A diary of Ruby Franke that was recently released by authorities reveals disturbing details of the abuse he inflicted on his two youngest children, including denying them food for days, beating them and forcing them to spend hours outside in the sun.
The abuse was apparently motivated by what authorities called in a statement “religious extremism,” and Ruby made multiple references to his belief that his children were possessed by a demon.
The diary was released by the Washington County prosecutor along with a host of other evidence related to Franke’s case, after she was sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, along with her podcast partner, Jodi Hildebrandt. Both pleaded guilty to multiple counts of aggravated child abuse.
Franke, a mother of eight whose parenting YouTube channel once had millions of subscribers, kept her 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter in what prosecutors called “labor camp-like” conditions at the Hildebrandt home in Ivins, Utah. In her diary, Franke reveals in depth what her children went through.
The diary entries are dated from July 9 to August 27, 2023, three days before she was arrested after her son escaped and went to the house of a neighbor, who called the police after seeing the minor emaciated.
He denied them food for days
In his diary, Franke says that he shaved his daughter’s head on several occasions, in response to her cries and screams. The girl, identified as “E” in a redacted version of the diary, was denied food for three days, due to Franke’s claim that her daughter was being “manipulative.”
In response to not being allowed to eat for a third day, E began singing, according to Franke. “My mother starves me, she calls it fasting,” the girl said, according to her diary. “My mom doesn’t lift two fingers to bring me food, because all she does is lie in bed and eat brownies.”
Franke would also deny R food, and at one point wrote in his diary that he told his son: “I will not feed a demon”. The children were doused with water, forced to stay outside and made to do work, such as moving boxes.
During this period, Franke appeared to have a deep belief that her children were controlled by the devil and that she was teaching them how to repent, at one point looking into the face of her son, identified as “R,” and yelling at him. “Get out now!”
Franke also wrote that Hildebrandt had traveled to Arizona several times in search of land. She wrote that her podcast partner, a family therapist, was planning to sell her house to buy a property with more acreage. Franke also expressed her desire to buy a ranch so the children could do more hard work, which she called “good.”
Other incidents recounted by Ruby include when she took her children to a Native American cemetery and made them pick up brush and broken glass, before a woman told them they were trespassing on private property and had to leave. Franke also mentioned a time when kicked R while wearing boots after he misbehaved.
When R escaped to the neighbor’s house, he asked the man who answered the door to take him to a police station.
When authorities searched Hildebrandt’s home and found E in a closet, The girl was “petrified” and spent nearly four hours sitting on the ground before rescuers were finally able to convince her to come out.
Keep reading:
– A Utah mother who gave parenting advice on YouTube was arrested for severe child abuse.
– Ohio parents end up arrested after their newborns were found badly beaten.