Ruby Franke, a 43 year old, was convicted with aggravated child abuse in 2023. Ruby Franke was a content creator accompanied by her six kids and her then husband. 8 Passengers, a YouTube channel, was created in 2015 and was the image of a picture perfect family with her 2.5 millions followers watching her advice and how to be the best mom you can be. 8 Passengers was a deep dive into all parts of growing up with kids.
In 2020, 18,000 viewers signed an online petition requesting child protective services investigate the family. Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services did go to investigate the family, interviewing all of the children individually, but the case was dropped due to a lack of evidence.
Franke first began to see Jodi Hildebrandt for her son Chad’s teenage behavior. Ruby stoped posting around 2022, cut off the family, and then moved away to live with Jodi Hildebrandt. Hildebrandt was a local counselor and founder of the ConneXions coaching company.
In December 2023, Ruby plead guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse and was ultimately sentenced to between 4 and 60 years in prison. (However, Ruby will not serve more than 30 years due to a Utah law regarding consecutive sentences.)
Kevin Franke, Ruby’s ex-husband, and his two oldest children, Shari and Chad, spoke out for the first time together in the Hulu docuseries Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, which premiered in February 2025.
Ahead of the release, Kevin spoke with PEOPLE about his relationship with Ruby now. “I’m not ashamed to say that after being married over 20 years to that woman, I truly did and still do love her,” he said. “But that doesn’t excuse what she did, and it doesn’t excuse how she hurt our children and how she hurt me … I’m going to do what’s best for my children, for my family, and for myself, and that’s not going to include her.”
The two finalized their divorce in March 2025, and Kevin got remarried later that same year. Ruby and Hildebrandt’s story is now the subject of Netflix’s Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story debuted on Dec. 30.
