In Utah, neighbors of YouTuber Ruby Franke claim they sought to alert authorities for years.Ruby Franke’s arrest in Utah on Saturday for alleged child abuse was caught on camera.The YouTuber was shown being escorted away in a photo with the remark “Finally.”Recent developments include allegations from Franke’s neighbors that they reported him to child protective services over a year ago.Written by Paul Farrell for the Daily Mail Time of last update: 11:13, September 4, 2023 EDT
Ruby Franke, a popular YouTuber, was arrested on child abuse allegations last week, and the moment she was hauled into jail from her Utah home was caught on camera and shared on social media with the message “Finally.”In the days following Franke’s arrest, several of her neighbors have come forward to say that they have long feared for the host family’s children’s safety.Abuse allegations have been circulating since July of 2020. Shari, Franke’s 20-year-old eldest daughter, posted the photo with the message “Finally” last week.Two of her children were found famished, with open wounds, and bound in duct tape on Wednesday; the 41-year-old was arrested on two counts of severe child abuse, along with her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt.Franke found online stardom with her channel 8 Passengers, which she discontinued posting to in January 2022 after amassing 2.2 million members.”I regret raising my voice. A neighbor who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity said, “Other people spoke up.” According to the neighbor, she contacted Utah’s child welfare agency in September of 2022. The neighbor claims that there was no answer at Franke’s house when the police came knocking.The community loves those kids and wants them to be secure, another woman told the network, and she wants them to know that.
I want people to know how much time and effort I’ve put into communicating with law enforcement and CPS over the past year and how many times I’ve cried during those conversations. And I think those kids thought they were abandoned, so I think it’s important that they know that’, she continued.On Saturday, Franke’s husband was present at the house when a man came to remove the YouTube logo on the vehicle. The couple has six children together: Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, and Eve.
A neighbor of Hildebrandt’s in the Kayenta Community at the foot of the Red Mountains in Ivins, Utah, spoke with DailyMail.com over the weekend. Franke’s ‘8Passengers’ van was frequently parked in front of the house, as residents reported.Six to eight weeks ago when it was terribly hot, I was outdoors in the late morning and afternoon pushing weeds, and over at Jodi’s house, numerous youngsters were also outside her home pulling weeds. We both noticed this, and we both called the police about it.
“It was over 100 degrees all day long, and I gave up after a while because it was so hot, but I noticed that the kids stayed out there,” the neighbor said. The resident also found it odd that they never heard any noises, such as children playing outdoors, emanating from the house.
A child is said to have fled from a residence through a window one day and then run to a neighbor, who subsequently called the police.
The neighbor speculated that the child had chosen that house because he or she had received Christmas cookies from the family and felt comfortable enough to “go to them for help” because of this.In spite of prior criticism, Franke and Hildebrandt worked together on Hildebrandt’s life counseling service ConneXions.Another neighbor told NBC News that after the arrest, “everyone is just breathing a collective sigh of relief” because they had feared that “body bags” would emerge from the residence.
Franke and Hildebrandt were taken into custody at 10:50 a.m. on Wednesday by the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department in Utah following a report of a child in distress.The infant, who was reportedly asking for food and water, was found by authorities to be “emaciated and malnourished, with open wounds and duct tape around their extremities.”‘One year, she even forbade them to celebrate Christmas because, in Mormon parlance, “they’re not repenting correctly.” Just pure madness, as one of the male neighbors put it.Locals also shared stories of Franke meddling in the affairs of her neighbors.Someone recalled that Franke had once chastised a neighbor about the ‘inappropriate’ nature of displaying posters of women posing in shorts in the garage.Kevin Franke reportedly moved out of the house a year ago.
He has been “trying to keep his children together” since the arrests, he claimed earlier this week. To per Kevin’s lawyer, Randy S. Kester, Kevin’s “urgent focus is simply to keep his children together under his fatherly care,” as quoted on Page Six.As a result of the investigation by the police, Child and Family Services took custody of four children.
Whether or not the kids had any connection to Franke or Hildebrandt is unknown.One neighbor claimed that after Kevin moved out, she saw that the children stopped going to school and that one of the daughters began visiting other houses in the area.
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