Ruby Franke charged with 6 counts of felony child abuse after children were discovered with open wounds, malnourished

YouTuber mom Ruby Franke has been charged with six counts of child molestation after her 12-year-old son was found with open wounds and duct tape on their limbs.

Ruby, 41, bho runs the YouTube page 8 Passengers, was arrested on August 30 along with business partner Jodi Hildebrandt on two counts of aggravated child abuse.

The Mormon mother’s son climbed out the window of Hildebrandt’s home and ran to a neighbor for help, according to a probable cause statement obtained by NBC states.

In addition to his injuries, the boy was found in an emaciated condition. The 10-year-old daughter of Ruby and husband Kevin Franke was found in a similar condition.

Hildebrandt also faces six counts of child molestation in Washington County, Utah. Each charge carries a maximum prison term of 15 years and a fine of $10,000.

When Ruby’s children were discovered, authorities said Russell, 12, and Eve, 10, were so malnourished they had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.

Investigators said a search found “evidence consistent with the markings found on the young person.”

The woman’s other four children — Shari, Chad, Abby and Julie — were taken away by the Utah Division of Child and Family Services.

In a statement to NBC News, the Washington County attorney said the two women allegedly caused or authorized “serious bodily harm” in three ways.

“(1) a combination of multiple physical injuries or torture, (2) starvation or malnutrition endangering life, and (3) causing severe emotional harm,” they said.

As of Sept. 5, both women are still in custody, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office website.

Ruby and her business partner will appear in court on September 8.

The Mormon woman first rose to fame for her strict parenting style, which exploded on YouTube and made her “millions” of dollars, she claimed.

She along with husband Kevin amassed over 2.2 million subscribers for documenting their daily social media endeavors.

The pair stopped uploading videos in January 2022 and the page was completely removed from the website earlier this year.

When asked why she left YouTube months later, she said she chose to stop uploading videos because she wanted to “save her kids.”

In July, she was called out online after a video surfaced of her starving Eve after the young girl forgot to make her own lunch for school.

In a video posted in 2020, Ruby said her daughter’s teacher texted her saying the youngster had nothing to eat for lunch.

She said that all of her children are responsible for preparing their own lunch in the morning, so she wouldn’t bring food for Eve to teach her a lesson.

Franke said, “My hope (is) she’ll be hungry and come home and say ‘that was really painful to be hungry all day.’ I’ll make sure I always have lunch with me.’

“The natural outcome is that she’ll just have to go hungry.”

It was this parenting style that helped the woman gain a huge following on YouTube and put herself and her family in the spotlight.

After her arrest, one of Ruby’s grown children spoke out on social media, saying she was excited to see justice finally done for her mother.

In an Instagram story following her mother’s arrest, Shari, 20, celebrated her mother’s arrest and said she had been “trying to tell the police and the CPS about this for years.”

Shari also said she’s “so happy they’ve finally decided to take it one step further” and that her siblings are safe, DailyMail.com reported.

The 20-year-old shared a photo of police officers outside the family’s Springville, Utah home, along with the caption “Finally.”

On Sunday, Kevin was spotted outside his home by DailyMail.com for the first time since his wife and her business partner last week.

Kevin was seen pacing the property when a man came to remove the YouTube branding from a van parked in front of the house.

The man would have been evicted from the parental home last year.

He said last week that after the arrests he is “trying to keep his children together.”

Kevin’s attorney, Randy S. Kester, told Page Six that his client’s “urgent focus is simply to keep his children together under his paternal care.”

Neighbors said they were concerned for the well-being of the children and once saw the children outside weeding for hours in a 3-degree temperature.

DailyMail.com spoke to one of Hildebrandt’s neighbors, whose home is also in the Kayenta community, in the foothills of the Red Mountains in Ivins, Utah.

They remembered that they regularly parked Franke’s van, which had an ‘8 Passengers’ sticker and license plate, in front of the house.

“One thing we noticed and we told the police the same thing: six to eight weeks ago when it was very hot, I was out late morning and afternoon pulling weeds and at Jodi’s house several children were also outside weed her house.

“During the day the temperature rose above 40 degrees and after a while I gave up because it was so hot, but I noticed that the children stayed outside,” explains the neighbor.

After Kevin moved out of the family home, a neighbor said it appeared the children had stopped going to school.

Neighbors said one of the daughters often knocked on other houses in the area where there were children and asked if they could play while the others were at school.

“She just knocked on your door and said, ‘Hello, can your kids play?’ And we say, “Well, they’re at school. They won’t be home for three or four hours.” And then she said, “I’ll wait.” She’s like a lost child,’ the neighbor said.

“I’m really mad because I said something. Other people spoke up and nothing happened, explained another (female) neighbor.

“I want those kids to know that the community loves them and wants them to be safe,” she said.