October 31, 2020
*Disclaimer: this is a theory based on conjecture, publicly available records, the location and the nature of the letters.
If there is one thing in life that one must learn, it is that actions have consequences. Perhaps not right away, nor are those consequences always apparent, but they exist. Once something has been cast into the universe, it lingers and serves as a record or imprint in time. The intention behind those actions can separate us between good and evil.
In 2015, something strange was happening to new homeowners in Westfield, NJ. Someone sent mysterious letters to a young family with deeply unsettling messages about their new residence and children, referred to as "young blood."1 The family purchased the property in June 2014 and started receiving these letters shortly after that. The letters ceased in 2017, and the house was sold, having never been occupied by its owners.
For the Broaddus family, the experience they had in Westfield, NJ, was a terrifying nightmare playing out in front of the world. It appeared the house came with a stalker or someone obsessed with the property. There was a civil lawsuit, but the courts ultimately dismissed it in 2019.2 The family sold the home at an approximately 30% loss the same year. It appeared no one could solve it, or perhaps no one wanted to.
The Westfield Watcher story, an anonymous author of at least four bizarre and disturbing letters to a young family between 2014-2017. The Watcher appeared obsessed with the house on Boulevard and had in-depth knowledge of the history. To find out more about 657 Boulevard's history, I accidentally stumbled upon a new suspect, who may have written and sent those letters. The truth may be the most frightening part of all. This story is a cautionary tale of moving into a new neighborhood. No matter how safe you feel, you never really know the history you're walking in on.
The Broaddus family, Derek, his wife Maria, their three young children, purchased the $1.3M home, 657 Boulevard in Westfield, NJ, in early summer 2014. If you're not familiar with the Watcher's story, I recommend starting with this article from The Cut in 2018 here. I will document and analyze 657 Boulevard's history and present a new theory, not reiterate the original case's details.
It seemed too strange to be real, like something out of a horror movie. The letters were unsettling, and the Watcher seemed so close, there was an almost supernatural aura to them. For the curious, this case was too intriguing not to dig deeper into and try to solve. However, the result sheds light on how we think we know someone and how deep roots in small communities can have drastic consequences.
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.
The history of 657 Boulevard appears to be very important to the Watcher, so what made this house so alluring?
657 Boulevard is a part of Park Slope, a residential development established by the Westfield Realty Improvement Company in 1904.3 It was built in 1905 and is a classic Dutch Colonial Revival, a popular architectural style of the early 20th century. The house's most prominent features are the gambrel facade and roof, asymmetry of the windows, and the front porch with ionic columns. The front-facing, center gambrel roof-line was a popular feature in American architecture roughly between 1895-1915, befitting for the era.4
From the outside, it is a beautiful example of early 20th century domestic architecture and a reminder of Gilded Age wealth in America. Boulevard is a quiet, unassuming tree-lined street, with large and well-kept houses and yards. It is seemingly a perfect street, in an ideal home, in a peaceful neighborhood, approximately 16 miles from New York City. It appears that in Westfield, NJ, Boulevard was the street to live on.
The original owner of 657 Boulevard was Harry Lincoln Russell, a real estate agent, and his family between 1905-1914. Russell was an early property developer in Westfield. The next owners of 657 Boulevard were the Davies family, purchasing the property in 1914. They would be the most prominent and most prolonged owners, with William H. Davies becoming mayor of Westfield in 1933 while living on Boulevard. He also died there in 1947 (as did his mother-in-law in 1915 and his wife in 1943).
Davies then passed 657 Boulevard to his son, Ernest Davies, and his family. Ernest sold it to Dillard E. Bird in 1951. A Westfield trend of property transferred for $1 and 657 Boulevard was no exception to this tradition until 1990 when the Bakes family sold the property to the Woods. After the Bird family, the house sold three more times: Schaffer (1955-1963), Bakes (1963-1990) and Woods (1990-2014), before being purchased by the Broaddus’ in 2014.
Mr. and Mrs. Braddus,
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. 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 Broaddus 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.
The second letter the family received, a month after the first, was much longer and much more unsettling than the first. What was the Watcher planning? Why call children "young blood?" Why would you track someone in their own home unless there was a nefarious motive?
Taking a step back, If you just purchased a new home and started receiving letters like this, how would you feel?
The Watcher deeply unsettled the Broaddus family after they received these anonymous letters. As it turned out, the family they purchased 657 Boulevard from, the Woods, also received a strange letter but didn't think much of it and threw it away.
Unfortunately, the story of the Watcher took an unfortunate turn that had real-life consequences. In 2015, the Broaddus family sued the Woods family. They would have never purchased 657 Boulevard had they known about the "Watcher."
The Broaddus family went to the police. Then Detective Lieutenant Leonard Lugo, later demoted to Sergeant in 2018 and now retired, informed the Broaddus family to stay silent on the letters.5 Unfortunately, the police were unable to solve the case. The Broaddus family turned to alternative security measures for protection, installing expensive security equipment, and advertising for a personal security guard. The family was frightened due to the letters. Now expenses were accruing for the family as well.
There was some speculation on neighbors. It was explicitly focusing on another house on Boulevard. Peggy Langford lived in the house next to 657 Boulevard. She had been there since the mid-1960s. According to neighbors, she was in her 90s and shared the home with several of her children. They were in their 60s and seemingly a bit eccentric. Her family was considered suspects but cleared when DNA taken from one of the Watcher letters did not match anyone in the family. The DNA found was to be female.6 Peggy Langford passed away in February 2020.7
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.
Now stuck with a house with someone claiming to be the "Watcher," literally watching them, the family tried to look for options to recuperate some of their expenses. They tried to take the house, situated on two lots, down and subdivide the property. The city of Westfield ultimately denied this in January 2017.
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.
These letters became more unsettling and unhinged and possibly threatening. Who is this
person? Why are they doing this? Why are they explicitly referencing and calling out the
children specifically? Who would be obsessed
enough with this house to do such an odd thing?
I started by looking for clues within
the Watcher letters themselves. Ultimately, I believe the Watcher self-identifies themselves
in the 4th letter: “Turn around idiots.”
There were several areas of interest observed within the letters:
*Street number for Carleton Rd. will not be provided for this article.
**Please note, the new residents of Carleton Rd. are not involved in this case.
The suspected Watcher appears to have lived on the street parallel to Boulevard - **Carleton Rd. on the lot directly behind 657 Boulevard. From there, access to 657 Boulevard's backyard and driveway are in clear, full view from this spot.
Is this where the Westfield Watcher lived until 2017? A family lived here for nearly 50 years before selling it to an LLC in 2017.8 It sold to a couple in 2019.9 You can see 657 Boulevard from Carleton Rd.
The house is stucco-clad, in a Colonial Revival style built around 1920. While lovely, the homes on Carleton are not as grand as the homes on Boulevard. Between the house on Carleton and 657 Boulevard, there are approximately 114 feet between them. Records indicate Carleton's owners had been there since September 1970 and sold the house in June 2017 to a newly formed LLC.10 That means this couple was living at this house on Carleton when the Watcher was sending the letters. The couple living there were in their late 80s.
That couple raised ten children at the house on Carleton Rd., the one behind 657 Boulevard.
Their children went to Westfield High School and today are grown with families of their own.
One interesting fact that is never mentioned, nor is apparent, is that one of their
daughters married one of Seth and Floy Bakes' sons in
1982.11 The Bakes family lived in 657
Boulevard between 1963-1990. It was the Bakes who sold the house to the Woods. For a time,
the Bakes and the family on Carleton road overlapped.
That suggests the house owners on Carleton would have had access to 657 Boulevard for nearly a decade, if not longer, and a personal connection if her son-in-law grew up there. The house's matriarch on Carleton road had likely been a frequent guest of 657 Boulevard in the past. She also grew up in Westfield; her family had been there possibly as early as the 1920s.
Online realtor photographs indicate a clear view of 657 Boulevard from the house's backyard on Carleton road You can easily see all of the back windows, the sunroom, the back entrance, the driveway. The physical distance between the houses is 114 feet, or 38 yards. You could probably hear and see quite a lot. In some reports regarding the Watcher, contract workers at 657 Boulevard claimed the backyard neighbors had lawn chairs facing 657 Boulevard as if watching it.12
The fourth Watcher letter also clearly states, "Turn around, idiots," as if living behind 657 Boulevard the entire time.
The Watcher's MMO:
It is not clear why the police didn't investigate the owners of Carleton as suspects. Perhaps
it was because they are elderly and don't seem to fit any profile? The owners also seem to
be pillars of the community, with a large, local family.
In 2018 the police demoted
the original Detective on the Watcher case. Perhaps the police overlooked all the small
details?
It appears that the Watcher could be an elderly jealous neighbor, with deep, life-long ties to the community and perhaps a life-long obsession with the beautiful house on Boulevard. Maybe she was suffering from forms of dementia, senility, or something along those lines that flawed reasoning? The backyard neighbors had a family connection to 657 Boulevard by way of their daughter and son-in-law, visibility, and 657 Boulevard access. The creepiest part, referencing things that could only be known, had the Watcher been within earshot.
Due to the Watcher's activities, the family was tormented publicly and terrorized. The Watcher added to financial stresses. With three children, it must have taken a huge emotional and distressing toll on the parents
They sold the property at a 30% loss, and there were lawsuits. The Broaddus family's estimated damages are at least $1M or more: $400K loss on the property, lawsuit fees $200K (est.) plus an additional $400K+ for any other costs and fees accrued between June 2014-Present. We never see the financial impact a simple thing like writing an anonymous letter would have, but there it is, essentially.
How many people in Westfield knew who might have been sending the letters this whole time?
Why did they stay quiet? The Watcher indicates that people should be scared of them.
Why?
How did the police miss this?
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.
If the Watcher saw the Broaddus family as outsiders in Westfield, they
were perhaps doomed when they purchased the house.
Individuals such as the Watcher
forget that there are real-life consequences to their actions. Some of us are merely seeking
the truth. We want justice for the negative things that impact innocent members of society.
Actions ripple deeply throughout the community. The public will remember 657 Boulevard as
the "Watcher House" forever.
At the end of it all, only the Westfield Watcher knows
the truth. Unfortunately, this story could have happened to anyone. If it weren't the
Broaddus family that purchased 657 Boulevard, perhaps some other family would live in terror
by the Watcher. Hopefully, this insight highlights a potential suspect and brings some peace
to the Broaddus family. Maybe the police can finally solve the Watcher mystery.
I encourage you to draw your own conclusions.
Happy Halloween!