Months before mommy blogger Ruby Franke was arrested on suspicion of kid abuse, fellow social media influencers and users had been sounding the alarm on the mom’s alleged abuse.
“I make documentaries and short movies on unsolved cases true crime and social media influencers who abuse their power and manipulate audiences, because as I at all times say, it’s not drama, it’s dangerous,” YouTuber generally known as “Swoop” said in a video back in March detailing Franke’s videos and alleged abuse.
Franke, a 41-year-old Mormom mom of six, was arrested last Wednesday after Santa Clara-Ivins police received a dispatch call around 10:50 p.m. from a youth asking for help.
The kid was found malnourished and emaciated with “open wounds and duct tape across the extremities.”
Police responded to the house where the child lived and located one other child in similar condition.
Each children were taken to an area hospital.
One among Franke’s adult daughters, Shari Franke, 20, posted a photograph to her Instagram story on Thursday showing a police automobile parked on a suburban street, with the word “Finally.” In one other Instagram story that followed, Shari shared a press release.
“Hi all. Today has been an enormous day,” she wrote. “Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been attempting to tell police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up. Kids are protected, but there’s an extended road ahead. Please keep them in your prayers and likewise respect their privacy.”
Franke’s channel “8 Passengers” amassed 2.5 million subscribers because it was launched in early 2015, before Franke jumped over to a unique channel called “ConneXions.”
Franke and ConneXions partner Jodi Hildebrand were arrested for alleged aggravated child abuse.
Months before her arrest, web sleuths had identified her alleged questionable, and maybe illegal behavior.
“Should you cut yet one more thing in my house, I’m going to take the scissors with me and I’m going to chop its head off,” Franke told certainly one of her children in a video.
Swoop struck a quizzical tone in her video, published months before Franke’s arrest, asking why a mom would post a video of her kids learning to shave, or why one son was sent to outdoor summer therapy camp.
“Now Ruby makes all the things content, all the everyday adolescent stuff that probably doesn’t belong on the web. Now to Ruby, it’s all fair game even when her children show surprise or discomfort that they’re being filmed during a very vulnerable moment, even when he asked her to stop or to place the camera down. Ruby didn’t wish to do it,” Swoop said.
The Utah mom was charging parents as much as $15,000, and as little as $5,000, as a mental health counselor for folks as a “mental fitness trainer,” Swoop recounted back in March.
TikTok has also exploded with videos exposing Franke for allegedly withholding food from her kids, exploiting them and accusing no less than one daughter of faking an eating disorder.
Other commenters and accounts claimed that they had long picked up on signs that the mom was allegedly abusing her kids, pointing to how the youngsters said on camera they didn’t wish to be filmed or how the mom recorded monumental moments resembling a baby learning tips on how to shave.
Franke’s neighbors said that they had long been concerned about her treatment of the youngsters.
“Everyone seems to be just respiration a collective sigh of relief, because we thought they were going to return out of that house with body bags,” a male neighbor told NBC News under the condition of anonymity.
The neighbors alleged that Franke would insert herself into their day-to-day lives, including allegedly lecturing a male neighbor a few poster in his garage featuring women of their shorts.
“I do not forget that she took away their Christmas one 12 months,” one male neighbor told NBC News. “And he or she would say things like ‘They’re not repenting appropriately,’ which is a Mormon term for ‘they’re sinning.’ Just complete insanity.”
Even Franke’s relations said they drew a fresh breath after they knew that her young children were protected following her arrest.
“It will feel very misplaced for me to proceed to post my regular content after the arrest of my sister. It appears like a weight has been lifted as we now know our nieces and nephews are protected,” Franke’s sister, Bonnie Hoellein, posted in a since-deleted YouTube video, in response to NBC.
It isn’t clear when Franke and Hildebrand are ordered for a court appearance.
