Did you know that the Netflix movie, The Watcher, is an adaptation based on a true story?

The Watcher is based on the real life couple Derek and Maria Broaddus. Three days after the couple completed the purchase of their New Jersey home in June 2014, they received their first letter from an anonymous person who addressed themselves as The Watcher. The white envelope with big block letters was addressed to The New Owner reading, “Dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard, allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood.”

The tone of the letters quickly became far less friendly. The anonymous writer claimed that the home had “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.” The letter questioned whether the Family knew about the history of the family home. “Do you know what lies within the walls of 657 Boulevard? Why are you here?” the writer asked. “I will find out.”

The letter-writer seemed to have covered all bases on the Broaddus family, scolding the couple for making renovations to the home and threatening to kidnap their three children. “Was your old house too small for the growing family? Or was it greed to bring me your children?” the mysterious stalker wrote. “Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them to me.” The writer questioned whether they would let their kids, who the writer referred to as “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,” they wrote.

Six months after closing on the property, purchasing the house for $1.4 million, they put it back on the market. They were unable to find a buyer due to the creepy letters, which the Broaddus family chose to disclose to anyone who came and looked at the property.

The Broaddus Family were able to rent out the home, but shortly after the new family moved in, The Watcher sent another letter. “You wonder who The Watcher is? Turn around idiots.” The new letter was more aggressive than the previous three, and The Watcher even threatened revenge on Derek and Maria, seemingly plotting their deaths: “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.”

The fourth and final letter ended with The Watcher declaring, “You are despised by the house. And The Watcher won.”

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

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