Speaker 1: A once popular family YouTuber behind the Channel eight Passengers,
Speaker 1: built her brand on showcasing strict, value based parenting to
Speaker 1: millions of subscribers, but in August of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: her carefully curated image collapsed when one of her six
Speaker 1: children escaped her home in alarming condition, nownourished, bound and
Speaker 1: begging for help. The discovery of her child sparked a
Speaker 1: criminal investigation that uncovered systematic abuse, leading to the arrests
Speaker 1: of two women. What followed was a shocking unraveling of
Speaker 1: digital influence, religious extremism, and parental control gone dangerously unchecked.
Speaker 1: This is the story of the family vlogger Ruby Frank.
Speaker 1: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Grim,
Speaker 1: a true crime podcast. The following material more mature audience listener.
Speaker 1: Do I sound different?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Okay, just checking these your headphones. Headphones are still messing
Speaker 1: with me. I don't know. It's it does not seem right.
Speaker 1: Maybe I need different ones. I don't know, or maybe
Speaker 1: I just need to get used to them. I don't know.
Speaker 2: You should probably just get so the same ones don't
Speaker 2: exist anymore.
Speaker 1: Unless they're used. Yeah, at which I haven't looked. I
Speaker 1: can probably find them on eBay, I guess somewhere.
Speaker 2: But well, maybe you should do that before I replace mine.
Speaker 1: Maybe, I don't know, we'll see take those. These ones
Speaker 1: are fine, It's just I'm just not used to it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but what I am getting used to is the warm weather,
Speaker 1: the summer approaching. It's farmers market season again.
Speaker 2: Yeah. We did go to the farmer's market actually on Saturday.
Speaker 2: It was lovely we did. I had some banck and
Speaker 2: you had some simosis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were delicious.
Speaker 2: I should mention that I had a nintella on my bannock,
Speaker 2: which the next.
Speaker 1: Level, and cinnamon sugar.
Speaker 2: Actually. Yeah, Well the person in front of me, I
Speaker 2: was just going to do nutella and then he was like,
Speaker 2: oh can I also get like a little sprinkle of that?
Speaker 2: And then I was just like, I'll have exactly what
Speaker 2: he had.
Speaker 1: If you haven't had bannock before, it's delicious. Yeah, recommend
Speaker 1: ten out of ten. Campfire bannic. I really like doing that,
Speaker 1: which we haven't done in a long time.
Speaker 2: No we haven't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like you wrap it on like a stick, you
Speaker 1: can even roast it over the fire like that. It's
Speaker 1: so good.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, man, now we're just going to make everyone hungry.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe what you guys should do is, since it's
Speaker 1: the season, go check out your local farmer's market, see
Speaker 1: what you can find. Yeah, and then of course you
Speaker 1: get to support local that way too, which is super cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the best part of it, I think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you get to like actually support local, you
Speaker 1: support those around you. It's like the community thing. Just
Speaker 1: like over on Patreon, you have many people who support us.
Speaker 2: They sure do.
Speaker 1: That was a good segue here, it was so shout
Speaker 1: out to Kimberly, Nelly, Kylie Flynn, Erica Green, Lily, Capril Loane,
Speaker 1: Capri Glan. It's it's interesting spelling. Okay, don't judge me.
Speaker 1: Capri Loin Capri Loin is how I'm gonna double down
Speaker 1: and say, you say your name, Lily, I'm sorry for
Speaker 1: butchering your name. Kathy Smith, Jordan Fairbanks, Carolyn Leclair, and
Speaker 1: Alyssa Gatehouse.
Speaker 2: Wow, it amazes me that we still like weekly have
Speaker 2: a list. Yeah, that's so awesome.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of people who want to check
Speaker 1: us out on Patreon, even if they just like come
Speaker 1: in for a month and ditch out later, or maybe
Speaker 1: they stick around for a long time, whatever the reason,
Speaker 1: whatever their purpose, their support is immense and we really
Speaker 1: appreciate it.
Speaker 2: We sure do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we sure do. So I think we should get
Speaker 1: right into this case.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is gonna your intro is very interesting.
Speaker 1: It's a different case than we generally cover because I mean,
Speaker 1: typically it's like, oh, murder, murder, murder, right, So I
Speaker 1: was looking for one where there's survivors. So there is
Speaker 1: no casualties in the way of death, and it is
Speaker 1: only survivors in this one. But that doesn't make it
Speaker 1: any less sad for what occurs. But it's a little
Speaker 1: less heavy in that murder that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but sure, it's sure odd that I don't know,
Speaker 2: if she's on YouTube like kind of giving parenting advice
Speaker 2: or so, and then literally treating her kid like a
Speaker 2: piece of shit. Yeah, I am going to be very
Speaker 2: interested in this because that's wild.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we'll talk. We'll talk about it, don't you worry.
Speaker 2: Okay, get on with it. Then.
Speaker 1: So. At one time, Ruby Frank was known as the
Speaker 1: upbeat face of eight Passengers, a popular YouTube channel documenting
Speaker 1: the daily life of a large Mormon family in Utah.
Speaker 1: For years, millions tuned in to watch her pack lunches,
Speaker 1: teach life lessons, and manage the challenges of raising six kids.
Speaker 1: To many viewers, Ruby seemed like the embodiment of family values,
Speaker 1: you know, organized, faith driven, and devoted to motherhood. But
Speaker 1: in the fall of twenty twenty three, her story flipped entirely.
Speaker 1: She didn't just fall from grace, she actually plummeted, you
Speaker 1: could say. In late August, she was arrested alongside her
Speaker 1: business partner and confidant, Jody Hildebrandt, after one of Ruby's
Speaker 1: children escaped from the home in Irving's Utah Now. The
Speaker 1: twelve year old boy was found emaciated and bound with
Speaker 1: duct tape. He fled barefoot through the neighborhood seeking help,
Speaker 1: and what followed was a police investigation that would unearth
Speaker 1: a deeply disturbing system of abuse, discipline disguised as healing,
Speaker 1: and beliefs that pushed parental control into the realm of cruelty.
Speaker 1: Ruby was a smiling mom on YouTube, but the curtain
Speaker 1: had been pulled and it revealed the truth behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: With the charges now filed against her felony, child abuse, neglect,
Speaker 1: and psychological torment. For some, it was a surprise but
Speaker 1: for others, especially long time viewers who raised concerns years earlier,
Speaker 1: the arrest felt like a confirmation of something they had
Speaker 1: already sensed that behind these curtains of the curated family
Speaker 1: content was a pattern of control, punishment, and alarming parenting choices.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, this is wild.
Speaker 1: So back in twenty fifteen, Ruby Frank did what thousands
Speaker 1: of other moms were starting to do. She picked up
Speaker 1: a camera and she started filming her family. The idea
Speaker 1: was simple, share snippets of her life raising her six
Speaker 1: children in a clean cut, faith centered home. She called
Speaker 1: the channel eight Passengers.
Speaker 2: I do like that name. That is kind of a
Speaker 2: cool name.
Speaker 1: It is, and it's a nod to her family of
Speaker 1: eight because she has, you know, six children. There's her
Speaker 1: and her husbands. There's eight of them, and the channel
Speaker 1: it actually quickly took off as well. Now, at first,
Speaker 1: the content was light and relatable morning routines, you know,
Speaker 1: packing school lunches, chore charts, family vacations, nothing particularly flashy,
Speaker 1: just a kind of wholesome slice of life type video
Speaker 1: that resonated with viewers. Ruby and her husband Kevin, both
Speaker 1: members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints,
Speaker 1: which from here on out, I'll say LDS leaned into
Speaker 1: their faith and their family values. They didn't shy away
Speaker 1: from disciplining discussions things like that on these videos and
Speaker 1: things that they were doing. They didn't shy away from
Speaker 1: you know, respect or obedience. But it was all framed
Speaker 1: as loving, structured parenting the audience. It grew fast. Videos
Speaker 1: like gender reveals happened, you know, back to school, shopping days,
Speaker 1: a day in the life with six kids, it racked
Speaker 1: up hundreds of thousands of views. Milestones were celebrated publicly,
Speaker 1: things like kids birthdays, baptisms, and even quiet family dinners.
Speaker 1: By twenty sixteen, eight Passengers had crossed the one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand subscriber mark on YouTube. A year later, they were
Speaker 1: into the millions.
Speaker 2: So in like a matter of two years. Yes, that's
Speaker 2: pretty impressive, actually.
Speaker 1: Definitely, And with that comes you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: income because doing these sort of things adds and such.
Speaker 1: Exactly when you're in the millions of subscribers, that's basically
Speaker 1: a gold mine, honestly. So that set her apart was
Speaker 1: how organized and polished everything looked. The Franks became a
Speaker 1: model of Mormon family life on YouTube, modest, smiling, and
Speaker 1: seemingly in control of the chaos of parenting. They were
Speaker 1: part of a growing subculture of the so called Mormon
Speaker 1: mommy vloggers, which included other popular creators like Ruby's own sister,
Speaker 1: who had also had a successful channel. Now their lies
Speaker 1: became kind of an aspirational type content with traditional devout,
Speaker 1: you know, all this sort of stuff going on. But
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, YouTube's monetization was a powerful motivator. As
Speaker 1: I mentioned, it's kind of a gold mine. With millions
Speaker 1: of views, came real money from ad revenue, sponsorships, and
Speaker 1: even speaking opportunities. Ruby wasn't just sharing her life, she
Speaker 1: was building a brand. She was building a business and
Speaker 1: a career centered around her family. And with every new
Speaker 1: subscriber that brand, it gained more reach, it gained more
Speaker 1: influence and more pressure to maintain the illusion of perfection.
Speaker 1: But before they became a YouTube brand, Ruby and Kevin
Speaker 1: Frank were a typical LDS couple, building a life around
Speaker 1: their family and faith, and the education of their children
Speaker 1: as well. The two met while attending Birmingham Young University
Speaker 1: in Utah, where Kevin was studying engineering and Ruby was
Speaker 1: pursuing a degree in Home and Life and Family life.
Speaker 1: They married in two thousand, eventually setting in Springville, Utah,
Speaker 1: a tight knit community where their faith and family centered
Speaker 1: values were flourishing. Together, they had their six children, Sherry, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell,
Speaker 1: and Eve. The parenting philosophy was rooted in the doctrines
Speaker 1: of Church of Jesus Christ Latter day Saints LDS, teachings
Speaker 1: that emphasize obedience, family hierarchy, modesty, and spiritual worthiness. These
Speaker 1: beliefs were a constant backdrop in the home and eventually
Speaker 1: their videos on YouTube as well. But Ruby's passion for
Speaker 1: motherhood and discipline extended beyond her own household. She was
Speaker 1: part of a larger family network that had also found
Speaker 1: success online. Ruby's sisters, as I mentioned, had found success.
Speaker 1: You know. Bonnie, Allie, and Julie were all family lifestyle
Speaker 1: vloggers in their own right. Each had their own take
Speaker 1: on the mommy influencer identity, and together they created what
Speaker 1: some viewers jokingly called the Griffiths family YouTube empire.
Speaker 2: Well, they probably saw how successful Ruby was, right.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not too sure who started first. Okay, certainly
Speaker 1: one of them would have kicked it off and you know,
Speaker 1: got the others into it, and it obviously took off.
Speaker 2: And they're like, wow, we could do this too. So
Speaker 2: it's not easy to make video. So I just have
Speaker 2: to put that out there.
Speaker 1: It's not It is relatively difficult. I mean, we started
Speaker 1: doing YouTube a little bit about a year ago. We
Speaker 1: got super busy and we fell behind. We're wanting to
Speaker 1: do it again, but it's not an easy task. It
Speaker 1: is a full time job. If you're going to actually
Speaker 1: pursue a YouTube career, well.
Speaker 2: Then I also just struggle bout it's hard when a
Speaker 2: camera's on you just being yourself and stuff, right, so
Speaker 2: rather than having a facade, yeah and like coming off
Speaker 2: natural and stuff. So, I mean, I've never watched any
Speaker 2: of these people's videos, but it's not the most easiest
Speaker 2: of tasks.
Speaker 1: No, that's for sure. Now, this interconnected group of sisters
Speaker 1: amplified each other's content. They collaborated frequently and shared a
Speaker 1: similar aesthetic, you know, the clean house, the well behaved children,
Speaker 1: and focused on homemaking. At the center of it all.
Speaker 1: Ruby stood out for her strict and structured parenting style.
Speaker 1: She seemed to ell is the authority that came with motherhood,
Speaker 1: not just in her own home, but in the public
Speaker 1: space as well. Now, over time, Ruby started speaking less
Speaker 1: like a mom sharing her day to day life, and
Speaker 1: more like a woman on a mission. She often positioned
Speaker 1: herself like an authority figure in the home, one who
Speaker 1: was how do I say this properly? Because I really
Speaker 1: like this. Really it identified, It gets you the identity
Speaker 1: on who she is. It really paints the picture. She
Speaker 1: was someone who thought she knew best not only for
Speaker 1: her kids, not only for her own kids, but she
Speaker 1: knew best for what other parents should be doing too,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: See, I don't love this, but I do think in
Speaker 2: the time, there was that was kind of popular where
Speaker 2: everyone was like obsessed with people showing their perfect lives.
Speaker 2: And it's sort of changed now where people are more
Speaker 2: into like seeing the chaos and stuff and then they
Speaker 2: don't have to feel so bad about themselves and stuff,
Speaker 2: because who the hell has a clean house at every moment?
Speaker 1: That's true. I mean, there is still like that market
Speaker 1: for that perfect life sort of thing, because I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure we've all seen it at one point scrolling TikTok
Speaker 1: or Instagram. There's those people who like are reloading their pantry,
Speaker 1: the perfect pantries, like all everything's daizing it and yeah,
Speaker 1: taking it out of the marketing package, putting it in
Speaker 1: clean glass jars. It's all those sort of things. So
Speaker 1: it's definitely still a place for that style of content.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like a lot of you guys listening to
Speaker 1: our podcast, you appreciate us because we're real about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we stumble and don't know what to say.
Speaker 1: Something we don't know. We don't know how to pronounce
Speaker 1: everyone's names for example. Right, So it's it becomes real,
Speaker 1: we're real people, and that becomes relatable in its own right.
Speaker 1: So there is both both ways on which it can go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm yeah, I'm sure both have their fans
Speaker 2: and stuff, but I'm definitely more on the relatable scale.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, Well, she was more so on the picture
Speaker 1: perfect side of the scale, and her parenting. As things progressed,
Speaker 1: it was becoming more firmer. Her language was more absolute,
Speaker 1: like what I say goes, rules were rules, consequences were
Speaker 1: necessary in her house, and feelings were secondary to behavior.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, yeah, almost like a little bit of a dictatorship.
Speaker 1: It seemed like this wasn't just a YouTube mom. This
Speaker 1: was someone who clearly believed she had a calling to collect,
Speaker 1: to instruct, and to shape within her family, but regardless
Speaker 1: of her feelings or ideas, for years, eight Passengers flourished
Speaker 1: as a family friendly brand. Ruby's image as a nonsense,
Speaker 1: faith driven mother was part of what made her stand out.
Speaker 1: Viewers praised her for setting boundaries and for holding firm
Speaker 1: to values and prioritizing discipline in a culture that often
Speaker 1: tiptoes around, you know, gentle parroting. But in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: the tide had started to turn. Longtime subscribers began raising
Speaker 1: some questions. Something think about the tone of the videos,
Speaker 1: the punishments, the languages, the way Ruby talked to and
Speaker 1: about her kids started to feel off. Discipline was no
Speaker 1: longer a teachable moment. It was becoming almost a public
Speaker 1: spectacle on the YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: Oh gross, that's gross.
Speaker 1: Yeah now. One of the most talked about moments came
Speaker 1: when Ruby revealed on camera that her teenage son Chad
Speaker 1: had lost his bedroom, so he lost rights to have
Speaker 1: his bedroom and for seven months, his bed had been
Speaker 1: removed as a punishment for what she described as pranking
Speaker 1: his younger brother.
Speaker 2: For seven months, he didn't have a bed.
Speaker 1: Correct. Viewers watched as Chad, visibly uncomfortable, explained how he
Speaker 1: had been sleeping on a bean bag for nearly a year.
Speaker 1: Now to their defense, I don't think I'm not defending them,
Speaker 1: I'm saying this is their defense. They removed the bed
Speaker 1: for punishment of these prankings, and they said, you can
Speaker 1: sleep wherever you need to, the couch, whatever, the floor,
Speaker 1: whatever you need to do to sleep, you get that,
Speaker 1: but you don't get your bed. And he chose the
Speaker 1: bean bag is how they framed it.
Speaker 2: Oh, I just don't. Still not okay, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Still not okay. Honestly, you know what, Remove all your
Speaker 1: kid's fashion clothes, replace it with white T shirts, jeans.
Speaker 1: The last thing you should be removing is a fucking
Speaker 1: bed though, bed. Like I understand taking away privileges, a
Speaker 1: bed is not a privilege.
Speaker 2: I almost feel like a bed is like kind of
Speaker 2: like a safe place in a way. Yeah, like you know,
Speaker 2: a dog or whatever has a kennel and stuff like
Speaker 2: your bed, Like you spend eight hours or nine hours,
Speaker 2: or kids probably spend ten hours or whatever in there,
Speaker 2: and it's like it's almost like they need that. It's
Speaker 2: survival they do.
Speaker 1: They really do. And don't get me wrong, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying go ahead and like take away your kid's clothes
Speaker 1: and they only get white t shirts and stuff. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, if you're going to take something away, there's
Speaker 1: other ways about it. You can take, you know I
Speaker 1: things that they enjoy away and still give them things
Speaker 1: that they need to survive, things that they need to
Speaker 1: make through life, and so they understand whatever message you're
Speaker 1: trying to get across, you know what, take away their toys,
Speaker 1: take away computer time, whatever it is. I'm not a parent,
Speaker 1: don't ask me these questions. I'm probably wrong in saying
Speaker 1: this already, But a bed, are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 2: Honestly, I've heard people like they take away electronics or something,
Speaker 2: but I've heard mostly like for a week or something. Right,
Speaker 2: you're grounded or something for a week. But to take
Speaker 2: away your bed for almost a year is pretty next level. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you don't have to be a parent to think that's
Speaker 2: next level, No kidding.
Speaker 1: Now, Ruby saw this as a necessary consequence, and many
Speaker 1: others saw it as neglect, which honestly is exactly what
Speaker 1: that is. Then there was a moment when Ruby admitted
Speaker 1: she'd forgotten to pack a lunch for her youngest daughter, Eve,
Speaker 1: and rather than call the school or bring her something,
Speaker 1: she told viewers quote, the natural outcome is she's going
Speaker 1: to be hungry today. What it was delivered with a shrug,
Speaker 1: as if hunger was a moral lesson rather than a
Speaker 1: basic need. It's not even Eve's fault, it's your fault,
Speaker 1: Holy and Eve is suffering as a moral lesson.
Speaker 2: That does not seem like someone that should be teaching
Speaker 2: things because I feel like most people would just go
Speaker 2: and deliver the kid's lunch or because now she's kind
Speaker 2: of putting it on the school, because I know, like
Speaker 2: school like it happens kids forget lunch, and I think
Speaker 2: schools have like granola bars or something that they can
Speaker 2: pass out, because yeah, like you need to eat, especially
Speaker 2: when you're in this atmosphere of learning and everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're a developing child and stuff. Like when
Speaker 1: you're an adult and you're counting your calories and you're
Speaker 1: trying to lose weight. Hey, maybe you skip a meal.
Speaker 1: I get you, but you shouldn't be like, oh, I
Speaker 1: forgot to pack my kid's meal. I guess you're going
Speaker 1: hungry today, It's not that she couldn't afford it. It's
Speaker 1: not that she didn't remember it. She vlogged it saying, oh, well,
Speaker 1: she goes hungry.
Speaker 2: That's something that can stick in the kid's life forever.
Speaker 2: Her memory and stuff as kind of traumatic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. Other moments followed. Kids were made to sleep
Speaker 1: on the bathroom floor, punishments that seemed more about shame
Speaker 1: than learning. There's emotional breakdowns, kids crying on camera while
Speaker 1: Ruby kept filming. What made it all more uncomfortable was
Speaker 1: that these weren't just hidden moments. Ruby shared them freely,
Speaker 1: sometimes even proudly. To her they were part of the
Speaker 1: process of raising strong, obedient children, But to many viewers
Speaker 1: it started to feel like something much more serious was
Speaker 1: going on behind the scenes. And don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: I'm sure she is raising strong obedient children. But the
Speaker 1: idea isn't to raise strong obedient children. The idea is
Speaker 1: to raise healthy adults.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it doesn't really sound like they have a
Speaker 2: childhood day.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by healthy adults is they grow
Speaker 1: healthy and they become healthy adults. So you need to
Speaker 1: have healthy children to become.
Speaker 2: A healthy adult, like healthy happy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, healthy is determined and described in many different ways
Speaker 1: mentally healthy, physically healthy, you know, eating healthy food, being
Speaker 1: in a healthy environment, a loving environment, you know. But
Speaker 1: she was she was bringing the hammer down way too
Speaker 1: hard and way too many places.
Speaker 2: Well, it sort of to me just sounds like they
Speaker 2: would be terrified of her, like I feel terrified of her.
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably well now, By twenty twenty, backlash was growing.
Speaker 1: Viewers began compiling clips in timelines on Reddit and YouTube
Speaker 1: commentary channels. Petitions circulated demanding that eight passengers be demonetized
Speaker 1: and that child protection services investigate the family. Several of
Speaker 1: these petitions gathered tens of thousands of signatures. Still, Ruby
Speaker 1: just doubled down. She dismissed critics as worldly and soft,
Speaker 1: claiming they didn't understand her values. She framed the outrage
Speaker 1: as persecution, even attest to her strength and her faith.
Speaker 1: Her defensiveness only deepen concerns. Multiple wellness checks were reportedly
Speaker 1: conducted by authorities, though Ruby maintained in videos that nothing
Speaker 1: inappropriate had been found. As criticism of eight Pastures intensified,
Speaker 1: Ruby didn't back down. She pivoted. Around twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: her online content began to change, gone were the light
Speaker 1: hearted family vlogs and holiday crafts in their place intense
Speaker 1: discussions about obedience, sin, and emotional correction. Ruby had found
Speaker 1: a new collaborator and an entirely new philosophy to promote. Now.
Speaker 1: This collaborator was a woman by the name of Judy Hildebrant.
Speaker 1: Jody Hildebrant My apologies now. Jody was a licensed mental
Speaker 1: health counselor and founder of Connections Instead with a T,
Speaker 1: It's with an X. It was a controversial life coaching
Speaker 1: and therapy program with roots in religious based behavioral correction.
Speaker 1: Her views were stark. Children were not innocent. Instead, they
Speaker 1: were capable of manipulation and deceit. Accountability she believed must
Speaker 1: be immediate and sometimes harsh. And Ruby seen, and Ruby
Speaker 1: seemed to be all into this idea. She's just like, yes,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent, She's totally game, totally agrees. Now. Together
Speaker 1: the two women began creating content for Connections in its platform.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just therapy, it was ideology. They recorded podcasts,
Speaker 1: online classes, and video content that emphasized control, emphasized order
Speaker 1: and moral absolutes. Children were to be held to adult standards.
Speaker 1: Emotions were suspect disobedience was framed as evil. To Ruby,
Speaker 1: this partnership appeared to be a revelation. Her language grew sharper,
Speaker 1: her demeanor shifted, and on camera she seemed rigid and
Speaker 1: increasingly severe. Her children, once ever present in her content,
Speaker 1: were suddenly less visible, and fans noticed a chain and
Speaker 1: grew alarmed.
Speaker 2: What the hell is going on here? This is just
Speaker 2: angering me?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it should.
Speaker 2: Holy hell because also, what was the line you said
Speaker 2: there that children should be like held to adult standards
Speaker 2: or something. Yeah, they're not adults though I know that
Speaker 2: doesn't make any sense, I know, but.
Speaker 1: That was their point of view.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Okay.
Speaker 1: Now, behind the scenes, things were unraveling. Ruby and her
Speaker 1: husband Kevin, who had long played a more reserve role
Speaker 1: in the channel, separated sometime around twenty twenty two or
Speaker 1: early twenty twenty three. While Ruby moved in with Jody
Speaker 1: Hildebrandt in the small Utah town in Irvings, Kevin stayed behind. Later,
Speaker 1: he would tell police that Ruby had essentially pushed him
Speaker 1: out of the house and cut off contact with his children.
Speaker 1: In fact, by this point he hadn't even seen them
Speaker 1: in over a year.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, I can only imagine that he was not
Speaker 2: allowed to basically say a word or have any thought
Speaker 2: in how they should be raised or supplend or anything.
Speaker 1: Didn't seem like it concerned viewers continued filing reports. The
Speaker 1: Utah Division of Child and Family Services had already received
Speaker 1: multiple complaints related to eight passengers, and wellness checks were performed,
Speaker 1: though no legal action had yet been taken. And as
Speaker 1: you know she was saying on her channel, there was
Speaker 1: no consequences or nothing ever found. But Ruby and Jody
Speaker 1: seemed to tighten their grip. They believe their work was
Speaker 1: righteous and then that they were the only ones who
Speaker 1: could see the truth about children and parenting.
Speaker 2: They almost seem like they think they're like they should
Speaker 2: be worshiped or something like they're like starting a cult
Speaker 2: or something. I don't even know it.
Speaker 1: Honestly, they're going that direction. Yeah, one hundred percent. The
Speaker 1: philosophy being preached online was no longer just theory. It
Speaker 1: was becoming practice. In a quiet, remote house, far from
Speaker 1: the public eye, Ruby and Jody had begun applying their
Speaker 1: beliefs in ways that were as extreme as they were dangerous,
Speaker 1: but nobody truly knew what was actually about to happen,
Speaker 1: not yet. It was August thirtieth, twenty twenty three, and
Speaker 1: it began like any other late summer morning in the
Speaker 1: quiet neighborhood of Erving's Utah. But by mid morning it
Speaker 1: would become the epicenter of a case that would shock
Speaker 1: the nation. At ten forty six am, a man named
Speaker 1: Dan Clarkson heard his doorbell ring. When he opened the door,
Speaker 1: he saw a twelve year old boy. He was barefoot,
Speaker 1: emanciated with open wounds wrapped in duct tape around his
Speaker 1: wrists and ankles. His name was Russell and he was
Speaker 1: one of Ruby's six children. Security camera footage from the
Speaker 1: home captured the quiet urgency of the moment. Now, at
Speaker 1: first the boy approached and was knocking in the door
Speaker 1: and everything, but there was no answer, and he began
Speaker 1: to walk away. But then the door opened and there
Speaker 1: was Dan, and he started talking to the boy. Now,
Speaker 1: the boy asked for a ride to the police station,
Speaker 1: and of course Dan Clark's and his wife as well
Speaker 1: asked what was going on and the boy Russell quietly replied, quote,
Speaker 1: it's personal.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, this breaks my heart.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, when the Clarksons they invited the boy to
Speaker 1: sit down. They started talking to him, and they called
Speaker 1: nine one one. The truth began to emerge. In fact,
Speaker 1: on that nine one one call, Dan Clarkson is heard
Speaker 1: trying to hold back tears as he describes the situation
Speaker 1: to police because Russell's condition, it's obvious what he looks like.
Speaker 1: He does not look well. They're talking about how he
Speaker 1: obviously looks like he was held the duct tape on
Speaker 1: his wrists and everything. And I mean Russell hadn't even
Speaker 1: eaten in days when police arrived, like, he was dehydrated,
Speaker 1: He was disoriented, and he was terrified. And the problem though,
Speaker 1: was he wasn't alone because two of his sisters he
Speaker 1: told them, were still inside the home that he had
Speaker 1: just escaped from and Jody Hildebrand's home.
Speaker 2: Hm hmm, this just I actually have tears in my eyes.
Speaker 2: That is so this is so sad, Holy shit it is.
Speaker 1: Now his paramedics arrived and began assessing Russell's condition. What
Speaker 1: they found was horrifying. Yes, his wrists and ankles showed
Speaker 1: signs of long term restraints. The skin under the duct
Speaker 1: tape was infected, and the wounds were surrounded by a
Speaker 1: substance of sorts, and that substance appeared to be a
Speaker 1: homemade mixture of cayenne pepper and honey and plastic wrap.
Speaker 2: What the actual shit? So they, okay, they're using these
Speaker 2: kids as like experimenting, aren't they. I don't know if
Speaker 2: that's what's going to come out here, but this is
Speaker 2: fed up.
Speaker 1: Well. Russell told EMTs that he had been tied up
Speaker 1: by his mother and Miss Jody as form of punishment.
Speaker 2: Miss Jody.
Speaker 1: You, in fact, though he was so deeply into this
Speaker 1: ideology that his mother was betraying and putting on this household,
Speaker 1: he blamed himself and he said that he deserved it.
Speaker 2: Holy shit. And this little boy is twelve years old.
Speaker 1: Correct, Oh no, oh no, So he's like, yeah, my
Speaker 1: mommy did this to me. My mom tied me up
Speaker 1: and ductate me. But you know, I deserved it. I
Speaker 1: was being punished. I was being bad.
Speaker 2: What the hell is wrong with this person?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: These two women, I guess not just this person, but
Speaker 2: holy shit.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, police sprang into action. Officers on scene quickly confirmed
Speaker 1: the location of Jody Hildebrandt's house and noted the urgent
Speaker 1: need to perform a welfare check for the other children.
Speaker 1: Because as as he said, there's you know, his two
Speaker 1: siblings are in the house. Russell approaches like, yeah, I've
Speaker 1: got my two sisters in that house still. So officers
Speaker 1: are like, we need to get there, we need to
Speaker 1: do welfare check, we need to see how these other
Speaker 1: two kids are. So as they're still, you know, at
Speaker 1: the home where Russell knocked on the door, they're talking
Speaker 1: to the Clarksons and they're talking to Russell. They're getting
Speaker 1: their bearings, trying to figure out what they're going to do.
Speaker 1: Something happened as they prepared. Jody Hildebrandt herself drove up.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, I was kind of expecting that, but like,
Speaker 2: what the hell is she going to have as an
Speaker 2: excuse here?
Speaker 1: Well, she told the officer she was looking for a
Speaker 1: twelve year old boy who had run away. Now, the
Speaker 1: officers did not reveal the situation to her. They're like, oh, okay, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: where can we Let's get your information, your name number,
Speaker 1: where do you live. They got all this stuff, and
Speaker 1: they're like, well, we'll show up at your house here shortly,
Speaker 1: we'll talk, we'll figure this out, we'll help you find them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But then they just told her that she they're
Speaker 2: showing up at her house.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I don't know if they specifically said they
Speaker 1: were going to show up at the house. That was
Speaker 1: me paraphrase. Okay, but they're like, we'll be in touch,
Speaker 1: we'll figure this out, we'll find him, okay, okay. So
Speaker 1: they took her information without revealing anything that they already knew,
Speaker 1: and she went home. But minutes later she received a
Speaker 1: knock on the door because the police went there too. Now,
Speaker 1: what followed was a tense confrontation, which was caught on
Speaker 1: police body cameras, and officers instructed Jody to ex the house,
Speaker 1: and they immediately when that door was opened, they pulled
Speaker 1: her out, like get out of here, and they went
Speaker 1: in the home looking for the kids. Now, she refused
Speaker 1: and demanded to see a warrant right away. She's like,
Speaker 1: you don't have a warrant. You don't have a warrant. However,
Speaker 1: she was also on the phone with her attorney. Whether
Speaker 1: she phoned like right away or not, but wow, she's
Speaker 1: like and the attorney's like no, like they it's a
Speaker 1: welfare check, Like you can't they don't need a warrant.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, you're a piece of shit. Just get out
Speaker 2: of the house.
Speaker 1: Yeah. She's meanwhile insisting she has legal rights, but it's like, no,
Speaker 1: this is a welfare check. They're not doing an investigation,
Speaker 1: they're not pulling evidence, nothing like that. But they're doing
Speaker 1: a welfare check to find out if these kids are okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're not. And that's why she didn't want
Speaker 2: them to come in exactly. I can only imagine. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, the nine one one call, combined with Russell's visible
Speaker 1: injuries and his claims that siblings were still inside, gave
Speaker 1: them that legal authority to enter, and so they did.
Speaker 1: Once inside, they were met with an eerie stillness. The
Speaker 1: house was large. It was sprawling, like it was a
Speaker 1: fucking mansion, let's be honest, filled with rooms and hallways
Speaker 1: containing a layout that made searching both slow and they
Speaker 1: needed to be very deliberate about it. The officers knew
Speaker 1: that they were going to need some help, so they
Speaker 1: pulled the home blueprints, and thank god they did, because
Speaker 1: with so many rooms, hidden spaces and offshoots, it would
Speaker 1: have been easy to miss something so critical. The blueprints
Speaker 1: helped confirm a room in the basement that immediately raised
Speaker 1: red flags with a vault style safe door had to
Speaker 1: be at the front, so it's more like a safe
Speaker 1: room sort of thing, Like you go down it's like
Speaker 1: concrete walls, concrete floor. There's a bathroom like a bedroom
Speaker 1: down there, and this great big vault door at the front.
Speaker 1: But before investigators could reach that part of the house,
Speaker 1: they found Eve, one of the children. She was nine
Speaker 1: years old, and she was hidden inside a bathroom closet.
Speaker 1: She didn't cry, she didn't speak, she didn't even seem
Speaker 1: to register the officers at first. The image of her
Speaker 1: curled up sitting on the floor silently in that tice
Speaker 1: tight space would say with everyone who saw that body
Speaker 1: cam footage, And I did see that footage, and it's
Speaker 1: it's heartbreaking.
Speaker 2: Oh boy.
Speaker 1: A trained police officer gently introduced himself, promised her safety,
Speaker 1: and sat on the floor next to her. She didn't
Speaker 1: really speak, she didn't really do anything. He said, we
Speaker 1: don't have to say anything if you don't want to.
Speaker 1: I'm just here to make sure you're okay.
Speaker 2: Oh man. The fact that he just sits down with her, like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's like the first time in probably forever that she
Speaker 2: got even like a small amount of respect from someone.
Speaker 1: Oh, definitely, it continues, and it'll break your fucking heart
Speaker 1: because she doesn't say a word. She just kind of
Speaker 1: like just stares and like she's super nervous. And she
Speaker 1: might have said a word or two just being like
Speaker 1: I'm nervous, like that sort of thing, but other than that,
Speaker 1: just stone silent. And they sat with her, and they
Speaker 1: worked with her for hours before she would eventually move
Speaker 1: out of that closet. Now before she did move, though,
Speaker 1: to gain her trust, they decided they were going to
Speaker 1: you know, give her some food, some pizza. So they
Speaker 1: ordered you know, officers are searching his house. It's taking hours,
Speaker 1: so they ordered the whole crew lunch. They ordered a
Speaker 1: bunch of pizza, and they ordered her a personal pizza
Speaker 1: for herself and a fountain pop as well a soda.
Speaker 1: So they bring it to her and they put the food,
Speaker 1: the pizza box on the floor right in front of her,
Speaker 1: and a pop like you can eat if you want,
Speaker 1: it's okay, and you can see her. She doesn't really
Speaker 1: react at first, and of course she's quite skinny, she's
Speaker 1: been deprived of food and everything. Within seconds, she slowly
Speaker 1: starts reaching for that pizza and drags a box closer
Speaker 1: to her opens it up and she starts eating. She
Speaker 1: eats the entire pizza to herself, and then she even
Speaker 1: asks for more of the officer's pizzas.
Speaker 2: Seriously, I just saw right now. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: listen in the rest this episode always shit. Oh man, Okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Eve was skeletal. She was terrified and emotionally
Speaker 1: shut down. Her physical condition mirrored rustles, open sores, signs
Speaker 1: of dehydration, and serious malnourishment. EMTs who later examined her
Speaker 1: noted deep wounds on her feet from being forced to
Speaker 1: walk barefoot, and they were concerns, concerned enough to send
Speaker 1: her directly to the hospital alongside her brother. You know what,
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna do this. I was gonna do it
Speaker 1: all in one part. But I think let's stop and
Speaker 1: do two parts for this because it's heavy.
Speaker 2: Oh my god? Why? Because your wife is over your solving?
Speaker 1: Yes, this is heavy. I think a break for this
Speaker 1: would be good, and I think this might be a
Speaker 1: good place to stop it. Do you want me to
Speaker 1: go a little bit further before I stop, or is
Speaker 1: this a good stopping point for you?
Speaker 2: I don't know, you decide. I don't even know what
Speaker 2: the hell is to come. I just can't even fathom that,
Speaker 2: like someone's like an adult who's supposed to be like
Speaker 2: protecting these littles like a mom and stuff is doing this.
Speaker 2: It's unreal. It's unreal.
Speaker 1: It is it really is.
Speaker 2: Oh oh man, I don't okay, let's just stop, I
Speaker 2: guess because I can't get this pizza thing out of
Speaker 2: my mind. It's going to destroy me all day.
Speaker 1: Sorry, let's stop here. This is definitely heavy, so let's
Speaker 1: continue in part two. I'll make sure that I put
Speaker 1: part one, because we didn't discuss this being two parts
Speaker 1: in the beginning of this episode. I'll put part one
Speaker 1: in the title. Make sure you guys understand its part
Speaker 1: one before you click on it. And Nicole's glaring at
Speaker 1: me and crying.
Speaker 2: I'm not glaring at you. I'm just like, holy shit,
Speaker 2: I can't get my shit together right now. It's so sad.
Speaker 1: It is. And this is supposed to be a woman
Speaker 1: who's teaching other people how to raise their children, who's
Speaker 1: portraying good family values, and she's doing this to her children.
Speaker 2: And the fact that they're like living in a mansion.
Speaker 2: She clearly has like a lot of money, and she
Speaker 2: could just be giving those kids like the world really yeah,
Speaker 2: and this is what she's doing. It's just heartbreaking because
Speaker 2: so many people there can't afford to give their kids
Speaker 2: what they would want to and she can and this
Speaker 2: is what she's doing, Like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: I know there's millions of people out there, like hundreds
Speaker 1: of millions of people out there, probably who don't have
Speaker 1: who barely have enough money to get by, and they
Speaker 1: are ensuring they give their kids still the world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: love the attention. They're doing double triple shifts before Christmas.
Speaker 1: They can afford a Christmas present. Yeah, And meanwhile, this
Speaker 1: bitch is taking away their kids' beds, making them walk
Speaker 1: barefoot through a fucking mansion, on these punishments like not
Speaker 1: feeding them, yeah, tying them. Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Well I just can't imagine the police officer to like
Speaker 2: watching her eat this food and then her asking for
Speaker 2: like some of his Like, oh my gosh, I just
Speaker 2: think that you would never be able to recover from
Speaker 2: that because your heart would just like sink. Yeah, like
Speaker 2: that is it's too much?
Speaker 1: No, that's totally fair. So yeah, I have no idea
Speaker 1: how long this episode is because I didn't plan on
Speaker 1: it being a two parter. Hopefully it was good. We'll
Speaker 1: catch up in the rest of it in the next part.
Speaker 1: Give you guys a breather in between, and let Nicole.
Speaker 1: We'll get her a box of Kleenex so she can get.
Speaker 2: I'm fine, I'm fine. Everything well no, not everything is fine.
Speaker 2: This world's fucked up, but I'm fine.
Speaker 1: This world's fucked up. Yeah, this was supposed to be
Speaker 1: a bit of a nicer case because hey, they're survivors.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, at you at the beginning of this, you're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we're just like toning it down a bit. I did
Speaker 2: say where everybody who's probably saw being away, it's way
Speaker 2: worse than ones where people were getting like murdered in
Speaker 2: their heads cut off.
Speaker 1: I did say that it was survivors, and I did
Speaker 1: say it was still heavy. I guess it's just very
Speaker 1: I did also say it's heavy in its own way.
Speaker 1: I can't win. I'm just I'm the bad guy every time.
Speaker 2: No, I'm sorry, No, it's just I think the next
Speaker 2: episode will probably be better. Well, they'll probably be really
Speaker 2: shitty parts, but then you know, we'll get just they
Speaker 2: get out of this, right, So.
Speaker 1: Definitely, I'll tell you right now. Finding Eve. The eating
Speaker 1: the pizza situation is probably the heaviest part of this.
Speaker 1: I mean, of course we still go over heavy things,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it was it was just a heavy encounter
Speaker 1: with Eve.
Speaker 2: Let's put it that, no kidding. In the bathroom closet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so now I will say this bathroom closet's not
Speaker 1: like a closet we generally think of. I should describe
Speaker 1: it a bit better. It's probably the size of like
Speaker 1: your standard bathroom. Oh okay, so it's it's like it's
Speaker 1: like probably like a six by six room something like that,
Speaker 1: maybe an eight by eight room even.
Speaker 2: Still, yes, what the fuck?
Speaker 1: Yeah, But anyways, I digress. Sorry for being so heavy
Speaker 1: on this one. If you want to check out links
Speaker 1: all in the description, we'll catch you in part two.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you have a good time to take this all
Speaker 1: in and we'll talk more and discuss it then.
Speaker 2: So until next time, stay wicked.