Mommy-Blog-Influencer’s Children Starving, Open Wounds, Duct-Taped
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2023
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A 12-year-old boy climbs out of a window in a home, running to neighbors begging for food and water.
The boy is the son of Ruby Franke, a popular blogger, known for the YouTube channel "8 Passengers." The home belonged to Franke's business partner Jodi Hildebrandt.
Neighbors called police. Officers said the boy looked emaciated and malnourished. Cops also noted that the boy had “deep lacerations from being tied up with rope” and duct tape around his wrists and ankles.. After searching Hildebrandt’s home, police found Franke’s 10-year-old daughter in a similar condition. Both children were taken to a hospital.
Franke's parenting channel "8 Passengers," which at one time boasted over 2 million followers, doled out parenting advice, and in her video, she admits to withholding food as a form of punishment.
Both women have been charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse.
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
- Donna Kelly – Former Utah Senior Deputy District Attorney and Attorney for Crime Victims Legal Clinic; Helped form the Utah County Sex Crimes Task Force
- Dr. Dana Anderson – Forensic Psychologist and consultant, court appointed expert witness, Twitter: @psychologydrcom, TikTok: @psychologydr
- Jason Jensen – Private Investigator (Jensen Private Investigations), Cold Case Expert (Salt Lake City, UT), and Co-founder: “Cold Case Coalition;” Investigations; Twitter: @JasonJPI, Facebook/Instagram: “Jensen Investigations”
- Dr. Free N. Hess – Pediatrician/Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Child Safety Expert & Consultant, Founder of www.PediMom.com
- Emily Ashcraft- Reporter for KSL.com in Utah; Twitter: @emilyjaneen3
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What exactly is an influencer and for those of you that can't see me, I'm absolutely |
| 0:21.4 | using air quotas right now and influencer, what is that really mean? |
| 0:27.0 | I mean, I've seen influencers at parties twerking, I've seen them rising up against |
| 0:33.4 | on statutes and historic sites all across Europe and the US. |
| 0:39.1 | What does that mean to be an influencer? |
| 0:42.2 | And what does that mean when you're an influencer with literally millions of so-called followers |
| 0:48.5 | when your child sneaks out of a window completely emaciated, starved with signs all their |
| 1:00.2 | bodies that they have been bound, tied up, likely with at least duct tape. |
| 1:11.3 | What kind of an influencer is that? |
| 1:15.8 | Well, according to me, that's the kind of influencer that would best spend their time behind |
| 1:22.2 | bars. |
| 1:23.2 | Let's see who they can influence in the CI correctional institute. |
| 1:27.7 | That's where I'm coming from, but I'll let you judge for yourself. |
| 1:31.8 | Let's kick it off with our friends at ABC. |
| 1:34.2 | A rest document saying the child escaped to a neighbor's home. |
| 1:37.8 | The 12-year-old child described by that neighbor in a phone call to police as emaciated and |
| 1:42.6 | malnourished with open wounds. |
| 1:45.1 | Core documents also describing deep lacerations from being tied up with a rope. |
| 1:49.6 | It's about the thing that there's two that sisters are back at the home as well. |
| 1:54.2 | Police say they also found Frankie's 10-year-old daughter malnourished. |
| 1:58.6 | Frankie is known for her strict parenting advice to millions of TikTok and YouTube followers. |
| 2:03.8 | Police say a clearly malnourished 12-year-old child crawled out of the window of Hildebrand's |
... |
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