The Watcher of 657 Boulevard

👀In 2014, in Westfield, New Jersey, Derek and Maria Broaddus and there three young children were almost ready to move into their new dream home. It was June, and just three days after closing the sale. The renovations being made were almost done on their the colonial, six-bedroom, $1.3 million house, which is located a few blocks from Maria's childhood home. It was 10 p.m., Derek had just finished some painting on the house and went to get the mail from their mailbox. Inside the mailbox there was a letter with hand written script on the envelope that read, "The New Owner." 

👀Inside was a typed letter that began innocently enough, "Dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard, allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood." 

👀The writer then cryptically asked,“How did you end up here? Did 657 Boulevard call to you with its force within?” 

👀The letter went on: "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.” 

👀The author seemed to notice when the three Broaddus' children were playing with neighborhood kids earlier in the week. “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."

👀Then the writer alluded to his identity, "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 letter was signed in a cursive font: “The Watcher.”

👀Derek was alone at the new house as he frantically raced around the house and turned off lights. He then called the Westfield Police Department. When the officer came to the house and read the letter he was utterly perplexed. He asked Derek if they had any enemies, which they did not.

👀Derek rushed back to his wife and kids, who were living at their old home elsewhere in Westfield, and informed his wife about the letter. They decided to contact the couple that sold them the house, John and Andrea Woods.  The Woods told Derek and Maria that in their 23 years of living there, they only got a letter like that once. It was a few days before moving out and the note had been “odd,” and made similar mention of The Watcher’s family observing the house over time. Andrea and her husband had thrown the letter away without much thought. The Woods family went with Maria to the police station, where Detective Leonard Lugo told her not to tell anyone about the letters, including her new neighbors, because all of them were now suspects.

👀The letter had been processed in Kearny, the U.S. Postal Service’s distribution center in northern New Jersey. It was postmarked June 4th, before the sale was public, the Woods had never put up a for sale sign. It was also only a day after the contractors arrived. The renovations were mostly interior, and people who lived nearby say they didn’t notice an unusual commotion. When Derek and Maria walked a detective around the house, they showed him that the easel on the porch was hidden from the street by vegetation, making it difficult to see unless someone was behind the house or right next door.

👀Some weird things started to happen.When Derek gave a tour of the renovation to a couple on the block, the wife said, “It’ll be nice to have some young blood in the neighborhood.” 

👀The general contractor arrived one morning to find that a heavy sign he’d hammered into the front yard had been ripped out.

👀Two weeks after the letter arrived, Maria stopped by the house and in the mailbox was another letter. She called the police. This time the letter was addressed to them directly, but their last name was misspelled. “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."

👀The letter identified the three kids by birth order and by their nicknames. “I am pleased to know your names now and the name of the young blood you have brought to me,” it said. “You certainly say their names often.” The letter asked about one child in particular, whom the writer had seen using an easel inside an enclosed porch: “Is she the artist in the family?”

👀The rest of the letter went:

"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."

👀After this Maria and Derek decided not to bring the children by the house anymore and put a hold on their plans to move in.

👀A few weeks later a third letter arrived. “Where have you gone to?” The Watcher wrote. “657 Boulevard is missing you.”

👀At one point, after talking to one of his neighbors, Derek thought that the case might be solved. John Schmidt lived two doors down. He told Derek about a neighbor that lived in between his house and Derek's. Peggy Langford was in her 90's, and several of her adult children, all in their 60s, lived with her. John described her and her family as a bit odd, but harmless. He said that one of the  the adult children, Michael, didn’t work and had a beard. John said that he was like Ernest Hemingway, as “kind of a Boo Radley character.”

👀The Langford house was right next to the easel on the porch. The family had lived there since the 1960's. Richard Langford, had died 12 years earlier, and the current Watcher claimed to have been on the job for “the better part of two decades.”

👀Derek told the detective about the family and he said he already knew. He had already brought Michael in for an interview, who denied knowing anything about the letters. Michael had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was young. He he did strange things, like walk through their backyard or peek into the windows of homes that were being renovated. People who had known Michael for decades didn’t think he was capable of writing the letters and most of the odd things he did was out of kindness.

👀Derek decided to take matters into his own hands. Derek set up webcams in 657 Boulevard and spent nights crouched in the dark, watching to see if anyone was watching the house.  He had a map displaying when each of 657’s neighbors had moved in. In the map, the Langfords were the only ones there since the 60's. 

👀Derek and Maria also employed a private investigator. He found two child sex offenders within a few blocks. Bill Woodward had also noticed something strange. He was Derek and Maria's house painter and he said that the couple behind 657 kept a pair of lawn chairs strangely close to the property. He claims to have seen a man sitting in one of the chairs staring at 657.

👀Derek reached out to a former FBI agent who served as the inspiration for Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs and they also hired Robert Lenehan, another former FBI agent. Lenehan said that the writer sounded old fashioned. 

👀Lenehan didn’t think The Watcher was likely to act on the threats, but he also thought that there was some kind of “seething anger” directed at the wealthy in particular. The Watcher was upset by new money moving into town. Lenehan recommended looking into former housekeepers or their descendants. 

👀In cooperation with Westfield police, the Derek and Maria sent a letter to the Langfords announcing plans to tear down the house in hopes of goating some kind of reaction, but nothing happened. The detective brought Michael in for a second interview but got nowhere, and his sister, Abby, accused the police of harassing their family. Derek and Maria hired a lawyer, who met with several members of the Langford family, as well as their attorney. The meeting grew tense and the Langfords insisted Michael was innocent. 

👀The investigation stalled and in December of 2014, the Westfield police told Derek and Maria that they had run out of options. 

👀Less than a year after the letters arrived, Maria and Derek decided to sell their home. This proved difficult with rumors buzzing around about the house and Derek and Maria sued the Woods for failing to disclose the threatening letter they'd received.

👀In 2016, Derek and Maria found someone to rent their home, with a clause that let them out if they received another threatening letter. Within two weeks, another letter arrived.

"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. 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."

👀Even though the renters were mentioned in the letter, they decided to stay if more cameras were added.

👀This year, Derek and Maria finally sold their home for $400,00 less than they paid for it.

👀The case of the Watcher currently remains unsolved. The only real clue is that a DNA test that came from one of the envelope reveals that the person who sealed it was a woman.