- A woman who spent three nights in jail with Ruby Franke talked to Insider about her experience.
- Debra Monsen told Insider Franke was "really concerned" about being separated from Jodi Hildebrandt.
A woman who shared a jail cell with Ruby Franke for three nights said Franke seemed fixated on her YouTube partner Jodi Hildebrandt and complained that they were held separately from one another.
Debra Monsen, 52, spoke with Insider about her stint in the custody of Washington County Sheriff's Office in Utah at the same time as Franke and Hildebrandt.
Monsen was arrested on August 31 on allegations of petty theft and drug possession — she told Insider she is innocent and will fight the charges.
She was booked the day after Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on suspicion of aggravated child abuse.
Franke is a famous parenting YouTuber who launched the channel 8 Passengers along with her husband Kevin, documenting their life with their six kids.
The channel closed earlier this year and Franke switched to helping front Hildebrandt's channel ConneXions.
Monsen said she spent around an hour with Hildebrandt at the start of her stay in the Purgatory Correctional Facility, followed by three nights with Franke in a medical area. As of Thursday, both Franke and Hildebrandt were listed as still being in the jail.
Insider contacted representatives for Franke, and Hildebrandt but neither responded.
Monsen said she had no idea who they were at the time, and only realized after she left and her family was talking about them on the drive home.
Monsen described both Franke and Hildebrandt as "really tight-lipped," but said she had a lot of time to observe how Franke behaved.
Most notably, she seemed distressed that she and Hildebrandt had been separated.
"She said, 'God, how long are they going to keep us in here? And why did they separate me and Jodi?'" Monsen said. "She said, 'I can't understand why they separated me and my friend.'"
Franke was "really, really concerned" about Hildebrandt, she said, and "wanted to see her, wanted to talk to her."
Monsen said Franke was interested after she let her know that she was briefly held alongside Hildebrandt.
"She's like, 'Oh, what did she say? How did she act? Did she say anything at all?'" she said, and described Franke as "almost childlike" in her manner and "almost smitten" with Hildebrandt.
Monsen told Franke that Hildebrandt seemed "pretty distraught" and "didn't want to talk about anything at all."
"Jodi had obviously been crying a lot," Monsen said of her time with Hildebrandt. "Her eyes were really red and swollen and kind of squinted. You could hardly see her eyes, and she looked very distressed."
She said she asked Hildebrandt why she was in jail, and Hildebrandt looked at her with "not a smile, not a frown" but a straight face, and said: "I'd rather not say."
"I said, OK, I apologize, I wasn't trying to invade your privacy," Monsen said. "And that was everything that was said between us."
Monsen said Franke reacted to her account by saying "That's what I thought she would be like."
Monsen said Franke also "played mother hen" to another woman in their cell, who Franke believed was going through drug withdrawal. Franke was "tucking the blankets under her and mothering her, nurturing her," Monsen said. Franke also carried a Bible with her a lot of the time — "she kept holding it to her chest and she closed her eyes," Monsen said.
At one point, Monsen said she saw Franke crying. When she asked her what was wrong, Franke said, "I just miss my kids."
Monsen said she doubted Franke's sincerity though, saying her emotions seemed to have "no depth" and that she seemed "completely narcissistic."
Franke and Hildebrandt both face six felony counts of child abuse.
The Franke kids were taken into care after the arrest and the courts have kept details of their care since confidential, citing the childrens' need for privacy.
Legal documents from the arrest allege that two of the children were found badly mistreated. An affidavit said one, a boy, escaped from a window at Hildebrandt's home in Ivins, Utah, and pleaded for help from a neighbor.
Officers described him as emaciated and wounded, with duct tape round his ankles. Police then found another child in the same condition at Hildebrandt's house.
On their first, chaotic appearance in court on September 9, both Franke and Hildebrandt were denied bail. Both have another hearing scheduled for September 18.