West
Abusive Utah mommy blogger accomplice's $5M fortress with panic room for sale after guilty plea
Former-therapist-turned-child abuser Jodi Hildebrandt’s $5 million Utah home became the most-viewed listing on Realtor.com last week.
Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke, who ran a joint parenting and lifestyle YouTube channel called ConneXions Classrooms, pleaded guilty in December 2023 to abusing two of Franke’s six children. Some of that abuse occurred in Hildebrandt’s multimillion-dollar desert home in Ivins, located on the border of Snow Canyon State Park, according to public records.
“A notorious desert dwelling in Ivins, UT, that gained national attention as the place where parenting influencer Ruby Franke abused her children alongside disgraced therapist Jodi Hildebrandt has become the most viewed home on Realtor.com® this week,” reads an April 5 blog post on Realtor.com.
The blog post added that Hildebrandt’s home on W. Tawgoo Ct. was listed for $5.3 million in January, but the price has already been reduced by more than $300,000.
MOMMY BLOGGER RUBY FRANKE’S HUSBAND SAYS ‘SOME CRAZY S–T’ WENT ON IN ABUSE ACCOMPLICE’S $5.3M FORTRESS
Jodi Hildebrandt’s home on W. Tawgoo Ct. was listed for $5.3 million in January, but the price has already been reduced by more than $300,000, according to Realtor.com. (Washington County)
Washington County, Utah, property records list the 2023 market value for Hildebrandt’s home as $2.55 million.
Franke, who initially ran her own parenting blog called “8 Passengers,” and Hildebrandt became close around 2019 due to their similar lifestyle and parenting views, Franke’s husband, Kevin Franke, said in a 2023 police interview recently released by the Washington County Attorney’s Office. Around 2022, the pair decided to start their own blog together.
UTAH POLICE DISCOVER ‘PANIC ROOM’ INSIDE ABUSIVE MOMMY BLOGGER ACCOMPLICE’S $5.3M DESERT HOME
Utah police found a “panic room” inside Jodi Hildebrandt’s $5.3 million Ivins home, where Ruby Franke, inset left, sent her children to stay with Hildebrandt. (Washington County Attorney’s Office)
Franke made the nearly four-hour drive from her Springville home to Hildebrandt’s desert fortress multiple times, according to public records and interviews. Kevin Franke remembered making one such trip with his wife in the police interview.
“It blew my mind,” he told police of Hildebrandt’s home, adding that he thought, “How does a therapist live like this?”
YOUTUBE MOMMY BLOGGER RUBY FRANKE, CO-HOST JODI HILDEBRANDT SENTENCED FOR CHILD ABUSE: ‘DARK DELUSION’
He went on to describe strange happenings that occurred inside Hildebrandt’s home while they were all there together.
“I can’t explain some of the stuff that happened while we were there, like crashes in the basement while we were talking upstairs, and plates in the kitchen just flying off by themselves, like, full-speed smashing off the wall and falling to the floor by themselves,” he told police in the interview. “I can’t explain it, but I saw it with my own eyes, and I don’t have any way to explain it other than there was some crazy s— going on.”
YOUTUBE MOMMY BLOGGERS ARRESTED ON ALLEGATIONS OF CHILD ABUSE: ‘FINALLY’
WATCH: Kevin Franke speaks with police
At the time of Franke’s and Hildebrandt’s August 2023 arrests, two of Franke’s children were staying in Hildebrandt’s home, which contained a bunker-like “panic room” in the basement below Hildebrandt’s garage, according to police records.
One of the children escaped through a window and sought help from a neighbor, who called 911 after seeing the malnourished boy with duct tape on his wrists and ankles on Aug. 30.
UTAH CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHOR SENT DAMNING TEXT TO LOVER BEFORE HUBBY POISON PLOT: DOCS
Ruby Franke, right, and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested and charged on Aug. 30 after Santa Clara police received a dispatch call around 10:50 p.m. asking for help. (Instagram/moms_of_truth)
Police later located all six of Franke’s children in different locations and arrested both parenting bloggers.
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The abuse inflicted upon Franke’s children included forcing them to do physical labor, restricting food, binding one child’s hands and feet, and emotional harm. Franke and Hildebrandt told Franke’s children that they were evil and needed to be punished.
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With a loss against the Seattle Seahawks, the San Francisco 49ers officially lost the one seed and a chance at a bye week. They will be playing next week, but it’s not quite determined who they will play and when. A few games on Sunday will determine this.
Who the San Francisco 49ers will play in the Wild Card Round
The 49ers will either be the five or six seed. They will be the five if the Los Angeles Rams lose to the Arizona Cardinals. However, if the Rams beat the Cardinals, the 49ers will be the sixth seed in the NFC.
A few notable starters, such as Davante Adams and Kevin Dotso,n will be out, but Matthew Stafford is going to play, and he is competing for the MVP. Arizona has not won a game in a few months their front office would like to lose for draft pick purposes and they are heavy underdogs in this game.
The most likely outcome is that the Rams will be the fifth seed and they will get to face the NFC South winner. Meanwhile, the Bears will take on one of the Philadelphia Eagles or Chicago Bears. While the 49ers beat the Bears and lost to the Bucs, most fans would rather see the Bucs, so the 49ers will be rooting for the Cardinals, even if that is unlikely.
Chicago plays the Detroit Lions, and if they win, they will get the two-seed. That would mean that the Philadelphia Eagles will host the 49ers in the Wild Card Round. If the Bears lose and the Eagles win, the 49ers would head to Chicago to take on the Bears.
Then, if the Bears and Eagles lose, the 49ers would head to Philadelphia. Philadelphia is taking on the Washington Commanders, and they have not won in about as long as the Cardinals. They are also looking at starting Josh Johnson again this week, which should ensure one more loss.
So, with the Rams and Eagles being near locks to win, it will come down to the Bears. The Lions are not bottom dwellers like the other two, and we know Dan Campbell will play to beat the Bears.
Detroit is not quite a playoff team, but they can compete with any playoff team, so they could end up giving Chicago a run for their money. 49ers fans are going to want Detroit to show up and play well. While it is not easy to beat a team twice, with the second being in their home, they would like to avoid the Eagles, who have a defense that can compare to Seattle. We saw what happened against that type of defense.
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Denver, CO
Grading The Week: From Bo Nix’s dog days to Mackenzie Blackwood and Nikola Jokic, Denver sports’ 2026 off to rocky start
The Lumberyard is breaking boards already?
The Colorado Avalanche is becoming the Colorado Ambulanche. The Nuggets’ center options went from Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas to the 1-2 punch of DeRon Holmes II and Zeke Nnaji.
Hang on. Hang on. Wasn’t 2026 supposed to be “Denver’s Year?”
At least, that’s what the Grading The Week (GTW) crew told each other at the annual holiday soiree a fortnight ago, just before we sent everybody home for Christmas.
Well after the last eight days or so, Team GTW thinks it might be wise now for the Broncos to double Bo Nix’s security. (Just don’t bring any guard dogs.)
Because if it wasn’t for bad luck, to paraphrase the late, great bluesman Albert King, Front Range sports fans wouldn’t have no luck at all.
Blackwood to the IR — D.
This past Friday, the Avs took a break from wiping the ice with the rest of the NHL to place goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, the younger half of its “Lumberyard” pairing of netminders, on injured reserve with a lower body injury.
You want lousy timing? Blackwood’s absence piles it on with several layers of awful.
For one, the Thunder Bay native finished December on a heater — posting an 8-1-0 record, a 2.13 Goals Against Average and a save rate of 92.3%.
For another, Colorado is in the teeth of one of the tougher road trips of the season, with visits to division leading Carolina on tap for Saturday, followed by a matinee Sunday at Florida to cap off a night game-into-day-game back-to-back, capped off by a Tuesday evening visit to Tampa Bay.
For yet another, Blackwood only faced 13 shots on New Year’s Eve, his last start, during a 6-1 Avs win over St. Louis at Ball Arena.
Scott Wedgewood (17-1-4, 2.13 GAA, .919 save percentage as of early Saturday) has been more than good enough to shoulder the load in net, granted. But you also don’t want to overload a 33-year-old goalie who’s having a career year in his eighth full season in the NHL. Wedgewood, largely a “1B” netminder since ’15-16, had already logged 24 starts this season going into the weekend. His career high for starts is 32 and his season average has been 20 per year. Depending on the severity of Blackwood’s injury, Wedgewood, at least in the short term, is going to have to ramp up the quantity to match his quality.
In isolation, it’s a lousy way to open 2026. Add in the freak knee injury Nuggets icon Jokic suffered this past Monday night in Miami and Valanciunas’ calf strain two days later in Toronto, you wonder what Denverites did to anger the sporting gods. Or if we’re getting payback for October-December being so absolutely glorious ’round these parts.
Regardless, let’s put a pin in those multiple-championship-parades-in-one-year plans — at least until Nix and the Broncos get to Santa Clara next month in one piece.
CSU women’s hoops rolling — A.
May whatever karma that’s haunting Ball Arena spare the good folks up in FoCo. The CSU Rams’ women’s basketball team finished the December part of its ’25-26 slate with a flourish on Dec. 31, stomping Grand Canyon in Phoenix 61-47 and improving to 12-2 overall, 3-0 in Mountain West play. CSU has won 12 straight away games dating back to last season. The Rams get a two-game homestand against Fresno State (Saturday) and New Mexico (Wednesday) before returning to the road on Jan. 10 (at Boise State) and Jan. 14 (at Air Force).
Santa Clara—When Seattle’s defense stepped on the field for the Week 18 matchup against the 49ers, they had a few goals in mind, winning was of course one of those, but they wanted to show everyone watching they are the best defense in the league.
“We made up our mind that we were going to be the best defense in the NFL,” linebacker Uchenna Nwosu said. “We were going to show the world tonight and that’s what we did.”
As has been the case for the entire season, the Seahawks’ defense was once again a highlight in their 13-3 win. The Seahawks won, in part thanks to a dominant performance by the defense that held the San Francisco 49ers to just three points. The last time Kyle Shanahan’s offense was held to just three points was in his 49ers head coaching debut in 2017. Since then, San Francisco has scored at least 6 points in every game, until Saturday.
Coming into Saturday’s game, the 49ers were riding a three-game streak of great performances by its offense. Throughout all three of those games, San Francisco was averaging 42.3 points per game, 455.3 yards per game and 29.3 first downs per game.
Seattle’s defense held San Francisco to just 53 rushing yards, which included 21 yards from quarterback Brock Purdy, 127 yards through the air, a lone field goal, and just nine first downs. They also picked off Purdy once, sacked him three times and forced the 49ers to punt four times.
“They’re a tremendous offense,” head coach Mike Macdonald said following the game. “Probably top whatever in the league and have been doing it for a long time. They have great players, they have great coaches, and the numbers back it up. Our guys played great complimentary football today. They really did. I can’t say enough, but I can’t wait to watch the tape. There’s a lot of assists going on in there, guys rushing unselfishly to free somebody else up or to let somebody else have a two-way go so they can cover for them. How we played in the back end, it felt like we were ahead of plays. These guys did a great job. I’m looking forward to watching it.”
Christian McCaffery, one of San Francisco’s top offensive playmakers in both the run and passing game was held to his lowest rushing yards all season with 23 yards through the night and his fourth lowest receiving yards with 34.
Nick Emmanwori who had a team high seven tackles, as well as a tackle for loss and quarterback hit said, “Our front seven is the best in the world. Our D-Line is the best in the world. Got dudes like Jarran Reed, Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy. Our edges are dogs. They handle business every week. We’ve got the best run defense I the league. It makes it easy for us on the back end.”
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