AFTER surviving repeated kidnappings 40 years ago, Jan Broberg, whose tragic story was immortalized in the popular Netflix true crime documentary, Abducted in Plain Sight, had a life-saving surgery.
In a recent Instagram post, Broberg revealed she had a kidney removed with a very special recipient in mind as a match.
Jan Broberg, whose story is told on the popular Netflix documentary Abducted in Plain Sight, revealed she underwent surgery on InstagramInstagram/janibroberg
Broberg in the hospital after having her kidney removedInstagram/janibroberg
Netflix documentary Abducted in Plain Sight chronicles the strange relationship between Robert Berchtold and the Broberg familyNetflix
The April 16 post by Broberg features her pictured with two others from a hospital room.
“I wanted to share some wonderful news — I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to donate my kidney to my beautiful sister Karen today,” Broberg wrote.
“Any prayers, thoughts, blessings, and positive vibes are greatly appreciated!”
She urged viewers to be patient with her for a few weeks and deferred contact to a representative from The Jan Broberg Foundation.
The most-liked comment on the post is from the foundation and reads, “Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you all know the surgery was a success and Jan and Karen are recovering,” and thanked viewers for their comments and prayers.
Broberg founded the organization in 2022 as a means to advocate for legislation that holds sexual abusers accountable and to support survivors of childhood abuse like herself.
Broberg was abducted when she was 12 and then again at 14 in the 1970s, by her neighbor Robert Berchtold.
Berchtold — a friend of the family and a charming church leader — managed to slither his way into the Broberg family, to the point that even parents Bob and Mary Ann Broberg were not concerned when they had knowledge their daughter was taken by Berchtold, reported Newsweek.
At one point, he grew close enough to the Brobergs that they referred to him as “B” and even “Dad,” per previous reporting from The U.S. Sun.
Depite his familial relationship with the Brobergs, the twisted mastermind managed to turn 12-year-old Jan against her parents, forcing her to have sexual encounters with him.
Originally abducted by Berchtold on the pretense that they were going horseback riding, Jan was forcibly taken to Mexico for five weeks where he married her.
At one point, he even convinced Jan that she and Berchtold were aliens who needed to have sex to advance their race.
Broberg’s story was brought to light in the memoir Stolen Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story, by Broberg’s mother, Mary Ann Broberg.
Her plight was later immortalized in the 2017 true crime documentary, Abducted in Plain Sight, also known as Forever B, which contains interview footage with Broberg.
FAMILY AFFAIR
The drama mini-series, A Family of the Friend, which debuted on Peacock in 2022, hones in on how Jan’s parents allowed their daughter’s abductor back into their lives.
Any prayers, thoughts, blessings, and positive vibes are greatly appreciated!”
Jan Broberg
It also focuses on the strange relationship they had with Berchtold, whom the couple both had sexual relations with.
Bob Broberg said he engaged in “an act of masturbation” with Berchtold one day when he lured him into going for a drive, reported Distracify.
Abducted in Plain Sight director Skye Borgman said she found out about the sexual relationship between the two men through a “kind of a manifesto that Berchtold himself had written,” Borgman told Distracify.
Speculation persists on whether this was the only sexual encounter the two had.
Meanwhile, Berchtold and Mary Ann began having an affair after Jan was returned home following the first abduction, reported Newsweek.
The affair stopped after Bob and Mary Ann almost divorced.
The two revealed their joint relations with Berchtold in Abducted in Plain Sight.
After being charged with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm, Berchtold took his own life in 2005, according to Newsweek.