Franke and her podcasting partner Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested last Wednesday after the young boy escaped Hildebrandt’s house in Ivins, Utah, according to the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department. Officers soon found Franke’s 10-year-old daughter in “a similar physical condition of malnourishment” inside Hildebrandt’s home and sent both children to the hospital.
Franke and Hildebrandt were later charged withsix felony counts of child abuseand are both due in court Friday, where they’re expected to enter pleas.
An attorney for Franke told PEOPLE his office will not comment on the case, while Hildebrandt’s attorney has not responded to a request for comment after the two children were allegedly found with signs of abuse at her home.
Police said in a press release that the children were found with “wounds and markings” on their bodies, and the neighbor’s recently released 911 call this week sheds more light on the 12-year-old boy’s condition when he initially escaped Hildebrandt’s house.
“I just had a 12-year-old boy show up here at my front door asking for help, and he said he just came from a neighbor’s house,” the neighbor says on his 911 call, the Deseret News reports. “We know there’s been problems at this neighbor’s house. He’s emaciated, he’s got tape around his legs, he’s hungry and he’s thirsty.”
The man reportedly continues as he checks on the young boy: “He’s very thirsty. I don’t think he needs an ambulance – I’ll let the cops decide that – but his ankles are taped up and he won’t tell us why. He has duct tape around each ankle. Yeah, there’s sores around them.”According to the outlet, the neighbor appears to then hold back tears as he tells the 911 dispatcher: “I think there’s a good chance he’s been … oh, he’s got them around his wrists as well. OK, this boy has been, this kid has obviously been, I think he’s been detained. He’s obviously covered in wounds.”
The caller then adds: “He says what happened to him is his fault.”
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A neighbor who spoke with PEOPLE on the condition of anonymity this week said families in Franke’s neighborhood were growing increasingly concerned about the wellbeing of the family’s two youngest children and the family’s two teenage daughters over the past year, explaining that Franke appeared to leave the teenagers alone at their home in Springville, Utah, for weeks on end while visiting Hildebrandt with her two youngest children.
“It’s like she went down to southern Utah [to Hildebrandt’s house] with the two youngest and then left the teenage girls home alone up here in Springville, which is about four or five hours away,” the neighbor, who has lived near the Franke family for about five years, told PEOPLE. “It’s odd.”
Some of Franke’s immediate family members – including her two sisters and her oldest daughter Shari – have expressed relief since her arrest last week. “Finally,” Shari wrote on Instagram alongside photos of police outside the family’s home.“Me and my family are so glad justice is being served,” Shari added in another social media post. “We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up.”
source: people.com
