Jan Broberg Reveals Why 'A Friend of the Family' Was Needed After 'Abduction in Plain Sight'

Jan Broberg may have told her story in Netflix's documentary Abduction in Plain Sight, but now she feels ready to do it again, and this time in a way that doesn't miss any of the little details, she told Newsweek.

When she was a child, Broberg became the target of Robert 'B' Berchtold, a man who manipulated and groomed her as a child before abducting her twice, once at the age of 12 and again at 14.

Berchtold was a family friend and he inserted himself not only into her life but also into her parents', Mary Ann and Bob, lives as a means to get close to her, and this story is dramatized in Peacock's new true crime show A Friend of the Family.

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Jan Broberg Reveals Why 'A Friend of the Family' Was Needed After 'Abduction in Plain Sight'

For Broberg, it was essential to retell her and her family's story in the drama after Abduction in Plain Sight because she felt there was more to be told, and she spoke to Newsweek about why she wanted to work closely alongside creator Nick Antosca to make the show.

As well as producing the new drama and appearing in Abduction in Plain Sight, Broberg's mother Mary Ann also wrote a book, Stolen Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story.

The drama sees Hendrix Yancey and McKenna Grace portray Broberg at different stages of her life, Colin Hanks and Anna Paquin portray her parents, while Jake Lacey plays her abuser, Berchtold.

Reflecting on making the show, Broberg told Newsweek: "The feeling is one of gratitude and one of empowerment. I really felt like I started many, many years ago telling my story to big groups, little groups, whoever wanted to hear it, just because I felt like, 'Gosh, we survived,' our family actually thrived and stayed together, and we got through this.

"We wanted to help people maybe see what we didn't see. And also to know, there's hope. So those were the main reasons. And then we felt completely exposed from the documentary—which was really powerful but it didn't tell all of the story with all of the nuances.

"When Nick called that first two months, maybe not even two months, after the documentary came out, I could feel literally through the phone that he and Alex Hedlund [the show's executive producer] wanted to further the reason I wanted to tell the story."

Broberg explained that she felt she, Antosca and Hedlund had a mutual understanding of what the show could do, particularly the way it could help warn other parents and families about what her own went through.

"[I wanted] to show the psychology of a master manipulator, of the slow burn, and it's someone close to you that's why you don't see it, and that's the most common kind of abuse, and the least talked about," Broberg went on.

"And that's always been my goal, how can people see what's sitting right there in their congregation, their home, their neighborhood, their sports team, their school, it's right there, and their kids aren't telling them.

"Even if those children have wonderful relationships with their parents, like I did before this happened, they won't tell if they're protecting someone in their family, or they're scared, or if they're rewarded.

"So, it was really important to tell it in this way, and it's been marvelous to be a part of it, I've felt very cared for, and the message is strong, and the story is realistic and truthful, and I think it will relate to millions and millions and millions of people and families."

Nick Antosca Refused to Make the Show Without Jan Broberg

Antosca, for his part, didn't want to make the show if Broberg and her family weren't OK with it, because it only felt right to do so with their consent.

"It was essential that we get Jan's partnership," Antosca told Newsweek. "There was no way we were going to make this show without doing it as a collaboration with Jan and her family because it's their story, and because to make it authentic. And to bring that authenticity, and get the subjectivity, and the investment and the empathy, we needed to work together.

"We didn't want to tell it if they didn't want, if they didn't agree that there was deeper to dig and more to tell.

"When we first talked, and Jan talked about her desire to create awareness of this issue, I felt that our goals could really go hand-in-hand because what I can do as a writer, and what we all as a creative team can do, is tell a story with a rich human component and create that emotional investment.

"[We can] portray that psychological nuance and portray the context in which this happens so that, as an audience, as a viewer, hopefully once you've watched it you have a feeling of why and how it really could have happened, and what it felt like to live it. And when you have that emotional investment [and] empathy that helps create awareness."

A Friend of the Family premieres on Thursday, October 6, with its first four episodes on Peacock, and it will air weekly thereafter.