What did Jodi Hildebrandt do? All about the subject of The Curious Case Of...

Investigation Discovery's The Curious Case of... covered the bizarre case of a Utah counselor, Jodi Hildebrandt, whose religious beliefs and extreme practices took a very dark turn.

Jodi met famous vlogger Ruby Franke through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and what followed was a sadistic ritual of extreme torture for the Franke children.

Jodi and Ruby were both convinced that the latter's two children were possessed by evil spirits, which needed to be driven out. To make sure that these children are free of their 'supernatural captors', the women subjected them to extreme forms of physical torture.

From 2022-2023, Jodi and Ruby subjected the Franke children to child abuse, including treating their wounds with cayenne pepper and honey, submerging their heads underwater, and making them do manual labor in the sun barefoot, without food and water.

More on The Curious Case Of... subject Jodi Hildebrandt in our story.

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What did The Curious Case Of... subject Jodi Hildebrandt do?

Jodi met parents of six, Kevin and Ruby Franke, when the couple started attending her relationship and business counseling classes called Connexions in Utah.

Soon, Ruby and Jodi became business partners and launched their YouTube channel ConneXions in 2022 and a joint Instagram account where they would post parenting lessons.

Jodi soon moved into their home and suggested that the couple separate to save their marriage, which they eventually did. After their separation, Ruby took her youngest children and moved into Jodi's house in Utah, where the two women subjected them to extreme child abuse.

Jodi believed that the Franke children were possessed and thus subjected them to harsh physical work to cleanse their spirits. Together, the women would ask the children to do physical work in the sun, resulting in sunburn and blisters. They were also denied food and water.

The Curious Case of... also recounts how these women subjected the children to torture until one of them managed to escape to their neighbors, and a complaint was filed.

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Was The Curious Case Of... subject Jodi Hildebrandt convicted for her crimes?

Russell, Ruby's 12-year-old son, who was also subjected to this extreme torture, managed to escape in August 2023 and asked his neighbor Danny Clarkson for help. Clarkson immediately called the police, who saved Russell's 9-year-old sister and arrested the two women.

After seeing the condition of the children, both the women were arrested and held without bail. As The Curious Case of... recounts, Jodi and Ruby were accused of six charges of extreme and aggravated child abuse, following which Jodi also surrendered her counselor license.

The police concluded that the Franke children were subjected to extreme physical and mental torture at the hands of these two women, which might have lasting effects on their minds.

According to an interview released by the prosecutors in Washington County, Utah, Kevin Franke claimed that Jodi was possessed:

''It was really creepy...but the voices would say: ‘She’s ours. We’re not letting go. She is Satan’s bride.’”

After this incident, both women were banned from all social media platforms. After her arrest, Jodi pleaded guilty to four out of six accounts and was sentenced upto thirty years in prison.

Catch the full episode of The Curious Case of... on Investigation Discovery.

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