Ruby Franke, a former YouTube household vlogger from Utah who was sentenced final month on baby abuse fees, detailed months of abuse in handwritten journal entries launched by prosecutors Friday.
Within the closely redacted entries, Franke repeatedly insisted that her son was possessed by a demon. In a single entry from July 11, 2023, she wrote that it was a “huge day for evil” and described an incident the place her son was pushed into water and she or he held her hand over his nostril and mouth.
She wrote that she did that to assist the boy.
In one other entry, Franke referred to as her daughter “manipulative” and described how she compelled the lady to face within the rain for 2 hours.
In February, Franke obtained 4 separate jail sentences of 1 to fifteen years every. Her enterprise accomplice, Jodi Hildebrandt, obtained the identical sentence.
Each ladies had been arrested in August 2023 and pleaded responsible to 4 counts of second-degree aggravated baby abuse after police discovered one among Franke’s sons emaciated with open wounds and sure with duct tape.
The boy had escaped Hildebrandt’s house to a neighbor’s home. One in every of Franke’s daughters was present in Hildebrandt’s house in an analogous malnourished situation.
The journal entries, launched by the Washington County Lawyer’s Workplace, primarily centered on two of Franke’s six youngsters. Officers redacted their names and recognized the daughter, 9, as “E” and the son, 12, as “R.”
“R was informed to face within the solar w/his solar hat,” Franke wrote within the July 11, 2023, entry. “He’s defiant. … R, or I ought to say his demon, stays within the shade. I push R into the solar. R comes again. I come again with a cactus poker. Once I poke his again to get within the solar R doesn’t even flinch. I poke him on the neck. He’s in a trance & doesn’t seem to really feel something. Jodi faucets him on the cheeks to wake him up.”
Franke additionally wrote that very same day that her son was pushed right into a pool and she or he held her hand “tightly over his nostril & mouth.”
In a July 12, 2023, entry, Franke wrote that she minimize her daughter’s hair off and “doused” her with water within the “canine wash.”
“E mentioned she needed to run away. Jodi informed E she has no concept what’s ready for her,” Franke wrote.
Prosecutors additionally launched police physique digital camera video, photographs and interrogation tapes.
In a house safety video from Aug. 30, 2023, Franke’s son requested a neighbor if he might “do two favors.”
“Nicely, what are they?” the neighbor requested.
“Take me to the closest police station,” the boy responded. “Nicely, really only one is ok.”
The neighbor informed the boy to have a seat on his entrance porch.
A second video confirmed the person on the telephone as a girl assessed the boy’s accidents.
“He has duct tape … there’s sores round them,” the person mentioned. The girl mentioned the boy wanted fast consideration.
Prosecutors mentioned that Franke and Hildebrandt had been motivated by “spiritual extremism.”
“The ladies appeared to completely consider that the abuse they inflicted was crucial to show the youngsters how one can correctly repent for imagined ‘sins’ and to solid the evil spirits out of their our bodies,” the Washington County Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned in a case abstract.
The household grew to become recognized for its common and infrequently controversial YouTube channel “8 Passengers,” the place Franke documented her life together with her husband, Kevin Franke, and their six youngsters.
The channel had greater than 2 million subscribers earlier than it ended. Kevin Franke later filed for divorce after her arrest.
Throughout her sentencing, Franke apologized to her youngsters.
“I … believed darkish was gentle and proper was flawed,” she mentioned. “I might do something on this world for you. I took from you all that was comfortable and secure and good.”
Hildebrandt mentioned she hoped the youngsters would be capable of “heal bodily and emotionally.”
“One of many causes I didn’t go to trial is as a result of I didn’t need them to emotionally relive the expertise, which might have been detrimental to them,” she mentioned. “My hope and prayer is that they are going to heal and transfer ahead to have lovely lives.”