Abducted in Plain Sight

She was

a beautiful little girl.

Very bright and very lively.

She smiled brightly at me.

And as she smiled,

there were definite dimples

in both cheeks.

My heart went out to her.

I walked up to her,

put my arm around her

and drew her close to me,

and held her tight.

She looked up at me,

her eyes beaming.

And I knew that I had found

the little girl

that I was searching for.

Jan had probably the most

ebullient personality

of any child I had ever known.

She was just so outgoing.

She was our first,

and she was a firecracker.

Jan was kind of my champion.

I was very shy as a child

and she was not.

My earliest childhood

memories would be with

my two sisters, Karen and Susan.

They're younger than I am

by two years each.

Karen's the middle child.

Susan's the baby.

And I was, you know, definitely

the big sister, the bossy one.

My sisters and I, really--

we were really good friends.

I mean, we played together.

We had a good just--

what I consider

normal childhood.

Just real free and easy.

We lived in Pocatello, Idaho.

We had that type of

a neighborhood

that you never locked

your doors.

Always open.

You could trust everyone

in the neighborhood.

My mom and dad were, you know,

very kind of traditional.

Just really sweet parents.

My mom was at home.

I always remember coming home

after school,

my mom would be ironing.

My father's a florist. Owned

a flower shop for 40 years.

I was completely loved.

I was completely secure.

I mean, we were listened to.

And I think that was crucial

for all of us surviving

what we did.

I met Bob Berchtold June 1972.

I was the chorister

at our church,

and was leading the music

one Sunday

and looked down and saw a family

that I didn't know.

Mary Ann had met them first,

and she says:

"Oh, I met the nicest family."

They had five children

and some of them were

the age of our daughters.

And she was telling me

all about them,

and how affable

and friendly he was.

He had such an effervescent,

wonderful personality.

We became very good friends.

And he was in business and we

talked about business matters,

and it just sort of clicked.

We had things in common.

I was in business,

I had a family. He had a family.

One of the first things

that I remember,

we came home from church

and there was

this beautiful fruit basket.

And there was

a little card on it.

And it said,

"We sure enjoy your family.

The Berchtolds."

I was personally thrilled.

I thought: "My word,

this is a pretty sharp guy."

My first impression when I saw

Berchtold and his wife Gail,

I thought of them

not quite matching

because she was the quiet one.

But she and I became

really quite close friends.

Everybody had a best friend.

You know, between the Brobergs

and the Berchtold family,

there was a best friend

for everyone.

We had some of

our best family times

when we were

with the Berchtold family.

Berchtold would pick

us up in the morning,

and we would get in the car,

and we would all shout together:

"It's gonna be a great day!"

And that's how we would

start our mornings.

I don't remember

who came up with the idea,

but we'd started to call him B.

Pretty much every day,

he would come by

at night and talk

to my parents,

and he was so engaged

with the kids, too.

I mean, he really was fun, and

he wanted to swing us around

and put a puzzle together and--

You know, I mean,

he was the fun dad.

But definitely his attentions

were definitely on Jan.

Brother B, he used to call me

all kinds of names.

But really the only one that

I really remember was Dolly.

A splattering of

clouds were set on fire

by the rays of the setting sun.

I looked at my Dolly.

Her face was aglow.

She reached out and took

my hand and then said:

"I love you."

I returned:

"I love you, too, beautiful."

I turned to her, put my arms

around her and pulled her

close to me and said:

"Dolly, you've brought

a special light into my life."

I love you more

than words can tell.

She looked up at me,

I bent over, and we kissed.

No man could love

any woman more.

He did give special

attention to Jan

that annoyed both Bob and I.

His fascination with Jan

was a little disturbing.

B was like

a second father to me.

I completely loved him,

completely trusted him,

and felt extremely safe.

I felt like I was

one of his children.

Berchtold had called

me earlier in the day and said:

"I wanna take Jan out

horseback riding

down in American Falls."

Berchtold comes driving up

to my house and said:

"Okay, I'm ready to take you,

Jan." She came in the back door.

I was like:

"Oh, yes! Yes! Yes! I wanna go!

I wanna go!"

And my mom was like:

"It's a school night,

and you have piano,

and I think we should try

for a different day."

And he says: "Well,

I guess I could pick her up

from her piano lesson and