01x01 - Meet the Frankes

[bunniefuu]

911, the address of your emergency?

I just had a 12-year-old boy showed

up here at my front door,

asking for help.

He's hungry and he's thirsty.

He said he just

left through the porch

of the neighbor's house.

Her name is Jodi Hildebrandt.

She's a bad lady.

Ruby Franke is his mom's name.

This kind of thing doesn't happen,

especially to family vloggers.

Ruby Franke, a YouTuber from Utah

has been accused of child abuse.

The mom of six known for her

tough love style of parenting.

I'm going to say it one more time,

and then you'll lose

your privilege to eat dinner.

The arrests were shocking

to millions of Ruby Franke fans.

Franke works with the parent

counseling service ConneXions.

Police officers! Open up!

And their founder,

Jodi Hildebrandt

- was also arrested.

-How did you come to my house?

This was a horrible crime with awful

things done to defenseless children.

The child had duct tape

around his ankles and writs.

He's emaciated.

Rope, bindings and other items

used to t*rture the children.

I was physically ill.

I'm going to cry.

We wanted to understand

what happened.

The answer to that question

was Jodi Hildebrandt.

You guys want to know

who Jodi Hildebrandt is?

My aunt, Jodi Hildebrant,

is a monster.

Bizzarro feminist nightmare

cult prophetess.

You don't go against

what Jodi teaches.

Religious radicalism is a key part

of understanding this case.

Dreams and visions, exorcisms?

They believed the kids

were possessed by evil spirits.

She teaches children

need abuse and t*rture.

It's all the devil

and he uses these kids.

How could anybody ever

be so far gone

to do that

to their own flesh and blood?

I have dedicated my life to truth

and truth has been hated

since the beginning of time.

Jodi destroyed my life.

I'm thinking what kind of power

does this counselor have?

She's got away with this for so long.

Just so you know, we're just gonna

ask you a few questions.

Just for starters,

what was your full name?

Kevin William Franke.

-What's your wife's name?

-Ruby Franke.

Were you involved in the 8

Passengers account with your family?

Yes, I was in the videos

if that's what you mean.

Did Ruby more so do the videos

for the family?

I'm not aware of anything she's done

since our separation.

I don't visit 8 Passengers anymore.

-Chapter of your life that's gone?

-It's a past chapter, yeah.

Hey, guys, welcome to 8 Passengers.

If you have not been to this channel

before, I have six kids.

It's a lot of fun and it can be

kind of crazy sometimes.

What is going on?

Ruby Franke - one of the early Mormon

mom influencer pioneers on YouTube.

She started a YouTube channel

called 8 Passengers

which represented her, her husband,

Kevin, and their six children.

Hi, everybody.

Come grab a dish.

Displaying Mormon motherhood

in allof its splendid glory.

Who done it?

There was one morning in the kitchen

where I was filming,

our baby had spilled milk

all over the table

I think every inch of my kitchen

has chocolate milk on it.

I had no intention of anyone

ever actually watching

until that moment

when the milk was spilled

and I thought, oh, there might be

someone else who sees this.

My intention was to just try to find

the beautiful moments in my life

and record them.

Ruby's the best.

Ruby is just your average mom

and that's the relatable factor in

She is the perfect Mormon mom.

She does everything by the book.

She has six kids, she's blonde, she

has a husband who was working at BYU,

working for the church,

perfect job position.

Go to church every Sunday

and I wear modest clothing.

I can't think of somebody,

in my opinion,

who is a more perfect representation

of a Mormon woman than Ruby Franke.

Salt Lake City, Utah is the epicenter

of the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter Day Saints.

As a journalist,

to live and work in Salt Lake City,

it's like if I worked in the Vatican

covering the Catholic Church

and the Pope.

The Mormon Church is different

than your average Christian Church,

I think it's a lot more involved

in terms of the commitment level.

It impacts every aspect of your life.

So, within Mormonism

there's a lot of rules.

The Word of Wisdom has basically an

outline of various things that you do

to keep yourself in line

with the Church.

We are not

to drink alcoholic beverages,

we are not to use tobacco,

we are not to drink tea or coffee,

and in the same spirit,

we are not to use addicting drugs.

The Mormon Church claims to be God's

one and only true church on the earth

with God's official

Priesthood authority.

So, it's a very traditional

male-based patriarchal structure,

not just in the church,

but in the home as well.

Ten percent of your income goes to

the church in the form of tithing.

Bear his witness concerning

the sacred law of tithing

and the marvelous promises

which the Lord has made to those

who are honest in paying

their tithes and offerings.

Mormons believe

all members should pay

10 percent of their income for life

to the Mormon Church.

And what that's resulted in

is that the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints

is currently worth

around $250 billion.

That's billion with a B.

And its teaching on tithing

is central to its current status

of being the most wealthy church

in the entire world.

There's a lot that is required.

Sexuality is something to be hidden,

to be suppressed.

Masturbation's forbidden.

No h*m*.

And you swear

to obey the law of chastity.

Sex is only to be used

within marriage.

It was just stay on this side,

and if you do this,

then, you are guaranteeing

yourself a place in hell.

Sin will always,

always result in suffering.

Your most important source

of support is your parents.

Their teaching should be

a powerful influence

in your decision to be clean.

Mormonism fosters

a culture of surveillance.

Like, it is not uncommon for people

to approach each other

about, like, for a parent

specifically to approach a child

like, you're not wearing

your garments anymore.

The modest temple garment

worn under normal clothing

represent a sacred

and personal aspect

of their relationship with God.

It's a rare physical

manifestation of a religion

that you can kind of check

other people on.

Growing up in the Church,

Mormon women are taught family,

home, husband, motherhood.

These are all values ingrained

in a little girl

from the time she's born

to the time she gets married.

Since the camera's out and rolling,

we should share how we met.

There was a meet and greet for hot--

-Was it hotdogs?

-Yup.

She was the hottest hotdog

at the social.

Two weeks from the day we met

to the day we got engaged.

I was 18.

We got married

and we started having kids.

Kevin started working on his PHD

at Brigham Young University.

He moved us to Springville, Utah.

It just blew my mind

at how expensive life was.

And now we're like, okay,

what do we do? What do we do now?

Sorry

But I was super positive and I--

It's gonna-- It's fine. It's fine.

It'll work out.

Because patriarchy is woven

into Mormonism since its beginning,

there's very set standards

and expectations for women.

You're not expected

to be the breadwinner.

You're not expected to bring

any money in at all.

You're supposed to be raising your

kids.

This creates a perfect breeding

ground for Mormon women

to want to start exploring having

a voice, to start being validated,

to start being praised

for how they're mothering.

All these women are now

empowered to make money at home,

still fulfilling their Mormon roles.

There's a controversial corner

of the internet

on which everyone has an opinion,

known as momfluencing.

Some women have followings

even in the millions

sharing tips

and tricks to parenting.

Morman influencers

are such a interesting breed

of social media content creators.

They have to stand out comparatively

to, like, your average

social media influencer.

You're gonna see a lot of beige,

lot of gray,

you're gonna see hair extensions,

eyelash extensions,

a decent amount of makeup.

A Stanley Cup.

Everybody's kind of aiming

for the same look.

Good morning, you guys.

Today, I am making toast

for the kids for breakfast.

But with the 8 Passengers channel,

there was something unique

about Ruby in the sense

that she wasn't

coming out of the gate

aiming to be

your perfect Mormon influencer.

You guys, I cannot

pull myself out of bed today.

Half the time, she's not wearing

a whole lot of makeup.

And she was very open about

what was happening in her family

with her kids

and her struggles with things.

I'm really, really upset at Sherry

right now.

And so, people can relate to that.

She's a normal mom who gets annoyed

by her kids sometimes

and that's more enticing for people

than the average Mormon influencer.

There was something about Ruby

where it was, like, doesn't come off

as necessarily unattainable

for the average person.

Let's just forget about it.

Okay? Okay. All right.

I want to feel content and happy,

but I don't want to feel complacent

and that's what this article

was that I've been reading about.

It says, remember that you don't have

to do something extraordinary

to have an extraordinary life.

And I just thought, that is so great,

you just do simple little things.

When Ruby Franke

started 8 Passengers,

she believed

that she was promoting to the world

what exemplarily Mormon family is.

At least, at first.

I love you so much.

It just seems like the happiest

of families

and I think that's why people

like myself kept coming back,

because it's what you think

is wholesome content

and so you never would have imagined

it would have turned

into very serious child abuse.

As a child

and a teenager in Los Angeles,

I was getting into YouTube

and watching it a lot.

That's when family vlogging

really took off.

I'm seeing all of these different

families pop up,

so many of them live in Utah.

They all have several children

and they're all members of this

church that I don't belong to.

Just like with other families

with so many children.

The Duggars, John and Kate Plus 8,

watching 8 Passengers,

it was fascinating to see the Franke

family living their day-to-day lives,

how they're different from you and I.

-Hi, guys, I'm Kevin.

-I'm Ruby.

We thought it would be fun to

just say hi and introduce our family.

Ruby ran a very

traditional household.

She was a stay-at-home mom,

I think we learned Ruby's personality

the best

out of all of the characters,

sort to say, in the family.

And you met Kevin and he was

in this very traditional father role,

he was in the suit and tie,

coming home from his job.

For the most part,

Kevin seemed very stoic

and on more of the quiet,

even introverted side.

And then we had Shari,

the eldest of all of the children.

She was 11 when the channel started.

This strong, academic student

So, I'm reading Gone With The Wind

for the third time

And then we have Chad, he was

around 10 when the channel started.

He was kind of a goofball.

Oh, my gosh, Chad.

Then, you have the two middle

daughters, they're always together,

and around 7 and 5

when the channel started.

Cute, let me see my two kitty cats.

And then, last, the two youngest,

a boy and a girl.

The boy's about 3 and the girl

is 1 when the channel starts.

Oh, my gosh, you did make a mess.

Who doesn't love seeing a toddler

pull funny shenanigans,

but they're so darn cute,

you immediately forgive them.

-How can I get mad at you?

-Okay.

-Say goodnight, everyone!

-Goodnight!

I interrupt our regular schedule

to make an announcement.

We have hit

over a thousand subscribers!

When 8 Passengers first started out,

the shots were kind of wonky,

it was all spliced together,

but then over time,

Ruby really got the hang of it.

We have hit 5000 subscribers,

and I am beyond excited.

And that's when we hear

more of leave me a thumbs up,

subscribe to my channel,

turn on that notifications bell

Thank you so much for watching.

Don't forget to subscribe

to see more fun parenting tips.

By this time tomorrow, we will have

a hundred thousand subscribers.

Can you believe that?

Suddenly, they just exploded

in popularity.

We hit 300,000 subscribers

over the weekend.

This was incredible growth

for a YouTube channel

where people are just watching

people live out their lives.

We are counting down to a million.

There's our live tracker

and we're going

to be watching it all day today.

Oh, my gosh,

I'm gonna have to pull over.

Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna miss it!

Oh, my gosh, screenshot.

Oh, I missed it!

I missed it! I missed it!

I missed it!

It jumped, I missed it.

I missed it.

I missed it! I had the baby

in the car. Oh, my gosh.

I would love to do something

At this time that we're starting

to see change with Ruby.

Now, she's got eyelash extensions,

she's wearing more and more makeup.

The channel growth

just kept going after that.

And then,

Ruby started getting brand deals.

Babbel is sponsoring this video.

A big thanks to Office Depot

OfficeMax, for sponsoring this video.

And it became a full-on business.

Today is CVX Live.

It's a day you meet all

your viewers in person.

-Who are you guys here for?

-8 Passengers.

Hi, I'm Lindsey, I like 8 Passengers.

We came from Parsons, California,

just to see 8 Passenger, love them!

Love you!

Okay.

My first impressions of Ruby

and Kevin and that family,

it's interesting

because we had

cultivated a friendship

within the social media culture.

I'm here with my wife,

one of our little babies here.

My husband and I

had one of the biggest

YouTube channels in the world.

We had 12 million followers

Yeah, you see that?

The channel's called

The King of Random,

and it was based

on science and experiments.

You call yourself the King of Random,

this is so cool!

How did you even know to do this?

Even though we were different genres,

we started to run in the same circles

and have the same complaints

and talk about the same issues

and that became really bonding.

We were all in this club

of Mormon creators

and so, you know,

I felt really special.

But at the same time, we would go out

to dinner with Ruby and Kevin,

we brought our family,

and they had their cameras out,

they were documenting things

at the dinner

and it felt really invasive to me.

You can't just sit down

and enjoy a dinner,

you have to create content

around everything that you're doing.

What do you have for yourself

if you're videoing everything

in your life?

Honestly, my biggest fear

ever since I started vlogging was,

but what if I wake up and my children

are just staring at a wall all day

and there's nothing to film?

When you do family vlogger content,

sometimes you gotta get creative

because you film your day-to-day

and that come kind of monotonous.

Arrest me.

Ruby was creating more and more

sensationalized content

out of an impulse to get more clicks,

to get more views, to get more money.

So, there was instance

where she's in a car accident

and the first thing that comes

to Ruby's mind is: I gotta film this.

Oh, my gosh. Are we hit?

Are they okay? Are they okay?

I'm shaking.

She's running around

with the camera in front of her face,

filming the kids,

they look bewildered.

Instead of assessing,

maybe the kids are in shock,

maybe the kids have actual injuries,

but she's, like, let me pull this

out first because this is content.

The blue car had a tire blow

and I had to get out of its way.

Those kinds of videos

pull major views.

And in turn, big profit.

And Ruby doesn't seem to have a pulse

on whether or not

that's inappropriate

to share with the world.

Because of that, like you have this

immense lack of privacy for the kids.

Hey, buddy,

look at me. Hey, it's okay.

-Oh, is that going?

-Yeah.

Sorry.

I was a teen watching them thinking,

I don't think I would want this

being filmed.

She's been asking all summer

if she could shave

her legs and armpits.

At that time, as a viewer,

we didn't necessarily understand

the full monetization of YouTube.

It was just happening

before our eyes.

We weren't really thinking

about the financial gain

they were getting form all of this.

And because of that, with Ruby,

it was like nothing is off-limits.

-Mom

-She's all embarrassed.

I think the question

that was on everybody's mind

when they're discussing this

is if she's okay

with putting this on the internet,

what isn't being shown

that they're also okay with doing?

When you guys had the previous,

8 Passengers YouTube Channel.

You guys got a lot of heat

for neglect and child abuse.

A lot of people commented

those things on there.

Why were they commenting

those things?

That's a good question.

We're continuing our w*r path

on these Mormon family vloggers.

After deciding that

we were going to leave the church

we realized that there was

a need for people

to talk about their experiences.

We created our YouTube Channel

called Jordan and McKay.

By far probably

one of the most requested people

that you guys have asked us to cover

are the 8 Passenger family.

Lots of problematic things

happening here. Anyway.

So, everything kind of took

a turning point in 2020,

when Ruby put out a video

where she mentions that she had taken

her oldest son Chad's bed away

and does not really expand on that.

In our house,

when we take something away,

it's because they have shown

that they are not responsible

enough to manage it

and so we don't just turn around

and give it back

as soon as the start acting good.

My bedroom is taken away

for seven months

and you gave it back

a couple of weeks ago.

I don't think our viewers know that.

You've been sleeping on a beanbag

I've been sleeping on a beanbag

since October

You can't even be approved

to adopt a child in the State of Utah

unless you can provide

a bed for them.

So, forcing her son

to sleep on a beanbag

was alarming to many

of the 8 Passengers' viewers.

People started talking about it.

It was internet outrage.

It was everywhere.

He was made to sleep on a beanbag,

this woman

This is all on camera.

This is what the mom feels like

is good and she's showing everyone.

Chad not having a bed for 7 months.

She has to hold back a smirk.

You know, her mouth will do this.

So then on the 8 Passengers' channel,

people started combing

through all of the content

and finding more awful thing

Ruby had done to her kids.

One of the really eye-opening moments

was the clip of the youngest child

who was not behaving in a way

that Ruby finds appropriate

or is not bending to her requests

and so, Ruby is holding

a beloved stuffed animal

and threatening to cut the head off.

If you cut one more thing,

I'm gonna cut its head off.

Grandma will be so mad.

So, what do you gonna do?

For a child, like, that's traumatic.

What lengths aren't you willing to go

to disciple your kids?

You get your socks picked up,

run and go pick up,

and then, give me ten push-ups.

One

Put your hands straight out.

They're not supposed to be out.

Shake your hands forward.

I'm going to say it one more time,

and then you're going to lose

the privilege to eat dinner.

Ruby would say, things, like,

if you're not gonna do that,

then you're not having dinner.

Or I'm not feeding you breakfast.

The youngest child had gone off

to school, which at the time was

-Kindergarten.

-Kindergarten.

She had forgotten

to bring her lunch to school.

I know that

her teacher is uncomfortable

with her being hungry

and not having a lunch

and it would ease her discomfort

if I came to school with a lunch.

Eve is responsible for making

her lunches in the morning

and she actually told me

she did pack a lunch.

So, the natural outcome is she's just

going to need to be hungry.

She had no qualms or hesitations

about sharing the fact

that she was willing to withhold food

as a punishment.

Hopefully, nobody gives her food and

nobody gives her a lunch.

My hope is that she'll be hungry

and come home

and go, that was really painful

being hungry all day.

I will make sure to always

have a lunch with me.

She was starving her daughter

as a means of punishment.

I guess she expects her daughter

to be perfect

and never make mistakes

at 5 years old.

That's disgusting.

It's disgusting behavior.

If you want to get people really

riled up in social media,

you start talking

about responsibility.

It's like the R word.

People don't like to hear it.

But at the same time,

we start to hear a difference in

the way the Frankes are speaking

and there's very specific language

being used within the family.

Be good! Be responsible,

honest and humble!

What does that mean?

The fact that he's not willing

to sit with me and be humble and talk

is a big demonstration to me

that he has some distorted views

and he is in a lot of shame.

All of these antics

were so alarming to her viewers

that they started reporting Ruby

to Child and Family Services in Utah.

People were so outraged

that they're created

petitions on the internet

with thousands upon thousands

of signatures

that are saying there's something

very wrong here.

The things that we show and share

and the things that many of you

are criticizing and calling a*usive

are actually things that

mental health professionals

have counseled us to do.

And so, we're asking the question

of like, why?

Why is she acting this way

and a big part of why

was Jodi Hildebrandt.

Do you know a female named Jodi?

She is a therapist

and a life coach I know. And she's

-Do you respect her?

-Do I respect her?

Yeah, I think she is a very honest

and truthful person, yes.

Okay.

It's from Kevin. Chad just called me

from the office at school.

He and his friends were clowns

and were disrespectful today.

I told them that Chad would stay home

tomorrow and work for his mother.

Ruby was struggling with her

oldest son and looking for help

and so someone recommended

the therapist Jodi Hildebrandt.

Jodi was somebody

that wouldn't be manipulated

and that would be, like, tough love.

The first conversation Jodi had

with Chad was in June of 2019.

But her theory was

if you want to help your child,

you have to help yourself first.

So she spoke with Ruby frequently.

Ruby was in a vulnerable time.

She was getting

a lot of backlash from fans.

I am sorry that I'm breaking down

in front of you.

The videos that Ruby released

that dealt with Chad

just blew up in her face

and basically burned down

like our YouTube channel.

We lost 90 percent

of the income overnight.

And so, Ruby was looking for support.

She was looking for someone

who would understand her.

Who would validate her

and she found that in ConneXions

and Jodi Hildebrandt.

Welcome to ConneXions,

I'm Jodi Hildebrandt.

So glad you're with us.

If you're like me,

you've had pain in your life.

ConneXions is the solution.

What is ConneXions?

What isn't ConneXions?

That was the genius of whatever

Jodi was trying to do

is that you could take anything

and making it anything

that you wanted it be.

Self-help materials,

I guess you could call it, really.

We are here to change the world.

This is an alternative

to anything that you've been trying

that hasn't been successful.

If this resonates with you,

which the truth is,

is that it resonates with everybody.

Please come check it out.

Jodi Hildebrandt

went to the University of Utah,

got a master's level degree

and then, spent another couple years

certifying

to get a therapist license.

Jodi Hildebrandt got her hands

in a lot of things professionally.

A lot of her work

was with Mormon people

and knowing the population

that she's working with,

Jodi was very intentional, we're

going to help work on family issues,

help strengthen your marriage.

I wanted to personally invite you

to our next couples conference.

We'll be talking about fear

inside relationships.

She basically just started

developing manuals,

developing her own style

of marital therapy,

and her own support groups

under the brand name ConneXions.

It's not spelled like connections,

it's spelled with an X.

It has truly turned my life around.

So, Ruby jumped into

ConneXions headfirst

and was, like, let's go

and Kevin was a lot more hesitant.

I'm just feeling so excited

about getting a room full of men

who want to understand about God,

connection and themselves.

And my impression at that time

was this is absolute craziness.

I got challenged to sit down

and have a vulnerable

conversation with my wife.

Ruby very emotionally just shared

how she felt in our marriage.

I went into the marriage believing,

here's what I bring to the marriage,

I bring my body

and I make sure the house is clean.

It wasn't going to hold water

for too long in our marriage

and that's why we started

to have leaks.

It was very emotional

and it touched me.

Like, I didn't realize

that she felt so strongly about that,

that she felt so hurt by that,

and so, I agreed to join a men's

group with Jodi.

Hi, we're here at Man School,

and we're here together

with about 40, 45 men

who wants to learn how to connect.

At this point, Ruby and Kevin,

they're getting involved

in ConneXions.

You have nothing to lose

but by not coming to ConneXions

you have a lot to lose.

I have benefited from associating

with ConneXions in the last year.

They're in their marketing materials,

teaching their classes,

doing their little Zoom meetings

and their webinars.

I feel like our marriage was getting

stronger, I thought, this is great.

Ruby is a part

of the original 10 women

that are being trained

to become mental fitness trainers.

Jodi was running a business.

Her business was

to train other people

in her methodology or philosophy,

so they could then build up

their coaching

and it would grow her business.

I'm sure you're here

because you have a desire to heal.

A desire to have joy in your life

and connection in your relationships.

Jodi claims

she has all of the answers.

She will tell me

how to heal my family.

That's very appealing.

I had done everything right.

I had followed all the rules

and then my husband died.

Grant Thompson,

AKA the King of Random, has died.

The YouTuber had gone paragliding

on Monday and never returned.

The first year after my husband died

was just shock and me

trying to put the pieces together.

For years, I was the support role for

my husband to become YouTube famous.

All of a sudden, I'm a single mom,

trying to run my husband's business,

I've never been given

the tools to deal with this.

And my faith wasn't helping me

get through this hard time.

That's when our social media

manager, he recommended Ruby,

and talked about this psychologist

that Ruby was working with.

And that's when

I was introduced to Jodi.

I joined the women's group,

made my whole life about ConneXions.

Jodi taught me to feel more empowered

as a woman and as a mother

and the tone of my home really truly

did change to a more positive energy.

Because she was a woman,

it also felt empowering

because it's like, women

should have a voice in the church,

women should be validated,

women should be listened to,

and Jodi has these principles

that the church needs.

Good morning, passengers.

How are you guys today?

In the beginning of 2022, we realized

that Ruby was not uploading videos

as much to the 8 Passengers channel.

I'm doing really fun and exciting

things in the mental health field.

And so it's less time

vlogging at home,

so for those of you who are asking,

where are all the vlogs, why is it--

You're not on here as much

as I would like, and that's why

It went from multiple times a week

to, like, maybe once a week

until it was

finally the final upload.

They uploaded a video

of the baptism of their

youngest child and that was it.

8 Passengers went dark.

For many years, I ran a YouTube

channel called 8 Passengers.

We found a lot of success,

and my children were spoiled rotten.

I did what a true loving mom

would do, I said no more.

She could have gone back and

We would check every now and then

and see what's going on with Ruby.

We had realized

that Ruby was still doing things,

she just was not uploading

at the 8 Passengers channel.

She had appeared on Jodi's

ConneXions classroom on YouTube

and seemed to be the co-host

of self-help videos

that they were starting to produce.

I'm Jodi Hildebrandt,

the founder of ConneXions.

And I'm Ruby Franke, Jodi's

sidekick.

Don't let this sidekick fool you,

she is full of wisdom and knowledge.

She has much to share with you.

We went from, like,

all over Ruby's house everywhere

and vlogging,

following her wherever she went

and then, now, we have this stale

appearing space

where Jodi and Ruby

are sitting on this massive couch.

It was bizarre and their interactions

between each other,

they would sit very close

to each other,

there was always a lot of touching,

there was always a lot of tenderly

looking at each other

This is called physical intimacy

when I can touch my friend's hand

and say, I love you.

That is emotional

and physical intimacy.

So, we started to theorize

about where are they doing this?

We were, like,

maybe they're filming these things

inside of Jodi's house.

And so, Jordan ended up

finding the house.

We had seen pictures of it.

And that's when we find out

that is actually what's happening.

They're filming these videos

in Jodi's house.

Ruby's there, constantly.

The house was all the way down south

in Ivins,

away from where the kids

are supposed to be going to school,

away from where Kevin is.

Rumors online started to spin.

Something about divorce,

that Kevin had moved out of the house

and found an apartment somewhere.

We're, like, what is going on? There

is something weird happening here.

Go deeper, quicker,

with this life-on-life training

where you will be spending all day

and all evening with Jodi and myself

getting the help that you need.

Also don't forget, we have a women's

retreat coming up in October.

I'd been engaging in this women's

group for about a year,

we'd come to group

and we would make goals.

One of my goals

was to not yell at my kids.

And so, that was called my addiction,

I was addicted to yelling at my kids.

And one of the requirements

is to make three phone calls a day.

You call somebody in your group

and talk about your triggers,

that's what we would call them,

so if I yelled at my kids, it's like

okay, take a couple steps back,

what triggered you

to lose emotional control

that you indulged in your addiction.

That you yelled at your kids.

At this point,

I'm so indoctrinated in the group,

I wanted to live up

to Jodi's standards.

But now we're talking up to three

or four hours a day on phone calls

and this is like the equivalent

to, like, a part-time job.

Can anybody identify any pain

or discomfort today?

Yeah, Becky.

Not being able to get all the things

that I needed to done,

or phone calls

or connections with people.

Yeah. Yeah, painful.

Anybody have a day like that?

As we would report our phone calls,

one of the things

I started finding myself doing

and Jodi warned us of this,

is not being honest about how many

phone calls we're making.

I want to be honest

but I'm now starting to feel shame

and guilt for not doing this.

Shame, slash disconnect

is the antithesis of humility.

It is prideful, it is arrogant,

it is unwilling

to take accountability for oneself

and so I invite her.

You gonna come into ConneXion?

Yeah, I'll try to do better.

Tomorrow I will try. Yes.

That's a weak answer in ConneXion.

That's still distortion.

I had been participating

for a long time.

I was starting to feel some of these

things are really feeling off.

It started to become very cult-like.

Understanding that Jodi was a

licensed mental health professional,

I was really concerned

because of some of the content

that she and Ruby were putting out.

For one, Ruby was made a certified

mental fitness trainer by Jodi

which is not a real credential.

And she's giving

mental health advice?

Which is not appropriate

for someone who is not trained.

Unless you the mom do

what I'm telling you to,

you're being canceled

in your own home.

Your own children are canceling you.

I left ConneXions at the end of 2022,

that's what caused me to check in

every now and then

on the social media channel.

If you see our children

are being attacked,

if you see

that truth is being attacked,

you see that God's being attacked,

they don't have truth.

I would all other people

that had been in the group

and, you know, say

have you seen their content lately?

Isn't it like, crazy?

Reality about pain is it's necessary.

When is started hearing these things

like love is causing pain

for your children

I'm like, that sounds

really off and odd.

This is getting more and more extreme

in a way that is very harmful.

It's scaring me.

This is what love sounds like,

when you see someone hurting,

you acknowledge the hurt.

There was a video that Ruby put out

where she was like, people

think that I'm too tough.

It's bad to be tough on your kids.

If your kid came to you on fire,

would you say I'm so glad you

trusted me to tell me you're on fire,

but if I put out the fire,

it's going to hurt,

and you'll end up

with scabs anyway,

so I'm just going to love you

where you are right now?

No! You throw them on the ground

and you start hitting the flames.

You're hurting me. You're beating me.

No dear, hold still,

I'm getting the fire out.

From that video,

I distinctively remember thinking,

there is something seriously wrong

happening with these children.

911, the address of your emergency?

Little boy show up here at my front

door, asking for help.

He needs

This kid has obviously been--

He's obviously covered in wounds.

Are there any other kids

at the Jodi's house?

Two sisters.

Two sisters

and they're still at this house.

Are they tied up as well?