Still, no one wants to buy it, and so the Broaddus family thought they should sell it to a developer who can tear it down and split the property into two homes but would be 3 feet too small for the required size of the neighborhood. The Broaddus family appealed to the neighboring planning aboard about it but was rejected the plan. Maria was upset and said,” This is my town...I grew up here. I came back, and I chose to raise my kids here. You know what we’ve been through. You had the ability, two and a half years into a nightmare, to make it a litter better. And you have decided that a house is more important.” For an additional note, the Westfield planning board approved to split a house around the corner of 657 Boulevard in 2018. That house required a more substantial exception than what the Broaddus family has requested. Apparently, on the Christmas of 2014, the neighbors had received threatening letters from The Watcher. Fast toward to the spring of 2016, they had finally found someone to rent the house. It entailed a clause of letting them out if they received another letter. And there was indeed a letter that came within two weeks.
The fourth letter said, “To the vile and spiteful Derek and his wench of a Maria...657 Boulevard survived your attempt assault and stood strong with its army of supporters barricading its gates…My soldiers of the Boulevard followed my orders to a T. They carried out their mission and saved the soul of 657 Boulevard my orders. All hail The Watcher. Maybe a car accident. Maybe a fire. Maybe something as simple as a mild illness that never seems to go away but makes you feel sick day after day after day. Maybe the mysterious death of a pet. Loved ones suddenly die. Planes and cars and bicycles crash. Bones break. You are despised by the house… and The Watcher won.”
The renters wanted to stay either way, and security cameras were installed around the house to track down any possible suspects.
There are three suspects to consider in this case:
Michael Langford who lived in the house next door-
He had become a suspect after Derek attends a neighborhood barbeque after the first letter where he was informed about the odd Michael. The house Michael lives in belongs to his 90-year-old mother and several of her children, in their 60s, lived with her too. The family was noted to be strange but was overall not dangerous. The Langfords had been living in their house ever since the 60s, right around the time. The Watcher said that his father watches 657 Boulevard. Michael was known for liking to walk through people’s backyard and sometimes peek into the windows. Though, those that knew him said it was just some unusual neighborly kindnesses. In addition, the design of the house also made it possible for Michael to have a view of the Broaddus daughter painting on an easel. However, there was evidence that could prove him to be The Watcher. The suspicions of Michael wavered when on one of the envelopes they found the DNA of maybe Abby Langford, Michael’ sister. An investigator compared the DNA on the envelope to the DNA from a water bottle used by Abby but found that it did not match. Shortly after that, prosecutors told Derek and Maria that any of the Langfords were ruled out from the case without any explanation.
A girlfriend and her boyfriend-
On one night, a detective named Barron Chambliss, was with his partner sitting in a car and watching 657 Boulevard through a pair of binoculars. Around 11 p.m, they noticed that there was a car parked in front of a house for a quite a long time and suspicion began to grow. Chambliss was able to track down the vehicle which leads to a young woman visiting from a nearby town who said her boyfriend lived on the same block as 657. The women had also said that her boyfriend is into “some really dark horror games” and one was “The Watcher” according to Chambliss’ blurred memory. Her boyfriend was living somewhere else at that time, but he agreed to go to an interview for two separate occasions. He didn’t show up on either one of them, and Chambliss gave up since there was a lack of evidence to make him come.
The Broaddus themselves-
Due to the many theories made up by the media, people had also considered the Broaddus to be The Watcher too. Right after the rejection from the planning board, local families had reported that they had received anonymous threatening letters. It was revealed to be sent by Derek. He said that those were the only anonymous letters he had sent as a result of their frustration with this case.
Furthermore, a later investigation found that another family also got a letter from The Watcher, but like the Woods family, they threw the letter away. Locals also wondered why over the years, the Broaddus family was able to move from a $315,000 home to a $770,000 home to lastly the $1.6 million 657 Boulevard home. Were they the conspirators who created The Watcher?