What did Ruby Franke do? True story behind Hulu's Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke 

Hulu's new docuseries, Hulu's Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke is based on the downfall of a former Utah-based YouTube vlogger, Ruby Franke. Ruby Franke, along with the family therapist, Jodi Hildebrandt, were convicted of child abuse in 2024.

Directed by Olly Lambert, the Hulu documentary Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke was released on February 27, 2025.

The miniseries features interviews and videos of Franke's elder children, Shari and Chad, a detailed account of the abuse. Interviews of Kevin Franke, investigators, and the former neighbors are also included for a better understanding.

Ruby Franke was a Mormon family vlogger who lived in Utah with her family of six children and her husband, Kevin. She ran a YouTube channel called 8 Passengers in 2015, which had a whopping two million plus subscribers by 2020. They shared every detail about their children's life, almost ruining their privacy.

However, things turned nasty when Ruby implemented strict rules and punishments for her children, often neglecting their needs. In 2021, the Utah Child Protective Services visited their home but didn't file any charges then. Meanwhile, the vlogger mother even invited the family therapist, Jodi Hildebrandt, for counselling her children. Hilderbrandt moved in with the family in 2021 and started a counseling business called ConneXions.

But what led to Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt's arrest? How did the Franke children get out of the abusive household? Let's dive into the details of the scary background of Hulu's Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.

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What did Hulu's Devil in the Family subject Ruby Franke do?

Ruby Franke launched her YouTube channel 8 Passengers back in 2015. Ruby documented the lives of her family, including her husband, Kevin and six children, Sara, Abby, Julie, Eve, Russell, and Chad. As per Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, the family channel crossed nearly 3 million subscribers in 2020, and they shifted to a bigger house. However, soon Ruby's strict rules and parenting were questioned when her teen son, Chad, shared that he was punished and had to sleep on a bean bag for seven months.

Ruby's strict punishments went extreme when she refused to give tiffin to her six-year-old daughter, took away Christmas presents and threatened to not provide meals to her children. The viewers suspected something was fishy and started a change.org petition for the child abuse and neglect. Soon the channel's viewership declined and the Utah Child Protective Services visited the Franke's. However, the charges against neglect were dropped for lack of evidence.

In 2022, Ruby and Kevin separated and her YouTube channel was deleted. Ruby met Jodi Hildebrandt, a therapist for Chad, her teen son. The two became quite close and she moved in with the Franke's. Hildebrandt was the owner of ConneXions, a mental fitness company. Ruby joined as a mental health coach, and they opened a YouTube Channel and an Instagram account for ConneXions.

They offered parenting classes as a part of their program. However, the subscribers found out that the methods of parenting were quite tough and unnecessarily strict. Meanwhile, the two oldest children left the abusive house, but the four kids who stayed back suffered the most. The ConneXions duo starved the children, made them do hard labor and even exorcised them as they believed they were possessed by evil spirits.

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Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt's conviction: Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke

In the autumn of 2023, Ruby Franke's 12-year-old boy escaped the house and asked his neighbor to take him to the nearest police station. When the police arrived, they found out that the boy was held captive along with his sister in the huge mansion. The investigators found out that the children were duct taped, malnourished and physically abused.

Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested from their Utah home on August 30, 2023. They were charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse and felony. However, as a part of their plea deal, it was reduced to four counts. Franke revealed the graphic details of the torture that she inflicted on her children, including doing manual labour in the summer and treating wounds with Hildebrandt's home remedies and more.

On February 20, 2024, Franke and Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to the charges. Franke and Hildebrandt were sentenced to four consecutive terms in prison, which could be for 15 years each, a total of 60 years. Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt are currently serving their prison time in the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.

Read More: Where are Jodi Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke now?

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