The person who brought investigators to Jodi Hildebrandt’s house in Ivins, Utah, was a twelve-year-old boy. On August 30, 2023, he made it out of the house and went to a neighbor for help. The neighbor could see injuries and signs of malnutrition and called law enforcement. When officers learned another child might still be inside, they went looking. They found the boy’s nine-year-old sister hiding in a closet.
Their mother, Ruby Franke, had built an audience by showing family life with her six children on the YouTube channel 8 Passengers. Hildebrandt was a licensed therapist who ran an online self-improvement program with Franke. Those public roles help explain why so many people recognized the adults’ names. They tell much less about what the two children had experienced away from an audience.
According to the Washington County Attorney’s Office, the adults isolated the children, denied them food and water and subjected them to sustained physical abuse. The investigation found that they used religious claims to convince the children that they deserved the punishment. The neighbor’s call gave other adults a chance to see what had been hidden from visitors. It also meant the younger child did not have to find a way out on her own.
Both women admitted criminal responsibility. Franke pleaded guilty on December 18, 2023, to four counts of aggravated child abuse. Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to four counts nine days later. In February 2024, Judge John Walton imposed prison sentences that the county describes as four to thirty years for each woman. Under Utah’s sentencing system the board of pardons and parole determines how long a person actually serves within the legal limits.
In October 2026 the board announced separate original parole hearings for December 7. A hearing puts each woman’s sentence before the board. The notice grants neither one release. Long before those hearings, the decisive act for the two children took place outside the courtroom. One child reached a neighbor who called for help.
Research Sources
The following resources were consulted to verify and update this article.