'I will not feed a demon': YouTuber Ruby Franke's child abuse case rooted in religious extremism
The malnourished and badly bruised son of a parenting advice YouTuber politely asks a neighbor to take him to the nearest police station in newly released video from the day his mother and her business partner were arrested on child abuse charges in southern Utah.
The 12-year-old son of Ruby Franke, a mother of six who dispensed advice to millions via a popular YouTube channel, had escaped through a window and approached several nearby homes until someone answered the door, according to documents released Friday by the Washington County Attorney’s office.
Crime scene photos, body camera video and interrogation tapes were released a month after Franke and business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, a mental health counselor, were each sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. A police investigation determined religious extremism motivated the women to inflict horrific abuse on Franke’s children, Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke announced Friday.
“The women appeared to fully believe that the abuse they inflicted was necessary to teach the children how to properly repent for imagined ‘sins’ and to cast the evil spirits out of their bodies,” Clarke said.
Her business partner (and co-defendant) is described as a "mental health counselor." I'm sure she's fine.
/s
Which is why I don’t trust any shrink that’s religious. You can’t claim to be mentally sound when you hold that delusion in your mind.
I've definitely applied this filter when selecting a therapist. In Texas, you can weed out a whole lot of them, because they'll explicitly mention it in their bio.
Handy
I don't recall what Hildebrandt's degree is, but she is--or was, before this criminal case got it revoked--a licensed practitioner. She came very, very close to getting her license revoked over some major malpractice and HIPAA violations with a guy named Adam Steed, but was able to retain her license and was put on probation.
The best explanation I've heard from interviewees that had worked with her is that she's a genuine, clinical psychopath.