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The Watcher House(M4A_128K) · NO FILTER

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up you guys. I'm Haley and I'm Andrea, and
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: this is Inhuman, a true crime podcast. So we just
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: spent the last like a couple of minutes talking about
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the gnats in Andrea's recording room.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, nats, that's plural, because I walked in here and
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: three of them were on the wall and I started
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: taking books and like swatting them and smacking them with
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: my hands, and then come to find out there was
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: a fourth little fucker flying around. So they're in here
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: like getting it in evidently.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I think they are. They're like, we all want to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: be here yea for the recording of the podcast.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: They're yeah, they're all true crime fans are just like
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: we can't get enough of it. They told their friends
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: and look at it now. It's like a fucking concert.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: If this is the first episode that you're listening to,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: We're not crazy. Andrea literally like every single time we
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: record has at least one that in her And while we're.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: On the topic, like we had a comment I think
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: I was on our YouTube about us being giggly and
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: like we are not by any means making fun of
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: like the cases or being you know, insensitive to the cases, Like,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: we're just trying to you know, be lighthearted as much
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: as we can. And you know we're just we're goofy
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: people naturally that just so happen to like true crimes.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: So sometimes you know that cross is over. But we
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: we never mean to be disrespectful at all. So yeah,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: just throw that out there.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're not a full on, like investigative true crime podcast,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Like we're just telling the stories and like Andrew said,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: we're just being ourselves and we're weird. So yeah, very
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: we don't like us.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we definitely try to, you know, get the research
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: across and get the cases across, and you know, give
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: respect and dignity to everyone who's involved with Some little
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: things happen and we giggle and laugh and that's just
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: just life.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly that tangent. Well, today's case nobody died, so
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a lighter case, I guess.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: So after the doozy that was last week's case that
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I did, the Christian Andreocchio case, I did so much
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: freaking research for that case because it's a crazy case.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: And I had said last week last Thursday, that I
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: was going to cover a solved case this week I
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: was like, I need something with conclusion, I need something solved,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: but I didn't do that. I mean, there is kind
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: of a conclusion sort of, but it is certainly not
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: a solved case.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Is anyone is anyone missing?
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: No, nobody's missing, So no one's.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Missing, no one has been murdered. That already sounds like
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: good odds to me.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: So yes, I also decided to cover this because last
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: weekend I went to Disneyland and it was all Halloween theme.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I promise this makes sense. I'm not just like Disneyland,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I'm true crimp. So Disneyland was all Halloween themed. So
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: then I started. When I was editing my YouTube video
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: from Disneyland, I was listening to like creepy like music
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: to put into the YouTube video, like halloween music, and
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I was like, ooh, I'm ready for spooky season, like
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: I want to go all in. So this case is
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: kind of like a spooky, mysterious, like creepy case.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Right, which to me still falls under the category of
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: inhuman because you know, ghosts, yes, spooky things are in human.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Yes, and the person that did this was definitely inhuman. Okay,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: so this is obviously different. And I've heard this case
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: a couple of times, and every freaking time I hear it,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: it freaks me out so much. Believe I heard it
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: for the first time on Morbid, but I went back
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: to look for the episode, and I think they like
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: took it down, which I was really sad about because
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: that was like the first one that I heard, and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering it was one of their like really early episodes,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: so I'm wondering if maybe they are going to like
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: redo it or something. I don't know, but I think
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to like shout them out because that
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: was the first time I heard it on from their podcast,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: and then I've heard it a couple other times and
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: it's just so freaking creepy.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: So yeah, they took down some of their older stuff
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: just to like revamp it, I guess, so.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: That's probably what it was. Yeah, so that's what I'm thinking.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it freaks me out every single time I
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: hear or think about it. So now I'm gonna share
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: it with you guys so we can all be freaked
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: out together.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Yay.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: So today I am going to be sharing the story
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: of the Watcher House.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Dun dun, dum.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Okay. Maria and Derek Braddis were looking to buy a
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: house for their family in New Jersey. They had three
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: young kids in twenty fourteen when they were looking to
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: buy a house, and Maria had grown up in Westfield,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: New Jersey, which is about sixteen miles or forty five
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: minutes southwest of Manhattan in New York, so not too
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: far from the city, but kind of, you know, like
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: almost like a suburb. And that's the area. I'm pretty
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: sure that's the area they had currently like were living in,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: and they were just moving to a new house in
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the area. I don't think they were like moving there
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: from a different city, but that's where they were looking
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: to move. And Derek was the vice president at an
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: insurance company in Manhattan, so he had a pretty good salary,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: and their budget for this house they were looking for
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: was pretty large. They found the perfect home that was
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: just a few blocks away from where Maria grew up actually,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and it was located Its address was six point fifty
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: seven Boulevard, And it's not Boulevard Street. It's not like
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the boulevard. The street name is Boulevard, Okay, so it's
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: kind of confusing, but must.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Be a city thing.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I've never heard
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: something like that. And honestly, I feel like most streets,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: or at least around here, are like such and such
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: and such street or such and such boulevard Like no,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: it's right.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: It's just boulevard. Boulevard like the number and then boulevard.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, exactly. So in June twenty fourteen, just after Derek's
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: fortieth birthday, the family purchased this house for one point
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: three million dollars.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which it's sad, but I live in California, and
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: when I heard that, I was like, okay, yeah, like
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: that's about right.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I kind of felt like that too, when you said
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: that about like New Jersey and like being close to
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: New York, I feel like that's probably kind of average
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: for like a nice size house, you know.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah exactly not here though, Yeah, I know. I'm like,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: when am I ever gonna be able to ford a
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: house one way three million dollar house? Maybe one day
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: when our podcast blows up wink. Okay. So a little
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: bit of just some background on the town of Westfield
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: or city. I never know whether or not to call
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: it a town or city. I always called places cities
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: until I went to college in Indiana, and then they
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: call everything towns except for like the big cities.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: We say we say cities for like the actual city,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: like the big cities, and then town right for everything else.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, So, like I live in Los Angeles City, but
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: I live in and that's my town.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's it's suburb like suburbia where you live, right, Yeah, yeah,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: so I would consider that a town and LA is
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: the city. Yeah.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Okay. Also I'm gonna bleep out my town name, sorry myself. Yeah, okay,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: although the town is like decent side. But anyway, off topic,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: you never know, like I'm like, I know, I'm like
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and today I'm just like, my mind is going million
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: miles a minute. I feel like so so good. Okay,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I'm glad we're on the same page. Yeah. So, anyway,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a little bit of background on the town of Westfield.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: A lot of people who lived there compared it to
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: the town Mayberry from the Andy Griffith Show. If you've
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: seen that, Oh wow, Yeah, it's like basically a super idyllic,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: like quaint town where neighbors are friendly. Westfield's population was
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: made up mostly of families and it's thirty thousand residents
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: enjoyed the slow life not far from the city, and
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: at the time the Broadesses were moving there. In twenty fourteen,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: it was ranked as America's thirtieth safest town by Neighborhood Scout,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: a website, so you know it's pretty safe in America. Yeah.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, Westfield was ranked by Bloomberg as the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: ninety ninth richest city in America and the eighteenth richest
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: in New Jersey. So clearly people in this town had money.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: And the median household income in twenty nineteen that was
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: being reported was almost one hundred and sixty thousand. The
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: median income was one hundred and sixty thousand, so you
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: know this is a wealthy city town. Whatever. One of
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the residents told a reporter for the cut, and this
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: is where I got most of my information from. This
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: reporter did like an awesome a whole story. He like
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: went to the town and talked to talk to the
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: family and other residents and stuff. So I'll have that
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: linkedown in the show notes. But one of the residents
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: told him that quote, there's a lot of money and
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of ego around buying a house, and this
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: resident also said that bidding wars were common in the
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: area and that he'd seen people lose a house buy
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: up to three hundred thousand dollars in those bidding wars, which,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: like that sounds like what's happening like now during the pandemic.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of fading out. But like, the
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Broadesses were very excited to be able to purchase this
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: house and that you know, they could afford it. It
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: was a nice neighborhood. They were very happy. Now a
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: little bit of background on six fifty seven Boulevard, the
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: house the Broadess has purchased. Boulevard was deemed by residents
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: as the best street to live on. It was lined
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: with trees and beautiful homes, and this particular home was
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: built in nineteen oh five and it was one of
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the most beautiful and grandest houses on boulevard.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: It was a six bedroom, three and a half bathroom
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: house perfectly you know, perfect for their family of five.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: So that's all the background I'm going to go through
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: for now. The family purchased the house in June twenty fourteen,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: and they were doing some updates and like renovations before
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: moving in, and Derek and Maria had been at the
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: house during the days, you know, facilitating the contractors coming
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: and the workers coming in to do the renovations. And
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: while they were there, their kids, who were five, eight
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: and ten played inside and outside of the house. Three
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: days after buying the house, Derek had been there all
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: evening painting, and before he left for the night, he
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: checked the mailbox and inside he found a white envelope
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: addressed to the new owner, and that was in like
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: handwritten thick black letters, and then the note inside was typed.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: And this is where it gets fucking creepy.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: The letter began, dearest new neighbor at six fifty seven Boulevard,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood. So like, okay,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: it was a friendly neighborhood. Maybe a neighbor was leaving
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: a welcome note, but nope, it read quote, how did
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: you end up here? Did six fifty seven Boulevard call
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: to you with its forces within? Six fifty seven Boulevard
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: had been the subject of my family for decades now,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: and as it approaches its one hundred and tenth birthday,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I have been put in charge of watching and waiting
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: for its second coming. My grandfather watched the house in
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, and my father watched in the nineteen sixties.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: It is now my time. Do you know the history
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: of the house? Do you know what lies within the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: walls of six fifty seven Boulevard? Why are you here?
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: I will find out.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Ew that's so ominous and so like I know something
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: you don't know, and it's creepy, and you're gonna find
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: out the worst way possible.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm yeah, like literally creep level one million, Like
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: that's so freaking creepy.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, big time.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: The letter also identified the family's Honda Minivan, their children,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: and the renovations happening.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Oh that's creepy.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: So, the letter said, I see already that you have
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: flooded six fifty seven Boulevard with contractors so that you
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: can destroy the house as it was supposed to be.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Tis tisk tisk, bad move. You don't want to make
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: six fifty seven Boulevard unhappy?
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Okay? Is it like the Monster House like the Disney Yeah?
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Literally?
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: It also said you have children. I have seen them
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: so far. I think there are three that I have counted.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Do you need to fill the house with the young blood,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I requested better for me. Was your old house too
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: small for the growing family? Or was it greed to
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: bring me your children. Once I know their names, I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: will call to them and draw them to me.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Do the blood I requested? Mm hmmm, Oh my gosh.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: And then the letter also said I asked the woods
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: to bring me young blood, and it looks like they listened,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: and so we'll find out a little bit more about that.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: In a second At the end of the letter, the
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: person wrote, who am I? There are hundreds and hundreds
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: of cars that drive by six fifty seven Boulevard each day.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Maybe I am in one. Look at all the windows
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: you can see from six to fifty seven Boulevard. Maybe
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: I am in one look out any of the many
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: windows in six fifty seven Boulevard, at all the people
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: who stroll by each day. Maybe I am one. Welcome
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: my friends, Welcome, Let the party begin. And then it
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: was signed in like cursive font the watcher.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, that sounds like someone who's mentally ill, who maybe
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: used to live in the house and is having some
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: like separation anxiety, or like some kind of feelings of
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know. That's really creepy. Though.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So when Derek read this letter, he immediately called
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: the cops. He actually like went into the house and
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: like made sure he couldn't be seen, and then called
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: the cops. And when an officer arrived at the house,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I didn't like write this down exactly, but I'm pretty
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: sure the officer literally said something like what the fuck?
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Like what is this?
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Like? Is this a joke?
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And the officer was just as baffled as Derek was.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: But at the time, like the police couldn't really do
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: anything because it was kind of like, Okay, well, you know,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: lock your doors. And so Derek went home to his
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: old house where they were still living until the renovations
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: were done, and he showed his wife the letter. So
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: that night, Derek and Maria emailed the previous owners of
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the house, John and Andrea Woods because of the letter Refford,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: saying that whoever wrote it had told them to bring
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: young blood right. Andrea Woods responded the next morning and
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: told the Broadesses that they did, in fact get a
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: letter from the Watcher. They got one letter in the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: twenty three years they lived at six fifty seven Boulevard,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: and it was just a few days before they moved out,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: and the letter was similar to the one that Derek
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: had gotten the night before, mentioning that the Watcher's family
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: had been observing the house for years. But the woods
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Is basically thought the letter was a prank and threw
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: it out, like they didn't think anything of it. And
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: I don't blame them for that, because like it's just
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: one letter. You're not really gonna think anything of it, you.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Know, in twenty three years, Yeah, I wouldn't. And you're
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: moving out, like.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Eh, yeah, you're like, I'm out of here.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: So Andrea Woods and Maria Brodis went to Broadis. I
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: don't know why, I said, brotus all of a sudden, Broadus.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: They went to the police station later that day, and
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the police told them not to tell anybody about the letters, like,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: don't tell the neighbors about the letters, because everybody who
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: lived around them were basically now like potential suspects because
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: they didn't know who had sent it. Right. A few
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: days after receiving this letter, the Brodises went to a
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: neighbor's house for a barbecue that was welcoming them and
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: another new family to the neighborhood, and the entire time
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: they were there. They were monitoring others' behavior to try to,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: you know, see if anything weird was going on, and
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: they were also like keeping their kids close to them
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: because they were freaked out. Yeah, And at this barbecue,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Derek was talking to a man who lived two doors
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: down from six fifty seven, and he mentioned that the
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: family that lived between them, the Langfords, was, you know,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: an interesting family. Peggy Langford was in her nineties and
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: her adult children, who were all in their sixties, lived
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: with her. And from the article from the cut quote
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: he described one of the younger Langford's, Michael, who didn't
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: work and had a beard like Ernest, like Ernest Hemingway
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: as kind of a Boo Radley character, So like, if
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: you don't know, Boo Radley is like kind of a
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: creepy like, yeah, like an odd ball from to Kill Mockingbirds.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: So you know, he was kind of just saying like
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: he's just a little bit, a little bit out there, Okay.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: So of course Derek immediately thought Michael Langford could be
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the person writing the letters, and the police did bring
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: him in for an interview and he denied knowing anything,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: and without any actual evidence, they couldn't really do much
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: more at that point. Yeah, the next two weeks, the
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Bradesses continued their renovations and they were on high alert,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: but they were hoping that this would be the end
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: of this creepy shit and they'd be able to move
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: into their house soon once the renovations were done. And
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: one day they were actually showing one of the like
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: a couple that lived on their street, some of the
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: renovations they had done, and the woman said, quote, having
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: new young blood in the neighborhood will be nice. And
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: of course this really freaked Derek out because like young blood,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: like that's not something.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so yeah.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: But again, nothing they could do, Like they could watch
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: watch these people, but they you know, didn't have any
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: reason to believe that this was like and I was.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: A elderly person, right, so like how scared? Yeah, Like
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: I don't know, I guess you could be scared of
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: elderly Some elderly people like got one movie? What's that movie?
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: The Quiet? No? No, no, don't breathe with that old
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: guy that's blind? And have you seen that? You don't
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: watch scary movies?
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: No, no, I don't watch scary movies.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like an old guy, and he's blond, and
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: like these people wind up in his house and he
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: like traps them and tortures them. Oh god, anyway, sorry,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: oh god.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: The last scary movie I watched was in college. I
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: was like hanging out with a friend at her apartment.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: We watched a scary movie and then she drove me
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: home and I had to like go up to my
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: dorm room alone, and.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Like, you're like never again. Yeah.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Literally, So one day Maria was at the house and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: she checked the mail and found another letter.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Oh no.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: So in this letter, the watcher directly addressed the broadesses,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: but he did spell their last name wrong. So this
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: kind of made them think that maybe he was someone
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: that was close enough to hear them talking or hear like,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: you know, some of the workers addressing them or something,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: but had never seen their name written out right. So
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna basically like read through this second letter
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: right here, and so it's like, all, you know, a
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: quote from the second letter. Just don't want anybody to
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: like say I plagiarized, because it's literally the letter, So
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying. So it said, well, welcome again to
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: your new home at six point fifty seven Boulevard. The
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: workers have been busy, and I have been watching you
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: unload car fulds of your personal belongings. The dumpster is
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: a nice touch. Have they found what's in the walls? Yet?
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: In time they will?
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Six point fifty seven Boulevard is anxious for you to
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: move in. It has been years and years since the
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: young Blood ruled the hallways of the house. Have you
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: found all of the secrets it holds yet? Will the
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: young Blood play in the basement or are they too
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: afraid to go down there alone? I would be very
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: afraid if I were them. It is far away from
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: the rest of the house. If you were upstairs, you
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: would never hear them scream.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Ew no in the walls. No?
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Will they sleep in the attic? Or will you all
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: sleep on the second floor? Who is the bedrooms facing
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the street? I'll know as soon as you move in.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: It will help me know who is in. It will
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: help me to know who is in which bedroom. Then
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: I can plan better.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Ooh ew no, uh huh. I'd be noping right out
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: of there, like y'all can take this one million, shove
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: it up your behind. I come out of here.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: It said, there's more all of the windows and doors
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: in six fifty seven Boulevard. Allow me to watch you
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and track you as you move through the house. Who
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: am I? I am the watcher and I've been in
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: control of six fifty seven Boulevard for the better part
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: of two decades. Now the Woods family turned it over
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: to you. It was their time to move on and
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: kindly sold. And they kindly sold it when I asked
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: them to. I passed by many times a day. Six
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: p fifty seven Boulevard is my job, my life, my obsession.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: And now you are too broad us family again spelled wrong.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the product of your greed. Greed is what
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: brought the past three families to six fifty seven Boulevard,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: and now it has brought you to me. Have a
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: happy moving in day. You know I will be watching.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: So greedy?
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: They want a place to live a home? Wow? So greedy?
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: How dare they?
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah? So at this point Derek and Maria were clearly terrified,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: and they decided to no longer bring the kids to
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the house. And a third letter came a few weeks
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: after that, and this third letter said, where have you
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: gone to? Six fifty seven Boulevard is missing you. Six
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: fifty seven Boulevard is turning on me. It is coming
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: after me. I don't understand why what spell did you
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: cast on it? It used to be my friend, and
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: now it is my enemy. I am in charge of
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: six fifty seven Boulevard. It is not in charge of me.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I will fend off it's bad things and wait for
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: it to become good again. It will not punish me.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: I will rise again. I will be patient and wait
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: for the pass, for this to pass, and for you
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: to bring the young blood back to me. Six point
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: fifty seven Boulevard needs young blood. It needs you come back.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Let the young blood play again like I once did.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Let the young blood sleep in six fifty seven Boulevard.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Stop changing it and let it alone.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: That's just that's so peculiar. Yeah, it's like personifying a house,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: which is I mean, I'm not completely against, but you're
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: saying like the house is mad at you. You don't
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: even live there, Like you sound like you need to
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: be patient and go get some mental help because something's
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: not connecting up here.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Yes, so there's a lot to dissect here. And at
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: this point, the police again couldn't really do much because
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: you know, other than having these letters, there's.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: Not much yeah.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So the Brodesses decided to take this, you know,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: make it an investigation, like take it into their own hands.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: And one initial thought was that the person writing the
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: letters was one of the buyers who had tried to
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: get the house but was like beat out by the Broadesses.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: But the woods Is said that one of the interested
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: buyers had actually backed out because of a medical diagnosis,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: and then another one had already found a different home,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: so that theory seemed very unlikely. Yeah, and what year
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: was this, twenty fourteen?
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Okay, so yeah, they were probably just starting to get
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: like the like outdoor security cameras and stuff like that,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: so that'd be a good o. Yeah.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: And another like theory or kind of what they were
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: thinking was that someone who lived in the neighborhood was
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the person writing the letters. An interesting fact was that
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the first letter was postmarked two days before the sale
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: was made public, so they thought that maybe it was
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: someone in the neighborhood who like knew the Woodses were selling,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: because you know, it hadn't been made public yet and
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: they hadn't put up a first sale sign, so it
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: wasn't like somebody could have driven by and seen it,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Like they would have had to know that the woodses
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: were selling, or maybe they saw them packing or something. Yeah,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: they also thought that it was someone in the neighborhood
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: because one of the letters, and I'm not sure exactly
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: which one, but one of them mentioned an easel and
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: it mentioned that it saw one of the kids drawing
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and painting on an easel. But the easel was in
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: the front enclosed porch and it was hidden from street
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: view by like ants, so the person would have to
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: be able to get like close to the house to
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: be able to see it, or like see it from
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: a different angle, not like straight on from the street. Okay,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Derek was doing everything he could to try to figure
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: out what was happening. He even like set up cameras
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: inside and outside the house and spent nights at the
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: house trying to like see if he could see anybody
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: watching it. But he just couldn't find anything. So the
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: family hired a PI, and that PI staked out the
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: neighborhood and he also ran background checks on the Langford's,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the family that lived next door. But again this didn't
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: lead anywhere. Did you just kill another gnat?
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: I did sorry, I had to. It's just smushed on
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: my computer screen. Now I have nothing to get it up. Sorry.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I will say when we were having recording issues, when
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: we had like earlier, when we'd stopped this episode, we
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: were trying to figure it out, and then Andrew goes,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: oh my god, two nats are doing it on my
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: computer screen.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: It don't show me. I got it on a piece
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: of tape. Okay, that's so gross. Chris, Okay, I'm being
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: too dramatic with this.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: No you're not. It's fine. So anyway, the PI h
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: all the work he did didn't really lead anywhere, so
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: then they hired a former FBI agent to kind of
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: evaluate the letters and conduct a threat assessment. So this
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: guy was named Robert Lenihan, and he started analyzing the
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: letters and he brought up some interesting points from things
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: he observed through the letters. And I think this is
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: super interesting because this reminds me of like Mind Hunter,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: where they were like, you know, like I know, and
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: they're like figuring things out based on how the letters
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: are written and stuff. So that's kind of what I
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: think he was trying to like do that type of thing. So,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: first off, the writer addressed envelope as M slash M broadest,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: which was you know, still spelled wrong, but that was
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: something that was used like years ago, the M slash
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: M to you know, I think it's like mister and missus,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: but instead of mister and missus, it's M slash M.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: So that indicated that the writer might be like older.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: And then from the article on the cut quote, the
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: letters had a certain literary Oh god, how do you
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: say this word panache?
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Panash panash?
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: I don't I've ever seen that word written out like
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: a like I don't know how to like style kind
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: of yeah.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Like kind of like pizazz. But like right, I'm pretty sure, Okay,
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: I'll look it up.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: I mean that would make sense in this context. So yeah,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: So the letters had a certain literary panache, which suggested
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: a voracious reader and a surprising lack of profanity given
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: the level of anger, which Lenehan thought meant a less
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: macho writer. Maybe he wondered the Watcher had seen The Watcher,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: which was a movie I think starring Keanu Reeves as
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: a serial killer who stocks the detective trying to catch him.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: What I've never seen this, I don't I know me
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: neither sure when he said the Watcher the Watchhouse, I
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: was like, is that a movie? Because I swear it
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: sounded familiar, but I may have heard it on Morbid
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: like you did.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, so this guy was kind of making
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: trying to figure things out, and basically like came to
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: the conclusion that the letters really seemed to indicate that
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the Watcher was angry at the wealth in the neighborhood
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: with new money moving into town. And Lenahan didn't think
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: that the writer would actually act on any of the
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: threats that they had made, but he did suggest looking
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: into people who used to live in or work at
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the house, because you know, he mentioned like play around
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: in the holes like I used to and stuff like that,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: and he said, you know, maybe somebody who used to
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: live or work there was upset that the family was
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: making so many changes.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's what I was thinking too.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's what came from that. As time went on, though,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the only real person of interest in like with the
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: police and everything was Michael Langford. The police did at
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: one point try to like draw him out by having
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: the Broadesses write a letter to the Langford saying they
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: were planning to tear down the house to like hopefully
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: you know, make him mad if it was him. But
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: of course that did not work, and Abby Langford, Michael's sister,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: accused the police of harassing their family. Another reason that
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: the Broddesses and the police thought it could be someone
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: from the Langford family was because their house would have
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: had a viewpoint of the easel that I mentioned earlier,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: So like where their house was, you could have seen
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: that easel like angled view. Yeah. And eventually the broddesss
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: hired a lawyer named Lee Levitt who met with the
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Langford family and their lawyer and you know, showed them
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: the letters and explained the like easel vantage point. But
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: once again, this did not go anywhere. The police did
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: consider other suspects, but they just didn't have any evidence
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: to go off of. They looked for fingerprints and did
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: do DNA testing, but they didn't find anything usable. And
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: by December twenty fourteen, it had been six months since
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the first letter came and the investigation was basically stalled.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: It wasn't going to go anywhere, and police at that
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: point told the family that they just couldn't do anything
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: more with what they currently had. They couldn't keep investigating
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: there was nothing they could do. And then at that point,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Derek had a priest come bless the house, because that's
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: kind of like his last ditch effort for like some
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: sort of peace. At this point, the renovations were done,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: so the Brodesses, you know, should have been moving in,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: but obviously they did not want to put their kids
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: into that house, not knowing where the letters were coming from.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: So the family they had sold their previous house because
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: they were planning to move, so they had to move
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: in with Maria's parents because they just did not want
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: to go anywhere near six fifty seven Boulevard.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: I don't blame them, that's scary.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: No me neither. And this was affecting the family a ton. Obviously,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: they were still paying for the mortgage and taxes on
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: the house, and they were also constantly worried, anxious, and depressed.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Maria was actually diagnosed with PTSD and began seeing a therapist,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: while Derek had to get on like sleeping medication because
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: he couldn't sleep.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: That's awful, that's serious, That's that's deep. Yeah, you know,
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: it's not just uh, somebody's yeah, you know, pulling pranks
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: on us. That's like we're yeah, really being affected.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And they also didn't really tell many of their
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: friends about the letters, just because they didn't want to
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: spread it more than it needed to be, and their
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: friends like, because they didn't know what was going on,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: they started to wonder and they started thinking that maybe
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: the couple was having marital problems and that's what was
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: what was going on. So then obviously that affected them
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: too because their friends are like, what the heck, what's
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: going on? Yeah, So at this point, Marie and Derek
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: decided that they needed to sell the house, and they
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: initially listed it for a little bit more than the
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: one point three million they paid for it because of
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: all the updates that they had done. But of course
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: there were rumors going around about what was happening, Like
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: even though they didn't tell anybody about the letters, there
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: were still rumors about like why haven't this couple moved in?
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Like what is going on? Yeah, So all of the
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: offers that came in were well below asking price. Wow,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: And they did send a partial disclosure to any interested buyers,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: and then they said that whoever's offer they accepted, they
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: would show the full letters to and you know, being
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: the like good people that they were. They didn't want
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: to entirely keep the letters secret.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think it's good to disclose that kind
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: of information because, you know, unfortunately it might mean that
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: they might not be able to sell their house. But
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: they don't want to potential, like another family, to potentially
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: have the same thing happened to them exactly.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: That was exactly their thoughts. So in June twenty fifteen,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: a year after they bought six fifty seven Boulevard, the
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Brattesses actually filed a legal complaint against the Woodses. And
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: this complaint included some snippets of the letters, and it
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: said that the Woodses should have disclosed the letter that
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: they had received, just as you disclose like anything physical
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: going on with the house. And in some states you
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: are required to disclose like ghosts or you know, potential
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: like paranormal activity. And I think almost everywhere you're required
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: to disclose if somebody died in the house. Yeah, but
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: not every where you're required to disclose like paranormal or
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: stuff that wasn't like a physical, you know death. Right.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: But more than a year after filing this complaint, a
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: judge dismissed the lawsuit since New Jersey did not have
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: any of those laws requiring any type of like this disclosure. Yeah,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: which I understand. I mean, I agree that the Woodses
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: should have. But also they didn't think anything of it.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: To them, it was just one letter they got and
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: they threw it away like it wasn't anything. I don't know.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: I really don't blame the Woodses, and I'm glad that
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: they did dismiss this lawsuit because I don't personally think
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: that the woods should have been held responsible for what
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: was happening.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: If they had like multiple letters like these this family
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: was getting, like from the gate, I would be like, Okay, yeah,
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: you guys should have said something. But the fact that
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: they got one like right before they were about to move, like, yeah,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: I don't really blame them for not being open about
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: the exactly.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: So before this was dismissed, the Broadnesses wanted to keep
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: it quiet, you know, right after they filed it. They
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: were kind of trying to like keep it out of
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: the news, let it settle quickly. But a local reporter
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: got their hands on the complaint and the story went viral.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: There were suddenly news trucks outside of the house, and
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the family received over three hundred media requests and they
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: you know, declined all of them. But this did lead
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: to Derek and Maria having to explain to their five
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: eight and ten year old kids what was going on
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: because they hadn't told them about it because they're five,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: eight and ten, Like.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, they shouldn't have had to be forced into that.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: So with the story's virality, many people were trying to
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: figure out what was going on, and this ranged from
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: of course Reddit users to people who lived in Westfield
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: who were now more on edge than ever. Neighbors who
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: lived on Boulevard were also confused how the police were
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: saying that they had done a full, exhaustive and investigation,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: considering that none of the neighbors had ever been talked
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: to other than the Langford's, so like, you know, they
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: were kind of like, how could you have done a
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: full investigation? Yeah, which I do agree with. Like I
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: get that they wanted to keep a lot of the
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: details hush just because like they were all potential suspects,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: but also like you could put some details out there
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: and keep some quiet or at least like, ye go
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: talk to all of them and say, like, if you
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: have any ideas or any information, let us know, like,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: you don't have to give them a ton of details.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because somebody could have saw something. If that person
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: was wandering around looking around, you know, yeah, if they
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: were in their vehicle or walking, somebody probably saw. You know.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: There's always those nosy neighbors that are like out their windows.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Exactly someone walks by or whatever. Yeah. A veteran detective
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: at the Westfield Police Department was at this point asked
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: to look into the case, and he agreed with what
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: the neighbors were saying, and he said that the Broadesses
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: did not get the support that they needed from the
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: police in the first year. So he started looking in
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: to the case and he discovered that the DNA testing
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: that the police had done had indicated that the DNA
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: on the envelope had belonged to a woman. So he
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: was like, okay, that's that's something. So he looked more
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: into Abby Langford, you know, the sister that lived next door,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: and she was actually a real estate agent, so she
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: you know, he was like, oh, maybe she was like
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: upset about the sale or something. So she he was
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: actually able to get some of her DNA. I think
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: it was like from a water bottle. She had discarded
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: or something like she didn't give it to him, but
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: he was able to get it and it did not
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: match with the DNA sample from the letters. Yeah, So
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: shortly after that, Derek and Maria were told that the
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Langfords had officially been fully ruled out as suspects, and
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: they were like shocked. The police didn't exactly explain why,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: but they were able to like rule them out, which
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: is like, Okay, I get it was from strating for
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Marie and Derek, but also if the Langford's had nothing
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: to do with it, it would be frustrating for them
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: to still be involved. So I'm glad that the police
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: were able to like come to that conclusion. Yeah, some
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: theories kind of started popping up about the letters being
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: a scam that was concocted by the Broadesses, either because
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: they had like buyer's remorse and wanted to get out
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: of the situation, or because of like some fancy plan
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: that they had hatched to defraud the Woods family for
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: millions of dollars, which like, seriously, people.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's far fetched in my opinion, these people wouldn't
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: even move in. I mean, that's a lot of stuff
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: to keep up with, you know if that was true.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I I mean, I just don't believe it.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: And it was perfectly put in the cut article quote
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: to Derek, it seemed that some in Westfield preferred the
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: conspiracy theory to considering whether their town might become might
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: be home to a menace. So like basically saying people
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: found it like wanted to believe it was some like
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: hoax and didn't want to believe that something creepy could
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: be happening in their neighborhood.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which I mean, it could be just a hoax.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: I don't think it was a hoax from the family though,
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: mm hmm.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: So despite their fear and having no answers, the family
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: did decide to stay in Westfield, not at the house,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: but in the town because they didn't want to uproot
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: their kids' lives. They purchased another home two years after
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: they bought six fifty seven Boulevard, and they were able
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: to keep this location private, which like, thank goodness for them.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah really, but of course the family was still on
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: edge living there because they're still in this town that
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: something creepy happened. Yeah, they had taken the house off
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: of the market, but it was put back up for
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: sale in twenty sixteen, and at this point there were
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: many interested buyers. You know, they were hoping that, like
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: with more media attention after the story got like leaked
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: and you know, went viral, they were hoping maybe somebody
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: would want to buy. And they again allowed all of
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: the potential buyers to read the letters once they were
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: a serious contender, and every single one backed out.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: Everyone blame them. I do not blame them.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I even heard somewhere there was one guy that
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, this is ridiculous, like I would never
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: like let this stop me, and then he read the
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: letters and they never heard from him again. Like it
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: was people were freaked out.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the blood and the things in the walls, like
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: those are creepy mm hmm, things like Yeah.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: So the Broadess's real estate lawyers suggested that they sell
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: the lot to a developer that could then tear down
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: the house and turn it into like two new homes.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: And this would require the Westfield Planning Board to get
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: involved because the two lots would be slightly smaller than
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: the mandatory size in the city. So this had to
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: like go through the board and stuff, which I do
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: not understand why they couldn't have torn the house down
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: and then built one house, But maybe they thought they
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to like recoup the investment with that.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know, But like why did it have to
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: be two houses? I don't know, I don't get that.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Probably for that reason because that's a lot of money.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. So this got a lot
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: of attention from residents in Westfield, and many were saying
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: that they thought that this proved that the whole thing
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: was a scam. And I was like, how really, Like
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: they're not going to be making more than what they
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: bought the house for. They just want to recoup the
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: money they made, Like come on, people. So this hearing happened,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: and you know, it was about whether or not these
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: smaller lot size or this like proposal to have the
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: two lots would be accepted. More than one hundred residents
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: showed up to the hearing for it, and it lasted
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: four hours. Many were arguing about the esthetics of the
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: neighborhood and how this would kind of change everything on Boulevard,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: you know how people get with their in like that
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: type of stuff, Like it's ridiculous.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: Those Karens, those karens out there.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Yes, literally, So at eleven thirty pm that night, the
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: board unanimously rejected the proposal, so they weren't going to
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: be able to sell to a developer. Finally, in twenty seventeen,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: something went in the Broadess's favor. A family who had
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: grown children and they also had two large dogs agreed
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: to rent six fifty seven Boulevard from the Broadesses. And
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: they're the only thing was their rental agreement had a
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: clause that if another letter came, they would be able
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: to get out of their lease if they wished, So like, okay,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: that's fair. They were like, well, we'll live here, but
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: if another letter comes, we want to be able to
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: get out if we want.
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: Because they're not like buying the house. So this person
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: theoretically would not come for them, you would think.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: But yeah, and the rent would help out with the mortgage,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: but it still wouldn't cover everything. But for the Broadesses,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: this was still better than nothing. Yeah, So the renters
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: moved in and two weeks letter later, Derek went to
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: the house to deal with something and he was handed
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: a familiar letter by the rental So this was two
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: and a half years after the first letter had arrived.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: So there was no letter between the second letter and
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: when the renters moved.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: In correct, well, there was a third letter like after
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: the second letter, but there was nothing between then when
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: like the renovations were done to Now wow, okay, the
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: letter said to the vile and spiteful Derek and his
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: wench of a wife Maria, you wonder who the watcher is?
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: Turn around, idiots, what what does that mean? Maybe you
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: even spoke to me, one of the so called neighbors
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: who has no idea who the watcher could be. Or
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: maybe you do know and are too scared to tell
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: anyone good move like fucking creepy turn around?
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: That would make me. Yeah, that would definitely make me think.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: It's like someone I don't know. They could be throwing
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: trying to throw their scent off though, you know, right.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: So this entire letter was filled with things that showed
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: that the writer had been like following along with the story.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: So it said I walked by the news trucks when
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: they took over my neighborhood and mocked me. And then
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: it said I watched as you watched from the dark
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: house in an attempt to find me. Telescopes and binoculars
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: are wonderful inventions, which is like, oh, really.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: Dude, this person has some serious mental illness. I know.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: And it said six fifty seven Boulevard survived your attempted
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: assault and stood strong with its army of supporters barricading
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: its gates. My soldiers of the boulevard followed my orders
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: to a tee. They carried out their mission and saved
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: the soul of six fifty seven Boulevard with my orders,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: all hail the watcher.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: Okay, guys, you're doing too much.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It also talked about the ways that
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: the watchers could get revenge on the family. It said,
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: maybe a car accident, maybe a fire, Maybe something as
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: simple as a mild illness that never seems to go
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: away but makes you feel sick day after day after
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: day after day after day after day. Maybe the mysterious
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: death of a pet. Loved one suddenly die. Planes and
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: cars and bicycles crash, bones break.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: Oh my god.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: So like this one was clearly like this is very threatening,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: Like yeah, this is like yeah, but you didn't want
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: me there.
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: So like what do you want?
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: You know, he wanted the kids there, That's what he wanted. Oh,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: so this letter also mentioned the renter, the new renter,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: and of course this kind of like freaked him out,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: but he did agree to stay if the Broadesses installed
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: security cameras all around the house, So like good for him.
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Is definitely this one's like creepier, more threatening, like you said.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: But this was the last letter that was sent to
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: the house as of the recording of this episode. In
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: September of twenty twenty one, and the best news of all,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: on July first, twenty nineteen, six fifty seven Boulevard was
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: sold to new owners for nine hundred and fifty nine
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars. The new owners remained anonymous, and there are
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: some reports of their names, but I see no need
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: to mention them because like they don't you know, no need.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: And even though this was a financial loss for the Broadesses,
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: it was about a four hundred thousand dollars loss, they
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: were very happy to finally have it off their hands.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: And then the most recent news on this case, a
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: limited series about this house is being developed for Netflix,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: according to an NJ dot com article that was published
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: in June twenty twenty one. Quote. In December, Deadline reported
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: that Netflix won a ferocious bidding battle for rights story. Yeah,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: it seems like it's kind of like a it was
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: a highly sought after story.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: I wonder who they were battling with.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Probably just other networks, you know, like NBC and ABC
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: and all them. But Netflix won it. So it is
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: being developed Naomi Watts and Bobby h Do you know
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: this person Bobby Canaville.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't let me. I want to
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: look him up because I'm curious.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: I'm really bad with like actors.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, he's been in a few things. He was Oh,
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: he was in what was the end? He was in
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: Boardwalk Empire. I think that's the same guy. Yeah, he
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: was in Boardwalk Empire. Did you ever watch that?
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: No?
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's a good show. It's a really good show.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: I'll have to watch.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: He was like he was weird in that show though.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: He liked to be like the sexual asphyxiation.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Oh interesting. Yeah, Okay, So him and Naomi Watts are
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: set to star in this Netflix scene and it's going
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: to be produced by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. So
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: it seems like it's going to be a pretty big series.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: And I did read somewhere that like along with the
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: rights to just like this series, it's also the rights
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: to the Broadess's story. So they have actually, like they
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: had been approached multiple times before the house was sold
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: to like do movies and TV shows and stuff, and
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: I believe Lifetime did put out a movie that was
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: or at least like almost put out a movie, and
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: then the Bradesses were like, heck, no, you can't do that. So,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: you know, they they have been approached before and they
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: never wanted to do it. But maybe now that the
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: house has been sold, Yeah, and like they don't own
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: it anymore, they're like more comfortable with it. I don't know.
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe they don't want to piss off the watcher anymore.
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: So now that they're not under the house, like they
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: not literally under the house, but you know, like contractually
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: obligated to the house, like they feel safeer.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that'd be good.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, they'll recoup that four hundred grand.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: I know, I know, right, Yeah, they deserve it.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: They deserve it.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So some reports say that that might be coming
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: out this fall, but we're already in fall, so like
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: that might be too soon. I don't know, but we
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: will definitely like post on, like Instagram and stuff if
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: that does come out. So my personal theory is that
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: it is somebody in the neighborhood that lived there or
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: worked there or something and was upset that the house
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: was being renovated and decided to like do this crazy
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: like thing and just took it too far. I don't know,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: but yeah, it's creepy.
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: It is the fact that the Woods got the letter
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: too makes me think that it's somebody that lived there
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: that's very mentally unstable, that for whatever reason, is judging
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: the families based on XYZ and that's why the Woods
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: didn't get harassed for twenty three years. But then this
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: the what is their last names? I'm gonna butcher it
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: Broadus's the Broadesses, you know, had the young kids, and
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: then they were doing the renovation and that was just
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: like super triggering for this person. So right, I think
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: that's why they got Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that is the case. I'm gonna post photos
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: of course on our Instagram which is at Inhuman Underscore
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: podcast and you can also find us on Twitter at
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: the same user name, and then we are also on TikTok,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: which we need to start posting more on. But we're
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: on TikTok at Inhuman Podcast and then I will also
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: be posting this story on our YouTube and our Facebook,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: which which are both in Human Podcast. And I'd love
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: to hear your guys' thoughts on like who the Watcher
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: was and on this case and tell me how much
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: it freaked you out, because it really freaks me out.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Same, curious what you guys's theories are.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that is the Watcher House. I hope you
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: guys enjoyed this episode. I'm sorry that it wasn't a
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: sault case, but I just I felt the need to.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: Cover it, so yeah, I liked it. It was something
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: different and something we haven't really done yet.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: So yeah, a little bit lighter. Yeah. We will see
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: you guys on Thursday and until then, keep it human.
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: Bye.