"The Watcher" house back in the news

[CheeringCharm]

Remember this story? I first read about it on here a few years ago. A family with young kids moved in to their "dream" home in suburban NJ and started receiving super creepy letters from a stalker in the mail. There's been an update to the story.


www.thecut.com/2018/11/the-haunting-of-657-boulevard-in-westfield-new-jersey.html

[tacokick]

My main take away is that a guy from Sha Na Na became a forensic linguist.

The whole this is bizarre and creepy but nothing happened but letters. I don’t know if I’d just move out and take a loss each month renting the house. Honestly, I sort of think they are doing it themselves for some reason, maybe hoping to make some money, get attention? Get out of buying the house at all? And it backfired.

It seems weird to me that the old owners got one right after they sold the house to the current owners and moved out but none before.

[CheeringCharm]

Nov 15, 2018 8:06:33 GMT -5 tacokick said:

My main take away is that a guy from Sha Na Na became a forensic linguist.

The whole this is bizarre and creepy but nothing happened but letters. I don’t know if I’d just move out and take a loss each month renting the house. Honestly, I sort of think they are doing it themselves for some reason, maybe hoping to make some money, get attention? Get out of buying the house at all? And it backfired.

It seems weird to me that the old owners got one right after they sold the house to the current owners and moved out but none before.

Another family in the neighborhood received one letter from The Watcher too. The article doesn't say whether the police investigated it, tested the DNA on that one too, etc. so there's no way for us to know whether it was just a copy cat or not.

I don't think it is the family only because of the effort that they've gone through on their own trying to find out who did it is well documented and pretty extreme. Would you waste all that money hiring private investigators if you knew it was yourself or your wife? Plus the police tested the wife's DNA (they know it is a female who sent the letters) and she wasn't a match.

[CheeringCharm]

I have to say, I thought it was pretty crappy that the neighbors rallied around in opposition to dividing the lot! Apparently the horror of having to see a front facing garage was just too great than trying to help your neighbors resolve a really shitty situation.

[keyslover]

The Today Show just teased an update.

[raangoli]

Nov 15, 2018 8:13:23 GMT -5 CheeringCharm said:

I have to say, I thought it was pretty crappy that the neighbors rallied around in opposition to dividing the lot! Apparently the horror of having to see a front facing garage was just too great than trying to help your neighbors resolve a really shitty situation.

I am not surprised that they did that given the reputation of the town. But then again, in the area there are a lot of older homes being torn down to build mcmansions on tiny lots, so they probably feared that would happen. 

[tacokick]

Nov 15, 2018 8:10:48 GMT -5 CheeringCharm said:

Nov 15, 2018 8:06:33 GMT -5 tacokick said:

My main take away is that a guy from Sha Na Na became a forensic linguist.

The whole this is bizarre and creepy but nothing happened but letters. I don’t know if I’d just move out and take a loss each month renting the house. Honestly, I sort of think they are doing it themselves for some reason, maybe hoping to make some money, get attention? Get out of buying the house at all? And it backfired.

It seems weird to me that the old owners got one right after they sold the house to the current owners and moved out but none before.

Another family in the neighborhood received one letter from The Watcher too. The article doesn't say whether the police investigated it, tested the DNA on that one too, etc. so there's no way for us to know whether it was just a copy cat or not.

I don't think it is the family only because of the effort that they've gone through on their own trying to find out who did it is well documented and pretty extreme. Would you waste all that money hiring private investigators if you knew it was yourself or your wife? Plus the police tested the wife's DNA (they know it is a female who sent the letters) and she wasn't a match.

I would waste that money if it meant we wouldn’t be implicated or looked at that carefully. The typos with their names and dates seem so fake.

As for DNA, as they said it could have easily been a friend who helped. I’m sure it is either them or an extended family member/friend either acting alone or in conjunction with them.

Who knows about the second family’s letter, it sounded different to me.

[tacokick]

Nov 15, 2018 8:13:23 GMT -5 CheeringCharm said:

I have to say, I thought it was pretty crappy that the neighbors rallied around in opposition to dividing the lot! Apparently the horror of having to see a front facing garage was just too great than trying to help your neighbors resolve a really shitty situation.

Honestly, I bet most of the neighborhood thinks they are making it up and that is driving a lot of it too.

And they don’t want McMansions in their neighborhood.

[frlcb]

I don’t think for one second it is them doing it to themselves.

[tacokick]

Nov 15, 2018 9:18:28 GMT -5 frlcb said:

I don’t think for one second it is them doing it to themselves.

What seals it for me is not only the obviously fake typos but the stuff about seeing the child in the back room that could only be seen from one angle by neighbors that were cleared. Its all so hokey! Who else would do it and for what gain? If it’s not them it is a close friend or family member.

[CheeringCharm]

Nov 15, 2018 8:55:31 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Nov 15, 2018 8:10:48 GMT -5 CheeringCharm said:

Another family in the neighborhood received one letter from The Watcher too. The article doesn't say whether the police investigated it, tested the DNA on that one too, etc. so there's no way for us to know whether it was just a copy cat or not.

I don't think it is the family only because of the effort that they've gone through on their own trying to find out who did it is well documented and pretty extreme. Would you waste all that money hiring private investigators if you knew it was yourself or your wife? Plus the police tested the wife's DNA (they know it is a female who sent the letters) and she wasn't a match.

I would waste that money if it meant we wouldn’t be implicated or looked at that carefully. The typos with their names and dates seem so fake.

As for DNA, as they said it could have easily been a friend who helped. I’m sure it is either them or an extended family member/friend either acting alone or in conjunction with them.

Who knows about the second family’s letter, it sounded different to me.

Ok but if they were behind it, would they warn potential buyers like they were doing? They were driving buyers away themselves. There is no law in NJ that says you have to forewarn about menacing letters (and the realtor even said they were disclosing too much info in her opinion) BUT they said that they couldn't live with themselves if they suckered someone else into shouldering this burden unknowingly. 

[CheeringCharm]

Nov 15, 2018 9:18:28 GMT -5 frlcb said:

I don’t think for one second it is them doing it to themselves.

I agree. The poor man sounds like he is being pushed to the edge of reason. My heart sank for him at the end when it turned out that he had sent anonymous letters to his neighbors too. I can understand and sympathize with his position (he wanted his neighbors to know what it felt like) but still. Both parents sound like they have been traumatized.

[frlcb]

Nov 15, 2018 9:36:35 GMT -5 CheeringCharm said:

Nov 15, 2018 9:18:28 GMT -5 frlcb said:

I don’t think for one second it is them doing it to themselves.

I agree. The poor man sounds like he is being pushed to the edge of reason. My heart sank for him at the end when it turned out that he had sent anonymous letters to his neighbors too. I can understand and sympathize with his position (he wanted his neighbors to know what it felt like) but still. Both parents sound like they have been traumatized.

Ugh me too. I was like why would he do that? And admit it? They had zero to gain from this imo.

[jd15]

I only did a quick once over of the article, but my money is on a jilted lover from the husband's past.

[tacokick]

Nov 15, 2018 9:33:23 GMT -5 CheeringCharm said:

Nov 15, 2018 8:55:31 GMT -5 tacokick said:

I would waste that money if it meant we wouldn’t be implicated or looked at that carefully. The typos with their names and dates seem so fake.

As for DNA, as they said it could have easily been a friend who helped. I’m sure it is either them or an extended family member/friend either acting alone or in conjunction with them.

Who knows about the second family’s letter, it sounded different to me.

Ok but if they were behind it, would they warn potential buyers like they were doing? They were driving buyers away themselves. There is no law in NJ that says you have to forewarn about menacing letters (and the realtor even said they were disclosing too much info in her opinion) BUT they said that they couldn't live with themselves if they suckered someone else into shouldering this burden unknowingly. 

I think any buyers would have known any way it’s been in the news since the beginning. I’ve been following this for years now. A simple google search would have turned it up. Saying they felt like they had to tell potential buyers just makes them look good. Maybe they were hoping that by being “honest” someone would pity them and not care. They are the ones who keep dragging this on, they could have let it die down and hope it went away but they didn’t.


ETA I mean he even sent threatening anonymous letters to his old neighbors and admitted it. Which brought all of this into the news again. Just let it go! These are not stable people.

[tacokick]

Nov 15, 2018 9:54:37 GMT -5 jd15 said:

I only did a quick once over of the article, but my money is on a jilted lover from the husband's past.

I really think it’s them or a close (current or former) family member or friend.

[pixy0stix]

I'm still reading, but how did they have enough "evidence" to bring in the neighbor guy (several times), but not enough "evidence" to compel the gamer dude and his girlfriend to come in? I feel for the neighbor family, because they were harassed over this. ETA: To the point the Broadduses were going to file a fucking civil suit with no evidence. 

[ESF]

Nov 15, 2018 10:25:25 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I'm still reading, but how did they have enough "evidence" to bring in the neighbor guy (several times), but not enough "evidence" to compel the gamer dude and his girlfriend to come in? I feel for the neighbor family, because they were harassed over this. ETA: To the point the Broadduses were going to file a fucking civil suit with no evidence. 

THIS IS WHAT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND

it seems obvious it’s the gamer guy.

[tacokick]

Nov 15, 2018 10:25:25 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I'm still reading, but how did they have enough "evidence" to bring in the neighbor guy (several times), but not enough "evidence" to compel the gamer dude and his girlfriend to come in? I feel for the neighbor family, because they were harassed over this. ETA: To the point the Broadduses were going to file a fucking civil suit with no evidence. 

Yes. They thought the prosecutors were lying to make the case go away? They stole the poor woman’s water bottle for the DNA sample while she was at work? These people are deranged and harassed that family to a ridiculous degree. If anything they could have brought a case against the Broadduses.

[tacokick]

Nov 15, 2018 10:41:18 GMT -5 ESF said:

Nov 15, 2018 10:25:25 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I'm still reading, but how did they have enough "evidence" to bring in the neighbor guy (several times), but not enough "evidence" to compel the gamer dude and his girlfriend to come in? I feel for the neighbor family, because they were harassed over this. ETA: To the point the Broadduses were going to file a fucking civil suit with no evidence. 

THIS IS WHAT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND

it seems obvious it’s the gamer guy.

Why?

[jayde]

oh hai!

I've been busy cyberhacking elections and consulting with Russia and all, but I get around. You know how it goes.

[pixy0stix]

Nov 15, 2018 10:42:36 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Nov 15, 2018 10:41:18 GMT -5 ESF said:

THIS IS WHAT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND

it seems obvious it’s the gamer guy.

Why?

Because of this: Around 11 p.m., a car stopped in front of the house long enough for Chambliss to grow suspicious. He says he traced the car to a young woman in a nearby town whose boyfriend lived on the same block as 657. The woman told Chambliss her boyfriend was into “some really dark video games,” including, in Chambliss’s memory, one in which he was playing as a specific character: “The Watcher.”

[turnipthebeet]

The Broadduses hadn’t known how their neighbors would react to news about The Watcher, but they had lived in the area for a decade, and Maria’s family had been a part of the community for much longer, so it was shocking to find themselves accused of being con artists.

Sure, but the neighbors had lived in their house since the '60s, and were probably shocked to find themselves accused of sending those letters. 

“How does someone go from a $300,000 house to a $1.3 million house in ten years?” Derek told me. “It’s America!”

Huh. 

I'm still reading, but these people sound like the kind of people who would live in a neighborhood like this. 

[ESF]

Nov 15, 2018 10:46:13 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Nov 15, 2018 10:42:36 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Why?

Because of this: Around 11 p.m., a car stopped in front of the house long enough for Chambliss to grow suspicious. He says he traced the car to a young woman in a nearby town whose boyfriend lived on the same block as 657. The woman told Chambliss her boyfriend was into “some really dark video games,” including, in Chambliss’s memory, one in which he was playing as a specific character: “The Watcher.”

Yes. And let’s be real. White men who are into really dark video games are a demographic prone to violence and delusions of grandeur. It’s very easy for me to see one that type as doing something like this.

[pixy0stix]

Finished the article.

So, I have a lot of thoughts. I wouldn't have stayed in that house, because who knows how it would have escalated? However, I find the Broadduses wholly unsympathetic, much like the people that NYT features in their articles. Going after the neighbors, going after the previous owners, etc. probably ramped up the animosity in the neighborhood towards them which led to the neighborhood being against the lot split. At which point, I don't know why the Broadduses wanted to stay in town, since they obviously have the means to move wherever they wanted.

[tacokick]

Nov 15, 2018 10:46:13 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Nov 15, 2018 10:42:36 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Why?

Because of this: Around 11 p.m., a car stopped in front of the house long enough for Chambliss to grow suspicious. He says he traced the car to a young woman in a nearby town whose boyfriend lived on the same block as 657. The woman told Chambliss her boyfriend was into “some really dark video games,” including, in Chambliss’s memory, one in which he was playing as a specific character: “The Watcher.”

But none of that seems suspicious to me. The dark video games is straight out of the satanic panic ‘80s, stopping in front of a house isn’t that odd or illegal (I’ve done it when I was running early to visit a friend or needed to answer an email/text vs doing it once I got to their house a few houses down) and who knows how long it was. 2 minutes? 5 minutes? 30? And this was in the news, she could have said the Watcher thing just to tease them/being facetious and it was only in Chambliss’s memory that she said this. Who knows if she even did?


It’s even flimsier than the other neighbors they harassed because at least they had a view of the house.

[pixy0stix]

Nov 15, 2018 10:56:05 GMT -5 ESF said:

Nov 15, 2018 10:46:13 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Because of this: Around 11 p.m., a car stopped in front of the house long enough for Chambliss to grow suspicious. He says he traced the car to a young woman in a nearby town whose boyfriend lived on the same block as 657. The woman told Chambliss her boyfriend was into “some really dark video games,” including, in Chambliss’s memory, one in which he was playing as a specific character: “The Watcher.”

Yes. And let’s be real. White men who are into really dark video games are a demographic prone to violence and delusions of grandeur. It’s very easy for me to see one that type as doing something like this.

Plus, he lived in the neighborhood, and if it's like mine, you can see when your neighbor's are home and wander around especially if you know that they're outside. She was yelling the kid's names, so that's easy to pick up. Neighborhood gossip would supply the rest, especially if his parents are gossips (which it seems like the block is full of them). He just happened to target easily susceptible people.

[pixy0stix]

Nov 15, 2018 10:57:32 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Nov 15, 2018 10:46:13 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Because of this: Around 11 p.m., a car stopped in front of the house long enough for Chambliss to grow suspicious. He says he traced the car to a young woman in a nearby town whose boyfriend lived on the same block as 657. The woman told Chambliss her boyfriend was into “some really dark video games,” including, in Chambliss’s memory, one in which he was playing as a specific character: “The Watcher.”

But none of that seems suspicious to me. The dark video games is straight out of the satanic panic ‘80s, stopping in front of a house isn’t that odd or illegal (I’ve done it when I was running early to visit a friend or needed to answer an email/text vs doing it once I got to their house a few houses down) and who knows how long it was. 2 minutes? 5 minutes? 30? And this was in the news, she could have said the Watcher thing just to tease them/being facetious and it was only in Chambliss’s memory that she said this. Who knows if she even did?


It’s even flimsier than the other neighbors they harassed because at least they had a view of the house.

Yet you think it's the family that has spent over $200k on investigations?

[lurkydoodle]

No way in hell I would have stayed in the house with young kids. I could never forgive myself if it turns out the letter writer IS capable of actually harming my family and I didn't get them out of harms way.

[tacokick]

Nov 15, 2018 11:02:43 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Nov 15, 2018 10:57:32 GMT -5 tacokick said:

But none of that seems suspicious to me. The dark video games is straight out of the satanic panic ‘80s, stopping in front of a house isn’t that odd or illegal (I’ve done it when I was running early to visit a friend or needed to answer an email/text vs doing it once I got to their house a few houses down) and who knows how long it was. 2 minutes? 5 minutes? 30? And this was in the news, she could have said the Watcher thing just to tease them/being facetious and it was only in Chambliss’s memory that she said this. Who knows if she even did?


It’s even flimsier than the other neighbors they harassed because at least they had a view of the house.

Yet you think it's the family that has spent over $200k on investigations?

I think it was the husband acting alone. He wanted to get out of the house and then dug himself in deep not wanting to expose himself to his wife and it spiraled out of control. He is clearly unstable between the sending threatening letters himself and the bizarre invasive witch-hunt of the neighbors. Nothing happened until he bought the house.

If it is not him, it’s either a current or former close friend or family member with some sort of grudge. The neighbors have nothing to gain at all. If anything it is hurting their property values.

ETA I think he sent the letters to the old owners after/near closing not realizing that in NJ they didn’t have to disclose anything hoping he could get out of the huge mortgage.