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We gotta bring this out of the shadows.
Are you still involved with the LDS church?Yeah, I am a conscientious member of my church.
Im very adamant about making sure that theres no brainwashing.
That we actually think for ourselves, that we ask questions, that we can say no.
I dont want everyone to lose faith in humanity.
Thats not my goal.
I want people to be aware of their own mind and to be curious to ask questions.
It really is.My parents are such good people.
We talked and communicated.
There was no question that they loved us unconditionally and that they loved other people unconditionally.
We could ride our bikes anywhere.
And we had wonderful other friends before this family moved into our area.
I was just 6 years old.
She ended up playing Maria inThe Sound of Musicand I played little Gretel in our summer university community play.
Your parents participated in the documentary, which must have been very scary for them.
I mean, masturbation is not something to lose your mind over.
He felt terrible about doing that.
He had no idea what the bigger picture was it was about him trying to blackmail him.
B had a bigger, more sinister plan.
Grooming is a very interesting subject that I think many people do not understand.
I dont feel like people really understand how it happens and they just blame my parents.
The reality is that my parents were victims too, and this man was just a master manipulator.
I was a late bloomer I was five feet tall and 90 pounds when I graduated from high school.
That was part of why I really thought I was an alien.
My body hadnt changed, and I thought its not going to change because Im half-alien and half-human.
There were just so many things that that I wanted to know.What were you guys doing?
With my dad, it took longer.
He was uncomfortable with it.
My mom repented and tried to make things right.
She went back to school and became a social worker.
She went before Congress and lobbied for the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
So my mother had been very actively trying to make up for what she felt were her mistakes.
Lets backtrack a bit.
After the kidnappings, you still loved Berchtold and wanted to fulfill the promise to save the planet.
I was supposed to have a baby by age 16 to save my family and the planet.
I thought that was all real.
I thought they were watching me.
I was completely convinced.
I wanted to have a baby.
I wanted to marry him.
I barely said hello to my dad.
I didnt talk to any men because that was against the rules.
That was the first time I had that thought in four years.
And then I started to test it.
I started to do things that were against the rules to see if anything would happen.
I remember just sitting in my bedroom and not knowing what to do.
I cant even describe the feelings.
They were just so all over the place.
I was literally the savior of a dying planet.
And what I have done to my dad?
Its very typical of someone whos been abused to blame themselves.You feel all this shame.
I hardly talked at all about the sexual abuse in detail.
It was my friend Caroline who probed and probed.
She didnt care that I was having a total nervous breakdown, crying in the carpet, just bawling.
Just clawing my fingernails against the carpet.
It was coming out like a purge.
As you were telling your friend, you were telling yourself for the first time.You are absolutely right.
And then some things came out more slowly and in more detail over time.
Im really grateful that I had parents who listened.
They didnt take a stab at defend themselves.
They just acknowledged my feelings and listened.
I had a foundation.
I knew that I was loved.
I knew that I could trust my parents.
He used to say that every day:with every fiber.Even when I was so horrible to him.
You dont get to see in the documentary because all you see is big bullet points in 90 minutes.
It took seven years for all of that to happen.
And Im so sorry.
And why didnt I?
And she has maintained this story to this day she only had sex with him three times.
My dad saw through him.
He knew something was wrong.
Thats when my mom woke up and thought, I dont want to lose Bob.
I dont want to lose my girls.
They were a united front again.
I think that triggered the second kidnapping.
You sound like youre in a healthy place with your parents.
But Im wondering how you got there, specifically.It was a variety of things.
I had a couple of good counselors along the way.
You have to go through the feelings.I lost my childhood.
I lost my early teenage years when I was supposed to have crushes on boys.
I lost that and I couldnt get it back.
And I was so sad and upset.
And then I was angry, like,Why didnt you see it, Mom?
Why did you do that, Dad?
Why didnt we know more?That advice was really good.
One of the other big pieces in that puzzle was going into a program, the Landmark Forum.
I can see it.
I can learn from it.
And I can help others from it.
And its not on me.
Its not in me.
Its not running my life.
Its just that thing over there, and now Im free to decide what my life is.
Im free to determine whats next.
And it really had a very powerful and positive effect on my life.
And then, being active in my church was also a really important piece of my healing.
I think that is what made me really want to help others.
People would hear about my story and ask me to speak in front of groups.
I always knew that sharing my story was important for whatever reason.
That makes you feel like youre not alone.
And that was my therapy.
As you started healing, what understanding did you come to about your own parents?
You dont have any data.
A master manipulator also targets people.
They have a sixth sense.
He knew, These folks are trusting, and they are loving, and they are pure of heart.
And thats gonna be easier for me to manipulate.
Plus, they have the child that Im interested in.
The whole picture was perfect.
I was a little pleaser, you know?
I had been around adults a lot and I wanted to c’mon them.
Our home was an open door.
We had friends from every walk of life in our house.
They just didnt have that antenna up.
What was it like to face Berchtold in court so many years later?That was pretty scary.
I mean, I had gone on with my life and tried to do the best I could.
We had self-published our little book and I shared my story.
We got asked to go to conferences.
But I remember when he showed up at that university in a van with a gun.
She had two daughters who had run away from home.
She told her they ran away to their fathers house in Idaho because he was abusing [them].
And this was 28 years later.
I talked to her on the phone and she just cried.
She said she never told anybody about the tapes because she thought nobody would believe her.
He played those alien voices on her, too.
She was in his apartment for 119 days.
He was best friends with her mom, who was a psychiatric nurse at a leading hospital.
And she said, My mother couldnt see through him.
This is where I have to ask people to put themselves in those shoes.
Because this could only do some good, if you accept the fact that this could happen to you.
A child you know and love is being abused by someone you know and love.
And you just dont know it yet.
I went through the gamut of emotions.
I cried because of the amount of relief because facing him in court was scary.
I felt like I was 12 years old that day.
I wasnt afraid anymore.
I was angry that he had taken what felt like the easy way out.
He never had to serve his time.
I had so many different feelings and emotions.
It was a very emotional day for me.
Is that still true?Not as much now as it was then.
You see another little girl, and you think, What is she doing outside without a coat on?
There are so many ways to wonder if shes being abused.
You just cant help it.
I dont dwell on it.
I dont go to a deep, sad, dark place.
Are you considering a sequel to the documentary?It is possible.
We have 60 hours of footage that didnt make it into the film.
Its something that people just dont really understand.
They just look at my parents and think, Arent they just stupid and crazy?
But it happens to so many people on some level.
Its not that there werent things to see.
Its that nobody wants to see it.
And so is the perpetrator.
We dont want to shine a light there.
I dont want everybody to have no trust and no family relationships.
I want people to have wonderful, loving relationships.
That you actually know what to do when you really are quite certain something is wrong.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
