Jodi Hildebrandt lived a wealthy lifestyle — courtesy of her faith-based ConneXions courses — before she was arrested for child abuse.
In Netflix’s documentary Evil Influencer, which premiered on Tuesday, December 30, Hildebrandt’s life as a Utah therapist was reexamined following her arrest for child abuse alongside YouTuber Ruby Franke.
“When we were searching the residence, in Jody Hildebrandt’s closet we located a large duffel bag with about $80,000 cash,” detective Jessica Bate recalled. “In Jodi’s office I located a book with all of her clients. She was meeting [about] 46 people a week.”
The doc also interviewed Hildebrandt’s clients, who recalled going through financial issues while subscribing to her ConneXions self-help classes.
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“Jodi was making a lot of money. I could do some math right now,” said one of the men who took her courses in the past. “I was paying her $175 an hour for every individual session and then a men and women’s group was $75 per week. Paying for yourself and another person — that was $2,000.”
Another member of Hildebrandt’s teachings revealed she was “paying more than” her mortgage to Hildebrandt “every month,” adding, “We ended up in so much debt that we had maxed out all of our credit cards. We paid well over $50,000. I remember at the time, saying, ‘It’s worth it for us to heal and then have a good life together.’”
Evil Influencer concluded that Hildebrandt, 56, was making at least $46,000 a week. She got her start as a therapist before founding ConneXions, which was a program that offered marital, parenting and life counseling — usually to fellow Mormons.
Hildebrandt became friends with Franke, 43, in 2019 after connecting through their church. From there, Ruby and then-husband Kevin Franke started attending ConneXions classes to work on their marriage, which subsequently fell apart.
Ruby and Hildebrandt started to live together with the influencer’s children until they were arrested. (Ruby and Kevin welcomed six children, which was documented on their 8 Passengers channel when it originally launched in 2015. Ruby and Hildebrandt ultimately rebranded into Moms of Truth in order to share more faith-based content.)
The duo were arrested and charged on six counts of child abuse in 2023. The arrest came after Ruby’s youngest son, who was 12 years old at the time, escaped from Hildebrandt’s home and asked for help from a neighbor. Authorities noticed that the child was malnourished and had duct tape on his ankles and wrists.
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In December 2023, Ruby pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse and admitted she tortured her children. As part of her plea deal, she agreed to serve a prison term and that her sentences would run consecutively. She also agreed to testify against Hildebrandt, who also pleaded guilty to four counts and was sentenced to between 4 and 60 years in prison. They won’t serve more than 30 years due to a Utah law relating to consecutive sentences.
Hildebrandt is currently serving a 4 to 30-year sentence at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City. She won’t appear before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole — which determines the exact length of her sentence — until December 2026.
YouTube has banned Ruby and Hildebrandt and deleted the channels associated with their names. Hildebrandt’s counseling license was frozen following their arrest. In a recording of Hildebrandt’s call from prison that was released months after her arrest, she defended herself and said Ruby’s son “did that to himself” when discussing his extensive injuries.
The high-profile case was the subject of Lifetime’s 2024 movie Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story with Emilie Ullerup as Ruby and Heather Locklear as Hildebrandt. Hulu released a docuseries — Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke — in February with Ruby’s ex-husband and two eldest children featured in the series.
That same month, Investigation Discovery made Ruby and Hildebrandt the subject of their The Curious Case series. The network subsequently produced Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence, which was released in September.
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
