Ruby Franke charged with 4 additional counts of child abuse after arrest
Ruby Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, have been charged with four additional counts of aggravated child abuse.
Court documents obtained by Page Six Wednesday show the state of Utah formally filed the additional charges following the “8 Passengers” host’s arrest on Aug. 30.
Franke, who was initially charged with two counts of child abuse, is scheduled to make an initial court appearance on Friday, Sept. 8.
The momfluencer’s lawyer declined to comment.
A press release from the Washington County Attorney’s Office claimed that “each defendant is accused of causing or permitting serious physical injury to the victims in three different ways: (1) a combination of multiple physical injuries or torture, (2) starvation or malnutrition that jeopardizes life, and (3) causing severe emotional harm.”
Police arrested Franke and her ConneXions co-founder last week after one of the YouTube personality’s children escaped through a window and ran to a neighbor’s house for food and water.
Ruby Franke arrest: What you need to know
Ruby Franke was a “momfluencer” who had one of YouTube’s biggest channels, “8 Passengers,” which documented her and her husband, Kevin, and their six kids.
Franke was arrested on Aug. 30, 2023, on two counts of aggravated child abuse and could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Franke’s arrest came after an emaciated child with duct tape around their extremities escaped and ran to a neighbor’s house for help.
Franke’s sisters released a joint statement saying they did everything they could to protect their nieces and nephews “behind the public scene” and that the arrest “needed to happen.”
Through a lawyer, Franke’s husband denied having any part in the abuse.
Franke in court accused one of her own children of sexually abusing a sibling for years.
YouTube has deleted Franke’s account and banned her from the platform.
The neighbor, who noticed the child was “emaciated” and had duct tape wrapped around their extremities, called police, who then discovered a second child who was malnourished, according to the arrest report.
Both children were transported to a nearby hospital, and Franke and Hildebrandt were booked and held without bail.
Franke’s husband, Kevin Franke, said via his attorney, Randy S. Kester, that his client’s “urgent focus is simply to keep his children together under his fatherly care.”
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Despite the charges Ruby is facing, Kevin and the influencer remain married; however, Ruby’s siblings called her arrest a “weight that’s been lifted.”
“The only thing that we ultimately care about is that our nieces and nephews are safe and they are,” Ruby’s sister Bonnie Hoellein shared in a YouTube video, noting that the allegations against her sister have been testing her “belief in God.”
“I know that [the kids] will be taken care of,” she added. “I know the kids will be OK.”
Hoellein’s video came after she and her siblings released a joint statement explaining why they “kept quiet” about the alleged abuse.
When fans first raised concerns about Ruby’s treatment of her children, which included refusing to bring her 6-year-old daughter’s lunch to school, Ruby dismissed the viewers as “malicious.”
