Hello Everyone!

Believe it or not, the post for this week does not have a gruesome details warning!

The Broaddus Family House

657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey was the dream home of Derek and Maria Broaddus. the $1.3 million dollar home was in the same town Maria grew up in, it was spacious, and the area is known for being safe enough for them to raise their three children in.

The Broadduses’ settled on the house in June of 2014, it was only three days later that the letters started.

Derek had gone to the mailbox in the evening after finishing some renovations and designs on the house he and his wife had just bought three days prior. Inside the mailbox, Derek found a letter that was addressed to them, “The New Owner”. It had no return address. The letter started of inconspicuous enough,

Dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard,

Allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood.

It did not continue on in the same manner. The author of the letter asked them how they ended up here and if “656 Boulevard call[ed] to you with its force within” (Wideman). Don’t worry, it just gets creepier from there. The author of the note carries on and writes,

657 Boulevard has been the subject of my family for decades now and as it approaches approaches its 110th birthday, I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming. My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched in the 1960s. It is now my time. Do you know the history of the house? Do you know what lies within the walls of 657 Boulevard? Why are you here? I will find out.

The author made note of how their surveillance had already begun; identifying the family car, commenting on their distaste for the contractors the Boraddus’ had hired, letting the family know that they had seen their children running around and that they have been counting. Here is where it starts to get really creepy,

Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested? Better for me. Was your old house too small for the growing family? Or was it greed to bring me your children? Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them too [sic] me. 

The author of the note wanted to make the family paranoid,

There are hundreds and hundreds of cars that drive by 657 Boulevard each day. Maybe I am in one. Look at all the windows you can see from 657 Boulevard. Maybe I am in one. Look out any of the many windows in 657 Boulevard at all the people who stroll by each day. Maybe I am one.

They then ended the letter with

Welcome my friends, welcome. Let the party begin

The letter was signed,

The Watcher

This would just be the first of many letters the Broaddus family would receive.

As soon as Derek came home to his family who was staying at their old house, he and Maria emailed John and Andrea Woods, the couple that sold them the house. The Woodses had received a letter a few days before moving out that was also signed “The Watcher”. Andrea hadn’t thought much of it because nothing similar had happened in their 23 years of owning the house, so she threw it away.

The police officers told both couples not to tell anyone else, including the neighbors, who were now suspects.

The Broadduses’ were in a constant state of paranoia. Two weeks after the original letter, Maria found another in the mailbox and called the police.

Welcome again to your new home at 657 Boulevard,

The workers have been busy and I have been watching you unload carfuls of your personal belongings. The dumpster is a nice touch. Have they found what is in the walls yet? In time they will. 

The Watcher had addressed the couple by name this time, but they did misspell their last name as “Braddus”. This suggests that The Watcher was either close enough to hear them, or had listening devices somewhere, neither of which are comforting ideas.

The Broaddus Family

In this letter, The Watcher had boasted about gaining more information about the children in the past weeks. The Watcher was able to find out the childrens’ birth order and their nicknames, which Maria had been yelling when the kids would get too close for comfort to the property line. The Watcher also noted that they had been able to see one of the children drawing in their enclosed porch, “‘Is she the artist in the family'” (Wideman). This letter was no less creepy than the last,

657 Boulevard is anxious for you to move in. It has been years and years since the young blood ruled the hallways of the house. Have you found all of the secrets it holds yet? Will the young blood play in the basement? Or are they too afraid to go down there alone. I would [be] very afraid if I were them. It is far away from the rest of the house. If you were upstairs you would never hear them scream.

Will they sleep in the attic? Or will you all sleep on the second floor? Who has the bedrooms facing the street? I’ll know as soon as you move in. It will help me to know who is in which bedroom. Then I can plan better.

All of the windows and doors in 657 Boulevard allow me to watch you and track you as you move through the house. Who am I? I am the Watcher and have been in control of 657 Boulevard for the better part of two decades now. The Woods family turned it over to you. It was their time to move on and kindly sold it when I asked them to.

I pass by many times a day. 657 Boulevard is my job, my life, my obsession. And now you are too Braddus family. Welcome to the product of your greed! Greed is what brought the past three families to 657 Boulevard and now it has brought you to me.

Have a happy moving in day. You know I will be watching.

This letter not only implies that The Watcher plans to do something to the family that involves them needing information on which rooms the children are sleeping in as well as making the children scream. It also suggests that The Watcher had asked the Woodses to move out, this goes against what they had said about not having any contact except for one letter.

Derek and Maria stopped bringing their kids to the house when they went. They were no longer sure if they wanted to move into the home.

The lack of visiting prompted another letter from The Watcher.

Where have you gone to?

657 Boulevard is missing you.

After a year of the investigation being open with no leads, the Broadduses’ were stressed. Derek had depression and Maria had PTSD. Both of them had paranoia as well.

Six months after the letters arrived, the family decided to sell the home, which turned out to be another nightmare in and of itself. The rumors had already been introduced to the world, no one wanted to by 657 Boulevard. There was soon a media frenzy around the house.

The Broaddus family also tried to sue the Woods family for not telling them about the letter they had received. The judge threw out the case because there was no evidence that John and Andrea had intentionally hidden the letter or thought it was a genuine threat.

The Broadduses’ considered selling the house to a developer who would tear down the existing house and split it into two lots. The neighborhood board denied this because each plot would be three feet too small for the mandated size in the neighborhood. When the Broadduses’ appealed the decision, the judges rejected it unanimously.

Interestingly, in 2018, the board approved the splitting up of another lot which required a much larger exception than the three feet the Broadduses’ had requested.

In 2015, during Christmas time, the families who were against the Broadduses’ attempt to split the property received threatening letters that were signed,

Friends of the Broaddus Family

In the spring of 2016, the Broaddus family found another family willing to rent the home from them. There was an exception though, they were allowed to move out if another letter arrived.

Two weeks later, the house received a letter addressed to,

The vile and spiteful Derek and his wench of a wife Maria

This letter also said

657 Boulevard survived your attempted assault and stood strong with its army of supporters barricading its gates… My soldiers of the Boulevard followed my orders to a T. They carried out their mission and saved the soul of 657 Boulevard with my orders. All hail The Watcher!!! … Maybe a car accident. Maybe a fire. Maybe something as simple as a mild illness that never seems to go away but makes you fell sick day after day after day after day after day. Maybe the mysterious death of a pet. Loved ones suddenly die. Planes and cars and bicycles crash. Bones break. You are despised by the house… and The Watcher won.

The letters did not deter the tenants as they agreed to stay as long as the Broadduses’ installed more cameras.

In October of 2016, a horror movie titled The Watcher was released by Lifetime. The Broadduses’ had a cease-and-desist order but it did not stop them. In 2018, Netflix won the rights to the story of The Watcher and the Broadduses’.

In July of 2019, 657 Boulevard was sold for $959,000. The Broaddus family took a loss of $400,000 less than they bought it for. As of right now, there have not been any reports from the new owners receiving letters from The Watcher.

The investigation of this case yielded no fingerprints, no digital trail, and no way for them to place a suspect at the scene of the crime. The police managed to gather three suspects.

The Gamer

While the police were surveilling the house one night, a car stopped in front of the house at around 11:00 pm. The car belonged to a young woman who lived in a nearby town; her boyfriend lived on the same block of 657 Boulevard.

The woman told the police that her boyfriend was into “some really dark video games” (Wiki). One of those games may have involved a character he often played as that was called “The Watcher”.

The boyfriend agreed to be questioned by the police but he never showed up for the interviews. The police couldn’t force him to come in because they didn’t have enough evidence.

He was never examined further.

Michael Langford

Langford was a neighbor to the Broadduses’. Derek directed the police to him because of a barbeque they both had attended in the neighborhood the day after the arrival of the first letter.

Langford and his 93-year-old mother lived in the house next door and have been since the 60s. The timeline matches up with the claim by The Watcher that their father had watched 657 Boulevard before. Langford’s father had died 12 years before the Broadduses’ moved in, which aligns with The Watcher saying that they had been watching the house for almost two decades.

Langford was also known to scare neighbors by watching them through their backyards and looking through their windows. He would have been able to see into the enclosed porch where The Watcher had mentioned seeing one of their daughters doing art.

The police questioned Langford after the arrival of the first letter. He denied knowing anything about it. The Broadduses’ sent the Langfords a letter while working with the police, telling them that they were planning on demolishing the house. There was no response from The Watcher like they had hoped.

There was DNA on one of the letters that belonged to a woman. Michael Langford’s sister, Abby, then became a person of interest. The DNA was not a match though.

After the DNA test, the investigation was stopped by the authorities and the Langfords were dropped as suspects. The Broadduses’ were not told why.

The Broaddus Family

Many people think that The Watcher was a character that the Broaddus family invented themselves.

Locals found it suspicious that the Broadduses’ could move from a $315,000 house to a $770,000 house, to a $1.3 million house in the span of a few years with refinanced mortgages. They theorized that the Broaddueses were experiencing buyer’s remorse and had created a ploy to get out of a tight financial spot.

The family also continued to renovate the house even after they knew that they didn’t want to move in, which struck some people as suspicious.

Many movie studios were attempting to get the rights to the story of The Watcher, a large media deal would have been quite the payday. Some think that the Broadduses’ knew if they made a story that was convincing enough, they could make a hefty profit.

Do you remember those threatening letters that were sent to the people who disapproved of the Broadduses’ plan of splitting the lot? Well, it turns out Derek wrote those.

He claims it was only because he was frustrated that the neighborhood had denied their request after knowing how hard it has been for them the past couple of years. He also claims that he did not write the original Watcher letters but people were still suspicious.

There are people who argue against this though. The psychological trauma the Broaddus parents experienced was real, and a strong contender against the theory that they did it.

It is also controversial because at the same time the Broadduses received their first letter, another family down the block had received a letter from The Watcher as well. This family had been living in their home for years with no issues so they threw the letter away.

Opponents of this theory say that the Broadduses would not have any reason to send another house a letter from The Watcher if they were looking to get a movie deal or move out of their house.

What is your opinion on the case? Do you think the mysterious gamer wrote those letters? Or was it the creepy watcher neighbor was The Watcher all along? Did the Broaddus family do it for money? Maybe it was a different unknown suspect entirely?

Sources –

https://www.thecut.com/2018/11/the-haunting-of-657-boulevard-in-westfield-new-jersey.html

https://patch.com/new-jersey/westfield/westfield-watcher-letters-revealed-10-creepiest-excerpts

https://allthatsinteresting.com/the-watcher-house

https://buzzfeed-unsolved.fandom.com/wiki/The_Eerie_Case_Of_The_Watcher

https://www.nj.com/news/2015/07/the_watcher_house_joins_list_of_stigmatized_proper.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3148988/New-twist-Watcher-mystery-No-copies-threatening-letters-no-summons-served-former-residents-insist-no-stalker-family-demanding-triple-1-35m-sale-price.html

https://www.nytimes.com%2F2019%2F08%2F09%2Fnyregion%2Fthe-watcher-house-sold-new-jersey.html&psig=AOvVaw13k04IMh_GX9qcotqcwohc&ust=1615585267693000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA0QjhxqFwoTCMDplaOaqe8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

https://www.allthatsinteresting.com%2Fthe-watcher-house&psig=AOvVaw1rcvqLaYIVLXB4Ew9C-v4K&ust=1615587908419000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA0QjhxqFwoTCODap5Kkqe8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD