Berchtold continually raped Jan as he drove his motorhome to Mexico, where the minimum age requirement for marriage was only 12 years old. Jake Lacy Biography. It was an interesting thing. Vanity Fair: Your story is so complicated, but the show does a great job at laying out this elaborate abduction plan beat by beat to show how Berchtold targeted your whole family. That forever changed my DNA. Berchtold and his family often had sleepovers with the Broberg children. Robert Berchtold sexually abused Jan Broberg for several years and manipulated her and her family. 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. Now I wont be able to sleep.. I really see those things as being almost separate. How are you, Susan? But what kind of sexual abuse did he go through? NetflixBerchtold and his family often had sleepovers with the Broberg children. 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. This is happening everywhere right now in 2022. They got confirmation on Nov. 11, 1976 102 days after Jan left her home. We'll never know. 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. My sister Susan, who is an attorney, called his son Jimmy, an attorney. From then on, the abuse happened dailywhenever he had the chance. On Oct. 17, 1974, Robert Berchtold picked up his young neighbor Jan Broberg from her piano lessons in Pocatello, Idaho, so he could, he claimed, take her horseback riding. "I had my moments of being angry and upset," Broberg says about resentment towards her parents. He anesthetized her with sleeping pills and raped the girl up to maybe 200 times. Yet only 10 minutes of my story made the documentary. In hindsight, I don't think Bob would ever have done anything to Jill. But she called the police. Jan Broberg: I was very involved. According to his obituary: "Robert Ersol Berchtold, 69, of Logandale, died Nov. 11, 2005. In 1976, he spent 10 days in jail after accepting a plea deal based on the first kidnapping, then was sentenced to a mental facility for 6 months. Which is how those next four years, as you see in the series, unfold, because I really did think [the aliens] would take [my sister] if I didnt do the mission. After Robert befriended Bob Broberg and his wife, Mary Ann Broberg, he quickly infiltrated their family unit and cozied up to their young daughter, Jan Broberg. Broberg woke up strapped to a bed in an unidentifiable confined space that she learned years later was B's mobile home. I knew what he was doing, Bob said. And did that give you some sort of relief or closure? It happened to my whole family, this man was a master and my parents saved my life. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. He said he wanted me to take a vitamin. We watched Planet of the Apes on TV. They didnt have to do that, but they did. March 21, 2004 -- Actress Jan Broberg Felt says her childhood abductor returned when she decided to share her strange and frightening story with the world. The new series also delves into how said abductor Robert "B" Berchtold manipulated the family.. And if you saw the 2017 true-crime documentary Abducted in Plain Sight, you know that Jan's father, the late Bob Broberg (who . "Everybody loved him.". She endured some of the worst imaginable psychological manipulation during her childhood. It didn't take long before Bob had his own key and could come and go as he pleased. He found me at college. So I didn't feel wanted. I didnt know people wouldnt get it. Taylor Swifts opening act on her debut album, Trumps Relationship With Jared and Ivanka. If she failed to do this, the aliens warned, her sister Susan would be chosen instead, and harm would come to the rest of her family. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. By Nicky Idika. I could dig into the pockets. The new Netflix documentary Abducted in Plain Sight is a bewildering account of one girls kidnapping by a family friend. But I could see Bob playing the tape, so I didn't believe him. 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. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. He would mention it every once in a whilethat I was specialbut he never mentioned that I needed to have a child to save some race or anything like that. They didn't find out about the alien mission B convinced their daughter of until 1978 after she turned 16. I don't believe she had a relationship with Bob but I think she really liked him and was hoping for more. This all culminated in Berchtolds first abduction of Jan Broberg in 1974. We will find the advocacy and the legal ways to put serial predators behind bars. Oh. Bob kidnapped Jan twice, whereas he never kidnapped me. I was 9 years old when I first met Bob in 1978. Its a surreal experience. Through therapy, she learned to forgive them for not stopping the years of abuse she endured from B. 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 really did find a way to hang up that very heavy coat of abuse and have it be outside of me. Berchtold made it clear to Jan that she couldnt talk about any of their sexual encounters to anyone, and she complied since she trusted him. Ive watched it several times nowThat has consistently been the one [that bothered me]. Robert Hites Berchtold, 90, of Beaver Falls, formerly of New Brighton, died Thursday, September 10, 2020, in Providence Care Center. Because my happy, carefree world changed in an instantand that was the instant when I woke up with my arms and my feet restrained in a dark room and that voice, that was so terrifying. She worked as an actress and went on to star in several television shows and movies, such as the canceled show Everwood. Robert Berchtold and Jan Broberg. And if youre not happy and you need medication or you need more talk therapyyou should get what you need so you can heal. Berchtold was born on February 7, 1936 in Tremonton, Utah. He told the Brobergs he needed to sleep in Jans bed. 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. And I could hang it up. In his February 11 special, the comedian reflects on the loss of his partner, Lynn Shelton, while also tackling hot-button issues like abortion and fascism. That companion was B, and the mission was to have a child with him before Broberg turned 16 years old. The film implies that the Broberg parents were both brainwashed and manipulated by Berchtold, which accounts for some of their actions, but not nearly all. 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. Berchtolds wife, Gail, is often referenced in the beginning of. Abducted in Plain Sight was first released as a documentary in 2017 with the title Forever B, but its gained rather more traction this month after being added to Netflixs true-crime library. Find out more about how we use your information in our privacy policy and cookie policy. [Id get] phone calls and other scares. He would pick me up from school and take me to his place, his motor home, our place or just in the car in the middle of nowhere. So that I get to be the doctor. With her mother, she wrote a book, "Stolen Innocence," about her experiences. Berchtold allegedly raped Broberg hundreds of times. How was that? [My sister] Karen isnt blind. 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. It almost feels like this huge burden is lifted off my shoulders by having the story told right. "Many harmed by child sexual assault. You mentioned hearing from another woman who had been abused by Berchtold. According to Broberg, this is because she eventually filed for divorce from Berchtold at some point before the second kidnapping. 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. Looking back as an adult, Jan Broberg has called Berchtold a master manipulator. No one in her family could see it at the time, but Robert Berchtold had started grooming the family the moment they met. The recording was a message from two aliens named Zeta and Zethra, telling Jan that she was half alien and needed to complete a mission to have a baby with Berchtold before her 16th birthday. In actuality, though, Jan explained that Berchtold had just been careful. [It was] something that my dad did to every boy I ever dated. In October 1974, Berchtold offered to pick Jan up from her piano lesson and take her horseback riding. The following two years, B kept in contact with Broberg, who said she felt she loved him. He was a salesman and my mother had contacted him about purchasing a traveling franchise. The Peacock drama miniseries A Friend of the Family shows how Jan Broberg was kidnapped twice when she was a child after her abductor ingratiated himself with her parents. Yet, despite the wealth of content, many viewers continue to have questions over exactly what happened to Robert Berchtold after the traumatic events. I actually got this little message [from a woman who was] the little girl he abused right after me. I was sitting on the couch, in my pajamas, flicking through Netflix and trying to find something to watch, when I came across the documentary Abducted in Plain Sight and the face of Robert Berchtold: the man who destroyed my childhood. That event would set off a series of events for a series of tragic events in the life of Jan Broberg, which she discussed in the documentary Abducted in Plain Sight as well as . Some people know him as Robert or "B," but he was Bob or Dad to me. Watch it on Netflix. Jan Broberg whose story about being kidnapped by her neighbor Bob Berchtold inspired Peacock's "A Friend of the Family" has written a new book about the experience, with her mother MaryAnn. He explained to Bob that he had a traumatic childhood, including having sex with an aunt when he was four. Peacock's A Friend of the Family sent social media into a frenzy because of its shocking depiction of Jan Broberg's life. And how will I manipulate everybody in the room [while trying to get it]?. That doesnt stop me anymore. The details that follow spiral quickly from strange to appalling. My mother had four biological sons and she wanted a girl, so she adopted me. . I mean, Ive been married and divorced a number of times. 2 . Nonetheless Berchtold, even after his conviction and his briefest of interludes in prison, was able not only to be around children, but also to purchase and run a family-fun center as a business. My dad isnt dead. With the emotional adventure of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever closing out the controversial fourth, Minor spoilers ahead. Hows your family?. Robert Ersol Berchtold, 69, of Logandale, died Nov. 11, 2005. I already knew of Jan, before I was an adult, because Bob had talked about her. Vanity Fairs 2023 Hollywood Issue Welcomes You to the After-Party of Our Dreams, Inside the New Rights Next Frontier:The American West, The Strange, Sexually Charged Genesis of Gloria Swansons Legendary Memoir, The One Thingthe Royal Family Never Travels Without: Blood, NetflixsMurdaugh Murders Team Say Theyve Uncovered New Crimes, Trumps Relationship With Jared and Ivanka Is About to Get a Lot More Awkward, The Cringey Sexcapades of a Horny Billionaire, What Is Cinema? I think that's the sick thing, when you come from a family that walks past and ignores you; it's attention, good or bad. Ive met her and talked to her. He'd told me that he had slept with her, that he had kidnapped her a couple of times, and that he loved her very much. The affidavits that they signed, they retracted four days later. Does anyone else know anything about his childhood? But this time you were seeing an actor bring your abuser to life, witnessing two actors portray you during this traumatic period, and seeing actors portray your family. I was 10 and she was 12. The disturbing Netlifx documentary, Abducted in Plain Sight details Berchtold abducting Broberg when she was 12 years old. In one, her underwear is clearly visible. Berchtold vanished from their lives, but managed to avoid going to prison. Was that after the documentary came out? He turned sideways and you could almost see him reaching back to start a tape recorder. [The older sister] came to the conference when he showed up with the gun. Some viewers hit the roof, wondering how any parent could let their kid be taken by the same person twice. The [A Friend of the Family team] were sensitiveThey wanted it to be told in an honest, complete, and realistic way. Berchtold died in 2005, according to an obituary, which says he was a truck driver. Without spoiling the most shocking ones, they involve multiple confessions of extramarital sexual relationships, as well as an elaborate plot involving aliens that Berchtold used to prey on Jan. Berchtold was arrested for kidnapping, but the Brobergs, under duress, withdrew their most serious charges. Robert Berchtold Wikipedia Bio. At the same time, Berchtold had contrived a story about taking Jan on vacation but getting stuck in Mexico, unable to return unless they got married. He abducts her again in 1976, after she has . I kept it all to myself and kept going," she writes. Berchtold eventually moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he bought a family fun center. He was a truck driver and served in the U.S. Army . 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