Chad Franke is known as one of the six children of Kevin and Ruby Franke, who gained fame through their family YouTube channel, ‘8 Passengers’. This channel showcased their daily life, including trips, birthday celebrations, and shopping adventures. Chad, in particular, was featured in numerous videos, discussing topics ranging from his first crush to the challenges of puberty.
However, the family's story took a dark turn, leading to significant legal and personal consequences.
8 PASSENGERS: The Dark Story Behind YouTube's Worst Family Channel.
The Rise and Fall of '8 Passengers'
The ‘8 Passengers’ channel was filled with vlogs portraying the family’s everyday life. Chad regularly posted videos about his daily routine and participated in viral internet challenges. Starting from his introduction, Chad has appeared in a number of videos, in which he has spoken about various topics, such as his first crush, shopping for Valentine's Day, the onset of puberty, etc.
Ruby Franke, born on January 18, 1982, ran the now-defunct YouTube channel *8 Passengers*. The YouTuber was taken into custody in August 2023. By that time, the family vlogger had separated from husband Kevin Franke, with whom she shares Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell and Eve. Ruby and Kevin Franke became parents in 2003 when Shari arrived. Chad joined the family in 2005. Abby was born in April 2007. Ruby gave birth to Julie in 2009. The couple’s youngest son was born in 2011. Eve is Ruby and Kevin’s youngest child.
Legal Repercussions and Child Welfare
The situation escalated when Ruby Franke and family counselor Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested in Ivins, Utah, and later convicted of child abuse. Authorities discovered the women had subjected two of Ruby’s children to mental and physical mistreatment, including starvation and confinement, at Hildebrandt’s home. Both women are serving consecutive terms spanning 4 to 30 years in prison.
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On August 30, 2023, Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested in Washington County, Utah, and charged with six counts of felony aggravated child abuse of two of Franke's children. On December 18, 2023, Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. She later pleaded not guilty to two other counts. Franke agreed to serve a prison sentence and to serve her respective sentences consecutively rather than concurrently. Franke was expected to testify against Hildebrandt in Hildebrandt's upcoming trial, but Hildebrandt separately pleaded guilty to four counts of felony aggravated child abuse on December 27, with two charges dropped as part of another plea deal.
Sentencing and Legal Actions
On February 20, 2024, Franke received four consecutive sentences of between one and fifteen years' imprisonment, meaning she must serve a minimum term of four years. Although the maximum term that could be imposed for all sentences would be 60 years, the Utah Code dictates that the time served by a defendant upon whom consecutive sentences are imposed must not exceed 30 years, except in circumstances of life imprisonment or the death penalty.
In January 2025, Michael Tilleman filed a lawsuit in federal court against Hildebrandt and Franke for business fraud and promoting a "methodology that encouraged child abuse among their clients".
Kevin Franke's Response and Child Welfare Reform
Kevin Franke filed for divorce from Ruby on November 30, 2023, roughly three months after her and Hildebrandt were arrested. Kevin wasn’t charged in relation to the criminal case. His legal team has asserted he separated from Ruby more than a year before to her arrest and had no knowledge of the abuse. Their divorce was finalized this March, roughly 25 years after they married.
Prior to their separation, the Frankes began seeing Hildebrandt for marriage counseling in 2021. Kevin said that the following year Hildebrandt instructed the couple to separate in order to help their marriage and also ordered him to cut off communication from nearly everyone in his life. Kevin Franke separated from his estranged wife, Ruby Franke, in 2022.
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Kevin gave his first public comments about the abuse case in July 2024. Speaking during a meeting of Utah’s Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Panel, he urged lawmakers to pass legislation addressing loopholes in the state’s child welfare laws that prevented authorities from intervening after neighbors and the couple’s eldest daughter reported concerns about the Franke children. He also called for the regulation of life coaches such as Hildebrandt, whom he said “preyed on the vulnerable, those who were seeking help.”
Per the terms of their divorce agreement, the former engineering professor at Brigham Young University now solely owns the Springville, Utah, home where the ex-couple once lived with their family. A local TV news station also reported Kevin was granted ownership of a 2.8-acre property in Scofield, about an hour southeast of Springville.
The Children's Well-being and Future
According to People, four of the Franke children were placed into child protective services after Ruby’s arrest. Kevin later regained custody of the kids, who are still minors. In March 2024, the case’s lead prosecutor Eric Clarke gave an update on the condition of the two youngest children subjected to the abuse at Hildebrandt’s home. “I think people should know that the kids have put on weight. They’re interacting, happy and healthy,” Clarke, the district attorney in Utah’s Washington County, told NewsNation. “It’s not like they’re great, but they’re light-years better. And thank heavens for that.”
Per AP, 11-year-old Eve recently provided a statement to lawmakers asking them to protect other child creators from exploitation. “I’m not saying YouTube is a bad thing. Sometimes it brings us together,” she wrote. “But kids deserve to be loved, not used by the ones that are supposed to love them the most.”
Shari Franke's Advocacy
Now 22 and engaged, Shari released a best-selling memoir The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom in January 2025. She detailed some of her interactions with Ruby prior to her arrest in the book. One confrontation occurred after Shari, who was already estranged from her mother by that point, contacted child protective services to check on the welfare of her siblings.
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Shari has been outspoken about her family’s safety and privacy, most notably criticizing the made-for-TV movie Mormon Mom Gone Wrong that debuted in October 2024. She called the film “trash” in an Instagram post. Both Shari and her brother Chad spoke publicly about their experiences for the Hulu documentary Devil in the Family.
Shari's Concerns About Family Vlogging
Like Kevin, Shari has voiced her concerns about family vlogging and its effects on children. She spoke at a Utah Senate committee hearing in October 2024, detailing her experience as a child influencer on 8 Passengers. She told lawmakers she lost friends because of the “24/7” work required to create content for the channel and feels regretful that her best and worst moments in childhood were made public online.
Utah now joins Illinois, California and Minnesota among states that have passed legislation regarding financial protection for children and teenagers featured on social media. Kevin has said he is proud of his daughter’s strength in confronting her family’s past.
Shari, who once had a YouTube channel of her own before shuttering it, has recently decided to put up more boundaries on sharing her personal life online. In a December 2024 Instagram post sharing the news of her engagement, she wrote: “For me, this is the end of me sharing my private life... I’m not going to talk about my wedding, future husband, or future kids. I’ll continue to advocate for kids who didn’t have a voice (so you’ll still be seeing me, don’t worry) but this is closure for me. I’m moving on with my life, and that’s true freedom and joy ❤️.”
The Legal and Societal Impact
At the urging of the ex-husband and eldest daughter of imprisoned “momfluencer” Ruby Franke, the state of Utah is taking action to protect future child content creators. According to the Associated Press, Utah Governor Spencer Cox recently signed a bill into law requiring online creators who make more than $150,000 a year from content featuring children to set aside 15 percent of those earnings into a trust fund that the kids can access after turning 18. The new law also creates a pathway for children to have posts and videos they’re in removed.
Kevin Franke, who filed for divorce from Ruby following her August 2023 arrest, was a major proponent of the legislation. “Children cannot give informed consent to be filmed on social media, period,” he said this February. “Vlogging my family, putting my children into public social media, was wrong, and I regret it every day.”
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