moms_of_truth/Instagram
The women were arrested after Franke’s 12-year-old son allegedly escaped Hildebrandt’s house and ran to a neighbor asking for food and water, according to the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department.
Theneighbor tearfully told policethe boy appeared “emaciated” and was “covered in wounds,” according to his 911 call.
Officers arrived and also soon found Franke’s 10-year-old daughter in “a similar physical condition of malnourishment” inside Hildebrandt’s home and sent both children to the hospital.
The arrest“shocked” Franke’s neighborsbut validated others’ concerns.Franke’s siblingsand her oldest daughter Shari all shared relief on social media in the days following the family vlogger’s arrest.“Finally,” Shari, 20, wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of police outside the family’s home.
“Today has been a big day,” she continued in another post. “Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been trying to tell the police and [child protective services] for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up."
Moms of Truth/ Instagram
According toInsider, Franke amassed about 2.5 million viewers on her YouTube channel “8Passengers,” which she started with her husband Kevin Franke, documenting their family’s daily life online.
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The parents stopped uploading videos of themselves and their six children in 2022 amid backlash towards the Franke’s strict parenting style. An online petition once gained roughly 18,000 signatures with viewers asking child protective services to investigate the Franke family and their kids’ conditions.
Franke then joined Hildebrandt’s “ConneXions” podcast, where the two women began sharing controversial parenting advice under their “Moms of Truth” social media pages.
The two women have been held without bond since their arrest in late August. Their initial court appearance saw more than 1,000 people tune in to watch online.
source: people.com
