Moms of Truth/ Instagram
Her public downfall began in 2020, when skeptics of Franke and her husband Kevin Franke’s “8Passengers” page began to grow worried about the Mormon family’s strict household.
When Franke and Hildebrandt, 54, were arrested in August and charged with felony child abuse, those critics, as well as a growing number of family members, friends and neighbors, spoke out, saying thenews of the arrestswas a long time coming.
Here’s a timeline of the events that led up to Franke and Hildebrandt’s arrests, and Franke’s subsequent guilty pleas.
In 2020, numerous peoplesigned an online petitionasking child protective services to investigate the Franke family.
The petition cited a number of controversial videos that Franke uploaded on her family’s “8Passengers” page, including one in which Franke’s oldest son Chad says his mother took his bed away from him for for seven months after he played a prank on his sibling. “I was sleeping on a beanbag since October,” the teenager tells the camera as his mother laughs.
In anotherresurfaced clip, Franke records herself explaining, “I just got a text message from Eve’s teacher, and she said that Eve did not pack a lunch today.” Franke then says she told the teacher she’d refuse to bring her then 6-year-old daughter her lunch as a teaching lesson and that “she’s just going to need to be hungry.”
“Hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her a lunch because then she’s not going to learn from the natural outcome,” Franke tells the camera.
The boy, who police said had visible wounds and marks from tape around his wrists and ankles, asked the man for food and water. Soon after, police found Franke’s 10-year-old daughter allegedly in “a similar physical condition of malnourishment” inside Hildebrandt’s home. (The children were taken to the hospital and family members have since said they are OK.)
Child protective services took them, plus two older siblings in their teens, into custody after police arrived at Franke’s home in Springville, Utah.
8 Passengers / YouTube
On the day of the arrests, Franke’s oldest daughter Shari expressed relief.
“Finally,” Shari, 20, wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of police outside of the family’s home.
“Today has been a big day," Shari wrote in another post on Instagram that day. “Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up.”
moms_of_truth/Instagram
A neighbor who lived near the Franke family for about five yearstold PEOPLEabout “red flags” that led other families in their affluent, religious neighborhood to contact authorities in the months leading up to Franke’s arrest.“I think we saw some weird things,” the neighbor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told PEOPLE. “But I don’t think anybody thought that these kids were being physically abused to that degree.”
Nearly a week after their arrests, Franke and Hildebrandt were both charged with six counts of felony child abuse.
Ivins, Utah neighborhood.Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP
Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP
In the aftermath of Franke’s arrest,YouTube deletedthe parenting social media influencer’s “8Passengers” and “ConneXions” channels and banned her from the platform.
Jodi’s Niece Alleges Prior Abuse
“The things that I experienced while living with Jodi — I experienced being tied, I experienced being duct taped, I experienced being blindfolded, I experienced severe isolation, I experienced severe emotional, spiritual and psychological abuse,” Jessi alleged. “I experienced being told I shouldn’t be around other people, being told that I was dangerous to be around. People were afraid of me to the point where I was afraid of myself.”
Jessi recalled they were “isolated for up to 12 hours a day” and were once “forced to sleep outside in the snow” while under Jodi’s care, as well as alleging that Jodi “accused me of being a sex addict” and “of being addicted to masturbation.” Jessi decided to speak out about their experience after reading a report last week about Franke’s claims of sex abuse within her family.
Attorney Randy Kester and Kevin Franke.Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune
Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune
Kevin Franke Files for Divorce
“Initially, Ms. Franke believed that Jodi Hildebrant had the insight to offer a path to continual improvement. Ms. Hildebrant took advantage of this quest and twisted it into something heinous," Franke’s attorneys’ statement to Fox 13 reportedly said.
Ron Chaffin/St. George News via AP
“With my deepest regret, and sorrow for my family and my children — guilty,” Franke said as she entered her guilty plea on the final count, according to theTribune.
Franke’s ex-business partnerJodi Hildebrandtalso received the same sentence, according to the outlets.
In court, Franke cried and apologized to her children, according toBusiness Insider.
“I will never stop crying for hurting your tender souls,” she said, per the outlet.
Hildebrandt also apologized at her sentence following Franke’s and said she loved Franke’s children, according to TODAY.
“I desire for them to heal physically and emotionally,” she said, the outlet reported.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
