Naman Shrestha
Helmed by Kevin Fair, Lifetime’s ‘Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story’ explores the true story of how Ruby Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, turned the lives of the former’s children into a nightmare by abusing and torturing them. Since the drama movie dramatizes various aspects of the actual events for entertainment purposes, questions are bound to be raised about the real-life Jodi — the role she played in the torture and her current whereabouts.
Jodi Hildebrandt Was a Licensed Counselor and the Owner of ConneXions Classroom
Jay and Florence (Haynie) Hildebrandt welcomed Jodi Nan Hildebrandt into their world on January 17, 1968, in Arizona. Raised under the love and support of her loved ones in Tuscon, Arizona, she graduated from Canyon Del Oro High School with flying colors. In 1996, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature from Brigham Young University. She then went on to pursue a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Utah. Besides academics, religion was also one of the important aspects of her life as she grew up among the devout followers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
When she was in her early 20s in 1990, Jodi also took part in the Miss Orem pageant in Utah. By 2005, Jodi had become a licensed counselor in Utah, where she had relocated to. At the time, she was employed at Cirque Lodge as a Program Director. A couple of years later, she founded a relationship and business counseling organization called ConneXions Classroom in Orem, Utah. In 2012, she served as the director of LifeStar Utah County when her license was jeopardized for about 18 months when reports of her disclosing confidential information about one of her former clients between 2008 and 2010 came out.
Over the years, Jodi’s clients at ConneXions Classrooms alleged that her classes used to encourage people to cut off all ties with others who had different views and opinions other than hers. Thus, in a way, the life coaching service allegedly did more harm than good, according to her former clients. Keeping these allegations behind her, Jodi teamed up with her business partner and YouTube vlogger, Ruby Franke, and launched a ConneXions YouTube channel in 2022 to spread her teachings to more individuals across the globe.
Jodi Hildebrandt Partnered Up With Ruby Franke and Tortured the Latter’s Children
At the same time, they also created a joint Instagram handle called Moms of Truth. Working together, they were also responsible for keeping two of Ruby’s children — a 12-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter — confined to a room in Jodi’s residence while also physically torturing them regularly. According to reports, one of the children was forced to indulge in physical tasks like labor in the summer heat without shoes on his feet and staying in the sunlight for several hours. When he tried to escape in July 2023, he was caught by the two business partners and handcuffed his wrists and one of his ankles.
About a month later, Ruby’s son finally managed to get out of Jodi’s property through a window. The first thing he did was go to a neighbor and ask for help. According to reports, the child was malnourished and had serious sunburns on his body. When the police were involved, they also learned that Ruby’s 10-year-old daughter was also in the house, wrongfully detained by her mother and Jodi. Thus, after finding enough evidence of the torture inside the latter’s house, the two women were arrested in Washington County, Utah, on August 30, 2023, and charged with multiple counts of aggravated child abuse.
Jodi Hildebrandt is Currently Incarcerated at a Utah Prison Facility For Her Crimes
Out of the six counts of aggravated child abuse charges against her, Jodi Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to four of them in connection to the torture of Ruby’s two children. According to the plea agreement, she forced or coerced Ruby’s daughter to jump into a cactus several times. At her sentencing in February 2024, she refused to apologize for what she did and told the court that she did not want her victims to go through a trial. She addressed the court, saying, “I desire for (the children) to heal physically and emotionally. One of the reasons I did not go to trial is because I did not want them to emotionally relive the experience, which would have been detrimental to them.”
Jodi concluded, “My hope and prayer is that they will heal and move forward to have beautiful lives.” On February 20, 2024, she was sentenced to four consecutive terms of one to 15 years consecutively, which was the maximum for each count under Utah law. As of today, she is supposedly serving her sentence at Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Read More: Kevin Franke: Where is Ruby Franke’s Husband Now?
