A relative of YouTube mom Ruby Franke said the news of her child abuse case is ‘disgusting’ but the problem is ‘bigger than people know.’
The unnamed cousin of Franke, who is charged with six felony counts of abuse, claimed this is not the first time their family tree has experienced this behavior. Other family members have also duct-taped, handcuffed and starved kids.
They described the unprovoked child abuse and slapping that took place in their house as a child – and they said that after watching their YouTube channel briefly, they said they noticed Ruby’s same mannerisms.
Ruby, 41, who runs the 8 Passengers YouTube page, was arrested on two counts of aggravated child abuse along with business partner Jodi Hildebrandt on August 30.
Abusing children, being physical, and withholding food is something that has been a ‘multi-generational’ problem in the Franke family, they claimed.
YouTuber mom Ruby Franke (pictured) has been charged with six counts of felony child abuse after her 12-year-old son was found with open wounds and duct tape on their limbs
Ruby Franke is seen with her four daughters: Shari (red coat), Eve (gray dress), Julie (pink coat), and Abby (black coat)
The concealed cousin of Franke (right) spoke to Law&Crime about their own experience of child abuse within the family
The family member – who said the charges of child abuse are ‘disgusting’ – said that their entire family tree ‘from the roots to the branches’ is ‘blighted.’
The cousin of Ruby Franke, whose identity was concealed, told Law & Crime: ‘I’m not shocked. It’s not a shock at all. The direction in which it went was not what I thought, but from which it came was to be expected.
‘I wasn’t expecting some of the details in that story to line up with details in my own family history.
‘My mother handcuffed my sisters when they were young, and a lack of food wasn’t uncommon, but it wasn’t out of the lack of money and there was a time when it could have been prevented and it wasn’t.’
‘All I can say is my mother did duck tape my siblings. I’m not shocked.’
Asked when was the last time they saw Ruby, they said: ‘When I was very young, it was a long time ago. Over 15 years ago.’
Describing their reaction, they said: ‘Disgust. Because this is something multi generational.
‘I am very privy to the way I was treated and the way my siblings were treated, so to see that further down the line is not shocking, but disgusting.’
‘The whole tree from the bottom of the roots to the tips of the branches, the whole tree is blighted. It’s multi-generational. ‘
Speaking about how the Mormon church and its teachings have allegedly justified this abuse, the family member said: ‘I do feel and believe that those sorts of things are used to justify.’
‘With every fiber of my being, I can understand. I hope they are okay.
‘It’s a lot bigger than people know.’
Franke’s son climbed out of a window of Hildebrandt’s home and ran to a neighbor for help, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by NBC states. This is what triggered the probe.
In addition to his wounds, the boy was found in an emaciated state. Ruby and husband Kevin Franke’s 10-year-old daughter was found in a similar condition.
Hildebrandt is also charged with six counts of felony child abuse in Washington County, Utah. Each count carries a sentence of up to 15 years and a $10,000 fine.
At the time that Ruby’s children were discovered, authorities said that Russell, 12, and Eve, 10, were so malnourished they needed to be taken to a hospital for care.
The family blew up on social media after beginning to post videos in 2015
Ruby, her husband, and their six kids were shot into stardom back in 2015, after she started sharing videos giving an inside look into her life as a Mormon mother-of-six on YouTube
Investigators said ‘evidence consistent with the markings found on the juvenile’ was located inside the home upon a search.
The woman’s other four children – Shari, Chad, Abby, and Julie – were taken by the Utah Division of Child and Family Services.
In a statement to NBC News, the Washington County attorney said the two women are believed to have caused or permitted ‘serious physical injury’ in three ways.
‘(1) a combination of multiple physical injuries or torture, (2) starvation or malnutrition that jeopardizes life, and (3) causing severe emotional harm,’ they said.
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According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office’s website, both women are still in custody as of September 5.
Ruby and her business partner will next appear in court on September 8.
The Mormon woman first rose to fame for her strict parenting style which blew up on YouTube and made her ‘millions’ of dollars, she claimed.
She racked up more than 2.2million subscribers for documenting their day-to-day endeavors on social media, along with husband Kevin.
The pair stopped uploading videos in January 2022 and the page was taken down completely from the website earlier this year.
When asked why she left YouTube behind months later, she said she opted to stop uploading videos because she wanted to ‘save her kids.’
Ruby Franke, (left) who ran the now-defunct 8 Passengers channel, was arrested along with her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt (right) on August 30
In July, she was called out online after video surfaced of her allowing Eve to go hungry after the young girl had forgotten to make her own lunch before school.
In a video posted to in 2020, Ruby said her daughter’s teacher had texted her, telling her that the youngster didn’t have anything to eat for lunch.
She said all her kids are responsible for preparing their own lunches in the morning, so she would not be dropping off any food for Eve to teach her a lesson.
Franke said: ‘My hope [is that] she will be hungry and come home and be like ‘that was really painful being hungry all day I’ll make sure to always have a lunch with me.”
‘The natural outcome is that she is just going to have to go hungry.’
It was this parenting style that helped the woman to gain a massive following on YouTube and shine a spotlight on herself and her family.
After her arrest, one of Ruby’s adult children spoke out on social media and shared that she was excited to see justice finally served to her mom.
In an Instagram story after her mom’s arrest, Shari, 20, celebrated her mom’s arrest and said she had been ‘trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this.’
Shari also said that she is ‘so glad they finally decided to step up’ and that her siblings are safe, DailyMail.com reported.
The 20-year-old shared an image of police officers outside the family’s Springville, Utah home along with the caption ‘Finally.’
Ruby once came under fire for revealing her then-six-year-old daughter Eve had to ‘go hungry’ because the little girl had failed to make her own lunch before school
This is the house that Russell Franke reportedly ran from in order to get help
On Sunday, Kevin was spotted outside his home by DailyMail.com for the first time since his wife and her business partner were arrested last week.
Kevin was seen pacing around the property as a man came to remove the YouTube branding from a van parked outside the house.
The man is believed to have been kicked out of the family home last year.
He said last week he is ‘trying to keep his children together’ following the arrests.
Kevin’s attorney, Randy S. Kester, told Page Six his client’s ‘urgent focus is simply to keep his children together under his fatherly care’.
Neighbors said they had been concerned about the children’s wellbeing, and once saw the kids outside pulling weeds for hours during triple-degree heat.
DailyMail.com spoke to one of Hildebrandt’s neighbors whose home is also in the Kayenta Community located at the base of the Red Mountains in Ivins, Utah.
They recalled seeing Franke’s van, which had an ‘8 Passengers’ sticker and license plate, regularly parked in front of the home at the time.
‘One thing we noticed and we told the police the same thing, six to eight weeks ago when it was really hot I was outside in the late morning, afternoon pulling weeds and over at Jodi’s home several kids were also outside her home pulling weeds.
‘Over the course of the day the temperature was over 100 degrees and I gave up after a while because it was so hot but I noticed that the kids stayed out there,’ the neighbor explained.
