The oldest daughter of Utah parenting blogger Ruby Franke, who was arrested and charged with child abuse last month, has spoken out for the first time since her mother was apprehended.
Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, who together ran a parenting and lifestyle YouTube channel, were both charged with six counts of child abuse after police rescued two of Franke's six children from Hildebrandt's home Aug. 30. Authorities said the children appeared malnourished and neglected.
"There’s literally not even words to describe how upside down my life has become," Shari Franke, Ruby's oldest daughter, wrote in an Instagram post this week.
"I’ve cried, had an infinite number of panic attacks, had way too much ice-cream, and yet life goes on. Therapy has literally saved me, but God has too. My life is somehow becoming more beautiful and fulfilling, despite all the terrible things going on."
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Shari added that she has tried to live "life to the fullest the last few weeks" despite wanting to "hide away."
"Tomorrow is another big court day, and I’d appreciate your prayers and thoughts for my family and myself," she wrote ahead of a hearing in her family's child welfare case, which has been sealed from the public. "Words can’t express the gratitude I feel for you all, and I feel your love."
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Immediately after her mother's arrest, Shari uploaded an Instagram story with a photo of a police vehicle outside their home with the caption, "Finally."
After rescuing Franke's youngest children from Hildebrandt's home Aug. 30, police began to search for her other four kids, who were not at Hildebrandt's home at the time. When police arrived at Franke's address, officers had to force the front door open while serving a search warrant, according to Springville Police records.
Two days later, Ruby's husband, Kevin Franke, apparently told police the front door of his home had been "kicked in and damaged" and some of his electronics were missing. He also named his oldest daughter, Shari, as a suspect in what he thought was a burglary.
"Kevin stated that Shari is not allowed in the home, and that he believes she entered unlawfully and he wants her charged with burglary," the officer wrote.
The officer then told Kevin Franke that his door had been broken in after the Springville Police Department served a search warrant at the home, and his daughter was not responsible for the damage, the report said.
Kevin Franke "wanted to have his daughter charged with theft for taking some hard drives out of the house," but the responding officer informed him that "his daughter wasn't aware" she wasn't allowed to have them and offered to bring them back, the report states.
Shari reportedly returned the electronics, which included three tablets, three cellphones, three cameras, in addition to a stack of written journals and three passports, to police, and the responding officer "gave them to the complainant who arrived a short time later."
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Police informed Kevin Franke they would not be charging his daughter "as her intent was not to deprive him of any items, she had previously been allowed in the home, and he had not been in the home admittedly for 13 months," the police report states.
Kevin Franke then allegedly threatened to sue the police department, according to the report.
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Kevin Franke's attorney, Randy Kester, told 2KUTV the police reports alleging Kevin wanted his daughter arrested were not true.
Ruby Franke ran a popular video blog, or "vlog," called 8Passengers in reference to herself, her husband and their six children, for years before she stopped posting on the page amid backlash about some of her controversial videos. In one such video, Franke told her followers about the couple's decision to withhold Christmas presents from their two youngest children as punishment for what she described as selfish behavior.
In an August 2021 Instagram post, Ruby Franke described herself as a "nurturing mother."
"When the world accuses you of being the one thing you know you aren’t, please know you are not alone. I look around me at the fruits of being a nurturing mother and my heart is full of gratitude and joy," she wrote. "The world creates chaos by labeling things that don’t reflect Truth. If you are misunderstood, labeled, or accused- remember The Truth."
