Utah mom and Former Youtuber Ruby Franke to remain in jail following 1st court appearance
By AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press
A Utah mother of six who gave parenting advice via a once-popular YouTube channel called “8 Passengers” made her initial court appearance Friday on charges that she and the owner of a relationship counseling business abused and starved her two young children.
The proceedings were delayed by about 45 minutes due to technical difficulties after more than 1,300 people sought to log in to watch the virtual hearing, said Tania Mashburn, spokesperson for the Utah State Courts.
Ruby Franke, 41, and Jodi Hildebrandt, 54, 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.
Both appeared before Judge Eric Gentry via video from jail wearing orange striped uniforms and spoke little. Their attorneys waived reading of the charges and the women did not enter pleas.
Gentry ordered them to remain jailed without bail and scheduled their next hearings for Sept. 21. Their attorneys — Lamar Winward for Franke and Douglas Terry for Hildebrandt — said they were going to ask for bail hearings.
Due to the strong interest in the case — which also included people calling in to listen to the hearing — officials allowed about 50 people in the courtroom as well, Mashburn said.
The charges were filed after Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped Hildebrandt’s house 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 emotionally, court records said. It’s unclear why the children were at Hildebrandt’s home.
The 12- and 10-year-old were taken to the hospital, police said. They along with two other of Franke’s children were taken into the custody of child protective services.
Franke was known for sharing her family’s life on their video blog.
Among the 1,300 attendees on the virtual hearing were people livestreaming on TikTok and providing real-time commentary, an illustration of the fascination with the case in online communities where Franke was already a divisive figure before her arrest.
The Franke family was criticized for their parenting decisions, including banning their oldest son from his bedroom for seven months for pranking his younger brother. In one video, Ruby Franke talked about refusing to take lunch to a kindergartener who forgot it at home. Another showed her threatening to cut the head off a young girl’s stuffed toy to punish her for cutting things in the house.
In one video, Franke said she and her husband told their two youngest children that they would not be getting presents from Santa Claus because they had been selfish and weren’t responding to punishment like being kept home from school and cleaning the floorboards.
“It’s because they’re so numb, and the more numb your child is, the bigger the outcome they need to wake them up,” Franke said in a video.
Some critics started an online petition asking child protective services to get involved. The Franke’s oldest daughter, Sherri Franke, cut ties with her parents, she has said in social media posts. The YouTube channel, which was started in 2015, ended after seven years.
Police records from Springville, Utah — where the Franke family lived — show Sherri Franke called police on Sept. 18, 2022, to report her brothers and sisters had been left home alone for days. Police also spoke with neighbors, but were unable to contact the children. A report was made to Child and Family Services, according to the police report.
Records show officers stopped by the house four more times from Sept. 22 through Oct. 3.
Hildebrandt owns a counseling business called ConneXions. The business’ website said Franke provides content for social media and podcasts. ConneXions videos featuring Hildebrandt and Franke were removed from YouTube after the women were charged.
The state of Utah began efforts to try to “take appropriate action” on Hildebrandt’s clinical mental health counseling license after her arrest, said Melanie Hall, spokesperson for the Department of Commerce, which includes the state’s Professional Licensing Division. If someone facing professional discipline declines to surrender their license, they are given an opportunity to respond and a hearing can be held, she said.
The agency is working with the Attorney General’s Office about possibly holding an emergency hearing of the licensing board in Hildebrandt’s case, Hall said.
Mother offers $2K reward for information on missing Kingsport woman, Layla Santanello
by Kiley Hill
Mon, September 18th 2023, 7:20 PM EDT
INGSPORT, Tenn. (WCYB) — A Kingsport woman has been missing for almost 3 months. Now, her mother is offering a reward for information on her daughter.
Layla Santanello, 21, went missing in Kingsport on June 27.
Officials with the Kingsport Police Department say she was last seen in the area of 2003 North Eastman Road.
Layla's mom, Jennifer Santanello, has put up a $2,000 reward for information leading to her daughter.
She said the original goal for the reward money was $1,000 and then an anonymous person contacted her and doubled the amount.
Jennifer tells News 5 she's thankful for the help she's received in locating her daughter.
"I'm hoping very much that will help make people move forward and come forward and tell us what they know or even what you think you know. It's an overwhelming sense of gratitude, it's comfort and gratitude like I have never experienced."
If you have any information regarding Layla's case, you can call the Kingsport Police Department at 423-343-9780, or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND.
Family of missing UMass student continues fight for answers on status of case
Nearly two decades after Maura Murray’s disappearance, her family, along with others, are renewing their calls for answers and justice in her case.
Souuce www.westernmassnews.com
By Wesley Days and Ryan Trowbridge
Published: Aug. 14, 2023 at 2:43 PM EDT|Updated: Aug. 15, 2023 at 11:00 AM EDT
SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - Nearly two decades after UMass Amherst student Maura Murray’s disappearance, her family, along with others, are renewing their calls for answers and justice in her case.
“She was so shy and introverted, but she was both impressive both on the track and in the classroom,” said Murray’s sister, Julie Murray.
Maura Murray went missing in February 2004 after her car was found crashed in Haverhill, NH. Now, almost 20 years later, Julie Murray is demanding answers from New Hampshire Attorney General’s office on the status of her sister’s case.
“We’re in the dark. We’re blind, my family is. We don’t have any answers. We try to meet with investigators and just get basic details of the disappearance answered and we just cannot get that,” Julie Murray explained.
Those questions are now being brought to Attorney General Josh Formella’s doorstep - literally. On Tuesday, Maura’s family, along with others in their same position, will be protesting in front of the A.G.’s office to demand more communication between investigators and victims’ loved ones.
“Really, it’s on us the families now to get answers to continue to fight for these answers, so that these cases don’t languish in the A.G.’s building, which it kind of feels like you know 19 years later,” Julie Murray added.
In addition to the common thread of violence that bonds these families together, there’s one other thing that ties them.
“One thing I have realized is that none of us have spoken to the attorney general himself,” Julie Murray said.
These families also complaints of no case updates, a lack of responses to emails and calls to investigators, and no follow-ups on potential evidence and witnesses. The last one is something that hits close to home in Maura’s case. Julie Murray told Western Mass News that one piece of evidence is still a mystery to her.
“In terms of the carpet that was discolored that was taken in by potential evidence, I still don’t know if that’s been tested,” Julie Murray said.
We reached out to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office about these complaints and received a statement that read:
We acknowledge their disappointment, frustration, and the tension that can develop when there is a lack of a resolution or new publicly-available information—sometimes for decades. We remain resolved to fulfill our mission of seeking justice in all prosecutions including those who have been murdered or remain missing.
We at the New Hampshire Department of Justice never forget that at the heart of each of our homicide cases are real people with families who love and miss them. We support Tuesday’s gathering as something positive - victims and their families coming together, using their voices, and bringing awareness to their cases. Our hope is that highlighting these cases will result in more people coming forward with information that can help investigators. We are all aligned in pursuing justice for these victims and solving these cases.
We are respectfully listening, continuing to actively engage privately, and are offering our assurance that attention is truly being given to these cases. The Attorney General remains ready and willing to have one-on-one or small group conversations with impacted loved ones.
We are optimistic that the hard work carried out daily by the dedicated public servants who make up our Homicide and Cold Case Units might provide victims some hope. Last year our investigators and prosecutors were able to solve 92.3% of the state’s 2022 homicides. In contrast, the national 2022 homicide clearance rate was 54.3%. New Hampshire’s 10-year average homicide clearance rate is 88.9%, compared to 59.9% nationally.
Over the same period our Cold Case Unit has been utilizing national best practices, the latest investigative techniques, as well as scientific advancements to make numerous public-facing strides, particularly by leveraging DNA.
In late July, the Cold Case Unit announced one of its investigations, the murder of Laura Kempton from September of 1981 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has been solved. Earlier this year, the Unit announced the successful identification after 40 years of the remains of Katherine Ann Alston, who went missing from Boston, Massachusetts, and was found murdered in Bedford, New Hampshire, on October 6, 1971.
In 2022 the Unit tried and convicted Richard Ellison for the second-degree murder of Robert McMillian in Concord on December 9, 2005. Also in 2022, the Unit solved and closed the 1972 Murder of Arlene Clevesy in Newton, NH; and it worked with Boston, MA Police to solve the 1984 murder of Brian Watson in Manchester, ultimately indicting 61-year-old Michael Lewis on a first-degree murder charge. And finally, on March 28, 2022, the Unit announced an investigation into the reported disappearance of Janis Taylor from Concord, New Hampshire, on January 8, 1968.
Moving forward, we are continuing to expand our efforts and increase the resources dedicated to solving cold cases. This month an experienced Cold Case Investigator from Maricopa County, Arizona joined the Cold Case Unit and State Police are using a $1.5 million grant to invest in DNA testing improvements now being implemented at the state’s forensic lab.
With all of the efforts and advancement we acknowledge there are loved ones who still do not have answers and closure. We acknowledge their disappointment, frustration, and the tension that can develop when there is a lack of a resolution or new publicly-available information—sometimes for decades. Being unable to provide closure or detailed information to a family is one of the hardest aspects of our work. It is a reality of the Attorney General’s obligation to maintain the integrity of investigations and preserve the ability to prosecute that sometimes material information must be withheld from the public or victims’ families.
We remain resolved to fulfill our mission of seeking justice in all prosecutions including those who have been murdered or remain missing.
Michael Garrity, spokesperson for the Office of the New Hampshire Attorney General
On Monday, February 9, 2004, at approximately 7:30 p.m., a black-colored Saturn 4-door sedan vehicle, belonging to 21-year-old Maura Murray, traveled off Route 112 in Haverhill, New Hampshire, and became stuck. The roads in that area of northern New Hampshire were snow-covered at the time. Murray was not present at the crash scene when police arrived and has not been seen nor heard from since. Murray was last seen on surveillance footage earlier in the day at an ATM wearing a dark jacket and jeans. Prior to that, Murray had left the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she was studying nursing. Murray did not share with others her pending trip to New Hampshire, which was about 2.5 hours away. Murray received prior education at the United States Military Academy at West Point, was an avid runner, and enjoyed hiking in the White Mountains.
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