It hadn’t seemed terribly menacing to them, and they’d never received any in their 23 years of living there, so they threw it out. They asked the Woodses if they’d received any letters from the Watcher, and were told that they had received one, shortly before they moved out. The Broddauses did, however, reach out to John and Andrea Woods-the previous owners of the house.
The police began looking into it, and discouraged the family from speaking to any of their new neighbours about the letter, for they were now all potential suspects. After the first letter, Derek contacted the police, who read the letter and did a search of the house. This only served to further intimidate an already on edge family, because the section of the porch the child had been painting on was screened and covered by trees, and could only be seen by select angles.įor a while the Broadduses had been bringing their three children with them whenever they did renovations on the house or consulted with painters and contractors, but after that particular incident, they began keeping the children away from the house.īeginning to fear for their safety, but not wanting to give up the home they’d worked so hard for, the Broadduses-particularly Derek-began seeking assistance. The letter noted having seen the child with her easel set up, and inquired as to whether she was the artist of the family. One letter even referred specifically to one child who had been painting on the porch one day while the Broadduses did renovations. This made Maria Broaddus even more anxious about officially moving into the house (up until that point, they’d only moved their belongings in, but weren’t officially living there yet.)
As time went on, and he somehow learned more information about the family, he started addressing them by name, including using nicknames for the children only the family called them by. In total, the Watcher sent three letters to the Broaddus family, each creepier and more detailed than the previous. The Watcher also alluded to things unknown about the house, such as asking the family if they’d discovered what was hidden in the walls yet, or if their children had played in the basement, and suggesting that they should be afraid to go down there. The Watcher, in his letters, usually referred to the children as “the young blood”, and even seemed to imply that not only were they his focus (aside from the house itself), but that the house had summoned them for him, saying things such as “Do you need to fill the house with the youngblood I requested?” and “It has been years since the youngblood ruled the hallways of the house.” He even went so far as to ask which family members would be sleeping in the bedrooms that faced the street, stating that once he figured that out, it would be easier for him to make plans, though he didn’t specify what those plans were. This led the Broaddus parents and the police to believe the Watcher was close enough to hear the children’s names being called. Though they were never identified in the media by name, the Watcher, in later letters, referred to them by name. He said it was his family’s job, his family’s obsession, to keep watch over the house and all its occupants.Ĭreepier still, however, was the Watcher’s apparent focus on the children of the Broaddus family. The sender of the letter identified themselves only as “The Watcher”, and explained to the Broadduses that he and his father and grandfather before him had been watching the house since the 1920s. It started off pleasant enough, with what seemed like a welcome message from one of their neighbours: “Dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard, Allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood.” But what followed, both in that first letter and the ones that came afterwards, was far from welcoming. They had even started making plans for some renovations to the house, including discussing the possibility of tearing the house down and dividing it into two properties instead of just one. Derek Broaddus had worked his way up enough in his job to be able to afford such a house, and the family was very excited to start this new chapter of their lives. What’s more, they had barely even moved in when they made the decision to put it back up for sale, and it took them nearly four years to find someone willing to buy the home.īetween June and August of that year, the Broaddus family, along with their three young children, moved all their belongings into the home they had just bought.
In June 2014, Derek and Maria Broaddus bought their dream home, then later sold it for a nearly $400,000 loss.
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