by: Maddie Rowley
If you’ve ever purchased a new house, (or if a friend or family member has), it’s usually a happy occasion. You pack up all your belongings and then start anew in a place you can decorate however you want—a home in which you’ll make a lifetime of memories.
That’s how it went for Derek and Maria Broaddus when they purchased a historical home in Westfield, New Jersey, a coveted suburb 16 miles southwest of New York City. The house, located at 657 Boulevard, was built in 1905 and boasted 6 bedrooms, which meant plenty of room leftover for the Broaddus family of five—Derek, Maria and their three children.
Even before they moved in, however, their dream started to turn into a nightmare. They began receiving anonymous letters from someone who called themselves “The Watcher.” While Derek was prepping the interior of the home before they moved in, he checked the mail to find this anonymous letter:
Dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard,
Allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood.
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.
Derek, disturbed, called the police and told them about the threatening letter. He then sent an email to the previous homeowners, John and Andrea Woods, because one line in The Watcher’s letter seemed to mention them and the Broadduses’ children.
“I asked the Woods to bring me young blood and it looks like they listened.”
The Woods responded and said that they had received only one letter from someone claiming to be The Watcher right before they moved out. In the 23 years they had lived in the house, they hadn’t received another letter like it, so she dismissed it and threw the letter away.
After this letter, the Broadduses were pretty freaked out, especially when, according to The Cut, Derek was giving a tour of the renovations to some neighbors and the woman suddenly said “It’ll be nice to have some young blood in the neighborhood.”
A second envelope arrived a few weeks later. It read in part:
“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.
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.
Does it get creepier than that?! At first, the Broadduses thought the mysterious letters might be from someone who had really wanted the house, but had lost it in the bidding war, or maybe even a disgruntled neighbor who wasn’t too fond of the house renovations or the thought of having kids next door.
Their immediate next-door neighbors stood out as a real possibility, as they had lived in their house since the 1960s and they had a view from which they could generally see what was going on in and around the Broadduses’ home.
Derek set up cameras all over the house and even stayed up late, mapping out the neighborhood, noting when certain families had moved in, while keeping a close eye on the streets to see if any suspicious vehicles were driving by.
The couple decided to sell the home just six months after receiving the first letter, but when they couldn’t sell it due to rumors spreading around town about the house, they decided to rent it out instead.
Interestingly, when the police finally conducted a DNA analysis on the letters, they found that the DNA traced back to a woman. They looked at the next door neighbor, one of whom was a woman, but the DNA didn’t match up. The next door neighbors were eventually ruled out.
Some people in town started to think that maybe the Broadduses had written and “sent” the letters to themselves, perhaps to get out of the contract they signed to buy the home. But Maria’s DNA was tested and it wasn’t a match.
The Watcher then sent a third letter to the couple that was later renting the house in 2017. The tenant turned the envelop over to Derek.
“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!!!”
According to CNN, in July of 2019, the Broadduses were finally able to sell the home for $959,000 which is about $341,000 less than what they originally bought it for. The new owners of the home haven’t been identified and they haven’t spoken out as to if they’ve received letters from The Watcher, but as of right now, The Watcher has never been caught or identified.
In December of 2019, Netflix won the rights to The Watcher story, so we can look forward to either a show or a movie at some point covering this case. But for now, Buzzfeed Unsolved did a great job outlining it on their YouTube channel.