An American mother of six, known for her parenting advice online that garnered more than two million followers on YouTube, has been given a minimum prison sentence of four years for aggravated child abuse.
Aged 42, Franke, the operator of the now-defunct online platform ‘8 Passengers,’ was arrested in Utah, USA, in August last year after her malnourished 12-year-old son escaped to a neighbor, Jodi Hildebrandt, 54, in search of food and water.
Law enforcement reports revealed that the child had been tied up with duct tape and showed visible injuries from being bound with rope. Hildebrandt, Franke’s business partner in another venture, was also sentenced to four prison terms ranging from one to 15 years each. Both individuals confessed to second-degree aggravated child abuse charges in December.
Following the sentencing, Franke expressed regret to her children, admitting to her distorted sense of right and wrong, saying, “I would do anything for you. I took away all that was gentle, safe, and good from you.”
Hildebrandt, in her statement, expressed optimism for the children’s recovery, both physically and emotionally.
During the trial, prosecutor Eric Clarke painted a grim picture of the living conditions in which two of Franke’s children were kept, likening it to a “concentration camp-like environment” where essentials like food, water, and proper sleeping arrangements were regularly denied.
Starting the ‘8 Passengers’ YouTube channel in 2015, Franke had amassed 2.3 million subscribers by the previous summer, offering insights into her family life that resonated with many viewers.
But in 2020, worries surfaced when a video of one of her sons showed that he had slept on a bean bag for seven months. Other videos showed instances of Franke withholding food from her children and even canceling Christmas as a form of punishment.
The ‘8 Passengers’ YouTube channel was taken down in 2022, coinciding with Franke’s separation from her husband, Kevin.
As part of a plea agreement, Hildebrandt, who collaborated with Franke on ‘life coaching’ videos, admitted to being involved in the child abuse, including incidents where she forced one of Franke’s children to jump onto a cactus repeatedly.
She shared that Franke had labeled her children as “evil and possessed,” insisting that they needed to “atone.”
In a statement from his lawyer before the trial, Kevin Franke urged the harshest punishment for his former partner due to the “horrific and inhumane” treatment inflicted on his children.