Freaky Friday Files: The Watcher House

DISCLAIMER: This blog post discusses stalkers. Reader's discretion advised.

Hi friends! Happy Friday!! For this week's edition of Freaky Friday Files we are going to take a look at "The Watcher House."

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The Watcher House

Imagine this: you've just purchased your dream home for your family, eagerly anticipating the move. However, before you even move in, unsettling letters begin to arrive, revealing an uncanny knowledge about you and your children from a mysterious person who goes by "The Watcher". It's downright terrifying, isn't it?

Well, that's exactly what happened to Maria and Derek Broaddus in 2014 in New Jersey. The address is publicly avaliable but I don't exactly feel comfortable sharing it - it feels icky. Maria and Derek began receiving these letters, addressed to them specifically and "The Watcher" was letting them know that the writer and their family have watched over the home since the 1920s AND that they have been put in charge of waiting for its second coming. I think that's meant to mean the house's second coming but also giving major religious vibes too.

As the couple wanted to renovate the house, they hadn't yet moved in and in the letters from The Watcher, the family was scolded and The Watcher even threatened to kidnap the three children.

The Broaddus family obviously alerted authorities to these creepy letters and when they did, they learned something even more terrifying - the previous owners had also received one letter from this unknown source before they moved out. It was also from "The Watcher" and said something along the lines of "I've been keeping a close eye on the house". The previous owners assumed this was a prank so they threw out the letter. The Broaddus family were also told not to tell anyone about the letters, not even their neighbours by authorities - as they were all now suspects.

The Broaddus family kept receiving letters and over time, the letters got super super creepy. Everyone was addressed by name (both first and last) and a few letters included stuff about what is in the walls in the house (I don't know if they mean it's haunted or if they mean what's physically on the walls). This Watcher was also questioning why the family was yet to move in. This is one of the quotes:

"It has been years and years since the young blood rule the hallways of the house. Have you found all 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" - The Watcher.

So yeah, that's creepy. I personally think young blood could either be ghosts of the house's past OR the current children of Maria and Derek (it's most likely the latter but we have to consider all sides here).

The letters kept coming while the family was renovating their house and it was so creepy, it was like The Watcher always knew when they were going to be there. Following these letters, Maria and Derek completely stopped bringing their kids to the property and they never ended up moving in - they were way too scared. There is a Netflix miniseries based on this case but the couple DO end up moving in to the house so I think it's a bit more dramatised - I'm going to put it on my watchlist now.

8 months after the house was purchased, the Broaddus family put it up for sale. It kept getting reduced in price and then in 2015, it was taken off market. Maria and Derek ended up filing a lawsuit against the previous owners for failing to say anything about the letters they received (which, I don't think is very fair considering they only ever received one allegedly). Obviously, this lawsuit didn't go anywhere and the house was relisted on the market again in 2016, and eventually they settled on a tenant (aka a renter) who lived there for a while. In 2019, the family finally sold the The Watcher House, but at a loss of $500,000. TBH, I think safety and security and just feeling safe in general is way more important than making your money make (but that's just my opinion).

The Watcher's identity has never been determined and to this day, we still have no idea who was sending those letters. So was it someone they knew? Was someone just playing a sick game on the Broaddus'? Was someone out to get them maliciously? OR, was the house genuinely haunted and this person was watching over the ghosts? Or was someone genuinely mentally ill and sending this letters as a way to cope?

Many theories have emerged such as: an inside job by Maria and Derek themselves OR one of them, a jealous neighbour who wanted to buy the house, or a real estate agent. "This" Reddit thread talks about a suspect by the name of Michael Langford - a person who lived in the area around the time and was obsessed with the house, so it's possible it could have been him but there isn't any conclusive evidence. The Cut also says that Langford had schizophrenia and had a similar narrative to the house that was in the letters - although he claimed he knew nothing about said letters.

I think it's an interesting case that explores crime in a new way, no one is getting physically hurt but the family is experiencing a kind of fear that no one should experience, it grapples with voyeurism, distrust, and paranoia and that stuff can do sh*t to you man. I'm not saying that's exactly what it was BUT those are just some themes that come to mind when I think about this case.

I also think it's possible that the previous owners may have been lying and they received more than one letter, but this isn't that likely.

Who do you think did this? Let me know in the comments below!

Ash x

References

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Freaky Friday Files: The Watcher House

The Watcher House

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