This all culminated in Berchtolds first abduction of Jan Broberg in 1974. Not trying to sympathize with him, but just curious about his childhood. Between 1972 and 1976 he groomed Broberg and abducted her twice: once at the age of 12 and the second time when she was 14. Cookie Notice I wanted to play in the dirt and toss a football. According to Broberg, this is because she eventually filed for divorce from Berchtold at some point before the second kidnapping. Born in 23 Oct 1924 and died in 7 Dec 1980 Erie, Pennsylvania Robert F Berchtold After the first kidnapping, her parents were completely unaware of the sexual abuse. Its like a heavy coat that I wore and that was a burden for me until the day I decided I could take it off. The undeniably horrific saga of Jan Broberg's kidnapping at the hands of her neighbor Robert Berchtold not once but twice while she was 12 and 14, respectively, is honestly unlike any other. After learning about Robert Berchtolds vile actions, read the story of Jody Plauch and his father, who killed his abductor on live television. [It was] something that my dad did to every boy I ever dated. How involved were you with the making of the show? And I could hang it up. After the chaos of the events, she went on to share her story by speaking at various events and warning people of the dangers of others-even those who seem completely trustworthy. My sister Susan, who is an attorney, called his son Jimmy, an attorney. I found out from Jan that Bob died by suicide in 2005. Berchtold, played by Jake Lacy, did not just target Jan (Hendrix Yancey and Mckenna Grace), the series makes clear. As a result of his death, many feel that Robert Berchtold never fully faced justice for kidnapping Jan. Later episodes of A Friend of the Family (whose cast includes Colin Hanks) will cover one of the most astonishing facts about this case which is that Jan Broberg was kidnapped twice by Robert Berchtold within a two-year period. The Brobergs seemingly knew. Part of the problem is that Abducted in Plain Sight, a 90-minute movie in a field populated mostly with six- or eight-hour series, is focused entirely on telling a story rather than illuminating it. We couldnt get over that feeling that it was like he has the same kind of heart. Peacocks new drama miniseries, A Friend of the Family, is based on the real events of what happened to Robert Berchtold and the Broberg family in the 1970s. They were just extraordinary. Kidnap victim Jan Broberg, the subject of Netflix documentary Abducted in Plain Sight, said she was groomed by her kidnapper to believe UFOs and extra-terrestrial life were a plausible possibility. He said he would abuse his daughter, Jill, if I didn't comply. In particular, the fact that the Berchtolds and the Brobergs were all part of the same faith community seems to merit more analysis than it receives. She had that same kind of brightness. We never called em pedophiles; Im sure it was in the dictionary someplace, Agent Welsh says. Wish he had gotten help somehow if he indeed suffered terrible abuses himself. He told the Brobergs he needed to sleep in Jans bed. This is the story of Robert Berchtold, the predator at the center of Netflixs Abducted in Plain Sight who groomed and manipulated an entire family. It was released on October 2022 on Peacock and had its finale on November 10, where Jan Broberg appeared as Dr. Carr, the real therapist the Berborg worked with. She endured some of the worst imaginable psychological manipulation during her childhood. He drove her to California, where he enrolled her in an all-girls Catholic school claiming that she was his daughter. Now, Jan said, she sees that it was likely because she wasnt a little kid anymore. So I didn't feel wanted. "It happens before the actual incident occurs.". Berchtold didnt stop tracking you over the years. Which he adds, emphatically, They. Jake Lacy is a well-known American actor who has appeared on The Office, Girls, The White Lotus, Better with You, and I'm Dying Up Here. After all, as profiled in both Netflix's 'Abducted in Plain Sight' as well as Peacock's 'A . "Berchtold took her away in a motor home on the afternoon of Oct. 17, 1974," ABC News reported . I sat down. When Bob was 3 yrs old his father passed away and in 1939 his mother married Joseph Ersol Berchtold who raised Bob and . After Brobergs first kidnapping, B blackmailed her parents, Bob and Mary Ann, into signing affidavits claiming he had consent to bring their daughter to Mexico. Berchtold died in 2005, according to an obituary, which says he was a truck driver. The children in the clan considered Berchtold a second father, so much so that when he fled to Mexico with a 12-year-old Jan by his side in August 1974, the family was initially unwilling to. As far as the other scenes, I think I really have been able to [separate myself]. But . Photo: Courtesy Jan Broberg. and our The master manipulator from Utha has a lengthy history of having a particular lust for young females. The following two years, B kept in contact with Broberg, who said she felt she loved him. The film tells the story of Jan Broberg, who, as a child in the 1970s, was kidnapped twice and sexually abused by, Still, not everything that happened to Broberg and her family made it into the documentary. (2001), Listen toVFsLittle Gold MenPodcast for Unrivaled Awards-Season Coverage, 2023 Cond Nast. Click Manage settings for more information and to manage your choices. A recording began to tell her the story of how she was half-alien, and the extra-terrestrial species' survival depended on her to procreate with the male companion of their choosing. After a career of playing affable characters, the Emmy-nominated actor discusses his darkest turn yetand what made him feel okay playing a real-life bad guy. She was missing for several months, as he was able to trick her parents into believing that he wasn't aware of her whereabouts. No word and many, many years have gone by and, you know, can you imagine how awful it would be to discover that this was your dad? I know that theyve been invited to share their side [of the story], including his ex-wife, but theyve never wanted to talk to anybody. Robert Berchtold began taking the Broberg kids to school every day and took Jan on activities including horseriding and family vacations. He took us to science-fiction movies. Heidi Brewer on the documentary, A Friend of the Family: True Evil. It almost feels like this huge burden is lifted off my shoulders by having the story told right. In August 1976, Berchtold convinced Jan to leave her home and come with him, creating the second kidnapping. Bob and Mary Ann, Agent Welsh states, were told to cut off communication with the Berchtolds. I never saw a psychiatrist or a therapist. NetflixBerchtold and his family often had sleepovers with the Broberg children. A Friend Of The Family: What Happened To Kidnapper Robert Berchtold, Dahmer Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story Sparked An Important True Crime Debate, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story Can Solve 1 True Crime Show Problem, Criminal Minds: Evolution May Have Finally Set Up Spencer Reid's Return, The Last of Us Episode 8 Trailer Reveals Original Joel Actor's New Role, Disneys Double Show Cancellation Hints At Big Disney+ Changes. I had a fixation for Jan. One of the scenes in Abducted in Plain Sight that best encapsulates the strangeness of its story comes midway through, after the second time a teenager named Jan Broberg has been kidnapped by a close family friend. Berchtold, a frequent visitor to the Broberg household, orchestrated these heinous acts. It is made up of one wild story after another about 12-year-old Jan Broberg who went missing when a family friend, Robert "B" Berchtold, abducted her one sunny afternoon in 1974. S, Welcome to Love Like This?, a romance column where we, Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Ineye Komonibo, revisit some of the most romantic or not, in hindsig, Whether its the iconic early-aughts film Love Dont Cost a Thing or her 2021 Netflix hit Resort to Love, Christina Milian has solidified herself in th, This story contains spoilers for Netflixs You People. The series itself elegantly and subtly captures in a vivid way the crimes of Berchtold but also the naive air of the 1970s and the seeming inability to comprehend the disturbing nature of such predatory crimes. Jake Lacy as Bob Berchtold and Hendrix Yancey as a young Jan Broberg in Peacocks A Friend of the Family. . I was such a happy girl. Thats why I think the documentary was a first step in some ways because it really taught me what was still missing in the conversation. And before she and Berchtold were separated, he informed her that the aliens had contacted him with instructions for Jan not to speak of the mission or to have contact with any other men. Rian Johnson, Halle Berry, and More Share Their Inspiration, From the Archive:Who Stole the Oscars? That brainwashing, for me, was something that [lasted] a short period of time. But Berchtold did not just kidnap Broberg oncehe entrapped Brobergs religious parents in such an elaborate web of trust and shame that he managed to convince the family to drop the most serious charges against him, continue letting him spend time with their young daughter, andin the most shocking twist of allkidnap her a second time when she was 14. The "alien" voice, which Bob pretended was coming from the car itself, said that I should be listening to Bob and doing as he told me. Every episode of ABC's award-winning talk show "The View" is now available as a podcast! Due to the violence at her book tour, Jan Broberg filed a restraining order against Berchtold, which she was granted for life. He convinced Bob and Mary Ann that his subsequent treatment by a psychologist involved spending multiple nights in bed with Jan. Neither one of us was comfortable with him doing it, Mary Ann says, but it was his therapy., The parental behavior that Mary Ann and Bob freely confess to in Abducted in Plain Sight is so bewilderingly naive that the more salacious and peculiar events Borgman goes on to lay out are almost hard to grasp. October 5, 2022. Who would know? I entered into a homosexual relationship with her father in order to have access to Jan, Berchtold later admitted. Youve revisited this chapter of your life before in your books, documentary, and speaking engagements. If she did, he said, her dad would be killed, her sister Karen made blind, and Susan taken in her stead. Broberg was missing for roughly a month during the first kidnapping, during which she was sexually assaulted by B. As Jans 16th birthday approached, Berchtolds contact became less frequent. She never expressed any remorse for what happened, never apologized. It really was amazing. I looked it up and her name was Moanna and is now deceased. Oh my goodness, Mary Ann replies, in a steady, even tone, as if hes just told her that seasonal allergies might be worse than usual this summer, or that two people brought potato salads to the potluck. I did what I was supposed to do. I looked further and found that his real Dad died when he was 1, and his mother remarried to his Dad's elder brother (common to Mormon faith). Its something that happened to them or someone close to themthey had been groomed or conned or manipulated, and could relate. Berchtold killed himself in 2005, before being sentenced for simple assault, criminal trespassing, and disorderly conductcharges stemming from that conference where he showed up with the gun. He didn't have to: my mother let him take me. In 1974, he abducted the then 12-year-old, and once again two years later. I got to have meetings with the art department, the costume departmentI went to the location of the home they found. [Berchtold] was [close to another family] when he died. Jan and her mother, Mary-Ann Broberg, went on to do a tour for the book Stolen Innocence. Jill and I were very close, we were like sisters. He never brought her home. Every hand goes up. She also reveals how she managed to shake Bs grooming, what happened to B in later years, and whether her family has heard from any of the other Berchtolds since. It was through a course that I did that helped me see that you have the rest of your life. My mother had four biological sons and she wanted a girl, so she adopted me. The scene [in the second episode] when young Jan wakes up [in the RV for the first time] and hears the alien voices, that for me has been the hardest scene. Up until her kidnapping at the age of 12, Broberg describes her childhood in Pocatello as wonderful and idyllic. I feel that he cheated death, as he was never really held accountable for what he did. Almost a decade ago, the world was gripped with anxiety as it watched the legal proceedings against a young Se. They got confirmation on Nov. 11, 1976 102 days after Jan left her home. They didnt forgive him. By Nicky Idika. In 'A Friend of the Family,' the Berchtold's had three boys plus a girl Jasper, Joel, Jacob, and Jenny but in real life, they had four boys as well as a girl: Jerry, James, Joseph, Jeff, and Jill. By the time it hits October, November, December, by the beginning of the year when Caroline and Karen are dragging out of me, What did he do? I knew that that [the alien] part wasnt real. I think I realized from the friends that I had at the timeyou could just tell that their relationship with their father figureswas different to mine. I moved back to Texas to stay with one of my brothers, and my mother stayed in Utah. Oh dear. His brother Joe had even visited while Jan was there, and he noted that Robert, looked happier than hed ever been.. Jan Broberg, her sister Susan Broberg, and her mother Mary Ann Broberg in the documentary, "A Friend of the Family: True Evil." And so many adults knew, but nobody did anything. Robert Berchtold and Jan Broberg. "But I knew they had been groomed and manipulated too.". The abuse went on for seven-and-a-half years. NetflixJan Broberg works as an actress, known for roles in Everwood and Criminal Minds. Directed by Skye Borgman, Abducted in Plain Sight begins in the early 1970s in Pocatello, Idaho. Jen Broberg from "Abducted in Plain Sight" explains to "The View" co-hosts how Robert Birtchtold manipulated her her childhood and kidnappings, Feb. 25, 2019. Robert Berchtold was ultimately given a prison sentence, but rather than face life behind bars, he downed a bottle of heart medication with Kahla and milk and ended his life. He began flirting with Mary Ann, inviting her on a Church retreat in Logan, Utah. The only contact we had was one time when Berchtold was trying to defame my mom for writing our storyafter our first published book. Listen and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Spotify, Stitcher or the ABC News app. Around the same time, Berchtold went on a drive with Bob Broberg where he complained about his sex life with his wife and expressed that his needs werent being met. It all started in 1972 when Berchtold met the Broberg family at a church service in Pocatello, Idaho, and quickly became an esteemed family friend. They didnt want to know. By clicking Accept all you agree that Yahoo and our partners will process your personal information, and use technologies such as cookies, to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights, and product development. It wasnt until 30 years later, after Mary Ann had published her book Stolen Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story, that they heard from him again. The kids played together; the parents enjoyed each others company. Berchtold married Jan Broberg in Mazatln, and 35 days after the kidnapping, called his brother, Joe, asking him to contact Bob and Mary Ann to get their blessing to return home with Jan and be wed in the United States. Faith leaders knew. Hows your family?. His mother was still alive during the whole ordeal, she would have been 60 years old or so when he abducted Jan, Must have been hard for her witnessing this of her son. My mom was divorced, lonely and didn't want to be alone anymore. He, on some other level, was able to truly do what great actors do, which is to figure out what, What do I want? Known for roles in Everwood and Criminal Minds separate myself ], creating second. Its something that happened to them or someone close to themthey had been or. Death, as he was never really held accountable for what happened, never apologized, Google,. 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