This Paranormal Life - #190 The Watcher Part 2: An Unsolved Suburban Nightmare

Episode Date: December 8, 2020

In part 2 of Kit and Rory’s investigation into The Watcher we dive deeper and try to answer questions like - who is The Watcher? What do they want? Will Detective Lugo’s coffee machine ever be ‘off the fritz’? And is ANY of this truly paranormal?Patreonhttps://patreon.com/ThisParanormalLifeYouTubehttps://youtube.com/thisparanormallifeTwitterhttps://twitter.com/ThisParaLifeInstagramhttps://instagram.com/thisparanormallifeSecret Society Facebook Pagehttps://www.facebook.com/groups/thisparanormallife/Edited by Kami Tomanhttps://TomanEdits.comIntro music: https://www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last time on This Paranormal Life... We're in Westfield, New Jersey. Derek and Maria brought us and their kids were relocating and they had picked the perfect spot. Realizing he hadn't yet checked for any mail since they moved in, he walked out to the mailbox. A couple of bills and then a small white envelope with fine handwriting on the front, spelling out the new owner. You don't want to make 657 Boulevard unhappy. You have children. I have seen them. Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested?

Once I know their names, I will call to them and draw them to me. This is terrifying. Do you have any enemies, Mr. Broadus? Anyone who might want to get revenge or blackmail you? This thing could have come from anywhere. This was getting worse and worse as each letter from the Watcher became more unhinged. I am in charge of 657 Boulevard. It's not in charge of me. I will fend off its bad things and wait for it to become good again. It will not punish me. I will rise again.

again. It will not punish me. I will rise again. Welcome back to part two of our two-part series on The Watcher. Last week we followed the Broadus family who moved into a sleepy and wealthy neighborhood in New Jersey called Boulevard, and things quickly became a living nightmare thanks to The Watcher. So if you haven't already, I recommend going back to listen to part one so that the story really makes sense. Rory, are you ready to dive back in and hear what happened next? I'm definitely ready.

Are we going to get a little recap at any point in the intro of this story? Because it's been a long week. It's been a long week. And not that i wasn't enthralled by part one of the watchers right i think me and possibly the audience would benefit from a little recap some bullet points little synopsis but i mean you you you remember kind of the bones of the story though right yeah totally yeah but if you could just dust off those bones like an archaeologist like a paleontologist that would be fantastic but you know you like i don't need to run over like you know the main characters no or uh no point or who the watcher is for sure i know him or we don't isn't that the point of the the thing possibly but if you could just like maybe off camera if

we could just do part one again i thought you said it was for the listeners yeah i know i do part one again it's for the listeners uh we'll record it we probably won't use it or anything because we have a part one already recorded but if we could just like if you could just tell me what happened in the first episode i listen i watched the tape back for part one and it was just you asleep wearing a mask and then just a tape recorder of rory going wow that's terrifying you read the intro questions and the pupils disappeared from my eyes. They didn't come back until the end. No, I'm on board. I'm ready to go.

I'm ready to go. Tell me who he is. Let's go straight to the end. I'm bored again. I want to know who he is. Oh, what was the name of the cop? Oh, Detective Lugo. Detective Lugo.

I remember him, yeah. There's more detectives where he's coming from, by the way. Great. At this point in our story, the Broaddus family were at rock bottom. After receiving the most recent letter from the Watcher, they felt like they were being haunted. Like there was no way out of this situation. Maria's therapist diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder neither her nor derek could sleep without heavy sleeping pills wow they must have at least once wondered whether

any of this was even real it's bad when you get ptsd before anything's happened you know you've gotten ptsd from the threat from the threat of something happening. Wow. That's bad. Yeah, that's like you getting like PTSD from war. Just when you got the letter to say you're going to serve. Yeah, just when you downloaded Warzone, Call of Duty Warzone, you're already freaking out. You're checking yourself into the psychiatrist.

That's when you know that game is a 10 out of 10. They were becoming so desperate that Derek even showed the letters to a priest who came around to bless the house, which kind of shows you that on some level, he might have wondered whether there was a paranormal curse on this house. Yeah, that's interesting. And no matter what they did, they couldn't get rid of the voice of the watcher from their heads or their mailbox. Seeing as they hadn't fully moved in yet, they decided to stop bringing the kids to the house.

But even then, a few days later, a letter arrived. Where have you gone to? 657 Boulevard is missing missing you it needs young blood they decided that they couldn't go on like this and they had to sell the house so they tried to play dumb and list the house for even more than the 1.3 million dollars they paid for it oh that's a bit bad but if you think about it the whole time this story's been unfolding they've been renovating the house ripping stuff out that's why part of why the watcher is mad is because they've been ripping stuff out of the house with it yeah so they've put in beautiful new kitchen beautiful new furnishings lots of big windows which uh the watcher actually doesn't mind he's pretty keen on

the windows actually but unfortunately they quickly found out that gossip spreads fast in Westfield, New Jersey and very soon they were getting lowball offers from people saying, we would just love to pay full price but with so many unsubstantiated rumors floating around we just couldn't. Even if it wouldn't get their money back the Broaddus's felt like they had been cheated and wanted justice. So they sued the Woods family who sold them the house for not telling them that they got a letter from a potential serial killer right before they moved in. That's fair actually. I think that's the grounds for suing. That's pretty bad.

You know, people want to know if there's like a sex offender in their area yeah you know the watcher is right up there yeah just because he hasn't been caught yet doesn't mean you don't need to tell anyone you shouldn't have to wait until he sexually offends to register him a threat yeah this is the problem technically nothing has happened on the property because i think for for things like murder homes you have to be you have to clarify that upright right you know where it's like wow this is a beautiful house in like a beautiful neighborhood why is it only half the price of the ones next door oh a family was mutilated in the kitchen yes i think you have to be pretty open about that kind

of thing but what a beautiful kitchen but what a beautiful kitchen. But what a beautiful kitchen. But if it was just, it's kind of cheap because the family were threatened a couple times by a guy who lives in the bins. I mean, is that still, do you still have to talk about that? It's actually. I'm flipping a house here, all right? I need to know. I need to know the rules. This guy has a lot in common.

Could be the Watcher, to be honest. Because any day the bin man isn't going to be a threat he's going to be a consequence and i need to make sure i flip the bitch before he makes action it's actually surprisingly pertinent to this case that there was a landmark legal case a couple years back in new York State, where I think for the first time, probably globally, the judge said, this house is officially a haunted house. Legally, it's haunted. Because it was a very similar dispute. Someone said, hey, I didn't know this was a haunted house.

You should have told me that before I bought it. Now the people are like, well, ghosts aren't real. I didn't need to tell you shit. And the judge said, that's not really really fair everyone knows it's a haunted house you didn't tell the buyer it's a haunted house legally it's a haunted house you need to uh give them their money back wow and that was an actual court case yeah i might have i'm definitely paraphrasing but the the ghost bit was real i would love it if the the judge was just like the decree is passed doesn't matter that uh people have been threatening the house the house needs to be filled with as much young blood as possible and i'm like this is really weird for a judge to make these rulings

does the judge normally wear a black hood so you can't see his face court adjourned all rise the honorable judge w otcher entering the courtroom he slithers down the aisles he's weird basically a dementor that's right they decided to sue the woods family now they were a little worried about this story getting out, but their lawyer assured them no one cares about this story, and at most, this will make it to a small local paper. The next day, Derek and Maria woke to an odd sign. Welcome to this morning's local news, our first story. A new family to the Westfield area have an unusual problem. They bought the house of their dreams, but it quickly turned to a nightmare, thanks to a mysterious angry neighbor who calls themselves The Watcher. They looked out of their window to see dozens of news trucks camping out

on the lawn of 657 Boulevard, trying to cover the story and catch The Watcher. This might work out pretty well for them, actually. All they've wanted is help from people. That's true. In a situation where you feel quite isolated and quite vulnerable, you basically surrounded your house in this suit of armor, cameras pointed in every direction. This is kind of great.

That's true. You know, if you were some kind of murderer, you're going to have a harder time getting to the broadest through the slew of news reporters at the same time we've established before the watcher is a pretty unhinged guy so we don't know if this is uh any obstacle to him whatsoever i think at one point he said he was in the walls so that's that's already pretty bad yeah one reporter even set up a lawn chair to stay overnight and catch them in the act himself the family got over 300 media requests for interviews and news

features not just that but people online were chipping in and trying to solve the case from afar which is something i really appreciate because as always say, we don't like leaving the comfy studio either. It's true. If we can solve it using ideally one hand on a mouse. Yeah. That's the perfect paranormal story. I bought one of those cameras that can shoot in the dark, like the green night vision ones. It cost me like two grand and I use it to find my fridge at night when I want to eat bags of shredded cheese.

I don't need to go out into the wilderness and hunt for ghosts. I'm perfectly fine using my, frankly, thousands of pounds worth of paranormal equipment just to hunker down at home. Whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, I need to piss because I've drank too much Gatorade throughout the day from doing f***ing nothing. Instead of reaching for the light, I reach for my night vision gogs. Yeah!

Unfortunately, piss doesn't show up very well on the gogs, so I end up pissing all over the bathroom. I still like to get my money's worth. Exactly. So one commenter on an online article said, they should scan the insides of the walls with a ground-penetrating radar to see if there's anything horrifying in there. That's what I'm talking about, man! Like Attack on Titan! You gotta get in the walls with a ground penetrating radar to see if there's anything horrifying in there. That's what I'm talking about, man. Like Attack on Titan. You gotta get in the walls. This is actually something that the Broadduses did, but they didn't find anything weird. People

on Reddit scanned Google Maps street view images to try and find cars parked on the street. At one point, they found a man sitting in his car, seemingly holding a camera. At one point, they found a man sitting in his car, seemingly holding a camera. Ooh. This is the luxury that we have when we're investigating a case that took place so recently, is technology and the ability for a story to travel so wide and so far that people from all over the world can get involved. We don't have that luxury when it's just 12 dads with guns hunting a very large dog in the woods. You know, that's a different type of challenge.

Whereas this, yeah, it's cool to see so many people getting involved. Absolutely. I mean, if I was there, you know, I'm firing up AirDrop on my phone and seeing if The Watcher's iPad shows up. That's pretty smart. I like it. On online forums, they suspected pretty much everyone possible as the Watcher. I'm telling you, it's an angry mistress. Mr. Broadus kept her on the side, but when he wanted to move and cut her off, she got mad. It's definitely an estate agent who missed the sale and wants another chance to get commission.

What if it's a creative writing student on an assignment? Duh, it's viral marketing for a horror movie. Before long, they had a media storm on their hands. So to escape, they took some time away from Boulevard and moved into a friend's house. But it was as if the Watcher had cursed them and they couldn't escape from it. Shortly after arriving, Maria's father had a heart attack and the friend they were staying with had a seizure. Whoa I thought you were gonna say like he wrote them a letter to the new address. No. Dude straight up died his heart exploded. I mean from the stress of it all probably. Again this is just another little nugget that makes this whole story feel paranormal.

It feels like something the Watcher should have brought up. Like, I'm watching the house. I need young blood. By the way, if you leave, I'll make your ticker pop. Yeah, dick move to not bring that up. I am a god, by the way. I am an immortal night beast. These are all things that should have been clarified possibly in the

first letter because otherwise i thought he was just like a pervert guy bushes yeah yeah with with you know he likes to wash people in houses sure that's weird but it doesn't make me think that if i move to argentina my eyes will explode if i if i had known that he could Freddy Krueger style enter my dreams, I wouldn't have gone to stay at my friend's house. Exactly. I might have actually liked being watched. Maybe I would have found comfort in being watched. From a safe, not inside my brain distance. Yeah.

And around this time, the detectives made a surprising discovery. Hello? Lugo? Derek. All right, don't get your hopes up. It's not much... Sorry, I didn't even say it's me, Lugo. Detective... Oh, no, you already knew that when you picked up the phone. But you were right. It's me, Detective Lugo.

Lugo, it's honestly pretty easy to tell when you answer the phone. Sorry. I count with your wildly raspy voice. Do you have caller ID? I just got it sure yeah yeah yeah i bumped up to the new iphone really yeah you don't you seem like a pretty analog guy in a digital age the big five what's iphone five iphone five yeah i'm up from a nakia it's like six years old man the new The new ones have call ID? They all... Let's just get to the evidence, Lugo. It's not much, but we've made a surprising discovery. The lab finally got back with the DNA results.

I got an email. The new one has an email app. So we haven't got a match, but the DNA, it belongs to a woman. Do you have any idea who that could be? Jesus. No. I'll think about it, though. Thanks, Lugo. Take your time. This thing has a ton of apps, so I'm not going anywhere. Right. No, I'm happy for you, Lugo. Enjoy your new phone.

I've got to think about this whole serial killer, the watcher thing, you know? It's got one that looks like you're drinking a beer. Like you pour your phone and a beer pours in your mouth. These are, I mean, aside from these being incredibly old apps, I feel like you should have so much more important work to do as a detective. It's been a slow month for Lugo. What are you talking about? The Watcher is the most sensational thing to ever happen in Westfield, New Jersey.

So for the first time, it was confirmed. There was DNA on the the watchers letters so maybe for the first time we should be able to rule out that it was a ghost or demon writing these things yeah i don't know if demons have dna that's a that's an intro question i also don't know what dna stands for oh i gotta tap into my school knowledge here. We look it up. Demonic? Okay, it was, yeah. It was definitely a demon. Cells has to be the last

one, for sure. Cells? I don't know. What do you mean? DNA? Where do cells fit into that? It's your f***ing body material. Cells. It's what makes us all. DNA. So it's like.

Is that acronym? Cells. Nuggets. Atoms. Nuggets. Nuggets are cells. And I don't know. What's D? Da.

Da. Da nuggets and cells. Da nugget cells. It's what we're all made out of. Da nugget cells. You break us beautifully, isn't it? To think, you know, the universe was created so many years ago. And so to this day, we're all just made out of the nugget cells.

DNA famously discovered by Soulja Boy in 2005. Oh, we have to look it up. You can't just move on. Okay. It's got to be a nucleo somewhere in there oh maybe like a is gonna be like i mean or amide or something oh there isn't even a c where are you getting a c from i don't know that's what we're all so confused about what do you mean oh there's the c what did you google what did you type in i don't know i think i thought it was dnc popular rap group. That's DMC. Have you looked it up?

Deoxyribonucleic acid. I knew that. And the C, sir? What does the C mean? So I guess it's the nugget atoms rather than cells. It's a good way of thinking about it. Like I say, because it has DNA, probably not a demon, unless the demon has possessed a human to write the letters.

Good point. They are known to do that. But it is, you know, it is slowly erasing the picture that this could be paranormal. Yeah, and you said a woman's DNA. That's right. For some reason, everyone involved just assumed because most serial killers and criminals are men that we should be looking for a man but in fact this turned the case on its head it wasn't a manhunt anymore it was a ladyhunt oh is that the term for it a ladyhunt that sounds really definitely not pretty sure ladyhunt.com is a different thing. It could be anyone.

Derek thought, what about their neighbors, the Langfords, again? Right. There was a sister. She's even a real estate agent. Could she be mad that she didn't get to sell the house? And now she's trying to devalue it by inventing the Watcher. Hey, that's a good, that's plausible right there. Booker, straight in. it by inventing the Watcher. coming downtown what do you say i said you're coming downtown detective lugo's loaded up a gun app on his new iphone 5 cocked it right in her face veteran westfield detective baron shambless

was now on the hunt for a female suspect he was staking out the house one night in a van he sounds like a cludo character what's his name baron shambles okay who killed lady scarlet in the dining room with the candlestick so this is a complete movie cliche going on here this is the black van with the word pizza printed on its side right yet dozens of satellite receivers and microphones all over it, circling in the night. So they're inside, chomping down coffee and donuts for hours and hours. They're so damn busy making fresh pots of coffee and opening boxes of donuts, they don't even notice tons of evidence just passing them by. Until suddenly. Uh, Inspector, are you seeing this?

We got a station wagon pulling up on Boulevard. It's slowing down. What? Hold on. Let me finish this donut. I don't think I was supposed to have a British accent. And this coffee. Ah, goddamn, I love being a British detective.

Uh, sir, it's slowing down. It stopped outside 657. Jesus Christ. Why didn't you tell me? Let me see. Oh, it looks like a young woman. She's just staring at the house. Hold my coffee. I'm gonna ask her a few questions. Farron opened the door to the giant pizza van. Confusingly, for anyone walking by, he was covered in donut crumbs and coffee stains. It didn't make any sense.

He started towards the woman's car, but just then he saw the silhouette of the woman's head startle and turn to see him. She immediately started the car and pulled away. Please tell me you got her number plate. Running the plate number now, sir. They managed to track the car down to a young woman whose boyfriend actually lived on Boulevard. They brought her in for questioning. So tell me, little lady, what were you doing on Boulevard that night?

My name's Sharon. I'm not a little lady, mister. Anyways, I was just curious is all. Seems like a strange time of night to be just curious. Well, you know, with all this stuff about the Watcher, I just wanted to see what this house... What was going on? Hmm, interesting. So you came to watch the Watcher.

I guess you could put it that way. I mean, me and my boyfriend have been talking about it. We're just curious. It's nothing more than that. Well, if you're interested in the case, you would have seen that recent DNA evidence has suggested that the Watcher is a Schwatcher, is a she, is a woman. You're trying to tell me that the Watcher's a woman? That's correct. And I see a woman late at night driving by that very house.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. No, like I said, it's just me and my boyfriend. We just like to talk about the story. That's all. Tell me a little more about this boyfriend. Oh, what is there to tell? He grew up on Boulevard, just like where the Broaddus' live. He's quiet, you know? I guess a little bit of a recluse. What do you mean by a recluse? No, no, he doesn't really like people, you know?

In what sense? Any of them. All right. In a threatening way? Well, I wouldn't say threatening. You know, he just prefers to stay indoors. He's big into video games, actually. How did you two meet?

At a Taylor Swift concert. So let me get this straight. You were driving by the house. You slowed down, but you were on the way to meet your boyfriend. I'd just been reading about it in the news, that was all. You said your boyfriend liked to play video games. What kind of games does he play? Psychological games?

Mind games? No, video games. But now that you mention it, they're all pretty dark. I mean, really, really freaking dark. I mean, some of them are scary, I don't even like to watch them. I mean really really freaking dark. I mean some of them are scary I don't even like to watch them. I see I see Animal Crossing nighttime Minecraft with the gore turned on survival mode Super Mario But only the scary levels with lava and shit no mister like stand like like horror games say no more Mario Kart Rainbow Road.

One lap only. Tetris with one hand and one eye closed. I too play scary games. Are you married, sir? How do you spend your time? I too am a gamer. Baron Shambles is a gamer. Of course.

What is his story? He grew up in Surrey, England, before moving to New Jersey to be a gamer detective. But now that you mention it, in one of these games, he actually plays as a specific character. He calls this character the Watcher. Alright. Why didn't you tell me this when you walked in? Why do we have to do this little dance? It's late, it's late man!

It's f***ing 11.45! I was sitting here talking about Super f***ing Mario. And your boyfriend's the watcher? That's what you're telling me now? God damn it. I wonder how much that happens to detectives where it's like you go the guy's been in the chair for three hours he says he's not gonna crack and you're you know they sent detective after detective trying different techniques good cop bad cop sure you know it's

been like seven hours you've just texted your wife i'm not gonna be home for dinner the in-laws were in town loaf is burned it's a nightmare and then you know our seven hours down the line he goes although now that i think about it the boss did say he needed help hiding bodies offered jesus christ really seven hours in that's just tickled your brain god that would drive me crazy know. You're just like, we got it. We got it. All right. Let him go.

All right. Everyone go to bed. Jesus. We'll pick this up in the morning. You know what? You're coming home. You're coming home with me and you're going to tell my wife why I've been in the precinct for eight hours straight.

This is our anniversary tonight, you know? Oh, geez. I'd rather go to jail if you don't mind. You come home with this prisoner who's got crazy eyes covered in blood tell her mary this is why i'm late this is jacob jacob tell her i stabbed a man he stabbed a man he stabbed him i'm married that's why i'm late all right nothing about it shouldn't have brought him home baron's heart raced he He had found his man. They contacted this woman's boyfriend immediately, but after agreeing to come in for questioning twice, he ghosted, and they didn't have the

power to track him down and force him to come in. You can't use that term in a paranormal story. In my head, that means he disintegrated through a wall whenever they tried to get him in. He went like the twins in the Matrix. He just turned to dust. But confusingly, this guy was living away from New Jersey at the time. And when Baron got the DNA results back from the girlfriend, it didn't match the DNA from the woman who wrote the letters. Nor did it match the DNA of the Langford sister who worked next door.

Not only had they lost their prime suspect, they were back to square one. I'm not going to be home for Christmas now. Now the neighbors were sick of the accusations, the media circus, all the attention their little street was getting that had been so peaceful until the Broaddus family turned up. They started talking.

They thought, you know why they can't find the perpetrator? Because the Broadduses wrote the damn letters themselves. It was only a matter of time before people started accusing the accusers. So they bought the house and decided they didn't want it anymore. They needed an elaborate scheme to get out of the sale. Or they were attempting some kind of insurance fraud. Or even wilderer they're trying to

sell the movie rights to the watcher coming to a screen near you and at this point they had been approached by several studios but declined to sell the story really wow but despite their suspicion maria's prints were taken by the police and they didn't match anything in a last ditch attempt to sell the house they opened up the house for viewings and made everyone who looked at the house sign a register so they could compare the signatures to the signature of the watcher. That's a great idea. But every single person who put in an offer excited by getting such a beautiful house on the cheap pulled out as soon as they were shown the letters.

Not only that, but when they tried to apply to demolish the house and build two smaller ones to finish this once and for all, over 100 neighbors went to a town hall meeting and demanded that 657 Boulevard could not be torn down. Why do people not want the house to be torn down? Because we've been living here for 56 years. And it's a beautiful street. It's one of the most beautiful streets in New Jersey. All right. And we're going to destroy it. Once again, I know this is the third time clarifying to the people in the town hall.

You do not have to yell. The microphone is an inch from your face. What? You don't have to yell. The microphone is an inch from your face. What? You don't have to yell. I'm very f***ing old. There are mics set up in the aisles. If you have a question or reason why you would not like the house demolished, please just approach the microphone and you can just talk.

I would like to speak now. All right. Susan. This is Susan, everyone, from, I think, 2023. Number 23, Susan. What is your issue with the house? They are bad. All right, a little louder, actually, Susan.

I know I said a lot louder, but you're a little quiet. Can we get the mic up for Susan, please? They. You're getting softer, sweetheart. You're getting, you're actually getting quieter. They're bad people. Okay. They're bad people. They're bad people.

Come to destroy the neighborhood. Thank you for that. Sir, in the back, with the raised hand. We can't let them destroy the house. All right. It's the most beautiful house on the street. Once again, I cannot hear you, sir. I cannot hear you. Please approach the microphone.

He's climbing the walls. He's f***ing climbing the walls. He comes down the side of the roof like a spider. I don't like the spotlight, I'm afraid. Sir, you appear to be levitating, which I don't know the regulations, but I think that's against the restrictions of the town hall.

But finally, after all this, they got a sliver of relief. They had a couple who were happy to rent the house. Ooh, rent. The new renter said, hey, Mr. and Mrs. Broaddus, listen, I'm a tough guy. I'm not afraid of this watcher. But if you could put it in writing in the contract that if we get another letter from the watcher, we get to leave. Yeah, that's a smart deal, I guess.

And Derek said, listen, brother. He hasn't wrote to us in months. There's no way. It's going to be peaceful. It's going to be chill. Derek is twirling the keys to his yacht in the Caribbean at this point. Don't worry about it. The Watcher is long gone.

Day one. No. There's a letter in the box violent winds and bitter cold to the vile and spiteful derrick and his wench of a wife maria turn around idiots maybe you even spoke to me one of the so-called neighbors who has no idea who the watcher could be. Or maybe you do know and are too scared to tell anyone. Good move. I walked by the news trucks when they took over my neighborhood and mocked me. I watched as you watched from the dark house in an attempt to find me. Telescopes and binoculars are wonderful inventions.

Ooh. 657 Boulevard survived your attempted 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 with my orders.

All hail the Watcher! Okay. I will get my revenge. Maybe in 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 after day. Maybe the mysterious death of a pet. Loved ones suddenly die.

Planes and cars and bicycles crash. Bones break. He's gonna crash a plane? These things are all over the place. All hail the Watcher! It's like, oh, maybe your pets will have a little accident. Maybe I'll give you an illness that will kill you over several years. One of those is magic, is a wizard's curse.

This is the thing. This thing is so in between the world of the real and the paranormal. Yeah. Also, a terrible letter to get as the first one the first correspondence in months oh he went in hard day one yeah it's like we haven't heard from him i think maybe he's died down this letter just says you it's pretty rude the broaders family went on to lead a sad existence after this the townspeople hated, even though no one in town had lost money and time and sleep like they had. Their kids were getting bullied at school,

plus money they got from renting the house didn't even cover the mortgage. Then out of the blue, something odd happened. On Christmas Eve 2017, every family on Boulevard received a special gift, a small white envelope in their mailbox just like Derek and Maria had been receiving for the last two and a half years it was just like a watcher letter it was weirdly poetic except here it criticized the people of the boulevard for what they had done how they had ignored the watchers terrorism for how they had done, how they had ignored the Watcher's terrorism, for how they had acted towards their neighbors. And it was signed, Friends of the Broadest Family. So the reporter that broke this story, Reeves Weideman, asked Derek whether he had written those letters. He

apparently paused for a minute and then admitted that he did. Oh, okay. He had become obsessed and upset. The final letter from the Watcher simply read, You are despised by the House. And the Watcher won. That's it? Wow. That's a power move right there. He knows exactly what he needs to say.

Boom, just says it. Just says it. Wow. And, Rory, that's the last correspondence they had with the Watcher. Oh, my God. right there he knows exactly what he needs to say boom just says it just says it wow and probably that's the last correspondence they had with the watcher oh my god back in 2017 that's crazy and then what he did the letters just stopped or the house was sold or so the new couple rented for a while i think it has actually been sold in the last year or two i think someone pulled through and and agreed to it i was like i'm i'm cool i'll sign a dice yeah i mean this is the thing it's like you know all this property is like you

know this is new york city essentially property it's so highly sought after yeah so for anything like that to sit untouched for that long is um probably kind of rare i'll actually show you a picture of the house for once yeah i feel like new york is probably a bit like london where the quality in real estate and available apartments is so low that an apartment being stalked by a stranger or possibly cursed by a demon that's still something to be considered uh when you're looking at moving apartments yeah oh if it has a sick breakfast bar yeah i'll settle for my price range as well if someone was tortured on the breakfast bar i can still enjoy my cheerios if it is a a concrete box and my landlord is a rat as long as it is walking distance to the office, I will at least consider it.

I'll at least go for a viewing. I'll think about it. Yeah, for sure. I'll sign up for a six-month contract at least. I go check it out and the rat landlord is like, I got to tell you, we've had a couple other interested people come view it today. Well, all right. Well, then, yeah, sure.

I'll take it. I'll take it for the full three years, sir, please. He's like, okay, we need payment up front on the first of each month uh you're gonna be paying uh rat dollars or human pounds i can pay rat dollars what's a rat dollar geez he's like i shouldn't have said that i would have got the pounds uh here is the heist so you can get a feel there's a couple of photos there as well the insides all right wow i can't't believe we took this late into part two for you to offer me a picture of the house.

It's a f***ing squat. It's just that hot. Hey, this is more or less what I imagined. Nice house. That kind of like American style got a little porch to it. Yeah, it's gorgeous. It's pretty big. It looks quite fancy.

Yeah, it's definitely the kind of place you could imagine being haunted and stocked it's quite old school you know it's a really old place yeah kind of old school but still that white picket fence vibe nice neighborhood pretty much the dream house i have to say it's definitely when i pictured it in my head i imagined it like you know in a line on a cul-de-sac you know or something like that whereas it's a little more secluded than i thought it seems like it's kind of its own area like it's got a little driveway up to its own oh yeah it's got a big garden and stuff like that look at it in that picture it looks like a looks twisted like a little creepy tim burton house there's some photoshop i think it's maybe a fish eye the drama

uh but hey yeah it looks like a nice place so rory what do you think after two full episodes of investigation into the happenings of 657 boulevard westfield new jersey what are you getting a feel for bud i mean i feel like we're starting to pretty much immediately rule out any possibility of paranormal activity here but is there anyone you can point the finger at to try and help the family solve this case yeah we got kind of hints of the paranormal um definitely some threats that were outside the rules of this universe um but yeah very little paranormal proof very little paranormal evidence more just threats i don't really know who this could be it sounds like it's it sounds like it's someone who is close enough that uh their interest in the

house is because that they're located nearby yeah it's probably not someone who's just in another state who wants to just terrorize some random people. But yeah, I have no idea. I have no idea. I assume it's somebody in the neighborhood. Yeah. It's got to be. It's got to be. I mean, they said they walk by several times a day.

They drive by. They walk by the day that the news vans were there. They're looking in all the time. So they must be immediately there and i think at different points derek the husband in this relationship he felt he had narrowed it down to just a few houses yeah nearby which must be so frustrating because i think what they're butting up against here normally in paranormal stories what we're butting up against is the the limits of the real and how could this possibly happen in the confines and physics of nature in this story we're just butting up against police dollars

and how much people are actually willing to investigate this story yeah it seems like if you could dive deep enough into the locals you could find the watcher because that's the problem once again nothing is has happened it's just the threat of something happening uh like it's hard to even open up a police investigation into this because it's there's no real crime scene there's no real evidence nothing has transpired it's literally just the threat it's harassment um which i guess is a crime, but not an easy one to solve. No. Yeah.

As someone pointed out, if the threats are coming by letters, that could be from anyone in America. Yeah, very true. You know, at least this story has a semblance of a happy ending. The Broaddus has lost so much time, sleep, and money throughout. But the neighbors are pretty spot on. Whether they meant to do this at the beginning or not, this story is going on to be a movie.

Right. Interestingly, when The Cut published this article first, it caused one of the biggest movie industry bidding wars of 2018. You're kidding! It said that Universal, Jason Blum, Warner Brothers, First, it caused one of the biggest movie industry bidding wars of 2018. You're kidding! It said that Universal, Jason Blum, Warner Brothers, Roy Lee, Paramount, J.J. Abrams, Bad Robot, Amazon, Michael Sugar, Peter Sherman, and 20th Century Fox all bid before Netflix won the auction with the directors of Paranormal Activity set to bring this to Netflix in the coming years. This meant a seven-figure deal for the journalist, I believe Reeves Vitaman, who wrote the article and crucially the Broadus family.

Oh my God, that's crazy. Hey, look, we've said on this podcast before, that is why we don't like paranormal cases that result in the victims pursuing some sort of financial gain it's true it happens we hate to see it but it does happen a lot in cases someone claims they were haunted someone claims that they had sex with Bigfoot and then before you know it the books been written the pornos online oh yeah and it's making big money everyone's getting involved and then you realize it didn't happen it's a man in a gorilla suit.

I sound like I hunted down for this film when I watched it because I wanted to see. Hotly anticipated movie. But yeah, it happens all the time. People making up paranormal stories for financial gain. And we just, we hate to see it. It sours, it muddies the muddy, muddy waters. The water was already mud so guys bit of an unusual one but i think we can say officially for the record not paranormal double no it is a double

no but that wasn't the last couple weeks that wasn't the point of this no this was a more of a storytelling two-parter series which i'm gonna clap out that was great research great accents i love that lugo guy detective lugo that was really good i really whoever played it's kind of fun to think for once that he's a real guy we're working in westfield new jersey right now um and i hope someday he hears this and i hope he sounds exactly like that i'd love to get him as a guest on the pod you got any coffee the machine's been yeah we know on the fritz yeah for a while guys i hope you enjoyed this two-parter into the watcher maybe you have some of your own ideas maybe you could help lugo and the gang get to the bottom of this one i'm sure any help would be appreciated you can start by sending it on into this paranormal

life podcast at gmail.com send Send us your tips, your hints, if you've been looking into this case. And if you just can't get enough of This Paranormal Life in your life, head on over to patreon.com forward slash thisparanormallife. This is where, from around five bucks a month,

you can get access to over 35 bonus episodes. These are full-length investigations into the paranormal. Five bucks, guys. What are are you gonna spend five bucks on do you know how little money that is a month as well they can't even you can't even think it's so small that's not even buying detective lugo uh uh macchiato at the starbucks yeah like what are you gonna do give it a charity give it to charity?

Give money? No. We're the charity. All right? We're the charity. I wouldn't go that far. We are providing a service. Yeah.

And they provide money for video games and snacks for the starving people of Roartopia. Is that... I'm sorry. Is that where you live? Roar. I can think of a better name than that. But it is you. It's me. It's my living room. So it's not a charity. Roartopia is

my is my 1500 pound gamer chair that requires drinks and snacks. I feel like you could have bought drinks and snacks if you didn't require such a luxurious chair. The chair is important all right the king of roartopia requires only the softest cushions for his plump king ass yeah and you told me the chair was really gonna ramp up your warzone game

and it hasn't happened has it well it's actually a little i'm a little distracted recently because i've been hungry and i've been thirsty and i don't have my snacks so if you could just really ramp up the fair enough donations that'll be that'll be great so five bucks will get rory a hot pocket and a pirate um to keep him going on a long night of warzone on the 20 tier you can get me a five-hour energy. That'll keep me going for longer. That'll get me a personal size Domino's pizza to really burn the midnight oil. 20 bucks gets you a t-shirt, which is fast pass entry to this paranormal life commune. We should actually say one thing that we've been doing recently is, which some of you may have noticed is doing video clips from the podcast oh yeah funniest bit from every episode's cut out uh recorded from right here in the studio and put online and on youtube so you can watch them the only reason that that is even

possible uh is because of the support that we've had on patreon which meant that we could actually buy cameras for the studio and stands and ring lights and some little led strips so things look really cool so yeah it's awesome like those video clips that people really seem to enjoy that is a direct product of the support that we've received uh over from all you guys on patreon so thank you very much that's that's all your work and the patreon link is also in the description of this podcast if you swipe up on spotify or apple podcast or google podcast the description of this podcast has all the links to our socials patreon and youtube where you can

catch those clips at the same time we realize it's a difficult time and if you do not want to support the podcast financially today a great free way to help this paranormal life reach new commune members, future commune members, is by giving us a review on your podcast app of choice, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, wherever. Those reviews help us reach new people, help us climb the charts, and just make the show bigger and better and help us do more things in future. Think of all of us in the paranormal commune as brainless zombies. Mindless, brainless zombies. Okay.

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Everyone is in the commune. That's the goal. That's what we want. Like, you don't even have to put in your AirPods to listen to the podcast. You can just put it on a boom box on the bus and everyone's sitting listening to it. That's the goal, folks folks to be the number one piece of content consumed in the world is that is that such a big dream that it can't be true and you can help make it true by leaving that five star review so guys hope you enjoyed this

investigation um and i think i said on last episode as well shout out to Reeves Weidemann and The Cut for breaking and reporting this story which has been so fun to bring to life in the podcast. I'm going to put a link to that article in the description of this episode. Tune in next week where we will be back as always with a brand new paranormal tale and in the

meantime remember to live fast, investigate and die young baby