In June 2014, Maria and Derek Broaddus were getting ready to move into 657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey, with their three children. 657 Boulevard was considered the Broadduses’ dream home due to its proximity to Maria’s childhood home, spacious layout, and location in the “30th Safest City in the U.S.”
The Watcher sent chilling letters to new home owners of 657 Boulevard
Three days after completing the sale, a letter arrived in their mailbox, addressed to “The New Owner,” in “thick, clunky letters.” The typed letter read, “Dearest new neighbor of 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? Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them too [sic] me.” The author then signed as “The Watcher,” in a cursive font.
The Woods family received a letter after buying the house
After receiving the letter, the Broaddus family reached out to the previous owners of the house, a couple named John and Andrea Woods. The Woods family told the Broaddus Family that they had only received one letter from “The Watcher” in the twenty-three years they had lived at 657 Boulevard, but since it had happened mere days before the Woods Family moved out of the house, the letter was discarded without much concern.
The police appeared to want to coverup this strange case
After talking to the Woods Family, the two families went to the police and disclosed the happenings. The police instructed them to keep quiet about The Watcher, as their neighbors were now all deemed suspects.
Two weeks later, while the Broadduses had still not moved in, a second letter arrived. The letter included information like their surname (albeit misspelled), the children’s birth order, and the children’s nicknames. It also referenced seeing their daughter painting in an enclosed porch space, asking “Is she the artist in the family?”
The letter continued on to say, “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.”
After receiving this letter, Maria and Derek stopped bringing their children to the house, halting their plans to move in, causing a third letter to read “Where have you gone to? 657 Boulevard is missing you.”
The Broaddus family forced to deal with depression and PTSD
After a year of investigating, there were still no leads. This put stress on the Broaddus family, causing depression in Derek and post-traumatic stress disorder in Maria. Both were afflicted with paranoia as well. Six months after the arrival of the letters, the Broadduses decided to sell the house, but could not, due to the rumors surrounding 657 Boulevard.
The Broadduses also attempted to sue the Woods family for not disclosing the threatening letter they’d received. However, the judge threw out the case, as there was no evidence that they had intentionally hid the letter, nor believed it was a genuine threat. This attracted media attention, and the house was soon the subject of a “media frenzy.”
The Broadduses also considered selling the house to a developer who would be able to tear down the house and split it into two plots. However, the plots would each be three feet too small for the mandated size of the neighborhood, and so it could not be done. After the Broadduses appealed this to the neighborhood planning board, the judges unanimously rejected the decision, and so 657 Boulevard remained one house. However, it was noticed that in 2018, the same board approved splitting up a different lot near the house, and that the lot required a larger exception than what the Broadduses had requested.
The Christmas of 2015, families who had expressed anger over the Broadduses’ decisions to try and split the property were subject to threatening letters, signed “Friends of the Broaddus Family.”
The Watcher sent letters to a new family that occupied 657 Boulevard
In the spring of 2016, about two years after the first letter had arrived, the Broadduses found a family willing to rent the home from them, on the condition that they could back out if another letter arrived. Within two weeks, the house received a letter addressed to “The vile and spiteful Derek and his wench of a wife Maria.”
The letter also read “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. Perhaps 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.” Although the letter spooked the tenants, they agreed to stay as long as more cameras were installed, and they were.
Investigators considered three suspects
While investigating a crime with no fingerprints, no digital trail, and no way to place a suspect at the scene of the crime was difficult for police, they managed to put together three suspects: a man nicknamed “The Gamer” due to his penchant for playing violent video games as a character called “The Watcher,” Michael Langford for his tendency to literally “watch” his neighbors, and the Broaddus family themselves, due to suspicion of buyer’s remorse and possible movie deals.
In October of 2016, a horror movie called The Watcher was released by Lifetime, despite a cease-and-desist order from the Broadduses, and, after a bidding battle, Netflix won the rights to the story in 2018. In July of 2019, 657 Boulevard was finally sold for approximately $959,000, about $400,000 less than the price the Broadduses bought it for. So far, there have been no reports of the new owners receiving letters from The Watcher.
The Watcher: Three Possible Suspects
The Watcher is an anonymous man referred to as “The Gamer.”
While Westfield Police were surveilling the house one night, around 11 p.m., a car stopped in front of the house. The car was traced back to a young woman who lived in a town nearby, while her boyfriend lived on the same block of 657 Boulevard.
When questioned by police, the woman informed them that her partner was into “some really dark video games,” possibly including a game where he played as a character referred to as “The Watcher.”
However, while “The Gamer” agreed to be questioned by police, he never showed up to the interviews. Police did not have enough evidence to force him to come, and so he was never examined.
The Watcher is Michael Langford, a neighbor of the Broaddus family.
This theory was brought forth by Derek Broaddus, who suspected him after he and the Broadduses attended a neighborhood barbecue after the arrival of the first letter.
Langford lived in the house next door with his ninety-year-old mother, and had done so since the 1960s, the same time the Watcher had claimed that his father had watched 657 Boulevard. Not only that, but since Langford’s father had died about twelve years prior to the Broadduses, this could have explained why the Watcher said they had been watching for “the better part of two decades.”
Langford also was known to “spook” neighbors by literally “watching” them, as he would walk through their backyards and look in through their windows.
Due to the positioning of the houses, Langford would have been able to see into the porch space, where the Watcher had mentioned their daughter painting.
Police questioned Langford after the first letter, but he denied knowing anything, as the interview was before the arrival of the second letter―some believed it would have been foolish to keep sending letters after being interviewed by law enforcement.
However, when working with the police, the Broaddus family sent a letter to the Langfords telling them that they would demolish the house, in hopes of getting a response from the Watcher. There was none.
DNA may shoot down this theory
Another piece of evidence casting doubt on the theory was the discovery of DNA on one of the letters. With the DNA belonging to a woman, the police considered that Michael’s sister, Abby, may have been the Watcher, and the letter’s DNA was compared with DNA from a water bottle that Abby had used. It was not a match.
Shortly after the DNA test, the authorities stopped investigating the possibility that any of the Langfords could be the Watcher, dropping them all as suspects. The Broadduses were never told why.
The Watcher is a character made up by the Broaddus family
who used the letters as a way to get out of the financial troubles caused by the house, or to possibly secure a movie deal based on the story.
Some locals found it suspicious that, over the years, the Broadduses were able to move from a $315,000 house, to a $770,000 house, and finally to the $1.3 million-dollar 657 Boulevard, with refinanced mortgages. They theorized that the Broadduses were experiencing buyer’s remorse with the house, and had turned to a “desperate ploy” to get out of financial trouble.
Some also wondered why the family kept renovating the house, even after deciding they wouldn’t move in. Major movie studios were attempting to secure the rights to their story as well, and a large media deal could have been motivation for creating “The Watcher.”
The new letters were signed by Derek
The threatening letters signed “Friends of the Broaddus Family” turned out to have been written by Derek. Despite his claims that he had only sent them due to years of frustration, and that he had not written the original “Watcher” letters, it drew suspicion.
However, the psychological trauma experienced by the Broaddus family was a strong contender against the theory, along with the fact that at the same time of the sending of the first letter, another family on the block had received a letter from The Watcher as well. The family, similar to the Woodses, had lived in the house for years without problems, and so threw the letter away―so if the Broadduses were attempting to make a movie deal or get out of their house, there would be no reason to send a letter to another house as well.
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