Ever get that creeping feeling when you’re watching family vloggers? That little voice whispering, “There’s no way they’re this perfect when the cameras stop rolling”? Well, buckle up crime junkies, because the Ruby Franke case is about to validate every suspicion you’ve ever had about picture-perfect social media families.
I’ve spent the last week in a Ruby Franke rabbit hole (my husband Ryan keeps asking if I’m “okay” when he catches me muttering at my laptop at 2 AM). What I’ve found is somehow more disturbing than even my crime-hardened brain expected.
The YouTube Façade vs. The Horrifying Reality
Ruby Franke wasn’t just any mommy blogger. She was the matriarch of “8 Passengers,” a YouTube channel with millions of viewers who tuned in to watch her supposedly wholesome parenting of six children. Think matching outfits, perfectly timed family devotionals, and those impossibly clean white couches that no actual family with children can maintain (seriously, who was she kidding?).
But behind that carefully filtered existence lurked something as sinister as finding blood spatter under a blacklight.
In August 2023, the façade crumbled faster than an alibi under cross-examination when one of Ruby’s sons escaped from her home and ran to a neighbor’s house. The boy was emaciated, with duct tape around his ankles and wrists. The kind of scene investigators describe with thousand-yard stares.
The “ConneXions” to Hell
Enter Jodi Hildebrandt, Ruby’s business partner and “family counselor” (using that term as loosely as a serial killer uses an alibi). Together they created a “counseling” company called ConneXions, which—spoiler alert—turned out to be about as therapeutic as medieval bloodletting.
Their relationship was the perfect storm of delusion and power. Like when two killers meet and suddenly their individual darkness multiplies exponentially. (I would have spotted the red flags immediately, but hindsight is 20/20, right?)
The abuse these two inflicted was methodical and justified through a warped lens of religious extremism. Children were starved, forced into physical labor, and convinced they were possessed by demons. You know, just your average Tuesday for religious zealots with unchecked authority and zero oversight.
The Diary of Delusion
Perhaps the most chilling evidence came from Ruby’s own diaries, where she documented her belief that her children were literally possessed by demons. Not metaphorically. Not “they’re acting out.” ACTUAL demons.
Reading excerpts from these journals gave me the same stomach-dropping feeling as finding out the killer lived in the victim’s attic for months before the murder. It’s the realization that the horror was present all along, hiding in plain sight while everyone went about their normal lives.
She wrote about her children as if they were vessels for evil rather than, you know, CHILDREN. The disconnect is as stark as a bloody handprint on a white wall.
The Punishment Fits the Crime (For Once)
In a justice system where I’m typically left screaming at my podcast app about lenient sentences, Ruby and Jodi both received four consecutive sentences of 1-15 years in prison. That’s up to 60 years, though they’ll likely serve less.
During her sentencing hearing, Ruby claimed she’d been “manipulated” by Jodi. Classic DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) if I’ve ever seen it. About as convincing as a killer claiming the knife “just fell” into the victim 37 times.
The Warning Signs We All Missed
Looking back at Ruby’s content now is like watching a horror movie where you’re screaming “DON’T GO IN THERE!” at the protagonist. The signs were there:
She once posted about denying her son lunch for forgetting his school lunch bag. She talked about removing her son’s bedroom door as punishment. She filmed her kids crying for content.
These weren’t just strict parenting moments—they were breadcrumbs leading to a house of horrors that nobody followed until it was too late.
What This Means For Us True Crime Junkies
The Ruby Franke case is a masterclass in how abusers hide in plain sight. It’s the ultimate reminder that the most picture-perfect exteriors often hide the darkest interiors (like those suburban homes where they eventually find bodies under the floorboards).
So next time you’re scrolling through those perfect family Instagram feeds, remember: filters can hide a multitude of sins, and the real crime scene might be what’s happening when the camera stops rolling.
Would I have spotted Ruby’s red flags earlier? I’d like to think so. But then again, millions didn’t. And that’s the scariest part of this whole twisted story.
Now excuse me while I go triple-check my locks and side-eye every family vlogger in my feed.