ST. GEORGE — In a journal covering the months before she was arrested for abusing her children, YouTube vlogger Ruby Franke detailed disturbing punishments for her children and her struggles to get them to become "compliant" and repent.

Washington County prosecutors released the journal Friday as part of a public records request, along with other documents, videos and recordings from the high-profile investigation into Franke — known for her YouTube channel "8 Passengers" — and co-defendant Jodi Hildebrandt. Franke and Hildebrandt both produced a weekly podcast and videos for Hildebrandt's business, Connexions.

The partially redacted journal shows which actions would result in punishments for her children — punishments like cutting or shaving hair, forcing them to spend time in the sun or forced fasting. The journal said she whipped both of her children with a belt on one occasion.

On April 30, 2023, her son, then 11, refused to do "wall sits." The next day, the journal's timeline said the boy was told to stay outside, even to sleep, and only come inside to use the bathroom and shower.

'Religious extremism' motivates abuse

The investigation found that "religious extremism" was the motivation for the abuse, according to a statement from the Washington County Attorney's Office.

"The women appeared to fully believe that the abuse they inflicted was necessary to teach the children how to properly repent for imagined 'sins' and to cast the evil spirits out of their bodies," the prosecutors said.

Hildebrandt and Franke were both sentenced on Feb. 20 and ordered to serve four consecutive terms of one to 15 years in prison on four counts of aggravated child abuse, a second-degree felony. Initially they were each charged with six counts, but two were dismissed as part of plea deals when the women pleaded guilty.

Both women were arrested on Aug. 30, 2023, after Franke's son was able to escape Hildebrandt's house, where he had been tied up, and run to a neighbor's home where he asked the neighbor to call 911. The son and a daughter had been living in Hildebrandt's home since May 2023.

At her sentencing, Franke said she wanted to bring her children to safety, and understands now that she hurt and abused her children. She said she is committing to learn and change.

"I was so disoriented that I believed dark was light and right was wrong. I would do anything in this world for you. My willingness to sacrifice all for you was masterfully manipulated into something very ugly," Franke said.

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'The kids need a good kick from a horse'

Franke wrote in the journal that Hildebrandt was looking for land with cactus and planned to sell her home to purchase it and "get these kids to open land."

She said Hildebrandt told her, "I can't in good faith leave you with these two gremlins." Franke said they decided "the escalation of the kids" was not manageable at that time in Hildebrandt's Ivins home.

Franke talked about moving them to a ranch. She described letting her son into the shaded patio and her daughter into the pantry and the children "will think they won" then "POP!!! we will drop them like hot potatoes out into the desert. Their new home!"

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She said the hard labor her children were doing, like moving boxes, didn't have meaning, but on a ranch the kids could do good work, because Satan can't be around good.

"The kids need a good kick from a horse and a cactus to run into. They need natural outcomes," she said.

Franke said adults are not comfortable with children being uncomfortable, and children are distracted from their need to "confess and change."

"Stripping down a child's world to the basics of beans and rice and hard work would be considered abuse. And it's not. It's necessary for the prideful child," she wrote.

'No more distracting with hair'

Franke's journal detailed abuse toward her daughter that left the girl with a shaved head. She said her daughter behaves when Hildebrandt is around, but not for her, and talked about her screaming all night.

Franke first said she gave her daughter a pixie haircut — "no more distracting with hair." On another day, she said her daughter anticipated ending her fast after two days, but when told she would do one more "to invite her to humble," her daughter "flips out and begins ranting." She said they cut more hair off after that.

Franke said when her daughter was outside in the heat she acted like she was dying.

"So pitiful. I told her, ... 'The heat in hell is much hotter and God is going to burn the wicked — so either get used to it or start changing.'"

Prayers for her protection when son ran away

Franke said her son says he wanted to go to jail, and had no interest in changing. She said he doesn't know what jail means, but wants to sit in an air-conditioned car during the ride to "juvie."

She said in the journal that one day he ran away around 1:15 a.m. and left a message in pebbles where he had been sleeping on the patio outside her room: "Jail I will call when I get there."

Franke talked about praying for help finding her son and protection for herself and Hildebrandt before finding him on an unfamiliar road.

"The devil wants me in prison. My children dead," she said after saying the sun would have been out an hour and a half later.

She said Hildebrandt was "very clearly" prompted: "Don't let those kids' choices ruin your life."

Franke said they decided to bring her son into their home and tied him up to "deescalate the situation."

Forced into the sun

On her son's birthday, Franke said "he doesn't even know what month it is" but later said her children have been "counting days" and knew it was his birthday.

"(The two children) have been in so much defiant behavior. ... (T)hey are both furious their selfish sinful lifestyle is being intervened upon," Franke wrote.

Franke wrote about telling her son to stand in the sun with a sun hat and he fought back.

"I told him a couple more times. (Her son) or I should say his demon stays in the shade. I push (him) into the sun. (He) comes back. I come back with a cactus poker. When I poke his back to get in the sun (he) doesn't even flinch. I poke him on the neck. He is in a trance and doesn't appear to feel anything," the journal says.

"The devil lies — says I'm hurting you. Abusing you. But (son), what am I really doing?" she asked, according to her journal.

"You are putting oxygen on me to help me breathe."

"Yes. That's right," Franke wrote.

Multiple times she said her son was drinking water from the house — stealing water — and that he felt no remorse.

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