MOMFLUENCER - OR MONSTER?

A Utah mom who sparked controversy doling out parenting advice on YouTube is charged with child abuse

The claims are heartbreaking. On Aug. 30, a child left the Springfield, Utah, residence of Jodi Hildebrandt — who owns a counseling business and creates social media videos and podcasts with the child’s mother, parenting vlogger Ruby Franke — and went to a neighbor’s home “asking for food and water,” according to a statement from the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department. The concerned neighbor called authorities after realizing the child “appeared to be emaciated and malnourished, with open wounds and duct tape around the extremities.” The condition was “so severe,” authorities allege, the child was taken to a hospital. Cops then found another juvenile inside the residence “in a similar physical condition of malnourishment,” according to the statement.