The 8 Passengers is a family vlog channel on YouTube. (A family channel with 6 kids) Their names are in order of age; Shari (20), Chad (18), Abby (16), Julie (14), Russel (12), and Eve (10). They had nearly 2.3 million subscribers. If you look up the channel, it is no longer found on YouTube.
Ruby and Kevin Franke said that they would use Chad for more views and Chad had said in the vlog that it was true and that’s the main reason they used him on the vlog. Ruby would put her vlogs before her own kids’ personal lives. She would ask her kids personal questions and vlog private things even after the kids asked her to stop. The kids would ask them to stop filming and she would ignore them and keep going. The kids would say that they have no friends because of them having no online privacy and the friends don’t want their lives to be invaded. Ruby once said that she took all electronics away all summer because she wasn’t willing to do what she said “a parent should do.”
The parents sent Chad to a wilderness therapy camp. The place was called the Anasazi Foundation Wilderness Therapy Program. It was a 2-month hike in an Arizona desert where the teens were forced to survive in the wild for them to “conquer” their mental health disorders. Right after Chad got back from camp, they took away his bed but wouldn’t say why and would only say that he was a “bad boy.” He didn’t get the bed back for 7 months, he had to sleep on a bean bag or the floor the whole time.
A story that Ruby shared that shows she was a bad parent was about Eve when she was six at the time. Eve’s teacher had called Ruby saying that Eve had forgotten her lunch and didn’t have anything to eat. Ruby explained that Eve is responsible for making her own lunches. Ruby had told the teacher that she was not going to bring her daughter lunch. She said in a video that she was hoping nobody would give Eve anything because she wouldn’t “learn from the natural outcomes.”
Their YouTube channel started to go downhill in 2020 after Franke kept getting exposed for her bad parenting. She started working with this business that everyone online called “culty.” The company is called Connexions which is a mental health support organization. Which is where she met Jodi Hildebrandt who became very involved with her family. Kevin was also working with Connexions for a bit after the YouTube incident but as of now, he has been fully taken out of the company and no longer works with them. Jodi Hildebrandt became a licensed clinical mental health counselor in 2005. In 2012, she started the Connexions classroom and started working with patients.
Jodi had this patient, who remains anonymous, who had gotten thrown out of his school and church because Jodi had violated HIPAA laws and told them what he was getting help for. Jodi was charging him up to $2,000 a month and hardly wanted to help and talk about him and would threaten him if he and his wife didn’t take more sessions and that the addiction he had would “destroy his life.”
Ruby admitted that she was neglectful towards her kids. Her words exactly were, “I was a hugely disconnected, selfish, aggressive, neglectful, entitled mother.” She had also said that she would say that she wanted her kids to be “happy” but really meant and said “I want my kids to get off my back because I want to do what I want to do,” and had also said, “it was all about me.”
Later on, when Shari left for college, Ruby’s sisters confirmed that she no longer talks to her mom or dad. Chad now lives with Kevin and no longer talks to Ruby because of everything she put him through. Kevin and Ruby are currently separated and that’s why Chad is able to live with Kevin now. Ruby cut her own sisters out of her life because of Connexions. Her family wants her put away forever if she gets convicted. Ruby’s sister-in-law Cynthia Franke talked to Page Six and said “At this point, I think she’ll say anything to save herself.” Another thing that Cynthia had said “I don’t think she should get out on bail. I do believe the allegations against her.”
Both Ruby and Jodi were charged with 6 felony counts of child abuse. Each count carries a sentence of up to 15 years and a fine of $10,000. Franke’s 12 and 10-year-olds were found malnourished with duct tape and open wounds to their wrists and ankles. The 12-year-old came out of Hildebrandt’s house and that’s where they ended up finding the youngest daughter in the same conditions. Physical injuries were made in three different ways to the kids. The first was multiple physical injuries or torture. The second was starvation or malnutrition. The third was that she was also causing severe emotional harm.
