Newly released video shows the malnourished son of a parenting advice YouTuber approaching a neighbor for help on the morning that his mother and her business partner were arrested on child abuse charges.

The malnourished and badly bruised son of a parenting advice YouTuber politely asks a neighbor to take him to the nearest police station in newly released video from the day his mother and her business partner were arrested on child abuse charges in southern Utah.

The 12-year-old son of Ruby Franke, a mother of six who dispensed advice to millions via a popular YouTube channel, had escaped through a window and approached several nearby homes until someone answered the door, according to documents released Friday by the Washington County Attorney’s office.

Crime scene photos, body camera video and interrogation tapes were released a month after Franke and business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, a mental health counselor, were each sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. A police investigation determined religious extremism motivated the women to inflict horrific abuse on Franke’s children, Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke announced Friday.

“The women appeared to fully believe that the abuse they inflicted was necessary to teach the children how to properly repent for imagined ‘sins’ and to cast the evil spirits out of their bodies,” Clarke said.

  • jaschen
    31·
    3 months ago

    These children deserve better. I cried when I watched the little girl inside the closet and the cops giving a pizza to her.

    I would adopt that little girl and raise her as my own. She deserves a better life.

    • HelixDab2
      23·
      3 months ago

      The father is currently fighting for custody. The situation is complicated, but Hildebrandt would wedge herself between couples, encourage wives to sever communications with the husbands, and convince them to force the husbands to move out of their joint home. Often because the husbands were ‘sex addicts’ (e.g., might have masturbated once or twice, of looked at pornography). Franke’s husband probably had no idea what was going on with Hildebrant. He did file for divorce within a few weeks of the arrest.

      • jaschen
        3·
        3 months ago

        Wasn’t there a phone call with the wife that was recorded and he was saying things to help her. Like this line is recorded.

        • HelixDab2
          1·
          3 months ago

          I haven’t heard of that. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t, just that I haven’t heard of it. If so, I’d be curious about the circumstances, and what his rationale is. Having heard interviews with several men that had marriages ruined by Hildebrandt, my tendency is to place less blame on Franke’s husband. But that could be entirely wrong; I just don’t know.

          • jaschen
            1·
            3 months ago

            It was the very first phone call together. She was saying something like it’s a witch hunt and he kept reminding her this line is recorded and a ton of “… I know, I know”.

            I went and listened it again and it sorta sounds like a damaged husband .