The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, depression and mental illness, and suicidal ideation.

On August 30th, 2023, Shari Franke’s neighbor called to tell her the police were at her family home, ready to break down the door. It had been a year since Shari had spoken to her mother, and she immediately rushed to the house, terrified for her younger siblings’ safety. She and her neighbors had made numerous complaints to the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS), but the children had been left in the care of Shari’s mother, Ruby Franke, and Jodi Hildebrandt, the Frankes’ “very own cult leader” (xvi).

The house looked like “a war zone” with flashing lights and SWAT teams. Shari prayed for her siblings’ safety and pulled out her phone to upload a picture of the scene to Instagram. She thought, “This nightmare was born on social media—it should die there, too” (xviii).

Ruby Griffiths was born in Logan, Utah, in 1982. Her family were devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They lived in a tight-knit LDS community, and much of Ruby’s childhood was dedicated to faith and helping to raise her four younger siblings, responsibilities she navigated “with a sense of righteous purpose” (4).