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Prosecutor Charges Berchtold With Kidnaping, Ransom Demand★ ★ ★Former Pocatello Merchant to Fight ExtraditionBy DAN FLYNN Journal Staff WriterMissing for three months, 14-year-old Jan Broberg of Pocatello was found alive Tuesday in Los Angeles by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, Garth Pincock, Bannock County prosecuting attorney, announced late Tuesday.Robert E. Berchtold, 40, formerly of Pocatello, is charged with kidnapping the girl and making a consent to marriage ransom demand, the prosecuting attorney said.Wc have determined from evidence gathered there was a ransom demand. It was consent. And that was from a telephone con versa lion, Pincock told reporters during a hastily called news conference.Mountain Bell Telephone Co. helped the FBI in tracing a phone call from Berchtold to Jan Broberg in Los Angeles, Pincock said.George Shari, a Pocatello police detective who was been working on the case since August, flew to Los Angeles late Tuesday to pick up the girl.‘‘We just discovered her, the prosecuting attorney said. We don’t know how long she has been there. Pincock also said local authorities had no information about Ms. Broberg’s condition.“We do believe there was a ransom involved, or we would not have charged first degree kidnap, Pincock said.Berchtold, a former Pocatello merchant, was arrested last Friday in Salt Lake City on a federal warrant charging flight to avoid prosecution in connection with a first degree kidnapping warrant filed irvBannock County.'' Pincock stoned extradition papers late Tuesday charging Berchtold with first degree kidnapping. The extradition papers were today forwarded to Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus. Berchtold plans to fight extradition to Idaho.Berchtold pleaded guilty to a federal kidnapping charge in the 1974 disappearance of Jan Broberg, then 12. A similar stale charge was dropped.This time, Pincock said, regardless of what federal charges are filed, Idaho will prosecute the first degree kidnapping case.Asked what will happen to Jan Broberg when she is returned to Pocatello from Los Angeles, Pincock said: We don't anticipate turning her over to her parents.The 14-year-old girl was Jast seen in PocaielJo Aug. 10, Pincock said.Until FBI agents located her in Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan Broberg was last seen Oct. 3 between Sail Lake City and Ogden, Utah.Berchiold’s senlence in that earlier federal kidnapping conviction was five years in prison wilh all but 45 days suspended. The former Pocatello merchant served pari of that federal jail time in the Bannock County Jail, from Sept. 1 to Sept. 16, 197G. A federal court clerk said Berchtold was credited with 30 days of jail time served when the case was being litigated.The young girl’s only contact wilh her parents during the three months she was missing was one recent very limited and very carefully controlled. telephone conversation, Pincock said.Local FBI agent Pete Welch told the Journal the federal flighl lo avoid prosecution charges against Berchtold will be dropped when the Idaho first degree kidnapping warrant is served on the 40-year-old man. Bond on the first degree kidnapping warrant is $500,000.Details surrounding the Broberg girl’s activities in Los Angeles, or if she might have been with anyone when she was taken into custody, were unknown to Pincock.Local law enforcement officers had reason lo believe the girl was in danger, but he could not discuss those reasons at this time, Pincock told reporters Tuesday.In October of 1974, Berchtold disappeared with Ms. Broberg. A friend of the girl's parents, Robert and Mary Ann . Broberg. 171 S. \Sth, Berchtold reportedly had permission to take Jan horseback riding. Y■ • V‘-vFollowing an FBI investigation that covered all 50 states, Canada, and Mexico, Berchtold and the girl were located in Mazallan, Mexico on Nov. 26, 1974.Berchtold was found competent to stand trial afler a psychiatric examination ordered by a federal judge. The defendent then changed his earlier pica of innocent to guilty.
Newspaper Details
Idaho State Journal
Pocatello, Idaho, US
Wed, Nov 17, 1976
Page 25
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
FL, USA 22 Apr 2019
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