Imagine living in a huge, beautiful house, surrounded by nothing but desert and amazing mountain sights, except this big, beautiful home is a nightmare for you and your siblings. The Franke kids grew up with their whole lives on blast. Their mom was YouTuber Ruby Franke, who documented everything from the happiness of her children to their abuse that she thought was “normal parenting” on her YouTube channel, 8 Passengers.
The Franke kids seemingly lived a normal life until their mom met the infamous Jodi Hilderbrandt. Jodi was the head of a religious-based therapy group called ConneXions, focusing specifically on couples, and she sucked Ruby Franke right in.
Hilderbrandt disguised her group as if it were geared toward helping couples, but according to interviews within the Evil Influencer, men were starting to be pushed away while their wives were brainwashed against them. Hilderbrandt would meet with men separately from their wives and basically tell these men the only way to save their marriages would be to listen to her every demand.
Jodi claims she was empowering women by convincing men that they were sex and or porn addicts and ripping them away from their families. She would tell the men they needed to leave their homes and follow her studies to save their marriage and eventually reunite with their families, while she would “help” the women to move on from their abusive marriages. Jodi had no intention of helping these families and bringing them back together; her only goal was to keep these families apart. Ruby and her husband Kevin, were no different.
Ruby was brainwashed from the second she started working with Jodi, and all of her children suffered for it, especially the younger two. While the other families were simply separated and paying high dollar amounts for “extensive therapy,” Ruby became so close that Jodi brought her on as a partner in her journey of separating families. Hilderbrandt convinced Franke that her husband needed to leave their home and that her younger children were devilish and needed punishment. Upon investigation of Jodi’s huge home, they found evidence of the kids being tied up with ropes, handcuffs, and the wounds caused from that were being wrapped with an interesting wound care mixture, Saran Wrap, and duct tape.
I feel like religion is constantly misused ESPECIALLY in Utah. These women, who claimed they were practicing Mormonism, were treating these poor, small children as if they had sinned just for being young and having needs. They wanted love and affection from their mom, and most importantly, they wanted food and water, none of which they were receiving.
This documentary offered great insight into an interesting chapter of religion and what some people believe is the only way of life. There are children out there similar to the two youngest Franke children, who were put through immense mental and physical abuse. They were brainwashed to believe that they deserved the punishments they were receiving. The only peace here is that these children have been found and they are finally safe back in the loving arms of their father, whom they were separated from for over a year. But the importance of this is that we all need to be aware of who we let into our lives, and especially who we let near our children.
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