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Ruby Franke, the YouTube channel 8 Passengers star, was detained on Wednesday, August 30, 2023, alongside Jodi Hildebrandt, the creator of the parent counseling service ConneXions. They were both arrested on child abuse allegations, according to Fox 13.
Jodi Hildebrandt is a life coach, author, and the founder and designer of Connexions in Utah. Furthermore, she has worked at Cirque Lodge, a drug rehabilitation institution focusing on addiction therapy, for five years.
According to her official website, she aims to disseminate life teachings worldwide so everyone can have healthy, meaningful, and connecting relationships.
She also encourages people to suggest family members to her program so they can have a genuine connection. Moreover, she claims that if they do not learn these "new Truths" of life, they will never be able to connect with anyone in life properly.
People think that Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt’s Connexions is a ‘cult’
Ruby Franke was a regular on the 8 Passengers channel, which followed her life along with her husband, Kevin Franke, and their six children, Julie, Chad, Shari, Abby, Russell, and Eve. However, the family has been on a downward spiral for the past three years.
The channel had over 2.5 million subscribers at its peak before being pulled offline in early 2023 for unknown reasons. For some years, the family has faced several allegations, which signaled the beginning and end of 8 Passengers. Soon after that, Franke re-focused herself and joined another different company.
Franke revealed in June 2022 that she was joining a new channel called ConneXions with a woman named Jodi Hildebrandt. The company was founded by Hildebrandt herself.
According to the aforementioned website, she is also a therapist whose license was placed on probation for 18 months in January 2012 by the Utah Clinical Mental Health Counsellor Licencing Board for discussing a patient's "p**n addiction" with leaders at their Mormon church without the said patient's permission.
ConneXions, Franke, and Hildebrandt's channel sparked immediate worry, with observers tagging it as a "cult." It advertises itself as a mom's support group that assists and rehabilitates individuals who are lost and stuck in the darkness of distortion, which gives birth to fear, despair, and all other self-destructive behaviors. However, her teachings have been criticized as radical, harmful, and authoritarian.
Jodi believes three essential concepts must be adopted to connect with somebody and entirely avoid distortion. If her followers do not follow these rules, they are said to be "in distortion." Moreover, she also states that boundaries must be established to separate oneself from these people so that they are not lured into distortion with them.
However, as peaceful and harmless as these sounds, people think ConneXions is a cult. They even reviewed the organization on its official website. Someone named Anna Marie wrote six months ago that:
“I wouldn’t trust this company. They use brainwashing tactics to manipulate you, they intentionally make you feel bad about yourself and use slander. Please stay away from this company at all costs. They are a scam”.
On the other hand, someone named Vincent thinks it's a cult. They wrote a month ago that:
“They will ruin your family through mind control. They don’t want you to think for yourself and critically think. They want to shelter you. They are an actual cult. AN ACTUAL CULT. They also assaulted me so I’m suing”
What led to Ruby Franke’s arrest?
Ruby Franke, the mother of a famous family YouTube channel, is described as "in custody" on the Washington County Sheriff's Office website after being detained at 9:33 p.m. on August 30 in Springville, Utah.
According to Fox News 13, Ruby Franke spent a lot of time at Jodi Hildebrandt's house before they were detained.
The reports were based on a now-deleted video in which Ruby's 15-year-old son stated that he had been forced to sleep on the floor for months because he had played a prank on his younger sibling.
In the video, Chad, Ruby Franke’s son, said that:
"My bedroom was taken away for seven months. I was sleeping on a beanbag since October”.
Child Protective Services began an investigation on the family shortly after.
