Alex Mosher
Staff Writer
The true crime documentary “Abducted in Plain Sight” first made its debut on Netflix in January 2019. The 90 minute special features Jan Broberg, who was abducted in Pocatello by her family’s friend and trusted neighbor, Robert “B” Berchtold.
Netflix describes it as “a true crime documentary [about] a family [that] falls prey to the manipulative charms of a neighbor, who abducts their adolescent daughter. Twice.”
In the mid-1970s, Berchtold took advantage of his friendship with the Brobergs and threatened to blackmail them with untold secrets to get away with the multiple abductions of Jan Broberg. The documentary’s series of unexpected plot twists keeps the audience on the edge of their seat and produces an array of mixed emotions.
“It’s so frustrating,” said Taylor Regan, a Pocatello citizen. “I can’t even think about it.”
After watching the documentary, Regan found herself to be more frustrated with Jan’s parents more than anything. She felt as if they were more concerned about their own reputation than they were about protecting their daughter.
Regan wasn’t the only one that felt this way.
Twitter users had their fair share of expressing the way they truly felt about the show. Users tweeted “The way Jan’s mother’s face lights up when she talks about the affair she had with her daughters abuser is just vile,” and “If Abducted in Plain Sight was just some fictional movie, I would think this could never happen in real life. It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard or can imagine happening.”
Karen Broberg, Jan’s sister, states that their parents never asked exactly what happened to Jan and Berchtold and that Jan held in a lot of what really happened.
“It’s too painful for them to realize they allowed that to happen to her,” Karen Broberg said.
Bob Broberg, Jan’s father, admits to being gullible about the situation even after the amount of red flags that alarmed them.
In online reactions to the documentary, it appears that controversy is centered around the way the family handled the abduction rather than the abduction itself.
“I’m not sure if it’s because of the time period or what, but they seemed really naive,” said Hailey Belt, a Pocatello citizen. “And I don’t understand how they think [that] for his ‘therapy’ he needed to use their daughter. He had his own kids.”
Jen Chaney, a writer for Vulture, expressed this common reaction in a recap of the documentary.
“While Jan’s parents clearly feel guilt about their negligence, it’s hard not to be absolutely furious with them, because it still feels like they also remain in some measure of denial,” Chaney wrote.
