Truth Or Tale: The Mystery Of The Westfield Watcher

WESTFIELD, NJ - Anyone who lives in the Garden State has heard rumors of haunted happenings and urban folklore close to home. In fact, there was an entire magazine, Weird NJ, devoted to them.

Patch is taking up the task of exploring these myths throughout October in the hopes compiling a master list comprised of the best of the unexplained throughout New Jersey. This post is dedicated to the Westfield Watcher.

The story made international headlines in 2014 when Derek and Maria Broaddus purchased their dream home on the highly-coveted Boulevard in Westfield. But before they were even able to move in, an anonymous letter writer began sending menacing letters with disturbing references to their three children.

And so began the mystery of The Watcher. It remains unsolved to this day.

The family said they were too scared to move in to the six-bedroom house due to the alleged threats the letters contained such as "allow me to watch you and track you as you move through the house."
The letters also referred to "secrets in the walls" of the home and that the house needed "young blood."

• See Related: 'The Watcher' Home Saga Continues; Former Owners Seeking Damages
• See Related: Westfield 'Watcher' Lawsuit Won't Be Dismissed, Judge Rules
• See Related: Westfield 'Watcher' Home Is For Sale Again

Up until the report that was published online in The Cut, only a handful of phrases from The Watcher's letters were known to the public. When the full accounting of the text was revealed, Patch assembled a list of ten things that creeped us out the most.

The tale takes multiple cinematic twists as Derek Broaddus told New York Magazine in a story published online by the website The Cut that last Christmas Eve he stuffed the stockings of former neighbors with notes of his own.

According to the story, several families who had been vocal in criticizing the family over their handling of the Watcher letters received hand delivered messages accusing them of speculating inaccurately about the Broaddus family.

The missives included stories about recent acts of domestic terrorism, allusions to mental illness and were signed "Friends of the Broaddus Family," the story says.

Like the Watcher letters, the story notes that the missives were packed with "simmering resentment" and anonymous.

Until Derek Broaddus admitted to New York Magazine's Reeves Wiedeman he had written them.
Broaddus told Wideman he wasn't proud of it and said they were the only anonymous letters he'd written and felt driven to his wit's end, fed up with watching silently as people threw accusations at his family based on "practically nothing."

We may finally learn what is "within the walls," or at least the artistic interpretation of it as Netflix has purchased the feature rights to the story, according to a report from Deadline.

According to the Deadline report, Netflix won the feature rights to the deal after a ferocious bidding battle that involved six studios that included Universal for Jason Blum, Warner Bros for Roy Lee, Paramount for JJ Abrams' Bad Robot, Amazon for producer Michael Sugar and Fox for Peter Chernin.

However Netflix decides to spin the tale, the story of the Westfield Watcher may finally have what so many have guessed at, an ending.

RELATED:

• 'The Watcher' Home Saga Continues; Former Owners Seeking Damages
• Westfield 'Watcher' Lawsuit Won't Be Dismissed, Judge Rules
• Westfield 'Watcher' Home Is For Sale Again

So what do you think readers? Buy it or boot it? Are these stories real? Have you experienced any of this for yourself? Or perhaps you have another, even scarier tale of your own to share. Drop them in our comments or send them to russ.crespolini@patch.com

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