Newly released video shows the malnourished son of a parenting advice YouTuber approaching a neighbor for help on the morning that his mother and her business partner were arrested on child abuse charges.

The malnourished and badly bruised son of a parenting advice YouTuber politely asks a neighbor to take him to the nearest police station in newly released video from the day his mother and her business partner were arrested on child abuse charges in southern Utah.

The 12-year-old son of Ruby Franke, a mother of six who dispensed advice to millions via a popular YouTube channel, had escaped through a window and approached several nearby homes until someone answered the door, according to documents released Friday by the Washington County Attorney’s office.

Crime scene photos, body camera video and interrogation tapes were released a month after Franke and business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, a mental health counselor, were each sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. A police investigation determined religious extremism motivated the women to inflict horrific abuse on Franke’s children, Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke announced Friday.

“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,” Clarke said.

  • nifty@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 months ago

    What the actual fuck? These women are sick. There’s a deeper reason (like some mental illnesses or sociopathy) for why these women did these things, and their motivations should be examined. If we know more about such things, we can hopefully against other people with such behavior in the future.

    Sure, we can blame religion, but what if religion didn’t exist? Would people like these women not exist either, or would they use another excuse for their behavior?

    • JimSamtanko@lemm.ee
      0·
      8 months ago

      If religion didn’t exist, a lot of this bullshit wouldn’t happen. Some still would, but a good portion wouldn’t happen.

    • solarbabies@lemmy.world
      0·
      8 months ago

      Until a mental health issue has been concretely determined, I believe it’s somewhat irresponsible to toss the idea around that it’s the underlying root cause for this obscene behavior.

      Religion, like other dogmas, has historically empowered and continues to empower a lot of otherwise mentally healthy people to feel okay doing plenty of fucked up shit, simply because religion said it’s okay to do it.

      Ever heard of the Stanford Prisoner Experiment? Many “normal” people will do terrible things if simply given permission.