This image from video provided by the Utah State Courts shows Ruby Franke, during a virtual court appearance on September 8 in St. George, Utah. Photo / AP
This image from video provided by the Utah State Courts shows Ruby Franke, during a virtual court appearance on September 8 in St. George, Utah. Photo / AP
A harrowing 911 call that led to the arrest of YouTube star and mother Ruby Franke has revealed the heartbreaking moment her son burst into a neighbour’s house to escape the alleged horrors.
Franke’s 12-year-old son showed up at the neighbour’s house “emaciated” with open wounds and duct tape on his limbs after fleeing the home of Jodi Hildebrandt, the owner of a relationship counselling business who Franke had done work for. Hildebrandt was also arrested alongside Franke on abuse charges.
In the neighbour’s call to police, the man, who was reduced to tears, calls for urgent assistance and struggles to get his words out after being overwhelmed by the boy’s horrific condition.
“I just had a 12-year-old boy show up here at my front door asking for help,” the neighbour says, according to a recording of the call obtained by ABC.
“And he’s said he had just come from a neighbour’s house and we know there’s been problems at this neighbour’s house.
This image from video provided by the Utah State Courts shows Ruby Franke, during a virtual court appearance on September 8 in St. George, Utah. Photo / Utah State Courts via AP
Her other 10-year-old child was also later found by police in a similar condition.
The Utah mother of six previously gave parenting advice via a once-popular YouTube channel called “8 Passengers”. She has now been charged with six counts of felony child abuse.
As the dispatcher was asking questions, the boy indicated he didn’t know where his mom was and that his dad was not in the area. The boy said two siblings, ages 10 and 14, were still at Hildebrandt’s house.
“He says everything’s fine with them,” the caller told the dispatcher. “He says what’s happened to him is his fault.”
While waiting for police and paramedics, the caller expressed concern that Hildebrandt may come looking for the boy.
Prosecutors allege the women either caused or allowed someone to torture Franke’s son and injure her 10-year-old daughter. Both children were starved and harmed emotionally, court records said. It’s unclear why the children were at Hildebrandt’s home.
This image from video provided by the Utah State Courts shows Jodi Hildebrandt during a virtual court appearance on September 8 in St. George, Utah. Photo / Utah State Courts via AP
The 12-year-old and 10-year-old were taken to hospital, police said. They along with two other of Franke’s children were taken into the custody of child protective services.
The fascination in the case has been huge given Franke’s stardom on YouTube.
In some of her videos, she was criticised for her parenting decisions, including banning their oldest son from his bedroom for seven months for pranking his younger brother. In one video, Franke talked about refusing to take lunch to a kindergartener who forgot it at home. Another showed her threatening to cut the head off a young girl’s stuffed toy to punish her for cutting things in the house.
In one video, Franke said she and her husband told their two youngest children that they would not be getting presents from Santa Claus because they had been selfish and weren’t responding to punishment like being kept home from school and cleaning the floorboards.
“It’s because they’re so numb, and the more numb your child is, the bigger the outcome they need to wake them up,” Franke said in a video.
Some critics started an online petition asking child protective services to get involved. The Frankes’ oldest daughter, Sherri Franke, cut ties with her parents, she has said in social media posts. The YouTube channel, which was started in 2015, ended after seven years.
In 2022, neighbours had raised the alarm when Franke’s 10-year-old daughter, Eve, would wander the local neighbourhood while Franke was away for prolonged time periods.
Another neighbour said she and others in the area had tried to get local authorities to intervene for at least a year.
“I’m really angry, because I spoke up. Other people spoke up,” she said. “And nothing happened.”
Franke’s husband Kevin was kicked out of the home last year, a source with knowledge of their relationship told NBC.
Neighbours claimed that after Kevin was no longer in the home, Franke would leave the house for weeks at a time, with her children left inside.
Police records from Utah — where the Franke family lived — show Sherri Franke called police on September 18, 2022, to report her brothers and sisters had been left home alone for days. Police also spoke with neighbours, but were unable to contact the children. A report was made to Child and Family Services, according to the police report.
Records show officers stopped by the house four more times from September 22 through October 3.
