"The Watcher" of New Jersey | Hoax or Stalker Abundance of Spare Time?

this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of the westfield new jersey house watcher just a reminder i'm not diagnosing him in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel consider supporting me on patreon and consider purchasing my book harm reduction it's a work of fiction about a counselor serial killer and a detective it is available anywhere books are sold i'll start with the background of the story then i'll move to my analysis the story of the watcher was made famous in an article featured in the cut as i understand it netflix purchased the rights to that story in december of 2019 so it appears a series is on the way much of the information for the background of this story comes from that article and a lawsuit that was filed by the couple who bought the house at the center of this case it's supposed to be a true story and it has been reported by many media outlets but there are parts of the narrative that are pretty difficult to believe at the center of the story is a house in new jersey it is located at 657 boulevard in westfield which is about 15 miles southeast of newark new jersey so it's not like boulevard street boulevard avenue just boulevard like whoever named it was kind of in a hurry they didn't want to mess around with a second part it reminds me of a road in philadelphia called street road again just seems like a little bit more of an effort could have been put in westfield is an affluent neighborhood it's the 99th richest city in the u.s the house is a six-bedroom colonial that was built in 1905 it has almost four thousand square feet and sits on about a half an acre the house was purchased on june 2 2014 by derrick and maria broadus they paid 1 million 355 000 which was above the asking price derek was the senior vice president of an insurance company he worked in manhattan the couple had three children ages five eight and ten three days after they purchased the house they received an envelope in the mail the handwritten words the new owner appeared on the outside but the note inside was typed except for the signature at the end which read the watcher so i will refer to this mysterious letter writer as the watcher from now on it was a long note here's a summary the watcher started by welcoming the couple to the neighborhood the note went on to explain how the watcher was in charge of watching and waiting for the second coming of 657 boulevard they stated that their grandfather watched the house in the 20s their father watched it in the 60s and it was now their churn the watcher promised to find out why the couple was in the house they made statements that indicated they had been watching the house recently like they knew about a contractor being in the house and they knew that derek and maria had three children the watcher made a reference to filling the house with young blood this in particular made derek worry the watcher teased the couple by speculating as to their identity saying that they could be in any of the hundreds of cars that drove by the address each day or one of their neighbors the note concluded by saying let the party begin and of course was signed by the watcher as i mentioned after reading the letter they are called the police they came out and read the letter they told the couple not to inform any of their neighbors about the letter because everyone was a suspect derek and maria were still living in another property they owned in westfield so they all went back there instead of staying in a new house there contacted the previous owners who told them they had also received an odd letter from the watcher within a week or so of the closing but they threw the letter away derek and maria were trying to do some renovations to the property over the next few weeks they continued with their efforts but they were on high alert they noticed that a sign their contractor put in the front yard had been pulled out sometime overnight but nothing else happened to alarm them the next letter arrived two weeks later maria notified the police right away in this letter the watcher indicated that they were watching which kind of makes sense based on the name they selected they referred to mr and mrs brought us but misspelled last name they talked about how they noticed the couple was doing work on a house and they knew the nicknames of their three children they also knew the birth order of the three children they made another reference to young blood and mentioned how the kids should be very afraid the watcher would know as soon as everybody moved in the watcher wrapped up by talking about how greed had brought the broadest family to the house derek and maria continued with their renovations but no longer took the children to the house the watcher picked up on the reduced traffic a third letter received on july 18 contained the question where have you gone to the letters were postmarked from kearny new jersey so close by the couple noticed that the first letter was postmarked june 4 which was prior to the sale becoming public knowledge the prior owners never put up a for sale sign although contractors had been on the property so the watcher could have seen them the police weren't really helping at all at this point so derek and maria attempted to investigate on their own they suspected that their next door neighbor michael langford could be the watcher the langford family had lived there since the 1960s and michael's father died 12 years earlier so this seems to be consistent with that first letter like this whole legacy of watching the house the police questioned michael he denied involvement derek set up webcams and hired private investigators but did not have any success the couple continued to believe that michael langford was the best suspect the broadest sent a letter to the langfords saying that they were going to tear down the house it was part of a plan the couple was executing with the police to trick the langfords into responding but there was no response michael langford was interviewed for a second time by the police he continued to deny involvement the police eventually ruled michael out as a suspect although they didn't offer a reason for this exclusion it may have been because michael had schizophrenia and they didn't think he was capable of writing the letters when the renovations on 657 boulevard were complete derrick and maria did not feel confident about moving in they were still frightened the couple had sold their other house so they lived with maria's parents they were of course still paying the mortgage 1657 boulevard the couple decided to try to sell the house for more than they paid but nobody was interested in part because of the watcher in june of 2015 derek and maria sued the previous owners arguing that they should have disclosed the one letter they received from the watcher a judge dismissed this case some time later the police were eventually able to test the dna on the letters they found dna from an unidentified female maria was ruled out as the donor there was also new information regarding another letter as it turns out around the same time that the couple received the first letter one of their neighbors received a letter from the watcher as well the neighbor simply threw the letter away the police developed another lead after seeing a car stopped at 657 boulevard at about 11 pm on one night the woman who was driving said that her boyfriend liked to play a video game character called the watcher the police contacted the boyfriend and arranged an interview on two separate occasions but he missed both times essentially the police had no idea who was writing the letters they could not force anybody that they suspected to cooperate derek and maria needed to move on with their lives unable to sell the house they decided to approach the planning board and ask if the lot that their house sat on could be divided into two lots therefore a developer might become interested in the property neighbors were not amused by this request and the planning board wasn't either they denied the application derek and maria were eventually able to rent the house at a loss so the money they were getting from the rent was less than their mortgage the renter made a deal with the broad assist that the lease could be broken if another letter arrived but apparently they decided to stay even though another letter came in the mail two weeks later this letter was written on the day that derek and maria gave depositions in connection with that lawsuit against the former owners that was dismissed the watcher talked about how they saw the news trucks on the street they watched derek and maria as the couple attempted to find the watcher so the watcher was looking at them as they were clearly scanning the area and looking for the watcher the note contained threats about how the watcher was going to get revenge on the couple it talked about a death of a loved one or a pet perhaps there would be a car accident a fire or a chronic illness nothing changed with the rental arrangement despite this letter as i mentioned the renter stayed and derek and maria continued to live somewhere else in the community in december of 2017 various westfield residents who had been criticizing derek and maria online started receiving anonymous letters which were signed friends of the broadest family derrick would later admit to a journalist that he wrote the letters to the neighbors out of frustration because they kept accusing him of being the watcher so he wrote those letters to the neighbors he was denying of course being the watcher as i understand it derek and maria broadus finally sold the house for about hundred and fifty nine thousand dollars so they lost about four hundred thousand dollars on top of whatever they lost in property taxes renovations and other costs now moving to my analysis what happened in the case of six 657 boulevard did some scooby-doo villain decide to scare they brought his family away was it a neighbor with a lot of spare time did derek and maria conduct a hoax among the many unusual elements of this case is the fact that whoever wrote these letters had an interest in a house in the state of new jersey did they want to live in the house because if they did they would be living in new jersey it wasn't like the house was going to magically fly away it was going to be stuck there seems like the watcher just didn't think things through let's take a look at the major theories in this case theory number one a neighbor in westfield decided to harass the broadest family for no apparent reason whatsoever the evidence that supports this theory would be the presence of female dna on a letter that did not match maria and the fact that the letters were postmarked from kearny new jersey the factors against this theory would be a lack of any discernible motive and seemingly amazing spying capabilities some people believe that the best suspect under this theory would be michael langford michael lived with his 90 year old grandmother and several of her children in that house the house did have a good view of 657 boulevard considering it was next door there was an angle from that house where a person could see an easel that was in the backyard of the broadest house this easel was mentioned in one of the letters the problem with michael langford as a suspect is that the police ruled him out as i mentioned they must have had some reason to believe he was not responsible as i mentioned michael had schizophrenia he also exhibited some odd behavior in the neighborhood including walking into backyards and looking at various features of the houses but he was thought to be harmless he didn't commit any crimes as i indicated before it may have been that the police just didn't think he was capable of writing the letters theory number two a person with absolutely no connection to the house randomly decided to write letters to the broadest family like the person wasn't a neighbor they didn't own the house before they didn't know anybody in the neighborhood they just decided one day they needed a hobby and thought well i always like writing creepy letters one example of a possible suspect under this theory was that individual the police wanted to interview on two occasions but he didn't show up either time the one who liked to play a video game character named the watcher he could have done it but it's difficult to imagine why there's just no motive theory number three the broadest family was perpetrating a hoax let's look at the evidence both foreign against this theory starting with the factors that support it every single letter involved in the story is connected to the broadest family the letter sent to the prior owners the letter sent to the other family in the neighborhood the letter sent to derek and maria and the letter sent to the neighbors that had denigrated derek online only one person has admitted to being involved with any of these letters and that is derek broadus although obviously he denied being the watcher he did admit to writing the letters to the neighbors that were critical of him the watcher was aware of some information that would be hard to get a hold of but all of it was known by derek and maria the couple kept renovating their home even as all this mess was going on why keep sinking more money into the house if you're frightened to live there maria had a public facebook page containing photos of her children this seems to be inconsistent with somebody who is afraid of this mysterious letter writer derek and maria initially owned a house that cost over three hundred thousand dollars they moved into one that was over seven hundred thousand dollars then to 657 boulevard which cost them over 1.3 million dollars perhaps they perpetrated this hoax because they had dug themselves into a financial hole derek and maria tried to get a zoning variance to subdivide the property clearly the letters would have helped their case in front of the planning board although of course they were ultimately unsuccessful this makes it seem like there may have been a financial motive but this also could have been an attempt to get fame to generate a story worthy of a hollywood movie or to have a backup plan in case the house purchase wasn't satisfactory like a way to back out of the deal there seems to be little question that derek and maria had a number of traditional motives whereas with the other theories the motives would have all been non-traditional now let's take a look at the factors that refute the idea this was a hoax the dna on the letters did not match maria it was from an unknown female so if it was a hoax they would have had to have a conspirator the family invested a tremendous amount of time and money in trying to find the watcher why would they hire investigators if they themselves were responsible this would only expose their offenses and of course it was not cheap those investigators didn't work for free the family did not financially benefit from the letters they actually lost hundreds of thousands of dollars when considering all the evidence how would i rate these theories from most to least probable in my opinion the most probable theory is that derek and maria wrote the letters after that i would go with the neighbor and then with the total random stranger so theory number three three number one and theory number two this is really a tough call because there are problems with every theory none of the motives is really that great like for anybody to want to write those letters they're not going to find much of a motive so it's a close call i think the hoax theory is the most likely but i wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the other two theories that was the actual valid explanation the behavior in this case is just so unusual it's hard to imagine anyone doing this moving to the final question running under the assumption that the broadest family had nothing to do with the letters did they overreact i think they probably did one cannot bargain with an anonymous letter writer anywhere they move this person could be watching them this person could continue to harass them there's no guarantee that the watcher's behavior was really based on some type of fixation on that particular house they might have been fixated on the broadest family if these messages had come through facebook or some other social media would the broadest family have left their house maybe there was something about a physical letter that seemed more intense and real like the watcher was really committed and serious they were going to follow through with their threats whereas if they just put it on social media it's like they really didn't care as much if one allows themselves to be controlled by a few letters they leave themselves vulnerable to manipulation in the future sometimes it pays to stand one's ground even if the ground is in new jersey those are my thoughts on the case of the westfield new jersey house watcher please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be as intriguing as a scooby-doo villain thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 206,634

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Id: OrKl4lvlkT4

Length: 18min 25sec (1105 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 06 2021