Newly released video shows the malnourished son of a parenting advice YouTuber approaching a neighbor for help on the morning that his mother and her business partner were arrested on child abuse charges.

The malnourished and badly bruised son of a parenting advice YouTuber politely asks a neighbor to take him to the nearest police station in newly released video from the day his mother and her business partner were arrested on child abuse charges in southern Utah.

The 12-year-old son of Ruby Franke, a mother of six who dispensed advice to millions via a popular YouTube channel, had escaped through a window and approached several nearby homes until someone answered the door, according to documents released Friday by the Washington County Attorney’s office.

Crime scene photos, body camera video and interrogation tapes were released a month after Franke and business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, a mental health counselor, were each sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. A police investigation determined religious extremism motivated the women to inflict horrific abuse on Franke’s children, Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke announced Friday.

“The women appeared to fully believe that the abuse they inflicted was necessary to teach the children how to properly repent for imagined ‘sins’ and to cast the evil spirits out of their bodies,” Clarke said.

  • Lvxferre
    36•3 months ago

    The bitterest part?

    • “Do not harm little children” - Church of Satan
    • “One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.” - The Satanic Temple

    Are you getting the picture? People who claim themselves to side with Satan are more eager to show compassion than people who claim to fight against a devil. It immediately reminds me what my grandma used to say, that “Protestants love the devil so much that they talk about him nonstop”. (Not that the Catholic church is any better, I know.)

    [I’m not Satanist, regardless of my nickname, by the way.]

    • @[email protected]
      6•3 months ago

      The satanic temple name is more than anything just sarcastic, they don’t believe in Satan, they’re just using it because they know it irks the religious.

      • Lvxferre
        2•3 months ago

        It’s more like a different interpretation of what “Satan” is, more like an internal force than like a mythical entity. Still - the contrast is clear.