‘8 Passengers’ YouTube star arrested on suspicion of child abuse

SALT LAKE CITY — A popular YouTube blogger and her business partner have been arrested on suspicion of child abuse after police say a malnourished child climbed out of the window of a southern Utah home and ran to a neighbor’s home for help.

Forty-one-year-old Ruby Franke, famous for her now-deleted “8 Passengers” YouTube channel, and 54-year-old Jodi Hildebrandt, founder of Utah County-based mental heath counseling company “Connexions Classroom,” were booked into the Washington County Jail on two second-degree felony counts of aggravated child abuse on Wednesday.

According to court documents, one of Franke’s children climbed out the window of an Ivins home belonging to Hildebrandt and ran to a neighbor’s home, knocked on the door and asked for food and water. “The neighbor observed duct tape on (the child’s) ankles and wrists and contacted law enforcement,” police said.

Officers said they observed wounds and said the child was severely malnourished. He was taken to St. George Regional Hospital and placed on a medical hold “due to his deep lacerations from being tied up with rope and from his malnourishment.”

Police said Franke was seen on a YouTube video filmed in Hildebrant’s downstairs area that was posted on Monday, which “adds to Ms. Franke the mother of (the child) being present in the home and having knowledge of the abuse, malnourishment, and neglect.”

A second child was found at Hildebrandt’s home who was determined to be malnourished by doctors at St. George Regional Hospital.

According to court documents, Franke requested a lawyer and did not speak with officers. She was taken into custody in Springville Wednesday night while Hildebrant was arrested a few minutes earlier in Ivins.

Police said the Utah Division of Child and Family Services has taken four of Franke’s children into their custody, two of whom have not spoken with officers.

Franke was known from the 8 Passengers YouTube channel, which had over 2 million subscribers and followed the lives of Franke, her husband and six children. It was taken offline earlier this year for unknown reasons. Hildebrandt founded Connexions Classroom, which, according to its website, aims to “invite and encourage healing and facilitate personal growth through impeccable honesty, rigorous personal responsibility and vulnerable humility.”

Franke is listed as a member of Connexions Classroom’s business team as a certified mental fitness trainer who provides pieces of content “that focus on empowering parents and children to live Truth.”

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This article originally stated Hildebrandt’s license was put on probation in 2012; it has been updated to reflect the Utah Division of Professional Licensing’s official record that shows no disciplinary actions remain on her license.