Where is Ruby Franke now? Subject of Devil in the Family series

Now one year on, featuring exclusive interviews with the Frankes, their friends and neighbours and never-before-seen footage from the now defunct YouTube channel, Devil in the Family "cuts through the social media reaction to explore the untold story behind the Ruby Franke case".

Read on to learn more about Ruby Franke and where she is now.

Who is Ruby Franke?

Ruby Franke is a 43-year-old former family vlogger who ran the now deleted 8 Passengers YouTube channel.

Franke created the channel in 2015, where she documented her family life with her husband and their children. Five years on from the channel's creation, it had amassed 2.5 million subscribers and 1 billion views.

While some of her videos portrayed a normal family life, some moments aroused suspicion from viewers.

In one video, Franke told the camera that her daughter "needed" to go hungry after she forgot to take her lunch to school that day.

"Hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her a lunch, because then she's not going to learn," she said in the video (via BBC News).

What did Ruby Franke do?

In 2020, one of Franke's children said he had been made to sleep on a bean bag for seven months for pranking his younger brother.

In other videos, Franke had threatened to destroy a stuffed toy belonging to one of her children as well as telling two of them that Santa wouldn't bring the anything for Christmas that year as they were too "numb".

"It's because they're so numb, and the more numb your child is the bigger the outcome they need to wake them up,” Franke said in a video (via AP News).

Franke was arrested in 2023 after her 12-year-old son had climbed out of a window and ran to a neighbour's home, asking for food and water. The boy appeared emaciated and had duct tape on his ankles and wrists. The neighbour went on to call the police.

"The calling party [the neighbour] stated the juvenile appeared to be emaciated and malnourished, with open wounds and duct tape around the extremities," the Santa-Clara Ivins Public Safety Department said in a statement.

"Upon arrival, law enforcement observed the wounds and the malnourishment of [the boy] to be severe," it continued.

Franke's daughter was later found malnourished at her business partner's home and was taken to hospital.

Franke's other two children were placed in the care of child protection services.

In December 2023, Franke plead guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. She later pleaded not guilty to two other counts.

Where is Ruby Franke now?

In February 2024, Ruby Franke was sentenced to serve four consecutive terms of between one and 15 years imprisonment, meaning she must serve a minimum of four years.

In court after receiving her sentence, Franke said (via BBC News): "I was so disoriented that I believed dark was light and right was wrong.

"I was led to believe that this world was an evil place, filled with cops who control, hospitals that injure, government agencies that brainwash, church leaders who lie and lust, husbands who refuse to protect and children who need abuse."

Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Frank will be available to watch on Thursday 27th February on Disney Plus in the US.

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