Parenting advice YouTuber Ruby Franke and business partner due in court on child abuse charges

abcnews.go.com:

A Utah mother of six who gave parenting advice via a YouTube channel is scheduled to make an initial court appearance on charges that she and the owner of a relationship counseling business abused and starved her children

A Utah mother of six who gave parenting advice via a once-popular YouTube channel called “8 Passengers” is scheduled to make an initial court appearance Friday on charges that she and the owner of a relationship counseling business abused and starved her two young children.

Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were charged with six felony counts of aggravated child abuse after their arrests on Aug. 30 at Hildebrandt's house in the southern Utah city of Ivins. They are scheduled to appear at a brief, virtual hearing later Friday.

Franke's 12-year-old son escaped the house that morning and asked a neighbor to call police, according to the 911 call released by the St. George Police Department.

The boy was emaciated and had duct tape around his ankles and wrists, but wouldn't say why, the caller reported.

“I think he's been… he's been detained,” the caller said, his voice breaking up. «He's obviously covered in wounds.»

As the dispatcher was asking questions, the boy said he didn't know where his mom was and that his dad was not in the area. The boy said two siblings, ages 10 and 14, were still at Hildebrandt's house.

“He says everything's fine with them,” the caller told the dispatcher. “He says what's happened to him is his fault.”

While waiting for police and paramedics, the caller expressed concern that Hildebrandt may come looking for the boy.

Prosecutors allege the women either caused or allowed someone to torture Franke’s son and injure her 10-year-old daughter. Both children were starved and harmed