The owners of the house, which is more than 100 years old, received threatening correspondence for a long time. They sold the house and didn't even move in.
The New Jersey couple were forced to sell their dream home, acquired in 2014 for $ 1.4 million, for a significantly lower amount due to threats from the mysterious Watcher. For the past 5 years, he terrorized them with strange letters.
The mystical letter writer asked the couple when they would fill the house with "young blood", warned that he was closely watching the spouses and hinted that something sinister was hiding within the walls of the house, according to The Cut.
Each time, such messages from the "Observer" became more frightening. The police initiated an investigation, however, who was the author of the letters is still unclear.
Strange letters
A married couple - Maria and Derek Broadduz - purchased a home in the small town of Westfield, New Jersey in 2014. They paid $ 1.4 million for the 1905 Dutch Colonial-style three-story house and began renovating it while still living in their old premises (also located in Westfield).
Almost immediately after that, strange letters began to appear in the mailbox of the newly acquired home. Derek Broadduz found the first one when he finished painting the house and went out to check his mail. The message was in a white envelope, on which it was written in bold, "New Owners."
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“Dear new neighbors living in the house at 657 Boulevard, let me congratulate you on your arrival in the microdistrict,” it was said at the beginning of the letter.
However, the sequel was not so friendly. The author asked the new owners "how they got here" and "whether the house on Boulevard 657 attracted them to it with the power that it hides inside." He wrote that the house has been under the supervision of his family for decades and is now approaching its "second coming."
The mysterious observer also noted that he saw the couple begin renovations and hired workers to "destroy the house."
"Well, well, well. Bad decision. The house on boulevard 657 is better not to upset,”he threatenedly warned. Part of the letter also concerned the three children of the spouses - Derek and Maria once brought them to meet neighbors. The author threatened that when he found out their names "he would call them to him." The “Observer” signed a strange message at the end with his pseudonym.
Calling the police
Derek decided to go to the police. There were surprised - the officer who read the letter, emotionally commented on it with the words "What the hell is this?" and asked Derek if he had any enemies. The man was also advised to move the construction equipment away so that potential intruders could not use it. The next day, Derek and his wife decided to ask the previous owners - Andrea and John Woods - if they knew anything about the Observer.
They noted that shortly before leaving, they received a similar message, in which the "Observer" wrote that his family had been looking after the house for years, but threw it out without a second thought - it was the only one in 23 years.
The Woods decided to go to the police with Maria Broadduz. Detective Leonard Lugo listened to them and advised not to tell anyone about the letters, in particular, neighbors - they were all suspects. Two weeks later, a new letter arrived - in it the "Overseer" had already addressed Maria and Derek by their last names and boasted that he knew the names of the three children of the family.
“The house on Boulevard 657 is looking forward to your arrival. Years have passed since the “young blood” lived within its walls. Have you learned the secrets at home? Will Young Blood play in the basement, or will they be afraid to go down there? I would be very afraid. This is a place remote from the rest of the house. If you were from above, you would not be able to hear their cries,”the letter said.
The author also hinted that something ominous was lurking within the walls of the house. “The workers had something to do - I watched them unload their things. The trash can is good. Did they manage to find what's in the walls? It's time already,”wrote“Observer”.
Frightened by the eerie messages, the family stopped coming to the house for a long time. They were already sure they would move in. “Where have you disappeared? The house on Boulevard 657 is bored, the Observer commented on this decision in the third letter.
The Hunt for the Observer
The Broadduze family was at a loss as to who might have written the strange letters. When they bought the house, other interested parties applied for it, who asked the Woods to lower the price - Derek and Maria assumed that one of them could be the author of the message. On the other hand, constant surveillance of the family and several other signs suggested that someone from the neighborhood was probably involved in the messages.
The first suspicions about a particular person arose when Derek was talking to John Schmidt, a neighbor who lived nearby. He told about the Langford family, whose house was located just between their houses. The family consisted of Peggy Lenford (who was 90) and several of her children, who were around 60 and who lived with her.
Schmidt noted that the youngest - Michael - was unemployed, had a beard like that of Ernest Hemingway, and "somehow reminded Scarecrow Radley" (ed. - the hero of the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee). Derek thought he had found the intruder. Detective Lugo, who was in charge of the case, noted that he had already interrogated Michael, and some of what he said coincided with the letters.
“This is not Crime Scene Investigation: Westfield,” he commented.
However, there was no evidence. The Broadduz family hired a private detective and contacted an FBI agent to find out how real the threat was. The latter, Robert Lenegan, analyzed the letters and noted that the manner of writing hints at the author of advanced age.
He also noted that the message was written in a literary manner, and therefore, the author is an “avid reader”. Lenegan also suggested that "The Observer" may have been addicted to the film of the same name, starring Keanu Reeves, from where he took his pseudonym. The FBI agent recommended thinking about the fact that former servants who looked after the house and their descendants may be involved in the letters. However, the Langfords remained the main suspects.
Detective Lugo interrogated Michael a second time - this did not give anything, except that his sister Abby accused the police of persecuting his family. It's also worth noting that, according to his brother Sandy, Milek was a schizophrenic. He sometimes did strange things, like peeking into neighbors' windows.
However, those who knew him said that he showed neighborly sympathy in this way, and did not believe that he was capable of writing letters. Abby herself was also suspected - they found female DNA in the letters. However, further DNA analysis proved it was not her. In the end, the police removed the Langfords from the list of suspects altogether.
One of the police detectives had other speculations as to who might have written the letters. Once he noticed a car near the house of the spouses that they had stopped there for a long time. A girl was driving her. The detective found that she lived nearby and had a boyfriend who played video games. In one of them, his nickname was The Watcher. But more evidence could not be found.
The Broadduzes themselves fell under suspicion - some suggested that with the help of letters they were trying to pull off some kind of fraudulent scheme with the house and make more money. The police even took DNA samples from Maria, but they did not match the samples on the envelope.
Derek showed the letters to his priest - he consecrated the dwelling in case ghosts live in it.
House for sale
The Brodduzes did not want to live in the house themselves, so they decided to rent it out until they could sell it. A family with adult children and two dogs settled there. It was she who found the fourth letter from the overseer, which came two and a half years after receiving the first. It was written with noticeably more aggression than the previous ones.
»Are you at a loss as to who the Observer is? Take a look around - perhaps you spoke to me, one of the so-called neighbors, who supposedly have no idea what is happening. You may know who I am, but are too scared to tell anyone. A reasonable decision, the letter said.
It was also clear from the message that its author was closely following the media coverage of the story, Derek's attempts to track down the offender on his own, and even a proposal to demolish the house, which was opposed by other residents of the boulevard. The warder veiledly threatened revenge for the actions of the spouses.
“Possibly a car accident. Possibly a fire. Perhaps something as simple as a mild illness that never goes away but makes you suffer every day. Perhaps the mysterious death of a pet. Loved ones suddenly die. Airplanes, cars and bicycles are involved in accidents. Bones are breaking, wrote a mysterious observer.
The family that rented the house was scared, but agreed to stay on condition that video cameras were installed around the house. Finally, in August 2019, 5 years after the acquisition, the Brodduzes sold the house.
The new buyer paid 959 thousand dollars for the premises - significantly less than the amount for which the couple bought the house in the Woods. Since the identity of the "Observer" was never established, it is possible that now he will write creepy letters to the new owner. It is noteworthy that now the house on Boulevard 657 in Westfield is often called the House of the Observer.
