Robert Berchtold and his repeated abduction of Jan Broberg is such a chilling true story, it’s no wonder it’s been made into a Sky drama.
A Friend of the Family brings to life the unsettling actions of paedophile Robert Berchtold.
The story originally came to light in the 2017 Netflix documentary Abduction in Plain Sight.
Here’s everything you need to know about the true story of Jan Broberg from A Friend of the Family…
Jan Broberg abduction: How did she meet Robert Berchtold?
Just like the name of the show A Friend of the Family, Robert Berchtold was a family friend.
The families were neighbours and a part of the same Mormon church.
The Broberg and Berchtold families met in 1972 in Pocatello, Idaho, at a church service.
Robert and Gail Berchtold had five children close in age to Jan and her two sisters, Karen and Susan.
The Broberg children became so close to Robert Berchtold that they would call him dad and the nickname ‘Brother B’.
Robert Berchtold began taking the Broberg kids to school every day and took Jan on activities including horseriding and family vacations.
In January 1974, Robert Berchtold was rebuked by the LDS Church for a relationship with a young girl.
Mary Ann and Bob Broberg knew Robert Berchtold suffered from manic depression.
He convinced them that laying down and sleeping next to Jan was recommended by his therapist. They allowed it.
Robert Berchtold was extremely manipulative.
Due to his kind and caring nature, the Broberg family never suspected that Robert Berchtold had sinister motives.
How old was Jan Broberg at the time of her first abduction by Robert Berchtold?
Jan Broberg was first kidnapped on October 17 1974, when she was just 12 years old.
Robert Berchtold picked her up from piano lessons with the permission of her mother.
The pair often went horseback riding together but, this time, he drugged Jan with what she thought was an allergy pill.
She later woke up in a motor home.
Robert staged a scene to make it look like he and Jan had been kidnapped together.
In reality, Robert Berchtold had driven Jan to Mexico.
When Jan woke up from being drugged, she heard voices from a speaker telling her she was part alien.
The aliens, named Zephra and Zeta, told Jan she must: “Re-produce with a male companion before her 16th birthday.”
The male companion “selected for her” was Robert Berchtold.
The voices told her that while Mary Ann was her birth mother, Rob Broberg was not her real father.
They told her she could not have physical contact with him or any other man other than Robert Berchtold.
She believed if she didn’t complete her mission that her younger sister Karen, who was also apparently part alien, would have to take her place.
This was obviously an elaborate plan by Robert Berchtold to manipulate the young girl.
True Story of Jan Broberg and Robert Berchtold: Why did the Brobergs take so long to report the kidnapping?
The Broberg parents didn’t report Jan as missing until four days after she was kidnapped on October 22 1974.
They were under such intense manipulation from Robert Berchtold that they genuinely believed Robert would return with their daughter.
They also didn’t want to upset his wife, Gail Berchtold, who also convinced them that Robert would return.
Two days later, Mary Ann decided to call the FBI, but she was met with an answering machine because it was the weekend.
Finally, she got through and alerted the FBI that Jan and Robert Berchtold had not returned from the horse stables.
The FBI came to the Broberg family home and began a nationwide search for Jan Broberg and Robert Berchtold.
Did Robert Berchtold really marry Jan Broberg after the abudction?
Shockingly, Robert Berchtold kept Jan Broberg captive for 55 days,
In that time, Robert Berchtold actually married Jan Broberg in Mexico.
The age of consent was 12 in Mexico at the time, so the marriage was legal.
It was around this time that Robert Berchtold began to abuse Jan Broberg sexually.
On November 20 1974, Robert Berchtold contacted his brother Joe.
Robert Berchtold told Joe that he would bring Jan back if Mary Ann and Bob agreed to the marriage.
Mary Ann and Robert obviously refused, but Joe had given the FBI permission to tap the call and they were able to trace the location of Robert’s motorhome.
Mexican law enforcement found Jan Broberg and Robert Berchtold in the motor home.
Did Robert Berchtold and Rob Broberg have an affair?
The show also portrays a sexual relationship between Robert Berchtold and Rob Broberg.
While the relationship was initially left out of Mary Ann’s 2003 book, the details of the affair came out in Netflix‘s 2017 documentary on the case, Abducted in Plain Sight.
Robert Berchtold manipulated Rob Broberg by complaining about his sex life with his wife and asked Rob Broberg to pleasure him instead.
Rob Broberg admitted to the incident of “one act of masturbation” in the Netflix documentary, but it’s unclear if the relationship continued beyond that point.
In a tape interview in Netflix’s Abducted in Plain Sight, Robert Berchtold is heard saying: “I entered into a homosexual relationship with her father in order to have access to Jan.”
Abducted in Plain Sight filmmaker Skye Borgman told Vanity Fair: “We certainly couldn’t find any indication that it continued.
“It has been a question that a lot of people have asked or posed, and I also find it curious.”
Nevertheless, Robert Berchtold was able to use the one incident to blackmail the Broberg family.
On Christmas Eve 1974, Robert Berchtold’s wife told the Brobergs that if they pressed charges, the details of the affair would come out.
In 1970s Mormon Utah, this would have had major ramifications on the family, so they signed an affidavit which acquitted Robert Berchtold of any wrongdoing.
Skye Borgman adds: “This one indiscretion really gave Berchtold the ammunition he needed to blackmail the head of the household.
“One time or more than that, the deed was done, and the ramifications of that were set in motion.”
Did Robert Berchtold have an affair with Mary Ann Broberg?
If you’ve already watched A Friend of the Family, you’ll know that there is plenty of hints that Mary Ann and Robert had a romantic and sexual relationship.
Mary Ann Broberg and her daughter Jan co-wrote a book named Stolen Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story.
While the details of the affair were left out of the first edition of the book, a later addition added the details of a sexual relationship.
Mary Ann shares in the book that their flirting escalated to the point where Robert Berchtold invited her to a Church retreat in Logan, Utah.
There, she said they “got a little too cosy”.
The pair didn’t actually begin an affair until AFTER Jan’s abduction.
Robert’s sexual relationship with Mary Ann was another way in which he manipulated the family.
In March 1976, Rob Broberg filed for divorce over the affair and took his three daughters out of the family home.
Mary Ann then ended her affair with Robert Berchtold and reunited with her husband and daughters.
A Friend of the Family True Story – When was Jan Broberg abducted for the second time?
Disturbingly, Jan Broberg was actually the victim of abduction a SECOND time – this time when she was 14.
As a result of Robert Berchtold’s grooming and manipulation, Jane genuinely believed she loved him and still thought she had to have a baby with him before she was 16.
In 1976, Robert Berchtold moved to Jackson Hole in Wyoming and purchased a family fun centre there.
He continued to manipulate Jan through love letters and phone calls, which led Jan to demand her parent allow her to work at the centre for the summer.
The Brobergs refused, but Jan was able to convince her mother to let her visit. Mary Anne let her daughter get on a plane to Wyoming on her own.
Jan once again spent two weeks with Robert Berchtold in his trailer in Wyoming before she returned home to her parents.
Week later, on August 10 1976, she disappeared again.
Her parents found a note in Jan’s room which read: “Dear Bob and Mary Ann, you won’t let me do what’s right, so I’ll do what’s wrong.
“I am leaving without B and I do not plan on coming back until you accept me as me, I cannot accept your religion or your screwed-up morals.
“I just want to be me and have B. Please, before all of us are destroyed, let me go.”
Except, Jan did not write this letter.
In reality, Robert Berchtold had and took Jan from her room that night.
Jan agreed as she was so under Berchtold’s control.
Why did the Brobergs take 2 weeks to report Jan Broberg missing again?
The Brobergs believed that Jan genuinely did write the letter and, fearing public shame from the press and their peers, they took two weeks to report Jan missing.
Robert Berchtold continued his manipulation by calling the Brobergs and saying Jan was not with him and that he was worried about her whereabouts.
The FBI eventually traced Robert Berchtold and Jan to Pasadena, California.
He had enrolled her into an all-girls Catholic school there and convinced the school he was a CIA agent whose wife had died and he needed to hide his and his daughter’s identity.
As the Brobergs had previously signed the paperwork which confirmed that the previous kidnapping in 1974 was a misunderstanding, Robert Berchtold was able to get a plea deal.
In June 1976, he was sentenced to five years for kidnapping.
But, due to the plea deal, the judge whittled his punishment down to just 45 days.
In reality, Robert Berchtold only spent 10 days in prison in early September 1976.
Where are Mary Ann Broberg and Rob Broberg now?
In 1999, Bob and Mary Ann sold the floristry business they owned and moved to St George, Utah.
The pair have 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Mary Ann Broberg and Rob Broberg remained married until Rob’s death in 2018.
Robert Broberg passed away on November 05 2018, aged 80, in Santa Clara, Utah.
Read more: A Friend of the Family on Sky: The new TV series based on the horrifying true crime story
Was Robert Berchtold ever arrested?
After the second kidnapping, Robert Berchtold moved to Salt Lake City, Utah.
But the FBI had tapped the Broberg family home phone and monitored Robert’s continued calls to Jan.
In a motorhome in Salt Lake City, they found the home decorated with poster-sized images of Jan.
Robert Berchtold was brought into custody on November 12, 1976.
In June 1977, Robert Berchtold faced charges of kidnapping, burglary and an arson attack on Rob Broberg’s florist shop.
But Idaho’s Sixth District Court acquitted the charges on claims of insanity and sentenced him to just six months in a maximum-security facility.
Berchtold stayed away from the Broberg family until 2003 when Mary Ann and Jan were publishing her story in their book.
He threatened Jan and her mother to not publish the book and began stalking their book tour.
In March 2004, Jan Broberg spoke at a women’s conference in Utah, when to her shock, Robert Berchtold arrived.
He attempted to enter the event with a weapon, but a Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA) member stopped him.
Berchtold then ran over another BACA member in a bid to flee the scene.
Authorities found and arrested Robert Berchtold but he was later released on bail.
On March 25 2004, Jan was granted a life-long restraining order from Robert Berchtold.
Jan Broberg abduction: Where is Robert Berchtold now?
As Robert Berchtold awaited his sentencing for his assault on a BACA member and possession of a weapon, he took his own life on November 11 2005.
He overdosed on heart medication and alcohol.
Jan Broberg told The Independent that she felt “so many emotions” but ultimately felt “relief” that he couldn’t hurt her family or anyone else anymore.
Gail Berchtold divorced Robert after the 1974 kidnapping and took their 5 children with her.
It’s unclear if he had visitation rights for his children, but they remain private and distanced from their father and his actions.
Robert Berchtold abduction: Where is Jan Broberg now?
Jan Broberg did not fully process what happened to her until later in life.
When she was 16, she finally realised that the aliens were not real. She had believed if she did not get pregnant by age 16, something horrible would happen to her and her family.
When nothing happened, she finally realised Robert Berchtold had been lying to her.
But it wasn’t until college when she really reflected on what truly happened to her.
Jan Broberg stayed close to her parents despite the abuse she faced.
She said she initially had anger when she processed what happened to her but was able to get passed it.
She also contemplated suicide when she was 16, but says a theatre workshop at the time and her career in acting saved her.
Jan has continued to have a successful career in acting.
She is probably best known as Nurse Louise from the 2000’s CW show Everwood.
She also co-starred with Elijah Wood in the 2012 slasher film Maniac.
Jan got married in the 90s and had a son named Austen.
She later divorced but got remarried to Larry Felt and the two have remained together ever since.
Jan and her mother Mary Ann served as producers and consultants on A Friend of the Family.
They hope the drama will help others to recognise signs of grooming and prevent other young people from being harmed.
A Friend of the Family is currently available to watch on Sky and NOW. Abducted in Plain Sight is on Netflix.
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