Halfway through watching Abducted in Plain Sight I believed this had to be a hoax. It is the wildest most unbelievable and disturbing true-crime documentaries on Netflix.
The story revolves around a 12-year-old girl, Jan Broberg, who was sexually abused by a family friend, Robert “B” Berchtold, who abducted her on two separate occasions. Berchtold also carried on an affair with Jan’s mother, Mary Ann, and even had a sexual encounter with Jan’s father, Bob while pursuing Jan.
Jan was conditioned and brainwashed for years to keep the abuse a secret. “B” and his family soon grew close with the Broberg’s after meeting them through the Mormon Church.
This gave B incredible access to Jan and over the years he gained the family’s trust eventually becoming like a second father to Jan.
Now in hindsight I could tell you I didn’t trust B, but one must also remember these events took place in the ’70s and a lot of Americans weren’t worried or informed about the dangers kids might face, especially among adults that they knew and trusted.
But based on statements made by Mary Ann, Bob, Jan and her sisters Karen and Susan it was obvious B’s sole focus was Jan.
Additionally B would sleep in the same bed with Jan as prescribed by his “therapist,” to rid himself of sexual thoughts involving young girls.
To me these are very clear and glaring signs of someone sick and twisted and someone I would call the police on and protect my child from.
The documentary initially made the rounds on the film festival circuit in 2017 and was available to stream on various platforms last year, but it didn’t debut on Netflix until early January.
In the two months since it arrived on the binge platform, it has started to generate buzz, usually with negative connotations in the form of twitter posts and memes.
It was apparent that B was a little too fascinated with Jan. Mary Ann said she and her husband were somewhat aware of it from the beginning.
“His fascination with Jan was a little disturbing,” yet it was not disturbing enough to stop the relationship, until one day in 1974, when Berchtold told Mary Ann he was taking Jan horseback riding and never brought her home. You would think they would’ve learned after that drastic mistake to not trust B, but no dice.
During that time he drugged Jan with sedatives, put her in his motor home with her feet and hands bound and played a tape with voices.
The voices were supposedly aliens who told Jan she needed to conceive a child with B before she turned 16, otherwise bad things would happen to her parents, her two younger sisters as well as the destruction of Earth. This forced Jan to participate in sexual intercourse with B for a few years.
Most viewers are angered at the gullibility of Jan’s parents, and I can relate heavily. It was impossible to watch Abducted in Plain Sight without wanting to strangle B, and trying to figure out how anyone could be so oblivious.
As I sat on the couch watching the film I was shocked at how gullible and submissive everybody was.
I can understand how Jan believed an outrageous story; she was 12 in the ’70s, but every adult seemed wildly naive.
Eventually Jan realized what B truly was, and what he did to her. For many years Jan held all of these emotions and tragedies inside herself, but over time she realized she needed to heal. Jan says toward the end of the documentary that she learned to forgive her parents by helping them forgive themselves, but to this day they still feel quite guilty.
I find it very sweet and endearing that Jan forgave her parents, but I believe that I would personally be very upset and resentful of them for a while just because they were the adults and didn’t act or protect their child like a parent should.
There were too many disturbing red flags and yet they didn’t take notice. I agree that in order for Jan to heal she needed to forgive her parents and I find that very admirable and strong, but I also believe that if Jan’s parents had been more attentive to B’s and Jan’s behavior she wouldn’t have been the victim of this tragedy.
Abducted in Plain Sight is a wild tale, but Jan’s story is worth the watch and she deserves to finally be heard.