Jodi Hildebrandt’s Niece Alleged Abuse Years Before Ruby Franke Case

Content warning: This story discusses child abuse. Ruby Franke 's children were not Jodi Hildebrandt ’s first victims, according to Jodi's relative. More than a decade before Ruby and Jodi were arrested in 2023-with both later pleading guilty to four felony counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse-Jodi's niece Jessi Hildebrandt accused the former therapist of abuse. Netflix's new documentary Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story reveals that Jessi contacted police to make allegations against Jodi while living with her in American Fork, Utah, in 2009. "I was left in her care when I was a teenager for a little under a year," Jessi said in a 2023 KUTV interview shown in the documentary. "I experienced being tied, I experienced being duct taped, I was forced to sleep outside in the snow." "I experienced severe isolation, being told I shouldn’t be around other people, being told that I was dangerous to be around," they continued. "I was never allowed to have the door closed because she was convinced that I was constantly masturbating. She was convinced that I was addicted to porn. I had no idea what these things were, but I just believed her because she used religion and God as a mode of control." According to Jessi, Jodi "wanted to make my life so uncomfortable that it would force the sin out," with Jessi explaining that they would "confess to things that I didn’t do as a way of trying to get the abuse to stop." Jessi went to the police, but the case was closed in March 2010, according to records shown in Evil Influencer . In 2023, American Fork Police Chief Cameron Paul spoke to KSL after reviewing department records, noting he didn’t find any documentation that a previous report was sent to DCFS as planned. “I’m going to own it. If we didn’t send it, we didn’t send it,” he told the outlet. “And so, there’s a small possibility we did, but again, I have no record of it, and we’ve looked at some other lists that should have something and I don’t see it. So, I’m thinking that it never got disseminated to DCFS.” Cameron went on to note that the officers involved are no longer with the department. “I think we could have dug a little bit more into what was going on, and perhaps the officer did that and it’s just not documented well in the report and that detail is not there,” he said at the time. “But whether it’s through the report or the actions of the officer, yes, I do wish we would have taken the time to dive in a little bit further into the case.” Jessi noted in the doc that they tried to do what they “could.” “And no one believed me. Because why would they?" Jessi said. "She destroyed my credibility. I was an angry teenager." Ruby and Jodi-who were business partners for a life coaching service called ConneXions- were arrested in August 2023 after Ruby's...

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