01x02 - The Hildebrandt Method

[bunniefuu]

Our office got a call

as this case was, was breaking.

We were hearing that this was

a really bad instance of child abuse.

And it involved

Ruby Franke's children.

You're not in trouble with me.

We're just trying to figure out

what's going on.

Our main focus right now is you.

He had duct tape and clear plastic

underneath the sleeves on both

wrists.

You could smell it.

The flesh.

The police weren't sure how many

Franke siblings were in the house,

and the boy hadn't seen them for some

time because they were isolated.

The police officers are looking

at him in the state that he's in

and they're terrified

they're going to go find a body.

I'm going to cry.

We need to identify that house.

If there's two other kids there,

we need to go do a security sweep

of that house.

But it was a very large house with

a large concrete bunker basement.

Jodi?

-I need you to step out.

-I have my attorney.

-That's great. Step out of the house.

-No.

-Step out of the house.

-Step out of the house.

-They're going to go into my house.

-Police Department.

And they searched the house

with g*ns out looking for children.

Control, can you hold the air?

We are searching the house.

And they find a little girl.

You- come on out buddy.

I'm a police officer.

She's sitting in a closet,

I can't even imagine how terrified

she must have been.

Hey, are you okay?

She was so afraid that she

wouldn't come out of the closet.

Are you scared?

Just nervous.

She wanted to make sure that Jodi

was giving her permission to do that.

Over the hours,

the first responders sat with her

and tried to help her

get comfortable there.

She's starving,

she ate a whole pizza.

This little nine-year-old girl.

After she had a full stomach,

they were able to get her

to voluntarily come out

and go to the hospital so that she

could be examined for her injuries.

There aren't words

to describe how I-

you can't even

put yourself in the place

of who would ever do that to a child?

-There's no other kids besides her?

-No.

While this is happening,

the police get a search warrant

and they detain Ruby and Jodi.

Place your arms

around your back for me.

And do a comprehensive

search of the house

looking for evidence

of the child abuse.

They're seeing like, a bathroom

garbage can full of Saran Wrap,

and they found this mixture

of honey and cayenne pepper.

The boy had injuries

from the handcuffs

that were wrapped in this Saran Wrap

and then duct tape.

We later found out that that's how

they were treating his wounds,

is rather than putting

an antibiotic on,

they were putting honey and

cayenne pepper in the open wounds.

And then the officers find

what looks like a built-in safe

and when they open it,

it's a panic room.

In this panic room,

they find the handcuffs and the rope

that the boy had left in a bedroom

earlier that day when he escaped

and so, it's clear

that after he'd run away,

Jodi had gone back into the house

and tried to hide

evidence of the abuse.

Shelby Lofton joins us live

from Utah County.

I'll talk to you a bit

about this story, they-

I work for KSL5 News

which is in the local news TV market

in Salt Lake City.

Right before our morning

editorial meeting,

I learned that something

had gone down with Ruby Franke.

I share with my newsroom

that I used to watch Ruby's family

vlogging channel

and I think we should look into it.

And my manager said,

we need to get down there now.

We took chopper five,

that long flightdown the stretch of

Utah for Ivans

and we're reaching out to the police

and we're trying to get

any confirmable information we can.

We learn about

the two young Franke children

that have been taken from this home

to the hospital

and that Ruby and Jodi Hildebrandt,

because police suspect them

of very serious child abuse.

How did it get this bad?

So then I'm thinking

Ruby has six children,

Shari and Chad,

they're out of the house,

they're adults at this point

but where are these

other two minor children?

And so I ask the police

and they say it's a part

of their ongoing investigation.

There's two siblings

that we're still looking for,

are considered still endangered.

Alright, let's go!

-Go long.

-I got long!

Police Department!

Hello, come out!

Look anywhere a

a little emaciated kid can fit.

Containers.

It's good.

Okay, grab it down!

Suspects are the parents.

And we're still looking for

the other kid's siblings.

DCFS has a warrant to take

them both into custody.

-Hello Pam. How are you doing?

-Good.

I'm Officer Hawkins

American Fork Police Department

Eventually, we learn

that the two middle daughters,

who are now teenagers,

were found at Pam Bodtcher's house.

We learned she was a close associate

to Ruby and Jodi.

How did you

start to know the family?

How'd you guys meet?

-The Franke family?

-Yeah.

Through a program

called Connexions.

And these two children

are unharmed physically

but still that complicates

the picture more.

Are these two middle children truly

okay and why were they separated?

Both Ruby and Jodi,

the officers bring them in separately

to interview them

and ask what's been going on.

Help us understand what's happening.

I'm not trying to hide anything.

I'm not trying to be difficult.

This is really

like if you knew all the pieces,

I think you'd have a lot of empathy.

Jodi acted like she was in the right,

and others were in the wrong.

I'm a psychologist, I have watched

people flip things all the time.

So I get it.

I sit on your side. I get it.

I wish people didn't do that,

but they do.

We're just here to talk to you about

a few things involving your kids.

Do you live around here or?

I can wait all day so

It's up to you, if you want

to talk to us about what's going on.

Ruby, as soon as it becomes

clear to her that she is a suspect,

she just kind of shuts it down.

I'll wait until I have a lawyer.

When you have a mom that's involved,

your first question

you ask is where's dad.

-And how many kids do you have Kevin?

-I have six kids.

-Are they all living with you, or?

-No.

-I haven't seen them for over a year.

-Any of them?

No. None of them.

-For a year?

-Over a year.

We received a phone call from 911.

A twelve to thirteen-year-old boy

was knocking on doors

in the neighborhood

asking for food and water.

You can see that Kevin was shocked

to hear what the children looked like

and what was going on.

He was severely emaciated.

-That he had-

-What does emaciated mean?

Skinny, scrawny, malnutritioned.

Not enough food,

not enough water to sustain life.

-So he had-

-I'm sorry, what?

It became pretty clear to us

that we didn't have evidence

of Kevin being aware

of the child abuse

or being involved in the child abuse.

And as far as we're concerned,

that's as far as we go.

Hop on in.

You're under arrest.

It's gonna be two counts,

second degree felony

and child abuse and neglect.

There are a lot

of layers to this story.

There were a lot of questions,

and it took us some time

to kind of process that.

No one in our office

had heard of either Ruby or Jodi,

we didn't have it on our radar that

it'd be a high media interest case.

Tonight, shocking allegations

as Utah mommy blogger with millions

of followers is arrested.

Ruby Franke from the family channel

8 Passengers

Behind bars along with her

business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt.

Jordan just like, jumps up

off the couch.

Jodi and Ruby were just arrested.

I started getting all of these texts,

one after another

saying Ruby Franke

I was like, here we go.

I keep saying disturbing

but that's the only way

I can think to describe this.

When I saw on TV

the cause of the arrest,

I was just completely horrified.

Ruby's children were found bound

and injured.

Emaciated with wounds

all over their bodies.

This is one of the worst

child abuses cases

he and his entire office

has ever seen.

As a journalist, I certainly have

alarm bells going off.

As a former viewer,

I'm thinking, whoa.

Because where I left the Franke

family, that marriage was intact

and I never could have

imagined Kevin,

he hasn't seen

his own children in a year?

How did we get here?

Close it.

I don't know if Kevin

was a good dad or not,

but I do know

that Jodi's venom is real

and that Kevin

has all the signs of it.

To more effectively control

and inflict the organizations

teachings on children,

you need the man out.

That was the main reason Hildebrandt

did that with Kevin Franke.

Take one, mark.

Nobody's really tapped

into who the evil one actually was.

This is a wolf in sheep's clothing

that saw an opportunity.

You guys have no idea

who this woman is.

You have no idea.

The path of a lot of folks

we've interviewed

seems to be like,

you grow up in the church.

And then the next step is to go

to BYU. And then marriage.

It seems like

a very fluid trajectory.

Yeah, that was my experience

as well.

I went to BYU,

I met my wife that first semester.

We were living

at the same apartment complex

so one day, going to class,

I was at the back of the bus

and she turned around

and introduced herself.

Quickly, we got to know each other

pretty well through that semester

and we were married

shortly after that.

I did go to BYU,

and then after that got married

and then had a couple daughters.

You know, in the LDS culture,

family is everything.

Very quickly, you meet someone,

get married, have a child,

you're tied to each other

and that's another

cultural thing that almost like,

the first person

that asks you to marry him,

sometimes you'll just get married

because somebody asked

and it was the first one.

So many relationships that I saw

would push personal happiness aside

for you gotta make it work

because you're married now

and in the next life.

There's a lot of expectations

that are placed on young people

in the Mormon Church.

Thinking about the pressure and

all the rules and the expectations,

there's lots of shame that comes

from not abiding by those things

and it's enough that it keeps you

in line especially as a youth.

My earliest memories

are mixed with the church.

We were always being taught

these stories of obedience

and how God would bless you.

To me,

it was everything to be obedient.

I believed everything

that they taught me there.

While I was studying at BYU,

I met the daughter

of a prestigious Mormon family.

We spent like, three weeks together

every single day

and then she told me

that she got an answer from God

that I was supposed to be

her husband.

I was honest with her. I told her

all about my personal life,

my insecurities and traumas

and challenges.

Because when you're the victim

of sexual abuse

you feel like

you're not innocent anymore.

This happened when I was

in the Boy Scouts of America.

He was twenty-five, I was fourteen

and I just couldn't even process

what was happening to me.

I broke down and told the church

about the sexual abuse

that was going on.

The top church leader emphasized

on the phone how important it was

that we didn't let other people know

about what happened.

Once you become aware of child abuse,

you may need assistance

determining whether the information

is privileged to remain confidential

or whether the law requires it

to be reported to civil authorities.

He even made me promise on the phone

that I wouldn't tell my parents.

Then I just said to him no,

that doesn't work for me.

There are some people

in a conservative culture

who believe that exposing the truth

isn't important

if it damages an institution.

That it's supposed to be so sacred

as the church or scouting.

I was really lucky my dad dedicated

tens of thousands of hours

in trying to help fix the damages

that these people prolifically done.

And so, with all the help

from my parents,

I eventually filed a lawsuit

against the Boy Scouts of America.

We fought for years.

And only for it to become

this incredible nightmare.

Two years later,

I ended up taking a settlement,

but I had no idea my story

would cause a chain reaction for me.

Having all your personal life

just exposed everywhere.

I can't explain

how traumatizing it was.

And that caused so many problems

in my relationship with my wife,

coming from a family that was really

high up in the church,

se had some issues,

some control issues and stuff.

And so, when she came to me

and said we should take therapy,

I was thinking, that's a great idea,

we'll do this together

and things could get like, better.

The repair of damage

inflicted by abuse

should be done privately,

confidentially

with a trusted priesthood leader.

And where needed the qualified

professional he recommends.

Within the Mormon church it's not

uncommon.

if you're struggling with any issue

that you're going to go

to your bishop about it.

What he's going to do

is either give you advice

or he's going to say,

no, I think this is over my head

and I'm going to

refer you out to therapy.

We went to the bishop,

and the bishop was like,

you need to go to Jodi Hildebrandt.

And so, we did.

And that's when Jodi Hildebrandt

destroyed my life.

You can change.

You can change. You don't have to

live with this the rest of your life.

The first time we met Jodi

it was in a group of couples.

She rolls in, she's charismatic,

like a talk show host.

Everyone turns to her

to say the final word on everything.

You're all children of God.

I'm a child of God and

you are divinity. That's who you are.

Jodi would just start talking

about top people in the church,

famous people that she had helped.

They relied on her for- for truth.

Like she starts telling

these funny stores

that relate to all the intimate areas

that are harmless,

and it really relaxes people

and they start talking.

Then she starts to show

public examples

in your little

private group of people

who are in denial

and then laugh with you

and everybody's oh, I guess

I was in denial, and

One thing Jodi started teaching

all the time

is that the relationship has to end

before it can be reborn.

And that's very symbolic

of like, Christianity

that something has to die

before it can be resurrected.

Stories about how eventually

we go through this moment

where we go a certain amount of time

without sex and everything

and that then

it will be like reborn

and it just slowly brining us

there but with fun and charisma.

She just started teaching

all the success

that people have by following us

and I started to see that something

was changing with my wife.

I started to feel like hey,

this is really good thing.

This could really improve

our relationship.

I had been asked did I go to Jodi

Hildebrandt for marriage counseling.

The answer is no. I actually went

there on- on my own accord.

Kind of work on- on myself.

I've had my bumps and bruises

in my childhood and young adult life

and so I've always been interested

in therapy.

I like to do film stuff

and music here and there

and I was actually doing a show

and it went incredibly well.

But there's ego involved

in you know, getting attention

and I remember when the show was done

and I'm taking pictures,

I just felt kind of off.

I felt like I want

to get ahead of this feeling

before it gets out of hand.

I happened to be talking

with a friend of mine

and he brought up Jodi Hildenbrandt.

And so, I watched some videos of her

and as a father of three daughters,

I think the thing

that was compelling to me,

I loved that you know,

she was a strong woman.

She had a great delivery.

She had a great presentation

and I did want to learn more

at- at that time.

Spend a moment to look at yourself.

Look at the way humility

shows up in you.

See if that's something

that you resist.

First thing that you do

is the one-on-one therapy

and my first meeting with Jodi,

I really enjoyed it.

She took a liking to me and so there

was this comfort with her.

At the beginning she is so good

at helping you feel safe

and developing this trust by asking

about what you struggle with most.

I guess she starts to understand

where the ch*nk in the armor are.

And then she starts asking

about some intimate things.

Masturbation or p*rn*graphy

or any sexual relations.

And then she starts to push on that.

In sexual transgression,

the soul is at stake.

What your average person

considers normal behavior,

is often called a sin

within the church.

It just creates a lot of sexual shame

for having normal sexual feelings

or experiences.

The Mormon church for decades

and decades taught that masturbation

is next to m*rder.

The stakes are incredibly high;

your eternal life

and your eternal family are at stake.

Certainly, Jodi Hildebrandt's going

to use this pattern to her advantage.

The first thing that the adversary

does is to disconnect us.

What do you think shame does?

Shame is the master emotion.

I'm a member of The Church

of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints,

I love so much about it.

And Jodi was brought up

in the LDS church as well.

And so, everything Jodi was saying

it made sense to me at the beginning.

This is the invitation

for not just this weekend,

but for the rest of your life

to make your soul stronger

than you flesh.

The people that Jodi worked with

probably didn't know her history.

She had a messy divorce,

she was estranged from her kids

and there's patterns of not being

able to maintain basic relationships

and then here she is

giving advice on those things.

I've had a lot of hard in my life.

I wouldn't have learned this stuff

if I hadn't been driven to my knees

hard.

And so, I get it and I'm inviting you

to stay in this experience

and not call it bad.

Three months after the first session,

everything changed real subtly.

My wife was being instructed by Jodi

to start to limit the communication

that we had as a couple.

The damage and the disconnect

that happens because of lust

affects your spiritual,

emotional system.

I was aware of Jodi Hildebrandt

way before she became national news.

Many of her previous clients

have ended up eventually in my office

trying to undo the damage that

was done in her treatments styles.

After a while,

Adam started calling and saying

this therapy's really, it's weird.

Adam had no idea

what he was getting into.

Eventually, Jodi was trying

to convince my wife

that we needed to start going

to her like, every single day.

We had a lot of money

from the settlement

and we were paying thousands

of dollars to Jodi regularly.

Jodi's a money-maker.

She figured out early on

that you can have therapy with

one person for so much an hour.

Or you could earn ten times

that with just a group.

Thank you for coming.

I appreciate you spending time

with me this evening.

I've personally spoken with literally

dozens and dozens of victims

of this pattern that Jodi Hildebrandt

would inflict upon these families.

She'll quickly

get the husband to confess

to masturbation and p*rn*graphy,

which I'm almost certain that she did

with Kevin Franke.

I was working through

and seeking help with p*rn*graphy.

I've made some wonderful progress.

You came to the realization

that you needed help?

And weren't doing things right?

Or was that something that

Jodi helped you guys recognize?

Jodi saw the need for me

to get help.

Jodi Hildebrandt was one

of the Mormon Churches go-to experts

on treating p*rn*graphy

and masturbation addiction.

You really can't understand

Jodi Hildebrandt Connexions

or Ruby and Kevin Franke and what

she did with so many other victims

without understanding

the Mormon churches' approach

to sexual transgression

and to p*rn*graphy masturbation.

Human sexuality has been around

since the very beginning.

You can find it in our poetry, in our

music, in our myths, in our stories.

When you have the capacity

to now put sex on video format,

this created a porn panic.

Especially in religious communities,

this is seen as the ends of times.

We had an outbreak of p*rn*graphy

and masturbation concerns

within Mormonism,

that began in the nineties

and really started surging hard

in the two thousands

and two thousands and tens.

The church started to have anti-porn

talks at general conference,

it will destroy or ruin

your marriage, everything.

Just droves of people talking

to the bishops about this secret sin.

In Mormon church, you don't have a

sexual outlet unless you're married.

And they had redefined in church

that p*rn*graphy was anything

that turned you on,

so imagine no sexual outlet,

anything turns you on,

I also confessed that I looked at

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

Just glancing at it,

that was a confession.

The value of a counselor went

through- through the roof.

The power to break the pull

of this addiction is found in God.

He can help you change.

So the Mormon church

has this weird dilemma

where they don't want us

talking about sex,

they don't really offer a lot

of great information about sex

other than it's sacred and

it's special and at the right time,

and the right place,

with the right person.

While on the other hand, they're

talking about sex all the time,

especially with the Mormon men.

I want to assure you, young men,

that your leaders

know of the challenges

you face in today's society.

Live for the blessings

that are promised

to those who remain morally clean.

It's a lot to ask

for a twelve-year-old boy

to look up the ladder,

you have to prove to your bishop

through your worthiness interviews

that you are worthy to receive

this next office in the priesthood.

It's exploring,

like probably all kids do,

and I discovered masturbation

and I remember thinking,

holy cow, this feels good.

I was like,

I'm gonna tell all of my friends.

And I'm so glad I didn't tell anybody

'cause like, within a day or two,

those thoughts have cumulated

and I realized that I was committing

the sin next to m*rder.

The Church of Jesus Christ

Latter-day Saint

developed their own twelve-step

program for addictive behavior.

They basically adopted

the Alcoholics Anonymous model

to try and start capitalizing

on this masturbation and p*rn*graphy

addiction idea.

And it doesn't matter if you're

looking at p*rn*graphy too much

or if you masturbated once in the

last month,

you're sent to this program.

Jodi worked within the system

of the LDS church.

She learned how to work the system,

how to get the referrals,

how to earn trust.

I tried to be perfect my whole life,

but I struggled on and off

with p*rn*graphy

and I knew that

the Mormon church taught

that p*rn*graphy and masturbation

was committing the sin next to m*rder

but during this time,

I hadn't looked at p*rn*graphy

or masturbated like for months

and months and months.

But still, Jodi was trying

to demand that I get a sponsor

and that I start getting into

like this sexual addicts group.

I don't want you to think

that as long as I stop the behavior,

then I've changed.

Because that is not legitimate

change, that's only sober.

With these families,

the husband had to enroll

in Connexions

super expensive individual therapy

for the sin of p*rn*graphy

and masturbation.

And then these addiction recovery

support groups both online

and in person some

were also run by graduates

of Jodi's therapy program,

many of which were not

in any way credentialed

or trained

as mental health professionals.

You need professional help

and you need your twelve-step groups

and sponsorship

because those are the people

who actually understand

how to help you

through this process accurately.

Till this day I don't know

how my wife found Jodi Hildebrandt,

you know, who referred her,

what happened,

but she started seeing Jodi

for personal reasons.

A floodgate opened in May 2016,

that's when it was just a full,

sudden change in my wife.

At that time, she took my laptop

and had it scanned for p*rn*graphy.

She didn't find anything,

I don't use p*rn*graphy

but then she said even though

you're not addicted to porn,

you must be addicted

to something else.

I could become addicted to ice cream,

I could become addicted to anger,

quite literally I can become addicted

to anything

that I choose to become addicted to.

She like, got everyone chasing

this unicorn, abstract idea

that she could cure you.

She knew how to work with your brain

that would make it happen.

What I saw in this group setting,

you got men

that are in their fifties,

some in their seventies and then

a 15 year old comes in.

Then somebody that's done

some heinous crime in my eyes,

they're put in this group.

Everybody is categorized

in the same sphere, I guess.

I'm a pretty tough guy

but it got to me.

Now you're thinking

you're this monster

because you masturbated

or you looked at Instagram

or a woman who was in a bikini.

So, you keep on going back,

you keep on writing checks,

and the nervous system

gets just destroyed with shame.

One guy had incest problems,

one starts talking about he's

an exhibitionist, he's got victims.

The next one said he was a voyeurist

and he's got victims, too.

But Jodi taught that

it was an issue in your head,

that context didn't matter.

She's treating us like we're all the

same and we have the same problem.

If you are conscious

and you are lusting,

the consequences are going to be

significant for you.

She even said that

I was the worst addict of them all

and that's when I lost it.

I couldn't function.

I couldn't think.

It triggered the trauma I had

as a victim of sexual abuse

and I just said to my wife,

I don't want to be here anymore.

That's when our problems

started to get just crazy.

When I was in Connexions,

Jodi taught sexuality

as the bane of all existence.

Men are the problem

because they're lustful.

The wife was instructed to withhold

any sexual intimacy,

even emotional intimacy

from the husband.

Jodi would say that women control sex

and we need to use that

to make sure that truth

is being lived in our relationships.

Truth is about boundaries.

A boundary has to do

with what you're going to do,

not what somebody else

is going to do.

How are you going to stop?

You- you walk away.

Jodi had my ex send a contract

that I needed to sign

for us to stay together.

It said stuff like,

I can still live in the house,

but you can't sleep with me,

I don't have to do anything with you

for like three years.

If you want our marriage to stay

together, you gotta sign here.

It was a divorce receipt.

My wife fully implemented

Jodi's principles.

She was using separation

to cooers me

to essentially become

a Hildebrandt follower as well.

She sent a list of demands

that I needed to adhere

to avoid permanent separation,

or to avoid divorce.

The demands was to attend

Jodi's Connexions class.

I had to attend a twelve step

program, I had to find a sponsor.

Jodi had this incredible distain

towards the idea of males.

What I saw is constant separation.

All she wanted to do

was separate men and women.

I would give anything to live

in the same room with my husband

and you're telling this woman

to kick her husband out?

Separation is a principal of truth

and separation is a necessary thing

in order to become people

who live in truth.

Eventually I refused to go to Jodi,

but my wife continued to go back.

My wife, eventually, she says

if you don't accept these teachings,

I'm going to find a new dad

for our daughter.

You're replaceable, I need someone

who is also a Jodi disciple.

When you're in truth,

things are clear to you.

You accept pain and you let go.

This was a very effective move

on Jodi's part

of creating separation and isolation.

Everybody's starting to go crazy

and they start to crumble.

You didn't even know what Jodi

you were going to get.

Sometimes you'd get this

loving person.

And then other times you

just feel this darkness within her.

You need to understand honey,

that I will commit to you.

If something comes up that I deem

is more important,

then I'm going to do that.

I don't know how long

you're going to stay married,

but that's what you need

to say to them.

When all the kids left,

Ruby took all of them?

Yeah, she stayed in the house

and I moved out.

OK. And did you ever try

to reach out to the kids?

Drive by the home or

No. I honored the separation

and boundary that we agreed to.

-So, what was your separation

-There was no contact after-

Did you have

a no contact order in place?

Order no, this was between

my wife and me.

Did she ask you to

not contact the kids?

Ruby invited me

to leave the home.

In the days following the arrest,

I'm hearing these different accounts

from people coming forward

saying they're victims

of Jodi Hildebrandt's,

it starts to make the Kevin Franke

piece of this become clearer.

But I still am operating

with a lot of skepticism,

it's still really hard for me

to believe that this family man

has been away

during the abuse of his children.

And so, I decided to door knock

the Springville neighborhood

where the Franke family lives.

And it's actually the neighbors

who tell me,

well, you know Jodi Hildebrandt

moved in there, right?

And I said, what?

She lives in Ivans.

And they said, no, Jodi moved in

a few months ago maybe a year ago,

it's all fuzzy.

But she moved in, she lived in that

house with them in Springville.

She is right there with Ruby

and Kevin is gone,

never comes, he never comes

to check on the kids, nope.

No one knows where Kevin is.

March of 2021

when after a Connexions conference

down in St. George,

all of the inner circle

All the people who were being trained

as mental fitness coaches and stuff,

so that was Ruby, a bunch of

other people, and their spouses,

we went out to

like a dinner afterwards.

And that's where Jodi really

opened up to the women

in a private conversation that

she believed she was being

tormented and haunted

by shadow figures every night.

Ruby was convinced that

we could intervene and help Jodi.

It was at that point that Ruby said

we could take her up to our house.

The moment she showed up

at my house,

just the weirdest crap

started happening.

Lights turning on and off.

Sounds of people walking on walls

and across the ceiling.

Stuff floating around

and it was just

It was weird.

I've got to say, I'm a smart guy.

I'm an engineer.

I've been a college professor.

I can't explain some of the stuff

that happened.

She would talk in

like different voices.

It was really creepy.

But the voices would say

"She's ours. We're not letting go."

"She's mine.

I'm going to marry her."

She believed that Satan

wanted her as her bride.

Jodi had so much power

over Kevin and Ruby

that they bought into

what Jodi was saying,

that she was being tormented

by demons or devils.

And their belief in Jodi made it so

they were seeing those things, too.

Kevin even says at one point,

I'm an engineer,

I'm a very logical person,

in other words is what he's saying.

And yeah, I can't yet I can't explain

the things that I'm seeing.

He may be an engineer,

but his belief system is still geared

towards seeing the improbable

or the fantastic

because he sees Jodi as an authority

of this, a moral authority,

whose visions are real.

And I think they believed

she was going to help heal the world

and fight evil through her teachings.

Whenever she started to go

into a trance and go into possession,

Ruby would go up and check on her.

And then at some point Ruby said,

"You know what, I'm just going

to start sleeping in there."

That's kind of weird, but okay.

And that was that. They started

sleeping in the same bed.

Inexplicably, after entering into

this super unethical relationship

with all the Franke family,

Jodi moves into the Franke household.

And then she convinces Ruby

that she and Ruby need to sleep

together in the same bed

and if this weren't unethical

and horrific enough,

for any licensed

mental health professional,

Kevin ends up being kicked out

of his own home.

July twentieth, 2022,

Ruby went on a trip

with Jodi and Pam down to Arizona.

When she came back from that trip,

before she even brought

the bags into the house,

She pulled me and said,

"I want to talk with you."

And that's when she

asked me to leave.

The neighbors tell me

that they were noticing

Ruby was gone for days on end,

but they would see children's faces

in the windows.

And so they knew kids were home alone

and that's when

they really were frightened

and concerned for the wellbeing

of these children.

Simultaneously, we're learning that

Shari Franke, Ruby's eldest daughter,

has called ECFS

and asked them

to please check on her siblings.

Hi, my name is Shari Franke.

My four younger siblings

are living in Springville.

My neighbors have been telling me

that they have been left home alone

for about four or five days.

So, I'm taking in these details,

Kevin's attorney says no,

he got his own apartment,

and he was told by Jodi

that he had to be isolated

to reflect on his own behaviors

and work on himself.

And basically, it was Ruby's call

whether and when

he could come back.

And I just keep asking,

how could a man do that?

How could a man walk away

simply at this request,

don't you want to fight

for your family?

When we're doing an investigation

and we're trying to figure out

what in the world is going on,

information of prior bad acts,

is really helpful to us.

We had these pieces of evidence

and then Jessi came in and helped us

put that together

into a picture for us.

Mark it.

We reached out to the ex-wives

of our participants.

All declined to comment on the record

or participate in the documentary.

This documentary series explores

the complex dynamics

of families affected

by Jodi Hildebrandt's actions.

While it highlights her patterns

of manipulation and harm,

it's important to recognize

that these stories

involve multiple perspectives.

The Church says ended its association

with Hildebrandt in 2012

after her license was suspended.

However, some bishops continued

referring people to her after that.