Arrest and charges

On August 30, 2023, Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested in Ivins, Utah, and on September 1, 2023, both were charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse, a felony.[1][2][5][6][13][14] According to a statement from the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department, Franke’s 12-year-old son, who appeared emaciated and had “open wounds and duct tape around the extremities”, had climbed through a window of Hildebrandt’s house and asked at a neighboring house for food and water.[1][2][5][13] Emergency services found Franke’s 10-year-old daughter in the house, also malnourished; both children were taken to a hospital, where the boy was treated for severe malnourishment and “deep lacerations from being tied up with rope”.[1][6] A search of the house found evidence “consistent with the markings” on the 12-year-old, and the Utah Division of Child and Family Services took the boy and girl and two more of Franke’s children into care.[1][2] Police later reported that according to the boy, cayenne pepper and honey had been used to dress his wounds.[11][15]

Personal life

The Frankes are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[4][5] Their oldest daughter has stated that she has long disapproved of her mother’s parenting strategies.[2][5]

Franke has three sisters who are also parenting influencers;[2][4][5] they disassociated themselves from her actions in a joint statement[2][5][12] and later in individual videos.[25]

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