Infamous Westfield 'Watcher' House Has New Owners

WESTFIELD, NJ - After five years, Derek and Maria Broaddus are free of the infamous Westfield "Watcher" home, located at 657 Boulevard, as they have sold the 1905 Dutch colonial for $959,360.

The home was closed on July 1 and now belongs to Andrew and Allison Carr according to the Union County Clerk’s Office. The house was put back on the market in March with an asking price of $999,000. The Broaddus family bought the home in June of 2014 for $1,355,657.

The saga of The Watcher, which made international headlines, began in 2014 when Derek and Maria Broaddus purchased their dream home on the highly-coveted Boulevard in Westfield. But before they were even able to move in, an anonymous letter writer began sending menacing letters with disturbing references to their three children.

The family said they were too scared to move in to the six-bedroom house due to the alleged threats the letters contained such as "allow me to watch you and track you as you move through the house."

Since then, the family has tried to sell the home several times. First in May of 2015 for $1,250,000 and again in March of 2016 for the same price. The price was reduced in November of 2016 to 1,199,000 and the property was listed again in October of 2017 for $1,125,000.

The letters sent to the family also referred to "secrets in the walls" of the home and that the house needed "young blood."

• See Related: 'The Watcher' Home Saga Continues; Former Owners Seeking Damages
• See Related: Westfield 'Watcher' Lawsuit Won't Be Dismissed, Judge Rules
• See Related: Westfield 'Watcher' Home Is For Sale Again

Up until a report that was published online in The Cut, only a handful of phrases from The Watcher's letters were known to the public. When the full accounting of the text was revealed, Patch assembled a list of ten things that creeped us out the most.

In October of last year, the Westfield Watcher passed the Jersey Devil as the New Jersey's top urban legend, according to the website Thrillist. According to the site the Westfield Watcher joins the ranks of New Mexico's Chupacabra, Maryland's Goat Man, the Phantom Jogger of Canyon Hill in Idaho and of course the infamous Florida Skunk Ape. Thrillist included in their rationale why each entry was creepy and where it came from. In the case of the Westfield Watcher, Thrillist said that it surpassed the Jersey Devil because there is doubt of the Devil's existence.

The Broaddus family's $400,000 loss may be offset by their selling the movie rights to their story to Netflix.

The story caught the attention of Hollywood and the streaming company Netflix purchased the feature rights to the tale, according to a report from Deadline.

Netflix won the feature rights to the deal after a "ferocious bidding battle" that involved six studios that included Universal for Jason Blum, Warner Bros for Roy Lee, Paramount for JJ Abrams' Bad Robot, Amazon for producer Michael Sugar and Fox for Peter Chernin.

The mystery of the Westfield Watcher was also explored by the Buzzfeed web series UNSOLVED.

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