In jail.
But before that, YouTube superstar Ruby Franke lived in a house. All indications point to the theory that it was the house of her business partner and fellow recent jail occupant, Jodi Hildebrandt, in the quiet town of Ivins, located in the southwest corner of Utah. The Associated Press reports that it was Hildebrandt’s house that Franke’s 12-year-old child escaped from, climbing out of a window with duct tape wrapped around their wrists and ankles and seeking help from a neighbor. The minor was then taken in by emergency responders and treated for malnutrition and open wounds, while another child on the premises was also hospitalized for malnourishment. Rumors that Franke had moved in with ConneXions founder and sometimes licensed therapist Jodi Hildebrandt’s home had circulated online following the removal of her highly successful 8 Passengers YouTube channel from the platform. 8 Passengers was run by Franke and her husband, Kevin, whose whereabouts have been a matter of speculation for the year or so preceeding his wife’s arrest.
Ivins is a lovely little suburb, offering the best of quiet inland living and boasting Utah’s largest outdoor theater, the 1,920-seat Tuacahn Center for the Arts. It’s just a short drive away from the scenic views of Snow Canyon State Park, replete with canyons and prehistoric lava flows and featured in both Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid AND High School Musical 2. Red rock mountains pepper the landscape of the town, which was incorporated in 1932, then declared an independent city in 1998 following meteoric population growth. Additionally, it’s considered a terrific place to not duct tape your kids to stuff and refuse to feed them until they see fit to escape through a window and seek help from strangers.
