What to Know
- The owners had proposed replacing the house with two homes because they said they cannot move into the existing house
- They bought the six-bedroom home for nearly $1.4 million in 2014
- Shortly after that, they say they got 3 threatening letters from a stalker calling himself "the watcher." Now they say they've gotten a 4th
A New Jersey husband and wife who claim they were scared away from their home by creepy letters they received from "The Watcher" say they've gotten another note.
Lee Levitt, an attorney for Derek and Maria Broaddus, wrote in a legal brief that the letter arrived in late February, a few weeks after a tenant rented and moved into the Westfield home. It's the fourth letter the couple has received from "The Watcher," who claims he is the rightful owner of the home the Broadduses bought for nearly $1.4 million in 2014.
Levitt says the letter contained specific threats and was "more derogatory and sinister than any of the previous letters." Westfield police declined to comment on the latest letter, citing an ongoing investigation.
In one of the earlier correspondences, the stalker asked whether the new family brought him the "young blood" that he requested. The Broadduses, who have young children, refused to move into the home and have been unsuccessful in their attempts to sell the property.
They sued the prior owners of the house in June 2015, claiming that they also received a letter from "The Watcher" but never disclosed it. That family has since countersued, stating that the letter they received was not threatening and alleging that they were defamed.
The Broadduses have said they can't live in the house because of the letters, which they say came from someone with a "mentally disturbed fixation" on the home.
Local
They are also suing Westfield because the town's planning board rejected their plan to raze the house and subdivide the land so they could build two houses.
