As a true crime junkie, I have watched so many of the documentary films and docuseries. I have become so desensitized to them that it takes a lot for one to make me feel physically sick.
There is one topic I don’t think I could ever become desensitized to, child abuse. These cases never fail to make me have to step away and take a break. Whether I am reading about them or watching a show, a YouTube video, a movie, or a podcast.
A mother is supposed to guide, protect, and love their child or children, and Ruby Franke failed miserably at this.
Franke is an American vlogger who ran the now-inactive YouTube channel 8 Passengers from 2015 to 2022. The channel followed the daily lives of Franke, Kevin Franke (her husband), and their six children. At first, for an outsider watching their videos, they seemed like a typical happy family.
This didn’t last that long though.
Their audience became concerned after Franke’s son Chad, 15, revealed on camera that he had been sleeping on a beanbag chair in the basement for seven months as punishment while his mother laughed. Shortly after, Ruby would be seen threatening to withhold meals, cut off the head of her child’s teddy bear, and sharing personal details about her teenagers.
That was only the beginning of it.
The minor things.
Once Jodi Hildebrant, their therapist and life coach turned roommate, came into their life, the abuse got worse.
A series came out on Feb. 27 on Hulu called “Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.” Throughout the three episodes, I couldn’t believe what I saw and heard. Ruby had beaten her oldest son so bad there was blood on the walls.
Her now 12-year-old son was frequently tied down with rope, with duct tape wrapped around his ankles and wrists, causing deep cuts that got covered in cayenne pepper and honey. As well as being forced to endure hours of physical tasks, including wall sits and carrying boxes full of books up and down stairs. He was also subject to outdoor labor in the summer heat without enough water and inflicted “repeated and serious sunburns” that blistered. As for the now 11-year-old, she was forced to perform manual labor outside in the scorching heat without water or shoes and convinced or physically forced to jump into a cactus multiple times.
It was stated in the series that both the children were told they were possessed and that their punishments were meant to “help” them.
While listening to this, I felt a huge pit form in my throat. Even thinking about it right now, my stomach hurts. I truly do not understand how a parent could inflict such horrible pain on an innocent child.
In 2020, the first time CPS ever got called and spent some time in the household, the officers were so impressed with her parenting that they allegedly asked for child-rearing tips before leaving.
No charges were pressed.
What makes me angry is that later on when it got reported by the oldest daughter that the children were left home alone for days, Child Protective Services or the police could not do a thing because nobody answered the door when they went and because nobody got hurt. So they just closed the case.
I’m sorry, but if I got a call saying that two minor children had not been seen in days and were practically abandoned, I would say forget the law and search the residence. I wouldn’t even care if it got me fired. Are you kidding?
What got the police and CPS to step in and get involved, was in 2023 when the 12-year-old escaped the house by climbing out a window and walking to a neighbor’s house asking to be taken to the nearest police station. When the footage of the ring camera came out publicly, I was absolutely horrified. The son was practically skin and bones, starved, stating he was hungry and thirsty, and had duck tape wrapped around his wrists and legs.
I truly believe that if he had not escaped and gotten him and his sister the help they so desperately needed, they would have died.
Kevin Franke, filed for divorce from Ruby in late 2023 soon after the arrest was made. What disturbs me when it comes to him is the fact that he says he is still in love with her.
When I watched those words come out of his mouth towards the end of the documentary, I was disgusted. All I can ask myself is how the hell can you say you love someone who is a monster who put their kids through torture?
He also made it a point that he was unaware of the abuse that was going on in the household which I think is complete bullshit. Before he got told by Ruby that they needed to separate, which Jodi convinced her of, I refuse to believe he didn’t see what she was doing to those kids while still living there.
Both Ruby and Jodi each plead to four counts of child abuse and admitted to torturing the children from May 22 through Aug. 30. As for sentencing, they both got four consecutive sentences of one to 15 years in prison.
After watching the docuseries, reading articles about the case, and witnessing the hearing, I can truly say this is another one that has left me heartbroken. No child should ever have to go through the horrors that these six children experienced.
