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Family Was So Freaked Out By Letters That They Sold 'The Watcher' Home At A Loss
A year after detailing the creepy letters they were receiving from "The Watcher," Derek and Maria Broaddus sold their affluent cursed home at a loss.
A family who received anonymous threatening letters about their six-bedroom house — the premise of the upcoming fictionalized Netflix series “The Watcher” — were so freaked out by the letter writer that they sold the home at a loss.
The house, located in the affluent New Jersey town of Westfield, sold in 2019 at a $400,000 loss. Derek and Maria Broaddus sold the seemingly cursed property, which was built in 1905, at $959,000. They had purchased it for $1,355,657 from John and Andrea Woods in 2014, before renovating the home and adding a security system.
Shortly after they bought the home, they began receiving anonymous letters from a being calling itself "The Watcher,” a spooky chain of events chronicled in a 2018 The Cut article. The story, authored by Reeves Wiedeman, has since been adapted into the Ryan Murphy-created Netflix series, which stars Naomi Watts, Bobby Cannavale, and Jennifer Coolidge.
"657 Boulevard is anxious for you to move in," one of the letters read, according to NY Magazine. "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.
The couple and their three children were so freaked out by the letter writer, who continued to send them alarming missives, they never moved into the house.
The Woods family, who had lived in the house for 23 years before the threatening letters, had only received one non-threatening form of communication from "The Watcher," which occurred after they moved out, according to The Cut. The Broaddus family sued the Woods couple in 2015 over claims of fraudulent concealment and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. That case, however, was dismissed, reported NJ.com.
No suspects or persons of interest have ever been identified regarding the mysterious letter writer.
