dust to dust we're all just pushing dirt ♪ ♪ [ cheers and applause ] ♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, ruby franke sentenced. >> to my babies, my six little chicks, you are part of me. >> the utah momfluencer who once had 2.5 million followers on her tough love youtube channel in court today. >> i believed dark was light and right was wrong. >> apologizing to the children she confessed to abusing. >> keeping them home from school and wiping the floorboards would really bring pain.

>> sentenced along with her former business partner to up to 30 years in prison. >> in this case you terrorized children. the startling claim franke made about their relationship. "operation arctic cure." >> what a day, man. this has been incredible. >> abc's bob woodruff working with vets with ptsd to heal unseen scars. >> it's about seeing things that are bigger than you. >> to push all the way through all the negative feelings and all depression. >> trudging over miles inside the arctic circle with those who made steep sacrifices, believing in the influence of the therapeutic power of awe. >> you're ecstatic when you see something like that the northern lights. >> oh, wow. whoo! >> does that impact your mind for the next couple of years? >> could the lessons learned by those hit hardest help the rest of us? ♪ this ain't texas ♪ country's queen bee. the history made by beyonce with "texas hd m."

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♪ >> andrew: good evening. i'm andrew dymburt. ruby franke, once a youtube guru of no-nonsense parenting, facing decades in prison. she gave parenting advice but

increasingly harsh punishments at first alarmed viewers and eventually led to her arrest. here's abc's kayna whitworth. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to district court. >> for the past four years, i've chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion. >> reporter: ruby, the mormon momfluencer whose tough love videos was back in court giving a tearful statement during her sentencing hear. >> i was so disoriented that i believed dark was light and right was wrong. >> reporter: her estranged husband, kevin, and two oldest children sitting in the front row behind prosecutors as she apologized to them directly. >> kevin, my husband of more than 23 years, you are the love of my life. i'm so sorry to leave yto you finish what we both started together. to my babies.

my six little chicks. you are part of me. i can see now over the past four years, i was in a deep undercurrent that led us to danger. >> reporter: after pleading guilty to four counts of child abuse in december, franke was sentenced to four consecutive prison terms ranging from one to 15 years. >> we're not going to find out what that jail time is any time soon, because it's not the judge who decides the length of the sentence in utah. instead, it's a utah board of pardons and parole that will evaluate the case to determine how long they'll end up spending in prison. >> reporter: franke's former business partner and therapist, jodi hildebrandt, was sentenced to the same consecutive prison terms. she was brief in her statement to the court. >> i sincerely love these children. i desire for hem to heal physically and emotionally. >> reporter: throughout the hearing, the prosecution detailing at length the abuse

that occurred inside jodi's utah home. >> in addition to physical abuse, the children were emotionally abused to the extent that each believed, to some degree, that they deserved what was being done to them. had the older of the children not had the courage to run away and ask a neighbor to call police, heaven only knows how much longer he could have survived in that situation. >> reporter: that call to police came in august of 2023. >> 911, the address of your emergency? >> i just had a 12-year-old boy show up here at my front door, asking for help. >> reporter: when ruby franke's 12-year-old son ran to a neighbor's home begging for help. >> he's emaciated. he's got tape around his legs. he's hungry, and he's thirsty. what's your mom's name? ruby franke. >> reporter: his pain bringing the neighbor to tears. >> this boy has been --

[ crying ] this kid has obviously been -- he's been -- he's obviously covered in wounds. >> reporter: the house the boy says he escaped from, jodi hildebrand's, which appeared to be where ruby and her kids were spending more and more time, hours away from their home. >> i'm jodi hildebrandt. >> i'm ruby franke. >> reporter: she was a marriage counseling who treated sex addiction through her work with the counseling network lifestar. she joined forces with franke on a life coaching business called "connections." >> all of us want connection. we want to have relationships where we feel close and where there's love. >> reporter: franke now says their relationship was more complicated than that. >> we have always said that ruby franke is a business partner of jodi hildebrandt, but she made a very strong point to say, this was a paid mentor. i was looking for advice, i paid her to give me that, and she led

me astray. something that the board and many others evaluating her jail sentence will consider when thinking about when she should be released. >> reporter: after the arrest of both franke and hildebrandt, many wondered if there were missed warning signs. franke had been a high-flying mor mor momfluencer attracting 2.5 million followers on her youtube channel "eight passengers." her personal brand was built around tough love. >> i was really hoping that, like, keeping them home from school and wiping the floorboards would, like, really bring pain. >> many of the viewers of "8 passengers" over the past two or three years became more and more disturbed and started turning ruby and kevin in to child protective services in utah. >> people have been pointing out problematic this family is for a while. >> when does the way a parent parents go from cringeworthy to child abuse? >> my bedroom was taken away for seven months, then you give it

back like a couple of weeks ago. >> i don't think our viewers know that. you've been sleeping on a bean bag for a while. >> since october. >> reporter: in 2020, a change.org petition requesting that cps check on the children received hundreds of signatures. abc has obtained records showing police responded to the franke home more than a dozen times over the past few years, including several reports of juvenile problems in 2018 and 2019. and multiple welfare checks in 2022. there was also a recently released 911 call made in september of 2022 by franke's own daughter, sherry, alleging neglect and concern for the other children in the home. >> hi, my name is sherry franke. my four younger siblings are living in springville. and my neighbors have been telling me that they have been left home alone for about four or five days. >> reporter: it calm to a head in august 2023 when police arrested both franke and hildebrandt.

body camera footage obtained by abc news showing the intense moments when franke was taken into custody. >> police department! >> reporter: after the arrest, there were also questions raised about jodi hildebrandt and her past as a licensed therapist. my colleague, juju chang, sat down late last year with jesse hilda brachbt, who lived with "aunt jodi" as a teenager. >> she made me sleep outside in the snow. she duct taped me. i wasn't allowed to speak to anyone. >> juju: what, in theory, was the justification for the duct tape? >> the duct tape was in her words, an external reminder to me that i'm a liar and that every word that comes out of am life and a lie. it's 100% jodi. i understand why the public is focusing on ruby. it's ruby's children. but all of these theorys and these modalities and these -- these parenting ideas, that all comes from jodi. >> reporter: this account eerily similar to details that emerge

when franke and hildebrandt both pled guilty in december. the plea agreement describing franke's children facing physical torture. one child referred to as "r.f." had his hands and feet regularly bound with handcuffs. the handcuffs cut through the skin, and his injuries were treated with homeopathic remedies and covered with duct tape. it also detailed the abuse committed by franke included kicking r.f. while wearing boots, holding his head underwater, and cutting off oxygen by placing her hands over his mouth and nose. jodi hildebrand and ruby franke are waiting to be transported to prison where the utah board of pardons and parole will ultimately decide their fate. >> when i look at this case, you're probably looking in that eight to ten-year range for both of them. but for ruby franke, probably on the lower end. again, because of the remorse. i wouldn't be surprised if ruby franke gets a high single-digit jail sentence and jodi

hildebrandt gets low double digits. >> reporter: as for the children, they were placed into child protective services. kevin franke, who's been separated from his wife for more than a year, is seeking custody of his four minor children. but that case has been closed off from the public. >> right now, we know that ruby franke's children are wards of the state. the father is petitioning to get custody of them, and also to sue that occurred because of her practices and what ruby franke did as well. it's going to be up to the father to really battle it out. >> andrew: our thanks to kayna. when we return, "nightline" coanchor juju chang with a story of hardship, resilience, and hope. she's with bob woodruff and his "operation arctic cure." i told myself i was ok with my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms. but just ok isn't ok.

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♪ >> juju: imagine trekking through the arctic to test for a cure. abc's bob woodruff did just that in a "national geographic" documentary "operation arctic cure," leading a group of vets through one of the world's most unforgiving environments. let's take a look. >> look it, blue sky, there's blue sky, what? everything's changing. what a day, man. this has been incredible. with awe, you have these oceanic feelings of being connected to humanity or all of earth. so it's kind of that piece of being small but connected.

>> juju: small but connected. bob woodruff joins us now. >> fun times back there. >> juju: it was an epic trip, clearly. >> it was freezing but fun jink freezing but fun. you've traveled the world for abc news. you were injured on a reporting trip to iraq. what made you start this exploration to the arctic circle with these veterans with ptsd? >> it's a long story. we had several ideas about how to go on adventures with veterans to see what the impact of adventure would be. then we got into the science part of this later in terms of the impact of something you want to call awe. but the idea was to take this remarkable voyage and see things that we have always dreamed about seeing, hadn't done it yet. so let's try something brand-new. >> juju: you went to the coldest place on effort. you could have gone to tahiti. you went in search of awe. and one night you saw the northern lights. tell us about that awe moment

unfolding. >> we went in march. one, it was freezing up there. because that's when you really get the chance to see something like the northern lights. >> oh, wow. >> whoo! >> oh, that's good, yeah. >> that's a flare. >> we knew that this was something that would really drive our minds to try to have reaction to this idea of awe. >> look at that one. that one's like -- >> juju: you really capture that moment when your teammates feel it. yet you're also measuring for it on a scientific level, too? >> yeah, we did three different tests. we took these little tubes, spit in them, collected this for cortisol. it's the stress hormone. you can track what's happening dur the day. does it go up? you're relaxing, still stressed out? that's one thing we can measure all right other is we had the chance to really take diaries

and give our thoughts to the lens in our tents. that really shows what the -- your facial expressions. they indicate also your feelings of awe. also the impact on your mind. >> the snow-capped >> the eyes widen. the eyebrows rise. the mouth opens. and then we also were around our chest here, to measure our heart rate, to see what that meant when you're going through this. >> juju: how does awe affect ptsd? or even depression or other ailments? because you track it even after you get home from this trip. >> yeah, we do this, a lot of different kinds of therapy, going through difficult times. how long does it last after you go through this? of course you're ecstatic when you see something like the northern lights, but does that impact your mind for the next couple of years? all we really know scientifically on this one particular, two weeks for sure that it lifted you up.

>> what is, is. you can't go back and change it. it's about seeing things that are bigger than you. >> i'm really grateful for everything. >> here comes the wind. >> juju: tell me about the bonding that the teammates have. even this sort of selfless act of helping each other fills you with some sorts of awe? >> you don't need to go up to the stunning place and live through 40 degrees below weather and see the largest cliff in the world. you don't need something so extreme like that in order to get this feeling of awe. so just people need to know there's other things you can do. like you said, just have some friendship. voyage for an hour with somebody that you know. >> juju: being out in nature is a big part of it. being part of something that's bigger than you. and in many ways, this is also about more than just ptsd, as well, right? this is for a variety of people who are sort of in their heads?

>> yeah, i think even those would even be diagnosed with anything like depression or ptsd or traumatic brain injury. it's just somebody needs something to lift themselves up. they're just sad. you have some kind of awe. you're not going to be as sad as you were before. yeah, if you've got something severe, like really bad post-traumatic stress disorder, or something else related to depression in your life, that certainly is one that is affected positively by awe. >> look at this, you guys. >> it's pretty awesome, huh? >> that's a little awe. >> yeah, right? >> juju: you talk about this isn't just about physical wounds. this is about the wounds you can't see? >> i think in the beginning, the peak of the war in iraq and afghanistan, visible wounds. amputation, badly burned, traumatic brain injury. the medical care for those were so amazing they were not getting the attention anymore. we finally recognized what's going on underneath that you don't see.

>> juju: thank you so much for sharing your trip with us. >> thanks, juju. >> juju: we appreciate it. "operation arctic cure" is now available on national geographic and available on hulu and dis plus. >> andrew: our thanks to juju and bob. when we come back, beyonce is making history by holding 'em in texas. ♪ this ain't texas ain't no hold 'em ♪ ♪ so lay your cards down down down down down ♪ i prep without pills. with apretude, a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of hiv without daily prep pills. with one shot every other month, just 6 times a year. in studies, apretude was proven superior to a daily prep pill in reducing the risk of hiv. you must be hiv negative to receive apretude and get tested before each injection. if you think you were exposed to hiv or have flu-like symptoms, tell your doctor right away. apretude does not prevent other sexually transmitted infections. practice safer sex to reduce your risk. don't take apretude

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♪ >> andrew: finally tonight, all hail the queen bey of country. ♪ this ain't texas ain't no hold

'em ♪ >> andrew: beyonce's lone star roots on full display in "texas hold 'em" and the single made history, shooting all the way to the top of the country chart, the first time a black woman has had a country number one single. it was released at the super bowl at the same time as "16 carriages" also rolling in this week at number nine. ♪ my dreams away to the ♪ >> andrew: that's "nightline." watch full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here at the same time torrow thanks for staying up with us. good night, america.