The Horrifying True Story Behind Hulu’s Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke

One day in late August 2023, a worryingly thin 12-year-old boy approached a neighbor’s front door in Ivins, Utah. He rang the doorbell and waited for a response. At first, no one appeared to answer, and the boy almost left. Then, someone called out to him through the Ring doorbell’s camera. “I was just wondering if you could do two favors?” the boy asked. “If you could take me to the nearest police station?”

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

A woman walked outside and gave the boy some water, while the man who answered the door called the police to report an “emaciated” child with “tape around his legs” who was “hungry and thirsty.” When police arrived at the scene, they learned that the boy—the youngest son of local YouTuber Ruby Franke—had climbed out the window of a nearby home owned by Franke’s business partner Jodi Hildebrandt. He and his 10-year-old sister had been held captive in the luxury mansion, where they were routinely starved, isolated, and physically abused. Their mother, who once ran the popular family vlog YouTube channel “8 Passengers,” had become convinced that the children were possessed by “evil spirits.”

Soon after her child’s escape, Franke was arrested on multiple charges of child abuse. Hildebrandt, who co-founded the parenting advice YouTube channel and counseling service “ConneXions Classroom” with Franke, was also arrested. Both are currently serving consecutive prison terms spanning 4 to 30 years after pleading guilty to child abuse.

Now, a harrowing new three-part Hulu docuseries called Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, premiering Feb. 27, unpacks the events leading up to both women’s arrests. Directed by Olly Lambert (Ukraine: The People’s Fight, Aftershock: Everest and the Nepal Earthquake), Devil in the Family marks the first time Franke’s eldest children, Shari and Chad, give a detailed account of their stories on camera. The three-part series also includes interviews with Ruby’s estranged husband Kevin, law enforcement officials, and former neighbors of the Franke family.

This is the true story behind the fall of Ruby Franke, the once-successful family vlogger turned convicted child abuser.

Read more: The True Story Behind An Update on Our Family and the YouTubers Who Gave Up an Adopted Child

Who is Ruby Franke?

Ruby Franke, 43, is a Mormon mother of six from Springville, Utah. In 2015, Franke started a family vlog on YouTube titled “8 Passengers” where she documented the daily lives of her six children and husband, Kevin Franke. Franke’s channel became enormously popular; as of June 2020, the channel had climbed to around 2.5 million subscribers.

“Ruby’s sole ambition was to be seen as the perfect mom,” Kevin Franke says in the series. “That’s all she talked about. That’s all she focused on. But she wasn’t getting enough praise and attention for it. So she decided she was going to create a YouTube channel. And when she sets her mind to something, hell and earth combined could not stop her.”

Even before Franke’s arrest in 2023, 8 Passengers had come under intense scrutiny due to Franke’s parenting techniques. In June 2020, Franke’s then-15-year-old son Chad was filmed saying he had been sleeping on a beanbag chair in the family’s basement for seven months as a form of punishment. Other videos showed Franke threatening to take away meals or threatening to cut off the head of one child’s teddy bear. Another showed some members of the family opening Christmas presents while the two youngest children were not given any gifts that year.

The docuseries alleges that, according to those around her, Ruby was privately upset about the criticism from viewers. In public, however, she dismissed critics, telling The Wrap in 2021 that she was only demonstrating “what a responsible mother looks like.”

Who is Jodi Hildenbrandt?

Jodi Hildebrandt is a therapist who had her license suspended in 2012 after she reportedly told Mormon church leaders about a patient’s “porn addiction.” Through the recommendation of a family friend, who attended Hildebrandt’s ConneXions curriculum, the Frankes hired Hildebrandt to counsel a then-teenage Chad Franke, who had been acting out at home and in school.

The docuseries contextualizes this so-called bad behavior. As Chad got older, he recalls, he began to push back against being filmed for 8 Passengers, saying that incoming brand deal scripts made him feel “controlled.” And he wasn’t alone in these feelings. “The kids started to complain about everything,” Kevin tells filmmakers, recalling how they would claim to be bored and say they didn’t want to film. Concerned that the kids were “losing their light,” Ruby leaned harder into Hildebrandt’s hardline teachings on family discipline. (The docuseries reports that Hildebrandt was divorced and estranged from her own children.)

As the Frankes started doing weekly counseling sessions with Hildebrandt, Ruby began training as a coach in ConneXions. She and Hildebrandt also posted to an Instagram account called “Moms of Truth.” Meanwhile, Shari started to research Hildebrandt online and found that the counselor had lost her therapy license and was the subject of numerous complaints by former patients. Ruby shrugged off those concerns, believing Hildebrandt had been sent to the family for a reason.

In May 2020, Hildebrandt moved in with the Frankes; Ruby and Kevin had become convinced that the counselor was under the influence of demonic possession. “Jodi would go into these possessed trances,” Kevin tells filmmakers. “She would start speaking in other voices.” Ruby was so concerned that she began sleeping in Hildebrandt’s bedroom.

One day, while home from college, Shari walked into her old bedroom (at that point occupied by Hildebrandt and Ruby) and found massage oils and candles strewn everywhere. “It was much more than a friendship,” Kevin tells filmmakers. “Much more than a sisterhood. It was uncomfortably intimate.” Not long after, Ruby instructed Kevin and Chad to move out of their house. Ruby also disowned Shari, who was attending Brigham Young University, after finding out that she had tried to contact Kevin. 

Did anyone try to intervene?

After Kevin moved out, more YouTube viewers and neighbors in Springville began to voice concern about what might be happening in the Frankes’ home. At this point, Ruby appeared to be spending more and more time at Jodi’s house in Ivins, leaving the young kids—whose ages ranged approximately between 9 and 15—alone. Shari, who was still in touch with the neighbors, called the police and asked for a welfare check on the kids. However, the police were unable to enter the Franke home without a warrant, which a judge declined to sign off on.

Neighbors also frequently tried to contact Kevin, who was unresponsive and even blocked their numbers on occasion. A Change.org petition from May 2020 calling for the Utah Division of Child and Family Services to check on the children’s wellbeing garnered more than 18,000 signatures. CPC said they were unable to intervene because they could not see any physical signs of abuse on the Franke children, who had been instructed not to answer the door.

At the time, Kevin told filmmakers that he was holding out hope Ruby would let him move back into their home and pledged to respect her no-contact wishes until that point; he even continued to attend the weekly online ConneXions mens’ group led by Hildebrandt.

What happened after the police arrested Ruby and Jodi?

When Ruby and Jodi were arrested, Ruby called Kevin after a year of not speaking to him, asking if he’d pick up their two youngest children at the police station, framing it as a way to “redeem” himself. Ruby also told Kevin that the two younger children were “demonically possessed” and that she could “only imagine the lies” their younger son was telling the police. 

Upon searching Hildebrandt’s home, police found rope, handcuffs, medical gauze, and a mixture of cayenne pepper and honey in a safe room. They also found a handwritten journal where Ruby had chronicled the day-to-day series of events as she tried to “exorcise” her children. Police also determined that only the two youngest children had been held at the house; they found the Frankes’ two middle daughters, Abby and Julie, later at a neighbor’s house. 

Meanwhile, Ruby’s escaped son told officers that he and his sister had been forced to stand in the hot sun, tied down to weights, and forced to jump on a trampoline all day. At times, they were also driven into the desert and forced to run.

Both Ruby and Jodi pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. In a public apology read to the court at the time of sentencing, Ruby addressed her children, who were not present in the courtroom, claiming to have been manipulated by Hildebrandt: “I’ll never stop crying for hurting your tender souls. My willingness to sacrifice all for you was masterfully manipulated into something very ugly. I took from you all that was soft and safe and good.” Ruby cast blame on Hildebrandt for what had occurred and agreed to testify against the counselor as part of a plea deal.

In December 2023, Hildebrandt’s attorney told the court that his client would plead guilty instead of face a trial, so the children wouldn’t have to testify. “She takes responsibility, and it is her main concern at this point that these children can heal, both physically and emotionally.”

Read more: What the Evidence Released From Ruby Franke’s Child Abuse Case Reveals

Where is the Franke family today?

On Jan. 7, Shari Franke published a memoir, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom, which has become a New York Times bestseller. She uses her platform to campaign against family vlogging. She tells filmmakers that she has resolved never to speak to her mother again. 

Chad Franke is a social media influencer. In July 2024, Chad posted to Instagram that he’d started attending real estate school.

Shari and Chad’s younger siblings were taken into custody by the Division of Child and Family Services after Ruby’s arrest and have reportedly “undergone medical care and been subjected to psychological assessments and ongoing mental health treatment,” according to a court filing.

Kevin Franke has filed for divorce from Ruby. In Feb. 2025, Kevin cited feelings of “regret” about vlogging his children and asked Utah lawmakers to pass a bill that would protect children financially online. “Vlogging my family, putting my children into public social media, was wrong, and I regret it every day,” Kevin said.

Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt did not respond to a request for comment on new allegations made in Devil in the Family.

Source link