Exclusive: Jan Broberg Recounts the Hardest Moment From Filming the Story of Her Kidnapping and Abuse
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Content warning: This article contains references to kidnapping and sexual assault some may find upsetting. Reader discretion is advised.
Peacock's limited series A Friend of the Family was filled with so many unfathomable twists and turns that viewers were stunned to discover that the true-crime series was based on the real-life story of Jan Broberg. She was kidnapped once at 12 and again at 14 by her neighbor Robert B. Berchtold, who brainwashed and sexually assaulted her on numerous occasions and had sexual encounters with both of her parents.
On Tuesday, November 15, Peacock premiered A Friend of the Family: True Evil, a documentary that highlighted Broberg's inspiring journey toward healing. The new doc followed Broberg as she revisited scenes where she was assaulted and revealed new details about one of her accuser's victims. Broberg also talked candidly with her mother about the abuse she experienced from her family's close friend.
An actor, proud mother of a 33-year-old son, and child sexual assault advocate, Broberg recently appeared in an exclusive interview with Seventeen, where she discussed the most challenging part of revisiting the scenes where she was assaulted, how involved she was in the original Peacock series, and how her assaults impacted the way she pursued romantic relationships.
Seventeen: In the new Peacock documentary, you go back to the original crime scenes where you were assaulted. What was that experience like?
Jan Broberg: It really was confronting in a way. I haven't been here since I was this little kidnapped, abused girl. How will I process this? How will I reframe this so that I don't leave scared? I can show up scared, but I want to make sure I don't leave scared. I had to really take my adult Jan in hand with my inner little girl Jan and say, "We're gonna go to this scary place, but when we get there, we're gonna really look at it, and we're going to go, oh, look at this beautiful ocean. Look at this beautiful place and be able to see that it's more than just a scary memory. It's more than that."
17: Were there any difficult moments to film?
JB: The motor home was the hardest, but I did it. I really felt like I did it. I faced it. I got angry. I was so furious about what that adult did to that young girl in this place. I was furious, and I was sad because I had a great childhood until I ended up that day in a motor home, strapped to a bed with that voice playing in my ear.
That was hard, but it was also like, but what else is this motor home? It's just a motor home. What else does it do? It could take me on a trip. It could take me somewhere beautiful. What else is this motor home? Oh, there were people that I met along the way that were not the monster. I met other people, the lady that lived next door in her motor home in one of the motor home parks who taught me how to play cribbage. I was able to find other things that this place represented that allowed me to push out the darkness and let in the light.
17: What inspired you to share your story with the world?
JB: I had a new baby, and I looked at that little bundle of joy — he's now a big 33-year-old man — and I thought, "Oh my word, How am I gonna protect him? How will I know? My parents weren't stupid. This was their best friend. They didn't see it. How will I do this?" That was really when I went, "I need to tell my story" because people think it's obvious, but it is not obvious who the predators are because they look like the good guys. They look like people that you can trust.
That was really when I started thinking about telling my story. I got encouraged along the way by a lot of my family and my therapist. Different people in my life just kept encouraging me "tell your story."
17: You served as a producer for A Friend of the Family, how involved were you with the casting process?
JB: Only to the degree that I knew they had to be a perfect choice. I would say, "Here's all the qualities and the characteristics, and here's what I think." And then they'd tell me about somebody that they're looking at, and I'd be, "Oh yes, that's perfect."
17: A Friend of the Family was a dramatized retelling of your life experiences, were there many moments that were embellished?
JB: It's very real. Its real dialogue is taken from actual recordings and from the police and FBI records and what other people [who] were interviewed actually said. It's truthful the way this story is told, which I hope means everybody will relate to one of those characters. Whether you're the child or you're the parent, or you're the concerned friend. I hope people relate to it, and their antennas go up, and they start to go, "Okay, wait, I did have a funny feeling about something. What does that mean?" Don't just dismiss it.
17: How did the kidnappings and sexual assaults impact your relationships as you grew older?
JB: I was trying to reclaim those years somehow. I fell in love really easily because I think I was trying to be a 12, 13, 14, 15, or 16-year-old. I needed that infatuation and romance. You're trying to figure out who you like and who you are. I had all of that taken away from me for five years. I think I made choices in my dating relationships and getting married without enough time to really get to know the person and if we were a good fit or not.
I didn't take enough time to actually make really good friends with the people that I quickly fell in love with and married. It was hard for me. I've been married and divorced several times, but I also did healing in every one of those marriages that I needed. The people that I married were good men. I just had things I needed to continue to heal from, and they helped me through a stage or a part of my healing process. And then I moved on. I'm still trying to figure out love.
17: How did the kidnappings and sexual assaults impact your relationships with your parents?
JB: I wasn't talking. It still took me almost a year, well almost two years, from the time of the second kidnapping until I actually had an experience that made me think for just a very brief few seconds, maybe they [the fictional people Berchtold told Broberg were watching her] aren't real, maybe they aren't watching me. From the minute I woke up in that motor home, I was convinced that this was real because, in the seventies, all of our shows on TV were like Lost in Space, Star Trek and Planet of the Apes, and I Dream of Genie. It was all about alien-type people that looked kind of like us. It was very interesting how he used that to plant all these seeds before he ever took me.
He would emphasize stories in the newspaper that were UFO sightings or stories on TV or take the kids to a science fiction movie. He would emphasize all that so that when I woke up alone strapped to a bed... I went from my happy, carefree childhood to the scariest thing that had ever happened to me. And that voice was plain. I immediately believed it.
So, my relationship with my parents was one of trying to protect them until I thought that maybe this wasn't real, and I accepted a date to a dance. When I came home from that dance and my dad wasn't dead, my sister wasn't missing, my other sister wasn't blind, I all of a sudden went, "Oh my gosh, I don't think this is real because I'm not supposed to go on dates with boys. I'm supposed to be vaporized right now. I'm not supposed to be here."
Now I know that he had gone on to his next victim. Now I know why he wasn't around and getting in touch with me and seeing me every few days because he'd already picked out the next little girl, which makes me sick. With this documentary, I get to go and talk to her in this documentary, The next little girl right after me. That just breaks my heart, but at the time, I didn't know what to do more than to start talking to my parents. And we started to, you know, unpack what was real and what wasn't real. And then, you know, there were times when I got angry, and they just said, "We love you. We're sorry. We didn't know." They just listened. They believed me. Those are the most important things you can do for your child. Don't question that they're lying. Don't do that. Believe them. Listen, that's what my parents did, which is how any anger that I had in my twenties, early on when I was going through my healing process, went quickly away because I had parents that unconditionally loved me and listened and believed me and supported me. So, my relationship with my parents has always been really good.
A Friend of the Family: True Evil is now available to stream on Peacock, where subscriptions start at $4.99 per month.
Parts of this interview have been edited and condensed for clarity.
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