In 2014, agreeing to a mortgage and somehow collecting the amount for the first payments, the Broaddus couple with three children bought a "dream home" worth $ 1.3 million in Westfield, New Jersey.
A beautiful beige mansion at 657 Boulevard (657 Boulevard) looked really worth that kind of money, and inside it everything was done accurately and efficiently.
However, as soon as the Broads moved there, it was as if they were in a horror movie and were soon forced to literally run away from this house.
This dark and mystical, but completely real story is told by The Cut portal. We retell it in Russian with large abbreviations, since the original article is very voluminous due to the many details.
It all started in June 2014. Derek Broads had just finished his painting evening and went outside to check his mail. He didn't think there would be anything significant, since just three days ago, Derek and his wife Maria started a big renovation of their new home.
However, among the promotional brochures, Derek suddenly saw in a drawer a large white envelope on which was written, "The new owner of the house." When he opened the envelope, he found a note inside it that began quite nicely:
For the Broads, this house was their dream home. He was not far from the block where Maria grew up, and Derek was from the working class and came to New Jersey from Maine. Working for an insurance company in Manhattan, thanks to his efforts, he quickly climbed the career ladder and one day finally saved enough money to move his wife and three children to a more prestigious area.
Promotional video:
Therefore, what was further revealed in the note, Derek was unpleasantly surprised:
Earlier this week, Derek and Maria and their kids got to know the neighbors and their kids played with their kids and everything was great. It turns out that the Observer saw that too.
There was no return address in the note, and it ended with even more creepy words:
It was already 10 pm and Derek was home alone. Soon he was already running scared and turning off the lights everywhere so that no one from the street could see anything in the house, and then called the police. The visiting officer read the letter and then asked if Derek or his wife had enemies. He also advised to remove the debris away so that the attacker could not throw it out the window.
The next day, Derek contacted the Woods spouses, who had lived in this house for 23 years and it was they who sold this house to them, and told them about the strange letter. The Woods assured him that they did not know about anything like this and that they had heard of such a thing for the first time. The Woods then testified to the police, where they were told not to tell any of the neighbors about it, since each of them was now under suspicion.
The Broads spent the next two weeks as if on the defensive. Especially after at night someone pulled out a heavy block that the builders had hammered on the site. After that, a new letter from the Observer appeared in the mailbox, where he wrote that he watched as the movers unloaded the Broads things from the van and brought them into the house.
It is curious that he wrote Broads' surname incorrectly, he wrote it exactly as the workers called it. It turned out that the Observer was close enough to hear the conversations of the builders.
The letter went on to say:
Derek and Maria were terrified. They forbade children to move from the old house to the new one. And they themselves began to appear here very rarely. A few weeks later, a short note appeared in the mailbox asking "Where have you gone?"
Built in 1905, 657 Boulevard was indeed the prettiest home on the block. When the Woods put it up for sale, they received several inquiries that offered an amount even more than the Woods wanted.
When the Broads found out about this, they suspected that the Woods really, at the request of the Observer, sold the house to them. However, the Woods were able to prove that it was an accident. One of the buyers offering a higher amount fell ill, and the other was quickly distracted by another mansion.
Careful examination by the police of letters, paper, envelopes and stamps on them yielded nothing significant. Three former owners of the house were found who lived in it before the Woods spouses, but they all swore that they knew nothing about the Observer and did not notice anything strange.
And then the police suspected the Langford family living through the house, who had the fame of strange people. The case seemed to be solved. The unemployed Michael Langford, who had schizophrenia, fell under the main suspicion, but in the police he stubbornly denied everything and assured that he did not know anything about the letters and did not threaten anyone or wrote anything.
The Broads launched their own investigation when the police got nothing. They installed a video surveillance camera and even set up night ambushes on several occasions. But they never found anyone, so they turned to private detectives, and then to the former FBI agent, who was the inspiration for the image of Clarissa Starling from the movie The Silence of the Lambs.
But it was all wasted. By the end of 2014, any investigation had reached a complete dead end. The observer did not leave any fingerprints or other signs on the letters. The analysis of many errors in the texts also did not lead to anything. In December, a desperate Derek Broads even called a priest to consecrate the house from evil spirits.
After that, a new letter came:
“You did something to this house. He turns away from me. What kind of charm did you put on him? He used to be my friend, but now he is like my enemy. I am in charge of this house. I reject all bad things and will wait for him to be good again. He will not punish me. I will be resurrected. I will be patient and I will wait for you to return and bring young blood. The house needs you. Let the young blood play in him as I once did. Don't change anything in this house."
After that, the Broads put up the ill-fated house for sale and left for the old house of Maria's parents. They were not even stopped by the need to continue paying money for the house - part of taxes and mortgages. The Broads were very depressed and all this brought them to depression and tears. They lived in the new house for only 6 months and mostly trembled there with fear.
In 2016, this story got into the press and crowds of curious people began to appear near the house 657 on the Boulevard. Horror stories were told about the Observer's letters, and soon the whole story became a local urban legend.
The house several times was removed from the sale, then exhibited again. There were various gossips about the Broads, including that they wrote letters to themselves, and the Broads themselves were so fed up with all this that they already wanted to demolish the house, but their neighbors were already indignant against this.
Finally, in 2017, the Broads found a family with children who rented the house. Soon after, Derek came to check on something at the precinct and found a fresh note in his mailbox:
“Evil winds and intense cold because of the scoundrel Derek and his girl Mary,” - this is how she began and then was full of anger and anger. The observer also threatened retaliation for attempting to demolish the house, causing fire and other disasters to hit the house.
With a new letter, the Broads went to the police again, but again they got nothing. Now in house 657 on the Boulevard, a temporary family still lives, which so far has not complained about anything strange.