Parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke spoke of having 'dirty little secret' days before being arrested on suspicion of child abuse
She rose to fame running the '8 Passengers' YouTube channel
Parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke spoke about having a 'dirty little secret' just days before her arrest on suspicion of child abuse.
Franke rose to fame running the '8 Passengers' YouTube channel, which followed her family with her six children; Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, and Eve.
However, the channel shut down earlier this year, amid speculation her children were being abused. It is something Franke has strongly rejected as recently as 2020.
Franke was arrested on Wednesday (30 August) in Ivins, Utah, after officials said they discovered a malnourished child with visible injuries.
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The former YouTuber's business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, was also arrested on similar charges.
According to a statement from the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department officials received a report of a child in need of assistance at around 10:50am on Wednesday.
The statement described the child as being 'emaciated and malnourished, with open wounds and duct tape around the extremities'.
The child was taken to a local hospital, while officials found another malnourished child in a nearby home who was also taken to hospital.
Following a search of the house, four children were placed in the care of the Department of Child and Family Services.
According to an affidavit filed by an officer of the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department, Franke's 12-year-old son had climbed out of a window and run to a neighbors house to ask for food and water.
The document says the neighbor called law enforcement after seeing duct tape on the child's ankles and wrists, the other malnourished child officials took to hospital was Franke's 10-year-old daughter.
A judge denied the former YouTuber bail after a detective noted 'the severity of the injuries of her two kids located in the home'.
In the last video uploaded to the channel titled 'The Denigrating Victim', Hildebrandt and Franke spoke about victimhood, which they linked to dishonesty.
While it seemed all hypothetical at the time, the video has taken somewhat of a different meaning since the arrest.
In the video, Franke began: "Victim is a place where I live, a place where I have pity for myself because I don't want to be responsible for me.
"I want to control everything around me so I can be comfortable but I refuse to take responsibility for me.
"I could be dishonest, and I think I'm getting away with it because nobody knows."
She added: "It might be five years, 10 years, I might even take it to the grave with me. My dirty little secret. So it appears I don't have any outcomes and I get away with it."
This led to Hildebrandt saying that being dishonest always has consequences.
Callum Jones