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The Ruby Franke Case Explained Under 5 Minutes
YouTuber Ruby Franke once denied allegations of child abuse after her son Chad came forward and said he had slept on a beanbag for seven months.

In a since-deleted video from 2020, Chad told 2.5 million “8 Passengers” channel subscribers that the punishment came after he played pranks on his younger brother Russell.

“My bedroom was taken away for seven months,” he claimed. “I was sleeping on a beanbag since October.”

Ruby and her husband, Kevin Franke, sought advice from a therapist who advised the brothers should not sleep in the same room.

The couple claimed they gave Chad, now 18, the option to sleep on a pullout guest bed, an inflatable mattress, or somewhere else in the house. Chad allegedly chose the beanbag because it was the most comfortable. Viewers, however, believed that Chad had slept on the beanbag as punishment for the pranks and accused his vlogger parents of child abuse. The claims became more severe when Ruby refused to drive a packed lunch to her daughter Eve’s school because the 6-year-old had forgotten it at home. “I responded [to Eve’s teacher] and said, ‘Eve is responsible for making her lunches in the morning, so the natural outcome is she is just going to be hungry, and hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her lunch,'” Ruby, 41, said in a since-removed video. 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. Viewers launched a petition to send Child Protective Services to the Frankes’ house in Utah, but after speaking to all six Franke kids — Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, and Eve — the case was closed, citing insufficient evidence.

“It was just so malicious. They knew what they were doing was out of context. They were purely seeking to throw hate. That was their only objective,” Ruby told Insider. “A reasonable person would not have seen [the Eve lunch video] and thought, ‘She is a child abuser.'”

The videos resurfaced after Ruby and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested in Utah Wednesday under suspicion of aggravated child abuse after a child escaped through a window and fled to a neighbor for help.

The neighbor discovered the “emaciated” child had duct tape bindings around his or her extremities and called police, who searched Hildebrandt’s home and found another sick child. Ruby is being held in Washington County jail without bail.

Kevin told Page Six via his attorney, Randy S. Kester, Thursday that his “urgent focus is simply to keep his children together under his fatherly care.”

Ruby’s sisters, meanwhile, said they “kept quiet” about the alleged abuse “for the sake of her children.”


Ruby Franke was originally charged with six counts of child abuse in September, and two counts were dropped under the plea deal, CBS affiliate KUTV reports.

Franke stood shackled in gray and white jail clothing as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before pleading guilty to each of her first three charges. On the fourth, she fought back some emotion before saying: "With my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children, guilty."

Under Utah law, second-degree aggravated child abuse can be charged if that person knowingly or intentionally inflicts serious physical injury to a child or causes or permits another to inflict serious physical injury to their child. Each charge carries a sentence of one to 15 years in prison.

Winward Law said in a statement Friday that the abuse occurred while Franke was influenced by a relationship counselor who led her to "a distorted sense of morality."

During Franke's incarceration, "she has actively engaged in an introspection that has allowed her to reset her moral compass and understand the full weight of her actions. Ms. Franke is committed to taking responsibility for the part she played in the events leading up to her incarceration," the statement said.

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