Records show ‘8 passengers’ influencer Ruby Franke was on police radar for over a year

In the last four years, police made at least 15 visits to the home of Ruby Franke, the family blogger who was recently arrested and charged with child abuse.

During at least five of those visits, officers were assisting the Utah Division of Child and Family Services. One call was to investigate reports of young children being left alone for days at a time. Another was after a DCFS caseworker told police about unsupervised kids running around in the street.

That’s according to police reports and call logs filed with the Springville Police Department, obtained through a public records request, that suggest Franke had been on law enforcement’s radar for several years for concerns over the well-being of her children and reports of threats made to Franke herself.

A popular but controversial YouTuber who gave parental advice, Franke amassed nearly 2.5 million followers on her channel “8 Passengers,” though the vlog was disabled in the weeks leading up to her arrest. YouTube has since deleted other accounts associated with Franke, according to People Magazine.

Franke was arrested last week with her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, who were both charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse. Santa Clara-Ivins Police made the arrest in Washington County after Franke’s 12-year-old child knocked on a neighbor’s door asking for help. The child was malnourished and asked for food and water.

According to police, the child had “open wounds and duct tape around the extremities.”

Police then discovered Franke’s 10-year-old child in a home, also malnourished, according to a press release from Santa Clara-Ivins police. The home reportedly belonged to Hildebrandt.

Newly obtained records, first reported on by the KSL Investigates team, detail several incidents in the years leading up to last week’s arrest where police responded to Franke’s home in Springville.

One was in April 2022 after an officer spoke with a case worker for DCFS who “was made aware of two kids running out in the road unsupervised.” At the case worker’s request, the officer drove through the neighborhood but didn’t see anything.

Then in September 2022, officers were dispatched to the home for a welfare check, requested by one of Franke’s children who told police “her sisters and brother had been left home alone while their mother was in St. George with her friend.” The friend is identified in the report as Hildebrandt.

According to the report, the kids were left alone for about five days.

Officers observed the children through the windows when they first arrived, but they would not answer the door, the report reads. The officer then noticed several neighbors “who seemed to be very interested in our presence.”

Those neighbors told officers that Franke “will leave her children home for extended periods of time and go to St. George,” according to the report. One said she had video proof of Franke being gone for days — another said a “source” in St. George drove by Hildebrandt’s home and saw Franke’s car.

“Everyone who came to the scene was very concerned about the children and them being left at home alone. They expressed great concern about the two youngest children,” the officer writes in the report.

In the report, police noted that several neighbors were willing to speak to DCFS. “Central intake was contacted and a report started,” the officer writes.

Call logs show police followed up several days after the incident on Sept. 22, 2022 — they made four more house visits with DCFS in the weeks following.

Police in 2020 also investigated allegations made by Franke who claimed to receive threatening calls and texts.

“Franke stated she received a text message from somebody stating they were going to take her family down and there will be riots at their door when the world finds out the truth,” the report reads.

The person also told Franke to not let her kids run outside unsupervised, and to not post to social media “or there would be trouble,” according to the police report.

According to a private investigator for the family who spoke to Springville officers, someone allegedly rang Franke’s doorbell, but they were not identifiable. Ultimately, the investigation didn’t result in any arrests.