, Kevin defends Ruby's video in another angry rant saying that as her choice to give her children a no gift Christmas was the tender and loving choice. Then after he finishes his rant, the camera eerily cuts to Jody who was there the whole time watching over the message. The greatest gift that I could have received going back from my experiences that I shared as a child would have been an outcome, a Christmas just like the one Ruby described where I had all of those fears and all of those distractions taken away and I was forced to come face to face with the fears that I had. That would have been loving. That would have been tender. Maybe it would have broken the cycle that ravaged my life for the next, what, three decades. And that is so powerful. I, as a parent, just sitting here listening to you say that, it's like, I want to love my children. In my opinion, everyone involved in connections just looks angry when they're talking about children and parenting. Now, obviously, because the rest of the world isn't living in truth or is it distortion? I don't know. People saw what Kevin and Ruby posted and had some pretty harsh reactions to it. So to defend the teachings of connections because the ideas probably, most likely, came from her, Jody made a video about the no gifts from Santa controversy. And I was deeply, deeply saddened by some of the comments that had been made on our social media platform. In a reactionary measure to the couples conference that we had last weekend, or couples workshop that we had talking about truth and distortion. And for those of you who decided to be aggressive and mean and use foul language and be attacking, all of those people would be choosing to live in distortion. I will choose to live in distortion if it means never having to be involved in your creepy cult and creepy opinions on how to parent. Ma'am, Jody then mentioned some really legitimate questions that were brought up from people who were concerned about the potential negative impacts of refusing to give your children Christmas gifts as a method of trying to get them to feel a sense of punishment, as well as having them skip school to clean the floors. One of the questions is, was this manipulated? Is this going to cause childhood trauma? And then the last question was, young children, show up selfishly. Why do something according to these particular comments that looks drastic? I wanna respond to those. Jody acts like she has every intention of responding to these questions sincerely. But then her response to these questions is the most incoherent babble I have ever heard in my life. I have dedicated my life to truth and truth has been hated since the beginning of time. Since Adam and Eve, truth has been hated. It doesn't surprise me that distortion is attacking truth. And those of you who have been mean and aggressive and hateful in your comments, you are the reason why there's so much distortion in the world, because you keep perpetuating it. Then in this video, Jody goes on to say, what I can only describe as the most evil bullet, I have ever come out of another person's mouth in my entire existence, on this earth, on this planet. Jody claims that Kevin and Ruby's two youngest children, Eve and Russell, have been making selfish choices because they're children. Which means to Jody that they no longer feel empathy. Several of their children, two of their children in particular, have been making choices that have been very, very selfish. And when someone starts becoming selfish, they don't feel empathy for people any longer. It's really clear by some of the comments that have been made that these children or these young adults don't feel empathy for people. These are children whose brains aren't fully developed, but also just looking at it from a logical standpoint, if you are convinced that someone doesn't have empathy or is a selfish person, that will greatly impact how you treat them in return. It in a way disconnects you emotionally from them. Therefore, you don't feel as badly for your harsher treatment of them. Jody goes on to attempt to list some of the distorted behavior that Eve and Russell have allegedly done according to Jody, which we don't even know if they've actually done this or if Jody is the distorted one here. But Jody claims that this nine and seven year old have sent her messages on social media and threatened to attack her Google reviews unless she, an adult and professional business owner, does what they tell her to do. They don't even know me and they've attacked me personally. They've sent messages of I'm going to destroy you, I'm going to attack your Google reviews, I'm going to hurt you if you do not do what I tell you to do. A nine and a seven year old having concept of the effect of Google reviews on a business and also somehow having the concept of how to leverage that for blackmail against someone, through sending them threatening messages via social media, that's extremely hard to believe. Either these two children are extremely brilliant evil masterminds, which honestly, good for them. That's amazing, especially against a woman like Jody. She deserves that. Or honestly, the more likely story, Jody is spouting a massive load of bull. I also think that Jody is making this up personally because just a few minutes later, Jody goes on to say also that all the haters of her content and her business are threatening her in the exact same manner. All of those haters are also saying that they're going to attack her Google reviews. Just like I shared a minute ago, I've had hateful comments with people saying if you don't take this video down, then I'm gonna hurt you. I'm going to attack your Google reviews. I mean, this is horrible hatred. Somehow both a nine and a seven year old and all the haters of Jody Hildebrand online and on the internet are all coming for her Google reviews. This is a woman of logic here, of discernment. Yep. Also, side note, Jody has an obsession with her Google reviews and has often ranted about receiving poor Google reviews and has complained to her clients and her customers that they were not reviewing her business positively. Super professional. So all you have to do is click the link and give us a five-star review. That's as simple as it is. But you guys aren't doing it. I think we've had five people. From the last time I asked, which was probably a month ago, five out of almost 9,000, five people, give us a review. That's five. And we've had probably 50 to 75 people give us one-star reviews. So we started with a five and in three months we're down to like a two. So please, I'm a minimum. Please, I don't understand why you won't do it. Go on to Mom's Adtrief. There is a link underneath every single video that says give us a review. Click it and give us a five-star, please. So I think Google reviews are what haunts Jody Hildebrandt, what keeps her up at night during the holidays. While the Frankies were busy not giving their children any Christmas gifts, viewers noticed that Ruby and Kevin were completely absent from any extended family griffiths get-togethers that all of the other siblings, apart from Ruby, were spending time with one another during the holidays and appearing in each other's blogs, even alongside Ruby's parents. Ruby and her family were really the only ones missing. It seems there was a very clear divide among the griffiths that was being speculated on for a while but was not being addressed. Some also started to speculate on a divide within the Frankie family as well as the oldest daughter, Sherry, started to slowly distance herself from her parents, spending Thanksgiving apart from her family. Meanwhile, Ruby's beliefs started to get more and more extreme as she exerted more and more control over her children, resulting in what I would call the TikTok dance saga. As Ruby's extreme beliefs became more and more outwardly separate from modern culture, her outrage and vitriol started to seem somewhat ridiculous to the general public. This can be seen and pretty well documented in Ruby's TikTok meltdown series. The saga of Ruby's meltdown began when she documented her fight against TikTok dances, the evil of TikTok dances. Charlie D'Amelio, Ruby is on to you. You know, TikTok dances, the thing that every child loves to do. So what happened is Ruby's 13 year old daughter, Julie, came home from school and told her mother that her PE class was doing a flash mob dance that had a compilation of popular TikTok dances. Julie is in a PE class over at the middle school and for PE, this teacher is doing dance. The teacher is going to have all of the students in her class, which includes Julie, do a TikTok dance for the school to like interrupt their lunch, like a surprise dance to everybody. Ruby was immediately triggered by the word TikTok and asked what the song was and what sort of dances they were doing, seemingly jumping to the worst possible conclusions and interpreting her daughter's answers to their most extreme. And I said a TikTok dance, hmm, what are the dance moves? And she's like, well, in the real dance, they're kind of naughty but she said just to do something different there. And Ruby demanded the name of the song and went home to research it. While she didn't say what the song's name was, she ended up claiming it was Straight Up Hardcore P, which of course makes absolutely no sense. Not only would it be extremely unlikely for a school to authorize a dance to a song that is Straight Up Hardcore P, but also, unless it's The Ice Cream Man by Tyga or something, I don't think that lyrics to a song can constitute as Hardcore P. I said, what songs are in this? And she told me, she told me one of the songs and I looked it up to look up the lyrics. It is Straight Up Hardcore, Straight Up. But Ruby is determined to document her battle with the school over the fight of the use of this song. I think that's what she's fighting about. So part two follows shortly after this video. The video begins with Ruby storming out of the school, shaking and red-faced. She gets into the car and goes into a 12 plus minute meltdown, screaming, sobbing, verbally attacking all the school officials that she spoke with. Ruby explains that during the meeting that she had with the school officials, the principal explains that she personally approved the song that the PE teacher used for the dance. I said, my problem is the choice of songs. And she says, well, all the songs were approved by me. The teacher put together a list of songs and she gave them to me and I approved them. Now, all of the songs are commonly used songs that appear frequently in all sorts of media. And Ruby then attacked this principal for using what's popular instead of using what's in truth. That is so disappointing because I would hope that the principal where my kids go to school, that the standard would be truth, that the standard would be principles, that the standard would be morality. I'm sure after Ruby said using what's in truth, the principal was like, what the heck is that supposed to mean? The children like what's popular. The principal tried to calmly explain that just because Ruby had different morals, if that's what you would call connections and principles of truth, didn't mean that she had to ruin the experience for all the other children. And the 30 plus parents who approved of the song and were excited for their child's chance to perform. So Ruby went on a tirade talking about how the principal will have to answer to God. Paul, the principal's sick, screamed that she wasn't being heard and stormed out the school. She said that the principal was introducing children to the world and it wasn't okay. And ugly cried about how terrible it was that a horrendous evil was happening in a quaint conservative town. I am here to invite you to see you, you, the principal who are supposed to be bringing morality and supposed to be a standard who had these precious children. You are not protecting them. You are not protecting them. You are introducing them to the world. And you're saying it's okay. And you guys, I don't live in like a real crazy city. I live in like a quaint conservative little city where people think they're safe. Oh, let me get this straight. Apparently the greatest danger in a quaint conservative town is gas, TikTok dances. The privileged sort of life that you have to lead for TikTok dances to be the greatest fear for your children. But personally, I think that this meltdown was more over the fact that Ruby needed to control every aspect of her children's life and literally lost it over the fact that the principal was not letting her control this aspect of her child's life. She lost control and subsequently lost her control. And she says, well, you know, if Julie wants to get out of the class, I totally find making adjustments. Whatever would make Julie feel comfortable. I'm open to doing. I will, if she doesn't want to participate, that's fine. And I said, you're missing the whole point of why I'm here. I am not here for anyone's comfort, including my daughters. I'm not here to make her comfortable. Of course she can move classes, not because you said so, but because I said so. I am the parent. In a later video, Kevin gave a speech to the school district board about the TikTok flash mob whores ripping apart their quaint conservative town. This past term, my 13 year old daughter, who's a student that registered for a dance PE class. She was shocked to learn that the entire curriculum for the class was focused on replicating viral dance videos from the social media platform TikTok. Then reiterates to the board, Ruby's brave battle with the principal, where Ruby fought nobly with the tyranny of evil. That is the school principal and TikTok mashup dances. When my wife learned about this, she took it upon herself to approach the administration. She met three times with the principal and the assistant principals of the school to express her concerns and demand that the activity be modified or rescinded. The principal was minimizing smug, defensive, and deflective of the issues raised by my wife. And in his speech, Kevin revealed that the horrible song in question that Ruby was so upset about was flow writers low. Well, it was so simple, she was flexible, professional, hold up, wait a minute. Do I see what I think guy? Whoa, I'm into that. I like women exposed. That is the straight up hardcore Pete, a song that is not even marked E for explicit. In the end, I don't think Kevin and Ruby's antics were taken very seriously. Ruby had a meltdown because Ruby didn't get what she wanted. Ruby believes that her children should be sheltered and shouldn't be exposed. Any piece of the world that she hasn't specifically approved for them. But the unfortunate thing is that her children had very little choice in the matter and had to get sucked into her toxic vortex. And it seems like the more Ruby didn't get her way publicly, the more the public openly rejected her concepts and ideas, the more Ruby sheltered her children and completely cut them off from the rest of the world. If I'm going to raise my children with people looking out for them, I will have to do it myself. I cannot count on their teachers. I cannot count on their principle to look out for my kids. As Ruby transitioned more and more into the connections business, she slowly stopped posting on YouTube until the final eight passengers upload. On January 3rd of 2022, eight passengers family channel uploaded their final video titled Eve's baptism. What is it today? My baptism. And it's gonna be bad by the Holy Spirit. So I'm very excited for you and it's gonna hold it. And I'm excited to see what you feel and how you listen to that Holy Spirit throughout your life. We have been told and we understand never as the Lord goes. And in the vlog, Ruby mentioned that she's gonna be cutting back on her video upload schedule due to her work with connections. And I am cutting back even more. And I am doing some really fun and exciting things in the mental health field. I'm really passionate about and it's a place where I wanna put my time. And soon after that, Jodi Hildebrand and Ruby fully dove into the Moms of Truth social media pages. Now, the most ironic thing about this is the strongest criticism that Ruby has ever gotten time and time again is that she is a bad mother. She herself has been called a lazy mother, a selfish mother, a manipulative mother, self-centered, neglectful, abusive. I think all these phrases that Ruby herself tends to project onto her children. And yet at the core of Ruby's identity, she wants to be seen as a good mother who has good concepts of what makes a strong and decent parent. So Ruby continued to align herself with connections in Jodi Hildebrand as some sort of expert in the mental health field, especially in the topics of parenting and parent advice. In March of 2022, Ruby and Jodi created a private Facebook group titled Moms of Truth with Judy and Ruby. We first want to thank you. We are so grateful and touched. You know, we go to the Facebook page and it's like, oh, look, we have this many more people that joined. We're so excited that you're with us. And we have this image and this desire to have an army of mothers and fathers, men and women, teams alike, moving forward throughout this planet and learning how to live principles of truth so that they actually have this beautiful outcome of connection. And this idea was likely inspired off of Jodi's original 10, who are learning how to be mental fitness trainers and teach Jodi's principles of truth. The Moms of Truth group description reads, welcome to Moms of Truth. This is a support group for mothers to ask questions and receive feedback on the parenting challenges you are facing. Jodi Hildebrand, MS, and Ruby Franke are mental fitness trainers with At Connections Coaching. They are available to give you truth-centered, principle-based training to help you create joy within your family. See that mountain range behind you? You feel like you climb up those mountain ranges every day in your life or with your kids. It's like, oh my goodness, I have to do the same routine over and over. Well, we're here to invite you to our Facebook page called Moms in Truth. And we wanna help you understand that instead of chasing your kids all over the place, you need to learn what's called principles of truth. Principles of truth. That's right, become the mom of solid ground. Over 13,000 members joined this group. Jodi and Ruby claimed that this Facebook group was different from others because other mom Facebook groups or parenting Facebook groups, you join to give each other advice to ask questions and then chat about it in the comments. Nay-nay. Jodi and Ruby claim that this Facebook group, the Moms of Truth Facebook group, is solely offering truth, which is a wild claim to make when it comes to parenting. We're not giving opinions. We're actually interested in helping you understand principles of truth so that you can govern your life from a base of being honest, responsible, and humble. But if you can believe it, Ruby and Jodi started posting pretty wild takes in the Moms of Truth Facebook page. Sadly, yet unsurprisingly, in a video response to a parent seeking advice, Jodi Hildebrandt had a homophobic response to a mother who asked for advice about her child who may have been struggling with their sexuality or honestly might have just been looking up random quizzes online. Then Jodi Hildebrandt responds to questions from a mother who found searches on their child's computer, such as, am I gay quiz? She says, dear sisters, so she's talking to all of us as women, I need your help. I have always closely monitored my precious 13-year-old daughter's internet access, but recently, during one of our weekly phone checks, I found the following in her search history and then she goes through the statements that she, her daughter punched in and the daughter was trying to assess whether she was gay or not. Her first search was, am I gay quiz? She then says, we have temporarily confiscated all electronic devices until I decide as the mother how to address this moving forward. I don't want this to negatively impact her journey with God. She's a very sweet loving girl who enjoys some horseback riding on the side and has never done anything to break our trust. This has really affected me and added more stress into my already stressful week. Do you have any advice handling this situation? Should we consider therapy? Should we give her a second chance? Looking forward to hearing your advice, have a blessed day from a very concerned mother. So here's the core principle that this mom needs to understand. So mom, the truth is, is that your daughter is a daughter of God, period the end. Then as the video continues, Jodi becomes more and more unhinged, saying basically that LGBTQ community is trying to steal your children and take them away from you. We live in a world where there is a lot of evil going on and people are being very confused about the philosophies of men. There's no truth in them. Gender is clear. You are born male or you're born female. This little girl that went online and took a quiz and said, am I gay? Is now getting into a very mixed up, confusing world that will tell her if she likes to do boy sports and she's gay. If she likes to have short hair, then she's gay. If she doesn't like the color pink, then she's gay. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. It's foolishness. Towards the end of the video, Jodi claims that the mother doesn't have a choice about whether or not she should limit this child's electronics and tells the mother that her child is in danger. The mother needs to do everything she can to protect her. Just basic fear-mongering, telling this mother that she needs to basically fear an entire demographic of people, claiming they're all out to get her child, which is so horrible. So Jodi basically encourages a very confused mother who's feeling very vulnerable and already afraid to basically completely villainize her child's curiosity about their sexuality and identity and encourages this mom to just cut their child off from the rest of the world. In another advice video, Ruby responds to a mother who asks for advice about whether or not she should cut off her sibling's family because a family member had come out as transgender. So she says, hello, fellow mothers. Thanks for all the advice so far. I saw a post below that touched on the topic of the LGBTQ community and I wanted to share a concern I have come across within my own family. My sister's child has come out as transgender. My sister is a Christian, albeit more liberal and woke than my husband and I are. So we as a family are conflicted as to whether or not we should continue to spend time with them. Should we see them less or even completely cut them out of our lives? In the video, Ruby gives a bizarre analogy of accidentally dumping a little salt into a jar of sugar. Have you ever taken a bucket of sugar? I've done this before, didn't know. I learned this. I took a five gallon bucket of sugar and I had some leftover, like a cup of leftover salt. I thought it was sugar, but it was salt and I poured it into the bucket of sugar. Salt is heavier than sugar and so you just have to pour it in. You don't even have to stir it. It infiltrates all the sugar. There wasn't one spot in that sugar bucket where I could taste sweet because it was contaminated with the salt. Because salt is heavier than sugar, the salt contaminated all of the sugar. Essentially saying that this transgender family member could contaminate your children. Again, the fear mongering that these advice videos continue to do is certainly concerning. It is your job to teach them truth. And so if you allow other distortions, if you allow other influences to come, even if it's like, hey, it's just one day or hey, it's just an hour here, it will infiltrate the entire person. We then talked about her own personal divide within her family in this video. Shining light on her divide in the Griffith family. Ruby explained that from her perspective, the split in the Griffith family happened around the time she sent Chad to Anasazi. Okay, so like in the day, everything's great. And then at night when the kids go to bed, that's when all the lewd jokes come out. That's when people start minimizing addiction. That's when the people who were around started glamorizing addiction. So when I got home, my son pulled me aside and he said, mom, that was very confusing. That was really upsetting. They all know what I've been through and they know what I'm trying to heal from. And they acted like it didn't matter. Ruby claimed that Chad was dealing with addiction. Followed me or if you know of me, you know that we sent my son to a wilderness therapy program. And when he came home, he had done a fair amount of work at this rehabilitation place. But like anyone with addiction, you know, you don't just send your child away for three months and they come home fixed. Like now I personally do not believe this at all. The reason why I don't believe this is because time and time again, people have offered countless testimony that the way that Jodi Hildebrand does therapy is by telling everybody that they have addictions once they start therapy with her. Chad started therapy with Jodi at this time. So it is not implausible that Chad started therapy with Jodi and Jodi told the entire Frankie family that Chad had an addiction. This resulted in Ruby cutting her entire family off instead of listening to what her family had to say about Chad. She decided to listen to Jodi and Jodi's opinion of what Chad was going through. So she isolated her family from the rest of their extended family members and got them further and further involved with connections and Jodi Hildebrand. She then encouraged the mother who submitted this question to do the exact same. So who is Jodi Hildebrand and how does she have this sort of power over people that she becomes involved in her therapy with? So throughout this video, there's been a lot of foreshadowing about the woman Jodi Hildebrand and her relationship along with her terrible teachings alongside Ruby Frankie. But who is the woman behind connections who led Ruby Frankie down a path of complete destruction and bizarre outright dangerous ways of thinking about parenting and mental health? Jodi Hildebrand is an author, life coach and the creator of Connections Classroom founded in Orem, Utah. The curriculum for Connections is strongly based off of Jodi's five years working in Cirque Lodge, a drug rehabilitation center that focuses on treating addiction. As much of the connections teachings are all based on the concept that we are all addicted to something and that we need Jodi's teachings in our life to find the truth. And we'll talk more about what Jodi thinks the truth is later. But first, let's talk about why Jodi wanted to become a powerful all-encompassing therapist. Jodi Hildebrand was born in Arizona and was the sixth of seven children. Jodi described her parents as emotionally shut down because of her parents negligence, chaos often occurred in her house and none of the children were really allowed to emote other than just to get angry. I had nobody there to validate me and say, yeah, that makes sense that when your brother, you know puts you into a pretzel that that would hurt and that you would want to tell him, stop. You don't like that. I wasn't allowed to do that. I lived with my grandparents alongside living with Jodi. He told me that if he could redo the way he raised his daughters, he would. Because of this, according to Jodi she became a people pleaser. Some of you who are clinicians are probably like, whoa, she's setting herself up for addiction. Sure enough, I ended up with an eating disorder. I started trying to control everything because I had no outlet to emote my emotions. So some of you who are clinicians are probably like, whoa, she's setting herself up for addiction. Sure enough, I ended up with an eating disorder, right? I started trying to control everything. Studies show that ineffectiveness and fear of losing self-control are two dimensions that are important to consider in maintenance and treatment models of EDs. Jodi further claimed about her childhood that there was no one there to validate her growing up and the chaos that surrounded her and her environment. Later on in life, she attended therapy to try and figure out her disorder and how to heal. Unfortunately, they validated what I'll call my victim. They reinforced me to stay where I'm at and said, yeah, you have every right to feel this way. And unfortunately, and I would say inadvertently because I met some lovely people, and what they did is they validated what I'll call my victim. They reinforced me to stay where I'm at and said, yeah, you have every right to feel this way. And I didn't know any better. I thought that that would help me get better is if they said, yeah, that this is reasonable why you feel the way you do. And I didn't have anyone, at least I didn't hear it in my head, give me a transitional bridge to move over into what I now know as truth. So I would leave my therapy sessions and I would feel heard, but I'd still go back into my eating disorder behaviors and control and being really nice and helpful and friendly. I didn't really heal. My soul wasn't healing. From Jodi's own statements, it sounds like she continued to blame herself through an inward focused victim blaming mentality that developed over the course of several years. Jodi ended up placing all the responsibility on herself and thought that she was responsible for her trauma as well as fully responsible for finding the solution. Children often aren't capable of seeing their adults as perpetrators. And because children cannot blame their caregivers for what they're going through, they tend to turn that blame inward. Children need to feel that they control something, blaming the caregiver for the child's abuse undercuts their belief that their perpetrators will provide for them. By blaming themselves, they maintain the internal belief that they somehow control what is happening, even though they do not. The internal message of self-blame manifests later in life as feelings of not being lovable or good enough. During the 90s, Jodi married a man named Brenton C. Pugh. And together, the couple had two children, and older daughter named Alex and a younger son named Addison. Jodi and Brenton's marriage did not last long at all, though the two divorced sometime in 1999. Jodi was only married from what I understand for about a year and a half. She had two children. Two children and a year and a half? Yeah, from what I understand, she was pregnant with her second when the divorce started. And I've heard different things about how long that divorce took. I heard it was dragged out for years, but I don't actually know that for sure. No, I have heard that Jodi tried to... This may be strong words, but that Jodi tried to destroy her ex-husband. Oh, 100%. Through the legal system. Through the legal system and through the church. She tried to have him ex-communicated. She tried to have his temple recommend taken away. She said horrendous things about him. Several users online have claimed that Jodi has been married multiple times. Some claiming Jodi has been married up to five times. Many people have also claimed that Jodi currently has absolutely no relationship with her daughter, Alex, who moved out of Jodi's home when she was around 16 or 17 and moved in with her biological father. Alex, this is like further down the timeline, but Alex left about a year after I did. The church? No, no, no, she's still a member, but left Jodi's. Okay, she left Jodi's care about a year after I did. Has nothing to do with her mother. Changed her name, has no contact with her. Alex has worked so hard to build a beautiful life for herself. I know we've chatted since all of this happened and I know that she doesn't feel super comfortable coming forward. She has a family and Jodi, she doesn't want Jodi to have any more control over her life. A Redditor claimed about Jodi, my parents worked with her very briefly in the past. She's been divorced multiple times and has no relationship with her kids. My mom always thought it was so funny and ironic that she was a marriage and family therapist but had no relationship of that kind in her personal life. She loves to cut people out of her life if they aren't meeting her standards of any kind. According to these Redditors, the family is completely divided as well. And Jodi's son Addison took her maiden name, the last name Hildebrand, and him and his wife worked with Jodi in her practice. Jodi received a bachelor's at BYU and a master's at the University of Utah according to her LinkedIn. In 2001, when receiving her master's, Jodi recorded a podcast discussing a study she had conducted regarding women associated with the LDS church or the Latter-day Saints Mormon religion. At the start of the podcast, Jodi discussed her own upbringing, describing her family as fairly rigid Latter-day Saints, saying that she never questioned her upbringing until her marriage dissolved in 1999. To tell you a little bit about myself, I am a resident of Utah as of, I think, 13, 14 years. I was born and raised in Arizona. And I probably would call my familial structure fairly rigid. There's stereotypical LDS. But I never did question that upbringing, probably until I got married and my marriage dissolved, which was quite a shock to me because my residents do not teach me how to prepare for that. Jodi then took a course at the University of Utah that she found inspiring. Jodi felt like she was a representation of the LDS church during this course. And Jodi decided that she wanted to conduct a study regarding women who are LDS ultimately confronting their civil desires. And it was at that point that I started really thinking about what the church teaches and how the church has influenced me as an individual and my sexuality. And my desire is to genuinely know and comprehend these women's voices and the meanings they have put to their sexual development. Though in my opinion, my personal theory is that this study ended up teaching Jodi so much more about Mormon women, Mormon families, and where Mormon women place their trust. Jodi researched 23 people of the LDS church, 22 of which were white heterosexual women. Through the study, Jodi began to question definitions of terms like sacred that Mormon women would continue to use throughout the study. She would often question why these terms were so powerful for these women. She also wondered why married Mormon women thought counsel from men within the church about sexual relations and sexuality with their spouses. These moments in particular in the study were the most interesting to me because Jodi was realizing that there were certain people within the Mormon church that Mormon women would place their trust in. In particular, the bishops within their church as well as their male spouses. The age group that I chose, 30 to 50, I chose that basically because I wanted to make it more tight, more concise. If I left it open, it'd be all over the place and it'd be very hard to bring it together. They wanted to defer to the bishop, state president, to a spouse, and so I pushed a little bit and said, you know, what if they don't feel comfortable talking to this man? And they need a woman's perspective. There were probably four or five that said that they just, that would not be appropriate. The church would not condone them talking to them about intimacy, sexuality, because of the sacredness. Now, if you're a person that's wanting to learn how to manipulate a vulnerable demographic of people, this is a powerful study because it tells you what words you can use to manipulate someone as well as how you can infiltrate their group and divide and conquer by separating that vulnerable demographic from the people that they trust most. Now, as Jodi noticed some of the discomfort of the women in these study groups, she began honing in on certain responses with particular attention to the term sacred, silence, best intentions, and fear versus love. Jodi got most passionate about the term sacred regarding women and their families and marriage. They would say the word sacred, but it would always be followed by the word sacred. And I began to question, what exactly does that word mean? Jodi also noticed that she gained trust and acceptance from these women after she revealed to them that she was also a member of the LDS church and felt like this connection allowed them to open up in a safe and relational environment. Another anecdote, I found that being a member of the church was extremely important to the women that I interviewed. I did not voluntarily offer this information, but someplace in the interview process, they would ask me, are you LDS? And I was trying to be very unbiased and trying not to portray that I was, I was trying to take a very neutral stance with them as a researcher, and that did not feel comfortable to them, my view of what was happening. And I noticed that once I said yes, I am a member of the church, but I'm going to be asking you questions, probably in a very cold way, and you don't need to protect me or to teach me. I have my own understanding, my own testimony of my own beliefs. If you could just tell me about yours. It calmed them down. I feel like I was given more genuine information and beliefs and feelings and values from them once they were put at ease that I didn't know what they were talking about. Find this fascinating. If Jodi approached the research correctly, this could have potentially led to very profound findings and changes in their church. I actually do not agree that Jodi had to tell them she was LDS. As a matter of fact, she shouldn't have told them at all because it created a bias and tainted her study. Big no-no, they usually go to great lengths to hide certain things in a study to keep it unbiased. So already, even when in college, Jodi began focusing her practice on targeting Mormon women and also developed a study that became, in my opinion, centered around the methodology that drives Mormon women and their desires, not only in their sexuality, but Jodi was trying to find out what certain words meant to Mormon women and why they use them. Jodi also did not conduct the study in a very well-rounded way. She hand-selected the woman that she chose and disclosed to them that she was Mormon as well to see how that changed the way that they opened up and trusted her more. If Jodi's sole intentions were to conduct a non-biased study, she would have never done that. But I personally believe that Jodi's intentions with this study were to see how she could get Mormon women to open up and trust her more. And she found out that disclosing her beliefs was one way to get them to do that. This was ultimately a study on how to manipulate Mormon women, even if Jodi didn't think of it that way at the time. After witnessing how successful her method was, Jodi went out on her own to develop a business where she could preach her philosophy to, well, possibly fragile women within the LDS church and where she could profit substantially from it. According to the Connections website, Jodi says, my style is compassionate yet direct and clear of what is necessary to fully change and champion any addictive or self-destructive behavior. I have counseled thousands of individuals in families of all ages and situations with my unique style of educating about the power of choice and the need for impeccable honesty, rigorous responsibility and vulnerability, humility, the which have empowered souls to heal and grow. But before she developed Connections, Jodi claims that she went into the University of Utah very sick, but that she learned various principles that would ultimately become the teachings of Connections. So I went into graduate school sick and I learned all the principles in graduate school and I went out to work with Dr. Attic. So it was my very first job. After graduating school, Jodi went to work at Cirque Lodge, an established rehabilitation center located in Sundance, Utah. Helping people overcome their addictions at this center is probably where Jodi developed this philosophy that addiction is at the center of everything, which would become a lot of the core of her Connections teachings. While it's important that people remain accountable for their actions, Jodi's teachings cross the line between holding someone accountable and blaming the victim. So victim is a word that many of us use to acknowledge when a person is using their choices to not be responsible for themselves. You still are responsible. You and I, the second you came into the earth, you are connected to responsibility. You can't disconnect from it. You can give yourself the illusion that you can disconnect, but you cannot, because that is at the epicenter of every single human. And again, whether the human decides to live a life of connection and peace, which is truth, or whether the human decides to live a life of distortion, which is chaos and a lot of sadness and dishonesty and irresponsibility and aggression and illusion, quite frankly, illusion of connection. And unfortunately, Jodi used her patience at Cirque Lodge for her own personal philosophy that she was curating at the time. Jodi documented on her LinkedIn that she left Cirque Lodge in 2007. However, she suspiciously left out the chapter from 2007 to 2012, when she managed Utah's chapter of Lifestar. This was a program and network designed to help school addicts through recovery. Reviews of Jodi's counseling during the time that she was working at Lifestar have been found and uncovered. Anonymous said, several professionals and peers have serious concerns with Jodi Hildebrand. She has been described as combative by her peers. Indeed, in our case, where no P-content is involved, Jodi has drawn other erratic and erroneous relationship conclusions, very unprofessional. One highly acclaimed professional informed me, Jodi is one of two professionals that would never be recommended to others by their office. Another anonymous said, I recently took a six-week course of counseling in the summer of 2013, costing $600 per person. Jodi has remained consistent with treating me the same negative way as these pots have claimed. It is true. She has intentionally exposed very confidential information to third-party persons, even including my family information that was not to be shared. She does this for personal and monetary gain. For me personally, she created more problems than she did help. For example, she has amplified the horrible trust issues that I have struggled with, which now will be harder to break. I have been singled out in her groups, also purposely ignored when it benefited her to keep my mouth shut so I don't come in between her lies and my family members in the course with me. She is very unprofessional, has no tact nor integrity. She cannot be trusted. Through the recent developments in this story, Jodi Hildebrand's own niece, Jesse Hildebrand, has come forward to share their own harrowing and horrifying experiences with Jodi Hildebrand when they were only a child. Jesse uses they, them pronouns and was placed in Jodi's care in the year 2008. If I could just read to you what Jesse sent me, a summary of what Jesse sent me, Jesse wrote to me, it's hard to quantify the emotional and spiritual abuse and torture Jodi Hildebrand caused, and I think I'll probably have to do so anyways for the police, but physically just to name a few off the top of my head, I experienced being tied up, blindfolded, tucked in the back, my knees kicked out and dragged by my hair upstairs. I was blindfolded, tied and thrown into a car and forced to lay down on the ground so I can't quote manipulate people into thinking anything is wrong, close quote. I was locked in isolation for up to 12 hours a day only to be let out to use the restroom when she quote had time, close quote between clients since she still had her therapist license, mouth duct taped, I wasn't allowed to speak to anyone even if they spoke to me directly, food withheld, forced to run, forced to sleep outside in the snow, forced to drop out of school, never allowed privacy even when using the bathroom. And unfortunately much of the abuse that Jesse endured foreshadows, the abuse that is to come of the Frankie children. And also makes me wonder how many children that we don't know about that endured the same treatment because of Jesse's experiences with Jody Hildebrand so many years ago, long before Ruby ever became involved with connections, Jesse is convinced that Jody Hildebrand is the main mastermind for what has taken place leading up to Jody and Ruby's arrests, saying that the ideas and abuse that Ruby has inflicted onto her children all stem from Jody. But the philosophies and the therapeutic modalities that she's using are Jodies. And these are not new, this is a pattern that Jody has been engaged with for at least 14 years. I don't know if there are other people that she's used these on but she's definitely taught. I know that she teaches parents to use these types of therapies as she would call them. So yeah, it's been a really interesting experience watching everyone focus on Ruby and I understand why. But this is Jody. These are Jody's words, these are Jody's ideas over decades old so. Is that why you've called Jody the mastermind behind all of this? Yes, that doesn't excuse Ruby's involvement and her perpetuating these beliefs and these systems but Ruby didn't come up with this. Ruby obviously supports it and has used these on her children but this is coming from Jody. During an interview with Mormon Stories podcast, Jesse discussed their upbringing. While Jesse and Jesse's family was staying over at Jody's house for their grandparents 50th anniversary, Jesse was being your typical angsty teenager and arguing with their parents, complaining about doing chores, et cetera. One night, Jesse stormed into the basement and locked themselves downstairs. I believe it was in June, maybe May, I can't remember. My grandparents had their 50th wedding anniversary. They had a 50th wedding anniversary party and we were staying at Jody's in American Fort. So we were only supposed to be there like three days, I believe, like a very short trip. We drove out, we were gonna drive back, I get into a big fight, I get into a fight with mom, I go downstairs, lock myself in the basement. While Jesse was downstairs, their parents had a conversation with Jody and Jody ended up convincing Jesse's parents to leave Jesse in Jody's care. Jody instructed Jesse's parents to pack all of their things and immediately leave. I don't really know what the conversation was that was had. This is, so this is hours later, 10 o'clock at night, 11 o'clock at night, maybe even later. All I know is that Jody and my parents had a conversation, Jody told them to leave me with them. To leave me with her and for them to just go and to not say anything and to just pack all the things and just go. Then a few hours later, Jody came downstairs and informed Jesse that their family had left and that their life was about to change dramatically. And so a few hours later, I get a knock on the door, I was asleep and it was Jody and my grandparents telling me that my family had left and I wasn't going with them and that my life was about to change pretty dramatically. I still remember that moment as just, it's completely galvanized itself onto my soul. You know, in movies when they do the, like they zoom in and pull out at the same time, it was like that really wild kind of effect. That's how it felt. Yeah, everything changed in that moment. Jesse added that their inability to fit into traditional gender norms instructed by the church was the catalyst for their feelings of abandonment. So there was no space to be angry. There was no space to feel anything other than being, you know, the docile, happy, helpful. That's what's expected. And if you, especially as like a female conditioned person, like I didn't fit into that role. I didn't fit into that, that categorization. I didn't fit into that, that temperament. And I think a lot of people, a lot of female and femme people that don't fit into that have experience, maybe not to this extreme, but have experienced that sense of isolation and rejection. And especially if you grow up in like Utah or these communities that have a lot of Mormons, the isolation and rejection from community as well. And Jodi immediately got to work on Jesse. Everything was revolved around my worth. Anything that gave me a sense of worth, I was not allowed to have anymore. According to Jesse, Jodi's methodology was to systematically strip away anything that gave them a sense of identity and a sense of worth until they were left with practically nothing. Even things that were healthy and good for Jesse, like an education, they were not allowed to have if it gave them a sense of worth. The 2014 ethics code prohibits engaging in counseling relationships with family members with whom the counselor cannot remain objective. Just even the base level that she wants to work on her brother's child is an extreme gross violation of boundaries. Looking with someone with such close family ties makes bias and conflict of interest unavoidable, let alone the fact that Jodi had Jesse live with her while working with them. On top of that, the fact that Jodi took away Jesse's education is a clearly harmful thing for the mental well-being and growth of Jesse. Most people in the world can agree that education is vital. Not only that, but taking away a child's education is also against the law in Utah. Utah requires children between the ages of six and 18 to attend school. And parents whose children are absent too often may face misdemeanor criminal charges. According to Jesse, Jodi genuinely believed that Satan was working through Jesse simply because Jesse was a confused and angry teenager. And Jodi believed that Jesus was working through herself. Jodi also believed that she was fighting Satan on a daily basis, not just with Jesse, but with her clients and more specifically her male clients. With Jodi, where there is only good and evil, there is no in between and most things fall into the category of evil. So, but that was like the thing that Jodi is so good at is that she's so good at seeing her victims like using what's there already. So she saw me as an angry teenager. And so she's like, I could use this. Oh, you're angry because you're evil. You're sad because you have so much sin inside of you. Oh, you've kissed girls. Oh my God, you are just Satan himself. And I don't say this hyperbolically. Like she genuinely believed, literally believed that Satan was working through me. And she literally believed that Jesus was working through her and that she was fighting Satan on a daily basis, not just with me, but also with her clients. And she would tell me that all the time that these men that she was talking, specifically the men, that she was combating Satan on earth every day. And again, I believed all of this. So I was like, wow, like my aunt's powerful. Like she's fighting Satan. According to Jesse, Jodi was convinced she was doing something she described as spiritual surgery. Jodi claimed her methods had to be extreme because she was surgically removing the sin from your soul. The way she would describe it to me, because she would talk to me a lot about what was happening and why she was doing it in very, very effective ways. But she would say like, we have to do these extreme things because this is spiritual surgery. And that's how she would rationalize it, is that it has to be extreme because we are surgically removing the sin. We're surgically removing the sin from your soul. We're surgically removing Satan from you. But even more disturbingly so, around this time Jodi was still allegedly the most recommended therapist by the Mormon church. When Jodi would begin her engagements with her Mormon clients, she would inform them that she had direct relationships with Mormon Apostles. Yeah, think back to that study about how Mormon women trust the male leaders of the church the most. She would also tell them that she was influential in the church developing its mental health programs. As far as I understand it over the past 20, 30 years, the most recommended therapist in the Wasatch Front by the Mormon church, because every single person that's reached out to me to tell a horrific story says that it was their bishop that recommended Jodi Hildebrand because Jodi must have been on a list. And Jodi would always begin her engagements with clients, Mormon clients, saying that she had direct relationships with Mormon Apostles, that she was influential in the church developing its mental health programs. Whenever members couldn't afford therapy sessions, the church used tithes and offerings to pay the bills, meaning that the church was funding a lot of Jodi's success. This is like, this is crazy thinking about it now. I used to do her, I did her billing and she would bill the church. And so like every client, essentially, I would say like the vast majority of her clients were from bishop recommendations, just based off of the billing that I would do for her. Because in the Mormon church, if somebody can't afford a therapist, tithes and offerings might be used by the bishop who recommends his ward members to Jodi, he would then foot the bill. So the church was funding, so the Mormon church was funding Jodi Hildebrand's wealth and success and power. And the church knew, at least my local ward, Bishop Bangerder knew what was happening. Now initially, the restrictions that Jodi placed on Jesse weren't as severe. Then things started to escalate more and more. The way that I think she convinced my parents is in a similar way of like a frog being boiled. So it didn't start out the gate as horrifically abusive. It started out, you know, okay, Jesse gets a lot of value from hair, so we'll cut the hair off. Okay, Jesse isn't allowed to talk to boys. As if Jodi were testing just how far she could push the abuse before outsiders would notice and stop her. And things got progressively worse and worse as Jodi became obsessed with having Jesse confess all of their sins. Jodi believed that all mental health problems stemmed from shame, which came from sin. The only problem was the sins that Jodi was convinced that Jesse was committing, Jesse had not committed. She believed that if you are angry, depressed, or anxious or any like mental health, it's a result of shame. And shame is a result of sin. And so mental health is a result of sin. To the point where like I would, because I'd undiagnosed ADHD, I like even sitting here, I'm like constantly moving and tapping my foot or that she would talk about, okay, if you're tapping your foot, it's because your body is full of so much shame. There's nowhere else for it to go. So it comes out in these sort of like ticks. And so what she did is because I wasn't getting better, I was getting worse, is that there was still sin in me that wasn't coming out, that I hadn't confessed yet. She would say, I'm trying to make you so physically uncomfortable that it forces the sin out. And so that's when she started, I would have to sleep outside in the snow. She would have me write out my sins on a piece of paper. And every day she'd give me the same, he was paper. And I would have to write out my sins. The sins that I was writing out, I was like, and again, I believed all this. I believed this fully. So I was like, oh, there must be more in me. I'm trying, I'm trying to think. I'm like, oh, one time I lied to my best friend, Scotty. And like these are the types of things I'm writing out. And then she would come back in, take that paper, read it to me, make me get on my hands and knees and beg for forgiveness as she read this back. And then she was like, no, this isn't it. This is not it. This isn't all. There's more, there's more, there's more. And there wasn't. And I would start making things up because I was like, I don't know. So Jesse was trying to confess to as many sins as they possibly could. And Jody was never satisfied with what they were confessing to. Jesse ends up describing some increasingly disturbing behavior from Jody. That leads me to be incredibly upset that no one in the church or in Jody's family for questioned Jody's methodology were all the things that she had become convinced of. Jody became convinced that Jesse was an addict, just like tons of Jody's other patients. Or would be convinced that Jesse was doing things that she had never done, simply because Jody had a dream about it. And if Jesse ever denied doing any of these things that Jody had a dream about Jesse doing, Jody would put duct tape on their mouth because Jesse was a liar. But Jody also was convinced that I was a drug addict. She was convinced I was a sex addict. She was convinced that I had had abortions. She was convinced that I, she was convinced of so many insane beliefs. Like, and she would rationalize and validate these types of behaviors through dreams and visions. She would have these dreams that God came to her and told her that I had had an abortion. And so no matter what I said, I was a liar. And then that, and also she was convinced that every word that came out of my mouth was a lie. And that, you know, gave her rationale to put duct tape on my mouth. And that's why I was always duct taped. This again makes me doubt Ruby's claims that Chad was struggling with addiction when he was 14 years old, which led him to being sent to the Anasazi Wilderness Therapy Program. Since it seems that the Frankies were working with Jody at that time, but nevertheless, because Jesse would continually deny Jody's accusations of them that they were a did and doing all these things that Jody was having dreams of them doing, Jody would continually duct tape their mouth. Jesse was told by Jody that they were such a danger to other people that they started to believe it, which is the saddest thing of all. I experienced while living with Jody. I experienced being tied. I experienced being duct taped. I experienced being blindfolded, severe isolation. I experienced severe emotional, spiritual, and psychological being told I shouldn't be around other people, being told that I was dangerous to be around. People were afraid of me to the point where I was afraid of myself. Jesse even described being forced to sleep outside in the snow and being isolated for up to 12 hours a day. Jesse wasn't allowed to speak to anyone, but it wasn't only Jody perpetuating this abuse. There were other people within the church that would continually report back to Jody if Jesse broke any of Jody's rules. I was forced to sleep outside in the snow. I was, like I said, isolated for up to 12 hours a day. If someone spoke to me directly, if I wasn't wearing duct tape on my mouth, I had to just stare at them and not respond because she also had systems of people that would report back to her if I broke any of these rules. If someone liked me, if someone felt sorry for me, it was all because of manipulation. And I was a masterful manipulator. Constantly, she told me this constantly. If someone liked me, if someone felt sorry for me, it was all because of manipulation. And I was a masterful manipulator. Constantly, I was told this constantly. To the point where, I mean, I believed it. I was like, you're right. Because of the ongoing abuse, Jesse ran away from Jody's home three separate times. And unfortunately, even when Jesse tried to approach other adults to help get away from this abuse, a lot of times they weren't helpful, which is the most frustrating aspect when it comes to childhood abuse cases. Jesse even approached neighbors and police, both of whom did nothing because Jody is the most convincing person you'll ever meet, according to Jesse. The last time I met up with Alex, Jody's daughter, she said something that I think is so perfectly articulated in describing how manipulative and convincing Jody is. She said, I cannot be around my mom because if she told me the sky was yellow, I would believe her. She has this ability to get into your soul. It's terrifying. I ran away three times from her house. I went to a neighbor's. I went to the police. They didn't do anything because Jody is the most convincing person you'll ever meet. The last time I met up with Alex, this was a couple of years ago. She said something that I think is like so perfectly articulated into describing how manipulative and convincing Jody is. And she said, I cannot be around my mom. I can't ever be around her again because if she told me the sky was yellow, I would believe her. She has this ability to get into your soul. It's like, it is horrifying. And there's no real way of explaining it to people unless you've experienced it. Or if you've experienced this level of emotional abuse, there's no way of really like having, there's no way of understanding it. Another method that Jody used to break Jesse down was forcing Jesse to run sprints until their body shut down. One night, Jesse refused to do this, which caused Jody to, well, really abuse Jesse. Jesse tried to run away to a neighbor's house, but the neighbor only ended up calling Jody, who brought Jesse back. She'd make me run sprints every night. Again, for the reason of making me so physically uncomfortable that I would confess to sins. And she didn't have me do it for hours and hours outside in the winter, in the snow. And this one time in particular, I said no. And that was the day that I like walked away. I was like, no. And I turned around and she put me in the back and knocked me down. And Jody is a, she's not tall, but she is sturdy. She is a powerful, like a powerhouse of a woman. And then I stayed out. So I sat down on the curb after that. Walked over and then she ended up going inside. I stayed outside and went to a neighbor's house. The neighbor didn't know what to do. Jody found me, came in. Again, the neighbor was like, I don't want to tell her, but I have to because you're a minor and she has power of attorney. And she's your guardian and I can't lie to her. So the following morning after this failed attempt to run away, Jody pulled Jesse out of their bed by their hair, blindfolded them, tied their wrists, tied their legs and threw Jesse in the car, driving for what felt like hours into the mountains. There, Jody forced Jesse to run up and down the mountains for six hours. The next morning though, after I ran away, she pulled me out of bed by my hair, blindfolded me, tied my wrists, tied my legs, put me in the car and just started driving. My other grandparents, not my dad's parents, but my mom's parents, parked, I found this out afterwards, were parked at the base of the mountain to make sure I didn't run away. And she had me run up and down for six hours, up and down and up and down. After Jesse completed the sprints, they were rewarded, which started a toxic pattern in Jesse's life that they're still trying to break today. And the other part about this type of abuse that I don't think is talked about as much is that 90% of the time you're evil and horrible and wrong and the abuse is almost unbearable, but then there are moments where you're rewarded and you are now the best thing in the world. And so after these six hours of running up and down, the reward that Jodi gave me of acceptance of like, you, you did it. You did the thing. It creates this cycle of, which I think is already the foundation and the prerequisites of this is already instilled in the Mormon church of having to earn love. But that has affected my life forever for the rest of my life. Jesse eventually ran away again. One day, Jesse saw a coat and not the door was open and knew that it was their only chance to run. And I remember the door was open. I have a jacket. I need to run. I need to go. And I remember that moment so vividly that it is now or it is never. I am not getting out of this unless I leave right now. And I didn't think twice. I grabbed the jacket and I just ran and ran and ran. At this point, Jesse probably knew that all adults had failed them and that if they didn't get out of this situation, their health would reach a critical point. I'm certain I looked horrendously unwell. I had lost tons of weight. I was, my stomach was eating itself alive. I was very unwell. She also like, I was vegetarian. I wasn't allowed to be vegetarian. She would withhold food. After hitchhiking, Jesse ended up at a homeless shelter where they lived for months until they were eventually caught by detectives and brought back to their grandparents' home. So I ended up hitchhiking to the road home in Salt Lake City under a fake name. I told these people that picked me up that I was 18. I went by the name Rudy Jude, which is like such a fake name. And they figured out that I was a minor. I kept slipping up with my name and stuff. And they said like, you neither need to tell us who you are so we can help you or we're gonna have to take you to the shelter because we can't harbor a minor. And I was like, take me to the shelter. I was too afraid. I was too afraid that Jodi would get me. And I lived in the shelter for months. I don't, the timeline of the shelter being homeless is really, really fuzzy. I did eventually get caught by some detectives. And then I went back to living with my grandparents. While Jesse's story of their experiences with Jodi Hildebrand is by far the most harrowing and in depth. And I wanna commend them for their vulnerability and coming forward and sharing their story. Jesse is not the only one that Jodi has vindictively targeted and harmed as both Jesse and the Mormon Stories podcast have alluded to, which brings me to the story of Adam Steed. Adam Paul Steed is a Mormon raised man who during his childhood when he was 14 years old was targeted and groomed by a Boy Scouts staff member at his time at a Boy Scouts camp. Adam tried to tell his camp leaders in Idaho, but was told to save scouting by keeping this abuse a secret. Eventually, Adam got the courage to tell his father and together they contacted the police and local press and the groomer was arrested. Years later, Adam moves to Utah with his wife has a child and another baby on the way. Adam's also attending BYU as a pre-med student. Adam was referred to Life Star, the place where Jodi worked at but isn't on her LinkedIn for marriage counseling by their LDS bishop. I was sent to Jodi Hildebrand, me and my wife together. The bishop was saying it was for both of us together. Dita said about the experience, but Jodi Hildebrand immediately claimed that Adam Steed had addiction issues. Instead of helping him with his past trauma, Jodi immediately claimed that he was the problem, but Adam did not have addiction issues. And once he began to question Jodi Hildebrand's therapy, which cost $1,200 to $2,000 a month, a pretty penny for a young couple starting out in their life, all of a sudden Adam Steed's personal life began to unravel. She spent hardly any time knowing about my life. She didn't want to ask about my personal goals or my progress. She would only threaten me that if I didn't take more sessions and have my wife take more sessions, the alleged addiction would destroy my life. He talks a lot about how that physical abuse he suffered earlier on in life paled in comparison to the abuse he felt from Jodi Hildebrand, being her patient, being wrapped up in her vortex. Now, Adam Steed did a few interviews with various YouTube channels and podcasts, most notably the Mormon Stories podcast, which is the YouTube channel that did an interview with Jesse Hildebrand as well. But interestingly enough, most of the interviews that have been posted online with Adam Steed have been brutally attacked and taken down, presumably by Jodi and by copyright claims, as well as court orders. Mormon Stories podcast has just received today a temporary restraining order requiring us to take down our interview with Adam Paul Steed, the courageous whistleblower to Mormon Church Boy Scouts in Idaho, and one of the many victims of eight passengers therapist Jodi Hildebrand. So to take some precautions for the safety of this video, as well as because some of these interviews just aren't available anymore, probably won't be able to show the interviews that Adam Steed did with various YouTubers. I will try to show some YouTubers' reaction videos to the interviews that Adam has done to provide some context at least. But listening to Adam Steed, man, I really was thinking, he makes a really compelling argument about how very educated and even powerful people can come under the spell and basically be wrapped up in something they think and believe is good and helpful that Jodi Hildebrand is using for her own gain. Now, Adam claimed that his marriage started to fall apart after nine months of counseling with Hildebrand, which is kind of the opposite of what you want to get out of counseling. And then Jodi Hildebrand told Adam Steed that the couple needed to just triple down on the number of sessions that they were having. Adam Steed alleged that Jodi Hildebrand was blaming everything on him being a sexual addict and that since Adam had been sexually abused in childhood, Jodi used that prior experience against him in counseling is horrifying. Adam told NBC News, she was saying that every time I said I was a victim of sexual abuse, that was my addiction speaking. Adam also told NBC News that throughout their counseling with Hildebrand, he believed that his ex-wife had to protect herself and the kids from him. He also said that part of that issue was she created a dual relationship with his ex-wife and would use his files and everything you would talk about in treatment against him. She would tell it to his ex-wife and how eventually she was reprimanded for that. Adam also claimed that Jodi just lied wherever she went to further an agenda to destroy my life. Adam claimed that since starting counseling with Hildebrand, he was removed from BYU and his wife divorced him among so many other things. He recalled a moment where I was sitting with my baby and the next thing I know, I got served a protection order. I'll never forget her screaming, daddy know, daddy know, as they handed this restraining order to me. So why did Jodi decide to go after Adam so relentlessly while no one can ever truly know why? Adam had mentioned in an interview that Jodi had attached herself to Adam's wife, whose father was a powerful leader in the Mormon church. According to Adam, Jodi had the power to manipulate his wife who started to believe all of Jodi's claims. He talked about how his ex-wife was smart enough to get into Ivy League and Jodi attached to her because her dad was somebody powerful in the Mormon church. And even she would do things that just made no sense and call the cops on certain things that I can't remember if it was her or somebody else but he's like, people would call the cops because their husband like left the bag somewhere. They weren't supposed to leave it and the cops are like, we're not a son of a... It's what he's talking about. But they start to believe what's put into their head. Which would make sense going back to the fact that Jodi had done a study on how to manipulate Mormon women practically. And now she was putting that all into practice for her own gain so she could grasp onto power. Now, while this is just my own personal theory, if we go back to the study that Jodi originally did in college, one of Jodi's conclusions was that women often go to their male leaders in church as well as their spouses in their life above the women in their life. So if you want to gain control of Mormon women, what do you do? Have the bishops that they go to for advice recommend you as the counselor that they should go to then cut them off from the men in their life, make them afraid of them, say that they're addicts, deviance, demons, which according to Adam, Jodi did. So that one could say she could possibly become the trustworthy source for that woman and gain access and control if that woman no longer had the men in her life that she would typically turn to. Now, of course, this is just a theory, but it is interesting to see a study that Jodi did so long ago continually show up in the methodology and ways that she tried to gain and exert her power in the Mormon church so many years later. Adam spoke about how Jodi focuses a lot of vitriol in her practice on men, sometimes even encouraging divorces between couples, which is ironic given the Mormon religion, which often discourages divorce. But I think, again, in my opinion, Jodi does this, focuses hatred towards the men and encourages divorces for the purpose of isolating the women. And often this led to Jodi completely tearing apart the men's lives, even said he ended up in jail for 14 days at one point. He focuses in on a while about how Jodi affects marital issues, custody battles, isolating the men, how she did things to him in his life where he ended up in jail for 14 days on felony charges that shouldn't have even been felonies. He shouldn't have even had an issue with them. It was a minor technicality. He said that everything that Jodi would get from any of these sessions about the husband would be used against the husband. She would isolate the wife from the husband. She would do things like they can't be intimate for a certain amount of time. The husband has to have supervised visits with the children only. But during this time it could be said that Jodi went too far and her questionable practices started to catch up with her. Particularly the very blatantly illegal thing that many people had been complaining about Jodi doing which she has seemingly continually done during her entire time as a counselor which is her unethical disclosures of patient information. Between 2008 and 2010, Jodi repeatedly discussed Adam and his wife with their LDS clergy and other mental health therapists without having signed authorization. In March of 2009, Jodi Hildebrandt without having received signed authorizations or any other type of permission from a patient disclosed sensitive confidential information about a male client. Including a medical diagnosis with the Honor Code Office at BYU according to a doppel order which is so gross. The fact that Adam's deed was dropped from BYU and blamed Jodi Hildebrandt probably means that she went to the Honor Code Office at BYU and shared with them Adam's diagnosis with the specific intention that he gets dropped from his school. What medical health professional does that? So because of that, because she literally disclosed her patient's private information and I mean obviously doppel didn't assign intention but it's pretty clear with the intention that he get dropped from his college, Jodi Hildebrandt's license was put on probation. Jodi was put under probation for breaking HIPAA and this is a part of like why she lost her license. So she went to the church and told on one of her clients to the church. The Solly Tribune wrote an article about her in 2012 about this and I was 18 or 19 years old. I made a comment, public comment on the article online using my full name and I said something to the comments or no, because it's been archived I can't see the comments anymore but something to this effect of Jodi Hildebrandt is my aunt, I used to live with her, she's a monster. I can promise you this is not the last time you will hear about Jodi Hildebrandt and everyone in my family saw it. I was also in the process of finding a lawyer to take her to court. I was getting ready to sue her for a child abuse. What happened was she I guess dropped off her son at my grandparents like in a tizzy and left the country. She just left the country. And she was facing losing the practice and maybe more importantly to Jodi, the power structure that she had built up within the Mormon church. In the midst of this probation, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that Jodi Hildebrandt was no longer on LDS family services referral list due to the case. The board noted that Jodi Hildebrandt's probation is for one year and was scheduled to end in the summer of 2013. So eventually Jodi Hildebrandt's license was reinstated. Adam Steed's perspective on Ruby and Jodi's relationship when the story initially broke was that actually Ruby was initially a victim of Jodi Hildebrandt's and a patient turned practitioner then partner and that Jodi liked to have a twisted sort of multilevel marketing type of scheme where she prayed on people psychologically and then turned them into partners of hers. And he knew as soon as this story broke, when he heard that this eight passengers person was involved and was Jodi's partner and he heard she had millions of subscribers on YouTube, he knew that Ruby Franky must have been a patient and a victim of Jodi Hildebrandt turned partner and counselor because he said the victims of the past would become the counselors of the future. Jodi would like to set up this multilevel marketing type scheme that she would teach you her ways and then you start to teach those ways. I do want to provide the disclaimer that I'm not a psychologist while I can see how Jodi's involvement in Ruby's life intensified her beliefs and almost radicalized her in a certain sense. I also think that before Jodi was ever even involved in Ruby's life as documented in this video, Ruby wasn't treating her children very well. The fact that Ruby already had some abusive tendencies and wild parenting beliefs may have made her the perfect target for Jodi or rather the perfect partner. That being said, the countless testimonies of others in this story and their past experiences with Jodi all tell the same story that I do believe is undeniable at this point. The principles of truth are much of Jodi's ideas. While Jodi Hildebrandt's license to practice as a counselor was temporarily suspended, Jodi founded and developed Connections Classroom. On the website's about page, Jodi Hildebrandt says that connections is the solution for anybody experiencing feelings of pain relating to relationship problems, anxiety, fear or depression. Jodi also ensured her clients that connections would invoke feelings of change, wholeness, centeredness, empowerment, liberation, freedom, and would lead to greater interpersonal connections, hence the name Connections. Welcome to Connections. I'm Jodi Hildebrandt, so glad you're with us. If you're like me, you've had pain in your life. It could be from a divorce, work conflicts, relationship issues with children, grandchildren, spouse, anxiety, depression or fear that you don't understand, feelings that you're not enough or that you're unlovable. Connections is the solution. You can change. You can experience feelings of being whole, centered, liberated, connected, empowered, and free. Come and seek for yourself. There's something here for you. The core teachings of Connections is that for another person to achieve true connection with another human being, they must not be in distortion. Distortion is a rather broad term defined by Jodi. By taking Jodi's connections course, people learn that they're in distortion by the following. Being addicted. You can be addicted to your spouse. You can be addicted to work, to shopping, to electronic games, to sleep. I am definitely addicted to sleep. To social media, to driving. You can be addicted to driving, okay. To receiving compliments, to exercise, to eating, to drugs or alcohol, obviously. To sex, to pee word, to hobbies, entertainment. Basically the things that you can become addicted to are endless. I'm addicted to Jujutsu Kaisen. So I get it. You can also be in distortion if you are living in shame and denial. You can live in distortion through knowing that you are not enough. But if you know that you're not enough, doesn't knowing mean that it's a factual, okay. Anyways, you can be in distortion through being codependent in your relationships or through living in lust, AKA being sexually attracted to your spouse. Are you not supposed to be? You can also be living in distortion through controlling and manipulating others. And yeah, that's info coming from Jody's website. Jody claims that basically everyone is living in distortion. And we all experience the above experiences. But that she can help you overcome distortion and live in truth, that you can only do it through learning the three core principles that Jody developed so that you can connect with anyone and avoid distortion. My question too is why do you wanna connect with anyone? There's people that I don't wanna connect with. So when I was developing connections, I was very curious about principles and truth and specifically how principles govern our relationships. A principle is a governing characteristic that's eternal. It sounds like a law. It is, they are laws that govern our world. They govern the universe. What are some core principles? Let's try empathy, compassion, tenderness, gentle parenting, generosity, non-violence. Start there, but you didn't. And the core principles of connections are impeccable honesty, rigorous personal responsibility, not just personal responsibility. You are not living in enough truth if you just have personal responsibility. You need rigorous personal responsibility and humility. Connection requires someone to live principles of being honest, responsible, and humble. So vulnerability means I'm willing to accept the state of existence in this world. Honesty and responsibility and humility are at the foundation of living a life that's connected. Jodi equates these principles to absolute truths. And if you have other people in your life that you are connected to, then you should teach them the principles that connections teaches. Each of you are responsible to learn these principles for yourself primarily. And then if you have charge over anyone else, children, grandchildren, classes, therapy clients, you have a responsibility to teach them these principles. So that they too can be released from what I call distortion. So many of you know this word as shame. I started using the shame word for probably, I don't know, five years, and people were having the hardest time wrapping their head around shame, what shame was. I am toxic shame, immortal, never ending, always present, seeking to destroy. If you fail to recognize my existence, I will control your perceptions and possess your life. You will be mine. And I was teaching about shame and I went to God and I said, people can't understand the word shame. Do you have another word? Can you give me another word? And I heard one day distorting the truth and I was like, brilliant. And her stated mission is to spread her teachings to the entire world. That's not an evil villain mission at all. She encourages you to refer family members to join so they too can experience true connection. And Jodi claims that if they do not learn these truths from her, they'll never truly be able to connect with you or others. Understanding how to live inside your integrity and how that heals personal pain. It heals things inside you, this fear that says I'm not enough, that I don't matter, that my life is not important or my needs don't matter. Any kind of horrific addiction, sadness, depression, anxiety, it all can be addressed and healed by living the principles of being impeccably honest, rigorously responsible and humble. And if that is something that you were interested in, which I would think that everybody on the planet would be interested in that because I have pain. And if somebody's telling me that I can get rid of my pain by learning how to live those three principles, I'm at least gonna check it out. It's important to note that cult leaders often display authoritarianism tendencies, believing their ideas and decisions are superior to others, that their followers should submit to their authority without question. Connections is unique, it's an anomaly in the world. People don't understand that they could actually heal their pain. And you, my friends, if you're getting this email, this Facebook post, you're aware that this is a unique experience, being a part of this connections family. A strong need for control is often evident in cult leaders. They seek to maintain power over their followers and the group's direction. The family and friends of these connection members are often very confused by these new terms, like distortion and all the other terminology that's presented to these family members as the only and true way to connect. If their family or friends ask questions or raise concerns about the teachings, the student will often immediately make a phone call to their connection support group so that they don't get drawn into distortion. Apparently distortion is like some sort of energy force where even just being within a certain distance of other people's distorted energy will start to distort your energy field. So, you know, like any cult practice, you need to isolate yourself from anyone who doesn't have the same belief system as you because that's super healthy. Cult leaders often isolate their followers from external influences, such as friends, family, or informational resources in order to maintain control over their beliefs and behaviors. This isolation can create a dependency on the group and make it difficult for individuals to question or leave the cult. And although Jody is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her teachings are not necessarily in line with the LDS church. Though she heavily mixes in doctrine of the LDS church so that Mormon people will trust more of what she's selling, and as people progress more from her basic classes to her more advanced classes, LDS doctrine is mixed in even more heavily with her teachings. But, bizarrely enough, Jody regularly teaches that local state bishops and stake presidents are in distortion, that they also need to learn what she's teaching in order to live in truth. Therefore, again, isolating the Mormon people from the source that they used to trust, the bishops of their church, once they become involved in connections so that connections is the sole source of all their trust. Jody has also implied that her methods and classes are on par with what the president of the church, a.k.a. the prophet, teaches. Some people have even described Jody Hildebrand as an oracle, which I believe personally she wants people to see her as so that they trust her teachings even above the leaders that they used to place their trust in. We're going to talk about what is manipulation. I use manipulation to move myself away from responsibility. That's when it becomes a tactic of deception. My motive for manipulating is to deny my responsibility and to control, to gain power. And so I am hiding and denying from my reality and manipulating an illusion to then become my new reality. I have listened to many of Jody Hildebrand's podcasts and her theories are based on nothingness and operate upon a bait and hook philosophy of a commonality of shared experiences with the hook being her own cure for redemption. Yes, she thinks she is the expert. She has absolute theories of thought and considers everyone to live in some existence of guilt or shame. News flash, I went in the whole week without any feeling of shame. Her absolutism is a constant theme with statements like this one. It is not possible to have lived or live on this earth without a significant amount of faulty core beliefs. Physician, heal thyself. You have no right to categorize the human race into a lost and fallen state. Any therapy that separates a son away from his family is founded upon a wrecked philosophy of nothingness. When my son came to you for therapy, I sincerely tried to jump on your bandwagon. So that I could witness the light. For the life of me, I cannot make sense of your theories, your solutions and your topics. Why are there so many podcasts? Can the foils of the human psyche be dissected into that many pieces? Well, of course it can. If it is a business, follow the money trail. Nexions is a different modality of healing that psychotherapy cannot offer you. Oh my gosh. Transform your pain into joy. Choose the life you want to have. Exchange your confusion for clarity. Does real change seem out of reach? You're a mom who doesn't feel good enough and you're just trying to survive another day with your child. You're a husband that gave up on your marriage a long time ago. You're a teen or young adult who's been paralyzed by anxiety, depression and addiction. You've gone to multiple therapists for yourself or your child without experiencing any real results. This is very clearly targeting very, very vulnerable people which makes me sick to my stomach. Successfully navigating your life and relationships with clarity begins with you. You don't have to be a victim to your circumstances or the people around you. You can have the life you want but you must dispose of distortions, ugly lies in order to live in truth, connection and freedom. One of Connections training courses is called Empowering Joy where you can gain access to over 50 plus videos of live connection conferences, training videos and more. I just did a Connections basketball class. It was so great. She's so glad that I'm in. Just totally has shifted my life. It's been an incredible experience every child. I really appreciate about this class. It's like an eye opening. I hope maybe some of you are different issues I've had in my life. For example, I didn't realize that I was a victim of not taking responsibility. People would tell me that but hearing other men express exactly what I was going for and help me open my eyes. So come to the website, connectionsclassroom.com. Get in the classroom. Start meeting other people that are part of the Connections family. Start talking to them on the phone, talking to them on social media and get the help that you need. I look forward to meeting you and seeing you again, my friends. Take care. One version of the Empowering Joy course is $21 a month and the second version of the course is $202 a month. Both courses include the exact same benefits except for the second version also includes a single one-on-one session with Jodi each month meaning members pay $181 for a one-on-one session with Jodi once a month. For reference, the average cost of psychotherapy in the US ranges from $100 to $200 per session. So with Jodi's reputation, I'd say that this might be a little bit overpriced. Maybe. There's another course in Connections called the Men's and Women's Teams course in which members meet with a group of all men or all women for 90 minutes each week and Jodi Hildebrandt monitors each meeting which is $175 for an initial consultation then after the consultation for that 90-minute Zoom call in a group, it's $75 a week or $300 a month with a three-month minimum commitment. So you are not walking away without spending $900. For what? For just meeting together with a group of all women or all men, I don't know, go to like a slam poetry meeting or a nail spa, go-kart racing. There's a lot of places you can go to pay $900 for something like that seems a little goofy, a little silly. You can also do the one-on-one training with Jodi course which is basically just like a therapy session type of course where you meet with Jodi for 50 minutes, not even an hour and it's $181 for 50 minutes of a phone or Zoom call. Connections claims that they provide training as opposed to psychotherapy likely to avoid any legal repercussions if they labeled themselves as therapists. The Connections website even reads, connections does not conduct psychotherapy with its training clients. Psychotherapy is a healthcare service. Its primary focus is to identify, diagnose and treat nervous and mental disorders. Connection training does not identify, diagnose and treat nervous and mental disorders by reiterating that connections doesn't provide psychotherapy. Connections isn't required to follow the legal requirements and can essentially teach members whatever they want without facing legal ramifications like Jodi did earlier in her career. When introducing connections during an eternal core conference, Jodi said, for the last 20 years, I've been trying to figure out how to help my clientele. I've been working with tens of thousands of people for 20 years and I've been asking God about how to help heal them from this array of mental and emotional illness before she specifically named depression and anxiety. So let me tell you a little bit about what I've been doing. For the last 20 years, I've been trying to figure out how to help my clientele. I've been working with tens of thousands of people for 20 years and I've been asking God about how to help heal them from this array of mental and emotional illness. So all of us know that depression, anxiety, suicidality, all of these presenting issues and symptoms that come into your office or in your families or maybe are even inside you. And so I have been on this journey trying to understand how to use principles that are God's in helping people heal. So you don't identify and treat specific mental illness but at the same time, connections helps treat these specific mental illnesses. Makes sense. Connections also sold a business course to different workplaces. There's the individual leadership training course which a single person can do if they wanna learn how to be a leader for almost $800. There's the almost $5,000 package of the team leadership training course and there's the company leadership training course for almost $15,000. Jodi even made workbooks sold separately that you could buy for these work programs. On the connections for business page, they sell the course by saying an estimated one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental condition. Depression reduces cognitive performance 35% of the time. Eight in 10 employees don't seek treatment because of fear and shame but I thought that connections wasn't psychotherapy and wasn't treating people. So what are these packages and what are you doing here? But CEOs of companies provided testimonies on the connection website for these programs. Vance, the CEO of DSCO said about this program, we have an obligation as leaders to step up, be vulnerable, bring innocence of humanity to the workplace, eliminate the stigma around mental health. Connections has helped me to do that. Then the director of escrow IT, Wendy Jeffrey, said about connections. I felt overwhelmed at work. I felt like I was on call 24 seven and that I had to rescue everyone. Learning self care and how to set boundaries gave me the freedom to be honest with my feelings. I have a much better balance between work and family and I'm excited to continue to learn more. Connections also held live women's and men's workshops and conferences which Ruby helped to promote. Problems and distracting are not going to help you bring that case that you are looking for. I hope you will join me on January 15th and 16th in St. George where you're going to learn tools and principles that will help actually bring peace into our lives. Jody Hildebrandt has helped thousands of women just like you, bring joy and peace back into their lives, back into their relationships. So click on the link in the bio and register for our women's conference and I will see you in sunny St. George. I felt power when I walked in here yesterday. And after this conference last night I felt power. Truth is unchanging. It's absolute. It's consistent. It's eternal. Connections also did the live parenting class which also had different levels and the Connections website reads about the live parenting class. Feel like you have to yell to be heard. Are your children more connected to friends and their screen than they are to you? It doesn't have to be this way. It's possible to have a deeply connected relationship with your child. We will teach you how to connect meaningfully and pair it effectively in just six weeks. Connections, peeps. How has 2020 been treating you? Stay. Are you experiencing any anxiety or depression or overwhelm avoiding your problems and distracting are not going to help you bring that case that you are looking for? It's impossible to know just how many people have signed up for Jodi's various Connections courses. How much money Jodi has made from these courses or how many people Jodi has influenced with her ideas. The Hidden True Crime podcast has made an exceptional Venn diagram or visual aid depicting Jodi's philosophies through the teachings that she deploys in Connections. You can see in this diagram that everything starts with the addiction mindset, which they equate to the original sin. I think one of the most important things that the Hidden True Crime podcast discussed is how everything links back to this addiction mindset in Jodi's teachings and how Jodi believed that everybody was an addict at the start of their therapy journey. So what I'm going to start with at the very top, you'll see what I call an addiction mindset. So one of the most interesting things that came out of some of the people we talked to this week was that people said over and over that Jodi believes everyone is an addict. So people would push back on that and say, I'm not an addict, I don't have this problem. Jodi would disagree. Everyone is born an addict. And the goal is because you're an addict and because you're unhealthy and because you're in distortion that you need to find the truth. You heal you to remove this sin through what she calls spiritual surgery. And the way you heal is through what Jodi calls spiritual surgery. Spiritual surgery is casting out all sin or removing sin or at least getting someone to confess sin. And Jodi even feels that she translates the truth, visions and dreams from God, the gospel of distortion. But if you don't go to Jodi and go through this spiritual surgery process, then you'll live in distortion, which is basically just another word for shame or toxic shame. Jodi often equates this sort of evilness with also the victim mindset and a lack of responsibility in your life. Everything is your fault. And so if you don't take responsibility and you're going to continue to make poor choices, have poor boundaries and spiral into more darkness and evil, what I would personally add to this Venn diagram as well, not to say that it's not amazing and awesome, is that also in some ways Jodi sees that when you're living in distortion, you are also manipulative and a liar and that you need to confess all of your sins to be able to go through that spiritual surgery process. But instead, if you feel any sort of pain or suffering from the process that Jodi's trying to put you through, then you're just being manipulative or you're just being a liar. On the other side of that is this idea of living in truth, which is all things good and morally perfect, which are her three things, impeccably, honest, rigorally responsible and humble, something like that, right? I just recalled that from the top of my head. So I don't know if that's what it is. It could be those things if it's not even and it would not make a single difference in the world. And if you're living in truth, then you're living in responsibility. You're living honestly and you're making good choices. You're having good boundaries on people and you're just all things light and pure and good with absolutely zero physical or mental illness. As you could tell by my clear sickness, I'm not living in truth right now. The Hidden True Crime podcast also points out that a lot of what is the basis for Jodi's revolutionary discoveries are actually a lot of preexisting therapies and therapeutic modalities that have existed for a while in psychotherapy. I wanna point out that I'm not sure, I'm not sure where Jodi was when her theories of psychotherapy classes were being taught, but I don't know if she was present, but this idea of responsibility is obviously key to many therapies. Like Jodi, Jodi thinking that this is somehow original or unique to her is absurd. I can name a few therapies right off the top of my head that put responsibility and choice at the forefront. I just mentioned that she's essentially using cognitive behavioral ideas, perceptions, lead to emotions, that's CBT. She's ripping off CBT and saying it's hers. And then this idea of choice and responsibility, existential psychotherapy, which probably finds its roots in like the 1950s, 60s. The basis of existential psychotherapy is responsibility. Some of you may remember the French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, who said that we're all condemned to be free, that we all have to make choices in life. We're all ultimately responsible for our own behaviors. These ideas are not new to Jodi Hildebrand, but she wants you to believe they are. But the difference I would say is that Jodi uses these sort of baselines of therapeutic practices that people have found healing in and exploits those ideas for her own motives, her own religious ideas, her own control over people, her own thoughts about self-blame. Connections has been one of the most off-putting aspects of this story and in general of all stories I've covered to this date because it really highlights the danger and the power that harmful ideas can have and how they can fester and spread so easily in the world that we live in today. And once Jodi had a system of ideas that worked that people seemed to like, she ran with it, especially once she got involved with Ruby. On June 28th of 2022, Ruby took to Instagram and posted a number of Insta stories explaining her next moves on social media. Ruby explained why she had changed her username recently from eight passengers to moms of truth. That's right, Ruby changed the official eight passengers Instagram account into an account branded for the Moms of Truth brand. And not only did the name change, but the Instagram account now seemed to be ran by both Jodi and Ruby instead of just Ruby, which is definitely a red flag. Jodi did seem to target Ruby for her very large following and it clearly worked. In the Instagram story, where Ruby talked about this entire brand change, Ruby stated that she originally started out sharing her kids' lives in support of motherhood. However, her children were now all grown up, though really at the time, all of her children were still very much young and only one of her children, Sherry, was 18 and had moved out of the house. I have made my content around my children for years and my children are getting older. Sherry has already flown the coop and Chad is closely behind her and then before you know it in a handful of years, all of my children will be gone. Like you do realize you only have one child that grew up, right? All of your children very much need you and are not grown up. Ruby continues to say in this video that she's not going anywhere, but she just can't film her children anymore. At this time, Ruby is deep into connections, teachings and practices. And so it makes me wonder, why? Why did Ruby stop filming her children so abruptly? Was it really because they had grown up? Because her youngest child was eight at the time that she filmed this Instagram story. And she didn't stop filming them to give them privacy since Ruby very clearly never cared about giving her children privacy. So why all of a sudden did Ruby have to stop filming her children altogether, all virtually disappearing from all of her content and social media platforms? So it is time for me to switch how I do this and to do it inside of principles. That's something I can do this until I'm a hundred. As long as I can type on a phone, I can continue making content. I just cannot make content around children. In September of 2022, more rumors started swirling regarding an internal Frankie family conflict. Most of these rumors stemmed from the subreddit r slash eight passengers snark. Those some were later confirmed by the Frankie family members themselves. Rumors started pouring in that Ruby had been brainwashed by connections extreme beliefs. Sources claimed that Ruby's deep involvement in the connections therapy group led to her becoming alienated from her entire family. And due to this ongoing conflict, Kevin had moved out of the house completely and was separated from Ruby. The eldest Frankie son, Chad, apparently moved out of the home as well. And some sources were even claiming that Jody moved in with Ruby for a period of time. While the oldest Frankie daughter, Sherry, who was studying at BYU close to the family home, had allegedly cut contact with her entire immediate family. The most concerning allegation at the time though, was that Ruby still had her four youngest children, Abby, Julie, Russell and Eve, but had allegedly pulled them out of school. She had also allegedly completely left them home alone while she attended connections conferences. CPS had reportedly been involved and called to the home. These allegations had allegedly come from an insider, but there was little proof backing the claims until Sherry Frankie posted an Instagram story confirming just how serious her family situation had become. There are many rumors circulating online about my family. While it's true I'm not in contact with my immediate family and don't support the extreme beliefs of connections, please remember that this is my real family. Despite good intentions, speculating rumors and gossip doesn't help us. I'd like to ask for privacy for me and my family as we work through this very difficult situation. Please know that many are working on this situation and I hope one day that we can be whole again. Please respect my privacy as I work through my own healing as well. A neighbor of the Frankies was interviewed by the Salt Lake Tribune and this neighbor confirmed the timelines surrounding these events. Ruby Frankie and her husband Kevin first moved into their Springville home in January of 2020. The neighbor said that initially the Frankie children interacted with the local church community and befriended other kids in the area, but over the years they were eventually pulled out of school and after Kevin Frankie moved out of the home around August of 2022, the neighbor observed the Frankie's four youngest children repeatedly left home alone, she said. So the family was clearly in disarray. The oldest child, Sherry restored her relationship with the Griffiths family, a.k.a. Ruby's estranged family members. In March of 2023, Sherry celebrated her 20th birthday for Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Joel through a birthday party for her. Good morning, you guys are going to help me prepare for my niece Sherry's birthday party today. Ruby's sister, Ellie and her kids also showed up to the party and they gathered around as Sherry blew out the candles. Happy birthday. And sadly, neither Kevin nor Ruby showed up to their daughter's birthday party. Even though Kevin was moved out of the house and not involved in connections, still didn't show up to his own daughter's 20th birthday. While Ruby was currently tied up in her connections coal, there are many questions still circulating regarding Kevin. So I guess this is where I'm gonna rant for a second. Of course, Kevin as well as Kevin's lawyers have their own statements and their own story regarding his version of events which will be addressed at some point in this video. But it frustrates me to no end when Kevin is ignored or even worse seen as the good or the innocent parent. I already have this video, countless hours of research and viewing tons and tons of vlogs. I am serious when I say that the majority of vlogs that I have viewed of eight passengers is completely absent. He's gone. Where is Kevin? Where is he? He is literally completely checked out and is a neglectful parent at the very least. In my opinion, when Kevin does show up, he wholeheartedly agrees and stands by all of Ruby's decision making. So virtually I never saw Kevin be a parent whatsoever. He would always just show up after the fact and say, oh, Ruby said to do that? Okay, yeah, I agree, we're gonna do that. He never had to do anything unless there was a whole world of incredible nurturing parenting that Kevin was doing that just was never getting filmed, that was all being missed. Yeah, but from the hours that I've seen, that's my interpretation. Kevin was literally always gone, which also, can we talk about how kind of creepy Kevin is in general? My once a week lover. I'm so glad I'm back in town to see you. How long will you be in town? Oh, just three days until I have to go back on the road. It's fun to see you. Even like this stuff on my feet? Yes, whenever you come into town, you feed me food and take me out and whisk me off my feet. Example, Kevin was a professor at Brigham Young University. Sherry decided to go to school at BYU, Brigham Young University. See her more often or I don't know, maybe go to her 20th birthday in general. I know that a good father would stop at nothing to have a relationship with his children. But on top of that, this is where things get even bigger. What blows my mind even more is Kevin's rate my professor reviews because some of Kevin's rate my professor reviews say again and again that Kevin is unavailable and hard to get in contact with, which he's away from the vlogs because he's off working. Then his students also say that he's never available after school hours. I have so many questions. Is it just me or is this extremely sketchy? He was basically impossible to contact outside of class. Makes easy concepts unnecessarily difficult. He's the worst professor I've ever had. He's rude, inaccessible out of class, unhelpful when you ask questions and does not prioritize helping his students at all. He's too full of himself, always rude side comments and is hard to reach for office hours. Someone also claimed that he yelled at the class for using TikTok and threw a textbook at them. Unable to get in contact outside of class. He's very controlling and you can only have the same views that he has. So Kevin, what are you doing? Where do you go after class? What do you do? I mean, I just think there should be more focus on Kevin and what's going on with him because I think we need to talk about Kevin. But nonetheless, the public continued to focus on Ruby. I mean, for obvious reasons. And instead of Ruby addressing her family situation or the clear divide that had taken place, Ruby just pretended like nothing was happening and continued to make more and more moms of truth videos alongside Jodi, these videos progressing into worse and worse beliefs and views. For example, in a video, Jodi used the R word multiple times and made fun of the fact that many people find it offensive saying that it just means someone is slow. Yeah, that's why people find it offensive and then laughing as she called herself the R word. People used to be called negative connotation to that, but someone or some group put negative connotation on to restart it and some of you are cringing like, oh my gosh, I can't believe she just said that. And there's nothing bad about restart, it just means slow. I'm so good in several areas, like baking is one of them. I'm 50 years old, I didn't know what a surf was. That's a little slow. They then went on this rant of phobia, cleaning that microaggressions and any term related to the LGBTQ plus community was a made up word. LGBTQ, I think that's an I now. Plus, plus, and it's another of these movements that are going on in our world that is divisive. I mean, I work with three people every day, and it's not every day, but probably once a week, somebody said a word like cisgender with a last word on the earth. I'm like, what in the heck is that? It's just a made up word that someone's like meaning on. Which logically is so silly because any word can be a made up word and then people assign meaning to it and then all of a sudden that word has meaning. In one video, Ruby also threw some passive aggressive shade towards Sherry and seemed to subtly address Sherry's decision to cut contact by saying in this video that it was her children's fault if they don't love her unconditionally. Even though she constantly puts conditions on the love that she has for her children, but okay. Ruby and I have each shared an example from our own lives of what real love looks like, which isn't what the world thinks is love. They'd push back and say, whoa, that's mean. You're not going to be loved. Your children are going to kick you out of their lives. So when people say, well, if you do that, then your child's not gonna trust you. If you do that, then your child's not gonna love you. Well, exactly, I'm just revealing that my child is refusing to love unconditionally. I don't want anyone in my life who's not going to be loving. So if my child will only love me, if I give them what they want, then that's not really love. So this takes a very strong soul because most of us are not even willing to consider not having our children in our lives. And I hope that you'll reconsider. Pretty ironic that Ruby does not give unconditional love to her children whatsoever, yet believes that children should just love their parents unconditionally. She also admitted on camera that she loved the principles of connections more than she loved her own children. I love principles more than my child. Yikes, that's a really, and that is the truth. That is the truth. I'm sorry, what? You love a therapeutic concept more than you love your own children, real, living, breathing human beings. That sounds like a distorted reality that these two are living in. Ruby made a post where you can tell she's in height of extreme beliefs where she said that during her time in eight passengers, when most people believed that she was an overly strict mother, even then Ruby was living in distortion and raising entitled children. This post is the most significant sign that Ruby had fallen off the deep end into extremism. If what Ruby had done during her time on eight passengers was entitled parenting, it raises the question, what on earth was she doing to her children now? We live in a world where the majority live in distortion. TikTok is evidence of this. My vlog is largely evidence of this as well. I go back and occasionally see how distorted I acted and how entitled I encouraged my children to be and I nearly burst into tears every time, tending to be a happy and cheerful mother with a really connected family and I was lying. If you could have seen all the lies and secrets that were being kept, it wasn't until I began to be truthful and repent that the world got angry and began accusing me of abuse. The only abuse I'm guilty of is giving my children whatever they wanted whenever they asked. Almost to the day I began holding boundaries with my children, my illusion on YouTube began to fall apart. I did a great disservice to you. I led you to believe that happiness can be found in excess, indulgence and in gratifying wants. Giving her children whatever they wanted, except a bed, except food at school, except privacy, except phones, except the opportunity to keep friends, except medical privacy, the list goes on and on. Clearly she's living in distortion. If she believes she gave those kids everything they wanted, barely provided what they needed. So she was such a strict mother already and didn't give them whatever they wanted whenever they wanted back in her vlogs. I cannot imagine what these children have to go through now. From the story and the research that I found, I cannot deny that Jodi Hildebrand became an extreme dark influence in Ruby's life, where Ruby became isolated from all of her family members. Her belief system became more and more extreme. She separated herself from her husband and from her older children. She walked away completely from her family vlog. Instead, Ruby handed over all of her social medias to Jodi for their moms of truth pages and isolated herself completely. And worst of all, in turn isolated her children completely. Ruby was the perfect target for Jodi. She was lost enough with a clear disdain for her children. She already had abusive tendencies in parenting with harsh punishments and unnecessary discipline. She was a Mormon influencer with followers that Jodi could gain access to who was so very clearly unhappy with her life and oh, how eagerly Ruby ran with Jodi's belief system. How eagerly Ruby's parenting became more and more and more extremely abusive and outright dangerous. The question that I'll never be able to fully answer or know for certain, but that I've found myself asking throughout this story is was Ruby a victim turned partner in crime to Jodi manipulated psychologically or was Ruby someone Jodi targeted simply because Jodi knew that Ruby was the perfect co-conspirator. All the tactics that Jodi had deployed over the years had simply been leading up to this perfectly evil partnership. I can't answer this question, but all I know is that in my soul, I have a hard time absolving Ruby of the blame. No matter how much Jodi's influence may have played a part, followed Ruby for years because of her lovely children and began looking into Jodi and connections because of her. I have been so disappointed with the extreme narcissism of Jodi and Ruby. They can never be wrong. They play God, insult others and pretend that only they know the truth. If you listen to their advice, you will likely lose relationships with family members. And when your kids are on their own, they will likely stop talking to you. All of the warning signs were there. Fans, concerned neighbors, and even family members had been trying to get people involved for a very long time. And yet, at the same time, nothing could prepare the public for what they were about to discover. There's really nothing I can do to prepare you for the horror that's about to take place in this story. All I can say is that viewer discretion is advised. Nine, I'm on the address of your emergency. Okay, and the phone number you're calling from. Tell me exactly what's happened. I just had a 12-year-old boy show up here at my front door asking for help. And he said he had just came from a neighbor's house and we know there's been problems at this neighbor's house. He's emaciated. He's got tape around his legs. He's hungry and he's thirsty. On August 30th of 2023, Santa Clara Ivan's public safety department received a report about a juvenile in need of help at 10.50 a.m. The documents said that this child, now known to be Ruby's second youngest child, Russell, climbed out of a window of a residence belonging to Jody Hildebrand and went to a neighbor's house asking for food and water. He's hungry and he's thirsty. And he asked us to call the police. So he's very afraid. He's 12 years old. Russell was being held at Jody Hildebrand's home but was able to escape through the porch. How did you get out of the house? Porch. He went out. He said he just left through the porch at the neighbor's house. Her name is Jody Hildebrand and she lives two doors up the street. And Russell claimed that he didn't know where his mom was but that his dad was nowhere here. Do you know where your mom and dad are? Well, actually, I don't know where my mom is but I do know where my dad is. He's not my where he is here. No, no, no. No where he is. What's your mom's name? Ruby Frankie. Ruby Frankie is his mom's name. Juvenile was described as emanciated and malnourished with open wounds and duct tape around the extremities. His ankles are taped up and he won't tell us why. He has duct tape around each ankle. Yeah, there's sores around them. I think the good chance he's been... Oh, and he has been around his ankles. I mean his wrists as well. Okay, this boy has been... He's been... This kid has obviously been... I think he's been... He's been detained. He's been... He's obviously covered in wounds. Okay. And the condition of Russell was so severe that he was seen by the Santa Clara Ivan's EMS and transported to a hospital. On the 9-11 call, Russell confirmed that his other siblings were detained somewhere else. 10 and 14 and they're still at this house. And further evidence led officers to Jody Hildebrand's home where they found Eve, the youngest child of Ruby's, in a similar condition to Russell and was also taken to a local hospital for treatment. But Ruby's two middle children, Abby and Julie, were not in the home, prompting a desperate mad race to find the children whose condition was unknown. A search was done in Springville where the family residence was, which was more than 250 miles north of Jody Hildebrand's home. The FS requested that the Springville police do a search of the Frankie family home. Find the two middle daughters. So the police swarmed the home. Showing the moments police swarmed Frankie's Utah home. And after waiting for a warrant, officers broke through the front door, but they found the home unoccupied. Around that time, Sherry, the oldest daughter, arrived at a neighbor's house. Based on police reports, Sherry had previously called and expressed concern for her younger siblings. In September of 2022, Sherry had called authorities, desk officers, to check on her younger siblings, who she said had been left alone for five days and she wanted to make sure that they had enough food. At the time, police had responded and noted that the kids appeared to be home, but that nobody came to the door, the record stated. And Sherry was not the only concerned citizen who had called authorities to check in on the Frankie children. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, all neighbors had called DCFS the report that the Frankie children were being left alone for extended periods of time, that they were unsure if they were being fed. When he asked to talk to them, to the mom and the children, they all went in the house, locked the doors, and would not respond to any of our attempts for contact. It's very concerning when we hear that there were this many people that sounded the alarm, that there might have been something happening at this home. So there will definitely be some inquiry into why it is that none of these claims were substantiated at the time. One neighbor claimed that a DCFS worker cited re-range parenting laws in Utah, which changed the state's definition of child neglect and allowed children to be alone for extended periods of time if they were able to take care of themselves as long as they were adequately clothed and fed. On the day of the search, Sherry told authorities that one of the yet to be found middle children may be at a nearby recreational center. And when police contacted the center, they were told that the girl had been picked up by someone due to a family emergency. The police checked with the girl's older brother, Chad, but according to police documents, Chad declined to speak to authorities. And when authorities checked his apartment, they did not find any children, which that really shocked me that Chad was kind of being resistant to helping the police in this case. Luckily, the girls were eventually found with a woman named Pam Botchner, who had stopped by the recreational center to pick up one of the girls and is identified in the documents as a connections employee. How did you start to know the family? The Frankie family? Yeah. Through a program called Connections? Pam claimed in the police body cam footage that the reason why she picked up one of the girls from the recreational center was because she was having guests over and this daughter was doing some cleaning for her. How's it going? Good. I'm Officer Hawkins, sir. I'm looking for Pam. Is Pam incident? Yeah, that's my wife. Is your wife here? Hello, Pam, how are you doing? Good. I'm Officer Hawkins, American Fourth Police Department. So we had a agency assist out of St. George and Springville that we're just looking for. Okay. When you picked her up, what was the case? Did somebody ask you to pick her up or did you just pick her up? What was going on? Well, I'm having guests coming and she came and did some cleaning for me. But because Pam picked up this daughter from the recreational center and signed her out, it led the police to Pam's home. Where once the police arrived at Pam's door to question her, one of the daughters came to the door as well. Pam was temporarily handcuffed and detained for questioning. For a second, we just had to go over some stuff. You have a warrant? Yeah, we do. Can we see it, please? So it's in my car, but right now my concern is... Wait, were you just telling me you're all right? Well, we have to physically see her. Come to that door. We'll go ahead and get the copy of the warrant for you, okay? You have a warrant for my house? Specifically for you. Yeah, for you and the child. Yeah. So as of right now, I'll just need you to give your phone to your husband. Okay. And as of this moment, you're going to be detained right now, okay? Okay. Okay, so is there anything on you? No. Okay, just put your hands in front of you, okay? Just going to place you temporarily under arrest, okay? I'll explain to you that... I'll explain to you. What are you guys doing? I explained this already. I'm being as pretty as I can, okay? Okay, well, I'm going to call an attorney. That's fine. I don't know what's going on. Yeah, I don't even know what this is all about. Okay, so I'm going to explain to you when we get to the car. Her parents were in the situation of a child abuse allegation. Okay. DCFS made the report and went to the house and found children now nervous and locked in a safe. In a safe? In a safe. DCFS have taken custody of those children and we're looking for this one. The rec sender, when they went to go find her, said that you picked her up. Yeah, I did. So now they are trying to figure out... Why I picked her up? Why you picked her up? What you know with her? Is she okay? Is she, did she come here willingly? All that kind of stuff. Okay, yeah, they can answer that. So as soon as they come here, we'll be on our way. And at this time, Ruby was already arrested. Pam claims that she had genuinely no idea of the severity of treatment that Ruby Franky's children were receiving. And that the extent of her relationship with these children is that they would only come over to her house occasionally to do some light cleaning. And she was affiliated with Ruby and had a friendship through their mutual connection with connections. That being said, the police were not going to obviously leave Julie and Abby, the two middle children that were staying at Pam's house with Pam. DCFS was now involved. Police had Abby step out onto the porch to make sure that she wasn't going to flee the incident to ensure that she was safe. And in the footage, Abby becomes extremely upset. I don't want to show clips of this in this video for Abby's privacy since it is a very private moment. The police tell Abby that there's a worn out for her to be with DCFS and that she was going to leave with them soon. DCFS doesn't want to take these girls into custody. They also told her that the police had shown up to her home and that something very serious had happened. And I can only imagine all the mixed emotions that were going on in Abby's mind, especially after having a parent who was involved in cult-like practices like connections for such a long period of time. I'm sure Abby was terrified and yet also scared that she was somehow going to be in trouble for all of this happening. It's unknown currently how much Abby knew about her siblings' abuse, especially since her two youngest siblings were being held 250 miles away from her at the time. But her sadness also could have been due to her being terrified for the state of her siblings. In the entire time, Abby barely spoke a word to the police officers. Eventually, the other middle child, Julie, came out as well. Both of the daughters were asked by police if they went to school. They looked to one another and said that they were homeschooled. It seemed fairly vague about it, which leads me to wonder if they were completely pulled out of school, just like Jesse was under the guide of Jody Hildebrand. Do you go home? You're not in public school? Do you go home school? Yeah. When the DCFS worker arrived on scene, the police officers told her that the oldest daughter, Abby, would occasionally whisper things into Julie's ear like she was coaching her on what to say. The girls were given the option to stay with their eldest sister Sherry or go to a foster home, but they seemed hesitant at the option to stay with Sherry and instead said that they preferred to stay with the employee. So ultimately, four of the six children, Russell and Eve, who were found in terrible condition at Jody Hildebrand's home and Abby and Julie, who were found in Pam Botchner's home, were taken into the care of the Department of Child and Family Services. Abby and Jody were ultimately arrested in connection with the incident on child abuse charges. Both women were charged with six counts of felony child abuse and each count carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years and a fine of up to $10,000. Sherry Frankie, the eldest daughter, addressed the situation in an Instagram story, making it clear that she's been fighting for justice behind the scenes for a long time. First, she posted a photo of the police in her neighborhood with text saying, finally, with another Instagram post with text saying, Hi all, 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. Kids are safe, but there's a long road ahead. Please keep them in your prayers and also respect their privacy. Been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this. Jesus Christ, I cannot even imagine what they must have gone through. Not only when the camera was on, but most importantly, when the camera was off. They overshared a lot, but I'm sure there's still a lot of things we don't know about. I wish them the best. I hope one day they can heal from all the trauma and distress they have experienced. Sherry also made an Instagram post asking for resources to concerning eight passengers videos and connections videos in order to compile research I'm assuming for the case. Ruby's sisters from the Griffith side of the family, Ellie McCann, Julie Griffiths-Diru and Bonnie Holland shared a joint Instagram post saying that Ruby's arrest needed to happen. The post says, For the last three years, we've kept quiet on the subject of our sister Ruby Frankie for the sake of her children. Behind the public scene, we have done everything we could to try and make sure the kids were safe. We wouldn't feel right about moving forward with regular content without addressing the most recent events. Once we do, we will not be commenting on it further. Ruby was arrested, which needed to happen. Jodie was arrested, which needed to happen. The kids are now safe, which is the number one priority. Yeah, for some reason that post just doesn't sit right with me. It feels like their first priority is covering their asses, saying that they've done everything they could behind the scenes. And then like the very last paragraph is them just briefly addressing the kids, saying that, well, they're safe now. Yeah, they're safe now. They weren't for a very long time. Don't want to judge too much, you know, hindsight, 2020. I don't know. One thing that the sisters were right on is that Ruby and Jodie needed to go to jail. Now, the details that I'm about to discuss may be triggering for some viewers. It was definitely triggering for me when researching this video. Ruby Frankie and Jodie Hildebrand were accused of causing or permitting serious injury to Ruby Frankie's two youngest children, Russell and Eve, that resulted in them being hospitalized in three different ways. A combination of physical injuries or torture through starvation or malnutrition that jeopardizes life and by causing severe emotional harm according to the Washington County Attorney's Office. Those three forms of abuse for the two children mounted to the six aggravated counts of child abuse. Further evidence that Ruby and Jodie did this were the items found and confiscated from Jodie Hildebrand's home, which are even more disturbing. These items include two pairs of handcuffs, a bowl with red liquid and a metal spoon inside, a cape, saran wrap, at least three ropes, absorbent dressing and bandages, among other things, the records state. Also, two days before Russell escaped, a video was posted publicly with Ruby in Jodie Hildebrand's home alongside Jodie according to court documents. According to a probable cause statement, investigators considered this footage evidence that Ruby knew about the abuse inside Jodie's bathroom. Investigators found used gauze, which they considered evidence that Hildebrand knew about the abuse. I know that many of us, if not all of us, have been conditioned to believe that, you know, if someone is being abusive, then you need to get away from that person who's being abusive. But it's okay to leave the kids in that environment. And I understand that many of the laws in the world support that. A man or a woman can be being abusive and they still will have their children given to them. And I understand why the law does that, because there's so much deception going on that the law, quote unquote, they don't know where the truth is. They don't know who's telling the truth. On September 19th of 2023, Jodie Hildebrand voluntarily surrendered her counseling license in light of the felony child abuse charges filed against her. Not that I think she would have any clients who would want to seek out her counseling when she has felony child abuse charges, but you never know, I guess. The move made it so that Jodie is unable to practice counseling in any way during her case. The fact that Jodie is even involved in such a horrific case of abuse is, I don't want to say ironic or hypocritical, but also it's just a total manipulation of her power, considering Jodie's practice is literally supposed to help families who are dealing with unhealthy dynamics in their lives. And instead she winds up getting charged with child abuse. Isn't that what you're supposed to help prevent happen? The two women were scheduled to appear in court virtually on September 8th of 2023, but before the hearing began, more than 1,300 people hopped into the planned live stream of the proceedings, completely overwhelming the system. The hearing started 45 minutes late. The Fifth District Judge, Eric Gentry, announced that Ruby and Jodie would be held without bail until their next scheduled court appearance. Both Ruby and Jodie did not enter a plea. Wait, we're used to seeing Mom Ruby Frankie as an influencer, but we're now seeing her as an inmate and she's being held in a medical block according to the Sheriff's Department. Ms. Frankie, can you hear me? Yes. The mom of six remaining on a no bail hold. The judge transferring Frankie's case to the judge of her business partner, Jodie Hildebrandt, who also appeared in court. Are you Jodie Nan Hildebrandt? Yes. So how did Ruby and Jodie handle being in jail? Both Jodie and Ruby. Both Ruby and Jodie ended up having medical issues. After being in jail, a woman named Deborah Monson, who spent three nights in jail with Ruby, talked to business insider about her experience, saying Ruby seemed really concerned about being separated from Jodie Hildebrandt and said that Ruby almost seemed childlike and smitten with Jodie Hildebrandt. She said, God, how long are they going to keep us in here? And why did they separate me and Jodie? She said, I can't understand why they separated me and my friend. It almost seems like Ruby was in shock about what was really happening here. And so, considering the children were placed in foster care, the question is raised. Where is Kevin? Where is Kevin? Through all of this. The dude is just gone. Someone made a Twitter update announcing that Kevin was actually no longer working at BYU at this point. His employment had ended that previous spring. And in September of 2023, Kevin's lawyer, Randy Kester, went on Good Morning America and insisted that Kevin played absolutely no role in the abuse that led to his wife and Jodie Hildebrandt's arrest. Kevin, Frankie's lawyer, says that Kevin and Ruby had been living separately for the last 13 months. And that Kevin's main objective right now is to follow the court's lead and do what's best for his children. Kevin, who was married to his wife throughout their time at Eight Passengers and who was involved in connections all the way up until 2022. But conveniently, the few months leading up to when stuff hits the fan and they get exposed for terrible, terrible child abuse and get arrested, he's gone and has absolutely nothing to do with it. Kevin's attorney also told the Lawn Crime Sidebar podcast during the time that Kevin and Ruby were separated, Kevin didn't see his children at all. So they weren't living with each other. How much was he seeing the kids? Almost not at all. Actually, not at all. Why is that? If we told them? Why is that? Because she told them it was better that they needed to work on their marriage and needed to keep their family together but that everything was better off of him not in the home and not communicating with the children. So he might have been living separately from her for 13 months but he wasn't calling the kids, checking in on the kids, seeing how they're doing. He's the father. I totally understand that. That was the big question on my mind and the big question on a lot of people. If you bred everything that's in the media, he's getting raked over the coals for that. But what people don't understand is that he was trying to preserve his marriage. He was taking direction from her. She's the one who asked him to leave the house and indicating that in order for him to be able to get back together with her and be a family, that she was requesting that he leave the home and that he not contact them or the children. I don't know. Even if Kevin didn't participate in any of this, to the extent that Ruby and Jodie did, I still feel like a lot of the blame lies with him. Be an adult, a parent who so easily walks away when his children need him. I don't care what the reason is. It's neglectful, deplorable, and shameful. And who knows if that's even the extent of what he did. To not even give your children a call to ensure that they're safe for 13 months is wild. Kevin Frankie filed for divorce from Ruby and also filed a domestic relations injunction at the end of November, approximately three months after Ruby's arrest. She has a husband or maybe had a husband because now we're in the middle of one divorce from Kevin Frankie who was featured in some of these videos. But something happened between them and there's a split and what exactly is their relationship like? What is the relationship between Kevin and his children? And what are his thoughts? Where was he during the time that this alleged abuse is taking place? And on November 29th, Kevin Frankie files for divorce. Kevin's attorney suggested that this was all due to the influence of Jodie Hildebrand. But a lot of the dynamics between he and his wife changed after Jodie Hildebrand partnered up with Ruby. He said that she was acting as a family counselor and encouraged him to move out of the house. He was just shocked to find out what had happened to his kids while they're in Ivins with mom and Jodie. And that was on top of him already sort of being traumatized by being instructed by Jodie who he thought was his very professional mental health professional advising him to stay away from his family and absent himself, isolate himself from even his extended family, siblings, parents, and most specifically stay away from his kids and stay away from his wife Ruby. In disturbing further details, Kevin's attorney claims that even at one point when Kevin initially moved out, Chad, the eldest son, had also moved out, but the two moved in together. They were both in therapy with Jodie Hildebrand and as a result they were told that they shouldn't be living together because they would just poison one another so they should isolate. When their oldest son who is now 19 actually moved in with Kevin to begin with in a separate apartment from the marital home and was advised by Jodie and by Ruby that he couldn't be there together with his dad. They had to isolate from one another. They'd just simply be poisoning one another and Chad thus had to move out in his own place to live. The lawyer also claimed that Jodie lived with Kevin and Ruby for a short period of time. Did Jodie come to the house for the counseling? Did she live in the house when Kevin and Ruby were there together during the course of this counseling? It's my understanding there was a short period of time when she did in fact live with others and then also came and lived with Kevin and Ruby for... I probably better not guess but I know it was approximately a month or maybe a little more. The thing I agree most with Kevin's attorney on and allegedly Kevin as well on is that Kevin allegedly blames both Jodie and Ruby because Ruby was a total participant in this. Does he blame Jodie? Does he blame both of them? He blames Jodie and to some degree he certainly blames mom because she didn't just get sucked in. She was a total participant in a lot of this. So yeah, that's why he's divorcing her. He thought she should have been a lot more... I mean, being there face to face, seeing all of this, he thought she should have probably taken a lot better care of their children. Calling Ruby a total participant in this I think is a good way to put it. Even if someone was mentally manipulated in some capacity into doing something, something wholly evil, at the end of the day morally it doesn't absolve their actions. If they're a willing participant in evil acts, eagerly partaking in it with full conviction and only regretting and seeing the light once they're caught and incarcerated, then that does make them a total participant in what takes place. Ruby must live with what she did to her children and also live with the consequences as she would have taught her children and all those parenting vlogs. Evan is hoping he'll be able to have the children in his care according to his attorney. And well, I'm hoping that he'll be able to do the work to deserve to be a father again. What would he like to see the outcome be for everyone involved here? Well, he's already reestablished an incredibly good relationship with his two older children who are, I think, 20 or 21 and 19. They already talk every day. They see each other frequently. And so it's his hope that, and I think the court's sort of trending this way that he'll eventually have all the children back in his home with him raising them as their father and be able to have all the family together. After Ruby was arrested, Kevin moved back into the family home and is currently seeking custody of the four children who were placed in state care upon Ruby Frankie's arrest. My question is, which I'm sure we're all wondering, why now? Why is Kevin seeking custody now and not when him and Ruby have been separated in the past year when his children were clearly in danger? All of a sudden, now everything is a public issue while Kevin wants to show up and appear like a caring and present father. A little too late, in my opinion, according to Kevin's lawyer, Kevin is a good person and very gentle and no one's ever made any allegations that Kevin's ever physically abused those kids or anyone else. Now fighting to clear his own name. He's a good person. He's very gentle. He's a very gentle guy and no one's ever made any allegations that he's ever physically. Those kids or anyone else. Does anyone else find it weird that Kevin's lawyer made a clarification that no one's ever made allegations of Kevin doing any physical abuse? Since abuse takes many forms and can be psychological as well, on top of the fact that neglect can be a form of abuse. I find that distinction to be strange. The attorney continues to claim that Kevin just wants to do what's best for his kids. Get them under his tutelage and his father ship and protect them. Again, little too late for that. On top of that, despite Kevin and his lawyer trying very hard to clear Kevin's name of any guilt, culpability, or accountability in this situation. When Kevin returned to the Frankie family home after the arrest took place, after the police raid, on September 1st of 2023, Kevin told police that he believed the home had been burglarized because the front door was kicked in. Obviously, that's what happens in a police raid. And that several electronics were missing, including his electronic journals, according to police documents. He then told an officer that he believed his eldest daughter was responsible for taking those journals. What's in those journals, Kevin? How is it that you haven't been to the home in 13 months? And yet you're able to immediately identify that these specific electronic journals are missing, that it must have been your eldest daughter, Sherry, who took them. Not someone else out of your six children and whoever knows how many other people have been in that home who must have moved them. You know, according to your statements, you moved out of the home 13 months ago. An officer, sounds like tried to explain, to Kevin Frankie, that the door was breached when Springville police officers entered the home on August 30th. The officer then told Kevin police went with Sherry to the home on August 31st to retrieve personal items for two of her siblings. Kevin stated that Sherry is not allowed in the home and that he believes she entered unlawfully and he wants her charged with burglary. An officer wrote in police documents, that extreme again makes me feel like Kevin has something to hide. Sherry maybe knows where all of his skeletons are buried or maybe was hoping they'd be buried in those electronic journals. Police then contacted Sherry Frankie and she returned the items that she took, which included passports for Ruby Frankie, Kevin Frankie, and her 18 year old brother along with three tablets, three cell phones, three cameras and a stack of written journals to the Springville police station. And wow, the insinuation that that has does leave me speechless. Sherry taking the passports is a really interesting insinuation, possibly fearing that her parents would try to run. Also the fact that she took her 18 year old brother's passport, I'm wondering why she did that. Initially, if I'm being honest, I was wondering if her parents would try to run alongside her 18 year old brother because her 18 year old brother received a lot of counseling for Jody Hildebrand. It did make me nervous that maybe he had been sort of sucked into the counseling and concepts of connections as well, especially after refusing to talk to police. But lately, Sherry posted a Instagram story with her brother showing that they've been hanging out together, wishing him happy birthday. So it doesn't seem like he's estranged from her or involved in the connections cult. On top of that, Sherry took cameras, which makes me wonder if Sherry thought some of this was being filmed. Sherry also posted that Instagram story about trying to get as much evidence as possible. So it is a possibility that in grabbing some of that, she was trying to compile as much evidence as possible before her parents tried to erase it all. So I am most curious about what was in those journals, especially since Kevin claimed they were his journals and were so outraged that they were taken. What could he have possibly written that Sherry felt she needed to take? Once Sherry returned all of the items, she told authorities that she had no intention of depriving her father of these items, an intent required for a charge of theft. So an officer told Kevin Frankie that he wouldn't be recommending that any charges be filed against Sherry. And according to police documents, Kevin was displeased with this answer and advised we would be hearing from his attorney. And Kevin later came to the police station to pick up the items. The officer asks if everything was there, and Kevin says yes. There you go. Is it all there? Kevin then asks the officer to explain why this wasn't robbery, seemingly asking why he couldn't charge Sherry with robbery. Damn, you were never there for your children. Now you're desperate to want to charge one of them with robbery because she took items out of the family home. The officer then explains to Kevin that it's a civil issue, even saying to Kevin that he hasn't been in the house for more than a year, and that Sherry used to live in the house, which makes the issue even more complicated. Explain to me again why this was not robbery. Because it's a civil issue. It's you guys are family, she's been in the house before, you haven't been in the house in a year. She had interest in the items, she didn't take them with the intention to deprive you of them. So that's the theft code. We have to prove intent to deprive you of the items. And that wasn't her intent in having them. So the detective sergeant said that we're not going to choreograph anything. So I definitely wonder if we'll ever know the true story of what Kevin's role was in all of this, how much he knew, how much he did to prevent this from happening, and really how much he didn't do to prevent this from happening. I think the same can be said for other adults in these children's lives who of course will never know how much they did or didn't do besides what they'll say publicly. It is since deleted YouTube video, Ruby's sister Bonnie Holland said family members attempted to intervene before Ruby's arrest. My sisters and I, we are on the scene page and for the last three years we have truly clung on to each other offering support to one another. And I don't think any of us could ever see this coming. We all did as much as we could legally and you don't know what you don't know. I don't think any of us could have ever seen this coming. We all did as much as we could legally and you don't know what you don't know. I do feel a little bit numb at this point. The only thing that we ultimately care about is that our nieces and nephews are safe and they are and that is the only thing that matters to any of us. It is going to feel weird for me to move forward. A lot of people just continued to feel like something was very off about Bonnie's statements of Ruby's children being severely neglected and abused. It was when she said this. And things like this happen and somehow we each find a way to move forward. No matter what situation you're finding yourself in the sun rises every day. The sun sets every day. And each day you move forward. That's all you can do. Just an odd thing to say in light of your nieces and nephews having suffered for a long period of time. They definitely knew. Things that happen, nah. On September 13th Ruby's sisters Julie Griffiths-Duru and Bonnie Holland released separate YouTube videos claiming they were not aware of Ruby Frankie's actions as their sister had cut ties to her extended family. We did not know what they were doing. It we are in complete shock still as to what she had done because we had no idea of what was happening. Basically I'm here to to say that. I had no idea what was happening. Sisters claimed that things in the Frankie family hit the fan three years ago when Ruby Frankie started seeking counseling and stumbled on to Jody Hildebrand. The sisters also criticized Jody Hildebrand who they felt had a negative influence on their family. Three years ago Ruby everything was great. It seemed to be fine anyway. We were a typical family. She was getting some therapy counseling because their family needed it which I think is great. However, I think you need to get up from a great source read the reviews. We have kept quiet for three years on the topic of our sister Ruby and Jody and Kevin and connections. They didn't like the weird things that Ruby started to say and almost wanted to ban her from family functions. Jody Hildebrand and her website or therapy style I don't know what you want to call it. Connections was not a great resource and we all saw it. We all felt weird about this Jody lady. We weren't comfortable with it. We didn't like it. We didn't like the teachings Ruby was bringing to the family functions and we were this close to telling her if you come to our family events anymore we do not want to hear what you were learning through connections because we don't like it. We never did say that to her but we thought it. My thoughts towards Ruby and Jody and Kevin and connections is that it was all bull crap. It was it was complete indoctrination of this thing that they created. I don't agree with how extreme they are on everything. I knew they were weird. I knew that they were off. Those are the things that we kept quiet about because what was I going to say? What was I going to do? I was not going to come out and publicly say that I don't like my sister and I don't like what she's doing and I think she's weird. That is what we kept quiet about. Ruby's sister Julie said that after getting deeply involved with connections Ruby abruptly stopped talking to the family. Crap hit the fan and she left the family and she didn't even call me to say hey you know Julie you're doing this and this I don't like it you're living your life in distortion so I'm gonna have to take some time away from you. No literally nothing. She did call my mom and yelled at my mom on the phone for 45 minutes and accused her of things that were not true. It was almost as if Ruby had been making up memories from her childhood. She was trying to grab it anything she could and she would exaggerate on everything. So she started all of her lives back then lying to everyone in her life getting rid of all of her friends and family and I literally had no contact with her she wouldn't respond to any texts or emails over the time that I tried reaching out to her never got a response from her. Ruby's sister Bonnie also called out Kevin in her video saying that though the sisters weren't able to legally intervene one person who could have intervened was Kevin. The one person that could have done something within his legal right was Kevin. We had zero contact with him. It was Kevin's job to check in on things and he did not. So when I say that Ruby and Kevin and Jody and Connections have been destroying our lives offline for the last three years that is exactly what they've been doing causing turmoil within our family. There's only one person that could have helped and he didn't. What he was doing all that time when him and Ruby were separated is beyond me. Bonnie also feels that Jody is to blame for the dissolution of their family and that she weaseled her way into Ruby's life and chipped away at the family systematically. As things have unfolded now we can see that this is something that Jody has done is she gets in people's lives and she plants these ideas or accusations against people. When that is just not true. In an exclusive interview a neighbor who had lived near the Frankies for about five years told people that the influencer mom's arrest was definitely shocking. Although some families in the neighborhood had seen troubling signs over the past year I think we saw some weird things but I don't think anybody thought that these kids were being physically abused to that degree. Ruby's neighbor said that one of the biggest red flags over the past year was that her two youngest children went from being ever present to being completely absent. He really started isolating her kids. We saw their presence in the neighborhood almost daily then we just quit seeing the youngest two. That was a big change for most of us and although that raised a big question mark for neighbors their biggest concern was that Ruby's two middle children Abby and Julie appeared to be left home alone for weeks on end. It's like she went down to southern Utah to Jody Hildebrand'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. It's odd and the neighbor claimed that some had contacted child protection services in recent months to check on the teenage girls who appeared completely abandoned in the family home. Again, where ya at Kevin? According to KUTV in Springville police received more than a dozen phone calls to two homes owned by the Frankies. The station also reported that DCFS workers bonded to the home four times in 2022 and 2023. That's always the most frustrating aspect of child abuse cases. Time and time again we've seen cases where a child literally has to escape against all odds and get someone's help when they are at the worst condition but also when there's that many neighbors who are concerned enough I don't understand why authorities didn't act sooner or didn't have the power to. It's a really sad situation and one that I think just shows how disempowered kids are. We talk a lot about how isolated parents are in our society sometimes not really raising kids in a community sort of environment but also I think that puts kids in a disadvantage. You're also isolating and cutting off children in turn too where their only connection is their parents. I think there needs to be more of a community that children are able to turn to because they don't have a lot of rights and they don't have a lot of power and so if they are in an abusive situation they have no one else to go to. It's so easy to isolate them and cut them off from the rest of the world and that shouldn't be allowed and I'm definitely feeling very grateful that Jodi and Ruby were arrested from this. Jesse Hildebrandt said that while the arrests of their aunt Jodi Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke made headlines they were not surprised. We knew that Jodi does this we knew 14 almost 15 years ago that she's already done this to me and people saw and people witnessed and did nothing just because you reframe it as tough love or tough parenting that's not love that is abuse. In the child welfare case Kevin, Sherry and Chad appeared together. Kevin Franke, his two adult children and their attorneys walked into court together today when they came out They didn't have anything to say to two news. A judge has ordered the proceedings and the Franke family child welfare case take place privately. Whenever you're dealing with families especially children the courts are going to want to keep that as private as possible. And when two news reached out to Kevin his attorney responded saying that he was working on mending his relationship with Sherry. Kevin is still trying to understand and correct the upside down world that was dealt him. It's a lot to deal with all at once. Sherry also made a life update on Instagram which read there's literally not even words to describe how upside down my life has become. I've cried, had an infinite number of panic attacks had way too much ice cream and yet life goes on. Therapy has literally saved me but God has too. Words can't express the gratitude I feel for you all and I feel your love. Then in mid-December of 2023 the eight passengers and connections case was cracked wide open once again as Ruby Franke pled guilty to four counts of child abuse under a plea deal and agreed to testify against Jody Hildebrand. Mr. Windward is here representing Ms. Franke let's bring her out and Mr. Clark and Mr. Schaum are here representing the state of Utah. Ms. Franke is now here. Ruby Franke stood shackled in gray and white pleading guilty to each of her first three charges. On the fourth Ruby fought back some emotion before saying with my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and children guilty. All right I've been handed a plea agreement and it appears to be signed by Ms. Franke. Ms. Franke did you sign this agreement? Yes. And you did that today? When did you sign it? On the 18th. Okay. You've read it carefully? Every word. Your signature represents to the court that you've read it carefully that you understand what you've read and that you agree to all of the terms. Is that all accurate? Yes. Mr. Windward we ready to proceed? We are ready to proceed. All right then. Ms. Franke how do you plead to count one aggravated child abuse a second degree felony? Guilty. To count three aggravated child abuse a second degree felony. Guilty. To count five aggravated child abuse a second degree felony. Guilty. And to count six aggravated child abuse a second degree felony. With my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children guilty. These counsel Windward Law said in a statement that the abuse occurred while Franke was influenced by a relationship counselor who led her to a distorted sense of morality. I only said it in that tone because of the irony of the use of the word distorted. Franke is a devoted mother and is also a woman committed to constant improvement. Windward Law said in a statement. Franke supposedly initially believed that her co-defendant Jody Hildebrand had the insight to offer a path to continual improvement. But said that Jody Hildebrand took advantage of this quest and twisted it into something heinous. The attorneys also claimed that Jody Hildebrand systematically isolated Ruby Franke from her extended family. Older children and husband Kevin Franke. This prolonged isolation resulted in Ms. Franke being subjected to a distorted sense of morality shaped by Ms. Hildebrand's influence. The lawyer statement added that Ruby Franke has actively begun the process of reaching out to members of her family and that she seeks to mend relationships with them. What is your reaction to Ruby Franke growing Jody Hildebrand under the bus and was going to testify against her? Yeah, no, it's hearing that Ruby was going to testify against Jody just shows me that they had a lot more on Jody. The fact that Jody got off on only four counts of child which is significant and in my opinion nothing compared to what they probably had on her. I want to say that Ruby is an adult. Ruby is the mother, you know, she is responsible for her children and she is responsible for what happens to her children. Full stop and I fully agree. I don't agree with her not having responsibility. She deserves every one of those counts of child abuse but Jody is one of the most manipulative and it is systematic. In the plea agreement, more and more specific details of the that Eve and Russell endured have been released. Physical tort, they endured, the emotional abuse they endured. Some of these details may be very upsetting to hear for some viewers. In the plea agreement, Ruby Franke admits that she tortured her two youngest children from May 22nd of 2023 through August 30th of 2023. From approximately May 22nd, 2023 until August 30th, 2023. So now we have a date range three months of this abuse. In Washington County, Utah, the defendant Ruby Franke intentionally or knowingly inflicted and allowed another adult to inflict serious physical injuries upon her children. There were ages nine EF and 11 to 12 RF. He admits that she forced her son, Russell, into hours of physical tasks such as wall sits and carrying boxes up and downstairs as well as summer work outdoors without water as well as repeated and serious sunburns that blistered. The defendant's actions involved the physical torture of RF. Initially, RF was forced to do physical tasks for hours and days at a time. These included wall sits, carrying boxes full of books up and downstairs and working outside. Eventually, RF was forced to do outside labor without shoes and in the summer heat. Russell was denied food or given very plain meals and punished when he secretly drank water. These actions resulted in repeated and serious sunburns with blistered and sloughing skin. RF was denied adequate water for several of the days he was required to remain in the summer heat and he was punished when he secretly consumed water. He was denied sufficient food and when given food, he was given very plain meals. Example, rice and chicken while others in the house ate regular and more flavorful meals. And Russell was isolated from other people without access to any form of education or entertainment. He was isolated from other people and denied all forms of entertainment including books, notebooks and electronics. After Russell tried to run away in July his hands and feet were regularly bound sometimes with handcuffs. When the handcuffs cut into his skin and injured his hands and wrists they were treated with homeopathic remedies now known to be cayenne pepper and honey then covered with duct tape. After RF attempted to run away in July his hands and feet were regularly bound. Binding included being tied to the defendant and to weights. Many times the binding included using two sets of handcuffs one on RF's wrists and one on his ankles. At times with RF lying on his stomach ropes were used to tie the two sets of handcuffs together so that his arms and lower legs were lifted off the ground. Bindings resulted in injuries to RF's wrists and ankles. These injuries were treated with homeopathic remedies and covered with duct tape. That's when we heard about the cayenne pepper being used. Ruby Frankie also admitted to kicking her son while wearing boots holding his head under water and smothering his mouth and nose with her hands. Include one, kicking RF while wearing boots. Two, holding his head under water. And three, cutting off oxygen by placing her hands over his mouth and nose. I tell you right now, I'm not gonna lie to you that is actually worse than what I thought we were dealing with. I didn't know any of that. I don't think any of us really knew any of that. Ruby Frankie tried to convince her son that he was evil and possessed and needed to repent and could avoid the punishments by being obedient according to this plea agreement which said that Ruby Frankie's actions caused her son severe emotional harm. He was also told that everything being done to him were acts of love which I can't imagine how much that would mess someone up mentally. Additionally, the defendant and another adult, presumably Jody, regularly sought to indoctrinate RF and convince him that he was evil and possessed and that he needed to willingly be obedient to avoid punishments. He was also told that everything that was being done to him were acts of love. Ruby Frankie also acknowledged similarly abusing her nine-year-old daughter by forcing her to work outside, run on dirt roads barefoot, and go without food and water causing her severe emotional harm. The defendant's actions also caused severe emotional harm to EF. Other than binding and the specific instances of abuse RF was subjected to, EF was subjected to the same treatment as her brother. She was isolated and forced to do the physical tasks, remain outside, and denied food and water. It's just so heartbreaking to think back to videos when I started this research project of Russell and Eve, always together like two little buddies playing together, smiling, to now being forced to do this. Eve's feet had been repeatedly injured according to the plea agreement. She too had been repeatedly sunburned. Eve was also told repeatedly that she was evil and possessed and that these things were being done to her in order to help her. She was also repeatedly told she was evil and possessed. The punishments were necessary for her to be obedient and to repent and these things were being done to her in order to help her. And Eve was apparently convinced that what her mother said was true. Imagine being so young, your mother tells you that you're evil and possessed and you believe it. EF was convinced that she was evil and needed to go through these things in order to repent. We just understand for a minute what these kids psychologically now have to go through to not accept what happened to them. I think it's probably even more harmful than the physical aspect because it probably sits with you even longer getting over the mental damage that was done. Ruby will be sentenced on February 20th of 2024. Fifth District Judge John J. Walton reportedly told Ruby Frankie that there won't be any argument about whether she'll face any jail time. There won't be any argument about whether prison is the appropriate sentence and there's an agreement about the four counts running consecutive. That is correct. Soon after, on December 27th of 2023, Jody Hildebrandt also pled guilty to four counts of child abuse. Her sentencing, like Ruby's, is set for February 20th. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to District Court. We are here this morning in the matter of State of Utah versus Jody Hildebrandt, Case 231501763. Mr. Clark and Mr. Schaum are here representing the State of Utah, and Mr. Terry is here with Ms. Hildebrandt. Ms. Hildebrandt, I've been handed a written document of plea agreement with your signature on it. Did you sign that document? Yes. And you did that to represent to the court that you have read the document carefully, that you understand what you've read, that you agree to all of the terms that are set forth in that written document? Yes, sir. You've had sufficient time to ask Mr. Terry any questions that you have about the agreement or its potential effect? Yes. Then Ms. Hildebrandt, how do you plead to count one aggravated child abuse, a second degree felony? That's me. And to count three aggravated child abuse, a second degree felony? That's me. To count five aggravated child abuse, a second degree felony? That's me. And to count six also aggravated child abuse, a second degree felony? That's me. The court finds that there is a sufficient factual basis. The court in addition finds that Ms. Hildebrandt's pleas are made knowingly and voluntarily. The court therefore accepts and enters those pleas, dismisses the remaining two counts. One thing to note, there's this like really creepy moment in Jodi's courtroom footage where she stares right into the court camera and it just gives me the chills. Like somehow she knows I'm watching her. Jesse Hildebrandt, Jodi's family member who Jodi abused, claims it's likely that Jodi could serve 60 years in prison. The likelihood of her getting maximum sentencing is incredibly high. She's most likely going to be getting the 60 years. 15 years is the max on each. Look, the way that we understand it as well and from Utah Laws, it really isn't the judge who sets it. It's more like this is what punishment is and it's up to a board to determine if she'll ever be granted parole. It's about eight months from now that that board will be put together and that's going to be the first parole hearing. We'll be in as little as eight months. And that's what the DA said to be focusing on, like having a written statement of harm and showing up to those hearings and hopefully that this will, after this first one, that it will be pushed years down the line. But it seems that in order to keep Jodi behind bars so that she can no longer harm more people, more children, and more families, it's not really a matter of the sentencing, but more so the parole hearings where people have to write in and or attend them to ensure that the board understands the level of harm and danger to society that Jodi possesses. Jodi's case revealed all the horrible things that she has done to children as well, which was similar to Jesse's story, the pattern of 15 years of treatment towards children. Either physically forced or coerced a nine-year-old girl, Eve, to jump into a cactus multiple times. These two children were dehydrated. They weren't given food. They were made to work outside in the heat. Does it, did it seem worse what happened to these kids or just eerily similar to what you went through? So a lot of it was similar. There were certain specifics that were not. I went on News Nation to give us a statement right after the plea and I didn't know about the cactus and they had spoken about it right before they brought me on and it was horrifying to hear about. Not surprising, but horrifying nonetheless. She, again, she is she's one of the most convincing powerful humans you will ever meet and when you are in a state of vulnerability, especially as a child, there's just she can convince you of anything. Hit them. You immediately, usually, you immediately have their attention. Most kids will be like, and then they'll be like what do you want? What do you want? I'll do whatever you want. Just don't hit me again. But then you have this dynamic set up of I'm afraid of you and I obey you because I'm afraid of you. Not because I love you or I respect you or I want to obey you. I do those things out of compliance now and some kids won't even do it out of compliance. They'll just get hit and then they'll just look at you like, so now what are you going to do? Hit them harder, you know, like pummel them. Now that everything's gone down and Jodi needs probably money for all these lawyer fees, Jodi is selling her southern Utah home where everything took place. You have an extra $5.3 million and can afford a $30,000 a month mortgage payment. Then welcome to Jodi Hildebrand's home that's for sale, the very same home that she tortured and abused Ruby Frankie's children in. On the listing, you can see various landmarks in the home, such as the Moms of Truth filming room. For disturbingly, the listing also has photos of a vaulted safe room, likely the very same room where the children were being kept for extended periods of time. If you're wondering, yes, the vaulted panic room that she locked Ruby Frankie's children in is still in the house. Whoever listed this home was really smart to wait until the very, very, very end and just, you know, sprinkle in the photos quite casually. It's coming up, I promise. I'm swiping, I'm swiping, I'm swiping, I'm swiping. A lot of closet space. I wonder what happened to her wardrobe. Okay, now we're in the garage basement area and there it is. Yep, that is, that is where she locked Ruby Frankie's children. This house is over 10,000 square feet. So there's also something even more disgusting and hypocritical to the lowest moral degree about the thought of Ruby and Jodi hanging around in this lavish home that has all of these luxurious upgrades. Truly not depriving themselves of anything, all while they're forcing Ruby's two children to be confined to a tiny vaulted safe room. Also, just how expensive and lavish the home is itself. It's into perspective just how much Jodi was making from her practice and her connections business. Now this is a five-bedroom, six-bathroom home that's 10,124 square feet with a beautiful pool. Jodi was able to afford this home by giving people terrible advice on how to pair their children and how to cultivate their relationships. This was a woman who abused her own niece as well as her best friend's children. This all really begs the question, what did Jodi want from all of this? She already had money. She already had a certain degree of power from the Mormon Church. She already had connections, literally. What more did she want from Ruby? Did she just want access to her children? What desire did abusing another person's children fulfill for Jodi? Jodi, the person with an unquenchable need for control and self-blame, one that you can trace all the way back to her childhood. I can see that for the past four years I was in a deep undercurrent that led us to danger. The sentence will be that Ms. Frankie served four counts for one to 15-year sentences based on her convictions for four counts of aggravated childhood abuse from May to August 2023. She and her business partner held two children, ages 9 and 11 turning 12, in an accommodation camp like setting in her house in Ivan City. The children were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in, and virtually all forms of entertainment. They were isolated from others and were hidden when people came to visit the house. They were forced to do physical tasks by carrying loaded boxes up and downstairs and ring wall sits or sitting against a wall without assistance of a chair's stool for hours at a time. Both children had extensive physical injuries from the abuse that required hospitalization to treat. In addition to the physical abuse, the children were emotionally abused. They each believed to some degree that they deserved what was being done to them. After being caught, Ms. Hildebrandt has shown little to no remorse for her actions. In telephone conversations, they will be provided in full to the Board of Partons and Parole, and when she knew to be recorded, she's repeatedly claimed that she is the victim and the children are the perpetrators. She's gone so far as to say that the things said in this proceeding and covered by the media today will be full of lies. I sincerely love these children. I desire for them to heal physically and emotionally. One of the reasons I did not go to trial is that I did not want them to emotionally relive the experience which would have been detrimental to them. My hope and prayer is that they will heal and move forward to have beautiful lives. I am willing to submit to what the state feels would be an appropriate amount of time served to make restitution as an outcome. And in answer to your question, Your Honor, I knew that whatever she might say to the author of the pre-sentence report would probably be sound hollow and self-serving, and perhaps it does today. Adults with specialized training in particular are supposed to protect children. You didn't do that in this case. In this case, you terrorized children. And the court finds that it is appropriate that you serve a prison sentence. The court finds under the statute, Utah Code 76-3-401, that given the gravity and circumstances of the offenses, the number of victims, and the history and character and needs of the defendant, that consecutive sentences are appropriate. The court imposes four one to 15 year sentences to be, again, served consecutively for each of the four counts of aggravated child. You'll never know why Jody chose to tear apart this family to this extent, why Ruby went along with it. And if Russell never escaped, how much further these two women would have taken things? The motivation of Jody to do this, any thoughts from you or from Kevin on what's going on there? I have, we've discussed that thoroughly and we can't, it just, it's unfathomable that someone who's that smart, who has that good of a reputation in the mental health community, would do this sort of thing. It's just, no one can wrap their head around it, except that it was clearly done with some purpose and intent for whatever motivation that she may have internally and subconsciously had in her own mind. But I think that's the big irony of it. She's holding herself out to be this incredibly good healing person and therapist when in fact she's exercising her skills to destroy families. It just, it still doesn't make any sense to any of us. If anything, this maybe can be a lesson of where extreme controlling style parenting can lead to. My opinion, children should be able to have free will. And this is also a lesson of how dangerous therapy with no boundaries can be. And ultimately what the core of a bitch itself is. Where it stems from in both childhood and adulthood. My only hope from this story is that by watching it we can all learn how to identify it. Not just within our own lives, but within others lives. So that more children don't have to endure this. And also that we can develop more community systems so that children aren't isolated with dangerous parents and have no one to turn to. That's all for this video. It was quite a journey. So thank you so much for being on this journey with me. Thank you so much also to my team who's been here throughout this journey with me. And for those of you that made it all the way to the end, I appreciate you so much. That's why we make these videos. That's why I put in all this effort. If you made it to the end, please comment children's voices matter. I think that's the ultimate feeling that I'm left with at the end of this video. If you want to and you feel similarly. And I hope you are all doing well in this new year. I'm looking forward to more videos, more projects being put forward. If you have any ideas, any video topics that you'd like to see in 2024, please comment them below as well. And I'll see you in the next video. Stay well until then. Bye.