The Cut - Taking Another Look at The Watcher

In November 2018, I published a story in this magazine called “The Haunting of a Dream House” about a mysterious stalker who sent creepy and threatening letters to the new owners of a home in Westfield, New Jersey. The anonymous notes were signed by someone calling themselves “The Watcher.” They thanked the Broaddus family for bringing “the young blood” — their three small children — to 657 Boulevard, a home the writer claimed to have been watching for years. The Watcher included details about the Broaddus family and what they were doing at the house: In one letter, The Watcher said they could see the family’s youngest child drawing on an easel in a room on the side of the house. The Watcher suggested they would be keeping tabs on the family and possibly worse: “Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them [to] me.”

The article detailed Derek and Maria Broaddus’s agonizing decisions over what to do about the stalker and the house, and their desperate attempts to figure out The Watcher’s identity, to no avail. In the four years since the article was published, I’ve gotten a stream of questions — and tips — about the mystery. Spoiler alert: It remains unsolved. But as Netflix prepares to release a limited series based on the story, here’s an update on what’s gone on since 2018.

There’s luck; then there’s being rescued from the Gulf of Mexico while fighting off sharks with your bare hands. Today in dystopian news: You can’t hide your pregnancy from the algorithm. Adnan Syed is a free man. Roller coasters have triggered some new iPhones to make emergency calls. Latinx designers on how their culture informs their work. The U.S.’s favorite Halloween candy by state. Is nothing sacred? The IMF says that “the worst is yet to come” for the world economy. Things parents need to worry about on Halloween: cavities. Things parents don’t need to worry about: drugs in candy. And the biggest pop-culture story of the day: Blink-182 is back.

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