Robert "B" Berchtold She was
a beautiful little girl.
Very bright and very lively.
She smiled brightly at me.
And as she smiled,
there were definite dimples
in both cheeks.
My heart went out to her.
I walked up to her,
put my arm around her
and drew her close to me,
and held her tight.
She looked up at me,
her eyes beaming.
And I knew that I had found
the little girl
that I was searching for.
[fateful music]
[children laughing]
[Bob Broberg]
Jan had probably the most
ebullient personality
of any child I had ever known.
She was just so outgoing.
She was our first,
and she was a firecracker.
[Karen Campbell]
Jan was kind of my champion.
I was very shy as a child
and she was not. [laughs]
[Jan] My earliest childhood
memories would be with
my two sisters, Karen and Susan.
They're younger than I am
by two years each.
Karen's the middle child.
Susan's the baby.
And I was, you know, definitely
the big sister, the bossy one.
My sisters and I, really--
we were really good friends.
I mean, we played together.
We had a good just--
what I consider
normal childhood.
Just real free and easy.
[Mary Ann Broberg]
We lived in Pocatello, Idaho.
We had that type of
a neighborhood
that you never locked
your doors.
Always open.
You could trust everyone
in the neighborhood.
My mom and dad were, you know,
very kind of traditional.
Just really sweet parents.
My mom was at home.
I always remember coming home
after school,
my mom would be ironing.
My father's a florist. Owned
a flower shop for 40 years.
I was completely loved.
I was completely secure.
I mean, we were listened to.
And I think that was crucial
for all of us surviving
what we did.
[Mary Ann]
I met Bob Berchtold June 1972.
I was the chorister
at our church,
and was leading the music
one Sunday
and looked down and saw a family
that I didn't know.
[Bob]
Mary Ann had met them first,
and she says:
"Oh, I met the nicest family."
They had five children
and some of them were
the age of our daughters.
And she was telling me
all about them,
and how affable
and friendly he was.
He had such an effervescent,
wonderful personality.
We became very good friends.
And he was in business and we
talked about business matters,
and it just sort of clicked.
We had things in common.
I was in business,
I had a family. He had a family.
One of the first things
that I remember,
we came home from church
and there was
this beautiful fruit basket.
And there was
a little card on it.
And it said,
"We sure enjoy your family.
The Berchtolds."
I was personally thrilled.
I thought: "My word,
this is a pretty sharp guy."
My first impression when I saw
Berchtold and his wife Gail,
I thought of them
not quite matching
because she was the quiet one.
But she and I became
really quite close friends.
Everybody had a best friend.
You know, between the Brobergs
and the Berchtold family,
there was a best friend
for everyone.
We had some of
our best family times
when we were
with the Berchtold family.
[Susan] Berchtold would pick
us up in the morning,
and we would get in the car,
and we would all shout together:
"It's gonna be a great day!"
And that's how we would
start our mornings.
I don't remember
who came up with the idea,
but we'd started to call him B.
[Karen] Pretty much every day,
he would come by
at night and talk
to my parents,
and he was so engaged
with the kids, too.
I mean, he really was fun, and
he wanted to swing us around
and put a puzzle together and--
You know, I mean,
he was the fun dad.
But definitely his attentions
were definitely on Jan.
Brother B, he used to call me
all kinds of names.
But really the only one that
I really remember was Dolly.
[tape rewinding]
A splattering of
clouds were set on fire
by the rays of the setting sun.
I looked at my Dolly.
Her face was aglow.
She reached out and took
my hand and then said:
"I love you."
I returned:
"I love you, too, beautiful."
I turned to her, put my arms
around her and pulled her
close to me and said:
"Dolly, you've brought
a special light into my life."
I love you more
than words can tell.
She looked up at me,
I bent over, and we kissed.
No man could love
any woman more.
[tape clicking]
[shutter clicking]
[Mary Ann] He did give special
attention to Jan
that annoyed both Bob and I.
[shutter clicking]
[Mary Ann]
His fascination with Jan
was a little disturbing.
B was like
a second father to me.
I completely loved him,
completely trusted him,
and felt extremely safe.
I felt like I was
one of his children.
-[dramatic music]
-[type writer clicking]
[Mary Ann] Berchtold had called
me earlier in the day and said:
"I wanna take Jan out
horseback riding
down in American Falls."
Berchtold comes driving up
to my house and said:
"Okay, I'm ready to take you,
Jan." She came in the back door.
I was like:
"Oh, yes! Yes! Yes! I wanna go!
I wanna go!"
And my mom was like:
"It's a school night,
and you have piano,
and I think we should try
for a different day."
[Mary Ann] And he says: "Well,
I guess I could pick her up
from her piano lesson and
just take her straight out."
And I begged my mother:
"Please, yes. Let me go."
I said: "You better be back
before Bob gets home
for dinner."
"I'll have her back.
I'll have her back."
[Jan] B picked me up
from my piano lesson,
and said: "I brought
your allergy pills."
You know,
"You should take one of those
before we go to the horses."
Downed that,
and off we went.
[Jan] I must have passed out
pretty quickly,
because I have no recollection
of getting to the stables.
No recollection of the drive.
No recollection of him.
[Mary Ann]
When she didn't come home,
I was a little nervous,
anxious.
Maybe they-- they broke down.
Around nine o'clock at night,
Berchtold's wife Gail
came over worried.
And I said: "Maybe I should
call the state police."
"Oh, don't do anything.
I'm sure he'll be coming
any minute, any minute."
And so we waited.
That was Thursday that
they went horseback riding.
We had Friday--
didn't call anybody.
Didn't want to upset Gail.
[Bob] And this went on
for about two days.
And I said: "Mary Ann,
we better get the law involved.
So we can--
We need some help to find them."
[Mary Ann] On Saturday morning,
I dialed the FBI.
They said the office
is closed for the weekend.
If you have an emergency,
call this office
in Butte, Montana.
I didn't follow through,
because I thought
I don't wanna get all these
people all worked up
over nothing.
And, so, we waited.
Another night came and went,
and then it was Sunday.
"Well, let's just-- if they're
not back by Sunday, we'll call."
[typewriter clicking]
[Welsh] I got the call in my FBI
office in Pocatello, Idaho.
I had been an agent
for six, seven years
when this kidnapping
took place.
My partner and I left
the office right away,
went over to
the Brobergs' house,
and we talked to them
for several hours.
Robert Berchtold was a close
friend of theirs, a neighbor.
He was a Pocatello businessman,
a member of their LDS faith,
and a pillar in the community.
He had lots of friends.
They didn't suspect
any type of foul play,
even though it was five days.
I don't think
he's kidnapped her.
He's just gone someplace
with her.
And he had to drill
that into our minds.
"He kidnapped her.
She's your daughter.
She's gone."
We went over to interview
Gail Berchtold,
and she told us that they had
a motor home in a storage unit.
We went out there
and the motor home was gone.
I realized that the FBI
was gonna have to conduct
a thorough investigation
to locate her,
'cause I believed at that time
she was kidnapped.
[Don on police radio]
Power County Sheriff's office.
This is Don Glenn.
This is dispatch.
We got a call reporting
an abandoned Ford vehicle
out on registered
Rock State Park.
The keys were inside
the vehicle.
The side door on the driver's
side was broken out.
There was a small amount
of blood on the inside
of the driver's door.
They found Bob Berchtold's car
with blood on the window.
[Welsh] The window was broken
out from the inside out.
of somebody had reached
in there to get 'em,
they'd be outside the car
and break
the window into the car.
He left a lot of blood,
so he could have an excuse
that somebody kidnapped them.
We found tire tracks,
like a motor home,
and a set of footprints.
Which leads me to believe
he probably carried Jan
and put her in the motor home.
We knew Berchtold had Jan, but
we didn't know where they were.
[Welsh] It was a nationwide
search. We sent out APBs
to all law enforcement
throughout the country,
even border security
for Mexico and Canada.
This went on for weeks.
There was no sign of anything.
It was like finding a needle
in a haystack.
You didn't know where to turn
or where to go.
You don't know what to do.
You wanna do something,
and there's nothing you can do.
[Susan] I dealt with it
by having to know every step
of what was going on.
I tried to hear everything.
I was one of those
that stood behind the door
when the FBI agent was in
the other room with my parents.
[Susan] One day,
I walked in the house--
Jan's bedroom was in the back
of the house in the basement.
I walked into her room
and saw my dad...
lying on her bed
and he was sobbing.
And I don't remember
my dad, uhm, sobbing
or really crying very much,
even though
he's an emotional person.
I think that was the first time
I really realized
that something really bad
was going on.
[Mary Ann] For those first
about three weeks,
there was so many people
that came by.
Friends and neighbors, and
everyone in the neighborhood
just were there.
So many of them couldn't
believe. They had seen this man.
They had talked to this man.
He was part of their--
their lives, too.
Some of them said:
"He wouldn't hurt her.
He would not hurt her."
And I believed that.
He would not hurt her.
And we love everyone
in that community,
because they were trying
to help us get through.
They loved Jan.
They were trying
to give us support
and say: "We just know
she'll get back okay."
It was a tender time.
It was hard.
It was the agony
of going to bed every night
and trying to sleep and saying,
"Where is she? Is she okay?"
[Welsh]
As our investigation continued,
I talked to many people
in Pocatello that knew him
and found out
that Bob Berchtold
had an infatuation
for young girls.
[Joe Berchtold] My brother was
always a sexual pervert.
He always did like
his little girls.
I guess he had
a need to fulfill
as a pedophile,
'cause he was a pedophile,
and I knew that.
One time
mom and dad went somewhere,
my brother started messing
with my sister.
But, see, they weren't half
brother and sister.
She'd have been six,
and he'd have been 12 or 13.
[Welsh]
This was the first pedophile
case I'd ever run across.
I couldn't comprehend it
at first.
The FBI taught me
"stranger danger".
We'd never call 'em
pedophiles.
I'm sure it was
in the dictionary someplace.
But now I'm hearing
these things
about Bob Berchtold
loving little kids.
I mean, all these things are
just making my skin crawl.
He tried to get to two other
little girls in Pocatello
before their parents
cut him off,
and then he finally found
Jan Broberg.
After that,
his number one goal
was to seduce Jan Broberg.
Robert Berchtold and
the Brobergs became friends,
and they trusted each other,
and that's just the way
Bob Berchtold wanted it.
Part of his behavior pattern
is destroying everything
that's in his way
to get to the little girl,
to get to Jan.
So, he's separating her
from her family
as fast as he can.
Jan and I shared a room
downstairs,
and it was a big room.
You know, we kind of said:
"Oh, maybe someday
we'll make us each a bedroom."
Berchtold came up
with this idea one time,
that we were getting older
and wouldn't we like
to have our own bedrooms?
And he was a handyman
and owned a furniture store,
and I do remember him
building that wall,
and putting a wall
between the two rooms.
It gave him an excuse
to be there.
And to separate Jan
from me, yeah.
[Cor Hofman] He had a way
of flattering you,
doing things for you,
and then taking advantage
of the situation
of trust that--
that he put you in.
We were invited to go on
a boating trip
with Berchtold.
He was not just inviting us,
but he had invited Jan.
I just suspected there was
something amiss at that outing.
I said:
"That's the last time
that I will do anything
with the Berchtolds.
I have no use for that."
We used to do, like,
sleepovers all the time.
We went to
the Berchtolds' house.
They had a gigantic
trampoline in the backyard.
And so we would all sleep out
under the stars
on the trampoline.
And one night,
I remember waking up
and being aware that my panties
were down around my ankles,
and being scared.
Berchtold was laying by me
and he definitely had
his hands on me.
He said I was tossing
and turning a lot,
and that I must have just,
you know, gotten uncomfortable
and--
and taken my panties down.
It felt like it was plausible,
because what was not plausible
was that this person could've
done anything to harm me.
[Karen] Jan had been on a trip
with the Berchtolds before
when this whole trip
to Seattle came up.
And when they came back, and he
had all these weird stories
about all this stuff
that had happened with Jan.
And the story that he told us
was that sitting at dinner,
she just all of a sudden
started to rock back and forth
and started saying
strange things.
And, you know, everybody's
going: "Jan, are you okay?"
And he said: "I better
take her back to the room
because there is something
wrong with this child."
[Jan] I remember being carried
into the motel,
and I was groggy and in and out
of consciousness.
[Karen] Jan had said
that she had woken up
and saw him naked.
[Welsh] Jan Broberg
and Robert Berchtold
had an unnatural relationship.
Berchtold targeted Jan
and he targeted the parents.
He knew that he had to destroy
Mary Ann and Bob Broberg
to get to Jan.
And they fell
right into a trap.
It's like a mouse
going into a trap.
They never even saw it coming.
Never.
[phone ringing]
[Mary Ann]
Berchtold called me on the phone
from his furniture store,
and said: "Mary Ann,
I can't get out for lunch.
Why don't you bring me
down a sandwich?"
And so I thought: "Okay."
And I started with that,
taking a lunch down on
occasions when he'd call and...
He was a new face in town,
and a new person
that had a great personality.
And had some of the--
the charisma
that Bob didn't possess.
Berchtold began saying
the things to me
that were exciting to hear.
He said, "You have a beautiful
body. And those legs..."
You know? And I felt this
fluttering inside of me.
He could give me a great--
a great feeling about myself.
I was attracted to him.
That was when it began,
and I tried to ignore it,
but I remember the way
it made me feel.
And I thought: "Oh, my.
I can't feel this way
about him."
I think the thing
that solidified it
was when we went to a church
function in Logan, Utah.
While we were there,
we took a ride up
into the mountains.
Before we left,
we got a little too cozy.
Started kiss--
kissing and hugging,
and he touched my breasts
and things got a little
carried away.
Stayed there longer
than we should,
but nothing beyond that.
Went back home
and tried to be calm
and enjoy our lives.
I thought about it every day.
A lot.
I thought about that feeling
and that touch.
I'd been married for, what,
12, 13 years by then.
And it was an excitement,
an excitement to me.
[Bob] Mr. Berchtold was
very knowledgeable
in the sexual field,
but he did not have
a good relationship
with his wife sexually.
One day, he came in the store
and I could tell
that he was
extremely disturbed.
And he says: "Are you free?
Let's go for a ride."
He says: "I--
I cannot stand my wife
and I--
I need to have sex."
I could see that he--
he was sexually aroused.
He says: "Oh...
could you give me some relief?"
We were laughing. And he said:
"Oh, Bob, it's just kid's stuff,
and I've gotta have relief."
So, I was dumb enough
to reach over and relieve--
relieve him in an act
of masturbation.
I did the worst thing
I've ever done,
as far as...
breaking the trust
and the fidelity
that I had with my wife.
[Berchtold's voice]
[Welsh]
The guy played 'em perfectly.
He wanted to tear down
the defenses of the Brobergs.
He wanted to get them
out of the way.
It's kind of like
you have dominoes.
On one end is Bob Berchtold.
On the fourth domino
is Jan Broberg.
In the middle
is Mary Ann and Bob.
And you just might as well
knock those dominoes over.
And so you have
Berchtold and Jan
and nobody in-between.
The LDS Church decided
that they would counsel him,
and he went to a counselor
in Idaho Falls.
That man
told our investigators
that he had also gone
to California
to go to a clinical
psychologist
who would help him overcome
this obsession with Jan.
When he came home,
he had to tell Bob and I
that he was being treated
for the abuse he suffered
as a child.
He said: "Now, Bob,
this will probably floor you.
I had sex with an aunt
when I was four years old."
It just blew my mind.
He said to me:
"Bob, part of my therapy
is to just spend some time
alone with your daughters.
Would you mind?"
And I said: "Well, no."
And he said, "You can call
the doctor and ask him
to explain it to you
if you want to."
And I said: "I trust you."
After Jan had gone to bed,
he just laid down by her.
[Mary Ann]
Neither one of us were
comfortable with him doing it,
but it was part of his therapy.
[tape whirring]
Listen for the waves
in the background,
and she starts caressing you
a little faster now,
and you can feel it
and it feels so good.
Feels so good.
She's caressing you
very rapidly now,
and you can feel it
very rapidly.
It feels good.
And you listen for the waves.
You feel the warm,
soft blanket,
and the blanket smells good.
[Welsh] They were duped
in a terrible, terrible way.
Our investigation determined
that they guy was not
a licensed psychologist.
He had had
his license revoked.
And he is the one that gave
Berchtold these weird tapes
to play as he lay
with her at night.
He was molesting her.
He would always give
her vitamins
and stuff for her allergies,
when in fact
we determined later
through our investigation
that he was giving her
sleeping pills
to make his job a lot easier.
I never had--
I never had an inkling
that he had
sexual designs on Jan.
We weren't-- we weren't
really sure even then
what a child molester was,
you know?
And-- oh, I tell you,
I don't know how
we could've been so gullible
when there were
so many red flags.
But I didn't see
the red flags.
[Welsh] I found the Brobergs
to be naive.
They don't know
things like that happen.
And it was the most
difficult thing--
This was the most difficult case
I've ever had in my life.
[typewriter clicking]
[echoing static]
[radio stations switching]
♪ We used to fly... ♪
[echoing static]
[Jan] I woke up.
It was dark.
I had the sensation
that I was moving,
but I was laying on a bed.
My wrists and my ankles
both had straps around them.
I couldn't move.
This monotone voice
kept talking in my ear.
[Distorted voice]
Female companion...
[Jan] It looked like a little
white intercom-looking box
that I could see
to the side of my pillow.
[Distorted voice] It is time for
your mission to begin.
[Jan] And I immediately thought
I'd been kidnapped by a UFO.
I was in and out of sleep,
a really deep sleep.
[Distorted voice]
Female companion...
[Jan] I woke up again.
The restraints were off.
[Distorted voice] We are called
Zeta and Zethra.
[Jan] I had been informed
by the aliens,
Zeta and Zethra were
their names,
that I actually was part alien.
My mother was
my biological mother,
but my father wasn't actually
my biological father.
I had a father
from this alien planet.
I was in the middle
of a Christmas story
that I'd heard every year
since I was a child.
You know, that-- you know,
Joseph was like my dad.
You know,
he took care of Jesus,
but really the father of Jesus
was God the Father.
[Distorted voice] We have
an important mission for you.
Let the male companion
to perform...
The mission was
that I was to have a child,
the child that would save
the alien planet,
by the time I turned 16.
The box said if I couldn't
perform the mission,
they had a backup plan.
That was my sister Susan.
That she was also
half alien and half human,
and that she would be--
she would be taken.
[Distorted voice] Go to the
front of the motor home.
"And there you will meet
the male companion."
And there on the little couch
of the motor home was B.
It was a person that
I so loved and so trusted,
and was familiar to me.
I wasn't alone anymore.
You know, it was like
this huge relief.
He was covered in blood.
He was cut.
I mean, he wasn't moving.
His eyes were closed.
He looked to me
like he was dead.
And so I'm crying, and I'm
shaking him and touching him.
"Wake up! Wake up!
You have to wake up!"
And so he comes to,
and he starts to tell me
what had happened.
"We were driving out
to go horseback riding,
and all of a sudden
I saw this white light
coming down out of the sky,
and the car started to vibrate
and move and shake.
We must've been taken
by this powerful light."
And I said,
"No, we-- we're here.
We're here, we're together,
and there's a mission."
I completely knew that
he was the male companion,
that together we're supposed
to have a child.
The whole thing of him being,
you know,
this 40-year-old man
and me being
a 12-year-old girl was--
was definitely strange.
The whole thing was strange,
but I also now felt like:
"Well, I'm an alien.
I'm strange. I'm not normal."
I believed it absolutely.
I mean, when you combine
being isolated
and completely afraid,
you can pretty much get someone
to do or believe anything.
Those first few weeks,
I had no concept of how much
time had gone by, really.
I think I was drugged
a lot of the time.
But I do remember him
specifically
going through the cupboards
of the motor home.
And one of the cupboards
had these three or four books.
I knew that the books
were about sex.
And then shortly after that,
the box said:
"We think it's time for you
to ask the male companion
to do what
makes people happy."
I don't remember
the violent kind of rape
that I've heard
other women talk about.
Berchtold would insert his
penis just slightly, barely.
It was always just an inch.
He almost was as concerned
that it was an enjoyable
experience for me
as it was obviously for him.
There was, like,
a little tiny fan
in the roof
of the motor home.
I could look up
through that little fan,
and I could--
I could just look
at the leaves.
There was some kind of a branch
or a tree or something.
And I could just--
I would just look at the leaves.
Just look at the leaves.
If you just look at the leaves,
it'll be okay.
I guess that's how
I got through it.
[type writer clicking]
[Joe] Bob called me and says,
"I want you to call Mary Ann
and get a written permission
for Jan and I to come back
to the United States
and get married. 'Cause we were
married in Mexico,
but it isn't legal
in the United States."
[Bob] Under Mexican law,
you had to be 12 years old.
And of course they qualified.
I was irate to even think that
that could happen.
His brother called and he said:
"They want to come home,
but he cannot come home
unless you give him
permission to marry her
in the United States
of America."
And I said: "Permission to marry
her? We would never do that."
"Well, he can't come back
unless you do."
He'll be a dead man
or spend the rest of his life
in prison if he comes back.
You have kidnapping charges."
She says: "Absolutely not.
We will not.
"Where are they?"
And then I-- In my mind
I decided to get him home.
I had the FBI come in
and they tapped the phone.
He called me and says:
"I'm in Mazatlán, Mexico."
[Welsh] The FBI was
able to trace the call
to a hotel in Mazatlán.
[Joe] And I thought
it'd ruin our relationship.
I thought he'd kill me
when he'd come back.
Our legal attaché
in Mexico City was contacted.
He contacted the Federales.
[Jan] The Mexican police came to
the motor home. All of a sudden,
they came through the door.
They literally, like,
kicked the door down.
They crammed all of us
into this small little vehicle.
I could kind of see him almost
in the rearview mirror,
and just kind of looking at me
like he was scared.
They took us to this
Mexican prison.
At one point, one of
the Mexican police officers
led me down into a lower level
in this dank, dark,
water-smelling hallway
to B's cell.
He gave the guard
his gold ring
in order for the guard
to let him talk to me.
B said: "Tell your family that
I brought you on a vacation,
and that I made a mistake.
I took you too far away.
I didn't tell your family
like I should have."
He said: "I'd been visited
by Zeta and Zethra.
They came to me
and they told me
that there are four things
that you can't talk about."
I couldn't talk about them--
Zeta and Zethra,
the alien planet.
I couldn't talk about
the relaxing pills
that I'd been given.
I couldn't
talk about the mission,
and so, therefore,
I couldn't talk
about any of
the sexual experiences
that we had had.
He said: "You will have
no other contact
with any other men,
you know,
even with your dad.
And if either of us talk about
any of these four things,
my sister Karen
would go blind."
And the threat
against my father
was that they--
they would remove him.
That's how they put it,
which I knew meant
they would kill him.
And then, of course,
the threat with Susan
was that they would take her.
And he said: "Your parents
will probably come,
but make sure that you don't
tell them or anyone,
anyone,
about those four things
or you will be vaporized.
They have the power
to take our lives
and also to take our spirits.
We won't even exist."
For me, as this young girl
who had always had
a very strong faith
in life after death,
it was a terrifying thought.
It was probably the thing
that kept me obedient
to what they wanted me to do
more than anything.
[Mary Ann] Bob and I flew to
Mazatlán to bring Jan home.
We wanted to go and we wanted
to be there with her,
and let her know
that we still loved her.
All of the sudden
we saw our little girl
just waving, screaming.
Wow.
[Bob] I can remember saying:
"Honey, that's our little girl.
She's ours."
Jan all of the sudden
just kind of went to pieces.
She started saying:
"What about B?
They're gonna do something bad
to him." And I said:
"We can't think about
B right now. It's you.
They'll have to work
that out with the FBI."
"Why did you call the FBI?
I was fine! I was fine!
I'm on vacation with B.
And nothing happened.
Nothing happened,
but we've got to take him."
And I said: "Sorry.
We're going home, Jan.
-We're going home."
-But I can remember the tears
running down my cheeks.
And didn't say anything
to Mary Ann,
I just thought, you know,
"She's not our Jan."
The minute
Jan got on the plane,
she wouldn't sit by me.
I can remember the sorrow
that I felt on that plane.
Mary Ann was sitting next to me,
and I said to Mary Ann:
"I don't think
our problems are over."
[Welsh] Bob Berchtold is
arrested in Mexico, brought to
the United States.
He appeared before a grand jury,
and they indicted him
for kidnapping charges.
[Mary Ann] We had a her examined
by a physician.
That physician said she has
not had her hymen broken.
"I can see no trauma
of sexual abuse."
That relieved us a great deal.
[Karen] I couldn't get her to
really talk about things
other than:
"Oh, well,
I went parasailing and--"
she would talk about
some of the things
she'd done in Mexico,
but she definitely was, uhm...
you know, standoffish,
uhm, especially with my dad.
I showed her the clipping
of the kidnapping
that was in the paper.
And she said:
"That isn't true, Dad."
She was sticking up for him.
She seemed fine.
She went back to school,
picked up where she was going,
was doing fine.
We didn't have
any real concerns about her.
My thoughts were constantly
about-- about B.
How are we gonna continue
the mission?
How am I going to be with him?
How am I going to see him?
How am I going to do this?
I was separating myself
emotionally
and mentally from my family
because knew that the mission
hadn't been accomplished.
I knew that more was to come.
[Welsh] I told Mary Ann
and Bob not to talk
to Gail Berchtold,
Bob Berchtold.
Don't let your kids play
with their kids.
This is a serious thing.
Stay away from them.
Which they did not do.
[Christmas music playing]
[Mary Ann]
It was on Christmas Eve
when Gail Berchtold
came to the door
and asked to talk to Bob alone.
The two of them went back
to the den
and chatted
for quite some time.
Gail came out, went on her way,
and then Bob said to me,
"Gail wants us to drop
all the charges
against her husband."
She asked us
to sign some affidavits.
All Bob said was: "If we don't
sign these affidavits,
they're going to expose
the dirty laundry
between me and Berchtold."
I was quite shocked.
I felt terrible,
especially for my husband.
I just thought:
"Oh, no. That can't happen."
So we signed the affidavits.
"My daughter
was not taken by force
or against her will,
nor was she held
or confined against her will
at any time
while in the company
of the defendant."
"I honestly believe
there is a strong possibility
that the defendant was
under the impression
he had my husband's
and my consent
to take my daughter with him
when he left in October."
[Bob] "I had the right
under the First Amendment
to the United States
Constitution
to keep these matters
within my family.
I feel that the interests
of justice
and society
would not be served
by continuing to prosecute
this matter."
[Welsh] Here's these people
crying about their daughter.
And I'm living over there,
I'm neglecting my own family,
and then all of a sudden
they walk in with:
"Oh, we let her go."
They're covering
their own hide
and not the kid,
which is a shame.
The general public
was not happy.
We had lots of phone calls
from people we did not know
that said:
"Why would you do that?"
The US Federal Attorney
called us and he was livid.
He said: "You can't do this.
We are going to have a trial."
[Welsh] Berchtold was
bound over for trial,
but I don't have any witnesses
all of a sudden.
The Brobergs basically took
the government's case
and stomped on it.
[Mary Ann]
Berchtold moved to Ogden, Utah
to work at his brother
Joe's car dealership.
Gail stayed behind.
She didn't know.
He didn't know.
Maybe he would work there
until he could get on his feet,
then he'd move
the family close to him.
He come work for me and he sold
cars out the Ying-yang.
Super salesman.
He could sell anybody anything.
He continually came home.
Every weekend
he was in church.
Every weekend people were
patting him on the back
and saying:
"Oh, we're so sorry.
We know you've been ill.
We hope this all passes
and that you can get
your life back together."
We were so kind
when he came back home.
And even at that point,
we weren't aware of just
how deep this sick man was.
[Jan] The first time that I
remember actually seeing him
after the kidnapping,
it was in the night.
It was in my back bedroom
downstairs.
The first thing that woke me up
was the little box.
[echoing static]
[Distorted voice]
Female companion...
[Jan] Berchtold appeared
in my bedroom.
He came in and he would talk
about the mission,
and that the mission
was gonna continue,
and that
they were making plans
and preparations
for us to be together,
and just to keep doing
what I was doing,
and to keep following
the rules.
And I continued to be in
communication with Berchtold,
or he was
in communication with me,
and I would do
whatever I was told to do.
[Jane] I would occasionally get
a note from someone at school.
It would say: "You need to go
to such and such location,
to the phone booth at
four o'clock this afternoon,
and there you will receive
further instructions."
[distorted voice murmuring]
[Jan]
I would get letters from B,
and it would be a love letter
about what he was going through,
and how much he missed me,
and how much he knew
we were meant to be together.
And my natural response
was to respond in kind,
and, you know,
write loving letters
back to him and--
and try to figure out
how to get them to him.
[Jan as a girl] "Did you know
that you're a sweetheart?
If you didn't, I want you
to know that you are.
Our love must be
pretty great.
We've sure gone through a lot
for each other.
Your Dolly, Jan."
[Jan] The shift from
I loved this man
like my father
to I love him like a husband
or like a man, happened.
She said:
"Mom, I miss him so much.
I want to marry him."
And I said:
"You want to marry B?"
She said:
"Yes. I want to marry him,
and we want to have
children together."
[Jan] I loved him as deeply
as I've ever loved anyone.
My level of commitment
and love for him,
was as profound as anything
that I have ever experienced
in the realm of real love.
But it was profound,
it was committed,
it was in me in every sense
of the word.
[Jan]
Here's a letter from B to me.
I'm probably 13.
"Hi, Darling.
I awake this morning
thinking of you as usual
and loving you even more.
I remembered you in Oliver
and the night you cried
when you sang:
Where Is Love
especially for me.
Remember the song
from Oliver:
As Long As He Needs Me
and the meaning it had
in the play?"
[girl singing]
♪ As long as he needs me... ♪
[Jan reading] "Please, honey,
sing it over and over
and know I need your love
more now
than anything on this earth.
[singing continues]
[Jan reading] Evil forces
would like nothing more
than to destroy us
and ruin everything.
I can do no more than love you
every minute of my life.
The rest is up to you.
Be brave, do everything right,
and don't give up hope.
I never will, because
through it all, there is you.
Forever 'B'."
[Girl singing]
♪ As long as he needs me ♪
♪ As long as he ♪
♪ Needs me ♪
[Mary Ann]
I heard from him every day.
He would call and talk
and tell me
how much he loved me,
he wanted me
as part of his life.
I kept saying:
"Please tell me.
Please tell me:
"why did you marry Jan?"
He said:
"Well, if you will come
and talk with me personally,
I'll give you
the whole details about it."
And I went down and, uh,
went over to his motor home,
met him there
after he got off work,
and we sat and talked.
He told me how much he loved me
over and over and over.
And he kept telling me:
"We could have a great life
together, Mary Ann.
All you need to do
is get divorced,
come and live with me."
It was not long before
he was holding my hand,
and then was stroking my--
my leg and,
you know, he poured his heart
out and his soul out.
I stayed too long
at his motor home
and we engaged in necking
and kissing,
and then eventually
in sexual intercourse.
[Mary Ann] I loved my husband,
but I betrayed him.
After it happened,
I knew
that I had crossed the path
that I could never go back
and undo. It was done.
I think it was about four days
or five days after she had gone,
Berchtold called me
and he told me what happened.
And that's when real trouble
started in our marriage,
and it just got worse.
[Mary Ann] My sexual affair
with Mr. Berchtold
lasted for eight months.
I would say that I was
in love with Berchtold.
It was an exciting time for me.
[Bob] I knew what he was doing.
I knew that
it wasn't Mary Ann.
I knew that it was Jan.
It was always about sex
at that point.
That was what all of those
encounters were about for him.
After speaking with the bishop
more than once,
he said: "Bob, you've gotta
make some decisions,
because Mary Ann is--
she's on the wrong path."
[Bob] So, I filed for a divorce.
[Mary Ann] I was served the
subpoena to leave the home.
I was endangering
his three girls.
I was shocked
that he would do that.
[Bob] I wasn't about to let him
have my children.
I took the girls, and we were--
we went somewhere on the day
that I knew that she was gonna
be served the papers.
No question,
the worst day of my life.
We drove to a restaurant
out of town.
When we got to the restaurant,
and he told us
that he and my mom were
going to be separated,
that especially then
in my little town,
I mean, nobody got divorced,
and not my paren...
I felt like crawling in a hole
and burying myself alive.
There was nothing really, I felt
like I had
to live for anymore.
It was a tough, tough time.
Two or three days went by,
and he called me,
and he said: "Well, you're--
you're gonna lose your wife
and you're gonna lose
your children."
And I just hung up on him.
But I, nevertheless,
was extremely worried.
[Mary Ann]
And he called me and told me:
"Well, Mary Ann,
if you just leave Bob,
I'll find you an apartment.
You can have
a whole new life down here,
and you will be so happy."
And I said: "I'm not leaving
my husband. I'm sorry."
He said:
"Well, he doesn't want you.
Look what he's done to you.
Kicked you out of the home.
I know if you will get you
an attorney and go back
and file charges against him,
you'll end up with your children
because Bob's a homosexual."
I said: "That's not true."
I went to an attorney
and told him: "I need help.
I do not want a divorce."
He said: "You need
to cut out the cancer.
This is not a good man."
I went back to my home.
[Bob]
I was standing in the kitchen
and she opened the door
and she said:
"I can't raise
these children alone.
And I know they need you
and they need me."
I said: "I will get him
out of my life.
I don't want him
in my life any longer."
We just fell
into each other's arms.
And that was enough for me.
[Welsh] Berchtold went into
court and he pled guilty
to a felony charge
of kidnapping.
The judge sentenced him
to five years,
and reduced all five years
down to 45 days.
He's to report to jail
within three months.
B moved away from Pocatello,
and had bought
a family fun center,
like a game center
in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
I wanted to go and work there
for the summer.
I begged my mother.
I cried to my father.
I screamed a little.
And I said: "Absolutely not.
No is the answer."
That was in 1976,
and she was so insistent.
And she went on to just
become a person
that she had never become
to pick arguments,
pick on her sisters,
to pick on us, to just make life
miserable around there.
She was deciding
what was going on with her.
No questions,
no say for my mother.
[Mary Ann] Berchtold called me,
and he said: "Don't hang up.
I want to tell you that Jan's
coming to Jackson Hole.
She's gonna go out
and get on the highway
and start hiking
if you don't let her come."
And I thought: "My gosh,
I've got to do something."
Well, eventually my mother
took me and put me on a plane
and sent me to Jackson Hole.
I was livid that he--
that she put her
on that airplane.
I said: "Dear, you'll regret
that decision someday."
[Jan] The mission continued.
You know, there was more sex.
B told me that he
and Gail were getting a divorce,
and now we could get married.
I am completely
and utterly convinced
that I am in love with B,
that I have to be with him.
And, of course,
the background of all of that
is we have to finish
the mission.
That time I spent up
in Jackson Hole with them
was just--
I could tell they were happy,
happier than Bob
had ever been.
And I don't know why
with a little girl,
but I guess that's his deal.
Mary Ann wanted her back
and was making a lot of fuss.
And she says-- I said:
"I think you better go home."
She said: "No, if I do--
I'd rather kill myself
than go back home."
[Jan] He put me on plane
and sent me to Salt Lake
and my mother came
and picked me up.
[Mary Ann] She was angry.
"I didn't wanna come home.
Don't wanna be here.
I want to go back up there."
It was like she took on
this different personality.
-[Mary Ann] She just kept
escalating the tension.
-[Jan] It was a panic.
I had the whole weight
of the world on my shoulders.
I was supposed to save
this dying planet
and the clock was ticking.
[Mary Ann]
He would not leave me alone.
He was going to have her
no matter what.
We'd never see her again.
He told me that.
"I'll take her
to the jungles of Africa.
I'll take her
to South America.
You'll never find us."
I said: "Leave me alone.
Leave my children alone.
Stay out of our lives forever."
And he did not like that,
because he didn't
leave Jan alone.
And, uh, the result
was her disappearance
a second time.
[type writer clicking]
[Mary Ann] She had only
been home a few weeks.
I was watching TV.
Everybody else went to bed,
and Jan came down the hall,
looked at me in there,
and I said: "Oh, come on in.
Come in and talk to me.
Tell me why you're so mad."
"No." Back to her room.
We went to bed, went to sleep.
Next morning, hollered down.
Bob always played the piano
if he had to and--
to wake 'em up.
She didn't come up.
Bob, I think, went--
was the one that
went downstairs,
and she wasn't there.
Instead, he found the note.
[Jan reading]
"Dear Bob and Mary Ann,
you won't let me
do what's right,
so I'll do what's wrong.
I'm leaving without B,
and 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. Jan."
The note didn't sound like Jan.
I mean, it was like
he had written the note.
[Mary Ann] He called
that afternoon,
it was later in the day.
He said Jan had called him,
told him that
she had run away from home
and that she would not
tell him where she was,
and he was worried.
He wanted me--
to know if I was worried,
and I said: "Worried sick."
Two or three days went by,
and it was
indescribable agony.
We just told people that
she was with her grandmother.
And of course,
it went on and on and on.
We were so afraid
that the word would be out
and that she was gone again.
Kidnapped.
We just didn't want that out
in the press at this point.
The Brobergs waited two weeks
before they called me
after she was gone this time.
[Welsh] I talked to Berchtold.
He's brokenhearted
that she's disappeared.
"You better catch her.
You better find her.
Somebody's got her."
I knew darn well that he was
right in the middle of it.
[Welsh] Then he got some
good behavior time.
I think he only spent
10 days in jail.
And he moved to Salt Lake City
to live in his motor home,
and he disappears.
But we had no idea
where Jan
or Bob Berchtold were.
He called me
so regularly and cried.
I called Pete Welsh
and told him.
And he said: "Just keep
taking those phone calls."
The FBI installed
tape recorders on the phone
at the Broberg home.
[Mary Ann] This continued
for about three months.
[Mary Ann sobs]
[Mary Ann crying]
[Mary Ann] And it was continual.
It was continually
a bombardment on my emotions.
[Mary Ann] We were desperate to
find that little girl.
[type writer]
[Welsh] It took us quite some
time to search all the trailer
parks in Salt Lake City area
and finally found
the one where he was.
And we, of course,
didn't knock on the door.
We put a surveillance unit
on the motor home 24/7.
Two or three weeks
into the surveillance,
an agent from Salt Lake City
knocked on the door.
Berchtold let him
in the motor home
to ask if he'd seen Jan,
and he said no.
We knew that he knew
where she was.
We knew that.
I mean, he was in love with her.
If he thought there was
something wrong with her,
he'd be looking for her.
He had great, big,
huge poster-size pictures
of Jan inside
of his motor home,
kind of like a mausoleum,
like a worship area.
But he didn't know
where she was.
Jan had been gone
for many months
when our phone rang.
[crying]
-[Karen] Love you Jan.
-[Bob] Okay. Love you, honey.
[type writer clicking]
[Welsh] The surveillance is
ongoing in Salt Lake City,
and agents observed Robert
Berchtold walk across the road
to a pay phone located
at a Husky gas station
in Salt Lake City.
He had gone to a phone booth,
made a phone call,
and he was on the phone
for about 10 - 12 minutes.
When he left the phone booth,
he left the phone book open
and there was a number
written on there.
We traced the number
to Pasadena, California,
to a Catholic girls' school,
and we called.
And the Catholic school said:
"There's nobody here
by that name."
We explained
the circumstances,
and explained them,
and explained them.
"She probably there
under an alias."
Come to find out she was
under the name Jan Tobler.
[Jan] The day that I was
kidnapped the second time...
I opened the bedroom window.
He was there and basically
helped me out the window,
got into
his Lincoln Continental
and away he drove.
We drove to California.
He enrolled me into an all-girls
Catholic boarding school.
[Welsh] She was far enough away
from Pocatello
that we didn't know
where she was,
but Berchtold was
close enough to her
that he could visit her
on the weekends.
And he told the nuns
that I was, uhm, his daughter
and that he was a CIA agent,
and that we had escaped
from Lebanon during the,
this was during
the Lebanon crisis,
and that my mother
had been killed,
and that he would
appreciate them
taking good care of me,
because he still had to go,
you know, do his CIA work,
but he would come
on the weekends.
And basically set up
the story for the nuns
so that if anyone were
to come to the school,
maybe looking for me, they had
to know that those were--
were the bad guys.
Those were the people
that were trying to get to him.
Agents of the FBI arrested
Berchtold the next day
for federal probation violation.
And he was taken to jail
and eventually
brought back to Pocatello.
A Pocatello policeman flew
to Pasadena, picked her up.
[Jan] I was forced
onto the plane to go home.
And then when I was
brought back to Idaho,
I had to go through
the system there,
and I had to be fingerprinted.
I had to go through this whole
thing. I was put in jail,
and then I was taken home.
Open the door, my mother was
standing at the kitchen sink.
I just walked
through the door,
and I walked down the stairs,
down the hallway
to my back bedroom,
and I shut the door.
I was completely gone.
There really was
not the vivacious,
happy, fun...
There was nothing of that--
that child left.
That was gone.
[Karen] The first time
that all this happened,
she was herself.
The second time, she was a--
It was a totally
different experience.
That time was--
was a lot more stressful.
We weren't close.
We weren't like we had been.
[Bob] She stayed away from me.
No hugging, no loving,
no talking.
She was just so distant.
I guess the best way
to describe her
was she was hollow.
She was just
without feelings.
Our daughter was
emotionally gone.
[type writer clicking]
[phone ringing]
[Bob] The phone rang,
and one of my employees,
he was screaming.
He said:
"Bob, the store's on fire."
And by the time I got there,
the fire was very intense.
[Jan] We were all there
standing out on the street,
and I just remember looking
at that burning building
and my dad just having his arms
around all four of us,
and saying-- [crying]
And I remember this
very vividly.
And he just said:
"Let it burn. Let it burn.
Everything that I want,
everything that matters to me,
is right here in my arms."
And I remember thinking:
"This is my fault.
It's burning because
of something I did."
[Bob] I knew that Berchtold
was behind it.
He was so angry that he--
I think he told Mary Ann
he was going to end my life
if I didn't give him
permission to see Jan.
He hated my position
as her father.
That hatred was criminal.
[Welsh] Well, I didn't think
Bob Broberg's life
was ever in danger
until his business
burned down.
And an investigation determined
that Bob Berchtold
had convinced two guys
who were in jail with him
he would give each one of them
a thousand dollars a month
if they burned down
Atkin Florist,
which Bob Broberg owned.
And they did.
They not only did that,
they burned down a whole
half a block of Pocatello.
They were convicted
and sent to prison,
but we could not
pin it on Berchtold.
[woman reading]
Robert Berchtold, charged
with first-degree kidnapping
on the August 10th disappearance
of then 14-year-old Jan Broberg,
is being held today
at the Bannock County Jail...
[male reporter]
Motion to dismiss the charge
of first-degree kidnapping
against Robert Berchtold has
been filed in six districts.
[female reporter]
A federal warrant
charging impersonation
of a Central
Intelligence Agency agent
has been filed against Robert
Berchtold, a former Pocatello...
[male reporter]
A preliminary hearing
started this morning
for Robert E. Berchtold,
charged with first-degree
kidnapping
in the August 10th kidnapping
of Jan Broberg.
[female reporter]
Robert Berchtold, a former
Pocatello businessman,
Tuesday afternoon was acquitted
of first-degree kidnapping
by reason of mental defect,
according to an order signed
by Judge Arnold T Beebe.
[Welsh] Robert Berchtold skated
on a lot of things.
He beat the arson.
He beat
the CIA impersonation.
And he beat
both kidnapping charges.
I don't know how many people
in this town asked me:
"How did he get away with it?"
If the United States Attorney
would've been on his toes,
if the Brobergs would've
stood up for the fact that--
"Pete, we've had sexual
encounters with him",
we could've nipped it
by putting him away
and forgetting about him.
He would've been in there
20 years to life at least.
[type writer clicking]
[Jan] The mission still
hasn't been completed.
There was still some
communication with him.
Not as much.
I think he was losing interest.
I was getting older.
The summer I turned 16,
I had some of the experiences
that I needed
in order to question
the existence
of the-- of the aliens.
I wanted to go to
this five week long drama camp
at Brigham Young University.
And it was a little scary
for us to think:
"Do we dare send her down
there?" But we decided,
okay, it's time for her to,
yes, go on her own,
and enjoy all of her friends
and the people
that were going there.
And there was a boy
in the play
that had been at the camp
who liked me,
and I knew he liked me.
And one day this boy bought
this ice cream for me.
And I thought: "Oh, my gosh,
something horrible is now
going to happen."
I ran back to my dorm
and my mom called,
and she said: "The dogs are
having a bad day today.
I think I fed them
something bad."
Jan went to pieces
screaming and bawling.
"I've gotta come home.
I've gotta come home.
I shouldn't be here.
I shouldn't be here."
I cried and said:
"No, Mom, it's my fault."
And I went to sleep, and
in the morning my mom called
and said: "I just wanted
to call and tell you
that the dogs
are doing fine."
At that moment,
I had a three-second thought.
"The dogs are fine.
Susan's still home.
Karen's not blind.
Dad isn't dead.
Are these people
still watching me?
Are they real?"
And then literally
the next thought
that came to me was:
"I'm just kidding.
I know you're real."
My birthday is happening.
My 16th birthday.
I'm still pretty much
in a panic,
and I'm thinking,
"Okay, if I am not pregnant,
I'm going to get a gun,
I'm going to tell Susan
about the mission,
and if she doesn't
wanna do it,
then I'm going to kill her,
and then I'm going
to kill myself."
My birthday was on July 31st.
The next day I woke up,
everything
was still as normal,
and everybody
was still there.
Everybody was alive.
And just so many different
feelings and emotions
that I had
when I realized that--
that they weren't real.
I knew that I probably needed
to tell somebody,
but I-- I didn't know how
or who or when or--
I didn't--
I didn't know what to do.
[Jan] I finally told my best
friend Caroline and Karen.
[Karen] She just started talking
about this little girl
that had to have this baby,
and he was supposed to be
the one to help her do this
and accomplish this mission.
And it was obvious
that she did believe it.
She did believe this was real.
And then I said, "You have
to go tell Mom and Dad."
[Mary Ann] She started relating
some of these things,
and I sat there and thought:
"Is this-- you know, really?
Is she really believing this?"
And that little girl
went to pieces.
She just sobbed and sobbed.
And it took at least two hours
to tell us about, you know,
15 - 20 minutes of what
we needed to hear.
Yeah, that night was very
significant and, you know,
something that has affected me
my whole life,
because it was--
it was not comfortable
to hear that
about your sister,
and have to have
those visions in your head,
and one that I don't think my
parents wanted to have either.
And I think that's why
they didn't probe more
when they knew
something had happened.
"Well, tell us
about what happened."
It's too painful.
It's too painful for them
to realize that they allowed
that to happen to her,
and, uhm,
they don't want to know.
You know?
[Jan] If I were to count up
the number of times
that Berchtold tried to engage
in a sexual manner with me,
between the two kidnappings,
in-between, and after,
it would be
more than 200 times.
[Jan] The cycle of shame
and abuse ends with me.
My name is Jan Broberg,
and I was abducted
and brainwashed as a child
by a trusted family friend.
In the forward of our book,
Mom's book:
"Stolen Innocence"...
Mom and I started having
these long, long,
like, interview-like talks,
and she started writing.
[Mary Ann] I began writing
the book in earnest in the '90s,
and I finished it in 2003,
had it published,
and then we began speaking
at different events.
Statistically, did you know
that 4 out every 10 women
has been sexually abused?
And Berchtold began
showing up at--
trying to show up at different
events where we were speaking.
[reporter] Even though their
nightmare began when
Jan was just 12 years old,
the Brobergs say the attacks
still continue. The latest was
this weekend...
Berchtold said:
"If you let these people speak,
they're telling a lie.
The book is not true."
Berchtold
began threatening us.
"If you don't shut
this book down
or get rid of your book,
I'm going to make your life
as miserable as possible."
[reporter]
Mary Ann says Berchtold
canvassed
the city of Pocatello
distributing these flyers
that contained
false statements
and libelous information,
information that Berchtold
was given total access
to the Brobergs' daughter
in exchange for sexual favors
with her parents.
[Jan] And that's how I came to
file a stalking injunction.
And I had to go to court,
because he contested it.
I think he actually wanted
to just see me up close.
It was so horrifying.
[Jan] Mr. Berchtold has remained
a threat and danger
to me and my family.
It is a constant
and continuous concern
that has escalated
in recent months.
I hadn't seen the man
for 30 years,
and for about the first
five minutes
I was shaking like a leaf.
[Berchtold]
You know this is quite a story.
And you have sold a lot of books
[Berchtold]
-because of the story, right?
-[Jan] We've sold a few books,
not enough to make back
the investment that
we paid to publish the story.
[Berchtold] Okay, you told
ABC News that you were
going to make a movie.
-[Berchtold] Is that correct?
-[Jan] I didn't tell
ABC News that.
I told them that there might
be offers for that. It could
happen. I don't know.
-[Berchtold] Is this your goal?
-[Jan] This my goal?
[Jan] My goal, Mr. Berchtold,
is to educate the public
about predators like you.
That is my goal.
[Berchtold] Oh, I see.
[Jan] I hope you do see.
[Jan] I hope you do.
[Jan]
I cannot believe that you can
look me in the eye.
You have no soul.
[Berchtold] Jan, I'm sorry
that you feel that way,
and I would like
to publicly apologize to you
for the hurt that
I have given you.
[Jan] If you want to apologize,
then you should stand up,
tell the truth, and serve your
time in jail, Mr. Berchtold.
[Jan]And I got
the stalking injunction,
not for the three years
which was customary,
but for the remainder
of his life.
An unusual confrontation
this weekend in southern Utah.
A woman speaks about
being abused as a child
when her accused kidnapper
reportedly shows up
and starts a clash
with her biker security force.
Jan Broberg-Felt, the speaker
at a women's conference
at Dixie College,
protected today by BACA,
Bikers Against Child Abuse.
BACA members
were outside the event
when a man named
Robert Berchtold is accused
of driving up
and making threats.
The perpetrator ran over
one of our BACA members
and then proceeded
to drive off.
One of the bikers
recognized him and says:
"That's Berchtold.
Let's get him!"
And jumped on the hood of--
he had a Dodge van.
And they jumped up on the front
and was holding on
to the windshield wipers.
So, he sped up
and then stopped fast,
and the guy fell off
and he got hurt.
So, they called the cops.
Bob did have a gun.
[female voice] We, the jury
duly impaneled in this case,
find the defendant
Robert E. Berchtold
guilty of the offense
of possession of a firearm
by a restricted person by proof
beyond reasonable doubt.
Count two, we, the jury duly
impaneled in this case, find
the defendant Robert Berchtold
guilty of the offense
of aggravated assault by proof
beyond a reasonable doubt.
[Joe Berchtold] Bob had gone to
court that day and found guilty.
And then says:
"You gotta come back next week
and we'll sentence you."
And he says: "If it's one day in
prison, it's gonna kill me.
I'm not going there."
He had taken all
his heart medicine
and drank Kahlúa and milk,
and so he drank that and died.
He committed suicide.
[Jan] When I heard
that he had killed himself,
I just felt a number
of emotions.
I cried, and I felt
completely sorry
for all of the people
that his actions had affected.
We have had six women
contact us to tell us
that they were sexually
assaulted and abused
as little girls
by Robert Berchtold.
He actually was found guilty
of rape of a child
in the case
of one of those girls,
and spent one year in jail.
One year.
[interviewer]
Have you forgiven him?
Forgiveness is a tricky word.
In my mind...
not forgiving somebody
only puts up the jail cell
kind of around you.
I figured out that I can live
with my tragedy
in a way that the tragedy
doesn't run me anymore.
It's taken something
to get here.
[Jan] The way I came
to forgive my parents
was by helping them
to forgive themselves.
Yes, they made mistakes,
but it's one thing
to make a mistake
kind of as two innocent people.
It's another thing to make
a mistake when somebody's
orchestrating you
and playing your emotions
and feelings.
I think it's the hardest
for my dad.
He'd get so angry
because he felt so stupid.
Like: "Why didn't I see it?"
You know?
"Dads are supposed to protect
their little girls."
I said: "He was a master."
He was just a master
manipulator.
[Karen] Berchtold had worked
on my mother for years.
He was very good
at just creating
that kind of a smoke screen
so that he could do
what he wanted to do with Jan.
He was so believable.
And to know he could manipulate
adults the way that he did
and make all of them
believe him,
then you can imagine
what he could do with children.
It would've been different
if Jan hadn't been kidnapped,
I'm certain,
but I didn't feel
cheated out of my childhood.
I'm incredibly lucky.
I'm blessed with
those parents of mine
and my sisters.
I think we did
a few things right
among the mistakes.
We loved Jan,
and that made the difference.
I guess
that's the bottom line,
because it's
such a bizarre thing.
But we lived it.
It's all true.
I have always said
if it hadn't been for me,
that wouldn't have happened.
I felt responsible.
Seeing the hurt
that came to her
and has been upon her
through all these years
because I allowed that man
to come into my home--
I know my husband
feels that way,
but I don't think I can ever
really forgive myself
for letting that happen.
You know, it's ironic
that the one person
that I would most like
to forget about
and never have pass through
my mind ever again,
is probably the person
that I think about every day.
[piano music playing]