‘Evil Influencer’: Where are Jodi Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke now?
If Skye Borgman’s Unknown Number: The High School Catfish illustrates that the real threat to children can very well exist within the boundary of the four walls they call home, her recently released true crime documentary on Netflix, Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story, doubles down on it.
Released on December 30th, Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story is Borgman’s last Netflix offering for 2025, which recounts the terror caused by the two women at the centre of the documentary, Jodi Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke.
Content creator Franke met family counsellor Hildebrandt, also the founder of the life-coaching company ConneXions, via their church community in Utah. It wasn’t long before they teamed up to vlog about Franke’s life raising six children with her then-husband, Kevin Franke, on their now-deleted YouTube channel 8 Passengers. While everything seemed to be going well, beneath the online façade was brewing a heartbreaking story of child abuse that the audience had little clue about.
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story recounts the unbelievable story through security camera footage, which shows a 12-year-old boy in a complete state of distress, asking a neighbour for food and water, while pleading to take him to the cops. Upon careful observation, the neighbour also noted open wounds on the timid boy’s wrists and ankles, leading them to call law enforcement.
As it turns out, the boy who’d escaped Hildebrandt’s home was none other than Franke’s son, who was reportedly held hostage with his 9-year-old sister. In a conversation with Tudum, Borgman reflects, “If that young boy hadn’t escaped that day, I think those kids probably wouldn’t be with us today.” Although Franke and Hildebrandt both were subsequently arrested, the name on the headlines was Franke’s alone.
“I’d heard about this story, and it was really just ‘Ruby Franke, Ruby Franke, Ruby Franke.’ Just the simple fact that this little boy escapes from Jodi Hildebrandt’s house, where the abuse is happening – not from his mom’s house – that to me was the simplest and the most diabolical part of the story,” Borgman explains.
While the documentary undoubtedly brings to light one of the darkest cases of child abuse, Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story also reveals the current whereabouts of the two women in question. Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to and was convicted of four counts of aggravated child abuse. She was sentenced to four consecutive terms of one to 15 years in February 2024. As of now, she’s serving time at Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City. Her first parole hearing is scheduled for December 2026.
Ruby Franke has also pleaded guilty and has been serving time in a separate section within the same prison. Akin to Hildebrandt, Ruby’s first parole hearing is set for December 2026. The sentence was also the same as Hildebrandt’s, but according to audio recordings from the documentary, she has potentially distanced herself from her ex-partner in crime.