January 3, 2026
by Carla Hay
“Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence”
Directed by Olivia Crist Grant
Culture Representation: The four-episode docuseries “Ruby and Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence” features an all-white group of people talking about the child-abuse scandal involving former YouTube family influencer Ruby Franke and her business partner Jodi Hildebrant, who are both from Utah.
Culture Clash: In December 2023, Franke and Hildebrandt were both convicted of felony child abuse for beating, torturing, starving, and holding captive Franke’s two youngest children earlier that year.
Culture Audience: “Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching true crime documentaries about child abusers who are punished for their crimes and how cult-like leaders can cause damage.
Just like the title indicates, “Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence” takes the angle that a cult mentality was the driving force behind the horrific child abuse inflicted by Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt, who were each sentenced to four to 30 years in prison for this child abuse. This four-episode docuseries is stretched too long with repetitive comments, but it’s a solid account of how abusers can twist religion for evil purposes. Most of the documentary’s interviews are with former clients of Hildebrandt and other people whose lives have been affected by her.
Directed by Olivia Crist Grant, “Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence” is the type of documentary series that should have been much shorter than it is. The same story could’ve been told in three episodes instead of four, by reducing the redundant content. Episode 1, titled “Meet the Frankes,” gives a summary of the troubled Franke family. Episode 2, titled “The Hildebrandt Way,” describes the beginnings of Hildebrandt’s therapist business. Chapter 3, titled “Truth and Distortion,” is mostly centered on an interview with a Hildebrandt family member who claims to have been physically and emotionally abused by Hildebrandt when the family member was a teenager. Chapter 4, titled “Honest, Reliable, Humble,” focuses on the legal aftermath of the crimes and other law violations that are discussed in the documetary.
“Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence” begins with the same home video surveillance footage that almost every documentary about this scandal seems to use as the opening scene. On August 30, 2023, Franke’s then-12-year-old son rang the doorbell of a neighbor on a blistering hot day in the desert city of Ivins, Utah. The boy, who is Franke’s second-youngest child of six children, was emaciated, wearing only socks on his feet, and had duct tape tied over his wounded ankles. The boy asked to be taken to jail because he said he belonged there.
An unidentified elderly man and woman (presumably a couple living at the house) who answered the door are seen trying to help the boy, as the man of the house calls 911 to send an ambulance. His voice cracks with emotion when he sees the extent of the boy’s injuries. During this phone call, the boy says that he came from Jodi Hildebrandt house, and his mother is Ruby Franke. The Franke children who were under the age of 18 at the time this documentary was made have their first names withheld and their faces blurred out of the documentary, to protect their privacy.
Later, through Franke’s own journals, police body cam footage, witness statements and other evidence, it was revealed that Franke (who was born in 1982) and Hildebrandt (who was born in 1969) had been holding Franke’s two youngest children (the youngest being a 9-year-old girl at the time) captive in Hildebrandt’s sprawling compound in Ivins for several months. The children had been brainwashed to believe that they were evil and possessed by the devil and deserved any torture and punishment that they were getting from Franke and Hildebrandt. Body cam footage shows the police went to Hildebrandt’s home and found the youngest child emaciated in a locked room.
Hildebrandt and Franke were arrested that day and refused to explain in police questioning why the children were abused. Franke’s middle two children (daughters who were underage teenagers at the time), who had no signs of physical abuse, had been visiting at a friend of the family’s at the time the police searched Hildebrandt’s house. Franke’s two eldest children—daughter Shari and son Chad—were over the age of 18, estranged from their parents, and living in separate homes from their younger siblings when Ruby was arrested for abusing her two youngest children.
Ruby’s estranged husband Kevin (who was born in 1979) was cleared as a suspect because he hadn’t seen or communicated with his children for about a year, under the orders of Hildebrandt, who was the former couple’s therapist. Ruby and Kevin (who got married in 2000) had separated in June 2023, and he moved out of their house in Springville, Utah, in July 2023. Kevin filed for divorce from Ruby in November 2023.
In December 2023, Ruby and Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse of Ruby’s two youngest children. In February 2024, Ruby and Hildebrandt were each sentenced to four to 30 years in prison. In early 2025, Kevin and Ruby’s divorce became final, after Kevin won his long legal battle of wanting full custody of their underage children, who had been placed in foster care after Ruby’s arrest and conviction.
“Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence” focuses more on Hildebrandt’s role than Ruby’s role in this child abuse. The 2025 documentary series “Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke” (which has interviews with Kevin, Shari and Chad) takes an in-depth look at what led Ruby to become a convicted child abuser. “Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke” gives details about how Ruby was an abusive mother long before she met Hildebrandt.
From 2015 to January 2022, Ruby documented the lives of herself, Kevin and their children on a YouTube channel that Ruby founded called 8 Passengers. At its peak, 8 Passengers had nearly 2.5 million subscribers and had six-figure sponsorship deals that totaled between $1 million to $2 million a year. Ruby presented her family as wholesome, loving and devout followers of the Mormon faith, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Ruby shut down the 8 Passengers channel in January 2022, after Ruby was the subject of intense criticism and scrutiny over her harsh parenting tactics. In one video, she admitted that she made her teenage son Chad sleep on a bean bag for seven months as punishment. In another video, Ruby filmed herself telling her then 6-year-old daughter (her youngest child) that the daughter would be deprived of lunch that day because the daughter didn’t make her own lunch.
But behind the scenes, Ruby was an abusive tyrant, and Kevin was a passive enabler, according to Shari Franke’s 2025 memoir “The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom.” This book, which was published in January 2025, is not mentioned in “Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence,” which was released in September 2025. In the book and in Shari’s interview for “Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke,” Shari says that Ruby would physically beat all of the children, who were too afraid to report this abuse because they feared they would not be believed.
Ruby shut down the 8 Passengers channel in January 2022, after Ruby was the subject of intense criticism and scrutiny over her harsh parenting tactics. In one video, Ruby admitted that she made her teenage son Chad sleep on a bean bag for seven months as punishment. In another video, Ruby filmed herself telling her then 6-year-old daughter (her youngest child) that the daughter would be deprived of lunch that day because the daughter didn’t make her own lunch.
Hildebrandt is a divorced mother who is estranged from her family, but she was able to amass a small fortune by marketing herself as a therapist/life coach for families, particularly families headed by married couples. Through a Mormon-centered counseling company she founded in 2007 called ConneXions, Hildebrandt became a cult-like leader who destroyed many marriages instead of saving them, according to people who’ve given interviews about Hildebrandt in this documentary and elsewhere. The former clients of Hildebrandt who are interviewed in the documentary are identified only by their first names in the documentary, even though some of them have been interviewed in other documentaries and news reports that identify them by their first and last names.
The former Hildenbrandt clients who are interviewed in the documentary tell the same stories that have already been told about Hildebrandt and ConneXions in other documentaries. Most of ConneXions’ married clients got divorced because Hildebrandt had a domineering counseling style that dictated the types of sexual intimacy her clients could have, which is typical tactic used by cult leaders. Many of her clients spent so much money on ConneXions and Hildebrandt’s “counseling services,” it ruined or damaged the clients’ finances.
Hildebrandt discouraged sexual intercourse for married couples, she preached that masturbation was deviant and sinful, and she taught that porn addiction is looking at porn at least once a year. According to several of her former clients, Hildebrandt often drove a wedge between husbands and wives, by convincing the wives to separate from or divorce their husbands because Hildebrandt said the husbands were addicted to porn.
The husbands were also convinced they were addicted to porn and agreed to the separations or divorces that Hildebrandt ordered. Hildebrandt almost always placed the blame on the husbands for ruining their own marriages. A former Hildebrandt client named Trey says in the documentary that he estimates that Hildebrandt was directly responsible for “hundreds” of divorces. Another former Hildebrandt client named Adam, who says his marriage was a casualty of her “counseling,” says that Hildebrandt taught this philosophy to the couples who got separated or divorced under her counseling: “The relationship had to end before it can be reborn.”
Michael, another former ConneXions client, says Hildebrandt ruined his marriage because he alleges that Hildebrandt convinced his wife that it was okay to physically abuse their daughter. Michael says he saw proof (physical injuries) of this abuse and reported the abuse to Child Protective Services. But he says CPS didn’t investigate, and his wife was able to convince a court to give her joint custody of their daughter. In their custody battle, Michael had been fighting to have his ex-wife lose custody of their daughter. He says he still fears and suspects that his ex-wife is abusing their child in ways that don’t show physical injuries.
Ruby and Kevin Franke separated under these circumstances. However, Hildebrandt took her relationship with Ruby far beyond what therapists are supposed to take with a client: In 2022, the year that Hildebrandt and Ruby started a social media platform business together called Moms of Truth, Hildebrandt moved in with Ruby and Kevin because Hildebrandt said she was afraid to live in her own home because she believed the devil was out to get her. It wasn’t long before Hildebrandt ordered Kevin and Ruby to sleep in separate bedrooms, and Hildebrandt and Ruby began sleeping in the same bed together.
There has been much speculation that Ruby and Hildebrandt were lovers during the time that Hildebrandt lived in the Franke home and continuing up until this toxic duo got arrested. Shari Franke says in her memoir that she believes that her mother Ruby and Hildebrandt were sexually involved with each other. In the book, Shari describes seeing the bedroom that Ruby and Hildebrandt shared as looking like a honeymoon suite, with candles and massage oils. Shari also remembers once seeing Hildebrandt coming out of the locked bedroom and getting the impression that Hildebrandt and just had sex with Ruby.
Hildebrandt’s love life has been shrouded in a lot of speculation and mystery that no documentary or news report has been able to expose, except for public information about Hildebrandt being married from 1993 to 1996. Hildebrandt’s ex-husband and her two adult children have not spoken publicly about her. Her children, who are now adults, reportedly were estranged from her long before her arrest. “Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence” drops another hint that Hildebrandt is a closeted lesbian or queer woman in the third episode, when Jessi Hildebrandt, who is a child of Jodi’s brother, says that Jodi’s mother once told Jessi that Jodi had “special friendships” with girls when Jodi was a teenager.
Jodi was raised in a strict Mormon family as one of seven siblings. Her father was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Before moving to Utah, Jodi had lived in Arizona and in California. The Mormon religion teaches that homosexuality or queerness is a sin. In her counseling, Jodi also preaching against homosexuality and queerness. Former client Trey says he cut ties from ConneXions and Hildebrandt after he saw Hildebrandt verbal bully a man to come out as gay during a group therapy session.
Because most all of Jodi’s clients were also Mormon, she would have further incentive to hide her true sexuality if she’s a lesbian or queer women. If Jodi really is a closeted lesbian or queer women, it’s not unusual for closeted queer people to publicly be homophobic because they feel deep shame or self-hatred for their own homosexuality or queerness. it would be the same reason why Ruby Franke would want to hide or deny that she had a same-sex relationship Jodi, if this sexual relationship existed.
Documentaries have not given any information so far about what type of wife and mother Jodi was. However, Jessi Hildebrandt (whose current pronouns are “they/them”) has given several interviews, including in this documentary, about how Jodi physically and emotionally abused Jessi. In 2010, before Hildebrandt was estranged from her entire family, her married brother ordered his then-16-year-old child Jessi to live with Jodi because Jessi had come out as queer and had some rebellion issues, such as skipping school.
Jessi lived with Jodi for several months. In the documentary, Jessi says Jodi’s abuse included Jessi being locked in rooms for up to 12 hours a day; Jessi’s mouth being duct taped; Jessi being forbidden to talk to other people without Jodi’s permission; Jessi not being allowed to read or use the Internet; and Jessi getting frequent beatings from Jodi. Jessi says that Jessi reported this abuse to police, but nothing happened because Jessi had no proof, and Jodi was considered an upstanding member of the community.
Jessi says that Jodi tried to convince Jessi that Jessi was possessed by the devil. In the documentary, Jessi says about Jodi: “She wanted to make my life so miserable, it would force the sin out of me.” Jessi says that Jodi punished Jessi for sexually experimenting with girls. As for Jodi’s being arrested and convicted of abusing the Franke kids, Jessi comments: “It didn’t surprise me.”
One of the biggest failings of other documentaries about the Hildebrandt/Franke child abuse scandal is how they ignore or barely mention the Mormon Church’s role in continuining to refer clients to Jodi, even after there was evidence that she wasn’t a good therapist. The high divorce rate among her clients after they were “counseled” by her should’ve been a big red flag, especially in a religion where divorce is a big stigma. “Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence” addresses the Mormon Church’s enabling of Jodi, but the documentary doesn’t uncover a lot of groundbreaking information.
The documentary mentions that Hildebrandt’s therapist license was suspended for about 18 months, beginning in 2012, because she breached the confidentiality of a client by telling private information about him to a therapy group. She was still able to grow the business because she continued to get client referrals from Mormon church officials, who knew about her suspended license. “Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence” doesn’t name any Mormon church officials, but ConneXions president Pam Bodtcher (a close friend of Jodi’s) is mentioned multiple times as one of the worst enablers.
Bodtcher did not resonded to requests to be interviewed for the documentary, but Michael (the former ConneXions client who says his ex-wife abused their daughter) is currently suing Ruby Franke, Jodi Hildebrandt and ConneXions for racketeering. Michael claims that Bodtcher knew about people being abused under Jodi’s direction, but Bodtcher did nothing to stop it. As of this writing, the lawsuit is still pending.
Eric Clarke, attorney for Utah’s Washington County, was a prosecutor in the Hildebrandt/Franker case, says in the documentary that there isn’t enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Bodtcher. He says that Jodi abused religion to convince others to commit evil acts. Clarke comments on the case that resulted in Ruby and Jodi becoming convicted child abusers: “We had evidence Ruby was inflicting the abuse, but we also had evidence that Jodi was causing it.”
Former client Adam is the person whose confidentiality was breached by Jodi in the case that got her license suspended for 18 months, beginning in 2012. In the documentary, Adam says that the private information that Jodi revealed about him to a therapy group was that Adam had been sexually abused as a child. Adam says that his ex-wife used this information in a custody battle and distributed this information to Brigham Young University (where he worked at the time) and to the Mormon Church.
As a result, Adam got fired from his job at Brigham Young University, which settled a wrongful termination dispute with Adam over his dismissal from the job. Adam’s parents Paul and Deborah, whose last names are also not mentioned in the documentary, back up Adam’s story. Even though Jodi’s therapist license was suspended for 18 months, she still operated ConneXions by presenting herself as a life coach, not a licensed therapist, and her business grew because of client referrals that she was still getting from the Mormon Church.
Other people interviewed in the documentary are KSL-TV Salt Lake City reporter Shelby Lofton; Mormon therapist Dr. Julie Hanks; psychologist Dr. John Dehlin, who describes himself as a former Mormon; sex therapist Natasha Helfer, who describes herself as a former Mormon; social media personalities John Mathias and Lauren Mathias of Hidden True Crime; and a former ConneXions client named Janae. Some of these interviewees have been in other documentaries and news reports about the Hildebrandt/Franke child abuse case.
“Ruby & Jodi: Cult of Sin and Influence” is a fairly good overview of how Jodi used mind control and manipulation to get people to do her bidding. The documentary falls short at being a more balanced look at showing that Ruby had child abuse accusations against her long before Ruby got involved with Jodi. More information was also needed about who in the Mormon Church could have enabled Jodi’s misdeeds as a therapist/life coach. But if you want to see a documentary where several people who knew Jodi before her imprisonment have things to say about her, then “Ruby & Jodi: Cult of Sin and Influence” fulfills that purpose.
Investigation Discovery premiered “Ruby & Jodi: Cult of Sin and Influence” on September 1, 2025.
