Ruby Franke ; Chad Franke. Photo:
Ruby Franke/Instagram; Disney/Kai Pfaffenbach
Chad Franke grew up no stranger to the spotlight.
His family — including his parents, Ruby Franke and Kevin Franke, and his five siblings — were the stars of the wildly popular family vlog “8 Passengers.” The Frankes began posting on their YouTube channel in 2015 (when Chad was 10 years old), sharing their everyday life as a Mormon family living in Springville, Utah.
Fast forward, their following grew to 2.5 million followers by 2020, with the family regularly posting up to five videos per week, according to The Cut. As the Frankes reached the height of their fame, they began attending Utah-based family therapist Jodi Hildebrandt‘s program ConneXions in 2019, which promised “to help you flourish in your relationships,” according to her now-defunct website. Hildebrandt also started working with their oldest son, Chad, according to the podcast The Rise and Fall of Ruby Franke.
By the summer of 2022, Ruby and Hildebrandt had joined forces professionally (hosting the ConneXions podcast together) and blurred boundaries personally, with Ruby allowing Hildebrandt to move into their home, according to NBC. Soon, Ruby’s relationships with her own family eroded: She became estranged from her oldest child Shari, separated from her husband Kevin and forced him to move out of their family home (with Chad following suit).
Most tragically, though, Ruby came to believe that her two youngest children were evil and possessed by a demon, and forced them to endure horrific physical abuse.
Ruby and Hildebrandt were eventually arrested and charged with six counts of child abuse in August 2023, after Ruby’s youngest son escaped and sought help from a neighbor. The two were convicted and each sentenced to 4 to 60 years in prison.
Now, Chad — along with his older sister Shari and father Kevin — is speaking out about his family’s tragic ordeal for the first time in the Hulu’s docuseries Devil In The Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, which premiered on Feb. 27.
Here is a look back at Chad Franke’s vlogging days with his family — and where he has been since his mother’s public downfall.
Chad Franke. Ruby Franke/Instagram
Born Feb. 3, 2005, Chad is the second oldest child — and oldest son — of Kevin and Ruby Franke. He and his five siblings (sisters Shari, Abby, Julie and Eve and brother Russell) were regularly featured on his parents’ vlog, “8 Passengers,” from its onset in 2015.
Chad’s family documented their everyday life in Springville, Utah, on their YouTube channel, with the Franke children primarily in the spotlight. The vlogs showcased their different coming-of-age moments, such as Chad’s difficulties in school and his voice changing during puberty, according to The Cut.
The Frankes were also open about their strict parenting and discipline style on their increasingly popular vlog.
The controversial punishments — many of which involved Chad — including taking away the “privilege” to eat dinner from Chad and his younger brother Russell after wrestled in the home and taking away Chad’s bed for seven months after he played a prank on a sibling.
“I was sleeping on a beanbag since October,” Chad explained in a video.
(L-R): Ruby Franke; Chad Franke; Kevin Franke. Ruby Franke/Instagram
By 2019, Chad was portrayed on “8 Passengers” as a rebel within the Franke family, frequently struggling in school and displaying behavioral problems, according to the podcast The Rise and Fall of Ruby Franke. That summer, viewers noticed Chad’s absence from the family’s YouTube videos — and questioned his whereabouts in the comments.
Ruby and Kevin addressed Chad’s disappearance in a 12-minute vlog posted in August 2019. They revealed that Chad, who was 14 years old at the time, had entered the Anasazi Foundation Wilderness Therapy Program and would spend the next 8 to 10 weeks living in the Anasazi Desert in Arizona.
“You’re probably wondering, what did Chad do?” Kevin said in a YouTube video (via The Rise and Fall of Ruby Franke). “We’re not even going to entertain that stuff, but it’s an accumulation of things over the years … and it’s reached a point where Chad needs to develop some very basic maturity and skills that he’s going to need as an adult.”
Ruby continued, “This is a chance for a reset, a start over, a do over, a fresh beginning.”
According to the Anasazi Foundation, they are an outdoor behavioral health program for adolescents struggling with “substance abuse, emotional, or behavioral concerns.” Participants in the program must spend a minimum of 49 days in the Arizona wilderness, hiking and camping with minimal gear. The website emphasizes that the program is not a “boot camp” but focuses on the “principles of unconditional love, agency, repentance, forgiveness, and restitution.”
While Chad was at Anasazi, the hashtag #FreeChad began circulating on Instagram, according to “8 Passenger” clips featured on The Rise and Fall of Ruby Franke. The Anasazi Foundation’s office would also field phone calls of people saying, “free Chad” and “send Chad home,” the Frankes shared on their vlog.
But after 10 weeks in the wilderness program, Chad was reunited with his family and back to vlogging, sharing his experience in a Q&A video for the “8 Passengers” YouTube channel. His therapy didn’t end in Arizona, however: Upon his return home to Utah, Ruby had Chad begin working with a family therapist named Jodi Hildebrandt.
Jodi Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke in a video for their channel ‘Moms of Truth.’. Moms of Truth/ Instagram
It wasn’t just Ruby and Kevin’s treatment of Chad that raised red flags amongst “8 Passengers” fans: In 2020, over 18,000 people signed a Change.org petition, which alleged child abuse and requested that child protective services investigate the family.
It resulted in Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services visiting the Franke home and interviewing the children individually over two hours — but the case was eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence to support the allegations, according to Insider.
As she began to become more intertwined with Hildebrandt, Ruby eventually stopped posting on the 8 Passengers blog entirely. Instead, Ruby and Hildebrandt created “Moms of Truth” and behind the scenes, Ruby’s parenting style became even more extreme.
By 2023, Ruby had forced her husband out of the house, cut off his contact with their children and moved 300 miles away into Hildebrant’s home in Ivins, Utah. Chad and his older sister, Shari, were no longer living at home at the time, and Ruby left her two teenage daughters — Abby and Julie — unsupervised at the family’s Springville residence. But the two youngest children, Russell and Eve, were taken with Ruby in the move to Ivins — and were subjected to cruel torture at the hands of their mother and her business partner.
On Aug. 30, 2023, then 12-year-old Russell escaped Hildebrandt’s home, where he was held captive by Ruby and Hildebrandt and sought help. Russell got the attention of a neighbor, who was driven to tears over the boy’s “emaciated” condition and called 911.
Shortly after, authorities discovered Russell and his then 9-year-old sister Eve were in similar states of malnourishment, with their bodies covered in “wounds and markings,” according to a press release from police. Both Ruby and Hildebrandt were arrested and each was charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse.
Ruby Franke during a hearing on December 18, 2023 in St. George, Utah. Ron Chaffin/St. George News via AP
In December 2023, Ruby took a plea deal and pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse, as opposed to the six she was initially charged with.
While a statement from her lawyers described Ruby as a “devoted mother” who was “influenced” and “led astray” by Hildebrandt, the 10-page plea agreement exposed horrifying details about the abuse Ruby inflicted on Russell — including binding his hands and feet with handcuffs, kicking him, holding his head underwater and covering his mouth and nose so he could not breathe.
Hildebrandt also pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse, and, as part of their pleas, both women relinquished the right to appeal their convictions. They received identical sentences in February 2024: Four consecutive sentences ranging from 1 to 15 years. However, neither woman will serve more than 30 years in prison due to a Utah law about consecutive sentences.
Ruby apologized to her children at her sentencing. “To my babies, my six little chicks. You are part of me,” the disgraced influencer said. “I was the mama duck who was consistently waddling you to safety. I can see now that over the past four years, I was in a deep undercurrent that led us to danger.”
She continued, “I will never stop crying for hurting your tender souls. You’re so precious to me. I’m sorry.”
Chad was in attendance at his mother’s sentencing as she apologized and was handed down her punishment by the judge. The then-19-year-old was also photographed smiling as he left the courtroom after Ruby was sentenced, Page Six reported.
(L-R): Kevin Franke and Chad Franke. Oliver Farshi
Since leaving his family vlogging days behind, Chad remains active on his social media accounts — posting about his girlfriend, hobbies and travels. In July 2024, he revealed on his Instagram account that he had started real estate school, and by February 2025, he was working as a realtor.
“Being a Realtor has been the BEST fit for me to start off my career,” Chad wrote on Instagram. “Working with all of you and getting to know all of you personally is the best part of this. DM me for your Real Estate needs, any State!”
Though Chad frequently posts on his Instagram and TikTok accounts, he rarely comments publicly about his mother’s arrest and conviction (unlike his older sister Shari, who has spoken before Utah legislators and written a book about their ordeal). But in June 2024, Chad shared an Instagram video that mentioned his incarcerated mom.
“GOT A TATTOO OF MY MOM FOR THE SUMMER,” he wrote on the video before wiping off post-tattoo lotion from his forearm, which revealed nothing was there.
Then, in August 2024, he observed the one-year anniversary of his mother’s arrest on Snapchat, sharing the message “Happy Prisonversary” over a photo of Ruby (taken presumably before her imprisonment).
Now, Chad — alongside his older sister Shari and father Kevin — is sharing his story for the first time in the Hulu docuseries Devil In the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, which premiered on Feb. 27. The three-part series not only chronicles the family’s tragic ordeal but also sheds light on what was really happening behind the Frankes’ seemingly perfect YouTube personas.
According to Chad, Ruby “just wanted to show the view of a Mormon happy family, but they only saw what we wanted to show them.”
He has also posted on his Instagram account about his involvement in the Hulu series.
“POV: everyone sees you on Hulu and lets you be their realtor,” he wrote over a video of himself dancing to a viral tune. “Praying it grows my business,” Chad added in the caption.
