Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence (2025) s01e01 Episode Script
Meet the Frankes
911, the address of your emergency?
I just had a 12-year-old boy showed
up here at my front door,
asking for help.
He's hungry and he's thirsty.
He said he just
left through the porch
of the neighbor's house.
Her name is Jodi Hildebrandt.
She's a bad lady.
Ruby Franke is his mom's name.
This kind of thing doesn't happen,
especially to family vloggers.
Ruby Franke, a YouTuber from Utah
has been accused of child abuse.
The mom of six known for her
tough love style of parenting.
I'm going to say it one more time,
and then you'll lose
your privilege to eat dinner.
The arrests were shocking
to millions of Ruby Franke fans.
Franke works with the parent
counseling service ConneXions.
Police officers! Open up!
And their founder,
Jodi Hildebrandt
- was also arrested.
-How did you come to my house?
This was a horrible crime with awful
things done to defenseless children.
The child had duct tape
around his ankles and writs.
He's emaciated.
Rope, bindings and other items
used to torture the children.
I was physically ill.
I'm going to cry.
We wanted to understand
what happened.
The answer to that question
was Jodi Hildebrandt.
You guys want to know
who Jodi Hildebrandt is?
My aunt, Jodi Hildebrant,
is a monster.
Bizzarro feminist nightmare
cult prophetess.
You don't go against
what Jodi teaches.
Religious radicalism is a key part
of understanding this case.
Dreams and visions, exorcisms?
They believed the kids
were possessed by evil spirits.
She teaches children
need abuse and torture.
It's all the devil
and he uses these kids.
How could anybody ever
be so far gone
to do that
to their own flesh and blood?
I have dedicated my life to truth
and truth has been hated
since the beginning of time.
Jodi destroyed my life.
I'm thinking what kind of power
does this counselor have?
She's got away with this for so long.
Just so you know, we're just gonna
ask you a few questions.
Just for starters,
what was your full name?
Kevin William Franke.
-What's your wife's name?
-Ruby Franke.
Were you involved in the 8
Passengers account with your family?
Yes, I was in the videos
if that's what you mean.
Did Ruby more so do the videos
for the family?
I'm not aware of anything she's done
since our separation.
I don't visit 8 Passengers anymore.
-Chapter of your life that's gone?
-It's a past chapter, yeah.
Hey, guys, welcome to 8 Passengers.
If you have not been to this channel
before, I have six kids.
It's a lot of fun and it can be
kind of crazy sometimes.
What is going on?
Ruby Franke - one of the early Mormon
mom influencer pioneers on YouTube.
She started a YouTube channel
called 8 Passengers
which represented her, her husband,
Kevin, and their six children.
Hi, everybody.
Come grab a dish.
Displaying Mormon motherhood
in allof its splendid glory.
Who done it?
There was one morning in the kitchen
where I was filming,
our baby had spilled milk
all over the table
I think every inch of my kitchen
has chocolate milk on it.
I had no intention of anyone
ever actually watching
until that moment
when the milk was spilled
and I thought, oh, there might be
someone else who sees this.
My intention was to just try to find
the beautiful moments in my life
and record them.
Ruby's the best.
Ruby is just your average mom
and that's the relatable factor in
She is the perfect Mormon mom.
She does everything by the book.
She has six kids, she's blonde, she
has a husband who was working at BYU,
working for the church,
perfect job position.
Go to church every Sunday
and I wear modest clothing.
I can't think of somebody,
in my opinion,
who is a more perfect representation
of a Mormon woman than Ruby Franke.
Salt Lake City, Utah is the epicenter
of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints.
As a journalist,
to live and work in Salt Lake City,
it's like if I worked in the Vatican
covering the Catholic Church
and the Pope.
The Mormon Church is different
than your average Christian Church,
I think it's a lot more involved
in terms of the commitment level.
It impacts every aspect of your life.
So, within Mormonism
there's a lot of rules.
The Word of Wisdom has basically an
outline of various things that you do
to keep yourself in line
with the Church.
We are not
to drink alcoholic beverages,
we are not to use tobacco,
we are not to drink tea or coffee,
and in the same spirit,
we are not to use addicting drugs.
The Mormon Church claims to be God's
one and only true church on the earth
with God's official
Priesthood authority.
So, it's a very traditional
male-based patriarchal structure,
not just in the church,
but in the home as well.
Ten percent of your income goes to
the church in the form of tithing.
Bear his witness concerning
the sacred law of tithing
and the marvelous promises
which the Lord has made to those
who are honest in paying
their tithes and offerings.
Mormons believe
all members should pay
10 percent of their income for life
to the Mormon Church.
And what that's resulted in
is that the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
is currently worth
around $250 billion.
That's billion with a B.
And its teaching on tithing
is central to its current status
of being the most wealthy church
in the entire world.
There's a lot that is required.
Sexuality is something to be hidden,
to be suppressed.
Masturbation's forbidden.
No homosexuality.
And you swear
to obey the law of chastity.
Sex is only to be used
within marriage.
It was just stay on this side,
and if you do this,
then, you are guaranteeing
yourself a place in hell.
Sin will always,
always result in suffering.
Your most important source
of support is your parents.
Their teaching should be
a powerful influence
in your decision to be clean.
Mormonism fosters
a culture of surveillance.
Like, it is not uncommon for people
to approach each other
about, like, for a parent
specifically to approach a child
like, you're not wearing
your garments anymore.
The modest temple garment
worn under normal clothing
represent a sacred
and personal aspect
of their relationship with God.
It's a rare physical
manifestation of a religion
that you can kind of check
other people on.
Growing up in the Church,
Mormon women are taught family,
home, husband, motherhood.
These are all values ingrained
in a little girl
from the time she's born
to the time she gets married.
Since the camera's out and rolling,
we should share how we met.
There was a meet and greet for hot--
-Was it hotdogs?
-Yup.
She was the hottest hotdog
at the social.
Two weeks from the day we met
to the day we got engaged.
I was 18.
We got married
and we started having kids.
Kevin started working on his PHD
at Brigham Young University.
He moved us to Springville, Utah.
It just blew my mind
at how expensive life was.
And now we're like, okay,
what do we do? What do we do now?
Sorry
But I was super positive and I--
It's gonna-- It's fine. It's fine.
It'll work out.
Because patriarchy is woven
into Mormonism since its beginning,
there's very set standards
and expectations for women.
You're not expected
to be the breadwinner.
You're not expected to bring
any money in at all.
You're supposed to be raising your
kids.
This creates a perfect breeding
ground for Mormon women
to want to start exploring having
a voice, to start being validated,
to start being praised
for how they're mothering.
All these women are now
empowered to make money at home,
still fulfilling their Mormon roles.
There's a controversial corner
of the internet
on which everyone has an opinion,
known as momfluencing.
Some women have followings
even in the millions
sharing tips
and tricks to parenting.
Morman influencers
are such a interesting breed
of social media content creators.
They have to stand out comparatively
to, like, your average
social media influencer.
You're gonna see a lot of beige,
lot of gray,
you're gonna see hair extensions,
eyelash extensions,
a decent amount of makeup.
A Stanley Cup.
Everybody's kind of aiming
for the same look.
Good morning, you guys.
Today, I am making toast
for the kids for breakfast.
But with the 8 Passengers channel,
there was something unique
about Ruby in the sense
that she wasn't
coming out of the gate
aiming to be
your perfect Mormon influencer.
You guys, I cannot
pull myself out of bed today.
Half the time, she's not wearing
a whole lot of makeup.
And she was very open about
what was happening in her family
with her kids
and her struggles with things.
I'm really, really upset at Sherry
right now.
And so, people can relate to that.
She's a normal mom who gets annoyed
by her kids sometimes
and that's more enticing for people
than the average Mormon influencer.
There was something about Ruby
where it was, like, doesn't come off
as necessarily unattainable
for the average person.
Let's just forget about it.
Okay? Okay. All right.
I want to feel content and happy,
but I don't want to feel complacent
and that's what this article
was that I've been reading about.
It says, remember that you don't have
to do something extraordinary
to have an extraordinary life.
And I just thought, that is so great,
you just do simple little things.
When Ruby Franke
started 8 Passengers,
she believed
that she was promoting to the world
what exemplarily Mormon family is.
At least, at first.
I love you so much.
It just seems like the happiest
of families
and I think that's why people
like myself kept coming back,
because it's what you think
is wholesome content
and so you never would have imagined
it would have turned
into very serious child abuse.
As a child
and a teenager in Los Angeles,
I was getting into YouTube
and watching it a lot.
That's when family vlogging
really took off.
I'm seeing all of these different
families pop up,
so many of them live in Utah.
They all have several children
and they're all members of this
church that I don't belong to.
Just like with other families
with so many children.
The Duggars, John and Kate Plus 8,
watching 8 Passengers,
it was fascinating to see the Franke
family living their day-to-day lives,
how they're different from you and I.
-Hi, guys, I'm Kevin.
-I'm Ruby.
We thought it would be fun to
just say hi and introduce our family.
Ruby ran a very
traditional household.
She was a stay-at-home mom,
I think we learned Ruby's personality
the best
out of all of the characters,
sort to say, in the family.
And you met Kevin and he was
in this very traditional father role,
he was in the suit and tie,
coming home from his job.
For the most part,
Kevin seemed very stoic
and on more of the quiet,
even introverted side.
And then we had Shari,
the eldest of all of the children.
She was 11 when the channel started.
This strong, academic student
So, I'm reading Gone With The Wind
for the third time
And then we have Chad, he was
around 10 when the channel started.
He was kind of a goofball.
Oh, my gosh, Chad.
Then, you have the two middle
daughters, they're always together,
and around 7 and 5
when the channel started.
Cute, let me see my two kitty cats.
And then, last, the two youngest,
a boy and a girl.
The boy's about 3 and the girl
is 1 when the channel starts.
Oh, my gosh, you did make a mess.
Who doesn't love seeing a toddler
pull funny shenanigans,
but they're so darn cute,
you immediately forgive them.
-How can I get mad at you?
-Okay.
-Say goodnight, everyone!
-Goodnight!
I interrupt our regular schedule
to make an announcement.
We have hit
over a thousand subscribers!
When 8 Passengers first started out,
the shots were kind of wonky,
it was all spliced together,
but then over time,
Ruby really got the hang of it.
We have hit 5000 subscribers,
and I am beyond excited.
And that's when we hear
more of leave me a thumbs up,
subscribe to my channel,
turn on that notifications bell
Thank you so much for watching.
Don't forget to subscribe
to see more fun parenting tips.
By this time tomorrow, we will have
a hundred thousand subscribers.
Can you believe that?
Suddenly, they just exploded
in popularity.
We hit 300,000 subscribers
over the weekend.
This was incredible growth
for a YouTube channel
where people are just watching
people live out their lives.
We are counting down to a million.
There's our live tracker
and we're going
to be watching it all day today.
Oh, my gosh,
I'm gonna have to pull over.
Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna miss it!
Oh, my gosh, screenshot.
Oh, I missed it!
I missed it! I missed it!
I missed it!
It jumped, I missed it.
I missed it.
I missed it! I had the baby
in the car. Oh, my gosh.
I would love to do something
At this time that we're starting
to see change with Ruby.
Now, she's got eyelash extensions,
she's wearing more and more makeup.
The channel growth
just kept going after that.
And then,
Ruby started getting brand deals.
Babbel is sponsoring this video.
A big thanks to Office Depot
OfficeMax, for sponsoring this video.
And it became a full-on business.
Today is CVX Live.
It's a day you meet all
your viewers in person.
-Who are you guys here for?
-8 Passengers.
Hi, I'm Lindsey, I like 8 Passengers.
We came from Parsons, California,
just to see 8 Passenger, love them!
Love you!
Okay.
My first impressions of Ruby
and Kevin and that family,
it's interesting
because we had
cultivated a friendship
within the social media culture.
I'm here with my wife,
one of our little babies here.
My husband and I
had one of the biggest
YouTube channels in the world.
We had 12 million followers
Yeah, you see that?
The channel's called
The King of Random,
and it was based
on science and experiments.
You call yourself the King of Random,
this is so cool!
How did you even know to do this?
Even though we were different genres,
we started to run in the same circles
and have the same complaints
and talk about the same issues
and that became really bonding.
We were all in this club
of Mormon creators
and so, you know,
I felt really special.
But at the same time, we would go out
to dinner with Ruby and Kevin,
we brought our family,
and they had their cameras out,
they were documenting things
at the dinner
and it felt really invasive to me.
You can't just sit down
and enjoy a dinner,
you have to create content
around everything that you're doing.
What do you have for yourself
if you're videoing everything
in your life?
Honestly, my biggest fear
ever since I started vlogging was,
but what if I wake up and my children
are just staring at a wall all day
and there's nothing to film?
When you do family vlogger content,
sometimes you gotta get creative
because you film your day-to-day
and that come kind of monotonous.
Arrest me.
Ruby was creating more and more
sensationalized content
out of an impulse to get more clicks,
to get more views, to get more money.
So, there was instance
where she's in a car accident
and the first thing that comes
to Ruby's mind is: I gotta film this.
Oh, my gosh. Are we hit?
Are they okay? Are they okay?
I'm shaking.
She's running around
with the camera in front of her face,
filming the kids,
they look bewildered.
Instead of assessing,
maybe the kids are in shock,
maybe the kids have actual injuries,
but she's, like, let me pull this
out first because this is content.
The blue car had a tire blow
and I had to get out of its way.
Those kinds of videos
pull major views.
And in turn, big profit.
And Ruby doesn't seem to have a pulse
on whether or not
that's inappropriate
to share with the world.
Because of that, like you have this
immense lack of privacy for the kids.
Hey, buddy,
look at me. Hey, it's okay.
-Oh, is that going?
-Yeah.
Sorry.
I was a teen watching them thinking,
I don't think I would want this
being filmed.
She's been asking all summer
if she could shave
her legs and armpits.
At that time, as a viewer,
we didn't necessarily understand
the full monetization of YouTube.
It was just happening
before our eyes.
We weren't really thinking
about the financial gain
they were getting form all of this.
And because of that, with Ruby,
it was like nothing is off-limits.
-Mom
-She's all embarrassed.
I think the question
that was on everybody's mind
when they're discussing this
is if she's okay
with putting this on the internet,
what isn't being shown
that they're also okay with doing?
When you guys had the previous,
8 Passengers YouTube Channel.
You guys got a lot of heat
for neglect and child abuse.
A lot of people commented
those things on there.
Why were they commenting
those things?
That's a good question.
We're continuing our war path
on these Mormon family vloggers.
After deciding that
we were going to leave the church
we realized that there was
a need for people
to talk about their experiences.
We created our YouTube Channel
called Jordan and McKay.
By far probably
one of the most requested people
that you guys have asked us to cover
are the 8 Passenger family.
Lots of problematic things
happening here. Anyway.
So, everything kind of took
a turning point in 2020,
when Ruby put out a video
where she mentions that she had taken
her oldest son Chad's bed away
and does not really expand on that.
In our house,
when we take something away,
it's because they have shown
that they are not responsible
enough to manage it
and so we don't just turn around
and give it back
as soon as the start acting good.
My bedroom is taken away
for seven months
and you gave it back
a couple of weeks ago.
I don't think our viewers know that.
You've been sleeping on a beanbag
I've been sleeping on a beanbag
since October
You can't even be approved
to adopt a child in the State of Utah
unless you can provide
a bed for them.
So, forcing her son
to sleep on a beanbag
was alarming to many
of the 8 Passengers' viewers.
People started talking about it.
It was internet outrage.
It was everywhere.
He was made to sleep on a beanbag,
this woman
This is all on camera.
This is what the mom feels like
is good and she's showing everyone.
Chad not having a bed for 7 months.
She has to hold back a smirk.
You know, her mouth will do this.
So then on the 8 Passengers' channel,
people started combing
through all of the content
and finding more awful thing
Ruby had done to her kids.
One of the really eye-opening moments
was the clip of the youngest child
who was not behaving in a way
that Ruby finds appropriate
or is not bending to her requests
and so, Ruby is holding
a beloved stuffed animal
and threatening to cut the head off.
If you cut one more thing,
I'm gonna cut its head off.
Grandma will be so mad.
So, what do you gonna do?
For a child, like, that's traumatic.
What lengths aren't you willing to go
to disciple your kids?
You get your socks picked up,
run and go pick up,
and then, give me ten push-ups.
One
Put your hands straight out.
They're not supposed to be out.
Shake your hands forward.
I'm going to say it one more time,
and then you're going to lose
the privilege to eat dinner.
Ruby would say, things, like,
if you're not gonna do that,
then you're not having dinner.
Or I'm not feeding you breakfast.
The youngest child had gone off
to school, which at the time was
-Kindergarten.
-Kindergarten.
She had forgotten
to bring her lunch to school.
I know that
her teacher is uncomfortable
with her being hungry
and not having a lunch
and it would ease her discomfort
if I came to school with a lunch.
Eve is responsible for making
her lunches in the morning
and she actually told me
she did pack a lunch.
So, the natural outcome is she's just
going to need to be hungry.
She had no qualms or hesitations
about sharing the fact
that she was willing to withhold food
as a punishment.
Hopefully, nobody gives her food and
nobody gives her a lunch.
My hope is that she'll be hungry
and come home
and go, that was really painful
being hungry all day.
I will make sure to always
have a lunch with me.
She was starving her daughter
as a means of punishment.
I guess she expects her daughter
to be perfect
and never make mistakes
at 5 years old.
That's disgusting.
It's disgusting behavior.
If you want to get people really
riled up in social media,
you start talking
about responsibility.
It's like the R word.
People don't like to hear it.
But at the same time,
we start to hear a difference in
the way the Frankes are speaking
and there's very specific language
being used within the family.
Be good! Be responsible,
honest and humble!
What does that mean?
The fact that he's not willing
to sit with me and be humble and talk
is a big demonstration to me
that he has some distorted views
and he is in a lot of shame.
All of these antics
were so alarming to her viewers
that they started reporting Ruby
to Child and Family Services in Utah.
People were so outraged
that they're created
petitions on the internet
with thousands upon thousands
of signatures
that are saying there's something
very wrong here.
The things that we show and share
and the things that many of you
are criticizing and calling abusive
are actually things that
mental health professionals
have counseled us to do.
And so, we're asking the question
of like, why?
Why is she acting this way
and a big part of why
was Jodi Hildebrandt.
Do you know a female named Jodi?
She is a therapist
and a life coach I know. And she's
-Do you respect her?
-Do I respect her?
Yeah, I think she is a very honest
and truthful person, yes.
Okay.
It's from Kevin. Chad just called me
from the office at school.
He and his friends were clowns
and were disrespectful today.
I told them that Chad would stay home
tomorrow and work for his mother.
Ruby was struggling with her
oldest son and looking for help
and so someone recommended
the therapist Jodi Hildebrandt.
Jodi was somebody
that wouldn't be manipulated
and that would be, like, tough love.
The first conversation Jodi had
with Chad was in June of 2019.
But her theory was
if you want to help your child,
you have to help yourself first.
So she spoke with Ruby frequently.
Ruby was in a vulnerable time.
She was getting
a lot of backlash from fans.
I am sorry that I'm breaking down
in front of you.
The videos that Ruby released
that dealt with Chad
just blew up in her face
and basically burned down
like our YouTube channel.
We lost 90 percent
of the income overnight.
And so, Ruby was looking for support.
She was looking for someone
who would understand her.
Who would validate her
and she found that in ConneXions
and Jodi Hildebrandt.
Welcome to ConneXions,
I'm Jodi Hildebrandt.
So glad you're with us.
If you're like me,
you've had pain in your life.
ConneXions is the solution.
What is ConneXions?
What isn't ConneXions?
That was the genius of whatever
Jodi was trying to do
is that you could take anything
and making it anything
that you wanted it be.
Self-help materials,
I guess you could call it, really.
We are here to change the world.
This is an alternative
to anything that you've been trying
that hasn't been successful.
If this resonates with you,
which the truth is,
is that it resonates with everybody.
Please come check it out.
Jodi Hildebrandt
went to the University of Utah,
got a master's level degree
and then, spent another couple years
certifying
to get a therapist license.
Jodi Hildebrandt got her hands
in a lot of things professionally.
A lot of her work
was with Mormon people
and knowing the population
that she's working with,
Jodi was very intentional, we're
going to help work on family issues,
help strengthen your marriage.
I wanted to personally invite you
to our next couples conference.
We'll be talking about fear
inside relationships.
She basically just started
developing manuals,
developing her own style
of marital therapy,
and her own support groups
under the brand name ConneXions.
It's not spelled like connections,
it's spelled with an X.
It has truly turned my life around.
So, Ruby jumped into
ConneXions headfirst
and was, like, let's go
and Kevin was a lot more hesitant.
I'm just feeling so excited
about getting a room full of men
who want to understand about God,
connection and themselves.
And my impression at that time
was this is absolute craziness.
I got challenged to sit down
and have a vulnerable
conversation with my wife.
Ruby very emotionally just shared
how she felt in our marriage.
I went into the marriage believing,
here's what I bring to the marriage,
I bring my body
and I make sure the house is clean.
It wasn't going to hold water
for too long in our marriage
and that's why we started
to have leaks.
It was very emotional
and it touched me.
Like, I didn't realize
that she felt so strongly about that,
that she felt so hurt by that,
and so, I agreed to join a men's
group with Jodi.
Hi, we're here at Man School,
and we're here together
with about 40, 45 men
who wants to learn how to connect.
At this point, Ruby and Kevin,
they're getting involved
in ConneXions.
You have nothing to lose
but by not coming to ConneXions
you have a lot to lose.
I have benefited from associating
with ConneXions in the last year.
They're in their marketing materials,
teaching their classes,
doing their little Zoom meetings
and their webinars.
I feel like our marriage was getting
stronger, I thought, this is great.
Ruby is a part
of the original 10 women
that are being trained
to become mental fitness trainers.
Jodi was running a business.
Her business was
to train other people
in her methodology or philosophy,
so they could then build up
their coaching
and it would grow her business.
I'm sure you're here
because you have a desire to heal.
A desire to have joy in your life
and connection in your relationships.
Jodi claims
she has all of the answers.
She will tell me
how to heal my family.
That's very appealing.
I had done everything right.
I had followed all the rules
and then my husband died.
Grant Thompson,
AKA the King of Random, has died.
The YouTuber had gone paragliding
on Monday and never returned.
The first year after my husband died
was just shock and me
trying to put the pieces together.
For years, I was the support role for
my husband to become YouTube famous.
All of a sudden, I'm a single mom,
trying to run my husband's business,
I've never been given
the tools to deal with this.
And my faith wasn't helping me
get through this hard time.
That's when our social media
manager, he recommended Ruby,
and talked about this psychologist
that Ruby was working with.
And that's when
I was introduced to Jodi.
I joined the women's group,
made my whole life about ConneXions.
Jodi taught me to feel more empowered
as a woman and as a mother
and the tone of my home really truly
did change to a more positive energy.
Because she was a woman,
it also felt empowering
because it's like, women
should have a voice in the church,
women should be validated,
women should be listened to,
and Jodi has these principles
that the church needs.
Good morning, passengers.
How are you guys today?
In the beginning of 2022, we realized
that Ruby was not uploading videos
as much to the 8 Passengers channel.
I'm doing really fun and exciting
things in the mental health field.
And so it's less time
vlogging at home,
so for those of you who are asking,
where are all the vlogs, why is it--
You're not on here as much
as I would like, and that's why
It went from multiple times a week
to, like, maybe once a week
until it was
finally the final upload.
They uploaded a video
of the baptism of their
youngest child and that was it.
8 Passengers went dark.
For many years, I ran a YouTube
channel called 8 Passengers.
We found a lot of success,
and my children were spoiled rotten.
I did what a true loving mom
would do, I said no more.
She could have gone back and
We would check every now and then
and see what's going on with Ruby.
We had realized
that Ruby was still doing things,
she just was not uploading
at the 8 Passengers channel.
She had appeared on Jodi's
ConneXions classroom on YouTube
and seemed to be the co-host
of self-help videos
that they were starting to produce.
I'm Jodi Hildebrandt,
the founder of ConneXions.
And I'm Ruby Franke, Jodi's
sidekick.
Don't let this sidekick fool you,
she is full of wisdom and knowledge.
She has much to share with you.
We went from, like,
all over Ruby's house everywhere
and vlogging,
following her wherever she went
and then, now, we have this stale
appearing space
where Jodi and Ruby
are sitting on this massive couch.
It was bizarre and their interactions
between each other,
they would sit very close
to each other,
there was always a lot of touching,
there was always a lot of tenderly
looking at each other
This is called physical intimacy
when I can touch my friend's hand
and say, I love you.
That is emotional
and physical intimacy.
So, we started to theorize
about where are they doing this?
We were, like,
maybe they're filming these things
inside of Jodi's house.
And so, Jordan ended up
finding the house.
We had seen pictures of it.
And that's when we find out
that is actually what's happening.
They're filming these videos
in Jodi's house.
Ruby's there, constantly.
The house was all the way down south
in Ivins,
away from where the kids
are supposed to be going to school,
away from where Kevin is.
Rumors online started to spin.
Something about divorce,
that Kevin had moved out of the house
and found an apartment somewhere.
We're, like, what is going on? There
is something weird happening here.
Go deeper, quicker,
with this life-on-life training
where you will be spending all day
and all evening with Jodi and myself
getting the help that you need.
Also don't forget, we have a women's
retreat coming up in October.
I'd been engaging in this women's
group for about a year,
we'd come to group
and we would make goals.
One of my goals
was to not yell at my kids.
And so, that was called my addiction,
I was addicted to yelling at my kids.
And one of the requirements
is to make three phone calls a day.
You call somebody in your group
and talk about your triggers,
that's what we would call them,
so if I yelled at my kids, it's like
okay, take a couple steps back,
what triggered you
to lose emotional control
that you indulged in your addiction.
That you yelled at your kids.
At this point,
I'm so indoctrinated in the group,
I wanted to live up
to Jodi's standards.
But now we're talking up to three
or four hours a day on phone calls
and this is like the equivalent
to, like, a part-time job.
Can anybody identify any pain
or discomfort today?
Yeah, Becky.
Not being able to get all the things
that I needed to done,
or phone calls
or connections with people.
Yeah. Yeah, painful.
Anybody have a day like that?
As we would report our phone calls,
one of the things
I started finding myself doing
and Jodi warned us of this,
is not being honest about how many
phone calls we're making.
I want to be honest
but I'm now starting to feel shame
and guilt for not doing this.
Shame, slash disconnect
is the antithesis of humility.
It is prideful, it is arrogant,
it is unwilling
to take accountability for oneself
and so I invite her.
You gonna come into ConneXion?
Yeah, I'll try to do better.
Tomorrow I will try. Yes.
That's a weak answer in ConneXion.
That's still distortion.
I had been participating
for a long time.
I was starting to feel some of these
things are really feeling off.
It started to become very cult-like.
Understanding that Jodi was a
licensed mental health professional,
I was really concerned
because of some of the content
that she and Ruby were putting out.
For one, Ruby was made a certified
mental fitness trainer by Jodi
which is not a real credential.
And she's giving
mental health advice?
Which is not appropriate
for someone who is not trained.
Unless you the mom do
what I'm telling you to,
you're being canceled
in your own home.
Your own children are canceling you.
I left ConneXions at the end of 2022,
that's what caused me to check in
every now and then
on the social media channel.
If you see our children
are being attacked,
if you see
that truth is being attacked,
you see that God's being attacked,
they don't have truth.
I would all other people
that had been in the group
and, you know, say
have you seen their content lately?
Isn't it like, crazy?
Reality about pain is it's necessary.
When is started hearing these things
like love is causing pain
for your children
I'm like, that sounds
really off and odd.
This is getting more and more extreme
in a way that is very harmful.
It's scaring me.
This is what love sounds like,
when you see someone hurting,
you acknowledge the hurt.
There was a video that Ruby put out
where she was like, people
think that I'm too tough.
It's bad to be tough on your kids.
If your kid came to you on fire,
would you say I'm so glad you
trusted me to tell me you're on fire,
but if I put out the fire,
it's going to hurt,
and you'll end up
with scabs anyway,
so I'm just going to love you
where you are right now?
No! You throw them on the ground
and you start hitting the flames.
You're hurting me. You're beating me.
No dear, hold still,
I'm getting the fire out.
From that video,
I distinctively remember thinking,
there is something seriously wrong
happening with these children.
911, the address of your emergency?
Little boy show up here at my front
door, asking for help.
He needs
This kid has obviously been--
He's obviously covered in wounds.
Are there any other kids
at the Jodi's house?
Two sisters.
Two sisters
and they're still at this house.
Are they tied up as well?
I just had a 12-year-old boy showed
up here at my front door,
asking for help.
He's hungry and he's thirsty.
He said he just
left through the porch
of the neighbor's house.
Her name is Jodi Hildebrandt.
She's a bad lady.
Ruby Franke is his mom's name.
This kind of thing doesn't happen,
especially to family vloggers.
Ruby Franke, a YouTuber from Utah
has been accused of child abuse.
The mom of six known for her
tough love style of parenting.
I'm going to say it one more time,
and then you'll lose
your privilege to eat dinner.
The arrests were shocking
to millions of Ruby Franke fans.
Franke works with the parent
counseling service ConneXions.
Police officers! Open up!
And their founder,
Jodi Hildebrandt
- was also arrested.
-How did you come to my house?
This was a horrible crime with awful
things done to defenseless children.
The child had duct tape
around his ankles and writs.
He's emaciated.
Rope, bindings and other items
used to torture the children.
I was physically ill.
I'm going to cry.
We wanted to understand
what happened.
The answer to that question
was Jodi Hildebrandt.
You guys want to know
who Jodi Hildebrandt is?
My aunt, Jodi Hildebrant,
is a monster.
Bizzarro feminist nightmare
cult prophetess.
You don't go against
what Jodi teaches.
Religious radicalism is a key part
of understanding this case.
Dreams and visions, exorcisms?
They believed the kids
were possessed by evil spirits.
She teaches children
need abuse and torture.
It's all the devil
and he uses these kids.
How could anybody ever
be so far gone
to do that
to their own flesh and blood?
I have dedicated my life to truth
and truth has been hated
since the beginning of time.
Jodi destroyed my life.
I'm thinking what kind of power
does this counselor have?
She's got away with this for so long.
Just so you know, we're just gonna
ask you a few questions.
Just for starters,
what was your full name?
Kevin William Franke.
-What's your wife's name?
-Ruby Franke.
Were you involved in the 8
Passengers account with your family?
Yes, I was in the videos
if that's what you mean.
Did Ruby more so do the videos
for the family?
I'm not aware of anything she's done
since our separation.
I don't visit 8 Passengers anymore.
-Chapter of your life that's gone?
-It's a past chapter, yeah.
Hey, guys, welcome to 8 Passengers.
If you have not been to this channel
before, I have six kids.
It's a lot of fun and it can be
kind of crazy sometimes.
What is going on?
Ruby Franke - one of the early Mormon
mom influencer pioneers on YouTube.
She started a YouTube channel
called 8 Passengers
which represented her, her husband,
Kevin, and their six children.
Hi, everybody.
Come grab a dish.
Displaying Mormon motherhood
in allof its splendid glory.
Who done it?
There was one morning in the kitchen
where I was filming,
our baby had spilled milk
all over the table
I think every inch of my kitchen
has chocolate milk on it.
I had no intention of anyone
ever actually watching
until that moment
when the milk was spilled
and I thought, oh, there might be
someone else who sees this.
My intention was to just try to find
the beautiful moments in my life
and record them.
Ruby's the best.
Ruby is just your average mom
and that's the relatable factor in
She is the perfect Mormon mom.
She does everything by the book.
She has six kids, she's blonde, she
has a husband who was working at BYU,
working for the church,
perfect job position.
Go to church every Sunday
and I wear modest clothing.
I can't think of somebody,
in my opinion,
who is a more perfect representation
of a Mormon woman than Ruby Franke.
Salt Lake City, Utah is the epicenter
of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints.
As a journalist,
to live and work in Salt Lake City,
it's like if I worked in the Vatican
covering the Catholic Church
and the Pope.
The Mormon Church is different
than your average Christian Church,
I think it's a lot more involved
in terms of the commitment level.
It impacts every aspect of your life.
So, within Mormonism
there's a lot of rules.
The Word of Wisdom has basically an
outline of various things that you do
to keep yourself in line
with the Church.
We are not
to drink alcoholic beverages,
we are not to use tobacco,
we are not to drink tea or coffee,
and in the same spirit,
we are not to use addicting drugs.
The Mormon Church claims to be God's
one and only true church on the earth
with God's official
Priesthood authority.
So, it's a very traditional
male-based patriarchal structure,
not just in the church,
but in the home as well.
Ten percent of your income goes to
the church in the form of tithing.
Bear his witness concerning
the sacred law of tithing
and the marvelous promises
which the Lord has made to those
who are honest in paying
their tithes and offerings.
Mormons believe
all members should pay
10 percent of their income for life
to the Mormon Church.
And what that's resulted in
is that the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
is currently worth
around $250 billion.
That's billion with a B.
And its teaching on tithing
is central to its current status
of being the most wealthy church
in the entire world.
There's a lot that is required.
Sexuality is something to be hidden,
to be suppressed.
Masturbation's forbidden.
No homosexuality.
And you swear
to obey the law of chastity.
Sex is only to be used
within marriage.
It was just stay on this side,
and if you do this,
then, you are guaranteeing
yourself a place in hell.
Sin will always,
always result in suffering.
Your most important source
of support is your parents.
Their teaching should be
a powerful influence
in your decision to be clean.
Mormonism fosters
a culture of surveillance.
Like, it is not uncommon for people
to approach each other
about, like, for a parent
specifically to approach a child
like, you're not wearing
your garments anymore.
The modest temple garment
worn under normal clothing
represent a sacred
and personal aspect
of their relationship with God.
It's a rare physical
manifestation of a religion
that you can kind of check
other people on.
Growing up in the Church,
Mormon women are taught family,
home, husband, motherhood.
These are all values ingrained
in a little girl
from the time she's born
to the time she gets married.
Since the camera's out and rolling,
we should share how we met.
There was a meet and greet for hot--
-Was it hotdogs?
-Yup.
She was the hottest hotdog
at the social.
Two weeks from the day we met
to the day we got engaged.
I was 18.
We got married
and we started having kids.
Kevin started working on his PHD
at Brigham Young University.
He moved us to Springville, Utah.
It just blew my mind
at how expensive life was.
And now we're like, okay,
what do we do? What do we do now?
Sorry
But I was super positive and I--
It's gonna-- It's fine. It's fine.
It'll work out.
Because patriarchy is woven
into Mormonism since its beginning,
there's very set standards
and expectations for women.
You're not expected
to be the breadwinner.
You're not expected to bring
any money in at all.
You're supposed to be raising your
kids.
This creates a perfect breeding
ground for Mormon women
to want to start exploring having
a voice, to start being validated,
to start being praised
for how they're mothering.
All these women are now
empowered to make money at home,
still fulfilling their Mormon roles.
There's a controversial corner
of the internet
on which everyone has an opinion,
known as momfluencing.
Some women have followings
even in the millions
sharing tips
and tricks to parenting.
Morman influencers
are such a interesting breed
of social media content creators.
They have to stand out comparatively
to, like, your average
social media influencer.
You're gonna see a lot of beige,
lot of gray,
you're gonna see hair extensions,
eyelash extensions,
a decent amount of makeup.
A Stanley Cup.
Everybody's kind of aiming
for the same look.
Good morning, you guys.
Today, I am making toast
for the kids for breakfast.
But with the 8 Passengers channel,
there was something unique
about Ruby in the sense
that she wasn't
coming out of the gate
aiming to be
your perfect Mormon influencer.
You guys, I cannot
pull myself out of bed today.
Half the time, she's not wearing
a whole lot of makeup.
And she was very open about
what was happening in her family
with her kids
and her struggles with things.
I'm really, really upset at Sherry
right now.
And so, people can relate to that.
She's a normal mom who gets annoyed
by her kids sometimes
and that's more enticing for people
than the average Mormon influencer.
There was something about Ruby
where it was, like, doesn't come off
as necessarily unattainable
for the average person.
Let's just forget about it.
Okay? Okay. All right.
I want to feel content and happy,
but I don't want to feel complacent
and that's what this article
was that I've been reading about.
It says, remember that you don't have
to do something extraordinary
to have an extraordinary life.
And I just thought, that is so great,
you just do simple little things.
When Ruby Franke
started 8 Passengers,
she believed
that she was promoting to the world
what exemplarily Mormon family is.
At least, at first.
I love you so much.
It just seems like the happiest
of families
and I think that's why people
like myself kept coming back,
because it's what you think
is wholesome content
and so you never would have imagined
it would have turned
into very serious child abuse.
As a child
and a teenager in Los Angeles,
I was getting into YouTube
and watching it a lot.
That's when family vlogging
really took off.
I'm seeing all of these different
families pop up,
so many of them live in Utah.
They all have several children
and they're all members of this
church that I don't belong to.
Just like with other families
with so many children.
The Duggars, John and Kate Plus 8,
watching 8 Passengers,
it was fascinating to see the Franke
family living their day-to-day lives,
how they're different from you and I.
-Hi, guys, I'm Kevin.
-I'm Ruby.
We thought it would be fun to
just say hi and introduce our family.
Ruby ran a very
traditional household.
She was a stay-at-home mom,
I think we learned Ruby's personality
the best
out of all of the characters,
sort to say, in the family.
And you met Kevin and he was
in this very traditional father role,
he was in the suit and tie,
coming home from his job.
For the most part,
Kevin seemed very stoic
and on more of the quiet,
even introverted side.
And then we had Shari,
the eldest of all of the children.
She was 11 when the channel started.
This strong, academic student
So, I'm reading Gone With The Wind
for the third time
And then we have Chad, he was
around 10 when the channel started.
He was kind of a goofball.
Oh, my gosh, Chad.
Then, you have the two middle
daughters, they're always together,
and around 7 and 5
when the channel started.
Cute, let me see my two kitty cats.
And then, last, the two youngest,
a boy and a girl.
The boy's about 3 and the girl
is 1 when the channel starts.
Oh, my gosh, you did make a mess.
Who doesn't love seeing a toddler
pull funny shenanigans,
but they're so darn cute,
you immediately forgive them.
-How can I get mad at you?
-Okay.
-Say goodnight, everyone!
-Goodnight!
I interrupt our regular schedule
to make an announcement.
We have hit
over a thousand subscribers!
When 8 Passengers first started out,
the shots were kind of wonky,
it was all spliced together,
but then over time,
Ruby really got the hang of it.
We have hit 5000 subscribers,
and I am beyond excited.
And that's when we hear
more of leave me a thumbs up,
subscribe to my channel,
turn on that notifications bell
Thank you so much for watching.
Don't forget to subscribe
to see more fun parenting tips.
By this time tomorrow, we will have
a hundred thousand subscribers.
Can you believe that?
Suddenly, they just exploded
in popularity.
We hit 300,000 subscribers
over the weekend.
This was incredible growth
for a YouTube channel
where people are just watching
people live out their lives.
We are counting down to a million.
There's our live tracker
and we're going
to be watching it all day today.
Oh, my gosh,
I'm gonna have to pull over.
Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna miss it!
Oh, my gosh, screenshot.
Oh, I missed it!
I missed it! I missed it!
I missed it!
It jumped, I missed it.
I missed it.
I missed it! I had the baby
in the car. Oh, my gosh.
I would love to do something
At this time that we're starting
to see change with Ruby.
Now, she's got eyelash extensions,
she's wearing more and more makeup.
The channel growth
just kept going after that.
And then,
Ruby started getting brand deals.
Babbel is sponsoring this video.
A big thanks to Office Depot
OfficeMax, for sponsoring this video.
And it became a full-on business.
Today is CVX Live.
It's a day you meet all
your viewers in person.
-Who are you guys here for?
-8 Passengers.
Hi, I'm Lindsey, I like 8 Passengers.
We came from Parsons, California,
just to see 8 Passenger, love them!
Love you!
Okay.
My first impressions of Ruby
and Kevin and that family,
it's interesting
because we had
cultivated a friendship
within the social media culture.
I'm here with my wife,
one of our little babies here.
My husband and I
had one of the biggest
YouTube channels in the world.
We had 12 million followers
Yeah, you see that?
The channel's called
The King of Random,
and it was based
on science and experiments.
You call yourself the King of Random,
this is so cool!
How did you even know to do this?
Even though we were different genres,
we started to run in the same circles
and have the same complaints
and talk about the same issues
and that became really bonding.
We were all in this club
of Mormon creators
and so, you know,
I felt really special.
But at the same time, we would go out
to dinner with Ruby and Kevin,
we brought our family,
and they had their cameras out,
they were documenting things
at the dinner
and it felt really invasive to me.
You can't just sit down
and enjoy a dinner,
you have to create content
around everything that you're doing.
What do you have for yourself
if you're videoing everything
in your life?
Honestly, my biggest fear
ever since I started vlogging was,
but what if I wake up and my children
are just staring at a wall all day
and there's nothing to film?
When you do family vlogger content,
sometimes you gotta get creative
because you film your day-to-day
and that come kind of monotonous.
Arrest me.
Ruby was creating more and more
sensationalized content
out of an impulse to get more clicks,
to get more views, to get more money.
So, there was instance
where she's in a car accident
and the first thing that comes
to Ruby's mind is: I gotta film this.
Oh, my gosh. Are we hit?
Are they okay? Are they okay?
I'm shaking.
She's running around
with the camera in front of her face,
filming the kids,
they look bewildered.
Instead of assessing,
maybe the kids are in shock,
maybe the kids have actual injuries,
but she's, like, let me pull this
out first because this is content.
The blue car had a tire blow
and I had to get out of its way.
Those kinds of videos
pull major views.
And in turn, big profit.
And Ruby doesn't seem to have a pulse
on whether or not
that's inappropriate
to share with the world.
Because of that, like you have this
immense lack of privacy for the kids.
Hey, buddy,
look at me. Hey, it's okay.
-Oh, is that going?
-Yeah.
Sorry.
I was a teen watching them thinking,
I don't think I would want this
being filmed.
She's been asking all summer
if she could shave
her legs and armpits.
At that time, as a viewer,
we didn't necessarily understand
the full monetization of YouTube.
It was just happening
before our eyes.
We weren't really thinking
about the financial gain
they were getting form all of this.
And because of that, with Ruby,
it was like nothing is off-limits.
-Mom
-She's all embarrassed.
I think the question
that was on everybody's mind
when they're discussing this
is if she's okay
with putting this on the internet,
what isn't being shown
that they're also okay with doing?
When you guys had the previous,
8 Passengers YouTube Channel.
You guys got a lot of heat
for neglect and child abuse.
A lot of people commented
those things on there.
Why were they commenting
those things?
That's a good question.
We're continuing our war path
on these Mormon family vloggers.
After deciding that
we were going to leave the church
we realized that there was
a need for people
to talk about their experiences.
We created our YouTube Channel
called Jordan and McKay.
By far probably
one of the most requested people
that you guys have asked us to cover
are the 8 Passenger family.
Lots of problematic things
happening here. Anyway.
So, everything kind of took
a turning point in 2020,
when Ruby put out a video
where she mentions that she had taken
her oldest son Chad's bed away
and does not really expand on that.
In our house,
when we take something away,
it's because they have shown
that they are not responsible
enough to manage it
and so we don't just turn around
and give it back
as soon as the start acting good.
My bedroom is taken away
for seven months
and you gave it back
a couple of weeks ago.
I don't think our viewers know that.
You've been sleeping on a beanbag
I've been sleeping on a beanbag
since October
You can't even be approved
to adopt a child in the State of Utah
unless you can provide
a bed for them.
So, forcing her son
to sleep on a beanbag
was alarming to many
of the 8 Passengers' viewers.
People started talking about it.
It was internet outrage.
It was everywhere.
He was made to sleep on a beanbag,
this woman
This is all on camera.
This is what the mom feels like
is good and she's showing everyone.
Chad not having a bed for 7 months.
She has to hold back a smirk.
You know, her mouth will do this.
So then on the 8 Passengers' channel,
people started combing
through all of the content
and finding more awful thing
Ruby had done to her kids.
One of the really eye-opening moments
was the clip of the youngest child
who was not behaving in a way
that Ruby finds appropriate
or is not bending to her requests
and so, Ruby is holding
a beloved stuffed animal
and threatening to cut the head off.
If you cut one more thing,
I'm gonna cut its head off.
Grandma will be so mad.
So, what do you gonna do?
For a child, like, that's traumatic.
What lengths aren't you willing to go
to disciple your kids?
You get your socks picked up,
run and go pick up,
and then, give me ten push-ups.
One
Put your hands straight out.
They're not supposed to be out.
Shake your hands forward.
I'm going to say it one more time,
and then you're going to lose
the privilege to eat dinner.
Ruby would say, things, like,
if you're not gonna do that,
then you're not having dinner.
Or I'm not feeding you breakfast.
The youngest child had gone off
to school, which at the time was
-Kindergarten.
-Kindergarten.
She had forgotten
to bring her lunch to school.
I know that
her teacher is uncomfortable
with her being hungry
and not having a lunch
and it would ease her discomfort
if I came to school with a lunch.
Eve is responsible for making
her lunches in the morning
and she actually told me
she did pack a lunch.
So, the natural outcome is she's just
going to need to be hungry.
She had no qualms or hesitations
about sharing the fact
that she was willing to withhold food
as a punishment.
Hopefully, nobody gives her food and
nobody gives her a lunch.
My hope is that she'll be hungry
and come home
and go, that was really painful
being hungry all day.
I will make sure to always
have a lunch with me.
She was starving her daughter
as a means of punishment.
I guess she expects her daughter
to be perfect
and never make mistakes
at 5 years old.
That's disgusting.
It's disgusting behavior.
If you want to get people really
riled up in social media,
you start talking
about responsibility.
It's like the R word.
People don't like to hear it.
But at the same time,
we start to hear a difference in
the way the Frankes are speaking
and there's very specific language
being used within the family.
Be good! Be responsible,
honest and humble!
What does that mean?
The fact that he's not willing
to sit with me and be humble and talk
is a big demonstration to me
that he has some distorted views
and he is in a lot of shame.
All of these antics
were so alarming to her viewers
that they started reporting Ruby
to Child and Family Services in Utah.
People were so outraged
that they're created
petitions on the internet
with thousands upon thousands
of signatures
that are saying there's something
very wrong here.
The things that we show and share
and the things that many of you
are criticizing and calling abusive
are actually things that
mental health professionals
have counseled us to do.
And so, we're asking the question
of like, why?
Why is she acting this way
and a big part of why
was Jodi Hildebrandt.
Do you know a female named Jodi?
She is a therapist
and a life coach I know. And she's
-Do you respect her?
-Do I respect her?
Yeah, I think she is a very honest
and truthful person, yes.
Okay.
It's from Kevin. Chad just called me
from the office at school.
He and his friends were clowns
and were disrespectful today.
I told them that Chad would stay home
tomorrow and work for his mother.
Ruby was struggling with her
oldest son and looking for help
and so someone recommended
the therapist Jodi Hildebrandt.
Jodi was somebody
that wouldn't be manipulated
and that would be, like, tough love.
The first conversation Jodi had
with Chad was in June of 2019.
But her theory was
if you want to help your child,
you have to help yourself first.
So she spoke with Ruby frequently.
Ruby was in a vulnerable time.
She was getting
a lot of backlash from fans.
I am sorry that I'm breaking down
in front of you.
The videos that Ruby released
that dealt with Chad
just blew up in her face
and basically burned down
like our YouTube channel.
We lost 90 percent
of the income overnight.
And so, Ruby was looking for support.
She was looking for someone
who would understand her.
Who would validate her
and she found that in ConneXions
and Jodi Hildebrandt.
Welcome to ConneXions,
I'm Jodi Hildebrandt.
So glad you're with us.
If you're like me,
you've had pain in your life.
ConneXions is the solution.
What is ConneXions?
What isn't ConneXions?
That was the genius of whatever
Jodi was trying to do
is that you could take anything
and making it anything
that you wanted it be.
Self-help materials,
I guess you could call it, really.
We are here to change the world.
This is an alternative
to anything that you've been trying
that hasn't been successful.
If this resonates with you,
which the truth is,
is that it resonates with everybody.
Please come check it out.
Jodi Hildebrandt
went to the University of Utah,
got a master's level degree
and then, spent another couple years
certifying
to get a therapist license.
Jodi Hildebrandt got her hands
in a lot of things professionally.
A lot of her work
was with Mormon people
and knowing the population
that she's working with,
Jodi was very intentional, we're
going to help work on family issues,
help strengthen your marriage.
I wanted to personally invite you
to our next couples conference.
We'll be talking about fear
inside relationships.
She basically just started
developing manuals,
developing her own style
of marital therapy,
and her own support groups
under the brand name ConneXions.
It's not spelled like connections,
it's spelled with an X.
It has truly turned my life around.
So, Ruby jumped into
ConneXions headfirst
and was, like, let's go
and Kevin was a lot more hesitant.
I'm just feeling so excited
about getting a room full of men
who want to understand about God,
connection and themselves.
And my impression at that time
was this is absolute craziness.
I got challenged to sit down
and have a vulnerable
conversation with my wife.
Ruby very emotionally just shared
how she felt in our marriage.
I went into the marriage believing,
here's what I bring to the marriage,
I bring my body
and I make sure the house is clean.
It wasn't going to hold water
for too long in our marriage
and that's why we started
to have leaks.
It was very emotional
and it touched me.
Like, I didn't realize
that she felt so strongly about that,
that she felt so hurt by that,
and so, I agreed to join a men's
group with Jodi.
Hi, we're here at Man School,
and we're here together
with about 40, 45 men
who wants to learn how to connect.
At this point, Ruby and Kevin,
they're getting involved
in ConneXions.
You have nothing to lose
but by not coming to ConneXions
you have a lot to lose.
I have benefited from associating
with ConneXions in the last year.
They're in their marketing materials,
teaching their classes,
doing their little Zoom meetings
and their webinars.
I feel like our marriage was getting
stronger, I thought, this is great.
Ruby is a part
of the original 10 women
that are being trained
to become mental fitness trainers.
Jodi was running a business.
Her business was
to train other people
in her methodology or philosophy,
so they could then build up
their coaching
and it would grow her business.
I'm sure you're here
because you have a desire to heal.
A desire to have joy in your life
and connection in your relationships.
Jodi claims
she has all of the answers.
She will tell me
how to heal my family.
That's very appealing.
I had done everything right.
I had followed all the rules
and then my husband died.
Grant Thompson,
AKA the King of Random, has died.
The YouTuber had gone paragliding
on Monday and never returned.
The first year after my husband died
was just shock and me
trying to put the pieces together.
For years, I was the support role for
my husband to become YouTube famous.
All of a sudden, I'm a single mom,
trying to run my husband's business,
I've never been given
the tools to deal with this.
And my faith wasn't helping me
get through this hard time.
That's when our social media
manager, he recommended Ruby,
and talked about this psychologist
that Ruby was working with.
And that's when
I was introduced to Jodi.
I joined the women's group,
made my whole life about ConneXions.
Jodi taught me to feel more empowered
as a woman and as a mother
and the tone of my home really truly
did change to a more positive energy.
Because she was a woman,
it also felt empowering
because it's like, women
should have a voice in the church,
women should be validated,
women should be listened to,
and Jodi has these principles
that the church needs.
Good morning, passengers.
How are you guys today?
In the beginning of 2022, we realized
that Ruby was not uploading videos
as much to the 8 Passengers channel.
I'm doing really fun and exciting
things in the mental health field.
And so it's less time
vlogging at home,
so for those of you who are asking,
where are all the vlogs, why is it--
You're not on here as much
as I would like, and that's why
It went from multiple times a week
to, like, maybe once a week
until it was
finally the final upload.
They uploaded a video
of the baptism of their
youngest child and that was it.
8 Passengers went dark.
For many years, I ran a YouTube
channel called 8 Passengers.
We found a lot of success,
and my children were spoiled rotten.
I did what a true loving mom
would do, I said no more.
She could have gone back and
We would check every now and then
and see what's going on with Ruby.
We had realized
that Ruby was still doing things,
she just was not uploading
at the 8 Passengers channel.
She had appeared on Jodi's
ConneXions classroom on YouTube
and seemed to be the co-host
of self-help videos
that they were starting to produce.
I'm Jodi Hildebrandt,
the founder of ConneXions.
And I'm Ruby Franke, Jodi's
sidekick.
Don't let this sidekick fool you,
she is full of wisdom and knowledge.
She has much to share with you.
We went from, like,
all over Ruby's house everywhere
and vlogging,
following her wherever she went
and then, now, we have this stale
appearing space
where Jodi and Ruby
are sitting on this massive couch.
It was bizarre and their interactions
between each other,
they would sit very close
to each other,
there was always a lot of touching,
there was always a lot of tenderly
looking at each other
This is called physical intimacy
when I can touch my friend's hand
and say, I love you.
That is emotional
and physical intimacy.
So, we started to theorize
about where are they doing this?
We were, like,
maybe they're filming these things
inside of Jodi's house.
And so, Jordan ended up
finding the house.
We had seen pictures of it.
And that's when we find out
that is actually what's happening.
They're filming these videos
in Jodi's house.
Ruby's there, constantly.
The house was all the way down south
in Ivins,
away from where the kids
are supposed to be going to school,
away from where Kevin is.
Rumors online started to spin.
Something about divorce,
that Kevin had moved out of the house
and found an apartment somewhere.
We're, like, what is going on? There
is something weird happening here.
Go deeper, quicker,
with this life-on-life training
where you will be spending all day
and all evening with Jodi and myself
getting the help that you need.
Also don't forget, we have a women's
retreat coming up in October.
I'd been engaging in this women's
group for about a year,
we'd come to group
and we would make goals.
One of my goals
was to not yell at my kids.
And so, that was called my addiction,
I was addicted to yelling at my kids.
And one of the requirements
is to make three phone calls a day.
You call somebody in your group
and talk about your triggers,
that's what we would call them,
so if I yelled at my kids, it's like
okay, take a couple steps back,
what triggered you
to lose emotional control
that you indulged in your addiction.
That you yelled at your kids.
At this point,
I'm so indoctrinated in the group,
I wanted to live up
to Jodi's standards.
But now we're talking up to three
or four hours a day on phone calls
and this is like the equivalent
to, like, a part-time job.
Can anybody identify any pain
or discomfort today?
Yeah, Becky.
Not being able to get all the things
that I needed to done,
or phone calls
or connections with people.
Yeah. Yeah, painful.
Anybody have a day like that?
As we would report our phone calls,
one of the things
I started finding myself doing
and Jodi warned us of this,
is not being honest about how many
phone calls we're making.
I want to be honest
but I'm now starting to feel shame
and guilt for not doing this.
Shame, slash disconnect
is the antithesis of humility.
It is prideful, it is arrogant,
it is unwilling
to take accountability for oneself
and so I invite her.
You gonna come into ConneXion?
Yeah, I'll try to do better.
Tomorrow I will try. Yes.
That's a weak answer in ConneXion.
That's still distortion.
I had been participating
for a long time.
I was starting to feel some of these
things are really feeling off.
It started to become very cult-like.
Understanding that Jodi was a
licensed mental health professional,
I was really concerned
because of some of the content
that she and Ruby were putting out.
For one, Ruby was made a certified
mental fitness trainer by Jodi
which is not a real credential.
And she's giving
mental health advice?
Which is not appropriate
for someone who is not trained.
Unless you the mom do
what I'm telling you to,
you're being canceled
in your own home.
Your own children are canceling you.
I left ConneXions at the end of 2022,
that's what caused me to check in
every now and then
on the social media channel.
If you see our children
are being attacked,
if you see
that truth is being attacked,
you see that God's being attacked,
they don't have truth.
I would all other people
that had been in the group
and, you know, say
have you seen their content lately?
Isn't it like, crazy?
Reality about pain is it's necessary.
When is started hearing these things
like love is causing pain
for your children
I'm like, that sounds
really off and odd.
This is getting more and more extreme
in a way that is very harmful.
It's scaring me.
This is what love sounds like,
when you see someone hurting,
you acknowledge the hurt.
There was a video that Ruby put out
where she was like, people
think that I'm too tough.
It's bad to be tough on your kids.
If your kid came to you on fire,
would you say I'm so glad you
trusted me to tell me you're on fire,
but if I put out the fire,
it's going to hurt,
and you'll end up
with scabs anyway,
so I'm just going to love you
where you are right now?
No! You throw them on the ground
and you start hitting the flames.
You're hurting me. You're beating me.
No dear, hold still,
I'm getting the fire out.
From that video,
I distinctively remember thinking,
there is something seriously wrong
happening with these children.
911, the address of your emergency?
Little boy show up here at my front
door, asking for help.
He needs
This kid has obviously been--
He's obviously covered in wounds.
Are there any other kids
at the Jodi's house?
Two sisters.
Two sisters
and they're still at this house.
Are they tied up as well?