This Netflix True Crime Documentary Will Leave You Speechless and Outraged
Abducted in Plain Sight is one of the most disturbing true crime documentaries I’ve seen. The events recounted within are as heartbreaking as they are frustrating. The film is challenging to sit through based on the triggering subject matter. But the case profiled is beyond compelling and far more harrowing than anything Hollywood could script.
Abducted in Plain Sight follows the Broberg family of Pocatello, Idaho, circa the early 1970s. The doc chronicles the ordeal they endured after crossing paths with the predatorial sociopath, Robert Berchtold. Berchtold befriended the Brober family, groomed each member, and ultimately abducted young Jan Broberg not once, but twice. The details of the case are beyond difficult to fathom. The fact that Berchtold managed to kidnap Jan once is horrifying. That he was able to do it a second time, under the nose of her parents, is mind-blowing in the worst possible way.
The film is told through reenactments, first-hand accounts, and actual recordings of Berchtold. The audio recordings are incredibly difficult to listen to. Berchtold is so assured in the validity of his delusions. He talks about Jan, the 12-year-old child that he becomes fixated with, like she’s an adult woman. That, in and of itself, is nauseating. But when compounded by Jan’s own accounts of what happened, the film reaches the point of being painful to watch. The doc is likely to conjure a sense of outrage in its audience. How was this allowed to happen? Why didn’t someone intervene? Abducted in Plain Sight had me screaming at my television. It made me angry to the point where I was shaking. Listening to what Jan endured left me feeling helpless and outraged.
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What makes the doc especially difficult to sit through is the notion that Jan’s parents were uncomfortable with the level of attention Berchtold paid to their daughter from the get-go. But rather than listen to the inner voice that told them there was something off about the family friend, they continued to let him infiltrate their lives and brainwash their daughter. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Jan’s family was presented with countless chances to save their impressionable daughter (and themselves) from the clutches of a monster. But they consistently made the wrong choices at every turn.
As hard as it is to believe what happened, I have a certain amount of insight as to why it got to that point. Granted, I was never abducted by a predator. And I never became a child bride. But the naivety of Jan’s parents feels somewhat familiar. I was raised in a small, religious town, not entirely dissimilar from Pocatello, Idaho. Religion guided every move my family made and those around me always saw the best in people. My parents were nowhere near as naive as the Broberg family. But they had a similar blind faith in the church and in religion. And they had a shared belief that people are basically good. Especially church people. So, as much as the story is impossible to wrap one’s mind around, there is a certain part of me that can almost grasp how this all came to be.
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The key difference between my parents and the Broberg family is that my mom and dad always listened to the voice inside their heads that told them when something wasn’t quite right. But the Brobergs did no such thing. They dismissed myriad red flags because they believed Berchtold to be a man of God. And that opened the door for him to begin grooming, not only Jan, but her entire family.
Abducted in Plain Sight serves as a cautionary tale to listen to the voice in the back of your mind that tells you something isn’t right. Don’t second-guess that voice. Don’t make excuses for bad behavior. And don’t assume there’s a reasonable explanation. Nearly everything that happened to the Brobergs was preventable. They had dozens, maybe hundreds of opportunities to stop the gaslighting, manipulation, and abuse. But they didn’t take heed of the alarm bells going off in their minds.
All in, Abducted in Plain Sight is one of the most distressing true crime docs I’ve endured. But it profiles a compelling case and also serves as an evergreen reminder to listen to your inner voice. If you’re keen to check the film out for yourself, it’s streaming on Netflix, as of the publication of this post.
Categorized:Editorials True Crime
