She was at the center of one of Netflix’s most shocking documentaries after being kidnapped TWICE – now she opens up over fresh heartache

She was at the center of one of Netflix’s most shocking documentaries, which tells how she was kidnapped twice as a child by a predator who seduced both her mother and father.

Jan Broberg, now 63, has opened up to the Daily Mail about the recent death of her mother, Mary Ann Broberg, who came under fire for being involved with her daughter’s abuser following her initial abduction.

Mary Ann passed away peacefully on December 31 in Santa Clara, Utah, at the age of 87, after suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Jan was just 12 years old when she was first kidnapped and sexually abused by family friend Robert Berchtold, a married father of five in the 1970s.

His story was brought to life in the explosive Netflix true crime documentary Abducted in Plain Sight, released in 2017..

Berchtold manipulated and seduced both of Jan’s parents after they met at a Mormon church in Pocatello, Idaho, and became neighbors. He repeatedly drugged and raped Jan for four years, starting in 1974.

The predator, nicknamed ‘B’, had persuaded Jan’s parents to let him take her out regularly and sleep in his bedroom a few nights a week.

He claimed it was part of a therapy program to overcome alleged abuse he suffered as a child.

Robert ‘B’ Berchtold, himself a father of five, first met the family at the Mormon church and instantly fell in love with Jan.

A new photo of Jan Broberg taking a walk and recording herself talking about the death of her mother on New Year’s Eve

But he went on to kidnap Jan twice. He first smuggled her to Mexico, where he convinced her that he was part alien and involved in a top-secret mission to save their galactic species, and he was supposed to get her pregnant before her 16th birthday.

Berchtold had given Jan a sleeping pill under the guise of allergy medicine, and she woke up with her wrists and ankles shackled in a trailer and was introduced to Zeta and Zethra; Alien sounds are sent through a small speaker next to his makeshift bed.

Jan truly believed that she had been abducted by aliens, and the voices coming from the speaker threatened that her sister and father would be ‘evaporated’ if she did not complete the ‘mission’ and give birth.

She was found by her family and brought home, but two years later she was kidnapped again by Berchtold and disappeared for 100 days.

Authorities tracked her to the California Catholic girls’ school in Pasadena where Berchtold had enrolled her.

The documentary details how Berchtold prepared the family and became close to Mary Ann and her husband Robert.

While Mary Ann had an eight-month relationship with Berchtold following her daughter’s initial abduction, Robert admitted to having sexual intercourse with her in his car.

Many viewers questioned Jan’s actions and how she maintained a relationship with her parents after exposing her to Berchtold.

The Brobergs photographed at Christmas after Jan (top right) returned home from Mexico following her initial abduction

Berchtold continued to abuse Jan until she was 16, and later raped and sexually assaulted four more girls.

However, Jan told the Daily Mail that it was unfair to blame them for what happened and that neither of them were “complicit” in the abuse they suffered.

‘My mother faced so much unnecessary criticism… My family didn’t know. “My mother was manipulated by a master predator and so was my father,” he said.

‘They made mistakes like humans, but that’s not the same thing. They didn’t know he was a monster.

‘He didn’t look like that. We met him at church with his wife and five children. [We did] I did hundreds of activities with them before the day he drugged me and kidnapped me in a caravan.’

Jan said that she was tired of being asked how she could forgive her parents, because in her opinion, there was nothing to forgive.

‘There was nothing to forgive. I’m tired of this question, but I think it’s a good one so people can figure out what they’re doing right. ‘I had 12 wonderful years of childhood until the day I woke up in a caravan.’

She told the Daily Mail that she confronted her trauma head-on while at university after being commissioned to write about a challenge in her life.

‘When I got to a place where I was crying or upset I would call my mom and dad and ask them, why didn’t you know? Why didn’t you see it?

Jan Broberg and her mother Mary Ann smile in a selfie published in September 2024

Jan says she doesn’t blame her mother, Mary Ann, for failing to see the reality of Berchtold’s action

‘Their reactions were so amazing. They never tried to defend themselves. They just said “I wish we could have seen it, we didn’t know, we are very sorry.”‘

Jan lived with her mother until her death. He said he admired his parents’ openness about their trauma to raise awareness of predators like Berchtold.

The book ‘Stolen Innocence’ by Mary Ann led to the jaw-dropping Netflix documentary and the nine-episode Peacock series ‘A Friend Of The Family’.

‘HE [Mary Ann] It was such a strength that it is the reason I have what I have today. “He wrote the book and it became a documentary and then a nine-part series on Peacock,” Jan said.

Jan also admired how Mary Ann went back to school to become a social worker and helped foster children find homes.

“Not only did she not care, she actually changed things,” Jan said of her mother. ‘He got his hands dirty.’

His mother advocated for state funding to connect Idaho and Utah to the state. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

‘[Mary Ann] It came out in so many ways, he was a caretaker, always involved with everyone else.

Berchtold photographed with Jan and Mary Ann on Christmas before the kidnappings

Jan and Berchtold had a very close relationship. They were photographed waterskiing together in 1973, before his first abduction

‘He had little need for the limelight, you know? She is grounded, loving and He does his work silently from his typewriter.

‘Dad was the star of the party, you know, the one everyone wanted to talk to, the one who made you feel so good.

‘My mother was at the party. He was the one who made it all happen and [to] May it be wonderful and fun for everyone.’

Jan started a foundation to help other victims of child sexual abuse and also has a podcast where she talks about dealing with trauma.

‘IFeaturing 250 of the most amazing podcast guests. They are all survivors. Some became therapists or doctors, they are incredible and That’s what I want to see change.

‘Survivors really gain access healing, and through that healing, this cycle of abuse is interrupted. And I hope just I can do this through my foundation, Jan Broberg Foundation.’

Jan plans to continue working on these projects and Try acting again. He previously starred in Iron Man 3, 2012’s Maniac and 2013’s Haunt.

‘My life “I was taking care of my mother and now I have to go through this grieving process and this loss because it’s so big,” she said.

Jan Broberg now runs the Jan Broberg Foundation to support child victims of sexual abuse

Berchtold avoided a major prison sentence for the January kidnappings. He was sentenced to five years in prison for the first kidnapping in 1974, but this sentence was later reduced to 45 days. He later received credit for the time he spent in Mexico and therefore only spent 10 days in jail.

After the second kidnapping in 1976, he was arrested for violating federal parole. He spent nearly six months in a psychiatric facility after pleading mental defect to avoid a longer prison sentence for kidnapping.

In 1986, Berchtold pleaded guilty to raping another girl in Salt Lake City, Utah, and served a year in prison.

He died by suicide in November 2005, at age 69, in Bunkerville, Nevada, while awaiting sentencing on assault and firearms charges stemming from a violent altercation with members of Bikers Against Child Exploitation. At a public event where Jan is speaking. He was convicted of assault and simple trespassing.

It was reported that he died by consuming a mixture of heart medication and alcohol to avoid returning to prison.

Jan’s father Robert died in November 2018, aged 80.