But whatever happened to Robert? But I didnt know what was missing in the conversation. Heidi Brewer met Broberg while filming this documentary. Robert Berchtold. When I woke up and that voice was therepeople often say, How long did it take for you to be brainwashed to believe that [aliens had kidnapped you]. I said, 10 secondswhen I [first] heard the voice [in the RV]. The planting of the seeds is where all of that nefarious grooming and manipulation happened, before that moment. He gave her allergy medication that knocked her out and drove with her to Pasadena, California where he enrolled her in a Catholic school with the alias Janis Tobler, feeding the nuns a fake story about being a CIA agent who needed someone to care for his daughter. Find out more about how we use your information in our privacy policy and cookie policy. [It was] something that my dad did to every boy I ever dated. I get to be the examiner. It was an interesting thing. Having not wanted to spend an extended period of time in prison, Robert Berchtold died by suicide during November of that year. So we went out to eat, he took me to a movie,we got some ice cream, then we went back to his empty apartment. You can live in the 90%, which is the rest of your life, and be in charge. He explained to Bob that he had a traumatic childhood, including having sex with an aunt when he was four. 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. She had that same kind of brightness. 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 entered into a homosexual relationship with her father in order to have access to Jan, Berchtold later admitted. He doesn't want to think about it. And this 10% experience, you cant let it ruin the rest of your life. Im home from this dance and safe. And then I start testing the waters over the next few months. We stayed in a hotel for a long time until she got an apartment, and within a few weeks of us moving there, Bob was coming by the apartment and having dinner with us. There was definitely relief: Okay. Our two families, with the popcorn, watched Star Trek and Lost in Space. How many of Berchtolds alleged victims did you hear from? He even showed up at a speaking engagement of yours with a gun. The disturbing Netlifx documentary, Abducted in Plain Sight details Berchtold abducting Broberg when she was 12 years old. I think he just knew that I cared about her. Robert Berchtold began taking the Broberg kids to school every day and took Jan on activities including horseriding and family vacations. But, according to Broberg, both parents retracted their affidavits days after signing them. And I could hang it up. With her parents keeping her apart from Berchtold, she feared that she would have no way of completing the aliens mission. 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. 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. Thats when Robert asked Bob to give him some relief. Bob acquiesced, thus cementing Berchtolds hold over them all. Following the incident, he convinced the Brobergs that part of his therapy required him to sleep in the same bed as their 12-year-old daughter Jan while listening to tapes provided by his therapist. How did you find out about his suicide? The result is a documentary that exposes them for public scrutiny without pausing to really interrogate their actions. 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. 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. Berchtolds wife, Gail, is often referenced in the beginning of. 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. 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 . Thats really my mantra: Have a happy childhood at any and every age. Lets figure it out. After picking Jan up from piano lessons and drugging her, Berchtold dragged the unconscious child into his motorhome, bound her wrists and ankles to his bed with straps, and set up a small device to play a recording. In January 1974, just over a year after Berchtold met the Brobergs, he was reprimanded by the High Council of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because of his involvement with another young girl. I wanted to play in the dirt and toss a football. Your family was so close to the Berchtolds for years. Despite the distance, Berchtold kept in contact with Jan, delivering her love letters and secret sets of instructions to meet with him. Robert Berchtold and Jan Broberg. Here is where Borgmans unwillingness or lack of space to parse exactly whats going on feels most acute. I was so involved and so consulted and so cared for. Was your deprogramming gradual over the years, or was there one turning point in your life where everything clicked? I guess she wanted a little girl who she could dress up like a doll, but I was a tomboy. Thats like looking at my brainwashed self again. It did. 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. The altered state of having been abused and how that affects your psyche and your life and your choices and your thinking and your self-worthIm worthless. By the second kidnapping she had filed for a divorce, Broberg said. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Robert Berchtold. I didnt want to marry her, Broberg said. I really see those things as being almost separate. She has been writing about entertainment news since she started writing journalistically in high school. He said he wanted me to take a vitamin. Grace M. Galarraga is a writer based out of Southern California. They consulted with me constantly. Every episode of ABC's award-winning talk show "The View" is now available as a podcast! Jamie Lee Curtis Is Both Weepy and Giddy About Her First Oscar Nomination. Berchtold didnt stop tracking you over the years. That is the only reason we told our story. Berchtold was sentenced to five years in prison anyway but served only 10 days. Cookie Notice He is survived by his wife,. 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. and our He drugged her and transported her to Mexico in his RV. 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. What happened to the Berchtold children? I don't remember much of that evening. Let me inform you that Read More Robert Berchtold Wiki, Wife, Age, Family, Brother . Abducted in Plain Sight viewers learned B kidnapped Broberg a second time from her parents home in Idaho in 1976 when she was 14. That was terrifying and surreal because I was finishing a speech for a thousand women and their daughters. I could look at the coat. The new Peacock drama miniseries, A Friend Of The Family, tells the true story of how kidnapper Robert Berchtold ruined Jan Brobergs childhood. We will do a better job. 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. After getting Jan back, Mary Ann took her to see a physician who reported that they couldnt see any signs of sexual trauma. To the Brobergs, this meant their daughter had not been raped by Berchtold. BRIGHAM CITY - Robert Ersol Berchtold, age 69, died Frida, November 11, 2005, in Bunkerville, Nevada. Berchtold was born on February 7, 1936 in Tremonton, Utah. As she headed home, Berchtold called Bob and told him of their affair. Related: Dahmer Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story Sparked An Important True Crime Debate. He became a friend from a stranger and someone the family felt comfortable around. "I had my moments of being angry and upset," Broberg says about resentment towards her parents. NetflixRobert Berchtold had an obsession with his 12-year-old neighbor Jan Broberg, even sleeping in the same bed as her four nights a week. 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. Shes gone., The Brobergs relative calm in the face of their 12-year-old daughters abduction by an adult man is one of the most immediately disturbing elements of the story. He holds a bachelor's degree in screenwriting (widely considered to be a bad move) from Point Park University. Although he ruined Jans childhood, Berchtold never fully paid for his vile crimes against Jan Broberg in prison. The older sister reached out and found my mother when they saw my book with pictures of him in it. The Brobergs seemingly knew. Thank you for taking the time to have this conversation. Generally, I am pretty happy and pretty great about 90% of the time. Theyre the bravest people I know, willing to try to help the rest of you see what they didn't. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. As Jans 16th birthday approached, Berchtolds contact became less frequent. A few people in the movie vaguely assert that it was the 1970s, and no one really understood what pedophiles were, or that intimate friends and family members could also present a real danger to children. Then, when I was 17-and-a-half, I dated a guy who wanted to have a relationship with me. 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. It is a lifelong process. I keep telling Nick we have to do a series number two. 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. Ad Choices, Broberg, who first shared the true story of her kidnapping in the documentary, Jimmy Kimmel Roasts Fragile Snowflake Donald Trump for Allegedly Trying to Censor Him. The day after the series premiered, Broberg says she feels huge relief that a more complete version of the story is available. Berchtold died in 2005, according to an obituary, which says he was a truck driver. Directed by Skye Borgman, Abducted in Plain Sight begins in the early 1970s in Pocatello, Idaho. He was a truck driver and served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Watch it on Netflix. Robert, his wife Gail Toyn Berchtold, and their children moved to Pocatello, Idaho, perhaps in the early 1970s, only to live next door to the equally religious Broberg family. Broberg, now. 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. My mom was divorced, lonely and didn't want to be alone anymore. Robert Berchtold was a well-known American truck driver, media face, retired US Army Officer who served the country during the Vietnam War and was also a convicted criminal suspect who kidnapped a too-young girl Jan Broberg in the 1970s. Now I wont be able to sleep.. SANTA CLARA, Utah (ABC4 News) - Jan Broberg does not blame her parents for her abductions and rape at the hands of trusted family friend Robert Berchtold- even though many who watched the explosive documentary "Abducted in Plain Sight" on Netflix do blame them. Firstly Bob and Mary Ann let Berchtold share a bed with their daughter multiple times, knowing that he was being counselled for being attracted to children. In one, her underwear is clearly visible. Was that after the documentary came out? We'll never know. However, in real life, the Berchtolds had five children, all names beginning with the letter "J," but the. I remember there was another girl that he was "seeing" at the time. Be the creator of your life. Robert Berchtold: Who Was He? He told the school that he was CIA, and that they were on the run.. Jan was one of three daughters born to Bob Broberg, a florist, and Mary Ann. At home, Jan was distant. Yes. I hope theyre doing okay, especially his kids. 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. Michael has been already been convicted and released for time served, but followup episodes happened, along with an HBO dramatization that appears further down in this list. B took the Broberg children and his own to science-fiction films in the two years prior to kidnapping Jan Broberg. 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. Bagby's childhood friend, director Kurt Kunnee began shooting Dear Zachary after Bagby's murder. Either it happened to you, Julie, or it happened to somebody close to you. My mother had four biological sons and she wanted a girl, so she adopted me. 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. Neither one of us were comfortable with him doing it, Mary Ann said, but it was part of his therapy.. He began flirting with Mary Ann, inviting her on a Church retreat in Logan, Utah. That is my goal.. In August 1976, Berchtold convinced Jan to leave her home and come with him, creating the second kidnapping. Berchtold managed to keep her captive with an elaborate ruseclaiming they had been abducted by aliens, and that Jan needed to cooperate with the aliens (i.e. We never called em pedophiles; Im sure it was in the dictionary someplace, Agent Welsh says. 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. I found my mother's cold reaction to be just what I expected from her. The Disturbing Story Of Robert Berchtold, The Pedophile Who Kidnapped And Assaulted His Neighbors Daughter Twice. After learning about Robert Berchtolds vile actions, read the story of Jody Plauch and his father, who killed his abductor on live television. So that's why Im stepping into advocacy with the Jan Broberg Foundation. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The Corpsewood Manor Murders: A Story Of Satanism, Sex Parties, And Slaughter, Denver Man Convicted Of Gunning A Woman Down With An AK-47 Because Her Dog Pooped Outside His Home, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Brewer feels she did not get a chance to properly tell her story. My dad did that with every boy I ever went on a date with. 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. Jan Broberg was kidnapped twice by her own neighbor and trusted family friend, Robert Berchtold. Growing up Mormon, Broberg told "The View" co-hosts she was somewhat familiar with the "Mary, Jesus, and Joseph story," and B told her a similar story through the voice recordings. He said because we wanted to come home, they would not let me come back across the border if I did not have her married to me. I already knew of Jan, before I was an adult, because Bob had talked about her. He was born February 7, 1936, in Tremonton, Utah to Leonard N. and Lucille Grover Berchtold. He said, I wanted to tell you, this is what happened and he killed himself. It was so strange. After Broberg took what she thought were allergy pills before heading to the stables, she passed out in the car, and remembers nothing of the car ride. Today, Jan Broberg has a "wonderful relationship" with her parents. 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. Jan begged her parents to let her work with Berchtold for the summer. Heidi Brewer with her son and two daughters. I'm still in the struggle. 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