Wild.
If you haven’t watched Abducted In Plain Sight, really you’re missing out.
The “twisting, turning, stranger-than-fiction” 90-minute documentary centres on the story of a young girl who was abducted – twice – by the same man.
Oh, we’re serious.
In the early 1970s , the Broberg family met a seemingly nice man, dad-of-five Robert ‘B’ Berchtold, who ended up becoming a very close friends of theirs.
B brainwashed Jan into believing she was part of an alien family, and that she and B must start a family in order to save her family from peril.
B sexually molested Jan, and among other things, took her to Mexico where they got legally married, as the legal age of consent was 12 in the 70s.
But, B was already married – and nobody seemed to bat an eyelid that the man had two wives – committing bigamy.
Anyway, one Reddit user has gotten to the bottom of it.
“The focus on marriage throughout that abusive relationship was so mysterious to me. But now that I’ve read a tiny bit about Mormonism, it looks to me like B just copied Joseph Smith.”
“One thing that confused me was how in the world Jan or her parents could take a marriage to B seriously, knowing that a) he’s already married and b) marriage means sex.”
“I totally forgot about polygamy!”
They went on:
“For them, the concept of marriage is completely separate from US laws. And there are so many different ways to view marriage. I know that the LDS doesn’t support polygamy anymore, but I get the sense that it’s never too far from their thoughts. Like at any time you can say, “I had a revelation! God came to me and told me I needed to take a second wife!” I don’t think they take legal issues seriously — they’re happy to skirt around them whenever needed.”
“Also, you can pretend that a marriage is platonic. Smith did that a lot. The whole concept of “sealing” yourself to someone is one big blurred boundary. You can seal yourself to your daughter or your wife, for eternity or just this life. You can be platonic and then suddenly say that God told you to have sex.”
“I’m start to get a glimmer of how being married in Mexico might have been persuasive to Jan’s family, B’s wife, and the LDS community. I mean, it wasn’t persuasive, but it’s not so farfetched to me now that B thought it would give him a bargaining chip.”
“I wouldn’t have been surprised if B succeeded in his quest to marry Jan in the US, then convinced a bunch of Mormons that the aliens had told him he had to have children with a bunch of 12 year olds. Then off they would all go to Mexico to procure 12 year olds for B.”
“He really does seem like the perfect cult leader.”
Mind.blown.
