Do you know that feeling of being watched, that feeling upon your back, creeping up your spine, that you are not alone? Imagine that feeling, that lingering feeling, and living with it for the rest of your life? This is the nightmare faced by Maria and Derek Broaddus. And it all started simply with a letter, delivered to their newly bought home, signed The Watcher.
A home is where you feel safe, guarded from eyes the rest of the world. In June, 2014, Maria and Derek Broaddus and their three children moved into their new dream home, 657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey. One day, before they had even moved in completely, a letter arrived to their new home, addressed to ‘The New Owner.’
Dearest new neighbor at 657 boulevard, allow me to welcome you to the neigborhood. … 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. 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 … I see already that you have flooded 657 Boulevard with contractors so that you can destroy the house as it was supposed to be. … Tsk, tsk, tsk … bad move. You don’t want to make 657 Boulevard unhappy. You have children. I have seen them. So far I think there are three that I have counted. Are there more on the way? … 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. 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. Welcome my friends, welcome. Let the party begin. The Watcher.”
It was late in the evening as Derek Broaddus sat alone, reading the letter. He ran inside the house, turning off any lights so that no one could see anyone was home. He then did what any smart person would do in this situation; he called to police. When an officer read the letter he looked up at Derek in surprise, saying “what the fuck?”. He asked whether he or any of his family members had enemies, but Derek could think of no one who would want to target them. When he got back to their old home, he immediately told Maria about the letter. That same night, they decided to write a letter to the previous owners of 657 boulevard, asking whether they had also received strange letters in the past. The owner, Andrea Woods, responded the next morning, saying that a few days before they moved out they had indeed received a letter from ‘the watcher’, but that they had never received any letters before that.
The police told the two families not to speak about the letters, to anyone, especially not the neighbours. Because they were all suspects.
The letter had really scared the Broaddus family. Derek cancelled a working trip he was supposed to go on, and they kept a strict eye on their children. A few days after the letter, Maria and Derek went to a BBQ across the street, where they kept screaming at their kids to stay close. “People must have thought we were crazy” said Maria. And that was not so strange. To them, everyone around them was a suspect.
When Derek gave a tour through his new house to a couple of his neighbours, and his blood froze when one of the women mentioned that it was nice to have some ‘young blood’ in the neighbourhood.
There were two weeks of peace, however much peace you can have when you think you are constantly being watched. Then, one day, Maria stopped by the house and noticed that there was another envelope. She immediately recognised the thick black lettering.
“Mr. and Mrs. Braddus. 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.
… I am pleased to know your names now and the name of the young blood you have brought to me, you certainly say their names often … [One child had been painting on an easel in the backyard] … Is she the artist in the family? ... 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.”
Immediately after this second letter, Derek and Maria decided that they would not bring their kids to the house again. Several weeks later, a second letter from the Watcher arrived.
“Where have you gone to? 657 Boulevard is missing you.”
At some point, Derek ended up chatting with John Smidt, who lived two doors down 657 boulevards. Smidt told Derek about the Langford family, who were the longest living family on the block. Peggy Langford was in her 90s, and several of her adult children, all in their 60s, lived with her. The family was a bit odd, Schmidt said, but harmless.
With this information, Derek thought that he had cracked the case. The Langford house stood in just the right position to see the easel on the porch, and Richard Langford, the father of the family, had died 12 years earlier, coinciding with what the Watcher said in his first letter, that he had been watching 657 boulevard for the better part of two decades. The police brought the son of the family, Michael Langford, to the police station, where they interviewed him. Michael had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a young man. He sometimes spooked newcomers to the neighbourhood when he did strange things, like walk through their backyard or peek into the windows of homes that were being renovated. Michael, however, denied even knowing about the letters.
The investigation into the Watcher stalled, and, frustrated, Maria and Derek began their own investigation. They installed webcams in the house and Derek spent nights hiding in the dark, watching to see if someone was stalking the house. The Broadduses even hired a private investigator, who investigated the Langfords but came up empty. They also hired Robert Lenehan, another former FBI agent, to conduct a threat assessment. Lenehan recognized several old-fashioned tics in the letters that pointed to an older writer, around their 50s or 60s. The letters also had a certain literary panache, which suggested that it was written by someone who read a lot of books. Lenehan also noted that there was no real anger in the way the Watcher was writing, which suggested that they were not a macho type of person, but that there was a certain erraticism in the way the Watcher wrote because they made strange typos and even got the date on the first letter wrong.
By the end of the year, the police still had nothing. The only thing that they had found was that the DNA on the letters were from a woman. But, the Watcher had been smart. They had left no digital trail, no fingerprints, and no clues to their identity. Meanwhile, Derek was growing more and more paranoid, and Maria would break down in sobs on random moments throughout the day. Meanwhile, the Watcher was growing more and more unhinged.
"657 Boulevard is turning on me. It is coming after me. I don’t understand why. What spell did you cast on it? It used to be my friend and now it is my enemy. I am in charge of 657 Boulevard. It is not in charge of me. I will fend off its bad things and wait for it to become good again. It will not punish me. I will rise again. I will be patient and wait for this to pass and for you to bring the young blood back to me. 657 Boulevard needs young blood. It needs you. Come back. Let the young blood play again like I once did. Let the young blood sleep in 657 Boulevard. Stop changing it and let it alone."
Finally, Maria and Derek decided to tell their children what was going on. It was a very difficult conversation to have. “Can you imagine having that conversation with a 5-year-old? Your town isn’t as safe as you think it is, and there’s a bogeyman obsessed with you.”
The children were, of course, curious. Who is The Watcher? Where does this person live? Why is this person angry with us? Maria and Derek had no answers to these questions
.
Six months after the letters arrived, the Broadduses decided to sell 657 Boulevard. But rumours had already begun to spread. One broker emailed to say her client “loved” the house but that “there are so many unsubstantiated rumours flying around,” ranging “from sexual predator to stalker,” that they needed to know more. As rumours spread further, the story of Watcher of 657 Boulevard went viral. News trucks started to camp outside of the house and the family got more than 300 media requests. It frightened the family, and all this attention certainly did not help the paranoia Maria and Derek were already feeling. It did not help that the neighbours had created a theory that did not particularly favour them, a theory that they had been faking the Watcher all this time, sending the letters to themselves and playing the victim in hopes of getting a movie deal. This does, however, not check out with the fact that Maria and Derek avoided the media when the story went viral, which they certainly wouldn’t have done if they did all this to get attention. It also doesn’t align with the fact that Maria and Derek suffered massively because of the Watcher. Not just financially because no one wanted to buy the house, but also mentally, being diagnosed with paranoia, depression, and even PTSD.
The Broadduses had become victims and outcasts. “This person took so much from us” said Maria. 2 years after the first letter of the Watcher, the family bought a second, private house in Westfield. That same year, they put 657 Boulevard on the market again, but again no one wanted to buy it. Derek recalls one potential buyer: “Some cocky guy from Staten Island said, ‘Fuck it, I’m gonna get a house at a discount. He reads the letters and we never hear from him again.” But after some time, a family with older kids decided to rent the place, with a clause that would release them from the contract if another letter from the Watcher arrived. And like clockwork, there the Watcher was again. And now, they were very angry.
“Violent winds and bitter cold. To the vile and spiteful Derek and his wench of a wife Maria. You wonder who The Watcher is? Turn around idiots. Maybe you even spoke to me, one of the so-called neighbors who has no idea who The Watcher could be. Or maybe you do know and are too scared to tell anyone. Good move.
I walked by the news trucks when they took over my neighborhood and mocked me … I watched as you watched from the dark house in an attempt to find me … Telescopes and binoculars are wonderful inventions …
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.”
SOURCES
Hewitt, L. (n.d.). Terrifying Letters: The Watcher House of Westfield, NJ. https://www.historicmysteries.com/watcher-of-westfield/
Kim, A. (August 13, 2019). 'The Watcher' house is sold years after a family was terrorized with creepy letters. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/12/us/the-watcher-house-stalker-trnd/index.html
Robson, A. (May 29, 2020). The Real Life Story Of The Watcher Feels Like A Stephen King Novel. https://www.thethings.com/the-real-life-story-of-the-watcher-feels-like-a-stephen-king-novel/
Wiedeman, R. (November 19, 2018). The haunting of 657 boulevard in westfield new jersey. https://www.thecut.com/2018/11/the-haunting-of-657-boulevard-in-westfield-new-jersey.html