Dream Home Turned Nightmare Finally Sells, at a $400K Loss

It's taken five years and more than one failed sale attempt, but the owners of a New Jersey home stalked by an anonymous letter-writer called "the Watcher" have finally handed off the house to someone else—without ever having moved in themselves. NJ.com and Bloomberg report that Derek and Maria Broaddus, who bought the home at 657 Boulevard in Westfield in 2014, have sold the 1905 Dutch Colonial Revival abode for just under $960,000—about $400,000 less than the nearly $1.4 million they paid for it. Per a deed filed early last month in Union County, the buyers are Andrew and Allison Carr, who've stayed mum on what prompted them to purchase the headline-making home. NBC New York notes the Broadduses had previously tried in vain to sell the house; it was listed at $1.25 million in 2016.

The couple say that after closing on the home but before moving in their three children, they started receiving creepy and threatening letters from the so-called "Watcher," who claimed to be continuing a family tradition of keeping an eye on the residence. Among the Watcher's questions in regard to the Broadduses' kids: "Will the young blood play in the basement? Or are they too afraid to go down there alone." The family says they've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on renovations, security, and private investigators since, though fears for their safety kept them from moving in. Meanwhile, in December Netflix acquired the rights to their story, which appeared in-depth at the Cut, meaning we may soon see a film adaptation of this still-unsolved tale. (More strange stuff stories.)