Ruby Franke: Documentary examines 'disgusting' case of 'evil momfluencer' who 'tortured' her six children behind closed doors
The Mormon blamed her religious beliefs, and said her children were "evil" and "possessed by demons"
Our Evil Mother: The Ruby Franke Scandal documentary re-examines the truly disturbing case of a “popular influencer” who rose to fame sharing her parenting tips with her two million followers – only to be exposed as a child abuser.
While sharing videos of her family life online and dishing out advice to other parents, Ruby Franke was subjecting her own children to horrifying abuse. One police officer involved in the case said: “This is not parenting, this is not child abuse, this is child torture.”
When her harsh parenting style began to raise eyebrows among her fans, complaints finally began to pour in. And when Ruby’s own emaciated son alerted a neighbour to the abuse his mother was inflicting, the police raided the house in a bid to find her other children.
And they were appalled at what they encountered. As the resurfaced Channel 5 documentary charts the rise and fall of Ruby Franke, we take a deep dive into her “disgusting” crimes.
***Warning: contains distressing descriptions and images of child abuse***
Who is Ruby Franke?
Ruby Franke is an American mum of six children, who became a popular “momfluencer” on YouTube. Over several years, she amassed three million followers (and two billion views) as she shared her strict parenting tips. And these “tips”, heavily influenced by their Mormon religion, became harsher and harsher.
At first, Ruby and her husband Kevin Franke – who married in 2000 –appeared to be a idyllic family living in Western American suburbia. The Channel 5 documentary Our Evil Mother: The Ruby Franke Scandal describes her as “a beautiful woman with a beautiful home”.
But behind the perfect facade was a nightmare. It started as Ruby Franke “having a camera rolling for every milestone of her children’s lives” and telling them to “fake being happy”. And ended with her two youngest children being found dangerously malnourished, neglected, and abused.
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Who was Ruby Franke’s business partner Jodi Hildebrandt?
Ruby Franke’s vlogs and strict parenting tips changed to something more sinister after she met Jodi Hildebrandt. Ruby met licensed mental health counsellor and ‘life coach’ Jodi Hildebrandt in 2019. The two initially connected through their local church community in Utah.
Ruby and Kevin enlisted local therapist Jodi to help with “behavioural issues” with their son Chad. Jodi, the founder of a therapy organisation called Connexions, was worth more than two million dollars. Connexions has subsequently been described like a cult.
Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt became close, and Jodi eventually moved in with Ruby and her husband. Ruby went into business with Jodi, and rebranded herself as a fitness coach and life coach. The pair subsequently created YouTube videos and podcasts sharing their ‘expertise’.
This was when things started to become more distressing.
What did the parenting influencer do to her children?
Around this time, Ruby split up from her husband, and her content became more and more alarming. One post in particular caused her viewers to start a petition on Change.org demanding an investigation, and to contact child protective services. The 2020 video involved Ruby laughing about her son sleeping on a beanbag as a punishment for playing pranks on his younger brother. Not just for one night – his bedroom was banished for seven months.
Ruby Franke began homeschooling her children, and making drastic changes to their lives. She started spending more and more time in Jodi’s five million dollar home – often leaving her children alone in Springville, Utah.
Later, Ruby and four of her children moved in to Jodi’s house (two had already left home). And this was when their abuse ramped up. Ruby kept her children a prisoner in Jodi’s home. When police eventually found them, they were seriously malnourished and had been chained up for weeks if not months.
The two youngest children had sores all over their bodies, and duct tape over their ankles. Police found “deep lacerations from being tied up with rope”, according to the arrest record. Shockingly, the wounds were ‘treated’ with honey and cayenne pepper. They had also been sedated to make them more pliant.
Police reports later documented how the children were denied food, water, bedding, and any forms of entertainment. They were tied up, beated and kicked, and forced to work outdoors in the summer without sunscreen, resulting in serious sunburn.
Ruby Franke documentary: How was she caught?
In August 2023, Ruby’s 12-year-old boy – the second youngest – escaped Jodi’s house. Covered in open wounds, he knocked at the door of a neighbour’s house asking for food and water. He had sores all over his body, and duct tape over his ankles.
The neighbour, sobbing in distress at the sight of the boy, called the police. Officers later found Ruby’s nine-year-old girl in her house. She was suffering from severe malnourishment and injuries. The young girl had a shaven head, and was terrified. The children had been locked up in a panic room in Jodi’s house. Both spent three days in hospital.
At this point, police had all the proof they needed that Ruby Franke and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt were complicit in child abuse.
Police arrested both women at the scene of the crime. They charged Ruby with six counts of aggravated child abuse, and two counts of felony and neglect.
Ruby Franke documentary: Where is Ruby Franke now?
In February 2024, a judge sentenced Ruby Franke to four to 30 years in prison for child abuse. She is currently in the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Having said nothing when she was first arrested, she subsequently pled guilty to multiple counts of aggravated child abuse. Then 42, Ruby Franke tearfully apologised in court as she learned her sentence, saying: “I was so disoriented that I believed dark was light and right was wrong.”
She added: “I was led to believe that this world was an evil place, filled with cops who control, hospitals that injure, government agencies that brainwash, church leaders who lie and lust, husbands who refuse to protect and children who need abuse.”
Ruby blamed Jodi for making her believe her children were “spawns of Satan”, and needed “saving”.
The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole oversees her indeterminate sentencing. They will hold an original hearing to evaluate her parole timeline.
Ruby Franke is actually in the same prison as her former business partner Jodi Hildebrandt. Ruby is in the women’s general population unit, known as Dell. She is housed in a different section to Jodi.
Jodi Hildebrandt, who was 54 at the time, received the same sentence.
Where are her children now?
In total, four of Ruby Franke’s children were taken into care, with the eldest two having already moved out before the worst of the abuse began.
They now live with their father Kevin, who has full custody. Kevin and the two eldest children Shari and Chad have even spoken out against their mum Ruby Franke in TV interviews as they attempt to claw back their narrative. After her mum was sentenced, Ruby’s eldest daughter wrote on Instagram: “Justice is being served.”
She claimed she had been trying to raise concerns about her estranged family with police and child protection services for years. Franke’s arrest “needed to happen”, her sisters wrote in a joint statement.
Shari published a memoir in January 2025 about her life with Ruby, called The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom. Chad is a realtor and got married in 2025, according to his Instagram.
The identities of both children who’d been kept at Hildebrandt’s home — as well as two of their siblings, who are also minors — were withheld from court documentation and reporting.
Was Kevin Franke involved in the abuse?
When police arrested Ruby Franke, the police contacted her estranged husband Kevin. He had not seen them for a year, and insisted he had no idea that his children had been mistreated.
He told police he had not seen his six children since July 2022 as that was part of the divorce agreement. This was more than a year later. No charges were ever brought against Kevin, and he insists he was “deceived”.
In March 2025, Ruby Franke and Kevin’s divorce was finalised. During her sentencing, Kevin asked for the maximum sentence to be imposed on her. He called the abuse suffered by his children “horrific and inhumane”.
Since his wife’s conviction, Kevin has argued for stricter legislation regarding child welfare laws. In February 2025, Kevin admitted feelings of “regret” about vlogging his children and asked Utah lawmakers to pass a bill that would protect children financially online. “Vlogging my family, putting my children into public social media, was wrong, and I regret it every day,” he said.
Ruby Franke documentary: Where is Kevin Franke now?
Kevin has remarried and lives with his wife and children in Utah. Accepting his new wife Becca Bevan, daughter Shari posted a picture of herself standing with the newlyweds alongside her brother Chad.
In the caption, Shari wrote: “I could always see [my dad] wasn’t happy, and I prayed that one day he’d find someone that made him happy like he deserved.… He is a wonderful man, and I’m so happy for the new addition to the family!”
Read more: New documentaries and true crime on TV and streaming in June 2026
