Ruby Franke — a former YouTube family blogger from Utah who dispensed advice to millions of people — was sentenced last month on charges of child abuse. Franke’s heavily redacted handwritten journal detailed some of the abuse she carried out.
NBC News reported that in one journal entry, Franke insisted that her son was possessed by a demon. And in one entry, dated July 11, 2023, she jotted down that it was a “big day for evil” and proceeded to describe an incident where her son was pushed into water and held his nose and mouth closed.
She also noted that she did not make an effort to help the boy. Franke is reportedly a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Some of the details about Franke’s case are eerily similar to that of Lori Vallow, who was recently charged with murdering two of her children. Not only is Vallow a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she previously operated under the assumption that some people were demons and zombies. The case became so significant that a Netflix documentary was made about it called “Sins of Our Mother.”
The Associated Press reported that Franke wrote down that her daughter was “manipulative,” and that she forced her to stand out in the rain for two hours as punishment.
Franke and her partner in crime, Jodi Hildebrandt — a mental health counselor — were each sentenced up to 30 years behind bars for the extreme abuse of the children. A police investigation concluded that religious extremism had played a prominent role in the way the women treated the children, according to Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke.
Both women were initially arrested in August 2023, and both pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse after the authorities discovered one of Franke’s was emaciated with open wounds and bound in duct tape.
Reports noted that Franke’s journal entries were released on Friday. They chronicled months of abuse she carried out against her children, including starving her son and nine-year-old daughter.
Entries also revealed that Franke made them work long hours in the summer and isolated them from the outside world. The children were also sometimes locked in a concrete bunker in Hildebrandt’s basement.
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