Although it has already been the subject of a memoir, podcast and documentary, the true crime that has inspired ninepart drama A Friend of the Family is one that continues to shock and confound decades after events occurred in the 1970s. At age 12 and again at 14, Jan Broberg was kidnapped by Robert Berchtold, a man she described as a “master manipulator” in a 2019 interview with Vulture.
In 2003, Jan’s mother, Mary Ann, released a book titled but itbut critics felt too many questions were still left unanswered by the movie-length documentary.
