After YouTuber Ruby Franke’s Aug. 30 arrest, four of her six children were placed in state custody.
Her two youngest kids were found first, after one of them escaped the Ivins home of Franke’s business partner, Jodi Hildebrant, and a neighbor called police. The 12-year-old boy appeared malnourished, authorities said, and so did his 10-year-old sister, who they found inside Hildebrandt’s home.
But records released to The Salt Lake Tribune this week show Franke’s older two children weren’t there, prompting a search in Springville, more than 250 miles north, where Franke lived. The documents state those two kids were ultimately found safe — in the care of another apparent colleague of Franke’s.
Ruby Franke’s eldest child, Shari Franke, 20, cooperated with authorities during the Springville search, the records indicate. Two days later, her father tried to have her arrested for burglary because he argued she “is not allowed in the home,” the documents state.
Finding the other two Franke children
According to the documents, the Utah Division of Child and Family Services first requested that Springville police search for Franke’s two middle daughters at Franke’s home address on the afternoon of Aug. 30, after Ivins authorities couldn’t locate the girls.
Responding officers spent “several minutes” knocking on Franke’s door, but no one answered, police said. All of the home’s windows were also covered by blinds or curtains, officers noted in the records, so they couldn’t tell what was going on inside.
After waiting for a warrant, officers broke through the home’s front door, but found the home unoccupied, they wrote.
Around that time, Shari Franke had arrived at a neighbor’s house. The Brigham Young University student cut ties with her family last year, after her mother began working with Hildebrandt on their online self-improvement program, called ConneXions, Shari said on a podcast in April.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Shari Franke, 20, the oldest daughter of Kevin and Ruby Franke, and her attorney Jared Hales, leave a child welfare hearing regarding her four siblings in state custody on Sept. 18, 2023, at the 4th District courthouse in Provo.
She has previously expressed concern for her younger siblings, police records released last month show. In September 2022, she asked Springville officers to check on her younger siblings, whom she said had been left home alone for five days, to make sure they had enough food “for the extended period.” At the time, police responded and the kids appeared to be home, but no one came to the door, the records state.
On the day of the search, Shari Franke told authorities that one of the yet-to-be-found girls may be at a nearby recreational center, but when police contacted the center, they were told the girl had been picked up because of a “family emergency,” according to police documents.
Police then checked with the girls’ older brother, who is 18 and lives in Provo. Authorities checked his apartment but did not find the children, and he declined to speak with responding officers, according to police documents.
The girls were eventually found with the woman who had stopped by the recreational center, identified in the documents as a ConneXions employee.
American Fork police spoke with the employee at her home, and she told authorities that the two girls were inside. An officer briefly detained and handcuffed the employee until Springville officers arrived, according to police documents. She was not arrested and not charged.
The ConneXions employee told authorities that Ruby Franke had asked her around noon to pick up the girls because of the unspecified family emergency. The woman added that it was “not an odd request” for her to bring them to her home — since the girls often did housework and chores at her American Fork residence, officers wrote in police documents.
After picking up one girl from the center, and another from a different location, the employee took the girls out for lunch and ice cream, she said. She told police that she had no idea authorities had been looking for the girls, and didn’t know what was going on, documents state.
[Read more: Ruby Franke case: A timeline of events]
An officer and a DCFS worker then spoke with the two girls on the employee’s front porch, and the DCFS worker initially told them that they would be taken to stay with their sister, Shari Franke. But the girls told authorities they did not want to go with Shari and instead preferred to stay with the employee, the documents stated.
Their only options were to either stay with Shari Franke or stay with a foster family, the DCFS worker explained. The ConneXions employee prayed with the girls as they packed up their belongings, the records state.
When an officer and a DCFS worker tried to search one of the girls’ backpacks, the girl became “very defiant,” telling authorities they “needed a warrant to do that,” the documents note.
The officer explained that a warrant wasn’t needed for the precautionary search, because she and her sister were being placed into state custody. Nothing of note was found in the bag, police wrote, and the two girls were turned over to DCFS.
The ConneXions employee gave the girls some snacks before they left, the records state.
Kevin Franke reports Shari to authorities
On Sept. 1, two days after Ruby and Hildebrandt’s arrest, Ruby’s husband Kevin Franke alleged that Shari Franke had broken into the family’s Springville home.
The father is currently seeking custody of the four children placed in state custody, his attorney, Randy Kester, has said. Kester told The Tribune that Kevin Franke had moved out of the family’s Springville home last year, after he and Ruby Franke separated, but Kevin Franke has since moved back in.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kevin Franke, right, estranged husband of Ruby Franke, is joined by his attorney Randy Kester as he leaves a child welfare hearing regarding his four children in state custody on Sept. 18, 2023, at the 4th District courthouse in Provo.
Kevin Franke told police that he believed the home had been burglarized because the front door was kicked in, and that several electronics were missing, which contained his “electronic journals,” according to police documents. He told an officer that he suspected his eldest daughter was responsible, citing a statement that he alleged Shari Franke had made in an unspecified court hearing that day.
Police documents do not specify Shari’s alleged statement, but an officer explained to Kevin Franke that the door was breached when Springville police entered the home on Aug. 30 while serving the DCFS warrant.
The officer told Kevin that police went with Shari to the home on Aug. 31 to retrieve personal items for two of her siblings.
“Kevin stated that Shari is not allowed in the home, and that he believes she entered unlawfully and he wants her charged with burglary,” an officer wrote in police documents.
The officer reiterated that Shari was only in the home to get necessary items for her siblings, which Kevin “did not seem to think was relevant,” according to police documents.
Police then contacted Shari Franke, and she returned the items — which included passports for Ruby Franke, Kevin Franke and her 18-year-old brother, along with three tablets, three cell phones, three cameras and a stack of written journals — to the Springville police station.
Shari Franke told authorities that she didn’t intend to deprive her father of the items — an intent required for a charge of theft — and an officer told Kevin Franke that police would not be recommending any charges be filed against Shari, according to police documents.
“Kevin was displeased with this answer and advised we would be hearing from his attorney,” an officer wrote in the documents. The officer noted Kevin later came to the police station to pick up the items.
Ruby Franke and Hildebrandt remain in custody without bail in Washington County. They each face six felony counts of aggravated child abuse stemming from the Ivins police call.
Franke is known for her previous parenting advice YouTube channel called “8 Passengers,” launched in 2015. The channel garnered more than 2 million subscribers at its height, and was named for Franke, Kevin and their six children.
The account was deleted in 2022, the same year Franke and her husband separated. Franke then began working on a new channel with Hildebrandt, which hosted videos from their ConneXions program.
