GALO: Now, after being found the second time, how was your acclimation back into your life at home and a sense of normality?

JB: After that second kidnapping, I was more like an alien than a human. I had really lost so much of who I really was. My mother said that was the worst part, after that second kidnapping, because there was nothing of her daughter, her Jan, left. I was such an empty vessel. She said that I was always full of life and fun, but that I was really like a robot and they didn’t know why because I didn’t tell anyone until right as I was turning 16.

I was so depressed because either him or the “aliens” were always in touch with me, even when I was at home. I would get notes from somebody at school that said I was to go to a phone booth and sit on the floor until the phone rang. Once it did, it was either him or the monotone voices on the other line giving me instructions on what I was to do next and reminding me of the rules. Even as the furniture salesman he was before all of this, he had designed mine and my sister’s rooms [complete with a small window in mine] and because of that, the ivory box with those alien voices showed up in my room more than once in the interim between the two kidnappings. To wake up to that sound and that box being in my room, you knew it was real. They were real to me. And that box instructed me when it was time to crawl out that window and there he was, to help me and take me again so that we could continue with the mission, which had to do with bearing a child that would save this alien planet.

GALO: You called yourself an “empty vessel.” What was the healing process like when you were coming from such a troubling state of confusion?

JB: I had gotten to a point where I wanted to end my life because I was carrying around this huge burden. Not only did I have this secret that I was supposed to have a child to save a dying planet, — which is a big burden on a child — but on top of that, it’s a huge secret, and on top of that, I must keep this secret to protect the lives of my family. I had become so burdened and depressed in a silent way that I had planned my suicide because I was not pregnant and I was approaching my 16th birthday. That was the magic number for when I was supposed to be pregnant with this alien savior, if you will, and I was not. But before I committed to my plan, I had the thought that before I do all of that, which included telling my younger sister, I better make sure this is real.

It was the first time in four years that I had ever even thought that. I had never doubted it was real. So, I started doing little tests to see if something terrible would happen to my dad or my sister. And nothing happened. I would do little things, like talk to a boy at school and nobody was dead. Everybody was alive the next day. So, after a period of time, I actually accepted a date to go to a school dance, which I had never done. And it’s a miracle I did that because I cried myself to sleep that night thinking the worst, and by the next morning [when I saw that my family was fine], I realized that this was not real. I had never thought that in four years, and then it was just a stream of trying to divulge and understand everything that had happened. And I guess I have been healing, sharing and trying to make a difference ever since.

My mother took my 900-page FBI file and wrote a book about my story, entitled Stolen Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story and I am currently working on a documentary of my story, Jan Broberg: The Documentary. I am also developing the story into a feature film and possible series because I would like to tell true stories — scripted but true — that will help others become informed so that they might notice and recognize if there are warning signs in people that they know. And to also inspire those who may have been victimized that they can heal, to not give up because there is hope around the corner. I have had a full life and I feel like I have a great life, and that is a result of the choices you make. You can have a fantastic life post trauma.

GALO: After your unique experiences, why did you gravitate toward acting as a career? Was that always an aspiration you had or did it manifest after your ordeal? And do you find the art of acting to be therapeutic?

JB: I was an actress before he ever moved into our neighborhood and became a part of our lives. I think it is something that I was born to do. From the age of six, I was singing songs in church and begging my mom and dad to let me go audition for plays. I was starring in shows like Oliver!, playing Oliver; and I was playing little boys and little girls — I even played Gretel in The Sound of Music. I was very involved in theater in my community as a young girl and, of course, I’ve never quit. And thank goodness I had the theater for the therapy that it provided. Theater was always home to me, even when I was returned to my physical home. It was the one place where I could honestly emote myself. Where I could be myself through a character that could scream or cry or be angry, whereas I couldn’t be those things at home because I couldn’t give it away or something terrible would happen to someone I loved. But on stage, I could feel. If I hadn’t the stage and theater, a place where I could play a character and actually express the feelings I was feeling myself, I don’t know if I would have survived it.

(Interview continued on next page)