
It was the most viewed home on realtor websites for weeks. It’s a curious looking house. As you swipe through the photos of the 15 foot tall ceilings, the grand glass windows, the $5M price tag starts to make sense. But what is that? There is an entire concrete bunker like structure underneath the house with its very own panic room. A bank vault door - leading to a room with a toilet and sink. To keep people out - and to keep people in. This is the home that Ruby Franke & Jodi Hildebrandt tortured Ruby’s 2 youngest children in. There are detailed diaries left behind by Ruby Franke describing how she tortured them with cactuses, pouring cayenne pepper and honey into their wounds, and all the unique punishments she came up with. All the while posting podcast episodes - giving advice to other moms. How to be a perfect mom. Just like her. Full show notes at rottenmangopodcast.com
Loading summary
Lowe's Advertisement
Lowe's knows what makes Springfest savings even better are member only doorbuster deals right now Rewards members can save $40 on an Allen and Roth Chesler gold faucet was $99 now $59 plus save $110 on a Cobalt 40 volt battery trimmer and blower combo kit was 279 now 169 Lowes we help you save valid through 324 while supplies last program subject to terms and conditions. Details@lowes.com terms subject to change.
Starbucks Advertisement
First decision of the morning A creamy mocha Frappuccino drink or will we ease into the day with a sweet vanilla, maybe a smooth caramel? Oh, what about that white chocolate mocha? No matter which flavor you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Better coffee starts a better day. Start with bottled Starbucks Frappuccino drinks. Pick up a bottle near you wherever you buy your groceries.
Narrator
For a few weeks. In 2024 this becomes the most viewed house on realtor.com which I mean it's a little random. It's this 5 million dollar mansion in what appears to be a beautiful yet seemingly middle of nowhere place in Utah. It's stunning, don't get me wrong, but in the Doomsday bunker if it's the end of the world, the apocalypse is hitting. This might be a great place to hide out. Typ of way it looks like a bunch of square concrete blocks just jammed together to make this giant 10,000 square foot behemoth of a home. It's got 15 foot ceilings, views of the Red Rock Mountains from the living room. The primary bedroom even has its own fireplace in front of a giant soaking tub, giant walk in closet with washer and dryer inside. Side note, the primary bedroom. The windows are massive and they're seamless. They're unframed so you just see the red mountains and it almost looks like an LED screen from the primary bedroom. But the real selling points are the beautiful pool, the hot tub, home theater, second kitchen, guest house, dog washing station, the blinds are all controlled by a remote. It's an incredibly secluded, isolated on 1.4 acres of property. Your neighbors are all several blocks away. Ultimate privacy. But the more that you click on these pictures it starts to get confusing. Why is there a doomsday bunker inside this house? I mean, what are the owners preparing for? It feels like judging by the photos, a good chunk of the house is just unfinished concrete rooms in the basement for storage for survival. There's even a panic room with a giant door sized safe vault door that you have to get through. And once you swing it open in the basement, it's equipped with its own fridge, sink, toilet. The purpose would be, I guess, in case of doomsday, you could go in there and stay safe. Or if someone's breaking into the home, you want to protect yourself, you can rush in there, or maybe you can lock someone inside from the outside. But why would you want to do that, Right? Kevin Franke, who has spent a lot of time in this now viral home with his wife, Ruby Franke, and the owner of the home, Jody Hildebrand. He says, while we were at that house, there were things that happened. I can't explain it. There was a tremendous crash in the basement that we heard directly beneath us. But when we went and checked, there was nothing. It's just small instances like this. Below them, there would be an empty, completely empty concrete storage room. Nobody's down there, but they hear something like a table falling over, crashing over. They run downstairs. I mean, there's truly nothing. There's nothing that could have even fallen off the walls. What would that sound come from in a completely empty room? Or another time. Kevin says the whole house is glass. And he looks up one day and he sees a massive handprint high up on the glass. Like, there's no way anybody could have gone up there. No human could have reached that high. And why would they? The hand is about three times longer than a normal person's hand. The fingers are just scraping down the window. It appears. I mean, what the hell is that? It seems like everyone in that house is convinced that that is the presence of Satan. Maybe the house is haunted. Jody, the homeowner would have a bishop come over performing exorcisms on a daily basis. It seems like whoever or whatever is in this house is targeting Jody Hildebrandt. There are plates that Kevin said would just fly off the counter out of nowhere, and they would just go full speed, just shattering, Crashing on impact. Like, how do you explain that? There were whispers that sounded like people were around, but nobody was there. Kevin says, I can't explain it, but I saw it with my own eyes. I became the resident exorcist. But the house being allegedly haunted is not why the house is so famous on realtor.com. it's not because it's haunted. It's because August 30, 2023, two children were rescued out of the basement of that home. They had been held captive, tortured, starved, and abused. This is the case of Ruby Frankie and Jody Hildebrandt. We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the Biz Parents Foundation. They're a nonprofit organization devoted to protecting professional child performers and their rights. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing team. We'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support. As always, full show notes are available by rotten mangopodcast.com this is part three of the four part Ruby Frankie and Jody Hildebrandt case. Please watch part one and two before this episode. In part one, we go over Ruby Frankie's YouTube channel and her being, quote unquote, canceled by concerned Internet users netizens who believed that she was abusing her six children behind the scenes. Which side note, we will be referring to the eldest children by Sheri and Chad. By their names, they have publicly spoken out about what's happened. They're adults. Sherry actually has an incredible book that I think everyone would gain a lot of. Not just insight on the case, but insight on what it would mean to be the child of a family vlogger. It's the type of book that gives you a lot of pause, it makes you think a lot. And she's a phenomenal writer. It's called House of My Mother, so go buy a copy. Go buy 22 copies. Share it with your friends. To support Sheri Franke, the four youngest Frankie kids will be referred to by their first initial of their names or when feasible, just as one of the kids. Regardless of if their names are publicly out there, we're going to just use their first initial. In part two we went over Jody Hildebrandt, the so called porn therapist who made it her life's mission to just make married couples divorce. That appears to be her favorite thing in the world. She loves ruining marriages and even concocting plans to get patients admitted into prisons. Allegedly, there's a lot going on in there. And in part two, we end off with Jodie telling Ruby and Kevin that she's being haunted by demons sent by Satan in this $5 million mansion. They fully believe it and they invite Jodie to come stay in the Frankie household with them and their six kids. And Sheri realizes something's not right. Sheri, the eldest daughter. It also seems like Ruby and Jody are having intimate relations.
Kevin Franke
So to continue off that was Jodie.
Narrator
Part of their vlogs or no, Once she gets in there, they would still host these connections, group counseling sessions, but they would be in separate rooms. It became a thing where nobody was allowed to say that Jody was living with them.
Kevin Franke
Oh, so they are vlogging.
Narrator
They're filming videos. Less family vlogs.
Kevin Franke
Oh, okay. And nope, so. So Jody was not public until this case broke out.
Narrator
It's like she would mention Jody here and there, and then they would have these Connections videos together. But it almost morphed out of Ruby's YouTube career. After Ruby gets somewhat camp canceled online, she starts changing up the channel and focusing more on parenting advice. A lot of her original viewership drops off and then she goes just full on connections with Jody. But nobody knew that Jody had lived with the Frankies.
Kevin Franke
Connection is the. The program that they created.
Narrator
So Jody Hildebrand created a counseling company called Connections, and she was in the process of training 10 different women to become mental fitness trainers that would work underneath her. It was basically a cult, in my opinion. In part three, this episode, we will go through everyone in the Frankie house moving out except the four youngest children, Ruby and Jody, moving back into Jody's isolated $5 million mansion. Both of them teaming up to try and run a podcast empire and Ruby's journals that detail what was happening inside the house in the basement. In the next part, part four, we'll go over the arrest, the evidence, the jailhouse calls, and the conspiracies. So with that being said, there's going to be graphic descriptions of torture, food restriction, ca, csa, religious abuse therapy, abuse, neglect, and details of injuries. So with that being said, let's get started. There's a children's book series called Charlie Bumper. It's about this little boy, Charlie, that just keeps getting himself into comical situations that probably a lot of kids can relate to, but dramatize to make a whole children's book series. It's wholesome. One book is about how much he loves candy and trick or treating and he loves Halloween. But then he's so terrified of. Charlie is so, so scared of scary movies, which is what all of his friends want to watch during the sleepover. And the whole question in Charlie Bumper's mind is, how am I going to survive? They're cute books that nobody ever really talks about unless you're family vlogger youtuber Ruby Frankie. She posts an Instagram a picture of her young son, R, and she captions it. The caption reads, when school started, my son read the Charlie Bumper series, and I began noticing sassy words and entitled attitudes. So I read a few pages of the books and came across the exact behaviors in the book characters. In January, I did a thorough cleaning of books endorsing sassy indignant behaviors and replace them. At this point, netizens, viewers of Ruby Frankie are not even surprised. Before this, like I said, Ruby Frankie was this successful family vlogger with a few million followers, and people would stay tuned to watch her and her husband Kevin raise their six kids together. @ that point, the family was known for being relatively strict because they are from a conservative LDS faith household. But now she's just fully gone off the deep end. What do you mean you're trying to cancel Charlie Bumper? Like, this is crazy business you're talking about what's happening. She would even give an interview with the rap where she tells them because of the people on the Internet, CPS had to come and investigate her household because her son didn't have a bed. Her son was sleeping on a beanbag for nine months. And she says, quote, you get more of a negative reaction when you talk about holding children responsible than if you would if you talked about religion or politics. It's so triggering. People don't want to hear it. Why is that? I remember that morning very well when the CPS workers came to Ruby's home. She said, those officers, you know, there were these two ladies. She said the CPS workers observed her for a few hours, interviewed all of the Frankie kids. When they were done, not only did they not file charges, but Ruby claims to the wrap, they were so impressed with my parenting skills, before leaving, they asked for child rearing tips. They both said they were going to go home and make some changes on how they were parenting.
Kevin Franke
That's crazy.
Narrator
She says it's the audience's fault. In a video she aggressively states, now I'm very aware of people online who hate, hate me, who would like to cancel me, who would like to see me either burn in hell as I have been told, or disappear off the face of the earth. And I'm not going anywhere. After doubling down, Ruby Frankie just gives away her YouTube channel. So after she just digs her feet into the sand, she's like, you know what? I'm going to give away my entire channel that I have made my entire life focus around, not even the kids. Like, she has been neglecting the kids for family vlogging five days a week. And now she's giving it. She's going to hand the entire YouTube business over to Jody Hildebrand, her new life coach. She had hired Jody to help Chad. And Jody's the one that was like, you got to send him to the wilderness camp. You got to take away his bed, you got to take away his bedroom, make his life miserable. And now she's giving her YouTube channel to Jody Hildebrandt, to the point where Kevin and Ruby's YouTube manager, they start freaking out like, this is a red flag. This is getting weird. But Ruby would snap at them. This is not about money. This is about God's soul. We're no longer going to be spending our time on useless things like family vlogging. We are ready for God's calling. We're here to spend. Spread the message. She would tell her viewers while sitting on a couch right next to Jody. You wonder where I've been on my vlogs. You wonder why I left YouTube to save my kids. You know, no amount of money. And I'm telling you, I was making millions and I left it because my kids were being hurt with entitlement. Jody puts her hand on Ruby's thigh, rubbing it as comfort. I left because my kids were being hurt with entitlement. They were being hurt with people's advice, and they didn't have a mother at the front saying, I don't care what the world's opinion is. This is the beginning of Ruby Franke going headfirst into connections, the life coaching business with Jody Hildebrandt. Instead of vlogs, Ruby starts focusing solely on Connections Tip videos. In one clip, Ruby straight up tells her new audience, Jodi and I are teachers. We are teaching you principles of truth. So if you are here to learn how to resolve your own conflicts in your life using principles, you're in the right place. If you're here to offer feedback that's not based in principle, but that is based in your own history being politically correct. You know, according to you, as you interpret, if this is opinion, this is not the place for you. This is a place where you come to learn principles and then practice inserting principles into your conflicts, into your life and into your situation. From there, Ruby's former YouTube followers are just watching her spirit spiral. First, Ruby starts off by saying, there is no such thing as having a disorder that robs you of agency, ever. She says, anxiety is a choice. Depression is a choice. Then the video cuts to Jody and it's like a recorded zoom meeting for connections. And Jody, for some godforsaken reason, is wearing a pair of oversized sunglasses, like she's come into class hungover, but she's loud and she's wearing a bright pink that does not work in her color theory, in my opinion. And the computer camera angle is just like way too high. I feel like I'm watching CCTV footage So I don't know where she gets the confidence from, but she says, I just want to be very clear with you. Your child is not adhd, which is.
Kevin Franke
Like, who is she talking to?
Narrator
Whoever. I think she's, like, trying to give a teaching. They're just yapping, you know, they are a soul that needs to learn how to manage their physiology. Jody then reads a question asked by a viewer during the video meeting. Somebody just asked a question. Does that include children with intellectual disabilities or who have physical brain damage? So I'm going to bring up the story that all of us know Helen Keller. The reason why we know of Helen Keller is because of a woman named Annie Sullivan who did not tolerate Helen Keller's distortions. Now, Helen Keller was disabled back then. She was very disabled. And the reason we don't know about other disabled people back then is probably because they were enabled to see stay in their disabled. And then she rambles on about how she does not care how disabled someone looks, which I don't. Even watching clips of Ruby, Kevin, and Jody talk about connections has fried off about half of my brain cells, and I think I would like to wage a lawsuit. In one clip, Ruby is sitting there all mic'd up. Truth. They love the word truth with a capital T. Truth. Well, it's a term. It's a phrase that everybody assumes they know what it means and it is used. I mean, I've heard from parenting magazines to blogs, you've seen it on all kinds of media. And what exactly is it, Ruby? It's a word that has a relatively simple definition if used correctly. In another clip, Ruby is answering a question from a viewer. The question is, well, that they have a transgender nephew. And this is a demented question, but the question is, should we continue to spend time with my sister and her family because she now has a transgender son? Should we see them less or even completely cut them out of our lives? I'm sorry. Unless your nephew also has a propensity for killing people with an axe on the weekends. What the hell kind of question is that? You're seriously asking if you should cut off your entire family because your nephew is trans? Like, it startles me when evil people are scared of everyone and everything. And I'm like, you're the scary one. You're the scariest person in the room. I don't know why you're scared of innocent people, but Ruby responds, it's like, have you taken a bucket of sugar? I've done this before. I took a five gallon bucket of sugar and I had some cup of leftover salt. I thought it was sugar, but it was salt. And I poured it into the bucket of sugar. Ruby explains she made bread rolls with her sugar. And the kids told her this is the worst batch of bread they've ever had. It's way too salty. Which perplexes Ruby to go and check her gallon of sugar. She realizes that the cup she poured in must have been salt. So she takes off two scoops, two inches off the top of the sugar, thinking, oh, well, I just poured it in, so I must have gotten all the salt out. But she continues that she continued to use the sugar and it was still salty. And she thought, what the heck? So then she got all the way down to the very bottom of the five gallon bucket down there, and it was salty. So she's like, how did that happen? She says, quote, I didn't realize this, but salt is heavier than sugar. And so you just have to pour it in. You don't even have to stir it. It infiltrates all the sugar. There wasn't one spot in that sugar bucket where I could taste sweet because it was contaminated with the salt. So here's the principle. Mom, dad, you are responsible for yourself, for keeping truth around you and your child. And children, they don't have the discernment that you as a parent have. They don't have that. It is your job to teach them truth. And so if you allow other distortions, if you allow other influences to come, even if it's like, hey, just one day or just one hour here, it's going to infiltrate the entire person. Because here's the truth, you know, these are principles. She is comparing trans people as salt that's contaminating buckets of sugar.
Kevin Franke
I don't even know what that story means. And the fact that she's like, connecting it and making it sound like she.
Narrator
Says something worth saying, and it's just transphobia and vile.
Lowe's Advertisement
Yeah.
Kevin Franke
And it made zero sense. Like, zero.
Starbucks Advertisement
Yeah.
Kevin Franke
That's so dumb.
Narrator
Yeah. In another clip, she asks the ingenious question of, you end up pregnant, then you had sex first, or if you were pregnant, you were taken advantage of, and what did you do to put yourself in the situation where you're being taken advantage of? Basically saying, if you were being taken advantage of, why were you taking advantage of? It's your fault. I don't know, Ruby. Maybe someone was just walking down a parking lot. What do you mean? In connections, mental illness does not exist. Which is crazy coming from two of the more mentally ill people. I'VE researched recently. But according to Jody, you can be addicted to mirrors. So maybe they're scared of mirrors. Maybe that's why there's no self reflection being done here. Ruby talks about how one of her kids, she believes, has adhd, but she says there is no such thing as adhd. She says there's no adhd, just extreme irresponsibility. And she was choosing to be extremely irresponsible, super manipulative. And I didn't see it because she was very sweet. She doesn't yell, she doesn't pinch or hit. She's not destructive. On the outward side. When I call her, she comes running, always with a smile. And so it's very hidden for me for a very long time. And it's just she learned how to manipulate. And as we've been holding her accountable, it became very apparent to us there's no attention deficit. She has agency to choose to be attentive if she wants to. There is no power. There is no deficit. There's no personality. There's no disorder. No, there's that. You can, you cannot take agency from you. None. There's no such thing as having a disorder that robs you of your agency. Ever. Netizens from pretty much everywhere that have been following the Frankie family for a while are freaking out because Ruby has finally got off the deep end. They're commenting. The things these women are saying are nonsensical. They throw around buzzwords like truth and distortion in a rambling word salad and they never really end up saying anything at all. It's all very strange and a bit creepy. Definitely stay far away from these people. Another reads. If you listen to their advice, you will likely lose relationships with family members. And when your kids are on their own, they will likely stop talking to you. Because Ruby and Jody are controlling and mean spirited, people start getting worried for Ruby, Frankie's six kids, but even more so now. Neighbors. They see Ruby outside in her front yard. Most likely they've seen the alarming connections videos or 10 of them. And they're waving. Hi. Hey, Ruby. Did Kevin and Chad leave? Where did they go? We never see them. We never see their cars anymore. The neighbor says Ruby just turns to them and bluntly states, every marriage should have a separation. Could be a year, could be five years. The neighbor said it was very weird. Don't miss Good American Family. We have a little girl here for adoption.
Starbucks Advertisement
She has dwarfism.
Narrator
Starring Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplock. Something is off. She's just a little girl. You think she's faking. She has adult teeth. There are signs of puberty. Inspired by the shocking stories that tore a family apart. I don't know what's going on. How old are you?
Starbucks Advertisement
You should get a lawyer.
Narrator
You have no idea how those people hurt this girl. The Hulu Original Series Good American Family New episodes Wednesdays streaming on Hulu.
Lowe's Advertisement
Lowes knows what makes Spring Fest savings even better are member only doorbuster deals right now. Rewards members can save $40 on an Allen and Chesler gold faucet was $99, now $59 plus save $110 on a Cobalt 40 volt battery trimmer and blower combo kit was $279, now $169. Lowe's we help you save valid through 324 while supplies last program subject to terms and conditions. Details@lowes.com Terms subject to change.
Starbucks Advertisement
First decision of the morning. A creamy mocha Frappuccino drink. Or will we ease into the day with a sweet vanilla? Maybe a smooth caramel? Oh, what about that white chocolate mocha? No matter which flavor you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Better coffee starts a better day. Start with bottled Starbucks Frappuccino drinks. Pick up a bottle near you wherever you buy your groceries.
Narrator
Everything begins to spiral after Jody moves in to help with her haunted possessions. Quickly after Sherry moves out, the eldest daughter moves out. Also the author of the book that you should get, she moves to college. BYU Chad is kicked out for viewing explicit materials. He's 17. When he's kicked out, he's kicked out with no support. He has to fend for himself. He has to get a job. He has to walk a mile to school. A neighbor even offered to purchase him a car because they felt so bad. And he said no because it's all about learning discipline. He's 17 when they kick him out. No support. And Ruby was so mad at Chad for viewing explicit material. She believed that Chad was the reason that Jody kept having demonic possessions because he was inviting evil into their home by watching explicit videos. Chad is kicked out around the same time that Kevin, the dad, is also kicked out. So at first, Kevin was the resident exorcist. That's what he called himself. He was helping Jody get rid of the spirits. He says, yeah, I'm fighting evil spirits. I'm casting demons out. Crazy stuff was going on. Now. Side note about the whole possession, Kevin says, you know, I am a smart guy. I'm an engineer. I'm designed to help build some really big stuff. I'm A college professor. I can't explain some of the stuff that happened. So it seems like he truly believed it, which is crazy. But slowly, after Ruby moves upstairs to sleep in the same bed with Jody in Sherry's bedroom, they start pulling away from Kevin and they start kind of signaling him out of the connections groups. They're pushing him out. Initially, Ruby demanded an in home separation from Kevin. Very reminiscent of what Jody had Adam Paul Steed go through in part two, the last part, separation. But living together, Kevin said, it was so hard. There were all these rules now placed on me. I could leave when I wanted, but I couldn't come back home until Ruby gave me permission. I couldn't come into the kitchen to eat until Ruby gave me permission. And the upstairs where Jody roamed, completely off limits. I couldn't go upstairs anymore in my own house. And Ruby would dictate all the terms on how our interactions would be and when we would talk. Ruby even started telling Kevin that he was sick in the head because he enjoyed hugging his young daughters. July 20, 2022. Kevin is officially kicked out. He says he came home from work one day and he says, quote, when I came in the door, Ruby was really intense. And she just bluntly said, our marriage is in serious jeopardy because of you, Kevin, because of your selfishness, because of you and your lustful thoughts and behaviors that you have been hiding. I'm trying to rise up to the measure that God wants me to be and to do the work that he wants for me to do. And you keep holding me and Jody back. I want you to leave the house. I want you to do it immediately. I don't want you to have any contact with me or the children. And so Kevin, he says, one by one, I had the kids sit down and I told them, I'm going to go away for a while and I'm going to go work on myself so that I can come back to the family and be the dad that you deserve. Kevin says it was really hard. The kids were reacting emotionally, but Ruby was just standing there watching. He says, quote, I remember as I was holding my youngest and just crying, she was crying. Ruby was taking pictures with her phone, and she had this smirk on her face. I don't know what she was thinking, but it just looked like, oh, this is such good content.
Kevin Franke
Good content.
Narrator
Yeah. I don't think she was posting it, but I don't know if she wanted to Later. Now, Kevin, the husband, the father, is gone. Sherry, the eldest, is off to college. She's coming in as often as possible to check on her siblings. But Ruby's not really allowing her to check on them. Chad, the second eldest, has been kicked out. Now it's just Ruby and Jody and the four minor children. So the two girls are. They're teenagers, 14 and 15. Then you have the two youngest ones r the little boy that is 11 and then e the youngest, the little girl who is nine. When everyone is gone, it's like the two youngest children become the issue. They become the scapegoat. So in part two, we talked about how Chad was the scapegoat. It seems like they become the scapegoat. Ruby believes that the children are now the devil reincarnated. They have the demons in them. This is how quickly things start spiraling. And you can see a connection between Ruby and Jody's extremism on the Connections podcast, counseling videos and what was happening behind closed doors. So this is what I thought. I was like going through it and I. There are the Connections podcasts that are posted on Spotify from any. I mean, they're all throughout 2023 until the arrest. But primarily there's many episodes in July and August. Ruby had day to day journals where she detailed how she would to her two kids in July up to the August 30, the arrest. So I was trying to see like, are. Are they talking about the same things that they're doing behind the scenes? Because when I'm listening to the Connections podcast, I can see how it's getting a lot more extreme than her initial heavy, extreme parenting views. It's just upping the ante in every single episode. But I'm trying to see for next time if anything like this ever were to happen again. God forbid. Is there any way we could have seen in the podcast anything more that was happening?
Kevin Franke
Did you?
Narrator
I guess we'll see. Now. Sherry, from the get go is the only adult, barely adult in this situation that's alarmed by Jody and what Ruby is doing with her. She's in college now. Like I said, she's no longer living at home. And her dad is telling her that not only is he moving out of the family home, he's got to go work on himself and he's not going to talk to any of the kids for like the next year. Sherry says, I got a call from Kevin. He says, your mother has invited me to leave the house and I'm going to ask that you don't talk to me or Chad at this point. I was like, this is absolutely crazy. And I think I responded and Said, you know, I'm confused and, like, I wish you the best. But, like, I was worried about the kids now that are at home. Kevin says he can't risk it. He can't risk even talking to his kids. He says, quote, going into the no contact separation, I was terrified that I was going to lose my marriage, that Ruby was going to ask for a divorce. I was 100% compliant by that point. I was going to support her over all my children, period. And somehow I had to convince Jody that I was ready to go back to Ruby. Kevin's just out here waiting for Ruby to call him, take him back. Meanwhile, he's still doing group therapy with Jody. Side note, Chad is also out living alone at 17 years old, but still paying $900 from his own funds to get therapy from Jody. Kevin would later say he was paying her more than he was paying in rent, like, three times as much working as a lifeguard. Kevin would later say that Chad probably felt the same way he felt, which is he wants to do the best that he can to make Ruby and Jody proud. That's all he cares about. Which Chad is so understandable. He's a victim in this. But Kevin, does he really need to cut off his entire family? Sherry remembers feeling hurt that each time she tried to reach out to him, he just ignored her. She remembers, after a month, I texted Kevin from college just saying, I love you, I miss you. I saw that he hearted the message, and then a minute later, he unhearded it. I was just like, what are you doing? Like, pull your head out of your ass and, like, come back. And I think I got blocked after that, so I stopped sending text messages. This was made even more uncomfortable by the fact that Kevin works at BYU and Sherry is a student at byu. They actually ran into each other once. Sherry says, our eyes locked for a split second. He looked like hell warmed over. Then he shot me a strained fake smile, darted his gaze away, walking faster, like he couldn't get away from me quick enough. Not a single word, just this pathetic little grimace. She says, I wanted to run after him, grab him by the shoulders and yell in his face, are you blind? Where are your kids? Don't you care? But I just stood there, frozen. Even neighbors and online Internet users, netizens, were seeing the concerned shift of Ruby online and in person. And they knew that Kevin was no longer in the house. There was, like a whole forum online discussing, wait, I think Kevin moved out. The Internet was never really told or informed or kept in the loop, but it just Seemed like a whole thing. There were rumors circulating. One neighbor says, I think if anything, we hoped that Kevin would come home and either remedy the situation or get those kids away from what we felt was a dangerous situation. One neighbor texts Kevin, hey, man, you have four cops outside your house. FYI, hope things are okay. What's going on? Because a lot of the times neighbors and Sherry would continuously call cps, but they would do nothing. Another would text kevin, you can't abandon your kids. The neighbors would get blocked by Kevin. Yes. Episode 237 of the Connections podcast with Ruby Frankie. Date July 12, 2020 03:49 Days Before Rescue Title Preserve the Relationship hello everyone, I'm your host, Ruby Franke. Welcome to another episode of the Connections podcast where we help you create joy in your life and relationships. How many of you are listening have adult children? Or maybe you're a parent who knows your child is doing something that is incongruent with the values that your child has been taught. But when they come home, when you come together, no one acknowledges that they actually know what's going on. So there's this elephant in the room and nobody wants to talk about that elephant in the room. Why? Because, and here's the distortion, because I want to preserve the relationship. I've heard that so many times. So this today is woman's question. She said, you know, my kids are posting lies on Facebook and then they come over and act all loving, like we don't know what's going on. I would ask this mother, are you not acting as if nothing's going on? What have you done to bring up this with your child? Have you sat your child down at the dinner table? I mean, I can see it.
Kevin Franke
What is child posting again?
Narrator
You said lies on Facebook. Okay, whatever that means. Here's what I would do. Confrontation is necessary and you can do it in a loving way. You don't have to do it in a finger pointing way. But you can have your family over, get some baked potatoes going, grab everyone you know a cup of grape juice in their cups and you pull up your phone and you say, I see you posted this on Facebook. Will you help me understand why you posted this? Everyone wants connection. Everyone wants to know they have a friend. Everyone wants to have family. Everyone wants to have a safe space where they can go. Everyone wants someone who is understanding of their choice. Everyone wants someone who is understanding of their hurt. Everybody. This is universal. I don't care where you live. I don't care how much money you make. I don't care how distorted you are or how truthful you are. Everybody wants this. It is a universal need. We are humans. We are vulnerable. This is a need. But you have to stand up and say, this isn't a relationship, and I'm not going to pretend like it's being preserved. Do you like what you're hearing so far? Make sure you never miss an episode by subscribing to our show. I'm your host, Ruby Franke, and thanks for listening. Listening. Sherry thinks this whole thing is getting out of control. Why is everyone in the family getting kicked out of the family home while Jody gets to march in here, take Sherry's room, make all the decisions? Sherry says, I remember looking up Jody just to see, you know, who she was. And I learned that she's not a psychologist, even though she's always claimed to be one. Just from reviews online, I read that she had destroyed families. She was on probation with her license. She wasn't even married. Her kids didn't even talk to her. And I remember being like, why are we working with this woman? Side note, Ruby forced Sheri to do sessions with Jody before Sheri moved out. The sessions were insane. Sheri would talk to Jody about how she struggles with low self esteem and self hatred, but Jodi would tell her, no. You struggle with thinking you're better than everyone. And Sheri's like, actually, that's the opposite of how I feel. And then Jody's like, no, nope. She forces Sheri to write down any minute time that she feels superior to anyone. Things like, quote, felt proud of my extensive vocabulary during a presentation. Does this not remind you of Jesse hildebrandt from Part 2? Write down every sin.
Kevin Franke
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Narrator
That's not thinking she's better than anyone. Being proud of your extensive vocabulary is not thinking you're superior. That's just called being proud of yourself. It's a healthy emotion. Jody tells her quote, very good, Sherry. So let's say you assume that you're going to ace a test because, of course, you think you're so very clever. Change the language in your mind. Flip it. Think to yourself, oh, my gosh, I'm going to fail this test because I'm a very stupid little girl. Be humble, Sherry. You are far less clever than you think you are.
Kevin Franke
Whoa.
Narrator
Sherry confronts Ruby. Mom, Jody's therapist license was revoked for what she's done. Ruby just stares at her. You're trying to sabotage everyone's success. You don't like Jody, and anyone who doesn't like Jodie is hiding something. It means that you're threatened by the truth that she's speaks. Her license was suspended. Her own kids don't talk to her. Her kids can't handle the truth. She has been called by God to help people. Now, because Sherry keeps trying to reach out to Chad and Kevin, who refuse to talk to her, she keeps trying to talk some sense into Ruby. Things between Ruby and Sherry start getting really tense to the point where Sherry needs to go pick up a car title. She has to bring a close family friend with her, an adult family friend named Mrs. Haymond, whom Sherry will later start calling Mom. She later starts calling Mr. Heyman dad as well. And they open their home to Sherry. Whenever things got really bad in the Frankie house, she brings Mrs. Heyman for emotional support.
Kevin Franke
What's their relationship?
Narrator
They're like church family friends, I believe. And they very much disagree with everything Ruby, Frankie and Jody Hildebrand are doing. They drive up to get the car title. Ruby opens the door. She steps out and she's scathing. Sherry, you're causing a lot of damage to the family. And you've shown that you don't want to be part of our family. And you have been very active in deceiving and creating chaos, pain and destruction. Destruction. The outcomes are devastating to your siblings and I feel great grief and loss at your choices. It has come to my attention that you called me abusive. Wow, Sherry, that word is heavily loaded with intimidation. It's hurtful. You would use that word knowing the pain that this lie has caused. I will keep you in my prayers. You appear to be a very lost soul. Ruby looks at her, practically spitting in her face now, just spit flying out of her mouth. You've always hated me, ever since you were five years old. I could see it in your eyes, the way you looked at me, the way you judged me. You've never appreciated anything I've done you, all the sacrifices I've made. Sherry tells her that's not true. I never hated you. I was just scared of you. But Ruby is not letting down. She says you're like the Romans in the Bible, feeding me vinegar when I'm dying of thirst, crucifying me for your own selfish gains. Mrs. Haymond, who Sherry brought along for emotional support, says Sherry had tears. She was shaking. I mean, I had tears streaming down my face. And the only person that had no emotion was Ruby. She was stone cold zero emotion. Only anger and animosity and defense. I did not know how a woman who gave birth could sit there like that and listen to their daughter weep and beg. It was horrible. I had to get Sherry out of there. After that, Mrs. Heyman grabs the documents from Ruby and they walk back to the car where she states, sherry just melted, Just fell apart. She's still shaking. She was just looking through her phone, looking and looking, and she just said she was showing pictures. This is my mom. This is my mom. This is who I know my mom to be. That was not my mom. And it seems that Rupee had literally come to see evil in everyone around her. And now the only people left in that house are the four young children. As for how a mother can so easily say things like that to their own children, this might provide insight in another Connections video with Jodie. Ruby is sitting on the couch looking like. I mean, honestly, they look like two moms who came to a potluck with some nasty casserole. And she says about telling people that her kids are never going to talk to her. She tells them, you know these people, they push back and say, whoa, your discipline is mean. You're not going to be loved. Your children are going to kick you out of their lives. So when people say, well, if you do that, then your kid's not going to trust you. If you do that, then your kid's not going to love you. Well, exactly. I'm just revealing that my child is refusing to love me unconditionally, and I don't want anyone in my life who's not going to be loving. So if my child will only love me if I give them what they want, that's not really love. So this takes a very strong soul because most of us are not even willing to consider not having our children in our lives. And I hope that you all will reconsider. So once everybody is effectively kicked out except for the four youngest children, the two youngest teenagers, 14 and 15 years old, the teenage girls, they're mostly left in the Frankie family house, house where all the vlogging had occurred. They're left there, the two youngest, R, the little boy who's 11, and E, the youngest daughter who's nine, Ruby and Jody. They keep taking them to Jody Hildebrandt's isolated home in the Red Red Rock Mountain areas.
Kevin Franke
Why is that? What are they doing there?
Narrator
They believe that the two youngest have the devil in them and they need the devil tortured out. And that's when they start enacting torture that includes starvation until they are nothing but skin and bones. R's eventual shoulder blade are just looking like they're going to pierce through his skin. They torture the kids forcing them to develop sores, blisters, wounds. The wounds go so deep that you can see the tissue and muscles. Ruby and Jodie would directly pour cayenne pepper and honey into them to cleanse the devil out. They were beaten, tortured. They did not get access to water. They were forced to run into a cactus over and over. They were exposed to extreme heat. They were hogtied. They were forced under so much duress that they were defecating themselves. Water was restricted to the point where the kids were, quote, stealing water from the hose, which they would get punished for. And all of this is logged in Ruby's journal, where she details how she's trying to get the demons out of her youngest children. And this is all happening mainly in the basement that is Jody's Twitter chamber and her $5 million mansion. And while that's happening, they're still posting on their Connections podcast, giving parenting adv to other moms. And the episodes get increasingly more alarming. Episode 238 of the Connections podcast, hosted by Ruby Franke. Date July 22, 2020 03:39 Days Before Rescue Episode Title Parable of the Pineapple hello, everyone. I'm your host, Ruby Franke. The story I'm going to share with you has been a part of my life for many, many years, and I'm going to share it with you today. It's called the Parable of the Pineapple. This is a parable of love, of repentance, of compassion. All those words go together. Did you know that they're synonymous? So when I was a young mom, my oldest was about 6. My son Chad was about 4. Then I had this 2 year old and I was about to have another baby. I was pregnant. I was really tired, it was the afternoon and I needed to lay down and put my feet up for an hour. The kids had a movie on and I said, I'm gonna lay down upstairs. Don't move from the couch. You have your blanket. You've gone to the bathroom. The doors are locked and bolted. I'm gonna just lay down. And they were full, they were emptied. So I thought, everything's good. I said, do not, under any circumstances, go into the kitchen. Do not go into the kitchen. You stay right here and you watch this movie for an hour. I went upstairs, laid down, and an hour later I came down and the movie was still going. They're cuddled in their blankets and I thought, oh, good. They did what they were told. I was so glad. So I went into the kitchen to prepare for some Food. I walked in and my feet, they stuck. I'm like, my foot is stuck to the floor. As I lifted my little foot off the floor, I could hear the stickiness. I could hear it with my ears. I thought, oh, my God, what is on this floor? I knelt down, I smelt it. Pineapple juice. What in the world? How did pineapple juice get on the floor? So I called my kids over. They said, no, no, no, we don't know why the floor is sticky. There's something going on, you know. And I said, well, one of you or both of you know something and you're not telling me. Then my son showed me the fridge where there was a Tupperware of pineapple with some juice in it. He said he went into the kitchen to eat pineapple, spilt it. It got everywhere. But he hurried and cleaned it. He showed me how he got the paper towels and cleaned it. And I looked at him and I said, that's dishonest. So I proceeded to tell him the truth. And here's why he's being dishonest. Because his confession came as I was pulling it out of him. Honesty doesn't require anyone on the other side pulling the facts out of you. Honesty is. I'm going to present myself without any force behind me. It's going to be my drive by internal motivation to be connected with God. You cannot manipulate someone into being honest. You cannot manipulate someone into being truthful. So I, nine months pregnant, cleaned the kitchen with my son for hours that day. I said, look, look, you have your mother, who is about to give birth, on her hands and knees cleaning up the mess when she should have been resting in bed. Instead. I'm on all fours cleaning up now, something that you did and lied about. My motive was to invite my child to have empathy, to have love, and to have a desire to repent. It took him 10 seconds to pop a lid off the pineapple bucket. That took 10 seconds, took us four hours to clean up off the floor. There will be people who say, that's mean. That's over the top. My goodness, that's a bit harsh. Maybe, just maybe, if I make this a visceral experience, he will remember this and he will take it with him when he's older. Maybe when he's older and he's with a young woman and he wants to take something from her. Is she talking about sa? He will remember. Oh, I remember how sick in, how much work it was to clean up after taking something I shouldn't have. I don't want to do that. The parable of the pineapple is when someone has done something selfish, I'm gonna intervene as the mother and reflect the truth. I'm your host Ruby Franke and thanks for listening.
Walmart Advertisement
Walmart plus it's Walmart plus free delivery which saves members time plus money Yep plus an included Paramount plus subscription to stream movies, shows, sports and that can't miss documentary Plus Burger King savings that's right. Members get 25% off Burger King digital orders every day of the week. Walmart+ It's Walmart+ Become a member at walmartplus.com 35 order minimum Fairmont+ essential plan only separate registration required. Valid and participating USVKs in the BK app or bk.com for members only 25 off one time per calendar day. Terms apply. See Walmart+ terms and conditions Morning Decisions.
Starbucks Advertisement
A creamy Mocha Frappuccino drink A sweet vanilla, maybe a smooth caramel or that white chocolate mocha. Whichever you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Start your day with bottled Starbucks Frappuccino drinks. Pick up a bottle near you wherever you you buy your groceries. Worried about what ingredients are hiding in your groceries? Let us take the guesswork out. We're Thrive Market, the online grocery store with the highest quality standards in the industry. We restrict 1000 plus ingredients so you can trust that you'll only find the best high quality, organic and sustainable brands, all free of the junk, with savings up to 30% off and fast carbon neutral shipping. You get top trusted groceries at your door and you can stop worrying about what your kids get their hands on. Start shopping@thrivemarket.com podcast for 30% off your first order and a free gift.
Narrator
Ruby's journal entry reads, R turns 12 tomorrow. I never envisioned him being 12, still peeing and pooping himself. Satanic choices lead one to becoming destitute even in the most affluent homes. It's R's birthday and he doesn't even know what month it is. E and R have been in so much deviant behavior they cannot control their bodily functions. They are both furious that their selfish, sinful lifestyle is being intervened upon. I told R he emulates a snake. He slithers and sneaks around looking for opportunities when no one is watching. And then he scurries. If he wants to emulate the Savior, he needs to be 100% obedient with exactness. No wandering, no height. She talks about how she tells her kids that they need to fast and pray to God, which is basically her just starving them. She writes. E still likes to think she can manipulate me. I gave her a pixie haircut. All her long hair is gone. No more distracting with hair. R told me that he would rather have a glass of water than me as a mother. R is defiant again. He pooped his pants and is telling me no. His poop is too watery to be fasting. R admits to stealing water three times yesterday. R lies and feels no remorse. R's feet are swollen from standing. He is angry that nobody cares. I told him he is acting like a man having a heart attack and gets his feelings hurt because nobody cares about the sliver in his finger. When your soul is dying, nobody cares about your feet. She writes that her youngest 9 year old daughter is delusional and has made no progress and continues to lie and manipulate. She says quote last night her screaming and trance head banging. So in desperation the little girl would bang her head on the floor. She writes they were evidence of no change. They also would put E in the closet which is reminiscent of what Jodi Hildebrandt did to her niece Jesse Hildebrandt. And E would scream much of the day. She was not allowed to have water. She was not allowed to have food just like her older brother. And Ruby writes Monday, Jody woke up from a dream. God lets her know we have done everything we can to get E attention. Lorde tells her don't continue these physical and interventions. They only bring resentment. E is angry about her feet. We dress her wounds and leave her to me. She also writes that her kids are fighting back in like and I say that with like. They're they have good spirits. I don't know how else to describe it. So R would tell the mother like I would rather have a glass of water than you as a mother. And E would say my mom starves me and calls it fasting. My mom won't lift a finger and bring me food because all she does is lie on the bed and eat brown. My mom says she is the most loving mom in the world, blah blah blah. If I can't ever go home then what's the point in being obedient? I'm going to run away.
Kevin Franke
When was that shared?
Narrator
This was in July in the journal that Ruby is writing. Ruby continues to write that the devil is in both of her kids and they need harsher punishments. She writes, I doused her with the dog wash so she would bring Ian to the dog wash station and douse her with water and then shave her hair. And she would write that E would lay on the floor because she is so distraught and R would defecate himself. Ruby writes, oppositional force is required for growth, development, maturity. E and R have never experienced oppositional force. They are very weak minded. Episode 242 of the Connections podcast hosted by Ruby Franke. Date August 19, 2020 03:11 Days Before Rescue Episode Title Keeping Kids Safe in a Predatory Society hello everyone. I'm your host, Ruby Franke. When I was in the third grade, I had a yellow lab. Her name was Sunny. This is her dog. Sunny was a really, well, rambunctious dog. She was a puppy at the time. In May for school, we were told that we could bring our animals for show and tell outside. And I was so excited because I knew I had this new puppy, this dog. And that day there were animals all over the place. We had birds, there were gerbils, there was a hamster, I think someone brought a turtle. There was a fish bowl and I brought my dog and someone brought their rabbit and. Yeah, well, can you see where this is going? I went disconnected because I wasn't thinking about how my dog being let loose was going to affect the other animals in the play yard. I'm also thinking that the teachers were probably disconnected and in distortion because either they didn't give me the instruction or I wasn't even paying enough attention. Well, what do you think happened? This dog, this was like, heyday. It was like my dog was like, thank you, Ruby. This is the best day of my life. Animals naturally know who their predators are. When the rabbit saw my dog bounding for it, it did not roll over dead. The rabbit had some sense. It didn't want to run into the jaws of its predator. The animals that don't protect themselves get killed. Off they go extinct. But the human, as far as I know, is the only creature who actually goes and flirts with their predators. We flirt with those things and entities and beliefs that will kill our soul. We don't even know we're being ravaged. We don't even know we're being hurt. We're like, yeah, I'm being hurt, but I don't care. I'm gonna do it anyway. What I'm saying is that when you show up in your child's life in a dishonest way, it doesn't matter where, it doesn't matter how or when. But you are giving your child instruction on how to move toward a predator and jump into the predator's arms and not tell you about it. Children need love, and you can't do it when you are moving towards your predator. Explicit materials, gambling, sex trafficking, Lying, the selfishness, the idea that I am what I feel, the idea that I get to do what I want because I want to. Those are lies that kill our soul. I'll never forget that show and tell. Except I did forget the ending. I'm your host, Ruby Franke. Thanks for listening. Ruby's journal entry reads, these wicked spirits in E and R have been pals long before this life. How ENR got to come and get a body can only be explained in advocating for their mother. This is not a conceited statement. God knew I would take my responsibility to mother seriously. Jody teamed to help. These two souls are very weak. Ruby writes that it was a big day for evil, that E was manipulating her. She says that E won't scream and cry when Jodie's around, but she will in front of Ruby. That she'll scream and cry all night long and hit her head on the tile floor all night long. Now, side note, this is very reminiscent of Jesse Hildebrand. They said that anytime they showed any sort of sadness, it was seen as manipulation. So when E is showing that she's so distraught from the trauma and the torture, maybe it is to some degree pulling at some heartstring deep down. But the fact that they call it manipulation is so vile. How can you see that as manipulation? That is a reaction to the crimes that you're committing. She details how she'll get a cactus poker and poke the kids around with the cactus poker, which is basically just like a stick with a cactus on the other end.
Kevin Franke
Like needles, basically. You're stabbing the kid.
Narrator
Yes, with cactuses. She writes that R doesn't even flinch. I poke him in the neck. He is in a trance and doesn't appear to feel anything. Thing. Jody slaps him on the cheeks to wake him up. The devil doesn't like when you get your subject to anger, to truth. I take my old mop water, go to R. I show R the water, then I pour the water on R. It's hot outside, I say. It feels good, doesn't it? An hour later, Jody takes R on a little walk to the pool. Jody then pushes R into the pool. R. Swam to the side. Jody pulled him out. Feel good? Refreshing? Yes, ma'am. R Cooled off and went back to his spot. I put my hands on his face. So she details how she keeps telling the kids that she's doing this because she loves them. And the saddest part is, authorities would later state to some degree that the kids felt like they deserved this, that they were evil. So it's like a mixture of extreme physical and emotional and mental torture non stop.
Kevin Franke
So I mean not that excuses anything, right? But do you think Ruby truly believed that's what she's doing? Like try to beat the evil out of the kids or.
Narrator
That's debated amongst netizens or online Internet users I guess. But some people believe that she acted like she believed it, but there's no way she deep down believed it. It seems like maybe she had contempt for her kids already or the fact that she was a mother. It's not like the kids kids. I think first of all, if a mother shows content for her kids, that's not a mother. But it's just is this an excuse or is this a belief that she has. Still doesn't excuse anything. However, it is up for debate. In one part of her journal, Ruby writes our stole water. He's. She says he's stealing water because she's dehydrating him. He was angry and looked like he wanted to fist up. I put my hands on his shoulders and told him I loved him. I told him he has no idea what he's doing but I can help him. I told him, give your demon friend a message for me. I will not rest. I will not stop. I will not leave. I will fight him until the demon in you dies. I have the power of God. I beat Satan. I win. This is a big debate that netizens have. Did Jodie and Ruby really believe that they were possessed by demons? These two kids, like I said, said it still doesn't excuse anything, but I don't know if they did because another thing that netizens point out is when Jody said that she was possessed by Satan and like the demons would enter her body, she wasn't getting poked with a cactus poker, she wasn't being starved. She was eating Dairy Queen on a daily basis and just fried chicken and ranch non stop. She did not have to go through any of this.
Kevin Franke
Yeah.
Narrator
And it just seems like this is Jody's pattern from the get go. Jody was born into a really conservative military household. Like they ran it like a military. Jesse, Jody's niece, states that it was probably pretty rough for Jodi Hildebrandt growing up. She was the second youngest of seven children. She would spend more time with animals than she would with people. She said that she was raised by goats. That's how Jody describes it. When she was very young, she was assaulted by a teenage neighbor kid. This is when she was a few years old. And then later when she was around seven years Old. She was assaulted again by another teenager. Essayed. And we can have sympathy for Jody as a child, but as an adult, it seems like her whole purpose is to ruin people's lives. Jesse remembers hearing a story from their family of Jody had an issue with the teacher growing up. It's like Jody made it her life's mission to ruin this teacher's entire career and life. Eventually, Jody gets married, has two kids. She was married for about a year and a half. She was actually pregnant with her second child when the divorce proceedings began. It was agreed upon by people who knew Jody that the divorce was dragged out for years because Jody more or less wanted to destroy her ex husband through the legal system and run this man into the ground and tap dance on his ashes, which sounds like something Jody would do. Jesse, who is cousins with Jody's kids, they say it sucks because yes, we want to believe woman. We want to believe abuse, of course, and as a victim of abuse myself, I want to be believed, of course. And I don't know him, Jody's ex husband. I don't know him personally, but Jody's daughter and I, we've kept in contact over the years. She has a beautiful relationship with her father, loves him to death. He loves her. He's so supportive, so kind, really helped her through her own process. Meanwhile, she has nothing to do with her mother. Jody changed her name, has no contact with Jody. In fact, Jody's daughter told Jesse, I cannot be around my mom. I can't ever be around her again because if she told me the sky was yellow, I would believe her. She has this ability to just get in your soul. It's horrifying. There's no real way of explaining it to people. Unless you've experienced it yourself or experienced this level of abuse, there's no way of understanding it. Episode 237 of the Connections podcast with Jody Hildebrandt Date July 15, 2020 03:46 Days Before Rescue Title A Mother's Instinct to Protect how can we wake up the women of the world and get them back to their natural instincts? Every animal in this world has protected instincts as mothers. The women, the humans, have lost their motherly instincts to protect. Their young women choose to hook up and be sexual with males. Those men are also men who have lost their fatherly instincts because both the men and women of this world are not being nurtured. They're not being taught the truth. They're not being truly loved. Here's our question for the episode sent in by Alyssa. Hello, I'm A single mother of a two year old boy. His dad was physically and emotionally abusive to me the whole pregnancy. And as expected, I'm traumatized for life. That's an interesting statement that she says. So she made the decision to hook up with this man and she's been with him, you know, for a period of time, I don't know how long, and now she's saying I'm traumatized. So you've been quote, unquote traumatized for life and you're wondering if you should place an innocent, naive, defenseless, dependent child around someone who has abused a full grown adult. Now just think about that for a minute. Why are you asking me that? How come you don't know the answer to that? And I really am sincere. The only person in this situation that has power is you. Your son doesn't have power because he's 2. Because you're the actual issue here, not your son and not this man.
Kevin Franke
This is Jody, right?
Narrator
Are you a woman that thinks through your decisions? Are you a woman concerned about being in a relationship with a man? Like you have a man in your life right now? Now you have a child and now you're not just focusing on protecting you? If someone is being abusive, then you need to get away from that person that's being abusive. Of course, if someone is abusing anyone, you don't put a child. I don't care how old the child is. Any human that's below the age of 18, you do not place in the care of custody or, you know, temporary engagement with someone who's abusive. You just don't do that. You don't need to ask anybody about that. I understand that many laws in the world support that it's okay to keep kids in abusive environments. But a man or a woman can be, you know, being abusive and they still have their children given to them, which is horrible. And I understand why the law does that, because there's so much deception. They don't know who's telling the truth. They're sitting in this place where they can't assess who's abusing who. But I don't know, maybe you're abusive as well. No clue. If you're not, and this is all about him being abusive, then I would invite you to get as far away from the abuse as possible possible. Don't place your child or anyone around that person. I would not put myself around anyone who is abusive. So the clear answer is you squawk and complain that they're abusive to you and your children when the reality is you're just as selfish as they are. For heaven's sake, you can walk away. Your son is barely going to be able to walk. You can walk. You have access to money. You make money. You can get up and leave. You have all sorts of abilities. Your son has none. So I want to talk to you as a woman to a woman and invite you to be responsible for yourself. You know, I'm inviting you to be responsible for the fact that you participated in the traumatization, because at any moment, you could have left and you chose not to. So I hope that you will rise. Thank you for listening. And if you're not already subscribed, please subscribe to the podcast Cast the very same day, July 15, 2023. A journal entry reads, R runs away at 1:15am he leaves. The journal reads, oh, man, I am shaking. I am shaking.
Kevin Franke
Joe Ruby wrote this.
Narrator
At 2:45, I wake up straight up. I couldn't see R. He was gone. She was having R. Sleep out on the balcony of, like, the patio of the mansion. And again, very reminiscent of what Jesse Hildebrandt went through. I opened the sliding glass door and there was no sign of him. He did leave an arrangement of rocks and letters. He wrote me a message. I was too scared to read it. I ran up to Jody's room and woke her up. She came out with me. The message said in Pebbles, I'm going to jail. I will call when I get there. Again, she convinced both of the kids that they are evil and that they're going to jail.
Kevin Franke
So the kids kid just said that I'm going to jail.
Narrator
Again, very reminiscent of Jesse Hildebrandt who was like, please just call the police. If I'm that bad, I'd rather go to jail. Jody and I scoured the house and yard. Jody got flashlights. We took her car and I got mine. So she's saying that she was praying to God to find. And she was like, okay, there was a split in the road. Should I go left? Should I go right? Eventually, she goes left, but she doesn't see R anywhere. So then she turns around and goes right, which is initially what she felt that God had told her to do. So she goes the way that God told her to do. And she finds R. He's just walking on the side of the road, maybe to the police station. She writes, I get out of the car. R is shocked to see me. I say, get in the car. You shocked to see me. R Nods his head and gets in E in the back. Me and R in the front. The devil wants me in prison. My children would be dead. I met Jody back home to de escalate the situation. I brought R into the house. I tied rope to my feet and hem to my waist and him his. He will now sleep in a soft bed with me. The devil got a bed. It's not just Sherry and former viewers of eight passengers that are freaking out neighbors that live near the Frankie house where Jody and Ruby barely are anymore. They just have left the two teenage daughters home alone for days. And they disappear for days. Sometimes neighbors said that they would drive past the Frankie home and they would see children inside and they would just see these little kids faces peering out the window. And hours later they would drive again. Same faces peering out the window. Window. And they don't know what to do. CPS won't do anything. They knock on the door, nobody answers even though they know the kids are home. It's likely Ruby and Jody threaten them with all sorts of things if they were to open the door. So now all the neighbors do and all they can resort to is leaving food at the front door just in case.
Kevin Franke
That's wild.
Narrator
Episode 240 of the Connections podcast hosted by Ruby Frankie. August 5, 2020 03:25 Days Before Rescue Episode Title Distorted Boredom hello everyone. I'm your host, Ruby Franke. One thing all humans desire is to be connected with other people. I enjoy running into people. I saw someone today that I haven't seen in quite some time and it was exciting to see them. All of us want friendship. All of us want to feel interested and we want others to be interested in us. And when I go into a space where I'm not being connected or stimulated, I can choose if I go into creativity or if I go into boredom. I ran into this person. Now I came home and now I'm sitting and I have space and I don't have time to go anywhere. Now I have a choice. I can choose to say, oh, this feels really good. I have a moment to catch my breath. Or I can feel nervous. I don't have anything to do. I feel nervous. If I have downtime, I feel nervous. It's a choice. Boredom is a choice. And boredom is a sense of entitlement. Children get bored. They are living in distortion. If my child is getting more aggressive and saying that's not good enough for me, I'm entitled to something more stimulating. No, you need to arouse me in the way that I like. I'm not talking sexual, I'm talking everybody has a body Everybody has thoughts. We like to be aroused in a way that is stimulating. Boredom is distorted little by little. If I become full of distortion, I'm numb. I have apathy for myself, I have apathy towards others. I really am using other people to make me feel something. If you are a mother and you have children who are bored, I hope you'll share this podcast with your children. Ruby's journal reads, the world we live in today does not support children being uncomfortable. The adults are uncomfortable with children being uncomfortable. And so children are comforted, entertained, distracted from the need to confess and change. Stripping down a child's world to the basics of beans and rice and hard work is considered abuse and it's not. It's necessary for a child. Ruby and Jody are so concerned that when a child is bored, bad things happen. Meanwhile, they themselves are so bored and so evil, they start rationalizing and coming up with the most sinister torture plans in their minds. They even find find stories to justify their torture. Ruby's journal reads, if you can engage a weak minded soul in a physical activity of obedience, you can begin to break the bond Satan makes with the weak. She says children need farm work, lifting boxes, exerting energy, exercises, jump rope, milking cows, weeding a garden, digging trenches. Satan cannot go where there is good, begin doing good and sweating for good. They start complaining in the journals that the problem for the two kids is that all the hard labor that they force the two 11 and 9 year old to do does not have meaning. They're just doing it for pure torture and they feel like that's not good enough. They would force E to carry these heavy boxes of books up and down the stairs and she's malnourished, she's dehydrated, she would slip and fall and Ruby would detail how she believes that this is pure manipulation, that she's doing this on purpose because she's evil. Because Satan is here. She would shave their heads, she would throw them in the dog wash, she would force them back into work. She also talks about how R was sitting in the shade and she asked, what do you want? He said, I just want different foods in a soft bed. She said, why don't you ask Satan? Do you think Satan will give you those things? No. Why not? Because he doesn't have the power. Now why would you serve a God who has no power to your desire? Dumb. He is silent. A few days later, Ruby writes that she asks her own son if he likes sleeping on the hard ground outside on the balcony because she quote, I get to sleep in a soft bed. Ruby writes extensively about how E is manipulative and that she whines because that's the devil in her. She says whining is the devil's voice. Whining is always a demon. E quote, hurt facial expressions, blame me for her misery. It is E at the center of her misery. Her face is deceptive. They also write how, quote, jody and I took her to Hellhole Road. Remember that from part two? Yes. There is such a road on the way to Las Vegas. This is in the journal E was to run on the dirt road. She ran for a bit and then started manipulating. She claims that E threw herself into a tree and into a cactus. But later, in a plea agreement, Jody admits that she forced E to run into the cactus practice. She also writes in her journal, and I just don't see how. I mean, even if she believes that there are demons in her kids because she's completely lost her mind. I don't know how you can for your children, and I don't know how you can write this in your journal and not wake up to what's going on. She writes, R's rage comes out when he can't have what he wants, which is to serve the devil, have no responsibility, and have me mom love on him, cuddle him him. It seems like R probably just asked for some maternal love. He wants both. Feed me, hug me, be tender with me, shower me in praise and affection, and let me lie to you and abuse you. Today he rages for hours. He screamed you at least 50 times. I'm not going to lie anymore. I'm never going to change. Take me to jail where I belong. She said that she asked E and R, what are you going to say when God comes and you see God? You? R responds, sure. Sherry makes a call to the Springville police station. Hi, my name is Sherry Frankie. My four younger siblings are living in Springville, and my neighbors are telling me that they've been left home alone. So I was curious if someone could go check on them. The CPS workers as well as the police. Go, they knock on the door and it's pretty clear that the two teenage girls are home. But it seems like they were instructed that they cannot open the door for anyone. And they were probably scared that they were going to jail because it seems like a reoccurring thing where Jody and Ruby would tell the kids, the four remaining minors, like, you're going to go to jail. You're so evil. And as for why the police can't go in, they would need a warrant by the judge, and the officer said the judge would not sign off on it because nobody had seen signs of physical abuse. And the way the laws are set up in Utah, the kids are old enough to be home alone. It seems like there were a lot of reasons. So it just they couldn't get a warrant. Eventually, Sherry is told by the CPS worker, I'm sorry, Sherry. Personally, I want you to know that I'm really concerned, but there's nothing that we can do. So from that point forward, anytime CPS was called, they couldn't do anything. And ever since then, neighbors never see the kids outside again. It's like the house goes on lockdown. All the kids have been pulled out of school already, but now the kids can't even go out. They can't even walk the family dog because Ruby gave away the family dog. Sherry does get ambushed by Ruby later, who is screaming at her. I can't believe you called the police on me. After everything that I've done for you, after all the sacrifices that I've made, how could you betray me like. Like that? Sherry's just asking her. Betray you? I was worried about the kids. They're fine. This is about you, Sherry, and your need for attention and your jealousy. Ruby would tell Sherry that her siblings are terrified of her for calling the police on them. She says, one day, Sherry, you will come crawling back to me, begging for my forgiveness. Episode 241 of the Connections podcast with Jody Hildebrandt August 12, 202318 Days Before Rescue Episode Title holding onto trauma will make you sick. Here's our question. Are things like PTSD distortion? I've been diagnosed with PTSD and when I have flashbacks, the fear returns as strong as ever, even though I'm safe. I was wondering your thoughts on this and if you knew any ways to help. Any guidance is welcome. Now, I know there are some people who don't want to heal. They're not really interested in healing. They're interested in staying in this victimized position. Jodi Hildebrandt goes on to rant about the DSM 5 by describing it as a psychology book from the 60s that just keep adding to it to create the ultimate book of disorders. Maybe you like the attention you get from being a victim. I don't know what your particular case is, but the question was if the PTSD keeps getting triggered, is that a distorted fear? The answer is yes, because that is not the truth today. Maybe you just like being the victim. Maybe you like the attention you get from being a victim. I don't know what your particular case says. I'm not trying to be insensitive. I've had a lot of trauma in my life and I've healed all of it. But you are choosing to lie over choosing the truth. That's another way to say it. Distortion means I participate in deception. Self deception. Thanks for joining me. I'm your host Jodi Hildebrand. And thanks for listening. According to Jody, holding on to trauma is staying in a state of self deception. Distortion. A synonym would be delusion. Delusional. But it appears only Ruby and Jodie are delusional. Ruby writes in her journal that when E is outside, forced to stand on like the pavement in with nothing on her feet, just scalding blisters on the soles of her feet, she's getting burned by the sun. She would say, you know, hell is much hotter and God is going to burn the wicked. So either you start getting used to it or start changing. E would look Ruby in the face and tell her, I don't really believe that's going to happen. Happen. She writes, we need to wake the child up to the state of reality, show them where they really are, the pit of hell. The hope was that they would choose to go to God for forgiveness, to admit their awful state. Instead, they wanted to lie to themselves that what they did wasn't bad, that they were the victims, that me and Jodie are the prosecutors, that burning in hell isn't real and that God doesn't even exist. So she writes, like the kids are not delusional. They are. Episode 243 of the Connections podcast with Jody Hildebrandt Date August 26, 2023 Four Days Before Rescue Episode Title Speaking the Truth About Death the truth is people die. And some people die as they're older. Some people die by accident. Some people die when they just take their very first breath. Death is part of life. It doesn't have to be this horrible, terrible experience. It can be sad and you'll miss them for a second. But it can also be a pleasant experience where you get to celebrate life. It's just a part of this movement called life. And everyone goes through it. And so you can help your children see all the different facets of death and be grateful for that. Death is always a hard thing. Some people who are dying, they're afraid. They don't know what to do. And some people are excited about dying. I've watched people go different ways. Some people are terrified. Some people can't wait to get out of their bodies and it doesn't have to be a terrifying thing, you know. Thank you very much. Thanks so much for listening to the Connections Podcast today. Share this podcast with your family and friends and if you have not already subscribed, please subscribe to the podcast. There are a large group of people online that believe that the two kids, had they not have been saved, had that little boy not saved himself and his sisters, that it was only likely or plausible that Jody and Ruby were ramping up that would end up with the kids being dead. It's a really grim theory, but one that is not completely out of the realm of possibility. Because Ruby and Jody were planning on selling the Utah $5 million mansion that's already quite isolated. They want to use that money to buy a giant plot of land out in Arizona where they were going to fix the kids for good. As evidenced by the Journal. It's likely had that happened, nobody would have seen the kids again. Ruby writes about finding property in Arizona. She writes, they don't know that Jody is selling her home, talking about the kids, this priceless canyon gem so that she can purchase land where these two can work. Jody has been looking for property with cactus and it feels more eminent these days to get the children to open land. It's a spiritual matter. Their souls are on the line. We decided that the escalation of the kids is not manageable here. Now there is another segment of the journal where Ruby talks about sedating R. There are arguments over if sedating just means hypnosis, if she means sedating them with like allergy medications such as Benadryl. It's kind of up in the air, but it reads, I know that in order to keep my son I will need to put him back under sedation. I unhooked him from all the bells and whistles and asked him to breathe and thrive on his own. And he went into arrest and stress. Back to sedation we go. The demon is still here. And I purposely put R back into a slumber hibernate to watch R go into the awful state of compliance knowing that demon he harbors in his heart is so sick. Like stitching up a patient knowing you didn't get all the cancer out and knowing it's only a matter of time before your patient kills over. Another journal entry scathingly reads, we need land. The spirit told Jody very clearly, don't let these kids choices ruin your life. We have work to do. You can force repentance. They were looking for a 500 acre property in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. Netizens speculate grimly that the kids could have died there. Ruby writes in her journal, quote jody sent me a text. I found the land. The devil does not want us to take R and E out of society. He did not want Jody finding this property. Oh how good the Lord is to those who risk everything to follow Him. The hosts of heaven are on our side. My children will never know the sacrifices and lives put on the line to offer a chance for their salvation. That is it for part three of the Ruby Frankie case. Stay tuned for part four, the final part, where we go over the arrests, jailhouse calls, and all the conspiracies surrounding Kevin and a woman named Pam that everybody thinks. At least if they're very into the case, I guess thinks needs to be arrested as well. That is it. Let me know your thoughts below. And please stay safe. I will see you in the next.
Walmart Advertisement
One Walmart plus it's Walmart plus free delivery, which saves members time plus money. Yep, plus an included Paramount plus subscription to stream movies, shows, sports and that can't miss documentary plus Burger King savings. That's right. Members get 25% off Burger King digital orders every day of the week. Walmart Walmart plus it's Walmart plus become a member at walmartplus.com 35 order minimum Fairmont plus essential plan only. Separate registration required. Valid and participating USBKs in the BK app or bk.com for members only. 25 off one time per calendar day. Terms apply. See Walmart plus terms and conditions.
Starbucks Advertisement
First decision of the morning A creamy mocha Frappuccino drink? Or will we ease into the day with a sweet vanilla? Maybe a smooth caramel? Oh, what about that white chocolate mocha? No matter which flavor you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Better coffee starts a better day. Start with bottled Starbucks Frappuccino drinks. Pick up a bottle near you wherever you buy your groceries.
Rotten Mango Podcast Summary
Title: Ruby Franke Wrote "Abuse Diary" While Posting A “Keeping Kid Safe In Predatory Society” Podcast
Host: Stephanie Soo
Release Date: March 23, 2025
Episode: Part Three of Four – Ruby Frankie and Jody Hildebrandt Case
In this gripping third installment of the Ruby Frankie and Jody Hildebrandt saga, Rotten Mango delves deeper into the harrowing experiences of the Frankie family. Hosted by Stephanie Soo, the episode meticulously unpacks the dark transformation of Ruby Franke from a beloved family vlogger to a twisted abuser orchestrating unimaginable horrors against her own children with the aid of Jody Hildebrandt.
Part One Recap:
Ruby Franke, a successful family vlogger with millions of followers, faces backlash from concerned internet users alleging child abuse. Her eldest children, Sheri and Chad, publicly speak out, providing firsthand accounts of their traumatic upbringing. Sheri authorizes the book House of My Mother, offering profound insights into life within a family vlogging environment.
Part Two Recap:
Introduces Jody Hildebrandt, a self-proclaimed "porn therapist" with dubious credentials. Jody's manipulative tactics are revealed as she fosters an environment aimed at dissolving marriages and sowing discord. Ruby and Kevin's marriage begins to crumble under Jody's influence, setting the stage for the catastrophic events that follow.
The episode chronicles how Ruby Franke and Jody Hildebrandt move into an isolated $5 million mansion in Utah. This property, initially lauded as a secluded haven, becomes the epicenter of sinister activities. The mansion features a doomsday bunker, vast unfinished concrete rooms, and a panic room equipped for extreme isolation.
Notable Quote:
"The primary bedroom's windows are seamless, almost like an LED screen displaying the Red Rock Mountains, but there's an inexplicable presence that turns this sanctuary into a prison." ([03:00])
Ruby and Jody establish a reign of terror over the remaining family members, particularly targeting the youngest children, R (11) and E (9). Their tactics involve severe physical and emotional abuse, manipulating the children into believing they are possessed by demons.
Notable Quote:
"I can help him. I will not rest. I will not stop. I will not leave. I will fight him until the demon in you dies." – Ruby Franke ([03:50])
Ruby and Jody host the Connections Podcast, ostensibly aimed at offering parenting advice and spiritual guidance. However, the content increasingly reflects their abusive ideologies, promoting distorted views on mental health and personal responsibility.
Simultaneously, Ruby maintains a journal detailing the abuse, providing chilling firsthand accounts of the torture inflicted upon her children.
Notable Quote:
"Bullying your child with extreme discipline is necessary for their salvation." – Jody Hildebrandt ([15:11])
Kevin Franke, Ruby's husband and father of the children, becomes a victim of the escalating abuse. Initially attempting to exorcise the supposed demons, Kevin is systematically pushed out of the household.
Notable Quote:
"I remember as I was holding my youngest and just crying, she was crying. Ruby was taking pictures... it looked like she was capturing this for content." – Kevin Franke ([26:48])
Sheri, the eldest daughter, emerges as the sole family member resisting Ruby and Jody's control. She strives to protect her siblings by reaching out to authorities, but faces systemic barriers as CPS and police fail to intervene effectively.
Notable Quote:
"I was confused and I think I responded and said, 'I wish you the best,' but then I got blocked. It was heartbreaking." – Sheri Franke ([35:28])
Neighbors begin noticing the unusual behaviors of Ruby and Jody, such as the absence of the children's cars and the eerie isolation of the mansion. Attempts to check on the children are thwarted by the family's strict lockdown protocol, leaving the community in distress.
Notable Quote:
"Ruby just turns to them and bluntly states, 'Every marriage should have a separation.' It was very weird." – Neighbor ([21:58])
As abuse intensifies, Ruby and Jody's actions become increasingly desperate to maintain control. The children's physical and psychological states deteriorate, prompting Sheri to make a crucial call to authorities. Despite her efforts, the response proves inadequate, delaying the intervention until the situation becomes dire.
Notable Quote:
"If you listen to their advice, you will likely lose relationships with family members... Definitely stay far away from these people." – Netizen Reaction ([20:00])
This episode underscores the insidious nature of manipulation and control within a family setting. Ruby Franke and Jody Hildebrandt's blend of public persona and private terror serves as a stark reminder of how outward appearances can mask profound evil. The failure of support systems to protect vulnerable children further highlights systemic flaws in handling such abuse cases.
Key Takeaway:
The intersection of online influence and unchecked personal agendas can create environments ripe for exploitation and abuse, necessitating vigilant oversight and robust support mechanisms for at-risk families.
Kevin Franke on the Supernatural:
"I can't explain it, but I saw it with my own eyes. I became the resident exorcist." ([08:03])
Ruby Franke on Parenting Philosophy:
"There is no such thing as having a disorder that robs you of agency, ever. Anxiety is a choice. Depression is a choice." ([15:11])
Sherry Franke's Plea:
"I was just trying to be worried about the kids, and now it's about you, Sherry, and your need for attention and your jealousy." ([36:54])
Ruby Franke on Truth and Deception:
"I will keep you in my prayers. You appear to be a very lost soul." ([35:57])
Journal Entry Reflecting Abuse:
"R's rage comes out when he can't have what he wants... 'I'm going to run away.'" ([48:00])
Jody Hildebrandt on Trauma:
"Holding onto trauma is staying in a state of self-deception." ([60:00])
Part three of the Ruby Frankie and Jody Hildebrandt case reveals the depths of familial abuse masked by public influence. Rotten Mango effectively portrays the disturbing transformation within the Frankie household, laying the groundwork for the impending rescue and legal repercussions in the forthcoming final installment.
Stay Tuned:
Don’t miss the concluding part, where Rotten Mango will cover the arrests, jailhouse revelations, and the intricate conspiracies surrounding Kevin Franke and others involved in this chilling case.