The third episode of Hulu’s three-part Devil In the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke doc was the hardest of the trio to watch, as it went into the truly horrific child abuse that landed but Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt behind bars.
While the pair are currently behind bars for their crimes, Ruby’s husband Kevin Franke and two of their six children, Shari and Chad, all gave their detailed accounts of her alleged behavior on camera, for the first time in the documentary.
Shortly before the two were arrested, Ruby had formed an attachment to Jodi, kicking both Kevin and Chad out of the family home, while Shari was at school. That left Ruby and Jodi in control of the former’s four youngest children, with whom Ruby forbade Kevin from having any contact.
“I was terrified I was going to lose my marriage, that Ruby was going to ask for a divorce. I was 1000% compliant at that point,” said Kevin. “I was going to support her over all my children, period. Somehow I had to convince Jodi that I was ready to go back to Ruby.”
When asked by a producer why he didn’t “stand up to say, ‘This is nonsense?'”, Kevin could only respond, “If I dwell on that question, it eats me alive.”
After being told by neighbors that they saw her siblings alone for hours, Shari called the police on her mom, saying the kids were left home by themselves. When police went to the home, nobody answered the door and a judge wouldn’t sign off on a search warrant, explained Shari, who said she was also told nothing could be done because nobody witnesses any abuse.
A neighbor interviewed on the doc said she wishes she had lied and claimed she saw abuse, knowing what was to come.
It would be 10 months after that call that one of Franke’s children, a 12-year-old boy, escaped Jodi’s Utah home and asked a neighbor for help, with tape around his ankles and appearing completely emaciated. The neighbor called police, with one of the responding officers speaking in the doc.
They recalled seeing “nothing but skin and bones,” adding that they were “able to see the tendons on the upper part of his tendon, front and back.” The boy told police he hadn’t seen his sister in a month, but could hear that she was also being kept in the same house; the girl was later found in the home, with her head shaved and “looking scared.”
Rope and handcuffs were later found in a safe room, as well as medical dressing, a cayenne pepper and honey paste for wounds and duct tape. Ruby’s two other children were found at a friends home near the Franke home and appeared physically okay. Both Jodi and Ruby were arrested.
“I don’t remember a lot of that day. It’s just a blur,” said Shari of the day of the arrests.
“I’ve had no communication with the family in over a year. My phone started ringing and I looked at it. It was Ruby, she was calling me out of the blue. I was so emotional, for the first time in over a year, I was having a conversation with the woman that I love,” Kevin recalled.
“She was in a panic and she said, ‘I have some explaining to do.’ She started to share with me that the two younger children were demonically possessed. I remember asking, ‘How do you know?’ She said, well, they’ve confessed to it,” Kevin claimed. “One of the younger kids, he had gotten out. He’d gotten to the police and she said, ‘I can only imagine the lies he’s telling the police right now. You need to pick up your kids from the police station, this is your chance to redeem yourself.'”
Kevin then went to the police, but wouldn’t initially tell them who told him to go there, covering for his wife.
“I was afraid to do anything that would point them towards Ruby. I was trying to protect her,” he said, before recalling the moment police filled him in on the details of the abuse. “I couldn’t comprehend it, I couldn’t understand it, I truly believed they were lying to me. They offered to show me pictures and I refused, I didn’t want to be manipulated. I didn’t know what to do, I just was lost.”
Chad, meanwhile, was working as a lifeguard when his boss came up to him and said she was so sorry to hear what happened. He hadn’t heard anything yet and pulled out his phone.
“I was being fed all this information and I remember my thought process was, this is not real. I really believed that,” he said.
The children then told the police even more about the abuse they endured, which included being made to stand in the sun all day, jumping on a trampoline for hours and being tied to weights. Authorities then found a blue folder on a nightstand in the home, with a journal detailing all the abuse.
“She’s literally written down everything. Day to day recollection of events … we were just in shock,” said one of the investigators.
Written among the entries were things like, “I will not feed a demon .. I have the power of God and he must obey … I told him, ‘Give your demon friend a message for me. I will not rest. I will not stop. I will not leave. I will fight him until the day you die.'”
The arrest led to Chad messaging his father for the first time in a year, before the pair met up in person. When they reunited, Chad didn’t even recognize his father, while Kevin thought his son looked so grown up.
“I told them about the children being under the influence of evil spirits and the things that they were purportedly doing,” said Kevin, while Chad also initially believed “it was the right thing to do.”
When Kevin returned to his home for the firs time in a year, the place was a total mess — with bins and buckets littered all around the home. “The drawers were all empty, everything was empty,” he said, adding that was the moment he learned from neighbors that Ruby was packing up to move without even telling him.
“All of a sudden, 2+2=4 and things made sense,” he added of his moment of clarity.
“He said, ‘Chad, we’ve been lied to this whole time. No child is possessed. No kid or child has done the things your mom has said they have done,'” Chad recalled. “My dad was in tears. He hugged me, he was sobbing on my shoulder and I was battling in my head … I remember I closed my eyes, all the blood rushing to my head and realized I couldn’t really defend her anymore.”
Kevin said “little by little” he began “accepting the idea Ruby and Jodi had done something awful,” adding that he feels “angry when I think about it.” When asked whether he feels guilt, Kevin said “absolutely,” adding, “I was the last line of defense for these children and I packed my bags and walked away.”
He said that it really “hurt” to “hear this woman that I had worshipped just admit to destroying our family” when she later pled guilty to child abuse. Chad, meanwhile, said it was “really heartbreaking seeing her in ankle chains and handcuffs.”
While Shari went to Ruby’s sentencing, she said she never looked at her. While she heard her mother’s statement, acknowledging her behavior, Shari didn’t buy it — saying, “I personally have seen too many crocodile tears from her, so I can’t say whether she is sorry.”
Shari is adamant she will “never” talk to her mother again, “whether she’s the most apologetic person in the world or not.” She added, “That doesn’t change anything for me. We have one childhood and one mom and that was mine.”
While Chad said he missed having the “mother figure” she was when he was “very young,” he believes “what she’s going through is deserved.” He said he doesn’t believe she should get out of prison “at least until all the kids turn 18 years old,” before adding, “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have love for her.”
Kevin also said he has “always loved her,” despite abusing their children.
“The actions that she did are atrocious, but I still feel a longing. I miss her,” he said. “All of the delivery rooms, the moments holding our children, it is easy for the world to hate that woman and so many people want me to join in that chorus and I cannot turn off all of those other memories.”
In the doc’s final moments, he was asked how he makes sense of all that happened.
“This really is a story of love. Of hope. Of family. But this is also a story of deception. Of control. And ultimately, it’s a story of faith,” Kevin responded. “If you put your faith in the wrong hands, you can lose everything.”
Since Ruby’s arrest, Chad has continued to be an influencer, while Shari has campaigned against family vlogging. Kevin has since filed for divorce and, recently, voiced his support for a bill that protects children who appear in their parents’ content on social media.
Hulu said neither Ruby Franke or Jodi Hildebrandt responded to requests for comment about new allegations made in the special.
All three episodes are available now on Hulu.
