Yes, we’re still talking about this documentary
It’s been a good few weeks now since Netflix dropped the shocking and surreal documentary, Abducted In Plain Sight.
The film tells the story of a young girl named Jan Broberg and a paedophile named Robert Berchtold or, as he was otherwise known, ‘B.’
‘B’ sexually abused Jan for years, kidnapped her twice, and even married her in Mexico – all the while her parents struggled to get her back or, in some cases, even engaged in sexual favours with ‘B’ themselves.
It proved incredibly difficult for audiences to sympathise with the parents when the documentary seemed to suggest that they were simply allowing all of this to happen to their daughter.
We later found out that they weren’t, and that the film had to leave a lot of details out, but regardless, the story remains a surreal and disturbing one.
One particular aspect that we’ll never get over is the fact that when ‘B’ kidnapped Jan the first time, he married her.
Literally married her. A 12-year-old girl. Rang her parents and said that’s what was going to happen and they were (apparently) like, okay, fine, cool go for it.
Crazy stuff.
However, Jan has since attempted to set the record straight about that one aspect of the film, claiming that ‘B’ told her the real reason why he needed her to be his wife – and it apparently wasn’t because he was a paedophile.
The reason, according to her, was that he wouldn’t have been able to get back across the Mexican border with her if they weren’t married.
Right.
“He said because we wanted to come home, ‘they would not let me come back across the border if I did not have her married to me. I didn’t want to marry her’,”she said, paraphrasing ‘B’ on Entertainment Tonight.
Note: this man, ‘B’, also kidnapped Jan (twice) and sexually abused her, so probably worth taking his remarks with a massive dose of salt.
If you have yet to watch Abducted In Plain Sight, you can stream it on Netflix now.
