Where are Jodi Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke now? All about the subjects of The Curious Case Of...

Investigation Discovery's latest episode of The Curious Case of... exposes the extremist religious beliefs of a Utah counselor and a Mormon YouTube vlogger mother, who took their practices to a brutal level.

Jodi Hildebrandt, a former counselor and businesswoman, met Ruby Franke, a YouTuber and mother of six children, and they both went down a dark path where they subjected Franke's children to extreme child abuse in the name of religious beliefs.

After the women were arrested in August 2023, they were charged with six accounts of child abuse, out of which they pleaded guilty for four.

Jodi was sentenced to four terms of imprisonment of 1-15 years consecutively and is currently held at The Utah State Correctional Facility. As per a report by People, she will appear before the Utah Board of Paroles in December 2026.

Ruby also pleaded guilty to four out of six charges and was sentenced to 4 to 30 years in prison. Her exact length of prison sentence will be decided by Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.

More on The Curious Case Of... subjects Jodi Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke in our story.

---

What did The Curious Case Of... subjects Jodi Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke do?

The Franke couple learned about Jodi, a business counselor on relationships through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The couple was facing difficulties in their marriage, and they attended Jodi's classes to work on them. Soon, Jodi developed a close friendship with the couple and moved into their family home.

Two years after this, she advised the couple to separate and Kevin was forced out of his house, and Ruby moved with her children into Jodi's house in Utah.

In 2022, Jodi felt the youngest Franke children were possessed by evil spirits, who were tormenting her and practiced violent exorcisms to drive the evil spirits away.

Both the women subjected Ruby's 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter to extreme manual labor in the sun, including wall sitting, which would result in blisters and sunburn. The children were also denied water and food and were chained with ropes and handcuffs to capture the spirits.

The women also used cayenne pepper and honey to treat their wounds and would submerge their heads underwater for long periods of time.

---

The Curious Case of... subjects were exposed after Ruby's son escaped

In August 2023, Ruby's son managed to escape the women's captivity somehow and asked his neighbor Danny Clarkson for help. Danny, after seeing the child's condition, called 911 to look into the matter.

The police discovered Ruby's youngest daughter in critical condition, who was still under the captivity of the women. As shown in The Curious Case, the police discovered equipments for torture, such as ropes, handcuffs, and cayenne pepper, from Jodi's residence, and the two women were immediately arrested.

The two children were sent to the hospital, and the rest of Franke's children were sent to childcare.

During Ruby's trial, her lawyers blamed Jodi for 'systematically isolating' her from her loved ones and influencing her to go down this dark path.

At her sentence hearing, Ruby confessed:

“For the past four years, I’ve chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion. My distorted version of reality went largely unchecked as I would isolate from anyone who challenged me.”

Following this, Jodi also released a statement at her hearing:

“I desire for [the children] to heal physically and emotionally. One of the reasons I did not go to trial is because I did not want them to emotionally relive the experience, which would have been detrimental to them. My hope and prayer is that they will heal and move forward to have beautiful lives.”

---

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