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DISGRACED mommy blogger Ruby Franke’s daughter has made a chilling connection between her story and that of killer cult mom Lori Vallow.
Mormon mom-of-six Ruby was sentenced to up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of child abuse.
The brutal abuse inflicted upon Ruby’s children – specifically her two youngest – was unearthed in bits and pieces thanks to videos posted on Ruby’s 8 Passengers YouTube channel, which amassed more than 2.5 million followers at its peak.
It took years for charges to be brought against Ruby and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, who also pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse.
Now, her eldest daughter Shari – who was often featured on her mother’s now-infamous YouTube channel as a kid – has shed light on the suffering she endured at the hands of Ruby.
In her new book, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom, Shari recalled a startling connection she made between Ruby and another cult mom, Lori Vallow.
Shari was with her new roommates in mid-August 2023 when the group started watching Sins of Our Mother, the Netflix true-crime docuseries about Vallow and her husband Chad Daybell.
The series followed the story of Vallow and Daybell, who were both found guilty of the murders of her two youngest children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and JJ Vallow, 7.
Vallow, who is serving multiple life sentences, is also accused of murdering her ex-husband, while Daybell was additionally found guilty of killing his wife Tammy and sentenced to death.
Shari, who cut ties with her mother after being disowned in 2022, instantly noted the similarities between the two cases as she watched the docuseries.
“The couple [Vallow and Daybell] were immersed in the same extreme religious beliefs and doomsday preparations as Jodi and Ruby, and the way this family spiraled into darkness felt horribly familiar,” Shari wrote in her book, noting Vallow and Daybell were also Mormon.
“It was all the same stuff Ruby and Jodi were always going on about,” Shari wrote.
Watching that documentary led Shari to her “darkest thoughts yet” as she battled to keep her youngest siblings safe.
“Ruby and Jodi were just as unhinged as Chad and Lori, if not worse,” Shari wrote.
At the time, Shari thought, “If we don’t do something soon, my siblings are going to die.”
Police records revealed Shari called the cops for a welfare check on her youngest siblings when they were left home alone as Ruby went out of town in September 2022.
Franke’s horrific punishments for children
Starting in May 2023, disgraced YouTuber Ruby Franke journaled about the punishments she imposed on her children.
She appeared to justify the abuse by referring to “Satanic choices” and “the devil’s” influences on her kids’ actions.
Some of the horrific punishments detailed in the journal include:
- Poking her children with cactus needles
- Pouring cold water on the kids
- Whipping with a towel or belt
- Forcing them to stand in the hot sun
- Forcibly dunking her son in the pool
- Forcing them to sleep on the ground
- Restricting food
She, along with her neighbors, continued their barrage of phone calls to the Utah Division of Child and Family Services to report instances of the youngest siblings being “left alone for days on end,” Shari wrote.
Terrified by the fate of Lori Vallow’s children, Shari begged for assurance from local officials that her siblings were safe.
After a few weeks of calls, Shari finally had a breakthrough when, on August 30, 2023, her mother and Jodi were both arrested.
8 PASSENGERS
Ruby was taken into custody after her emaciated preteen son escaped the family’s house of horrors and ran to a neighbor’s for help.
Once the cult mom was behind bars, more chilling details about Ruby’s horrific methods of abuse, including starving, hitting, and chaining up her kids, came to light.
Sick diary entries from Ruby at the time revealed she held her son’s head underwater, shoved him into a cactus, and chained him up with duct tape.
She denied her daughter meals and forced her to work outside in bare feet with no protection from the sun.
After Ruby’s arrest, her four kids, who were minors, were taken into custody by the Division of Child and Family Services and have since been recovering.
Ruby apologized to her family in court, saying she’d “never stop crying for hurting [their] tender souls.”
“My willingness to sacrifice all for you was masterfully manipulated into something very ugly,” she said.
“I took from you all that was soft and safe and good.
“I am willing to serve a prison sentence as long as it takes to unravel what I believed.”
She was sentenced to four terms of one to 15 years in prison.
Shari said in her book that she has no interest in reconnecting with her mother.
The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom is now available for purchase.
