The 8 Passengers Unfortunate Downfall
By Clara Frank
April 5, 2024The 8 Passengers was a family vlogging channel that started in January of 2015. The family consisted of the mother Ruby Franke, the father Kevin Franke, and their five children. The children are Sherry, Chad, Julie, Abby, Russel, and Eve. The channel showcased the daily life of the family while living in the suburbs of Utah. The family seemed like the all-American dream that people aspire to. A wide range of topics covered on the channel, usually surrounding something that had to do with the children.
As the channel grew in popularity, fans started to notice a shift in the way that Ruby treated her children on camera. As Ruby became more comfortable with showing her family on the internet, she became much more honest about how she parents her children. There were many instances that didn’t sit right with fans. For instance, Ruby punished her son Chad for a prank he pulled by taking away his bedroom from him for 7 months. Ruby herself affirmed her choice in a video by saying, “he sleeps on the floor in the family room.” While the parenting of children is completely up to the parent, this statement was not received well by the media. People were very disturbed by the punishments given to the children, thinking that the parenting was a bit to harsh.
Another questionable parenting tactic that Ruby imposed on her children was allowing her five year old daughter to go to school without lunch, because she thought that it was her young daughter’s responsibility to pack her own lunch. When she was contacted by the school about her daughter Eve being hungry, Ruby said, “Eve is responsible for making her lunches in the morning, and she actually did tell me she packed a lunch, so the natural outcome is she's going to need to be hungry. Hopefully no one gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her lunch.” Fans were concerned to hear this considering that Eve was only five years old.
Daily vlogs were often posted on the channel, often featuring very vulnerable moments for her children. There were videos about going bra shopping with her daughters, her daughters shaving their legs for the first time, her daughter's first period, etc. These are moments that almost everyone experiences while growing up, but to have them posted to Youtube for everyone you know to see is something that not most people would want.
Fans got so worried about the children that in 2020 there was a petition on change.org to get Utah’s Child Protective Services involved. There was a home visit, however nothing of note was seen during the visit.
Ruby’s content of her and her family continued rather consistently until 2022 when she decided to take a break from social media after being heavily berated and “canceled” by her fans. While she was taking a break from social media she connected with Jodi Hildebrandt, a therapist who was currently on an 18 month probation. Jodi was on probation for consistently sharing confidential information about her patients with public businesses and schools. Jodi had her own business called Connections which was all about self-help. Ruby and Jodi became very close, close enough that Ruby renamed the 8 Passengers Instagram account to moms_of_truth. They then released their own podcast together. Around this time Ruby’s husband Kevin seemed to leave the picture.
As Ruby went deeper into her business with Jodi, her daughter Shari cut off contact with her mother and publicly stated that she did not support Connections. Many fans associated Connections with a pyramid scheme.
Things were quiet in the family for a few months until August 30th of 2023 when Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested in Ivins Utah. Ruby’s son Russell went to a neighbor's house and asked for help. He requested for this neighbor to call the police. The boy was hungry, thirsty, emaciated, and had tape around his wrists. When the cops arrived they rushed Russell to the hospital while they went to investigate the boy's house. In the house his three sisters were all in very similar condition. The house that they all lived in was Jodi’s house, not Ruby’s. However, Ruby had recently moved in with Jodi. Eldest sister Shari posted an Instagram story in support of Child Protective Services for taking away her young siblings from the care of her mother.
During the months leading up to Ruby’s arrest, neighbors report very strange behavior from Ruby. The windows of her house were covered up in paper, she allegedly left her children home alone for days at a time, and forced her children to work in the yard during excruciating heat waves in the summer.
Jodi and Ruby were both charged with six counts of child abuse. The children said that Jodi would tie them up and rub honey and cayenne pepper on their wounds. Kevin claims that he had no idea of the abuse that was occuring in the home since he and Ruby separated. There were many other instances of physical child abuse that Ruby admitted to in court that are very graphic and horrific. Ruby stated that she did all of these things because she believed that her children were “evil and possessed”.
On February 24th 2024 Ruby was sentenced to 4 charges of child abuse. Each charge could be anywhere from 1-15 years long. It is currently unknown how long her full sentence will be.
Before their downfall, the 8 Passengers had 2.5 million subscribers on Youtube. This family vlogging channel was hiding a dark secret that harmed everyone involved. Fans have shown continuous support to the children and are wishing them time to heal and a safe home environment.