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. She has been writing about entertainment news since she started writing journalistically in high school. So that I get to be the doctor. Truth is, you don't really want to know what happens to Robert Berchtold after the events of the series. I think people get [now how] we were so close to the [Berchtold] family.. 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. It wasnt about Mary Ann. My dad isnt dead. You can live in the 90%, which is the rest of your life, and be in charge. 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. Both parents claimed in the documentary that if they didnt do this, B would expose a sex act that Bob and B engaged in prior to the kidnapping. When the BerchtoldsGail, Robert and their five childrenmoved next door, the husbands bonded over being business and family men (so Bob Broberg said), the wives naturally gravitated to each. Im so glad youve found relief. 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 this 10% experience, you cant let it ruin the rest of your life. 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. Thats really my mantra: Have a happy childhood at any and every age. Lets figure it out. Hows your family?. I felt she had dismissed me. Mary Ann was involved in an eight-month affair with B post kidnapping while she was still married to Bob, even though she knew he was her daughters abductor. Susan called him and said, Your father said that youre his attorney. He said, I would never represent my father. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. I never saw a psychiatrist or a therapist. 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. He told her she had been abducted by aliens and that if she didn't have his baby, her sister would go blind and her father would be murdered. Privacy Policy. I was working on myself. Berchtold eventually moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he bought a family fun center. If you can [watch] and go, That would never happen to me. If Jan wasnt pregnant and Susan refused to take Jans place, she was going to shoot Susan and then herself. Warning: Contains SPOILERS for A Friend of the Family. From then on, the abuse happened dailywhenever he had the chance. Average Age & Life Expectancy Robert E Berchtold lived 5 years shorter than the average Berchtold family member when he died at the age of 69. These guys were crazy and those stupid people, then we failed. I didn't know the abuse was wrong until I was 12 or 13. Robert Ersol "Bob" Berchtold . Oh dear. Jake Lacy as Bob Berchtold and Hendrix Yancey as a young Jan Broberg in Peacocks A Friend of the Family. Heidi Brewer met Broberg while filming this documentary. A staff writer for All That's Interesting, Austin Harvey has also had work published with Discover Magazine, Giddy, and Lucid covering topics on mental health, sexual health, history, and sociology. The hope for Abducted in Plain Sight, Borgman and Jan Broberg Felt have both said, is that it helps end the culture of silence around sexual abuse and assault. She was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by her neighbor and family friend Robert "B." Berchtold when she was 12 and again when she was 14. 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. 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. It chronicles the peculiar kidnapping case of Jan Broberg, an Idaho. I really did find a way to hang up that very heavy coat of abuse and have it be outside of me. Robert Berchtold: Who Was He? Its too painful for them to realize that they allowed that to happen 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 Brobergs were going to call the police until Gail Berchtold, Roberts wife, asked them not to. I cant imagine being in their shoes either. I remember the first time I really understood what love was or at least what a nine-year-old could understand as romantic love. And the Broberg family, confessional to a fault, are primed more for honesty than for self-inspection. He abducts her again in 1976, after she has . He was a salesman and my mother had contacted him about purchasing a traveling franchise. Things That Didnt Make It Into Abducted In Plain Sight, Over the decades, popular culture has created dominant narratives of the Dominican Republic that are most often synonymous with poverty, crime, or state vi, This story contains spoilers for Ant-Man: Quantumania. That is the only reason we told our story. When Brobergwas 12, Robert Berchtold kidnapped her and played a recording that told that she was half-alien, and that she had to have a baby with Berchtold by the time she was 16 to save the extra-terrestrial species]. With the emotional adventure of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever closing out the controversial fourth, Minor spoilers ahead. 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. The day after the series premiered, Broberg says she feels huge relief that a more complete version of the story is available. We couldnt get over that feeling that it was like he has the same kind of heart. "Berchtold took her away in a motor home on the afternoon of Oct. 17, 1974," ABC News reported . his) demands if she wanted her family to stay safe. NetflixMary Ann Broberg described Berchtold as having a charisma that Bob didnt possess.. In the doc, Brobergs recount the emotional & sexual manipulation, insidious schemes & depraved actions that allowed church-going Idaho family to fall under the spell of a sociopathic neighbor, who would stop at nothing to be with their daughter. Robert kidnapped Jan Broberg, who was only 12 years old girl. 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. [They made it] look like my childhood home. Between 1972 and 1976, he eventually kidnapped and wed her. Its something that happened to them or someone close to themthey had been groomed or conned or manipulated, and could relate. Although he ruined Jan's childhood, Berchtold never fully paid for his vile crimes against Jan Broberg in prison. Jan had two younger. It is a lifelong process. 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. Thats the only truly contact that ever has happened. Click Manage settings for more information and to manage your choices. This all culminated in Berchtolds first abduction of Jan Broberg in 1974. But I know the abuse impacted my relationships. After Jan threatened to find her own way there, Mary Ann bought her a plane ticket and sent her to Berchtold. The movie includes pictures Berchtold took of Jan as a 12-year-old girl, all straw-colored hair, wide eyes, and freckles. Jan begged her parents to let her work with Berchtold for the summer. He found my apartment and called my apartment. I entered into a homosexual relationship with her father in order to have access to Jan, Berchtold later admitted. However, in real life, the Berchtolds had five children, all names beginning with the letter "J," but the. 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. Im still human. 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. 2 . My little sisters not missing. For viewers watching at home, though, judging the Brobergs is easier, even if its hard to ever feel fully informed, or to believe that the family knew what they were getting into by airing everything so publicly. The nine-episode series, which premiered this week, retells the sagathis time making it clear how a family like the Brobergs could have let Berchtold (plus his wife and young children) into their lives and continue to give the neighbor second chances. 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. I was 10 and she was 12. Jamie Lee Curtis Is Both Weepy and Giddy About Her First Oscar Nomination. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Robert Berchtold. Netflix first recounted the harrowing story in the 2019 documentary Abducted in . Watch it on Netflix. It was a terrifying thought, Jan said. You have to have this baby by your 16th birthday. All of that brainwashingI knew that wasnt real when I [later interacted with boys] and had that moment of going, Okay, I havent been vaporized. 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. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. I met my ex-husband and we had kids. He is survived by his wife, Deanna; sons, Jerry, James, Joseph, According to his obituary: "Robert Ersol Berchtold, 69, of Logandale, died Nov. 11, 2005. Everybody gets hurt. And did that give you some sort of relief or closure? It was so shockingly hard for me. When Broberg was 12, Robert Berchtold kidnapped her and played a recording that told that she was half-alien, and that she had to have a baby with Berchtold by the time she was 16 to save the. I mean, its pretty tough, I feel bad for all of them, she said. Broberg, now. 'Abducted in Plain Sight' on Netflix tells the story of Jan Broberg, a girl who is kidnapped by a family friend named Robert "B" Berchtold in the 1970s. In one, her underwear is clearly visible. But at the time, she said, they didnt suspect she had been kidnapped they thought she and Berchtold might have been in a car accident. I wanted this for a long timeto tell the story in a way that would affect the most change and the most understanding so that people could avoid this happening in their own life or help any traumatized young person get to a healthy, happy place. In August 1976, Berchtold convinced Jan to leave her home and come with him, creating the second kidnapping. He found me when I lived in Florida, working for Disney World. When Robert Berchtold first moved to town he became extremely close with the Broberg family, but as time went on it became clear that Berchtolds end goal was to get to Jan Broberg. His brother Joe had even visited while Jan was there, and he noted that Robert, looked happier than hed ever been.. 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. As far as the other scenes, I think I really have been able to [separate myself]. In the doc, he said he was sexually abused by the "help", didn't feel part of the new family (mother had other children to new husband) and slept in a separate bunkhouse. There's somebody else who's doing it.". It's hard to say what impact the abuse had on my life. Berchtold would show up to the events and pass out fliers denying anything the Brobergs had to say about him. You can change your choices at any time by visiting your privacy controls. Let me inform you that her husband Robert Berchtold was behind the kidnapping of Jan Broberg Felt in the 1970s when she was just 12 years old. He didn't have to: my mother let him take me. Jan, now 56,. 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. It didn't take long before Bob had his own key and could come and go as he pleased. Up until her kidnapping at the age of 12, Broberg describes her childhood in Pocatello as wonderful and idyllic. Peacock's A Friend of the Family sent social media into a frenzy because of its shocking depiction of Jan Broberg's life. 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. Its a surreal experience. By 2003, Jan Broberg had tried her best to move on. Yet only 10 minutes of my story made the documentary. I was so involved and so consulted and so cared for. She brought him to the house for dinner and he seemed nice enough. He kidnapped her. Much of the outrage targets Jans parents, who participated fully in the documentary, and whose behavior in response to Berchtolds prolonged abuse of their daughter strikes many viewers as shockingly inadequate at best. It unpacks too many bizarre events in a short time frame to allow for much additional analysis. It was sad that I didnt know some of the things that I know now. I was adopted. I never felt like I needed to be validated. I could see if the lining was coming out or if I really felt like I needed to put it back on because I needed somebodys empathy or sympathy for what happened to me. 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. Jan Broberg went on to be the subject of her mothers retelling of her story, Stolen Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story and was part of the 2019 Netflix true-crime documentary Abducted in Plain Sight, detailing the twisted affair. Every hand goes up. Jans family waited several days before notifying the FBI, and even after doing so were reluctant to accept that Robert Berchtold had actually done anything wrong. Her saga was admittedly complicated: When she was 12 and living in Idaho in the 1970s, a close family friend and neighbor who was decades older, Bob Berchtold, drove off with her one day, having. Bob kidnapped Jan twice, whereas he never kidnapped me. And the sad thing is, unfortunately, you're getting attention from somebody. Grace M. Galarraga is a writer based out of Southern California. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. On the day that I was filmingIm on set and I have a little scene with ColinIm standing there, talking to those two [actors] and all of a sudden, Colin sticks his hand out to Nick and he says, Hello, doctor. And I looked at him and I went, Oh, my gosh, how did you know? [That was one of] my dads funny phrases. I wasn't there for Bob's sentencing. 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