Every parent's worst nightmare
Abducted in Plain Sight is a 2017 documentary film directed by Skye Borgman. It tells the story of Jan Broberg, who was abducted, brainwashed and repeatedly sexually assaulted by a family friend named Robert Berchtold when she was a child in Idaho in the 1970s. Broberg's parents, who trusted her attacker and allowed him access to their daughter, fully cooperated with the documentary and are interviewed. The film premiered on the festival circuit but became popular when it was released on Netflix in 2019.Tropes found in Abducted in Plain Sight:
- Alien Abduction: Robert Berchtold spins a tale to Jan that she is a human/alien hybrid destined to have his child to save humanity.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: B is a fairly dumb psychopath, but is able to feign trustworthiness enough to run rings around the Brobergs, who are even more stupid.
- Blatant Lies: Berchtold tells a number of obvious lies that the Brobergs believe far too often. He basically got away with it because they thought it was far more implausible that someone as seemingly nice as their friend "B" would do something terrible.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Jan is repeatedly raped and told to keep quiet about it. Needless to say, the trauma causes her to act out against her family, and her grooming makes her want to be with B, her abuser.
- The Chosen One: Berchtold tells Jan that she is this and she has a special destiny. She believes him.
- Double Standard: Jan's mother is seduced by B, the psychopath. He now has dirt on her, and uses it against her when she tries to keep him from her daughter. She gets thrown out of the house and made to look like the bad guy to her husband and family. The husband, who gave a handjob to B, has zero consequences from this happening.
- Depraved Bisexual: Berchtold seduces both Mary Ann and Bob Broberg in order to gain access to their daughter.
- Faux Affably Evil: B's whole deal. If he wasn't gaslighting, lying, or poisoning the family with shame, he was charming and protected by both the Mormon Church he attended and his OWN BROTHER. If it's easy to condemn Jan's parents, go ahead and condemn the society they lived in that knew B's true colors, suffered from them, and TOLD NO ONE as a form of warning that B was a predator.
- Good Is Not Nice: A lesson the parents needed to learn, as their appeasement 90% of the time is rooted in "being friends" and "being nice", and whatever else they conceded was due to gaslighting by an extremely learned and skilled psychopathic liar. Jan's parents may have been dumber than a bag of hammers and repressed to the point of being nearly suicidal, but that doesn't mean they deserved what happened to them or their daughter.
- Lawful Stupid: Jan's parents win again.
- Parents as People: The Broberg parents are both emotionally vulnerable and easily manipulated by Berchtold.
- True Crime: Exposes and uncovers crimes that happened decades ago.
- The Sociopath: Berchtold is a manipulative sexual predator who seems to have cast a spell on the entire Broberg family to get to Jan.
- Stupid Evil: B's no genius. And the irony of the whole situation is, as one of the FBI agents pointed out, B could have been caught by any one at any time for super egregious crimes, if anyone, including Jan's stupid parents, had bothered to share their experiences with B. Considering that the list includes the local Mormon Church and two families who had had their daughters targeted by B, AND B'S OWN BROTHER, you start to wonder where the conspiracy of silence ends.
- Too Dumb to Live: An accusation often leveled at the parents, which is not without merit. Being a dumb, nice pushover is not a good defense against a determined predator. However, both Jan's parents had grown up both repressed and clueless, so in addition to their normal stupidity, they also failed to notice extremely obvious red flags. By the time they realized it, it was too late: congrats, you are being gaslit by the friendship you have with a psychopath.
- Blackmail: B's obvious motive for having sexual relationships with both parents. Abusers control their victims, shame is a popular choice for control, and B set it up to be just so. Also it wasn't until the Wife/Mom was accused of infidelity did any consequences happen divorce-wise, and NOT to the psychopath!
- Stalker Shrine: The FBI discovers one of these Berchtold has made of Jan.
- Society Is to Blame: Hoo boy. If your parents don't protect you, don't expect other families, churches, or neighbors to save you, because they are keeping mum on the town psychopath's pedophilia. If there's a system in place to protect cis, hetero white men from the consequences of their molestation, it is on full display right here. At some point in the documentary you have to start yelling about who DIDN'T know about B.
- Wham Line: When Jan's father reveals that he also had an affair with Berchtold.
