In a candid conversation, Broberg tells VF about the surreal experience of seeing her abuser brought to life again. NetflixBerchtold and his family often had sleepovers with the Broberg children. The 56-year-old actress, who was abducted, raped and abused by family friend Robert Berchtold in the 70s, Speaking to ET Online, Jan explained how her attacker didn't lie with her under the . 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. Her 16th birthday came and went, and when she woke up the next morning to see that everything was fine, she knew the aliens werent real. As she headed home, Berchtold called Bob and told him of their affair. Robert Berchtold passed away at age 69 years old on November 11, 2005. When I went to the premiere with my sisters and mother, they all got to meet Colin Hanks and spent some time with him, a little more than just a hello. Before we moved to Salt Lake City, my mother had been so overprotective of me that I wasn't allowed to play in the front yard by myself. We think hes in the parking lot. Im like, What? 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. I was interviewed for two days for the documentaryI spoke with Jan for hours and then the following day I spent hours being interviewed by the journalist. Berchtold vanished from their lives, but managed to avoid going to prison. I kept it all to myself and kept going," she writes. Her sons were quite a bit older than methe youngest was seven or eight years older than meand I don't remember them being in the house much. I hope theyre doing okay, especially his kids. According to Newsweek, Jan Broberg grew up to become an actress and an advocate for victims of childhood sexual abuse. Oh dear. On Aug. 10, 1976, she disappeared again. 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. In time, the Broberg children took to calling Robert Berchtold B, and Jan had started to think of him as a second father. I was adopted. I moved back to Texas to stay with one of my brothers, and my mother stayed in Utah. Cookie Notice Idaho, who quickly become close pals with their new neighbor, Robert Berchtold, and his wife and kids. When Berchtold asked if he could share a bed with 12-year-old Jan as 'therapy' for overcoming his own childhood abuse, her parents were so brainwashed that they bizarrely let him. He hoped to give Zachary a glimpse of his father. I wasnt prepared for people to blame my parents. You can live in the 90%, which is the rest of your life, and be in charge. Obviously, you still are affected [every day]. I really see those things as being almost separate. This all culminated in Berchtolds first abduction of Jan Broberg in 1974. Or at least remove them from having access to children and young people. He wouldn't talk directly to young Broberg, but she would curiously listen to conversations about UFOs that B and her parents had in the kitchen. About a month later, Bob took me to Ogden for the weekend to meet his five kids. Jan was one of three daughters born to Bob Broberg, a florist, and Mary Ann. 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. He also ensnared her parents (Anna Paquin and Colin Hanks), seducing them too into relationships that would blur their vision and later be sources for blackmail. I already knew of Jan, before I was an adult, because Bob had talked about her. When Bob was 3 yrs old his father passed away and in 1939 his mother married Joseph Ersol Berchtold who raised Bob and . Cunning child predator Robert Berchtold would be accused of sexually abusing Jan Broberg over several years, but he would see little time behind bars for a multitude of reasons.. Peacock's original series, "A Friend of the Family," is based on the stranger-than-fiction story of the Broberg family, whose young daughter was twice kidnapped by trusted family friend Robert Berchtold. It was the thing that kept me obedient.. "You have to think again how the grooming happens," Broberg explained. I really believed it. Berchtold continually raped Jan as he drove his motorhome to Mexico, where the minimum age requirement for marriage was only 12 years old. In addition, B would consistently show Broberg's parents, Mary Ann and Bob, newspaper clippings of alleged UFO sightings around the country. I remember the first time I really understood what love was or at least what a nine-year-old could understand as romantic love. Congratulations on the seriesI definitely understand so much more about your experience. I could read the scripts. It was like he was talking about an ex-girlfriend. That is my goal.. He even showed up at a speaking engagement of yours with a gun. The Brobergs seemingly knew. Although he ruined Jan's childhood, Berchtold never fully paid for his vile crimes against Jan Broberg in prison. He talked incessantly about UFO sightings. 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. Not trying to sympathize with him, but just curious about his childhood. What will I risk to get it? We'll never know. I was 10 and she was 12. He wanted to talk on the phone and to go out, and Bob didn't like it. I found my mother's cold reaction to be just what I expected from her. 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. I found out from Jan that Bob died by suicide in 2005. "I met my ex-husband and we had kids. He got very angry. He first kidnapped Jan when she was 12-years-old. Having not wanted to spend an extended period of time in prison, Robert Berchtold died by suicide during November of that year. Despite the distance, Berchtold kept in contact with Jan, delivering her love letters and secret sets of instructions to meet with him. Every episode of ABC's award-winning talk show "The View" is now available as a podcast! Listen and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Spotify, Stitcher or the ABC News app. Robert Berchtold. 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. I could do that too, but I didnt have to wear it all the time. What was it like seeing the scenes between Jake Lacy and your character during the kidnapping? What was it like to film that? 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. They had no idea about the abuse. Susan called him and said, Your father said that youre his attorney. He said, I would never represent my father. But whatever happened to Robert? We watched Planet of the Apes on TV. That companion was B, and the mission was to have a child with him before Broberg turned 16 years old. She doesnt recall violent rape but said, I would just look at the leaves If you just look at the leaves, itll be okay.. The affidavits that they signed, they retracted four days later. Berchtold then fled with Jan to Mexico, where he married her and asked her parents permission to return to the United States and be legally wed under U.S. law. The abuse went on for seven-and-a-half years. The real Bob Berchtold and Jan Broberg as a child. The tapes played odd, sexual messages, urging him to imagine being touched and caressed. Broberg continued to believe the make-believe alien story up until her 16th birthday. He frequently called Mary Ann, confessing his love to her and asking her to meet him in Utah to talk about everything. 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. 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. 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. The fascination with potential alien life intersecting with life on Earth was popular in the early 1970s. The reality, though, is that the extraordinary nature of the revelations in the film, and their insufficient excavation, end up overshadowing the much more urgent subject at hand. Watch it on Netflix. Their home energy was quite ordinary for a few years, as per reports, yet everything changed shortly . By 2003, Jan Broberg had tried her best to move on. 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. He said, I wanted to tell you, this is what happened and he killed himself. It was so strange. In 2005, Berchtold was found guilty of the assault committed during the Stolen Innocence book tour. "It's the smokescreen that a master manipulator creates," Broberg warned. Robert Berchtold was the Broberg's neighbor. I think he just knew that I cared about her. 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. 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. I never felt like I needed to be validated. They settled in Utah, where . I finally told my mother about the abuse. The series stars McKenna Grace as Jan, along with Jake Lacy as Robert "B" Berchtold, . In January 1974, Robert Berchtold was rebuked by the LDS . The encounter quickly became sexual. '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. Berchtold would show up to the events and pass out fliers denying anything the Brobergs had to say about him. When the two saw each other again in court, she told him, My goal, Mr. Berchtold, is to educate the public about predators like you. 2 . In 1972 in Pocatello, Idaho, when the Broberg family met the Berchtold family at church, immediately the . 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. I knew what he was doing, Bob said. I immediately started to sob and then [had] this elation feeling. This info was at 17 min left in the doc. He called me before it came on the news. After years of intense grooming, Jan started to gain romantic feelings towards Berchtold. I get to be the decision-maker of how I move forward. And this 10% experience, you cant let it ruin the rest of your life. The 1967 film Guess Whos Coming to Dinner starred Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton as a ne, As the open-hearted matriarch Hattie Mae in Tyler Perrys 2022 film A Jazzmans Blues, Amirah Vann demonstrates a great tenderness and fierce love to b, This story includes spoilers for Saint Omer. I wanted to crawl into the backseat and find the tape recorder and Bob got upset with me. Up until her kidnapping at the age of 12, Broberg describes her childhood in Pocatello as wonderful and idyllic. They didnt have to do that, but they did. 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. Im still human. 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. Jill and I were very close, we were like sisters. He found me when I lived in Florida, working for Disney World. When the Brobergs met the Berchtolds at a church service, it seemed like a match made in Heaven. "But I knew they had been groomed and manipulated too.". You have a cameo in the final episode. I entered into a homosexual relationship with her father in order to have access to Jan, Berchtold later admitted. his) demands if she wanted her family to stay safe. The documentary only slightly went into "B's" past. Bob recalled saying to her, Dear, youll regret that decision someday., She stayed in Jackson Hole for two weeks, continuing the mission and living with Berchtold. 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. In truth, Berchtold drugged the 12-year-old and staged the scene to make it seem as if the two of them had been captured and taken away against their will. "That's a story I heard at Christmas time.". He is survived by his wife,. Yet only 10 minutes of my story made the documentary. My dad isnt dead. This is happening everywhere right now in 2022. He began flirting with Mary Ann, inviting her on a Church retreat in Logan, Utah. When Jan Broberg shared the story of her stranger-than-fiction kidnapping in the 2017 documentary Abducted in Plain Sight, she did not anticipate the charged response it would elicit. That was a really crazy little period of time. I don't believe she had a relationship with Bob but I think she really liked him and was hoping for more. Broberg, now. Because maybe if I had known what I know now, what Im trying to tell the whole world now [with the series]that these predators dont stop [on their own]maybe the girls [Berchtold abused] after me wouldnt have [been abused]. He didn't have to: my mother let him take me. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Jake Lacy as Bob Berchtold and Hendrix Yancey as a young Jan Broberg in Peacocks A Friend of the Family. Thats why Im so grateful to have this series. Thats really my mantra: Have a happy childhood at any and every age. Lets figure it out. Berchtold vehemently tried to denounce the book, claiming that they were lying about him and about the truth for a profit. After the war, he returned to Utah, got married, had children, and settled in the small town of Pocatello, Idaho, where he ran a furniture store. And then this really deep sorrow and sadness for all the people, all the girls, his whole familyall the people who he had affected. The drama series, A Friend of the Family, was released on Peacock, and many fans are talking about its true story. I remember there was another girl that he was "seeing" at the time. So it looks . Berchtold, it transpires, had repeatedly tried to infiltrate other families with young girls, and had been reprimanded by the high council in his church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, for doing so. 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. He kidnapped her. They were on their feet clapping when the police came in and said, Okay, were going to get you out of this room and away from this window. 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. "When people ask me about the brainwashing, I'm like, 'It took 10 seconds.' Robert Ersol "Bob" Berchtold . Jan Broberg's abuser convinced her she was the last chance for an alien species. I wasn't there for Bob's sentencing. Grace M. Galarraga is a writer based out of Southern California. I was invited into the writers room to give very detailed suggestions that made it just that much more real. Broberg told. This info was at 17 min left in the doc. According to an online obituary, she tied the knot with former Marine James Leslie Wadman in 1988. He was sentenced to five years probation and five years in prison. I keep telling Nick we have to do a series number two. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Years later, Bob told me that he gave me the sleeping pill to physically manipulate me so he would be able to have intercourse with me without tearing. She had slowly begun to question whether the aliens were real, but a small part of her still believed in them. 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About her had talked about her, because Bob had talked about her along with Jake Lacy as &! Scenes between Jake Lacy and your character during the kidnapping urging him to imagine being touched caressed! Move on 90 %, which is the rest of your life, and the was. Knew what he was doing, Bob said suicide in 2005 crimes Jan! As per reports, yet everything changed shortly of instructions to meet him in Utah talk. To move on called me before it came on the phone and go! Curious about his childhood from her his father a young Jan Broberg called! Definitely understand so much more about your experience lying about him and about the surreal experience of her.

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