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Michelle Cuervo
Hi, guys. Do you guys mind if I get comfy very quickly? Hi, guys. Welcome to episode nine, question mark of I wish you were here. I'm your host, Michelle Cuervo, and I've been waiting all week to chat. And if you're wondering, oh, Michelle, did you get highlights in your hair? Did you get your hair colored? No. What happened was I used a new dry shampoo and it left this beautiful all natural white cast on my head. So no highlight allegations here. All natural, baby. Anyway, some of you may know what we're talking about today. Ruby, Frankie, some of you may know because I made a group chat on Instagram, which I didn't even know was a thing until lately, by the way, but I made a group chat and you could join it. It's for myself and for whoever decides to join. And it's been so fun, guys. I've had it for one day and I've sent too many messages. I think the people that decided to join are probably going to exit out pretty soon here once they realize that I don't shut up. But in just one day, it's become my safe place to yap. So I'm talking way too much in that group chat, but I told you guys that I was covering this case and. Oh, boy. The conversation of parents, whether it be parents who are content creators themselves or parents of, say, a child actress, the concept of parents making their children money making machines has been very prevalent lately and for good reason. It's a very valid conversation to have. It's an important one. The conversation of showing your children's faces online. And here's the thing, I completely 100% understand both sides because you have side A, where you want to record everything, you want to have all the memories to look back on, and you want to be able to connect with people across the world who are going through very similar things than you are. And that there is beauty in that, in social media, that you can be living in Utah and be talking to people from, I don't know, Chicago or New York, California, and you're all going through the same thing. There is beauty and being able to connect with people all over the world. And then you have side B, though, which is the fact, not an opinion, the fact that people on the Internet are weird and they're terrifying people. I mean, it doesn't take much to have access to the Internet. And although you'd like to think that people are normal or know how to behave, that's just not the case. People are gross, people are disrespectful and people use children's content for unspeakable things. So I get 100% both sides. It just, it is just personal preference at the end of the day. And sadly within social media, I wouldn't say that it's uncommon for someone to start social media because they like it, because it's fun. They enjoy making content but then turning a wheel and getting absolutely consumed by the amount of money that you can make in social media and then it turns into like you don't even enjoy doing what you're doing anymore at that point. You're just doing it for the money and it shows. And when children are involved that, it's 100 times worse. This is the story of Ruby, Frankie and the eight passengers. On August 30th of 2023, police received a 911 call from a man reporting, reporting that a 12 year old boy had just walked up to his front door. You can literally hear the emotion in this man's voice when he's calling authorities to report this. At one point you can hear him get choked up and almost start crying. He says, quote, I just had a 12 year old boy show up here at my front door asking for help. And he said he just came from a neighbor's house. And we know there's been problems at this neighbor's house. He is emaciated, he's got tape around his legs, he's hungry and he's thirsty. The conversation continues. He says he just left through the porch at the neighbor's house. Her name is Jody Hildebrandt and she lives two doors up the street. I don't think he needs an ambulance. I'll let the cops decide that. But his ankles are taped up and he won't tell us why. He is duct tape around each ankle. Yeah, there are sores around them. I think the, a good chance he's been, this boy has been, he needs. This kid has obviously been. I think he's been, he's been detained, he's been, he is absolutely covered in wounds, end quote. The boy showed up hungry, thirsty and afraid, claiming that what had happened to him was his fault. You took one look at him and you could tell he was extremely malnourished. He was covered in wounds, asking for food and water and he had tape and lacerations around his ankles. That little boy ended up standing at a stranger's house, likely in the most vulnerable position that he's ever been in after having escaped his neighbor's house by climbing out of a window. Whatever happened to him, whatever he had been through, he was scared enough that he saw his only option to go to a stranger's house and just pray and hope that they would be able to help him out in some way. He needed that help. He needed it not only for himself, but also for his sibling that was still in the house of horrors up the street. And if you look at pictures from this little boy from years ago, he is happy, he's healthy, he's surrounded by his loving family with a big, bright smile on his face. And that only makes it all that much troubling when you find out that the reason why that little boy found himself on that porch on August 30th of 2023 was because of the things that were done to him by his own mother and everything that she did to destroy the family. So let's go back to the beginning. Ruby Frankie. Born and raised in Utah. She grew up in Utah with her three siblings. And in the year 2000, Ruby was introduced to a man named Kevin Frankie. Instantly, there was a spark between them. The thing is, though, Ruby was intentional about who she gave her attention to and, and in dating, she considered the fact heavily that she wasn't only picking a partner to be her partner for the rest of her life, but she was also looking for someone who she could create a family with. She was looking for a man that she would find suitable to be the father of her children. So when she was weighing out her options, mind you, she was a cute girl, she had a cute personality, and she did have different men seeking her attention. But ultimately, after all, Ruby came to the realization that that it was Kevin Frankie all along. He was the person that she wanted to be with for the rest of her days on this earth. And when he got down on one knee and proposed to her In October of 2000 without hesitating, she immediately said yes. And within two months, the couple was married. Fast forward three years and they find out that they're expecting. And they're so excited about it. They were pregnant with a baby girl they decided to name Sherry. Ruby and Kevin went on to have a total of six children together between the years of 2003 to 2013. Sherry, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell and Eve. The Frankie family was part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the LDS Church or the Mormon Church. And religion was something that their entire lives, it was preeminent and it was something that they liked to practice and pay a lot of attention to. In 2015, Ruby and Kevin decide they're going to start a family YouTube channel called a Passengers. The name stemming from their six children plus them too, making them a family of eight. And the YouTube channel is exactly what you think of when you think mommy vlogger, family lifestyle, mommy vlogging. It was primarily Ruby who was the one to pick up the camera and start filming. And she pretty much was just recording their day to day lives, anything that they did. But something about Ruby is that when she gets her mind on something, when she decides that she is going to do something, when she has a new business endeavor, I guess you can say she is going to do it. And it was absolute tunnel vision on this new goal of hers, of making this YouTube channel successful. She was going to see it through, she was going to work hard and she was going to do whatever it took to get what she wanted, when she wanted it, and exactly how she wanted it. The channel's primary focus and the driving source of content was following around this Mormon family doing very relatable things. Whether it was honestly anything, taking the kids to school, cooking at home, taking care of the kids, doing family activities, Christmases, birthday parties, family vacations, anything that would be good for content, it was recorded. And you often hear about successful people on the Internet or successful channels or groups. You often hear that a big reason as to why those people or groups or channels are successful is because they present themselves as relatable. And it makes sense because it's so easy to think that you're creating a bond with a person on social media when you have so much in common with them and when your daily routines look so much alike. I mean, think about your favorite creators that you guys watch on YouTube. TikTok, whatever it is, it is comforting to see when you see someone that has a lot of relatable things. And I think it's human nature to seek out connection. And what really feels more relatable than just existing with your family as a family. Well, for Ruby Frankie, the joy of vlogging came from her kiss. This is what she said. She said that she started the whole YouTube social media thing because she liked recording her kids, because vlogging for her helped her live in the present and enjoy the time that she had with her children. She also loved to look back on the videos and just kind of relive the memories. And the channel grew to be very popular very quickly. Other Mormon moms would watch the videos and look up to Ruby. Other families in general would just watch it because it was enjoyable content that they were putting out. And after A while people were not only watching because it was relatable or entertaining, but they had been making study videos for so long that the viewers were no longer really watching for the content primarily they were now watching for the Frankie family because it was almost like the viewers were growing up alongside of the Frankies. And a lot of the viewers started to create this sort of loyalty for the Frankie family because everything was documented so you got to see it all and people were eating it up. At their peak, the 8 passengers channel had 2.5 million subscribers. And I can't quite find what the amount is of money that they were making from social media that has been confirmed. But a source did say that they were making around $100,000 each month, which honestly would not be surprised if they were making more. But it was through these videos that people started paying attention to the way that Ruby raised and disciplined her children. And some of the things she did, as well as some of the comments that she made, resulted in Ruby and Kevin often getting backlash and criticism from subscribers that didn't necessarily agree with their parenting style. But it slowly turned from just not agreeing with the way that the kids were being raised to genuine concern from following regarding the children's well being. Because certain things that Ruby would do, certain comments that she would make would really make people go, oh, hold on, wait a minute, I, I'm not so sure. And I'll give you some examples. So you know that what I'm talking about because I too, I didn't watch their channel, but if I did, I'm sure that I too would say hold the phone because what is going on here? Eve, Ruby's six year old daughter, she attended school and in a vlog, Ruby is recording herself, she's sitting in her car, she's talking about a phone call that she received from the school. The school called to inform that Eve didn't have lunch. She didn't bring her lunch to school that day. And they called to ask her mother if she would bring her some lunch because, you know, she is her mother after all, and the poor girl is six years old. Ruby's response to that though was, well, that's her fault. Eve is the one responsible for packing her lunch in the morning. She forgot that's on her and that's too bad. And she continued on to say that she hoped that nobody would give Eve food so that she could learn her lesson. Specifically, she said, quote, hopefully no one gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her lunch because then she's not going to Learn the natural outcome, end quote. That alone. So concerning this girl is a baby. She's six years old and her mom is prioritizing her learning a lesson. I guess what the lesson to be learned there is, I'm not quite sure, but she's prioritizing learning a lesson above 30, feeding her food. In another vlog where her sons are play fighting, Ruby tells them to stop, but she lets them know that if they don't stop, they would, quote, lose their privilege to eat dinner. In Another video, Ruby's 15 year old son Chad mentioned how he got in trouble for playing a prank on one of his siblings. And in return he got his bedroom taken away from him and had been sleeping on a beanbag for seven months as his form of punishment. In another one, she yelled at her son for leaving. I think it was his socks on the ground. And she demanded that he get on the floor and do push ups outside as his punishment. It started to feel like there was a punishment for every single thing. And every punishment was either taking basic needs away from her kids, such as food or water, and or forcing them to do some sort of physical labor. And it was alarming because that was content that she was choosing to put out there, right? She was recording it, she was editing it, she was posting it. It wasn't like an accidental oops, I posted it and people are going to see what really goes on behind closed doors. No, that was content that she, like she looked over it multiple times and then thought, yeah, this is good, I should put this out to my followers. Which is alarming, right? Because if that's what she's choosing to put out and it's causing 2 million people to be concerned for her children, then what is happening behind closed doors? Who's to say? And now in hindsight, right? Neon flashing, bright red flags. But when it was happening, yeah, viewers started to grow a serious concern. But it didn't happen all at once. It wasn't like an overnight thing. It almost felt like every off putting thing that Ruby did was only one thing, but then it was two and then it was three. And then all of a sudden all of these things started stacking on top of each other until eventually people would see the channel and then see a pattern. And that pattern only seemed to be getting progressively more and more common and each time somehow worse. And eventually it became one of those cases where it turned to be 100% about the money and no longer about the children, no longer about creating memories, making sure that they were happy. No, as a matter of fact, their happiness was thrown at the door, put in the trash. That didn't matter anymore. If you weren't happy, you better act happy. If you weren't having fun, you better pretend that you are. Because I'm gonna make my money one way or another. And if you don't help me, then I will find someone who will. The kids did not matter anymore. And if you guys have seen the docu series, I, I'm not sure if it's on Hulu or Apple TV or maybe both. You guys should watch a really good docu series. Some of her children speak and they say that their house kind of felt like a set. It didn't feel like a home anymore. It just felt like a movie set. And it felt like the children were expected to perform. Neighbors also felt the same way because when Ruby would go out on walks or whatever and start filming outside, it felt like she was recording a movie. Like real life did not matter. It was only about. It wasn't even necessarily how can I make my family seem like the best family in the world? It was just how can I get the most entertaining form of content out of them? And the way the children were in the videos were, it was kind of very light hearted. And keep in mind how young some of them were. So some of the kids, they were probably too young to understand that the way that they were being treated was wrong. But the older ones, towards the end they were just pretending to be okay because they didn't really have another option or else they would get in trouble and they would get a whack sort of punishment. And when Ruby would say these things, the weird comments, the off putting comments, she would kind of say them when she was giggling and she would laugh at certain things and the kids would sometimes laugh as well. You could see it in their face. It looks more so to be like an uncomfortable laugh or a forced laugh. And it didn't take long for viewers to start growing a real strong, serious concern as far as the dynamic in that household went. In the beginning of their marriage, Kevin was the head of the household, he was the protector, he was the provider. You know, he provided the family with financial stability and Ruby was the stay at home mom who took care of the kids. But when Ruby started making a lot of money through social media, through brand deals and sponsorships, the roles in the family kind of switched and the power dynamic switched and it turned into being whatever Ruby says we are going to do, she calls the shots and we're just here to listen to her. And do as she says. Ruby and Kevin, they were not oblivious, okay? They were reading through their comments, and they obviously recognized the backlash and hate that they were getting from the judgment of their parenting style. And at first they were like, whatever, trolls in the media. It's just haters. It's just people behind a screen, angry people online judging hating for the sake of hating. But then it seemed like it really did start to affect them. As it was getting progressively more and more intense. People started calling authorities to go to the house, check on the kids, and their posting consistency started to go down. They went from posting every single day to four days a week, then two times a week, until eventually they stopped posting altogether, leading to the end of their channel in 2022. But that was not the end of Ruby Frankie's life on social media. Not at all. And in enters Jody Hildebrandt to the chat. To put it bluntly, Ruby was awful. And Jody was only the field to her fire. Jody Hildebrandt. She was a clinical mental health counselor who ran a life coaching program called Connections. Connections with an ex. Ruby Frankie started working for Jody at Connections. And since Jody started connections in 2007, she had a reputation. She built a reputation for herself in Utah's LDS community for helping people who were going down the wrong path. And she would offer advice. She would provide counseling on relationships and parenting or just general life coaching advice. If you worked with Connections, you would get one on one sessions with Jody, or you would join a couple's class, or if you were a man just looking to improve yourself, you could join a men's group. And speaking of men, it honestly really feels like Jody had it out for men since the beginning. She hated them. Anything that was wrong with your family, it was your husband's fault. Your children are misbehaving. Well, their dad probably sucks. You're feeling isolated. Your husband probably made you feel that way. Your marriage is falling apart. Okay, let's look to see what's wrong with your husband. They were always the problem. But Jody herself came with her own set of problems because this lady made it so incredibly easy to raise questions on what she was doing and whether it was right or wrong and whether it was ethical or not, whether she had good intentions. Intentions or not. In 2012, Jody Hildebrand was put on probation because of the way that she handled a situation with one specific male who was seeing her for therapy. A client that she worked with in 2008 faced a lot of judgment and unwanted attention after Jody shared his personal business with members of the church and with members of a university as well. The university was this man's place of work. This specific client, like many others, would say that he was absolutely brainwashed and completely manipulated by Jody into being convinced that something was wrong with him. She would isolate her clients, and at times she would even call other therapists around, like, this is crazy, because why are you doing? Why are you behaving this way? You're a grown woman. Anyway. She would often call other therapists around the area and she would say, speak badly of her clients on purpose in order to make them not want to work with them, in order to isolate them, keep them close and be able to manipulate them and control them to the degree that she wanted to. And don't get me wrong, Jody's clients, they were all grown adults. They were grown adults capable of making their own decisions. And they do share a massive part of their responsibility for the things that happened. But that's the point. That is how much Jody was able to somehow gain control of her clients. It was dangerous, and it was quite literally the farthest thing away from beneficial. Jody Hildebrand's big thing was distortion, distorting the truth. And she believed, and I mean, guys like, genuinely believed to her core that she could teach people principles. These principles were communicated to her by God. And the reason why God shared these principles to her was so that she would be able to on earth, help them get away from distortion and teach people how to live in truth. Her entire company was based on who her clients were and what they did wrong. And Jody believed that everything was a sin. If you watched adult content, if you're picking up what I'm putting down, you know, adult content, if you watched it once, you had an addiction and you needed severe help, Jody more oftentimes than not would advocate for people to leave their spouses. Because if there was something wrong in your relationship, you know it was the man's fault because he wasn't living in truth, so you should leave him. And if you didn't agree or understand her opinion and the view that she had on your family, well, then that was your problem because that meant that you were just in denial. But don't worry, Jody can help you fix that. If you just sign up for her one on one calls and her entire business, really. But the group connections was structured in a way to reel you in. And in my opinion, it was structured in a way to purposefully brainwash you and then basically make it impossible for you to leave. This is a quote from Ruby Frankie later describing the beliefs that Jody installed in her quote, I was led to believe that this world was an evil place filled with cops who control hospitals that injure, government agencies that brainwash, church leaders who lie and lust, husbands who refuse to protect, and children who need abuse. I don't even think that I need to say this, but Jody Hildebrandt gave off very, very, very strong cult leader vibes. So Ruby met Jody in 2019 when she was looking for advice in parenting. And Jody became a therapist not only for Ruby, but also for Ruby's son and then for her daughter. And she would give Ruby all these new rules and regulations to implement in her family, as well as quote, unquote, advice on her and Kevin's marriage. It was around 2020, 2021, when things started to get really bad, really weird, really quickly, and Ruby completely lost it. I don't know how else to explain it. Ruby. Frankie would experience these episodes almost where she would get in a trance, and she would allegedly believe that she was in heaven speaking with God and Jesus. She would lock herself in a room with Jody, and they claimed that God would come in that room and talk to them and give them missions that they had to complete. Ruby would fixate on religious beliefs. She would often talk about the devil, demons, possessions. And her beliefs were so strong that she grew to think and label her children as satanic. Another time, when describing her son, the one who she believed to be satanic, Ruby said, he, quote, slithers and sneaks around looking for opportunities when no one is watching. End quote. Oh, I mean, come on, dude. What world are you living in? I would honestly love a scientific experiment or something of sorts that looks into cult leaders and really examines the brain, because with cult leaders, you have a lot of them that think the same thing. It's always, the end of the world is coming, I'm the chosen one, God can speak to me, and I'm supposed to give you these missions to complete. It's like, there's a book for Colts, and I would love the science behind that. And why people. Yeah, Yeah. I don't know. Little bit crazy. As far as Kevin Frankie goes, the closer that Jody and Ruby got, the more distant that Ruby and Kevin got. And that was on purpose because Kevin had issues and he was in denial and he wasn't living in truth, according to Jody. Right. That being said as well, a lot of people suspect that there was some kind of weird romantic relationship or romantic, whatever it was between Ruby and Jody, because why were they locking themselves in a room together? For hours. I think sometimes they even slept in the same bed. Jody somehow, some way, was able to convince Ruby and Kevin that there was something severely wrong with Kevin and that that was the reason why their marriage was going downhill, that was affecting their marriage. And in order for that to be fixed, in order for Kevin to be fixed, he had to go. Around the summer of 2022, Ruby, quote, unquote, invited Kevin to leave the family home for the purpose of him going and being able to have the time to work on himself, because his attitude was the issue. His attitude was, quote, infesting the family. And Ruby said the only way for their marriage to survive was for Kevin to leave. So Kevin left. But that wasn't good enough, not at all. Because, of course, there were rules that he had to follow. Kevin was not allowed to contact any of his children at all unless Ruby contacted him first, which I read was only around three to four times throughout the next year. He told his oldest daughter, quote, once I'm better, I'll come back and we can be a happy family again. I'll be gone for at least a year, end quote. Ruby's oldest son was also invited to leave the home. So he left. I'm not 100% sure where he went. I assumed he went to go stay with family friends or family members or maybe even his dad. I'm not 100% sure. But he was out of the house, and the oldest daughter was, too, because she was away at college. Shortly after Kevin left, a neighbor realized that it seemed like Ruby's youngest four children had been left alone in the house for days. She could see them through a window. And Ruby and Jody had disappeared to who knows where. And that neighbor called to request a welfare check, but nothing really ever came from that. And I feel so horrible for those four younger kids that were stuck with Ruby because she was just getting. She was losing it even more, second by second, and she was just getting worse. We'll talk about what exactly she put them through in a little bit. But the kids were often forced to do demanding physical labor as part of this mission that they had to, quote, unquote, get better. They were denied food for days at a time because food was a privilege that sometimes they didn't deserve. And as a punishment for their behavior, they were often left to stand in the sun for hours. And when standing outside wasn't good enough, they would be told to sleep outside as a punishment for being evil and manipulative. From May through August of 2023, it seemed like Ruby and the Kids were staying partly at her house, but mostly at Jody's house. And then that brings us to August 30th at 10:46 in the morning when Ruby's 12 year old son showed up at the neighbor's house. The neighbors called 911 to make them aware of the situation and they told them that the little boy had escaped Jody Hildebrand's house. That poor 12 year old boy had been exposed to not only severe emotional trauma, but also physical. Because we know that that day he showed up to that house covered in injuries, some of the most prevalent ones being on his wrist and his ankles. And guys, the injuries were bad. I'm not talking about scratches all over his body. This boy had damage to his muscle and his tissue from the ropes and handcuffs that had been used on him. The boy later on told officers that to treat his injuries, either Jody or Ruby would put cayenne pepper and honey on them and they would cover them up with duct tape. Later on, when authorities actually searched Jody's house, they did find a lot of plates, if you will, with cayenne pepper and honey. So I mean the evidence was there to back it. But that day, one of the most shocking things that the little boy had to share with officers when they arrived was that his sister was still in Jody's house. And when authorities arrived and they searched Jody's house, even though officers didn't want to believe that the boy was telling the truth, because it's a very dark and sad truth, they realized that he was. They found the boy's nine year old sister, Eve. She was inside a closet, her head was shaved, she was sitting crisscross applesauce in the dark. And for hours she would not move and she would not talk to officers because she was so scared. The little girl also, you took one look at her and you can tell that she was extremely malnourished and she had open wounds as well all over her and duct tape around her arms and her legs. 9 year old Eve and 12 year old Russell were taken to hospital to be treated. But authorities learned that these were Ruby Frankie's children, but she had six children and two others were still under the age of 18. So where were they? Officers in Springville, Utah were dispatched to Ruby's house. They kicked the door down, but the house is empty. But then they were notified that one of the kids they were looking for had just been picked up by a woman named Pam. Pam was Jody and Ruby's close friends, but she was also the president of connections and Ruby had contacted her around lunchtime to go and pick up her kids. Officers are dispatched. They show up at Pam's house and they find Ruby's two other children who were minors. Thankfully, those two were unharmed. Ruby and Jody were both placed under arrest. They were each charged with six counts of child abuse. Eventually, the youngest four of Ruby's children were placed in state custody. It was only after the arrest that Kevin was brought in for questioning. And that is when for the first time, he allegedly found out the state of his children and what they had been put through. Kevin told police that he had been separated from his wife because he, he had issues. He wasn't living in truth, he had to go, he moved out. And because of that, he hadn't seen or spoken to the kids for over a year. And if you haven't seen the documentary, there are videos of this interview online. But you can see that he was in complete shock and very visibly upset when he was told about the conditions in which his children had been found. He was released without any charges. That being said, though, a lot of people do have questions about how much Kevin really knew, but I guess there's really no way for us to know. I mean, he'll say that he didn't, did he? That's for you to decide. More details about just how severe and cruel the children were being treated came straight from Ruby from Ruby's journal entries. In an early entry in the journal, dated July 11, 2023, Ruby wrote about a big day for evil is what she called it when she wrote that her daughter manipulated her. In the same entry, she wrote about when she forced her 12 year old son to stand in the sun. She told him to stand in the sun outside with his sun hat. And after she claimed that he was defiant and refused to stand in the sun, Ruby wrote that her son's quote, demon stays in the shade, end quote. So she pushed him back out into the sun and she later harmed him with a cactus. Jody Hildebrandt actually also pled guilty and confessed that she would often push the children into a cactus, which is insane. Ruby wrote about how she would starve her children from food and water and about how they were possessed. She wrote about how she would tell her kids that they were evil and possessed and she would explain to them that the treatment that they were receiving was to help them. In order to get them to repent. The kids would be kicked, they would be tied and bound, their heads would be held underwater and their oxygen supplies would be blocked. They would be forced to do Physical tasks for hours, sometimes days at a time, often more. I. I want to say, more oftentimes than not, they would be outside in the summer heat without shoes and being denied of water for hours and sometimes days. At times when they would be working out in the sun for so long, they would start blistering. And even then, they were not allowed to come back inside. On top of that, the children were extremely isolated, away from anyone and everyone. And then they would be told that everything that was being done to them was an act of love. Absolutely disgusting. When it came to the courtroom, Ruby pled guilty. I think she pled guilty to avoid a trial. And she completely turned on Jody, basically putting all of the blame on her. A statement from Ruby's lawyer reads, quote, Initially, Ms. Frankie believed that Jody Hildebrand had the insight to offer a path to continual improvement. Ms. Hildebrandt took advantage of this quest and twisted it into something heinous. Ms. Hildebrandt systematically isolated Ms. Frankie from her extended family, older children, and her husband, Kevin. Frankie, Ruby. Frankie cried a lot. She apologized to her children and her husband and blamed Jody's cruel influences. She said, quote, for the past four years, I've chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion. My disordered version of reality went largely unchecked as I would isolate from anyone who challenged me. To my babies, you are a part of me. I believed dark was light and right was wrong. I would do anything in this world for you. I took from you all that was soft and safe and good. End quote. In November of 2023, Kevin Frankie filed for divorce, and he had full intentions of fighting for custody of their children. He also sued Jody Hildebrandt in, quote, an effort to preserve her wealth and assets until appropriate action can be taken to make the kids whole again, end quote. Ruby's oldest daughter, Sherry, who was 20 years old at the time of her arrest, wrote publicly, quote, today has been a big day. Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We've been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and I'm so glad they finally decided to step up. End quote. Jody Hildebrandt also pled guilty to avoid trial and. And both Ruby and Jody were sentenced to 15 years in prison for each of the four counts of aggravated abuse they pled guilty to, to be served consecutively with a maximum of 30 years. Ruby and Kevin's two older kids are doing well. Their oldest daughter has spoken out about this a lot on social media. She also has a book that you guys should read if you haven't. It's called the House of My Mother, A Daughter's Quest for Freedom. Great book. And when she's been asked about how her younger siblings are doing, she has said, quote, they're all healing in their own way and in their own time. As a family. We're doing our part and trying to heal. End quote. Kevin was still trying to fight for custody for the two youngest children, and I believe that that is still ongoing. But it has been stated that the children remain in professional care for the aggravated psychological and emotional injuries suffered. Yeah, guys, what can I tell you? Insane case. But seriously, if you haven't seen that docu series, I'm pretty sure it's on Hulu. You should definitely go watch it because it's. It's made very well and it really paints the picture of what was going on inside of Ruby's head. Anyway, that is, I have for today's episode. For next week's episode, I'm in between two, so I'm gonna ask my Instagram group chat what I should do because honestly, I want to make content that you guys want to watch. So if you want to put your input in there, head over to Instagram. But other than that, I hope you guys are having the best day. If not, go do something to make it the best day. Make somebody happy. And I will see you in my video next. Next video. Massive kiss on the forehead to every single one of you. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of I wish you were here. As a reminder, you can listen to this anywhere you get your podcast video version also available on YouTube. Love you.