Boy Escapes From YouTuber's House of Horrors
We're a news agency committed to delivering factual information about police procedures and local news events. This video aims to educate the public without bias. Our goal is to empower viewers with a clear understanding of what's happening in their communities.
We're a news agency committed to delivering factual information about police procedures and local news events. This video aims to educate the public without bias. Our goal is to empower viewers with a clear understanding of what's happening in their communities.
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00:00Hi, I was just wondering if you could do two favors.
00:04Well, what are they?
00:05Taking me to the nearest police station.
00:08What's going on, son? I have a seat there.
00:10It's personal business.
00:12Ring, ring, ring.
00:13Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
00:15Wait a minute, how do you come to my house?
00:17I am.
00:18I'm a good woman.
00:21I don't do naughty things.
00:23The lives of family lifestyle influencers Jodi Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke
00:27imploded on August 30th, 2023,
00:31when one of Ruby's six children was discovered weak and hurt.
00:35The other five had not been accounted for at this time,
00:38and law enforcement wasted no time in launching a full investigation.
00:42As the police delved into the twisted dynamic that had grown between the two women,
00:46they never could have anticipated the depths of the depravity the children were subjected to
00:51or the mind-boggling justifications offered by the perpetrators.
00:55I just want my kids back. I want my family back.
01:00Adults have a really hard time understanding that children can be full of evil
01:04and what that takes to fight it.
01:06The following report is based on police records.
01:09When Dan Clarkson answered his doorbell at 1046 a.m. on August 30th, 2023,
01:15he never could have expected his actions would kickstart a nationally publicized police investigation.
01:20However, as soon as he laid eyes on the young boy outside,
01:24he immediately knew something was very, very wrong.
01:27His ring camera captured the heartbreaking conversation that ensued.
01:31Yes?
01:47Hi, I was just wondering if you could do two favors.
01:56Well, what are they?
01:57This was actually the second neighbor the boy had attempted to contact.
02:14At the first house, there was no answer, so he'd been forced to move on.
02:18The disturbing reason he was seeking help came out when Dan made this emotional call to 911.
02:23I just had a 12-year-old boy show up here at my front door asking for help.
02:29Says he had just came from a neighbor's house.
02:32He's hungry and he's thirsty.
02:34While Dan was on the phone with the 911, his wife gave the boy,
02:38who introduced himself as Russell, snacks to eat while waiting for help to arrive.
02:43But shockingly, there was something more appalling about the boy's condition
02:46than his extreme malnutrition.
02:48And yet, the most heartbreaking revelations were yet to come.
03:08Okay, this boy has been, this kid has obviously been, I think he's been, he's been detained.
03:23He's been, he's obviously covered in wounds.
03:27He says he, uh, what's happened to him is his fault.
03:31We need the police here now.
03:33The police and an ambulance were already on the way.
03:36During the tense waiting period, Russell revealed that he'd been staying with his mother and her friend,
03:41Jody Hildebrandt, since May.
03:44Terrifyingly, he added that he wasn't the only child in Jody's house.
03:48His two sisters, ages 9 and 14, were still inside.
04:01As Russell underwent medical assessment, more police officers arrived.
04:05We need to identify that house, and if there's two other kids there,
04:08we need to go do a security sweep at that house.
04:10They were about to realize that they'd gotten there in the nick of time.
04:15As the police staged in Dan's driveway, a woman drove up in her car
04:18and announced that she was searching for a 12-year-old boy.
04:21She gave her name as none other than Jody Hildebrandt,
04:25the woman Russell said his family had been staying with.
04:28Cleverly, the police didn't tell Jody how much they already knew.
04:31They just took down her address and said they would come to speak with her shortly.
04:36She didn't have to wait long.
04:37Ring, ring, ring, ring.
04:53Come on, let's go.
04:54Please, officers, open up!
05:17Don't move my head right there.
05:19Got it?
05:20Don't move my head.
05:21Open the door!
05:29Jody?
05:30I need you to step out.
05:31I have my turn.
05:32That's great.
05:33Step out of the house.
05:34No, I'm not going to step out of the house.
05:35Step out of the house.
05:36Step out of the house.
05:37Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
05:38We're just going to...
05:38Come on, step in the office.
05:39Is there a new telephone?
05:40Wait a minute.
05:40How do you come to my house?
05:42It's right there.
05:43Look, they're going into my house.
05:44Do you have a search warrant?
05:45We'll explain it after this.
05:48You can't just come into my house without a search warrant.
05:50Jody was mistaken about the need for a warrant to enter the home because the police already
05:55had probable cause due to a 911 call that the neighbors had placed after Russell showed
06:00up at their door.
06:01There was a clear emergent need to enter and a warrant wasn't necessary.
06:05The police must account for the welfare of the other two children.
06:09They certainly had their work cut out for them, though, because the house was massive.
06:13During the search, the police found one room that appeared to be set up for filming.
06:18This, they would learn, was because Jody and Ruby both had a significant online presence.
06:23More details would emerge throughout the investigation, revealing the dark side of these social media
06:28influencers.
06:30To ensure that they left no corner unchecked, the investigators retrieved the blueprints
06:34of the house.
06:35This turned out to be a brilliant idea, as the schematics revealed something that might
06:40have been overlooked otherwise.
06:41Outside, Jody did not appear to be shy about expressing her displeasure at the intrusion.
06:47I have Airbnb guests over there.
06:49Probably scared them to death.
06:50Okay.
06:51Is there anybody else in the house?
06:52Yes.
06:53Two kids?
06:54There's a little girl.
06:55Just one?
06:56She's right over here.
06:57Okay.
06:57The Airbnb guests were the least of the police's worries right now.
07:01Following Jody's instructions, they made their way down the hall to a bathroom with a large
07:06closet.
07:07What they found inside was devastating.
07:09Hi, I'm a police officer.
07:12Are you going to the union here?
07:13Hey, you okay?
07:16Is this just you in here?
07:19I'm Sergeant Tobler.
07:21What's your name?
07:24I just have one.
07:26Where's your sister at?
07:28Contact one.
07:29You okay?
07:30Huh?
07:32You doing okay?
07:36You don't want to talk to me?
07:38Yeah?
07:38That's okay.
07:39Can you come with me, though?
07:41We got Jody out here.
07:42You know Jody?
07:43According to the information Jody gave, this was Russell's nine-year-old sister, Eve.
07:48We want to be best buddies, but we're getting a little mad here because he won't give me
07:56his shoes.
07:58Guess what?
07:59I learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels.
08:03Come here.
08:03I'll show you.
08:04Despite the officer's gentle approach, she sat eerily still and quiet, hardly giving a
08:10sign that she could even hear him.
08:12You take your time, bud.
08:14I'm in no hurry.
08:15Police Department, call out!
08:16I'm a police officer.
08:17Did you know that?
08:18Police Department, call out!
08:19I don't mean to hurt you at all.
08:23I'm here.
08:25You doing okay?
08:27Are you scared?
08:28Police Department, call out!
08:30Yeah.
08:33You're okay.
08:33You're okay.
08:35Do you need help?
08:37I'm not going to hurt you.
08:39Promise.
08:39You see this right here?
08:43It's a badge.
08:45It tells me I don't hurt people.
08:48I'm just here to make sure you're okay.
08:50And I get you if you're scared.
08:51I would be too.
08:56Okay?
08:59You want to come with me?
09:00Still, Eve didn't respond.
09:03They hatched a new plan to win her over with pizza.
09:06While they waited for the food to arrive, the officers kept her company with the utmost
09:10patience, refusing to rush her out of the closet until she made the choice to leave.
09:15I'm just going to sit down.
09:23It's okay if I just sit here with you.
09:25We don't have to say anything.
09:27If you don't want to.
09:33Okay?
09:33I'm just going to sit here with you.
09:39Meanwhile, back with Russell, the EMTs got a close-up look at the duct tape and wounds
09:43around his ankles.
09:45What they found was almost unspeakably gruesome.
09:48But even this was overshadowed by what Russell said next.
09:51In between bites of the snacks from the neighbors, he told the police officer documenting his injuries
09:56additional details, which made the situation all the more sickening.
10:00You're not in trouble with me, okay?
10:03We're just trying to figure out what's going on.
10:05Our main focus right now is you, okay?
10:09Who put the ropes on you?
10:11What's to help you?
10:12The police report revealed the chilling answers that were redacted in the body cam footage.
10:18Russell said that Jody and his mother, Ruby Frankie, had restrained him with ropes to
10:22help him with what he'd been choosing.
10:24How the women had chosen to treat the resulting wounds left EMTs puzzled.
10:29The officer who spoke with Russell repeated the distressing details to his supervisor on
10:33the phone.
10:34They put cayenne pepper mixed with honey and then covered that with the plastic saran wrap
10:42and then the duct tape over the wounds.
10:45Detectives had found evidence of the honey and cayenne mixture in the upstairs bathroom,
10:50along with more ropes, used bandages, and other wound dressings.
10:54When the medical got there, they started cutting the stuff off him, and then you can see, like,
11:00the dark around his ankles.
11:03You could smell it.
11:04When they went to go peel it, they thought it was some of the dressing.
11:10It was actually his skin that was peeling.
11:12Obviously, the police wanted to talk to Russell's mother to understand what could possess someone
11:16to treat a child in such a manner.
11:18As of yet, though, Ruby Frankie, along with Russell's older sister, were still unaccounted
11:23for.
11:24Jody certainly wasn't sharing where Ruby was, as her behavior became increasingly strange
11:29as the house search continued.
11:31When this officer seemed unreceptive to her stare, she tried a different target.
11:36Are you waiting for me to say something, or?
11:42Okay.
11:43Inside, the search went on for more children, especially Julie, the older sister Russell
11:48said was at Jody's house.
11:50There was no sign of her yet, so the police decided it was time to confront Jody about
11:55what they'd found when referencing the blueprints.
11:58A safe room in the basement, locked with a vault door.
12:01I have a question for you.
12:02Yeah.
12:03You have a room downstairs that has a safe wheel on the front.
12:06How do we get access to that to ensure that there's no one else in this home?
12:12Adam?
12:17They do need to search that there's nobody else, so I think you can give them access to
12:21make sure there's nobody in there.
12:23After further back and forth to get the lock combination from Jody, a team returned to the
12:28basement to open the safe.
12:29Upstairs, additional officers were still trying to gain the trust of the little girl in the
12:34bathroom closet.
12:35I found dead skin.
12:37She found dead skin.
12:39Dead skin.
12:39Get out from underneath my bed.
12:42Right now.
12:43Sorry, Mom.
12:44I am more upset that you came in my room when you knew you weren't supposed to.
12:49You knew that it was a bad idea.
12:51Yeah.
12:51You're still going to have the consequence of not having your nails done for a month.
12:56Um, Mom.
12:56It's a deal.
12:57Give me a hug.
12:58Yeah, Mom.
12:59Can I help you two to get paid?
13:02Because I want a lot of money.
13:04You...
13:05Oh.
13:06They likely hoped that the arrival of the pizza would change things in their favor,
13:11but they were in for yet another surprise.
13:13I'll put the syrup on your drink.
13:16You can eat.
13:17There it goes.
13:20Despite how painfully thin she appeared, Eve didn't go for the food right away.
13:25You can eat.
13:55As Eve ate, the plan was to focus on opening the safe, but suddenly a new priority emerged.
14:01With no warning, Ruby Frankie, Russell and Eve's mother, arrived on scene.
14:06After determining that she had no weapons on her,
14:09she was taken to a separate area of the house to wait out the search.
14:13The police would check in with Ruby once they finished going through the house.
14:16The only place left to look was the basement safe room.
14:20When they opened the door, though, they were likely crushed.
14:23Julie was not inside.
14:25At first glance, the room looked to be nothing more than a barren bolt hole reserved for emergencies.
14:30When they started opening drawers, though, they turned up some stomach-churning evidence.
14:35Handcuffs, a length of rope, and a carabiner.
14:38Based on the condition of Russell and Eve,
14:40the police received an official search warrant that enabled them to collect these items,
14:44along with many of the electronics, as evidence.
14:47But even after being in the house for hours, there was still no sign of Julie or the other Frankie siblings.
14:53The only certain thing was what should happen with Jody and Ruby.
14:57They were both placed under arrest for aggravated child abuse.
15:00Okay, just place your hand on your back for me.
15:03Perfect.
15:05During the arrest process, the officers likely noticed some strange behavior from Ruby.
15:10She didn't say a single word, even when put in the back of a police car with Jody.
15:14The police had to hope she would be more verbose when the time came to ask her
15:18how Russell and Eve had gotten in such miserable conditions.
15:21Okay, go ahead and have a seat.
15:23While Jody was at least responding to direct questions,
15:40whether she would respond to the hard ones police had in store was yet to be seen.
15:45I don't know who you are.
16:11I don't know if you're going to flip my words.
16:12I'm a psychologist. I've watched people flip things all the time.
16:17So I get it. I sit on your side. I get it.
16:22It looks sad that I don't want to answer anything,
16:24but it's not because I'm trying to be difficult.
16:27Even though Jody refused to talk without a lawyer,
16:30trying to get information from Ruby was astronomically more difficult.
16:34We're just here to talk to you about kind of a few things involving your kids.
16:39So first, do you live down here or do you live up north?
16:49Do you want to talk to me about where you live or how many kids you have?
17:02You don't want to talk to us about anything?
17:10So, yeah, this is just your chance to tell us.
17:13We're just trying to get your side of the story.
17:16So it's your chance to do that.
17:19But it's up to you.
17:22I'll wait till I have a lawyer.
17:24Okay.
17:24There was hardly any doubt that the two women had done horrible things to Ruby's children.
17:35But with both women unwilling to talk, the police still had no idea why.
17:41Answers, though, were closer than anyone thought.
17:43When the detectives first got to the police station,
17:46they found a surprise visitor waiting.
17:48Ruby's husband, Kevin Franke, was there, and he wanted to pick up his kids.
17:53With so many burning questions pertaining to the Franke family,
17:57Kevin was detained and taken to a third interrogation room where he was read his rights.
18:02How did you find out that you needed to come here?
18:05I received a message that I needed to come pick up my kids from a police department in Highlands.
18:14And who was that message from?
18:16Well, I prefer not to say it right now.
18:18Does it make sense that that would happen?
18:20I'm just not aware of anyone who did that from our department.
18:23Right.
18:24And I'm not comfortable saying right now who reached out to me.
18:28Okay.
18:29Was that Jody?
18:32No, I'm not going to answer that question.
18:34Kevin was keeping quite closed-lipped.
18:37However, it wasn't all bad news.
18:39Back at Jody's house, Eve finally seemed to be warming up to law enforcement.
18:43You don't want to talk?
18:44Okay.
18:45Okay.
18:46There's nothing at all you want to talk about at all?
18:51It's okay to talk to me.
18:53Are you scared?
19:04We helped your brother.
19:05And we've got him some help, too.
19:10That's what we want to do for you.
19:13That's what we want to get you some help, too.
19:14We are safe.
19:19We will not hurt you.
19:21And we won't do anything to hurt you.
19:23It took a total of four hours before Eve was willing to leave the closet with medical personnel.
19:29When examining her in the ambulance, EMTs discovered that she had wounds on her feet
19:33and decided that she and Russell both needed to go to the hospital.
19:37Thankfully, as Kevin's conversation with police continued,
19:40he was willing to provide some crucial context.
19:43And how many kids do you have, Kevin?
19:45I have six kids.
19:46So are they all living with you, or?
19:49No.
19:50I haven't seen them for over a year.
19:52Any of them?
19:54No.
19:55None of them.
19:56For a year?
19:57Over a year.
19:58I've been in a separation.
20:01From who?
20:03From my wife and family.
20:05Ruby invited me to leave the home.
20:08While I thought about the choices that I've made in my life and the way that I've treated her.
20:20And did you ever try to reach out to the kids, drop by the home, or?
20:24No.
20:25Was there?
20:25I honored the separation boundary that we agreed to.
20:29When was the last time you saw her leave?
20:32The last time I saw her.
20:34Yeah.
20:35That was the 18th of this month.
20:42We met to, she requested me to sign over vehicles, or the titles to the vehicles,
20:52the vehicle that she drives, that were all in my name.
20:54When's the last time you physically saw Russell or Eve?
20:57The day that I moved out, July 24th of 2022.
21:06My job is to financially provide for them.
21:09I was trying to figure out, how much of a role do you play in the caretaking of, specifically,
21:16of those two kids?
21:18As the conversation went on, Kevin seemed to be just as in the dark as the investigators.
21:35Who lives in that home with your, is it ex-wife?
21:40Is it currently a separated wife?
21:42Like, who lives in that home with your children?
21:45To be honest, I don't know.
21:47I know that she's there with four of the children, and our two older children have moved out.
21:59This likely came as a shock to investigators.
22:02If there were four Frankie children still living at home, that meant they weren't just
22:06missing Julie, but another one of Russell's teenage sisters, Abby.
22:10Before launching into a frantic search, the detectives decided to finish talking to Kevin,
22:15hoping he could give them an idea of where to look for the girls.
22:19As the conversation went on, though, Kevin's story only got stranger.
22:23Who's this female Jodi that your wife was with?
22:27Do you know a female named Jodi?
22:30She is a therapist and a life coach, I know.
22:36Do you respect her?
22:39Do I respect her?
22:41I think she's a very honest, truthful person, yes.
22:45Okay.
22:46Is your wife a partner of hers?
22:48Is your wife a roommate with her?
22:50Your kids are living in her house, is what I'm trying to say.
22:55I'm not aware of that, but I know that they've been in business for the last year, filming.
23:03So every week a podcast goes up and I listen to it.
23:07What's the name of it?
23:10Connections with an X.
23:12This would explain the film set discovered in Jodi's house.
23:15As it turned out, Jodi and Ruby both had a significant following on Instagram and YouTube.
23:21Jodi was a therapist and her accounts focused on counseling and family dynamics in alignment
23:26with the Church of Latter-day Saints, of which she and Ruby were both members.
23:30She called her program Connections and had written several books sharing her methods
23:34and even taught online Zoom classes on the topics of family health and harmony.
23:39Ruby, meanwhile, created more Slice of Life content, cataloging daily life with her family
23:45as members of the Mormon faith.
23:46Her main platform was a YouTube account titled Eight Passengers, supplemented with an Instagram
23:52under the same name.
23:53In due time, the police would learn that the content made by Ruby and Jodi had become unimaginably
23:59twisted behind the scenes.
24:00Are you involved with their business efforts or no?
24:04And were you involved in the Eight Passengers account with your family?
24:09Um, yes.
24:11I was in the videos and...
24:13Recently, Ruby's online presence had undergone a shift.
24:17She rebranded to Truth Mom, but began focusing less on her own channel in favor of working with
24:22Jodi on Connections.
24:24You guys got a lot of heat for neglect and child abuse.
24:27A lot of people commented those things on there.
24:30Why were they commenting those things?
24:34That's a good question.
24:36Um, we...
24:37Uh, we had a son who was acting out in very selfish behavior.
24:48Was this Chad or...
24:50Yes, this was Chad.
24:52And, you know, none of this is strange or odd.
24:54You can get on YouTube and find out all sorts of stuff from this.
24:58Eventually, Ruby stopped posting on her private YouTube account altogether, which Kevin said
25:03eliminated 90% of the family's income.
25:06Her last video on Jodi's channel, though, had come out just two days ago.
25:11In the interrogation room, Kevin shared more about the situation which led to public outcry
25:16against the Frankies.
25:17He was being very cruel and mean to his sibling that he shared a room with, and so we removed
25:29him from the room.
25:31And we said, you can sleep anywhere you want.
25:34Sleep on the couch, sleep on the pull-out bed, sleep on the floor for all we care, but
25:39you're not sleeping in that room with your brother.
25:41He chose to sleep on a beanbag.
25:45So, nine months later, he had made a lot of changes in his life, and he was ready to...
25:54And we had moved by that time, and so we had a new house, and he was ready to move into
26:01his own bedroom, made a video about it.
26:04And in the video, he mentioned something of the effect of, I've been sleeping for nine
26:10months on a beanbag.
26:11And that is what all the uproar was about.
26:17This wasn't Ruby's only run-in with the law.
26:20Shockingly, just five days before her arrest, she'd been pulled over while driving with
26:24her kids in the car.
26:26Hello.
26:28You know how fast you're going right there?
26:29No.
26:30Okay.
26:31Got you going 57.
26:32You know, 35.
26:33Ruby was sent on her way with only a speeding ticket.
26:36Back with Kevin, he explained that the situation with his oldest son, Chad, was the catalyst
26:41for Jody getting involved with the family.
26:44She was hired as Chad's therapist, and had the boy personally paying her $900 a month.
26:50From there, her involvement with the family only grew.
26:53How this could have led to the breakup of the family and the near starvation of two of the
26:57children was yet to be explored.
26:59During your marriage, how was disciplining your kids?
27:04How would you discipline your kids?
27:06Um, yeah, I'm not going to answer that question.
27:13Are you aware of the physical condition of your children?
27:16No.
27:19No.
27:20I'm, I've chosen to trust my wife with the children.
27:25That was part of the agreement of our separation.
27:28Kevin was about to learn the harrowing consequences this decision has caused.
27:32We received, uh, a phone call from 911 on our dispatch that, uh, a 12 to 13-year-old boy was
27:45knocking on doors in the neighborhood asking for food and water.
27:49So he had, I'm sorry, what?
27:51He had duct tape on his extremities, on his hands, on his ankles, and those were covering
27:59rope burns that were used to tie him down.
28:02Take a second and think about what I've just said.
28:11That's the condition of your son.
28:13Given that information, your son was taken to the hospital.
28:23A warrant has been applied and granted by the Department of Child and Family Services to remove both Russell
28:33and Eve from your wife's care.
28:36Do you understand that?
28:38I understand.
28:40Do you, would you condone that behavior?
28:42When I condone that behavior, um,
28:48That's my job.
28:49My job is to find out your knowledge of the treatment of these, these precious children.
28:54No.
28:55Again, I don't know the details or I don't know what's going on.
28:59But as you described that, that sounds...
29:03Horrible, horrible.
29:05Disgusting.
29:06No human being should be treated like that.
29:09I, yeah.
29:10The investigators stepped out to give Kevin a few private moments to come to terms with what he'd just learned.
29:16When the investigative team returned ten minutes later, Kevin took the opportunity to ask a burning question.
29:22What's going to happen with my wife?
29:25I love my wife.
29:28I don't know.
29:29I'm being honest with you.
29:30I don't know.
29:32I haven't had any of you with me.
29:33I don't have real charges against my wife.
29:35Possibly.
29:36Possibly.
29:40I think, given the circumstances, that's highly appropriate, but again, I'm...
29:45That night, the police decided that Ruby would be booked into jail to await her attorney.
29:50Even this, though, failed to get a reaction from her.
29:53Ace, you want to let you know what your, what criminal charge is for, so you're under arrest?
29:58It's going to be two counts.
30:00Second degree felony of child abuse or neglect, okay?
30:03Do you understand that or no?
30:06Are you okay?
30:12I'm wondering if there's, like, a medical clearance that needs to, like, do you need medical attention before you go to the jail?
30:19Okay.
30:20Have you ever been arrested before?
30:21I'm just concerned about you.
30:32I know you don't believe that.
30:35I've had an opportunity to talk to your husband and kind of worried about your circumstances and obviously your children as well.
30:44But you're sure you don't need medical attention or anything like that?
31:00Jody, too, was escorted to a police car to be transported to jail facing the same charges.
31:06Still inside the police station, Kevin learns more from the investigators about the children.
31:10And so, I mean, this feels like getting run over by a steam truck while you're sharing it with me today.
31:17Yeah.
31:18You guys can tell you're caught off guard.
31:20I thought I was just coming here to pick up my kids.
31:23And for what?
31:23I don't know what or why.
31:25But I was finally taking it back with me.
31:31Everything you're sharing to me just sounds like a made-up story.
31:36Like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
31:43Like, it's just, it sounds like a horror movie.
31:51And what you're sharing with me just feels like a sucker punch.
32:05I feel responsible.
32:07Separating, leaving.
32:09It hurts.
32:10I know you're all doing your jobs.
32:13And I know you all have the best interests of my kids at night.
32:16I appreciate them.
32:23Thanks.
32:23That means a lot.
32:27I just want my kids back.
32:29I want my family back.
32:31I want my wife back.
32:32It was doubtful either Ruby or Jody would be getting out of jail anytime soon.
32:37Jody grappled with this through the lens of religion while speaking with a friend she called from the county jail.
32:42And I don't know if I'm going to be, like, some kind of example.
32:46But when I get out of here, I have a story to tell.
32:48And I am going to try to do everything I can to protect the children.
32:52Because that's what's happening is that kids are being just horribly abused.
32:57But I have just been begging him, like, you've got to explain this to me.
33:02Like, I cannot logically figure out what's going on here.
33:05I mean, I should be here.
33:06I haven't done anything wrong.
33:07Ruby, too, made some equally baffling claims during her jailhouse phone calls.
33:12But the most upsetting thing is that I am completely misunderstood.
33:18That is the most horrible feeling.
33:20Like, my own family misunderstands me.
33:22They misinterpret me.
33:24And poor Jody.
33:26They misinterpret her.
33:27They misunderstand her.
33:28She puts her neck out on the line for people.
33:30And then they get mad at her.
33:32I mean, it is just horrendous.
33:34It's horrendous.
33:35And you know what?
33:38Every Joseph Smith, every wonderful man of God has had to be misunderstood.
33:45And I'm a good woman.
33:47I don't do naughty things.
33:49This is the witch hunt.
33:50It wasn't all dark and twisted news, though.
33:53In a stroke of luck, the police located Julie and Abby.
33:57Shockingly, they were nowhere near the family home in Springville.
34:00Rather, they were located more than 20 miles away at a house belonging to Ruby's friend
34:05and fellow Connections member, Pam.
34:08How she'd gotten there, though, remained in question.
34:11Pam was handcuffed when the police arrived and agreed to answer some questions while waiting
34:15for additional investigators to arrive.
34:18While one officer sat with her, the other took the opportunity to check in with Julie.
34:22Do you need medical attention at all?
34:28Okay.
34:30Is there a reason you're so scared right now?
34:35It's us?
34:37Okay.
34:39Well, I'm sorry if you've had a negative interaction with law enforcement in the past, okay?
34:44My intention is not to scare you.
34:46Do you go to school?
34:52Down the driveway, Pam was unhandcuffed when investigators arrived from Springville.
34:57She told them that she'd received a call from Ruby asking her to pick up two of her daughters
35:01while she dealt with a family emergency.
35:03Up until this point, the officers were under the impression that it was only Julie at the house,
35:08but Pam clarified that her older sister, Abby, was also there.
35:12Thankfully, neither she nor Julie appeared to be in physical distress like Russell or Eve.
35:18Julie and Abby appeared hesitant to go with DCFS representatives when they arrived,
35:23but were safely taken into custody to await the outcome of the investigation.
35:27The uncertainty over Abby and Julie's whereabouts had been answered,
35:31but so many questions remained.
35:33First and foremost, the quandary of what could have happened to leave Russell and Eve so frail and traumatized.
35:38Kevin returned to the police station with his lawyer for a second interview.
35:43The additional details he was about to share were nothing short of astonishing.
35:48Have you found the pen papers?
35:52The pen papers?
35:53So it described all of the visions and trances and everything that Jody and Ruby went into.
36:03How thick would you say it was?
36:04It was like three inches thick or so, and there were hundreds of pages of written documents.
36:12It's something Jody would not want found.
36:14Yeah.
36:15But she wouldn't want to destroy it.
36:17Because we do have Ruby's journal, which is from those dates that you mentioned.
36:22These things are going to be so, the stuff she wrote in the pen paper, she would not write in her journal.
36:30The stuff she wrote in the pen papers was not intended to be read by anybody until God would decree them to be written as scripture for the whole world to read.
36:41Okay.
36:41It wasn't certain whether the documents found by the police were actually Ruby's pen papers or just a journal.
36:52Regardless of what they were called, the contents revealed a wealth of heinous secrets.
36:57On July 10th, 2022, Ruby wrote,
37:00Adults have a really hard time understanding that children can be full of evil and what that takes to fight it.
37:19According to the journal, Russell and Eve were locked in closets, made to do physical labor, wall sits, jump on a trampoline, stand out in the rain, and carry heavy boxes up and down the stairs for hours on end.
37:32When Eve slipped and fell while carrying the boxes, Ruby accused her of doing so on purpose and then shaved her head as punishment.
37:40And this was just brushing the surface of what the children endured.
37:44I've never had a kid quite like Eve, but she does not like to sit and listen.
37:51I don't know if that's just her personality and she just needs me to be more strict with her than what was required with some of the other kids.
38:00Or if she is displaying hyperactivity tendencies.
38:03So I'm going to try to figure that out today.
38:06I honestly don't know which way it's going to go.
38:08She knows that I mean it and I'm going to carry through with it.
38:10If she absolutely is not capable, then I'm going to maybe take further measures to figure out if there's hyperactivity tendencies going on.
38:21Or if she stays and she's really good and she listens, then it probably just means she needs a little bit more of a strict routine with her.
38:29According to Kevin, the fight against so-called evil had not originated with the children.
38:34In fact, the downward spiral had begun more than a year prior under some very strange circumstances.
38:39We went out to like a dinner afterwards and that's where Jodi really opened up to the women in a private conversation that she believed she was being tormented and haunted by shadow figures every night.
38:58And that was spooky.
39:02Ruby also revealed that Russell and Eve still sometimes failed to control their bodily functions.
39:06She presented this as a method by which they defied her.
39:10Back with Kevin, he alleged that Jodi's experiences had rapidly grown more intense.
39:15She was walking along the beach with Jesus and Jesus challenged her to go stood-walk on the water and it was a whole lesson on walking on the water.
39:28And that was still just the tip of the iceberg.
39:31The more investigators read of Ruby's journal, the more depraved the story became.
39:37Tuesday, big day for evil, she wrote on July 11th.
39:41All night, Eve screamed and cried and hit her head on the tile floor.
39:45Today, Jodi confronted her.
39:47Eve admits to putting on a show for her mother.
39:50Eve said she wants to be pitiful.
39:51When the investigators read on and learned what torment Eve had endured to reach this level of desperation,
39:58they likely didn't know whether to be enraged or heartbroken.
40:02Jodi mentioned her experiences with what she called the spirit in one of her jail phone calls.
40:07When I feel the spirit, I have two physiological reactions.
40:10I get really, like, shaky, like I'm shivering, like I'm cold.
40:15Or I feel the heat, like I have a fever, run through me.
40:19It felt like I was burning up.
40:21And I was just shaking with gratitude, like, here's your answer.
40:27Here's what this is.
40:28Back with Kevin, he revealed that while Jodi's alleged visions had initially seemed positive,
40:33things quickly took a much darker turn, and things changed inside the house.
40:38There was a lot of satanic ones.
40:40When she would go into possession mode, she would talk in, like, different voices.
40:46It was really creepy.
40:48But the voices would say, she's ours.
40:51We're not letting go.
40:52She is Satan's bride.
40:55She's mine.
40:56I'm going to marry her.
40:58If she was faking it, she believed that Satan wanted her as her bride.
41:03The journal revealed that Eve experienced horrific punishments.
41:07This is the day Eve anticipates breaking her two-day fast, Ruby wrote.
41:12I let Russell know she has hardened her heart and will do one more day of fasting to invite her to humble.
41:18Eve flips out and begins ranting.
41:21All day, Eve makes rhymes about, my mom starves me and calls it fasting.
41:25In his second interview, Kevin continued his description of what it was like to live with Jodi.
41:30I can't explain some of the stuff that happened while we were there, like crashes in the basement while we were talking upstairs, and plates, like, in the kitchen just flying off by themselves, like, full speed smashing on the wall and falling to the floor.
41:52And I don't have any way to explain it other than there's some crazy s*** going on.
41:58On other occasions, Eve was doused with water in the dog wash and made to sleep on the basement floor, and it only got worse going forward.
42:07Kevin, too, said that back in 2021, the situation with Jodi took a similar downward trajectory as she became increasingly entwined with his family.
42:16But it reached the point where, in August, her bishop at the time, he's not her bishop anymore, but, I mean, he was going over there every night, and he'd be there for, like, four hours, and he'd be like, yeah, I'm fighting evil spirits, I'm casting demons out, there's crazy stuff going on.
42:37And finally, he got to the point where he's like, I can't do this anymore, like, there needs to be some sort of resolution.
42:45After the bishop left, the first attempted fix was for Jodi to move in with another family involved with connections.
42:51The opinions Kevin shared about what happened with that family reflect only his beliefs, and we have not been able to verify them.
42:58According to the h***ers, after six weeks in trying to seduce the husband of the family, they kicked her out.
43:04While there was no way to prove that Jodi had been held against her will, the police knew for a fact that Russell and Eve had been.
43:12Ruby documented one particularly horrific confrontation between Russell and Jodi, whom she refers to frequently as G-Jo.
43:20G-Jo takes Russell on a little walk to the pool, Ruby wrote.
43:24She talks on how Russell has love twisted.
43:27G-Jo then pushed Russell into the pool.
43:29Meanwhile, Kevin recounted the events after Jodi either escaped or was kicked out of the other family's home.
43:35It was at that point that they said, why don't you take her up to your house?
43:39And I was like, hell no.
43:41I don't want this in my house.
43:43But I was beaten over the head with it.
43:47Like, that's really insensitive.
43:49You know, she's done so much to help our family.
43:52And you're being selfish.
43:56And she has needs.
43:58And come on, like, it won't be for long.
44:01And so I relented and I was like, okay.
44:04Later in his second interview, Kevin told the police about the drastic changes that took place in the Frankie house after Jodi moved in.
44:11The moment she showed up in my house, just the weirdest crap started happening.
44:16Lights turning on and off.
44:18Sounds of people walking in walls.
44:21Sounds like footprints going up walls and across the ceiling.
44:26Stuff floating around.
44:28And I became the resident exorcist.
44:32That was the title I came up with myself.
44:35I thought it was kind of funny.
44:36Whenever she started to, like, go into a trance and go into possession, which started to be a lot.
44:43And Ruby would go up and check on her.
44:46It started, like, every four hours at night.
44:48And then it moved every two hours at night.
44:50Then it moved every hour at night.
44:52And then at some point, Ruby said, you know what?
44:55I'm just going to start sleeping in there.
44:57And if I need you, I'll come down and get you.
45:00Kevin said that Ruby and Jodi began sleeping in the same bed.
45:03However, this was only the beginning.
45:06And soon, Kevin noticed that he was being subjected to unique restrictions.
45:10I could leave when I wanted, but I couldn't come back until Ruby gave me permission.
45:15I couldn't come into the kitchen to eat until Ruby gave me permission.
45:19And the upstairs where Jodi roamed was completely off limits.
45:23Ruby would dictate all of the terms of how our interactions would be when we would talk.
45:28Because no matter what I did, no matter how, like, much I tried to track better, be, you know, truthful
45:38and not be selfish, every week it was like, you're being manipulative, you're being selfish,
45:45you're lying, you're hiding something, you're still hiding stuff.
45:49And I really started to, like, question my sanity, honestly.
45:55It became more and more and more and more and more and more isolating.
45:59Jodi had an approved list of men that I could make phone calls to.
46:04This appeared to be a method Ruby repeated with Russell at Jodi's house.
46:08Ruby recounted in the journal how she woke one night to find Russell missing,
46:12and a note written in pebbles on the balcony which read,
46:15Jail, I will call when I get there.
46:18Panicked, Ruby said she and Jodi searched the house,
46:20then got in their cars and began driving around looking for Russell,
46:24which Ruby described as racing the devil.
46:27They brought him home.
46:29Disturbingly, she went on to describe the concession of letting Russell sleep in a bed
46:32and feeding him a full meal the next day as
46:35like stitching up a patient knowing you didn't get all the cancer out.
46:38Okay, look at me.
46:40Don't say help.
46:42Anymore.
46:43You done said it.
46:44Yeah, so I'm very clear what I'm talking about.
46:48Don't say that again.
46:50Do you understand?
46:51Because next time you won't be smiling on your face.
46:54Kevin explained that the situation never improved
46:57as everyone tried to appease Jodi and Ruby.
47:00So I was completely cut off.
47:02You know, if I went to my church leaders,
47:04I was seeking enablement.
47:08If I went to my family, I was seeking enablement.
47:10And if I went to anybody, I was seeking enablement.
47:14I felt trapped.
47:16And that's where I was all the way up until the last week of July,
47:20when Jodi called me one day out of the blue and just said,
47:25I don't understand why you're not getting it.
47:28While everything the police had learned so far was certainly horrific,
47:32they would soon realize that it almost got unimaginably worse for the children.
47:36Based on the journal entries,
47:38the authors believe that the children's bodies needed to be engaged in painful good work as punishment.
47:44Just as Ruby and Jodi set out to look for rural land in Arizona for the Frankie children to work,
47:50Ruby got a text.
47:51I found the land.
47:53As the move to Arizona loomed dangerously closer,
47:56it became obvious that the women wanted the pair to choose punishment over respite.
48:01In an emotional phone call made from her jail cell,
48:04Jodi had this to say on the topic.
48:06Nobody wants the truth.
48:08Nobody wants the truth.
48:09Nobody wants the truth because these kids,
48:12you know, I told Doug,
48:13I woke up,
48:14the spirit told me,
48:15it's all the devil and you've seen him.
48:17And he uses these kids
48:18and he uses all of us as the adults,
48:21the parents that don't hold the kids accountable.
48:24So now it's abusive to make a kid sleep on the floor.
48:27It's abusive or it's abusive to,
48:29you know,
48:30that's ridiculous.
48:31You can't even raise your kids anymore.
48:33This was the sort of stance Jodi put forth through her program, Connections.
48:37At its peak,
48:38her Instagram had over 10,000 followers,
48:40leaving the police to wonder just how many other children
48:43might have suffered the ramifications of her influence.
48:46Later,
48:47in the midst of the investigation,
48:48Kevin continued his story of his family's breakdown.
48:52So that separation continued all the way up until the holidays, maybe.
48:57And then Ruby ended that separation.
49:00Jodi went home this,
49:03like the second week of January.
49:05But by that time,
49:06like Ruby,
49:07Pam,
49:08and Jodi were completely determined to
49:11do this work that they felt God had for them.
49:15I thought it was crazy.
49:16Like,
49:17I thought it was just that crazy.
49:19When talking with Kevin,
49:20the police learned just how far Ruby was willing to go to pursue her work with Jodi.
49:25She wanted to legally,
49:27like,
49:28work with Jodi's attorney to give Jodi
49:31eight passengers
49:33and become an employee of connections.
49:36Basically,
49:36the contract was,
49:38Ruby gives Jodi everything and Ruby gets nothing in return.
49:42Our YouTube manager at the time was like,
49:44red flags,
49:45red flags.
49:46Like,
49:46I don't know how to tell you.
49:47She's scamming you.
49:49Ruby fired.
49:50Regarding this issue of Ruby and Jodi's business entanglement,
49:54Ruby made some interesting claims in one of her calls from jail.
49:58In fact,
49:59she seemed to be changing her attitude towards Jodi entirely.
50:02Jodi Hildebrandt never was my business partner,
50:05nor was I ever her employee.
50:07I never received wages from connections or Jodi.
50:11In 2019,
50:12I hired her as a counselor for my son.
50:16And then in 2020,
50:18I paid her to be my mentor to the whirlpool.
50:22She pulls you.
50:23Regardless of any legal business arrangements,
50:26finances became an increasingly central component of the travesty that befell the Frankie children.
50:31This became clear when police continued reading Ruby's journal
50:34and gained further insight into the disturbing reasons she and Jodi were looking into moving to Arizona.
50:41Jodi and I took Eve out into the desert,
50:43Ruby wrote.
50:44She went out into the heat,
50:46barefoot.
50:47Eve still tried to run.
50:48She screamed for another family,
50:50water,
50:51food,
50:51care,
50:52love.
50:53Oh,
50:53Eve,
50:54a manipulative ploy.
50:56Ruby's journal entry about taking Eve to the desert became even more heartbreaking.
51:01Apparently,
51:01it was only after Eve collapsed on the road,
51:03exhausted that Ruby took her home.
51:06But not for long.
51:07The very next day,
51:08Ruby,
51:09Russell,
51:09Eve,
51:10and Julie all returned to the desert.
51:12For the next three days,
51:13the children were made to weed and tidy a cemetery on a nearby Native American reservation.
51:18They were not allowed to wear shoes or gloves,
51:21despite the fact that there was broken glass and thorns everywhere.
51:25At one point,
51:25Russell became so desperate to escape the heat that he stuck his head in the toilet.
51:30Footage of this suffering was captured by a local,
51:32who explained in no uncertain terms to Ruby that she was not welcome there,
51:37and that she would be filing a police report.
51:39This,
51:40Ruby wrote in her journal,
51:41was a sign that,
51:42the devil does not want us to take Russell and Eve out of society.
51:46Apparently,
51:47relocating to Arizona was their chosen method of avoiding further unwanted attention.
51:52One has to wonder how long the plan to get to Arizona was in process, though,
51:56based on an interaction Kevin mentioned happened before the separation.
52:00Ruby started threatening me with another separation.
52:04And just like,
52:05this isn't about money,
52:06this is about doing God's work.
52:09So,
52:10we continued in that dynamic for the next six or seven months,
52:14until she went on a trip with Jody and Pam down to Arizona.
52:23And I think they,
52:25like,
52:25when I read her journal,
52:27she went into Mexico or something and bought drugs or something,
52:31like prescription drugs for the emergency kits.
52:35And when she came back from that trip,
52:38before she even brought the bags into the house,
52:41she pulled me in and said,
52:43I want to talk with you.
52:44And that's when she asked me to leave.
52:46And so Kevin left and got an apartment in Springsville.
52:49At some subsequent point,
52:51Ruby also left the family home for the house in Ivan's to live with Jody,
52:55where the lives of her children would become a living nightmare.
52:59Back with Kevin,
53:00he said that when Ruby initiated contact again,
53:02he had no idea the sinister plan she had in store for their children.
53:06Around that time,
53:08things with Ruby started,
53:09like,
53:10picking up.
53:11And I didn't understand why,
53:13but, like,
53:13Ruby wanted to meet in a parking lot
53:16and wanted me to sign over,
53:19two of our cars wanted me to sign them over to her name.
53:23I'm in total compliance mode at this point,
53:26just like,
53:27I'm a good husband,
53:28you see?
53:29You can trust me.
53:30Ruby's comments on the journal somehow managed to become even more disturbing.
53:34She wrote,
53:35This girl would choose to be shot and die than to humble.
53:38Even that wasn't the most disturbing part, though,
53:42because after locking Eve in the closet overnight,
53:44they decided to treat her injuries from the cactus.
53:47Ruby said,
53:49The spirit was very strong as Julie and I witnessed Jody cleaning what did not deserve to be clean.
53:54Kevin continued his story,
53:56discussing the moment he found that his family had disappeared to live in Ivan's,
54:00leaving their own house empty.
54:02But when I returned to the house,
54:04everything was packed up,
54:05and a neighbor came over and said she asked for the HOA rules
54:10and mentioned to him that she wanted to rent the house out.
54:19Which I was like,
54:20Are you kidding me?
54:23And he,
54:24apparently she wanted to sell the house,
54:26but couldn't because my name was on the mortgage.
54:29In another jail call,
54:31Ruby revealed that the Arizona scheme had gotten further along than anyone yet knew.
54:35One shudders to think what could have happened if Russell hadn't escaped before the move.
54:40I pulled the money,
54:41and I have it in a bag.
54:44With you?
54:45Do the police have it?
54:47Well, I don't know what the police took.
54:49But the bag is at Jody's house?
54:51They can't just take people's money.
54:54I mean, that's not right.
54:55In a stunning twist,
54:57the person on the other end of the phone was none other than Kevin himself.
55:00In the days following Ruby's arrest,
55:03the pair made several phone calls where Kevin tried to ensure he received custody of the children
55:07and secured the money that Ruby had pulled out.
55:11Kevin's demeanor towards Ruby in these calls might be unexpected.
55:15I am committed to our family.
55:18I'm committed to you and our marriage.
55:20No matter what happens,
55:21I will be here to support you in any way that I can.
55:28Well, thank you for stepping up.
55:30During this call,
55:31Kevin and Ruby agreed to limit their contact going forward
55:34to strengthen Kevin's chances of gaining legal custody of the children.
55:38A discovery made the next day, though, blew that out of the water.
55:42The bag's gone.
55:43What?
55:46The bag is gone.
55:47What?
55:48What?
55:49There's no bag.
55:51The only thing more shocking than the bag's disappearance
55:53was where Ruby had gotten the funds in the first place.
55:57Kevin and his lawyer revealed the source of the missing $85,000 while speaking with police.
56:02That money, she cleaned out their bank accounts.
56:07The kids' savings accounts.
56:08Yeah, and yours too.
56:10Your joint account.
56:11Yeah.
56:11That's where that money came from.
56:13Mm-hmm.
56:13So, I don't know if you can have,
56:17or if I need to have a discussion with the county attorney,
56:21Kevin would kind of like his kid's money back.
56:23Unfortunately, tracking down the money
56:25and attempting to return it to the children
56:27would likely become a separate civil case.
56:30While Ruby didn't comment on this directly while in jail,
56:33she had more thoughts to share the longer she was behind bars.
56:37Just the devil is so sly.
56:40And I, and I embarrassed to take such,
56:45such huge slap in the face to wake up to her.
56:49On another call with her parents,
56:51Ruby Proof read a court statement she wrote to address her children
56:54and acknowledge her actions.
56:56I would do anything in this world for you.
56:59My willingness to sacrifice all for you
57:02was masterfully manipulated into something very ugly.
57:05I took from you all that was safe and soft and good.
57:10I took from you, your mother.
57:13How terrifying this must have been for you.
57:16I will never, ever stop crying for hurting your tender souls.
57:21You are such a very precious part of me.
57:25I'm so very sorry.
57:27But no apology in the world could begin to undo
57:29the horrible trauma experienced by the Frankie children.
57:33In contrast to Ruby's attempt to make amends,
57:35Jody's response was the same as it was
57:37at the beginning of the investigation.
57:40The Lord says,
57:41but first they'll lay their hands on you
57:43and persecute you,
57:46delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons.
57:49And the children shall rise up against their parents
57:52and shall cause them to be put to death.
57:55That statement right there
57:57is what's going on with me.
57:59The children shall rise up and put their parents to death
58:02and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
58:06Ultimately, Ruby and Jody were charged
58:08with six felony counts of child abuse and neglect each.
58:12Rather than go to trial,
58:13Ruby and Jody pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse.
58:17Though their cases were adjudicated separately,
58:19they received the same sentences.
58:21On each count,
58:22Jody and Ruby were sentenced to serve
58:24between one and 15 years in prison.
58:27The sentences were to be consecutive,
58:29meaning both women could be behind bars
58:31for up to 60 years,
58:33which could be the rest of their lives.
58:35Kevin continues to lobby for custody of his children,
58:38who were taken by DCFS and placed in foster care.
58:42The Frankie's oldest daughter, Sherry,
58:43is writing a book about her upbringing
58:45and has requested the public respect the privacy
58:47of her younger siblings as they attempt to recover.
58:51While their current status is unknown,
58:53we can only hope that the Frankie children
58:55are at long last experiencing the kindness
58:57and gentleness that they deserve.