In shocking news, a popular YouTuber known for her parenting advice channel has been charged with child abuse. Ruby Franke, who runs ‘8 Passengers’ channel on YouTube, was arrested in Utah after one of her children escaped from home, seeking help from neighbors. Authorities have held her on counts of aggravated child abuse. An accomplice in crime, Jodi Hildebrandt, too, was arrested.
According to an affidavit submitted by a police officer with the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department in Utah, Franke's son fled from Hildebrandt's home through a window and ran to a neighbor's house to ask for food and water, The neighbors noticed that the boy's ankles and wrists had duct tape. According to arrest records, the child was taken to a hospital and placed on a medical hold "due to his deep lacerations from being tied up with rope and from his malnourishment."
Her daughter was found in malnourished condition
The police quickly launched an investigation, during which they discovered that Franke's daughter was also in a malnourished condition in Hildebrandt's home. She has also been taken to the hospital, according to the police, two of Franke's other kids were given to child protection services.
Franke’s YouTube channel, which is not available now, has a massive following of 2.5 million subscribers. In the past too, she has come to light for her extreme parenting techniques, which she frequently shares in her videos. According to the Associated Press, the Franke family received negative feedback on the internet for their video blog, which featured parenting choices like kicking their oldest son out of his room for seven months for embarrassing his younger brother and sending him to a wilderness therapy camp for unknown reasons.
In other videos, Ruby Franke discussed not bringing a kindergartener's forgotten lunch and threatening to chop off the head of a young girl's stuffed toy as punishment for breaking things around the house. In one video, Franke claimed that she and her husband had informed their two youngest children that one year they would not receive presents from Santa Claus because they had been selfish and had not complied with punishments like being kept home from school and cleaning the floorboards.
She now faces multiple charges related to child abuse, endangerment, and malnourishment.
