The ‘Abducted In Plain Sight’ Director Has A Theory On The Doco’s Most Frustrating Question

If you sat there murmuring different variations of “What the fuck?” while watching Abducted In Plain Sight, the explosive true crime documentary streaming on Netflix, don’t worry: you’re not alone.

Not only has the internet at large reacted with a mixture of confusion and pure, unbridled rage at the tale of the Brobergs, the family at the centre of  Abducted In Plain Sight, the film’s director Skye Borgman has revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair that she felt exactly the same way editing the thing.

“We spent so much time with them on the computer, going through what they had said, and [editing] things together,” Borgman said. “There were times when the family was just so frustrating to me.”

I watched ‘Abducted In Plain Sight’ last night. Am I the only one who was aggressively angry with the parents the whole time?

— Jaclyn Hill (@Jaclynhill) February 17, 2019

Abducted In Plain Sight details the two — count em, two — times that the young Jan Broberg was abducted by her much older neighbour Robert Berchtold.

But, although Berchtold is the clear villain of the piece, most viewers have reacted with disgust at the Broberg parents, Bob and Mary Ann, who (beware, here come spoilers) engaged in sexual relations with Berchtold, with Mary Ann sleeping with the abductor of her own daughter after the first kidnapping.

In the interview with Vanity Fair, Borgman has claimed that she believes the family’s faith accounts for their stunning reaction to Berchtold and his abduction of their daughter. Bob and Mary Ann were avowed members of the Church of Latter Day Saints, and Borgman believes that the faith played a role in “sheltering” them — memorably, at one point in Abducted In Plain Sight, Bob claims he had never before heard of a paedophile.

Moreover, Borgman also believes that Mary Ann and Bob were “so consumed with their own actions and their own trauma that they just didn’t pay attention [to Berchtold] the way that they were supposed to.”

It’s worth noting that Jan has forgiven both Mary Ann and Bob, and is apparently distressed by the criticisms of her parents that have circulated since the documentary went viral.

My reaction to everything Jan’s parents said in Abducted in Plain Sight pic.twitter.com/RHpedIrg0s

— Ruth Elizabeth (@ruthbayl) February 12, 2019

Borgman also reveals in the interview that she’s considering whether or not it might be prudent to revisit the story of the Brobergs.

“I guess in a perfect world, it’d be sort of a trilogy of films,” the Abducted In Plain Sight director revealed.

So get ready folks — we might all be huddling around the television and shouting confused obscenities at the elder Brobergs before we know it.