Netflix’s Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story begins with chilling security camera footage of a nervous young boy — clearly malnourished with wounds on his wrists and ankles — asking a neighbor for food, water and to take him to the police. Authorities discovered the young boy was the 12-year-old son of Ruby Franke, a controversial momfluencer who made content about her parenting style alongside her then-husband, Kevin Franke, and their six children on the now-defunct YouTube channel 8 Passengers, Netflix’s Tudum reported.
The young boy and his 9-year-old sister were imprisoned in the home of Jodi Hildebrandt, the founder of life-coach company ConneXions and a prominent voice in Utah’s Mormon church community. The siblings were subjected to abuse at the hands of Franke and Hildebrandt in the name of religious extremism.
“If that young boy hadn’t escaped that day,” Evil Influencer director Skye Borgman told Tudum, “I think those kids probably wouldn’t be with us today.”
The documentary, which was released Tuesday on Netflix, examines Hildebrandt’s influence within her church community, her growing fixation on “improving” her family, her friendship with Franke, and the resulting abuse of Franke’s children that ultimately led to Hildebrandt’s and Franke’s 2023 arrests.
But where are Hildebrandt, Franke, Franke’s husband and their children today? Here’s an update on the case that shocked the nation.
Hildebrandt and Franke routinely deprived the siblings of food and forced them to perform inhumane physical tasks
According to NBC News, 8 Passengers viewers had long accused Franke and Kevin of abuse. In June 2020, local child protective services were allegedly called after a Change.org petition demanding that the family be investigated gained traction online. The petition noted a now-deleted video in which Franke’s then-15-year-old son Chad shared he’d slept on a bean bag for seven months as punishment for behavioral issues.
Though Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services ultimately closed the case due to unsupported claims, viewers continued to call out the family. The Frankes also found themselves under fire for refusing to bring lunch to their then-6-year-old daughter after she forgot to pack one, as well as for threatening to throw away their children’s prized possessions and denying them personal space.
The young siblings who escaped Hildebrandt’s home had been forced to live in a work-camp-like setting and experienced both physical and mental abuse at the hands of their mother and the life-coach company founder, For The Win reported. Authorities found that the siblings were often denied food, drinks, beds and entertainment. They were also barred from contacting others and made to perform inhumane physical tasks, like squatting against a wall for hours at a time.
Hildebrandt and Franke believed the abuse would cast evil spirits out of the siblings’ bodies and assist them in repenting their “sins.”
Where is Franke now?
Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse in December 2023 and was sentenced to four consecutive terms of one to 15 years in February 2024, Tudum reported. She is currently serving time at Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City, and her first parole hearing is scheduled for December 2026.
In audio recordings from prison included in Evil Influencer, Ruby seemed to have distanced herself from Hildebrandt. Borgman told Tudum she was unsure if that separation had lasted, but she believes it has.
“I think this separation helps Ruby recognize where she was and what Jodi was doing,” she said. “I also think it’s a form of self-preservation. She’s looking at the potential time that she could be spending in prison. I think that she’s kind of going, ‘Wait a minute, if I separate myself, maybe I won’t get judged as harshly.’”
Where are Kevin and the Franke children now?
Kevin has become an advocate for stricter legislation regarding child welfare laws since his wife’s conviction, and in July 2024, he urged Utah’s Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Panel to address the loopholes that often stop authorities from intervening.
After divorcing Franke in March, Kevin married Becca Bevin in November, two months after popping the question, People reported. Kevin’s daughter, Shari, seems to be supportive of the union, sharing a picture of herself with the newlyweds and her brother, Chad.
She wrote in the post’s caption, “I could always see [my dad] wasn’t happy, and I prayed that one day he’d find someone that made him happy like he deserved.… He is a wonderful man, and I’m so happy for the new addition to the family!”
Shari is now 22 and published a memoir, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom, in January. Chad is now 20 and, according to his Instagram, recently got married.
“I think they’re moving on and trying to find some form of normal,” Borgman said about the Franke children. “When Ruby’s released from prison, it’ll be really interesting what kind of relationship — if any relationship — happens.”
Where is Hildebrandt now?
Like Franke, Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. She was sentenced to four consecutive terms of one to 15 years in February 2024, Tudum reported. She is serving time at the same facility as Franke, but she is being held in a different section than the former momfluencer.
Though ConneXions is no longer in operation, Hildebrandt’s impact on the Mormon community is still palpable. Many members of the community were featured in the documentary, and Borgman said they’re looking forward to their stories to finally be told.
“The participants that I spoke to who were seeing Jodi for some kind of therapy are happy that the film is coming out,” she told Tudum. “They wanted to tell their story of how Jodi manipulated them, how she used sort of this intersection of trust and power and harm to really obscure their own sense of self and family and religion, and how it can happen to pretty much anybody.”
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story now streaming on Netflix.