The Watcher Case:
657 Boulevard Westfield, New Jersey is known to be an address that struck most modern-day detectives with fear and curiosity, and the public owes that to “The Watcher,” an unknown stalker that left the public speechless after writing his letters.
In June of 2014, Maria and Derek Broaddus were just about to move to their new 1.3 million dollar “dream home” with their three kids on what was known to be the 30th safest neighborhood in the United States. Everything was going smoothly for the first 3 days after the close of the sale until they received their very first letter. “The New Owner” were the words that were on the envelope in thick and bulky letters, while the message was typed on a computer. It read:
Dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard:
Allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood. How did you end up here?… Did 657 Boulevard call to you with its force within?
657 Boulevard has been the subject of my family for decades now and as it 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.
Who am I?
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.
You have children. I have seen them. So far I think there are three that I have counted.
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?
The Watcher
After the family received the letter, they reached out to John and Andrea Woods, the previous owners of the house, who said that they have never received any letter like that in 23 years of living in the house but received one a few days before they moved out. John and Andrea stated that they never felt like they were being watched, and went as far as saying that the rarely found the need to lock the doors. While they did think the letter they received was odd, they threw it out without thinking too much about it. After reporting the letter, the police instructed both families to not tell anyone about what had happened, not even the neighbors, who were now all prime suspects.
Two Weeks Later
The Broaddus family received their second letter two weeks later, but this time the letter is more specific. The message included some strange details, including the family name (although it was misspelled), the children’s birth order and their nicknames. The watcher even mentioned spotting Maria and Derek’s daughter painting outside, asking if she was the artist in the family.
Some parts of the letter read:
It has been years and years since the youngblood 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.
After the letter was received, the couple put a hold on their plans to move in and stopped bringing their kids to the house, which led the unknown man to write the third letter a few weeks later, reading:
Where have you gone to?… 657 Boulevard is missing you.
With no fingerprints on the letters, no digital trail and no physical evidence, no person could figure out who the watcher really was. The incident took a very heavy toll on the mental health of the Broaddus family, with Derek stating that he was going through depression and Maria’s therapist confirming she was going through PTSD, but both were going through some extreme levels of paranoia that made their daily lives sound threatening. The Broaddus family sued the Woods and attempted to sell their home only 6 months after the letters were sent, however, due to the social climate around them, buyers were extremely skeptical when it came to buying the house.
With no buyers, the Broaddus family suggested tearing down the house and splitting it into two smaller ones, but the neighborhood planning board rejected the idea as the houses would have been less than three feet too small for the mandatory size of the neighborhood houses.
Maria Braoddus was understandably upset, saying, “This is my town, I grew up here. I came back, I chose to raise my kids here. You know what we’ve been through. You had the ability, two and a half years into a nightmare, to make it a little better. And you have decided that this house is more important than we are.”
That summer, a few families that protested against Maria and Derek’s plan received some threatening handwritten letters signed “Friends of the Broadus family”
Two years after the first letter had arrived, the Broadus family finally managed to find a family looking to rent the house, with the power to leave the home if another letter arrived. Within two weeks another letter had arrived:
To the vile and spiteful Derek and his wife Maria
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 the 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 feel 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 Suspects:
Suspect #1
The first suspect to have been reported is a man commonly known as “The Gamer”. While two Westfield policemen were inspecting the house at 11 PM, a random car suspiciously stopped right in front of the house for some time. The car traced to a woman from a neighboring town, who said that her boyfriend lived on the same block as 657 Boulevard and was into some extremely dark video games, including a game he played as “The Watcher”. Although the man agreed to talk to the police, he didn’t show up to his interviews, and the authorities had very little evidence against him, so he never got questioned.
Suspect #2
The second suspect is one of the family’s neighbors, known as Michael Langford. At the time the letters were being sent out, Michael was living in the house next door, which was owned by his mother ever since the 60s, which (if you recall) was when The Watcher’s father was watching the house. The Watcher also stated that he had done the job for the better part of two decades, which makes a lot of sense considering that Micheal’s dad died 12 years before the first letter arrived. He was also known to make new neighbors feel creeped out with behavior such as staring down their windows and walking on their yards, and due to the positioning of 657 Boulevard, Landford would have spotted the family’s daughter painting outside.
Suspect(s) #3
Despite the evidence we have for the first two suspects, there are some people out there who believe that The Watcher was a fake case made up by the Broaddus family as a PR stunt. Locals found it very suspicious that the family kept on renovating the home despite deciding to NOT move in. The story got a lot of public attention from major film and TV studios, which is why people think that it was a plan used to get them more money. Not to mention the fact that the letters titled “Friends of the Broaddus Family” were letters written by Derek Broaddus. He later claimed that they were the only anonymous letters that he has ever sent to anyone and that it was caused by his extreme paranoia and depression. With all of that being said, Maria’s therapist did state that the family had horrible mental health, making it unlikely that the watcher was an intended story. It was later pointed out that another family had received a letter from an individual claiming to be the watcher. Much like the Woods, the family have been living in peace since then with no letters for years, so if the Broaddus family was using The Watcher as a fame strategy, it wouldn’t make sense to send a letter to another family.
