Residents Fight to Save Creepy ‘Watcher’ House

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New Jersey residents are fighting to save the infamous “Watcher” house after the owners announced that they wanted to tear it down and build two new homes on the property.

People in the Union County town of Westfield gathered Monday night for a planning board meeting—where they will be opposing Derek and Maria Broaddus’ recent request to raze the six-bedroom residence, according to NJ.com.

Locals who live near the house argued that building two new homes on the property would be “out-of-character” for the neighborhood, and noted that century-old trees would need to be removed in order to do so.

But the Broadduses couldn’t care less—charging in a lawsuit filed in 2015 that the prior owners had duped them into buying the colonial home knowing full well that an apparent stalker who goes by the name “The Watcher” had claimed the right of possession of the home and been sending them threatening letters.

In September, the couple applied for permission from the township planning board to create two new lots, along with a slight exception of a few feet for a side-yard setback on one side, NJ.com reported.

Their attorney, James Foerst, claimed on Monday night that they ultimately needed to demolish the “Watcher” home due to its frightening reputation.

“This house is a celebrated house, one that is stigmatized, that has gained national notoriety,” he said.

More than 60 people attended the two-hour-long hearing, though no decision was made pending further presentations to the board on Dec. 5, NJ.com reported.

The Broadduses purchased the $1.3 million dream house in June 2014 and had been planning on moving in with their three kids. The letters began coming just three days after they closed, according to their lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in Elizabeth.

“My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched it in the 1960s. It is now my time,” read the first of the three letters. “I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming.”

“Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested?” it continued. “Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them out to me.”

The other two letters—dated June 18 and July 18—also included chilling references to children.

“I am pleased to know your names now and the name of the young blood you have brought to me,” one read. “Will the young bloods play in the basement?

“Who has the bedrooms facing the street? I’ll know as soon as you move in … It will help me to know who is in which bedroom then I can plan better.”

The writer noted in one letter how the home’s windows and doors allowed him to “watch” and “track” the family as they move through the house.

“You have changed it and made it so fancy,” the writer said. “It cries for the past and what used to be in the time when I roamed its halls … When I ran from room to room imagining the life with the rich occupants there … And now I watch and wait for the day when the young blood will be mine again.”

In each letter, the “Watcher” makes several references to the “young blood” and the house, itself.

“Have they found out what is in the walls yet?” he said. “In time they will.”

The Broadduses’ attorney, Lee Levitt, argued in the complaint that the couple had been “consumed daily by stress, anxiety and fear regarding what ‘The Watcher’ will do.”

hey tried selling the house, but to no avail.

“We have had offers, but once the people see the letters—which is a luxury my clients were never afforded—they turn and run,” Levitt told NJ.com.

Local police conducted an extensive investigation of the threats in the weeks that followed, but were unable to identify a suspect.

A planning board meeting in October—that was later delayed until this Monday—saw roughly 20 residents in arms over the Broadduses’ decision to knock down the “Watcher” home.

“I think it’s a terrible application. It would be terrible for the neighborhood,” fumed Ed Israelow, one of the angered locals. “It would be out of character for the neighborhood.”

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