When Truth Became Torture: The Jodi Hildebrandt Case

 In this episode of GBRLIFE Transmissions: Of Crimes, we examine the case of Jodi Hildebrandt, the licensed counselor behind Connexions whose “truth versus distortion” framework became a tool of control.

After a 12-year-old boy escaped from a home in Ivins, Utah, asking for water and help, investigators uncovered the abuse of two children and the disturbing belief system used to justify it. This episode looks beyond the headlines to explore Jodi’s background, her influence over Ruby Franke, the psychology of thought reform, religious trauma, moral absolutism, and what happens when obedience is treated as more important than conscience.

This is the story of how “truth” became torture.

Companion Blog Post: https://www.gbrlife.com/blog//humanity-is-the-point-religion-certainty-conscience

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Transcript

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Kaitlyn Southern Utah, August 30th, 2023, a quiet neighborhood in Ivins, Kaitlyn near the Red Rock terrain of Washington County. Kaitlyn A 12-year-old boy climbs out of a window. He's emaciated. Kaitlyn His wrists and ankles bear the marks of rope and duct tape. Kaitlyn He walks to the neighbor's door and asks for some water and for someone to call the police. Kaitlyn That single act of survival would unravel one of the most disturbing cases of the year. Kaitlyn A case built not only on cruelty, but on belief, on doctrine, Kaitlyn on a woman who had convinced herself and the people around her that abuse could Kaitlyn be love, but only if you call it correction. Kaitlyn Her name, Jodi Hildebrand. Kaitlyn Welcome to GBRLIFE Transmissions. I'm your host, Kaitlyn, and you're listening Kaitlyn to GBRLIFE of Crimes, where we explore not just what happened in crimes committed Kaitlyn by women, but why they happened and the psychology behind them. Kaitlyn Today, we're examining the case of Jodi Hildebrand, the licensed counselor who Kaitlyn built a spiritual empire around the concept of truth and then used that truth to torture children. Kaitlyn Because when investigators arrived at Jodi Hildebrand's home in Ivins, Kaitlyn Utah, in the summer of 2023, they found evidence of something almost impossible to comprehend. Kaitlyn If only it wasn't so heavily and thoroughly documented. Kaitlyn Two children, ages 12 and 9, had been living in conditions, a prosecutor would Kaitlyn later describe a concentration-like camp inside of the home. Kaitlyn They had been starved, beaten, bound, isolated, and forced into grueling physical Kaitlyn labor in triple-digit heat. Kaitlyn And the women responsible were not strangers to these children. Kaitlyn One of them was their own mother. The other was a woman who had built an entire Kaitlyn counseling business around the idea that she could heal families. Kaitlyn Both women believed that they were doing the necessary things. Kaitlyn Because the children were possessed, they believed suffering was repentance. Kaitlyn They believed God was on their side. This is the story of how a licensed therapist Kaitlyn weaponized faith, exploited vulnerability, and convinced herself and others, Kaitlyn that abuse was salvation. Kaitlyn Jodi Nan Hildebrandt was born on June 18th, 1968, the fourth of seven children Kaitlyn in a devout Latter-day Saint family in Arizona. Kaitlyn Her father was a United States Air Kaitlyn Force pilot, which means the family had structure baked into its bones. Kaitlyn Discipline, order, hierarchy, the expectation that you perform at a high level Kaitlyn and do not complain about it. Kaitlyn Her mother raised the children inside the LDS church, which in that era, Kaitlyn and to a significant degrees still today, place enormous weight on the spiritual Kaitlyn and moral responsibility of women inside the home. Kaitlyn You were the keeper of the family spiritual temperature. Kaitlyn You were responsible for the righteousness of your household. Kaitlyn This is a heavy thing to put on a woman. Kaitlyn It's even heavier to put it on a little girl who's still figuring out who she is. Kaitlyn And by outward measures, Jodi looked like a success story. Kaitlyn She was athletic, social, and talented. She played on her high school girls Kaitlyn basketball team in Arizona and was part of the 1986 to 1987 squad that finished with a perfect 28-0. Kaitlyn Record and captured the school's first state championship in girls basketball. She was a competitor. Kaitlyn She knew how to push herself. She knew how to win. But underneath that image Kaitlyn of achievement, something much more complicated was forming. Kaitlyn In one of her self-published books, Jodi wrote about being a young victim of sexual abuse. Kaitlyn She put it in print. She named it as part of her story, part of what shaped Kaitlyn her, part of what she had survived. Kaitlyn And she framed it the way so many survivors inside high-control religious communities Kaitlyn are taught to frame it, as something she had to move through and come out stronger Kaitlyn on the other side. But here's what that framing does. Kaitlyn And what it costs. When a child is abused in that form, inside a faith tradition Kaitlyn that defines purity as essential to spiritual worth, the wound is not just hurt, it confuses. Kaitlyn It contradicts everything the child has been told about the way the world works. Kaitlyn She has been taught that virtue protects you. Kaitlyn She has been taught that obedience and righteousness are armor against harm, Kaitlyn and then harm comes anyway, often from someone inside the community or someone Kaitlyn that is trusted within the community. Kaitlyn And the theology she has been handed has no real answer for it. Kaitlyn The church, the culture, and the family around her may love her, Kaitlyn but they are profoundly ill-equipped to hold what she's carrying. Kaitlyn So she learns to hold it herself. She learns to organize the wound into language Kaitlyn her community can accept. Kaitlyn She learns to be the girl who survived, not the girl who's still bleeding. Kaitlyn And she learns that value comes from strength, righteousness, and control. Kaitlyn And over years and decades, a person who learns to manage pain without processing it. Kaitlyn Can believe that control is the healing. Kaitlyn And then they start teaching other people to do the same. And that's the trajectory that Jodi was on. Kaitlyn Not as a monster, not yet. Just as a girl who was hurt, who learned to survive. Kaitlyn And who learned all the wrong lessons about what surviving actually means. Kaitlyn The psychological framework that best explains what happened inside Jodi's development Kaitlyn is the concept of religious trauma syndrome. Kaitlyn And this was identified by psychologist Dr. Marlene Winnell, Kaitlyn combined with what clinicians call moral injury. Kaitlyn They're not the same thing, but in her case, they operated together in a way Kaitlyn that would shape everything that followed. Kaitlyn Religious trauma syndrome describes the psychological damage that can result Kaitlyn from being raised inside a high-control religious environment, Kaitlyn one where the rules are absolute, where questioning is dangerous, Kaitlyn and where your worth is tied to your compliance with a very specific set of expectations. Kaitlyn People who carry that kind of damage often swing between two extremes. Kaitlyn They either abandon the framework entirely, or they double down on it with ferocity. Kaitlyn And that can frighten people outside the community. But moral injury, Kaitlyn that's something a little different. Kaitlyn Because it happens when your lived experience fundamentally contradicts the Kaitlyn moral framework that you've been given. Kaitlyn And you have no way to reconcile the two. A child who experiences abuse in the Kaitlyn sexual form inside a purity-centered faith tradition is not just hurt by the abuse itself. Kaitlyn She is hurt by the theological silence around it. She has been told that God protects the righteous. Kaitlyn She has been told that her virtue is her shield. And then something happens Kaitlyn to her that her entire belief system has no real language for. Kaitlyn The way many children in that position survive is by turning the wound inward, Kaitlyn by deciding consciously or not that the problem must be something about them Kaitlyn rather than something about the world, the community, or the person who harmed them. Kaitlyn Because if the framework is wrong, everything falls apart and a child cannot Kaitlyn afford for everything to fall apart. Kaitlyn A child needs the framework to hold. Over time, that internal turning can produce Kaitlyn a very rigid sense of moral categories. Kaitlyn Clean and unclean. Truthful and distorted. Healed and broken. Kaitlyn The rigidity is not cruelty, not at first. It's survival. Kaitlyn But survival mechanisms do not stay in their lane. They grow. They calcify. Kaitlyn And eventually, for Jodi, that rigidity would become the foundation of a belief Kaitlyn system that she imposed on other people's children. Kaitlyn So in 1996, Jodi graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in English Kaitlyn language and literature. Kaitlyn And then in 2003, she earned a master's of arts in educational psychology from the University of Utah. Kaitlyn Her thesis was titled Experiences of Latter-day Saints Women and How Their Culture Kaitlyn Influences Their Manifestations of Sexuality. Kaitlyn I know what you're thinking. You're not wrong. What a coincidence, Kaitlyn but it's not a coincidence. Kaitlyn She needed to heal more. This was a woman who at the graduate level was dissecting Kaitlyn the exact mechanism that had shaped and damaged her. Kaitlyn She was writing academically about how Mormon culture suppresses, Kaitlyn distorts, and controls women's experiences of their own bodies. Kaitlyn She had the intellectual framework to understand what had been done to her and to others like her. Kaitlyn She named the system. She studied it. Kaitlyn She built a 150-page academic argument about its effects, and she went right back into it. Kaitlyn That's not uncommon. I'm sure you're thinking, why would she go back? Kaitlyn But the intellectual understanding and emotional integration are not the same Kaitlyn thing. You can write a thesis about... Kaitlyn How a system harms people while still being fully captured by that system at Kaitlyn the level of identity and belonging. Kaitlyn For Jodi, the LDS community was not just her faith. Kaitlyn It was her social world, her professional network, her sense of self. Kaitlyn Leaving it was not a real option for her, so she stayed. Kaitlyn And she found a way to position herself as an authority within it. Kaitlyn And then in 2005, she became a licensed clinical mental health counselor in Utah. Kaitlyn And in 2007, she founded Connexions, a relationship and counseling business Kaitlyn built around a framework that she developed herself. Kaitlyn She called it truth versus distortion. The idea was that human suffering, Kaitlyn dysfunction in relationships, and struggles in families, all of it, Kaitlyn could be understood as the result of distorted thinking. Kaitlyn Distortions were lies, lies a person told themselves. Kaitlyn And the truth was the path back to God, to connection, to freedom. Kaitlyn And Jodi was the one who could tell you the difference. Connections offered Kaitlyn courses priced between $800 and $15,000. Kaitlyn It offered individual counseling, group sessions, parenting programs, and couples retreats. Kaitlyn It also created a peer accountability structure where clients reported their Kaitlyn distortions to each other. Kaitlyn They cataloged their failures and they submitted themselves to correction. Kaitlyn The diagnosis that Jodi used were not from the DSM. Kaitlyn And they were things like control addiction, lying addiction, Kaitlyn and lust addiction, categories that she invented. Kaitlyn And she dressed in clinical language and sold to people who were already vulnerable Kaitlyn and already looking for someone to tell them what was wrong and how to fix it. Kaitlyn And her reach was significant. She spoke at BYU women's conferences and wards Kaitlyn and stake events and corporate retreats. Kaitlyn She positioned herself as the moral and therapeutic authority inside a community Kaitlyn that was hungry for certainty. Kaitlyn In a faith tradition where doubt is dangerous and obedience is virtue. Kaitlyn A woman who could stand up and say with complete conviction that she knew the Kaitlyn difference between truth and distortion. Kaitlyn It was irresistible to people who were struggling and scared and desperate for Kaitlyn direction. But there were warning signs. Kaitlyn Early ones, documented ones, even ignored ones. But they were there. Kaitlyn And in 2012, her counseling license was placed on probation for 18 months after Kaitlyn it was discovered that she had disclosed confidential client information to Kaitlyn the LDS church leadership and to Brigham Young University. Kaitlyn She had told the church things that her clients had told her in therapy. Kaitlyn She treated client confidentiality not as a professional and legal obligation, Kaitlyn but as an obstacle to spiritual accountability. Kaitlyn In her framework, a client's sins were not private. Kaitlyn They were something the community had the right to know about and correct. That is not therapy. Kaitlyn That's surveillance in therapeutic clothing. Kaitlyn And that probation should have ended her. It did not. Kaitlyn She eventually surrendered the clinical license and simply relabeled herself Kaitlyn as a life coach, a title that requires no licensing, no oversight, Kaitlyn and no accountability to any professional body in Utah. Kaitlyn Thing is, she kept her clients, she kept her platform, and she kept speaking. Kaitlyn The community kept showing up, and the system led her. Kaitlyn And by the time Ruby Frank entered her life, Jodi had spent years building a Kaitlyn machine designed to identify vulnerability, frame it as spiritual failure, Kaitlyn and position herself as the only path to correction. Kaitlyn All she needed was someone with a large enough platform to amplify it. Kaitlyn Well, Ruby, Ruby had 4 million eyes watching her family because Ruby had built something rare. Kaitlyn Her YouTube channel, Eight Passengers, documented her family life in Utah with Kaitlyn her husband, Kevin, and their six children. Kaitlyn At its peak, it had around 2.5 million subscribers and over a billion views. Kaitlyn She was a Mormon mother presenting a vision of life that millions of people Kaitlyn found compelling and relatable and aspirational. Kaitlyn She wasn't just an influencer. She was a trusted voice in people's homes. Kaitlyn Jodi was initially brought in to counsel one of Frankie's children. Kaitlyn That was the foot in the door. Kaitlyn And from there, the relationship between the two women deepened with a speed Kaitlyn and intensity that should have alarmed everyone around them. Kaitlyn And it did, but it also didn't. Kaitlyn And by 2022, Jodi had moved into the home Ruby shared with her husband Kevin. Kaitlyn And within a short time, Kevin was pushed out. Kaitlyn Their marriage had already been under strain. And it was now being actively Kaitlyn dismantled by another person who had inserted herself into its center. Kaitlyn And this person declared herself the arborator of what was true and what was distorted within it. Kaitlyn Ruby's oldest daughter, Sherry, would later write in her memoir that after her Kaitlyn mother's arrest, she accessed Ruby's iCloud account and found text messages, Kaitlyn emails, and journal entries that confirmed for her, Kaitlyn that the relationship between Ruby and Jodi had crossed into the physical. Kaitlyn Two women who were presenting themselves publicly as spiritual guides and moral Kaitlyn authorities were in a relationship that neither one of them were disclosing Kaitlyn to the people around them, including the clients and families paying for their guidance. Kaitlyn Now, having a relationship in that sense is not an issue. Kaitlyn The issue was how they hid it and acted like the moral police. Kaitlyn And then the two of them launched a YouTube channel called Connexions. Kaitlyn Together. And they created a joint Instagram account called Moms of Truths. Kaitlyn They were offering parenting classes, relationship advice, and spiritual coaching. Kaitlyn They were building an audience that trusted them. And behind closed doors, Kaitlyn they were building their own relationship. Kaitlyn By early 2023, two of Ruby's youngest children, a 12-year-old boy and a 9-year-old Kaitlyn girl, were living under Jodi's direct supervision in their home, in Ivan's. Kaitlyn This was not disclosed to Kevin. Kaitlyn He did not consent to it. His children were placed in this woman's home, Kaitlyn and he did not know what was being done to them was methodical and sustained Kaitlyn and justified at every step by a theological framework that had an answer for everything. Kaitlyn The children were denied food and water on a regular basis. Kaitlyn They were denied beds. They were prohibited from interacting with other people Kaitlyn and hidden inside the home when anyone came to visit. Kaitlyn They were forced to carry loaded boxes upstairs and then downstairs repeatedly. Kaitlyn They were made to sit against the wall without a chair for hours at a time, Kaitlyn and they were taken outside in extreme summer heat, over 100 degrees, without shoes. Kaitlyn Without socks, and forced to perform physical labor for hours. Kaitlyn The 12-year-old, after a previous attempt to escape, was beaten and bound, Kaitlyn hand and foot with a rope. Kaitlyn The lacerations from that rope were deep enough to require medical treatment, Kaitlyn and the injuries on his wrists and ankles were treated not with proper wound Kaitlyn care, but with cayenne pepper, honey, and duct tape. Kaitlyn The nine-year-old girl was forced to jump into a cactus multiple times. Kaitlyn Not once, multiple times. Kaitlyn When the children cried in the desert heat and screamed for water and food and Kaitlyn begged for another family, Ruby wrote in her journal that this was a manipulative ploy. Kaitlyn She watched her own daughter suffer and concluded that the suffering was the Kaitlyn child's strategy, not her own disgusting behavior as a mother. Kaitlyn And that is what a closed ideological system does to a person. Kaitlyn It takes the most obvious truth in the room, that a child in agony is a child who needs help. Kaitlyn And it converts all of that into evidence that the child needs more correction. Kaitlyn Investigators later concluded that religious extremism was the driving motivation. Kaitlyn Both women appear to believe that the physical suffering was spiritual medicine. Kaitlyn They're not hiding from their own cruelty. they're calling it obedience. Kaitlyn And on August 30th, 2023, a 12 year old boy, Ruby's son, decided he had nothing left to lose. Kaitlyn He climbed out of a window. He was emaciated. His body carried the evidence Kaitlyn of months of what had been done to him. Kaitlyn His wrists and ankles were marked by rope and duct tape. Kaitlyn He walked to a neighbor's house and asked for water and for someone to call Kaitlyn the police. The neighbor made the 911 call. Kaitlyn He told the dispatcher that a 12-year-old boy had shown up at his front door. Kaitlyn Hungry and thirsty, with tape around his legs, and that he had some ideas that Kaitlyn there were problems at the house that this boy had come from. Kaitlyn When emergency services responded, they found the 9-year-old girl still inside Kaitlyn the home, also severely malnourished. Kaitlyn Both children were transported to the hospital, and the boy was treated for Kaitlyn severe malnourishment and deep lacerations from having been tied up with rope. Kaitlyn A search of the home produced evidence consistent with the injuries on his body. Kaitlyn Jodi and Ruby were arrested immediately that same day, and they were charged Kaitlyn with six counts of aggravated child abuse, a second-degree felony each. Kaitlyn YouTube banned both women from the platform immediately following the arrests, Kaitlyn and Jodi surrendered her counseling license pending the investigation. Kaitlyn Though we all know she wasn't using it at this point. And then came the jail phone calls. Kaitlyn In a recorded call from inside detention, Jodi compared herself to a biblical martyr. Kaitlyn She told whoever was on the other end of the line that she was going to prison Kaitlyn unjustly and that she was aware of the power of her example. Kaitlyn She was not reflecting and she was not reckoning. Kaitlyn She was performing for herself and for whoever would listen, Kaitlyn the role of righteousness in a woman who was allegedly persecuted for her faith. Kaitlyn The phone call is one of the most chilling documents in this case, Kaitlyn not because it reveals cruelty, because it reveals conviction. Kaitlyn This was not a woman who knew she had done something terrible and was trying to hide it. Kaitlyn This was a woman who could not understand why the world was punishing her for Kaitlyn doing what she believed God had asked her to do. Kaitlyn The Utah Division of Child and Family Services took the children into care. Kaitlyn Kevin Frank, their father who had been kept in the dark about where his children were. Kaitlyn And what was being done to them, began learning for the first time what his Kaitlyn youngest son and daughter had endured. Kaitlyn The case that had been building inside that quiet house in Ivins was now fully in view. Kaitlyn At this point, you're probably thinking there's going to be some crazy dramatic trial. Kaitlyn There wasn't. There were guilty pleas entered quietly in December of 2023 after Kaitlyn months of legal proceedings and an enormous amount of documentation that left Kaitlyn very little room for either woman to argue innocence. Kaitlyn And on December 18th, 2023, Ruby Frank pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated Kaitlyn child abuse, and two of the original six charges were dropped as part of her plea agreement. Kaitlyn And part of that agreement, Ruby committed to testify against Jodi if it came down to it. Kaitlyn And the Washington County Attorney's Office agreed to remain neutral at her Kaitlyn future parole hearings in exchange for her cooperation. Kaitlyn And nine days later, on December 27th, Jodi entered her own guilty plea to four Kaitlyn counts of aggravated child abuse. Kaitlyn Two charges were also dropped in her agreement as well. Kaitlyn Her willingness to plead guilty, she would later claim when she was getting Kaitlyn sentenced, was motivated by her desire to protect the children from having to testify. Kaitlyn But we all know that's just Jodi saying words that don't mean anything. Kaitlyn She claimed that she did not want them to relive the experience. Kaitlyn She framed her plea as an act of mercy towards the people that she had tortured, Kaitlyn like she still had some form of power over them. She needed that power. Kaitlyn And on February 20, 2024, both women appeared before the judge with the weight Kaitlyn of what had been documented and the plea agreements laid out in plain language Kaitlyn and what the prosecution had described in terms that had stayed with everyone who heard them. Kaitlyn The judge sentenced both women to four consecutive terms. Kaitlyn Of one to 15 years in prison each. Kaitlyn That is the maximum sentence available under Utah law for this type of offense. Kaitlyn Under Utah structure, consecutive terms cannot exceed 30 years in total. Kaitlyn And in these types of cases, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will determine Kaitlyn how long each woman actually serves. Kaitlyn But there is a minimum of four years before parole eligibility. Kaitlyn During the sentencing hearing, the judge spoke directly to Jody. Kaitlyn He told her that she had terrorized children. Kaitlyn He told her that her philosophy in dealing with them seemed detached from reality Kaitlyn and from any objective standard of decency or common sense at all. Kaitlyn He was not speaking in abstractions. He had read the evidence. Kaitlyn He had heard what she had done directly to the 9-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy. Kaitlyn And he was telling her to her face that it was indefensible. Kaitlyn Jodi's defense and Jodi's statement to the court, it was brief. Kaitlyn She said she desired for the children to heal physically and emotionally. Kaitlyn She said one reason that she had not gone to trial, and that's where she had Kaitlyn stated that she didn't want the children to relive the experience, Kaitlyn so she didn't want to go to trial. Kaitlyn She spoke in language of care and protection, the same language that she had Kaitlyn always used, even while describing what she had done to the children in her Kaitlyn own care, showing little to no remorse throughout the proceedings, and constantly Kaitlyn repositioned herself as the victim and the children as the perpetrators. Kaitlyn Even in the moment of her own sentencing, the ideology, it was intact. Kaitlyn Ruby, on the other hand, wept. She told the court that her charges were just... Kaitlyn And that they offered safety to her family and accountability to the public. Kaitlyn Whether that represented genuine reckoning or the beginning of separation from Kaitlyn Jodi, that's only something Ruby herself can truly answer. Kaitlyn Either way, both women are currently serving their sentences in Utah State Correctional Kaitlyn Facility in Salt Lake City. Kaitlyn Their first parole hearings are scheduled for this year, December of 2026. Kaitlyn There hasn't been any formal forensic psychological evaluation of Jodi, Kaitlyn at least that's been released publicly, and no specific DSM diagnosis was ever Kaitlyn entered into the court record. Kaitlyn What the court records and plea agreements and documented evidence gives us Kaitlyn is a behavioral profile, and that profile is more instructive than a label. Kaitlyn Across your career, relationships, methods, and response to arrests. Kaitlyn Jodi demonstrated a pattern of rigid moral absolutism, Kaitlyn profound absence of empathy for the suffering that she caused, Kaitlyn and she showed consistent externalization of responsibility and a fluent use Kaitlyn of the ideological and therapeutic language to justify cruelty. Kaitlyn That combination maps onto what psychologist Robert Lifton identifies as thought Kaitlyn reform, The systematic process by which a worldview is narrowed until dissent becomes impossible. Kaitlyn Every piece of contrary evidence is absorbed and reinterpreted by the system Kaitlyn rather than allowing it to be challenged. Kaitlyn Lifton identified eight criteria for thought reform environments. Sacred science. Kaitlyn Loading the language. Demand for purity. Confession. Kaitlyn Mystical manipulation. Doctrine over person. dispensing of existence and control. Kaitlyn Connexions, as a system, reflected nearly all of them. Kaitlyn The truth-versus-distortion framework was a sacred science, a closed loop of Kaitlyn logic that could not be questioned from the inside because questioning itself... Kaitlyn Was defined as distortion. The specialized vocabulary that Jodi taught, Kaitlyn the categories of addiction that she invented, and the concept of demonic possession Kaitlyn as an explanation for children's behavior were all forms of language loading. Kaitlyn They replaced ordinary thinking with this ideological shorthand. Kaitlyn What this means in practice is that Jodi was not simply a therapist who went bad. Kaitlyn She was functioning, and I'm sure you've guessed it this whole time, Kaitlyn as a cult leader who had a therapy license, and usually that's how it begins. Kaitlyn The license gives access and credibility, but the actual operating system was Kaitlyn something else entirely. Kaitlyn It was a closed belief structure with Jodi as the center, and everyone who came Kaitlyn into contact with it was evaluated with a single question. Kaitlyn Are you aligned with Jodi or are you distorting. Kaitlyn And children who, by developmental definition, cannot conform to a rigid ideology, Kaitlyn at least in the standard way that adults can, were always going to fail that test. Kaitlyn And in Jodi's system, failure meant possession, and possession meant correction, Kaitlyn and correction could be anything she decided it needed to be. Kaitlyn The moralization of abuse is one of the most damaging things that can be done Kaitlyn to a child because it does not just hurt the body. Kaitlyn It corrupts the child's relationship with their own experience. Kaitlyn A child who is starved and then told they're distorting when they cry for food, Kaitlyn this does not simply show their suffering physically. Kaitlyn They begin to believe their hunger is a moral failure, that their pain is evidence of their own evil. Kaitlyn And they don't understand why. The developing conscious gets recruited into Kaitlyn the abuse. Shame becomes the child's inner voice. Kaitlyn Self-blame becomes the filters through which they understand everything that is happening to them. Kaitlyn The long-term psychological impact of that kind of conditioning is significant, Kaitlyn and it's associated with complex trauma presentations, including. Kaitlyn Disrupted attachment and chronic shame and difficulties with emotional regulation, Kaitlyn disassociation, and persistent depression. Kaitlyn These children were not just hurt. They were taught to cooperate with being hurt. Kaitlyn And the recovery from that is different and harder than the recovery from the physical injury alone. Kaitlyn And what makes Jodi's case especially important to examine is precisely what Kaitlyn makes it unusual. Jodi was not a woman in crisis. Kaitlyn She was not a woman in poverty, addiction, or desperation. Kaitlyn She was educated, had her credentials. socially integrated, and professionally successful. Kaitlyn She had studied the very psychological mechanisms she was using against vulnerable Kaitlyn people. She understood them academically. Kaitlyn And that understanding did not protect anyone. Kaitlyn Instead, it gave her a more sophisticated vocabulary for harm. Kaitlyn Even inside the prison, according to the filmmaker behind Netflix documentary Kaitlyn about her case, Jodi has continued seeking out women with vulnerabilities, Kaitlyn and she continues to try to counsel and coach them. Kaitlyn She's identifying people who are struggling, people in addiction, Kaitlyn people in pain, and positioning herself as someone who can help them. She hasn't stopped. Kaitlyn And prison is full of that. Jodi's case is uncomfortable in ways that go beyond Kaitlyn the facts of abuse itself, although the facts here are horrifying. Kaitlyn But what this case asks us to sit with is something harder than horror. Kaitlyn It asks us to look at the systems that made her possible and amplified her and Kaitlyn protected her long past the point when they should have stopped and then asked. Kaitlyn What they were willing to do differently. She violated client confidentiality Kaitlyn in 2012, a decade before all of this. And she only received probation. Kaitlyn And then she pivoted herself to a life coach. Kaitlyn And the regulatory system had no mechanism to stop her. Kaitlyn And she went on speaking at BYU conferences and church events and corporate retreats. Kaitlyn The community that should have lost trust in her didn't because she was speaking their language. Kaitlyn She was telling them what they already believed in a more organized and certain Kaitlyn way that they hadn't really heard before but also had heard often. Kaitlyn And she had high-ranking LDS church leaders meet her in May and June of 2023, Kaitlyn the same months her crimes were actively occurring. Kaitlyn There is evidence that the community's embrace of her as moral authority made Kaitlyn it harder for the people around her to see who she actually was as clear as possible. Kaitlyn And Ruby had over 2 million subscribers watching her family. Kaitlyn The comments section had raised Kaitlyn concerns about her parenting for years and petitions had been filed. Kaitlyn The authorities had been contacted prior to all of that. But the system was so slow to respond. Kaitlyn And the children paid the price for that slowness. Kaitlyn And then there's the question that may be the hardest one of all. Kaitlyn What do we do with a woman who genuinely believes she was right? Kaitlyn The question of culpability is legally resolved. She pleaded guilty. Kaitlyn She is serving her sentence. but she's not serving a moral sentence because. Kaitlyn She's continuing to do exactly what she did out in the world. Kaitlyn This time, it's just in prison, which shows that she may do this again when she's released. Kaitlyn Her first parole hearing is in December of 2026. What if she just finds a new audience? Kaitlyn Either way, the children in this story are safe and they're with their father. Kaitlyn Ruby and Kevin divorced, and this was finalized in March of 2025. Kaitlyn He's doing everything he can to help his children heal. And they deserve to do that in peace. Kaitlyn They deserve a world that takes seriously the question of how someone like Jodi Kaitlyn was ever allowed to get close to them in the first place. Kaitlyn We talk a lot in true crime about monsters, about evil, about things that are unexplainable. Kaitlyn But Jodi is actually very easy to explain because she's the product of unaddressed Kaitlyn trauma and a system that rewarded certainty over compassion and a community Kaitlyn that chose comfort over accountability Kaitlyn and a regulatory structure with enough gaps to drive a theology through it. Kaitlyn She's explainable, but that's exactly why she should terrify us. Kaitlyn This has been GBRLIFE, part of GBRLIFE Transmissions, Kaitlyn and I'm your host, Kaitlyn, reminding you that understanding the darkness helps Kaitlyn us appreciate the light. Kaitlyn Join me next time as we uncover another case that challenges everything we thought Kaitlyn we knew about the criminal mind. Kaitlyn Hey, it's Kaitlyn. If you stayed this long, a big thank you. Kaitlyn And if you could do one more thing, and like and subscribe every time you listen Kaitlyn to GBR Live Transmissions, that would mean the world. Kaitlyn And it would really help GBRLIFE Transmissions grow. Also, don't forget to Kaitlyn check out the reviews, blogs, and so much more on gbrlife.com. Kaitlyn Can't wait to see you there.