Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt's Desert Abandonment Plan Revealed in Netflix Documentary

Disturbing Plans for Child Abandonment

• 🏜️ A Netflix documentary, "Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story," reveals that Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt planned to abandon Franke's two youngest children in the Arizona desert.
• 📝 Franke's journal entries detailed a land purchase by Hildebrandt and expressed that the children were "not manageable" in Utah, with plans to abandon them "like hot potatoes."

Jodi Hildebrandt's Counseling Practices

• 💡 Hildebrandt, who focused on LDS couples and families, reportedly used strategies of control, isolation, and guilt in her counseling practice.
• 🧠 She instilled a total dependence on herself among her clients.

Discovery and Arrest

• 🚨 The practice collapsed in August 2023 when Franke's 12-year-old son escaped Hildebrandt's home, emaciated and with deep, infected wounds.
• 🩹 The boy had duct tape and plastic wrap with cayenne pepper on his wrists and ankles, leading the neighbor to call 911 in distress.
• 🔒 Investigators found evidence like rope and handcuffs hidden in a safe by Hildebrandt, who claimed she couldn't remember the code.

Condition of the Children

• 👧 Inside the home, police found the boy's 9-year-old sister in a dark closet, her head shaved as punishment.
• 😨 The girl was too terrified to speak or move, initially mistaken for a boy by the officers.

Sentencing

• ⚖️ Both Jodi Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke were arrested and later pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse.
• ⛓️ They were sentenced to the maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison.