Speaker 1: Hello, it's Richard mc lean smith here. We're Unexplained. Currently
Speaker 1: on a break between seasons, we're taking a look back
Speaker 1: at some of our favorite episodes. In the summer of
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, Maria and Derek Broadus were overjoyed when they
Speaker 1: completed on their dream home, a one and a half
Speaker 1: million dollar mansion in the affluent suburb of Westfield, New Jersey,
Speaker 1: in the USA. The couple couldn't have been happier. But
Speaker 1: then the letters started to arrive. Back in February twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: long before it became a hit Netflix show with a
Speaker 1: questionable ending. This is Unexplained, Season four, Episode three, I
Speaker 1: See You. We open on a pristine, tree lined avenue
Speaker 1: of some affluent North American suburb as a paperboy cycles
Speaker 1: merrily along, casually tossing papers towards the grand mansion houses
Speaker 1: that line the street. The camera pans to the left,
Speaker 1: centering on one such mansion, its perfectly manicured front lawn
Speaker 1: and grand facade, offering up a vision of wealthy domestic perfection.
Speaker 1: But as we move in closer beyond the facade, we
Speaker 1: find a very different story. In an upstairs bathroom, a
Speaker 1: bedraggled and hair suit. Henry Morrison, early forties and in
Speaker 1: casual dress, stands at the sink, staring intensely into the mirror,
Speaker 1: his face covered in blood. After removing a pressed and
Speaker 1: clean suit from a pre prepared suitcase, he steps into
Speaker 1: the shower and washes the blood from his face before
Speaker 1: shaving his beard and trimming his hair. Moments later, he
Speaker 1: stands once again in front of the mirror, the image
Speaker 1: of a calm go getting professional. Soon, the smartly dressed Henry,
Speaker 1: now with a briefcase in his hand, is walking down
Speaker 1: the stairs past a blood stained wall covered in happy
Speaker 1: family portraits of Henry with his wife and kids. Finally,
Speaker 1: as he steps down into a large entry hall, stopping
Speaker 1: calmly to write a knocked over chair, we see the
Speaker 1: true horror within, ignored by Henry as he makes his
Speaker 1: way to the front door. The floor of the living
Speaker 1: room behind is littered with the blood and bodies of
Speaker 1: those same wife and children. Paying no attention to the dead,
Speaker 1: bloodied body of a young girl clutching a teddy bear
Speaker 1: in the foreground. Henry lets himself out and closes the
Speaker 1: door behind him. Outside, he breaks into a whistle and
Speaker 1: collects the paper from the lawn, then steps into the
Speaker 1: quiet of the street and disappears up the road. The
Speaker 1: opening scene of Joseph Ruben's nineteen eighty seventh film The
Speaker 1: Stepfather is widely considered one of the most effective and
Speaker 1: shocking in cinematic history. Sadly, it is also loosely based
Speaker 1: on a true story. In nineteen seventy one, John List
Speaker 1: was a well respected father of three and church going
Speaker 1: resident in the town of Westfield in New Jersey, USA,
Speaker 1: with a well paid job at Jersey City Bank and
Speaker 1: a mansion on the hill to go with it. In
Speaker 1: November of that year, however, unbeknownst to his family, Liszt
Speaker 1: had been laid off and found himself heavily in debt
Speaker 1: after surreptitiously skimming money from his elderly mother's credit card
Speaker 1: to pay the bills. Liszt's reaction to his predicament, in
Speaker 1: an all too common act perpetrated by men in similar positions,
Speaker 1: was to murder his entire family rather than reveal to
Speaker 1: them the truth of it all, believing the shame of
Speaker 1: it would have been too much for them to bear.
Speaker 1: After carefully lying the bodies down together, he made arrangements
Speaker 1: to stop the milk and the mail, then packed a
Speaker 1: bag and fled. Understandably for a small town like Westfield,
Speaker 1: which prided itself on its reputation as one of the
Speaker 1: safest towns in America, the shock of John List's crimes,
Speaker 1: a violent reminder that all is never quite as it seems,
Speaker 1: opened a chasm of horror that took many years to repair,
Speaker 1: but as so often happens, no doubt, aided by the
Speaker 1: old List family home being mysteriously burned down the following year,
Speaker 1: the events were eventually expunged from the collective memory and
Speaker 1: passed off as an aberration until it was as if
Speaker 1: they had never happened at all, and before too long,
Speaker 1: the illusion of pretty perfection was soon restored to the
Speaker 1: small but cultured town. Forty years later, however, as the
Speaker 1: summer of twenty fourteen approached, all that was about to change.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. Located
Speaker 1: just twenty miles west of Manhattan, the leafy town of Westfield,
Speaker 1: described by the New York Times as west small town
Speaker 1: meets urban, was first established in seventeen twenty as a
Speaker 1: small village enclave of the much larger Elizabethtown, first founded
Speaker 1: by English settlers in sixteen sixty four. Today, Westfield, comprised
Speaker 1: roughly of thirty thousand residents, is considered among the most
Speaker 1: wealthy in all of the United States, with average household
Speaker 1: income coming in at just under two hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: per annum. Chances of becoming a victim of violent crime
Speaker 1: in the town are listed by the website neighbourhood scout
Speaker 1: dot com as being one in six thousand eighty seven,
Speaker 1: compared say, to the town of Bessemer on the outskirts
Speaker 1: of Birmingham, Alabama, which the site lists as being one
Speaker 1: in thirty four, all of which made it the perfect
Speaker 1: location for Derrick and Maria Broadus, who a few years
Speaker 1: previously adjoined the increasing number of affluent young families relocating
Speaker 1: to the town as they looked to escape the big
Speaker 1: city for a quieter life. In two thousand fourteen, now
Speaker 1: with three young children in tow, they were hoping to upsize,
Speaker 1: and after months of searching, had finally found everything they
Speaker 1: were looking for. Built in nineteen o five at almost
Speaker 1: four thousand square feet of prime real estate, six five
Speaker 1: seven Boulevard was located in a neighborhood described by local paper,
Speaker 1: The Westfield Leader as one of the most beautiful in
Speaker 1: all the town. With its grand colonnaded front porch and
Speaker 1: imposing facade, and boasting six bedrooms and three and a
Speaker 1: half bathrooms, it was every inch the dream home, and
Speaker 1: on June second, two thousand fourteen, after a short bidding war,
Speaker 1: it was all theirs sold for just over one point
Speaker 1: three million dollars. Eager to move in and begin their
Speaker 1: new life on Boulevard, the Broadesses immediately set about renovating
Speaker 1: the property, employing construction workers to help. On June fifth, however,
Speaker 1: Derrek Broadus was at the property alone, having decided to
Speaker 1: carry out some light redecorating himself after work. It had
Speaker 1: just gone ten p m. When Derreck finished up and
Speaker 1: wandered out into the front porch and took a moment
Speaker 1: in the warm summer air to enjoy the serenity of
Speaker 1: his new surroundings. As he pictured himself waving neighborly helloes
Speaker 1: to pass his by, and his wife and kids welcoming
Speaker 1: him home from work. There was just one last thing
Speaker 1: to do before heading back to the old house. Reaching
Speaker 1: into the mail box, he found the usual bits of
Speaker 1: junk mail and some post for the previous owner, but
Speaker 1: then also something else, Julia looking letter made out to
Speaker 1: the new owner, with curiously no return address. Derek examined
Speaker 1: the thick black lettering for a moment and then opened
Speaker 1: the envelope.
Speaker 2: The letter was dated June fourth, having been written before
Speaker 2: the sale of the house had even been made public.
Speaker 2: Dearest new neighbor at six five seven Boulevard, it began,
Speaker 2: allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood. How did
Speaker 2: you end up here? Did six five seven call to you?
Speaker 2: With its force within? The house has been the subject
Speaker 2: of my family for decades now, and as it approaches
Speaker 2: its one hundredth and tenth birthday, I have been put
Speaker 2: in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming.
Speaker 2: My grandfather watched the house in the nineteen twenties, and
Speaker 2: my father in the nineteen sixties. It is now my time,
Speaker 2: It continued, Do you know the history of the house?
Speaker 2: Do you know what lies within the walls? Why are
Speaker 2: you here? I will find out. I see already that
Speaker 2: you have flooded it with contractors so that you can
Speaker 2: destroy the house as it was supposed to be. You
Speaker 2: don't want to make six five seven Boulevard unhappy. You
Speaker 2: have children? I have seen them so far. I think
Speaker 2: there are three that I have counted. Are the more
Speaker 2: on the way. I asked the woods to bring me
Speaker 2: young blood, and it looks like they listened. Was your
Speaker 2: old house too small for the growing family? Or was
Speaker 2: it greed to bring me your children? Once I know
Speaker 2: their names, I will call to them and draw them
Speaker 2: to me. Who am I? There are hundreds and hundreds
Speaker 2: of cars that drive by the house each day. Maybe
Speaker 2: I am in one. Look at all the windows you
Speaker 2: can see from six five seven Boulevard. Maybe I am
Speaker 2: in one. Look out any of the many windows and
Speaker 2: six five seven Boulevard, at all the people who strolled
Speaker 2: by each day. Maybe I am one of them. The
Speaker 2: boulevard used to be these street to live on. You
Speaker 2: made it if you lived on the boulevard. Welcome, my friends, Welcome,
Speaker 2: Let the party begin, Signed the Watcher. Derek stood for
Speaker 2: a moment in a complete state of shock. Then, remembering
Speaker 2: where he was, looked toward the street, scanning hurriedly for
Speaker 2: any sign of a figure lurking behind a tree or
Speaker 2: a face at the window of the houses opposite. Seeing nothing,
Speaker 2: he dashed straight back inside, locking the door behind him,
Speaker 2: then switched off every light in the house before returning
Speaker 2: to the window to check on the street as he
Speaker 2: dialed nine to one one. The officer arriving soon after,
Speaker 2: wondered aloud if Derek had any idea why anyone would
Speaker 2: do such a thing. Did he have any enemies perhaps
Speaker 2: that he was aware of. Derek couldn't think of anyone.
Speaker 2: After suggesting that he moved any construction equipment inside lest
Speaker 2: someone try to throw it through a window, the officer
Speaker 2: could offer little else than to suggest that Derek remained
Speaker 2: vigilant and to let them know if anything else occurred.
Speaker 2: That night, as he made his way back to his family,
Speaker 2: Derek went through all the possibilities as to what this
Speaker 2: could be. A prank by kids, a disgruntled former owner,
Speaker 2: or was it perhaps even neighbors who had missed out
Speaker 2: on purchasing the place themselves. Though he hadn't wanted to
Speaker 2: worry Maria, there would be no hiding this from her.
Speaker 2: That night, the couple did their best to reassure themselves
Speaker 2: that it wasn't anything to worry about, but couldn't help
Speaker 2: being drawn to one line. In particular, they read it again.
Speaker 2: I asked the Woods to bring me young blood, and
Speaker 2: it looks like they listened. The Woods were the former
Speaker 2: owners of the house. Was it possible that they were
Speaker 2: already aware of this before they sold her? The couple
Speaker 2: emailed John and Andrea Woods that night. The next morning,
Speaker 2: Andrea replied though they had experienced nothing remotely like it
Speaker 2: in the twenty three years they had lived at the property,
Speaker 2: she claimed. They did, however, receive a similar letter a
Speaker 2: week before they sold the house to the Broadesses. The letter,
Speaker 2: also signed off by the watcher, had made it clear
Speaker 2: that whoever it was, was well aware that a new
Speaker 2: family would soon be moving in, and that the watcher
Speaker 2: believed themselves to be the true owners of six five
Speaker 2: seven Boulevard. Stunned and angered by the revelation, with the
Speaker 2: sale having already gone through, there was little option but
Speaker 2: to do what they could to find the culprit and
Speaker 2: nip the whole thing in the bud. Later that day,
Speaker 2: on Maria's insistence, Andrea and John Wood drove down from
Speaker 2: their new home in Massachusetts to accompany her to the
Speaker 2: Westfield Police Department. Detective Leonard Lugo, who was assigned to
Speaker 2: the case, offered to do whatever he could to look
Speaker 2: into it, but, just as the officer had explained the
Speaker 2: previous night, in the meantime, with little elves to go on,
Speaker 2: it was a case of doing their best to ignore
Speaker 2: it and looking out for any other suspicious activity. Just
Speaker 2: as Andrea had suggested in her earlier email, Lugo also
Speaker 2: speculated that the culprit could well be one of their
Speaker 2: new neighbors. Maria did her best not to seem too
Speaker 2: awkward as she made small talk with the other guests,
Speaker 2: whilst also keeping an eye on her three young children,
Speaker 2: who were busy making the most of the spacious garden.
Speaker 2: Under any normal circumstances, receiving an invitation to a neighbor's
Speaker 2: barbecue would have been something to celebrate, a perfect reflection
Speaker 2: of the general sense of benevolence they had first associated
Speaker 2: with the area. Now, however, despite their host's obviously good intentions,
Speaker 2: it had become little more than an elaborate line up,
Speaker 2: as the Broadesses found themselves treating every one with suspicion.
Speaker 2: It didn't help that the family was still to move
Speaker 2: in to the property, but it was impossible to ignore
Speaker 2: the sense conjured up by the anonymous letter that they
Speaker 2: were still very much outsiders here, something which was especially
Speaker 2: hard for Maria, who had grown up in the town
Speaker 2: across the other side of the garden. Derrick was on
Speaker 2: high alert when he soon found himself talking to John
Speaker 2: Schmidt of two doors down from six five seven, who
Speaker 2: inquired if Deryck had yet to have a chance to
Speaker 2: meet the Langforts who lived in the property between them.
Speaker 2: As revealed in an article written by Reeves Wiederman for
Speaker 2: The New Yorker magazine, the house was occupied by ninety
Speaker 2: year old family matriarch Peggy Langford, along with a number
Speaker 2: of her children, who were all in their sixties, one
Speaker 2: of whom Michael, was described by Schmidt as somewhat of
Speaker 2: a reclusive character. The following day, after Derreck informed Detective
Speaker 2: Lugo about his conversation with Schmidt, Michael Langford was brought
Speaker 2: in for questioning. However, after denying all knowledge of the letters,
Speaker 2: he was promptly released. Despite letting him go, Lugo informed
Speaker 2: the Broadesses that they were unlikely to be receiving any
Speaker 2: more letters. Though by no means conclusive, the detective's assessment
Speaker 2: offered some relief, and as the days went by the
Speaker 2: broadesses tried to focus their energy on completing renovations so
Speaker 2: they could finally move in to their new home. And
Speaker 2: so it was with a cautious optimism that Maria arrived
Speaker 2: at the house on June nineteenth to check on the
Speaker 2: progress of the works and to pick up any mail.
Speaker 2: But as she pulled the jumble of letters from the mailbox,
Speaker 2: Maria's heart sunk. This time addressed directly to a mister
Speaker 2: and missus braddus, it read, welcome again to your new
Speaker 2: home at six five seven Boulevard. The workers have been
Speaker 2: busy and I have been watching you unload castles of
Speaker 2: your personal belongings. The dumpster is a nice touch. Have
Speaker 2: they found what is in the walls? Yet? In time?
Speaker 2: Will I am pleased to know your names now? And
Speaker 2: the names of the young Blood you have brought to me?
Speaker 2: You certainly say their names often. Having claimed to have
Speaker 2: seen one of the daughters using an easel on the
Speaker 2: back porch, the watcher asked, is she the artist in
Speaker 2: the family? It has been years and years since the
Speaker 2: young Blood ruled the hallways of the house. Have you
Speaker 2: found all of the secrets it holds? Yet? Will the
Speaker 2: young Blood play in the basement or are they too
Speaker 2: afraid to go down there alone? I would be very
Speaker 2: afraid if I were them. It is far away from
Speaker 2: the rest of the house. If you were upstairs, you
Speaker 2: would never hear them scream. Who has the bedrooms facing
Speaker 2: the street? I'll know as soon as you move in.
Speaker 2: It will help me to know who is in which bedroom.
Speaker 2: Then I can plan better. Who am I? I am
Speaker 2: the Watcher and have been in control of six five
Speaker 2: seven Boulevard for the better part of two decades. Now
Speaker 2: the Woods family turned it over to you. It was
Speaker 2: their time to move on and kindly sold it when
Speaker 2: I asked them to. I passed by many times a day.
Speaker 2: Six five seven Boulevard is my job, my life, my obsession,
Speaker 2: and now you are too. Bradha's family, Welcome to the
Speaker 2: product of your greed. Greed is what brought the past
Speaker 2: three families to six five seven Boulevard, and now it
Speaker 2: has brought you to me. Have a happy moving in day.
Speaker 2: You know I will be watching. The following day, Derrick
Speaker 2: and Maria led Detective Lugo through to the back porch
Speaker 2: and pointed out the easel that was still set up there.
Speaker 2: Lugo looked out to the garden beyond, searching for any
Speaker 2: clear sight lines from the neighboring properties, since no one
Speaker 2: could have seen their daughter painting from the street, either
Speaker 2: the watcher lived directly next door or behind the house,
Speaker 2: or they had walked up off the street and observed
Speaker 2: her while hiding in the garden. Once again, however, Lugo
Speaker 2: had nothing but circumstantial evidence to go on, and though
Speaker 2: they had by then established that the letters were being
Speaker 2: rooted through a northern New Jersey distribution center, there was
Speaker 2: no way to pinpoint the culprit through the letters alone.
Speaker 2: Frustrated by the police response, the Broadesses took matters into
Speaker 2: their own hands. Webcams were installed and diagrams drawn up
Speaker 2: outlining which of their neighbors could possibly have seen or
Speaker 2: heard the various incidences referred to in the letters. Some nights,
Speaker 2: Derrick would just sit alone in the house, surveying the
Speaker 2: street for any sign of the enigmatic watcher. On July eighteenth,
Speaker 2: a third letter arrived six five seven Boulevard is turning
Speaker 2: on me. It is coming after me. I don't understand
Speaker 2: why what spell did you cast on it? It used
Speaker 2: to be my friend, and now it is my enemy.
Speaker 2: I am in charge of six five seven Boulevard. It
Speaker 2: is not in charge of me. I will be patient
Speaker 2: and wait for this to pass and for you to
Speaker 2: bring the young blood back to me. Six five seven
Speaker 2: Boulevard needs young blood, It needs you back. Let the
Speaker 2: young blood play again like I once did. Let the
Speaker 2: young blood sleep in six five seven Boulevard. Stop changing
Speaker 2: it and let it alone. It cries for the past
Speaker 2: and what used to be in the time when I
Speaker 2: roamed its halls. The nineteen sixties were a good time
Speaker 2: for six five seven Boulevard, when I ran from room
Speaker 2: to room, imagining the life with the rich occupants there.
Speaker 2: The house was full of life and young blood. Then
Speaker 2: it got old, and so did my father. But he
Speaker 2: kept watching until the day he died. And now I
Speaker 2: watch and wait for the day when the young blood
Speaker 2: will be mine again. With the arrival of the third letter,
Speaker 2: it was clear that the Watcher was not about to
Speaker 2: go quietly, so the Broadesses decided it was time to
Speaker 2: take their investigation to the next level. They began by
Speaker 2: hiring a former FBI agent to analyze the letters. Though
Speaker 2: such an approach is by no means concrete, their assessment
Speaker 2: presented two intriguing notions, one that the writer was more
Speaker 2: likely to be female or at least not aggressively masculine
Speaker 2: due to the general inoffensiveness of the language, and the
Speaker 2: other being that they were not merely a prankster, but
Speaker 2: someone with a genuine sense of resentment toward the new owners.
Speaker 2: A private detective was also hired, but proved ultimately ineffective,
Speaker 2: and all the while, the couple found themselves in an
Speaker 2: increasingly precarious position. Having already sold their current home, they
Speaker 2: had to decide whether to bite the literary bullet and
Speaker 2: move in to their new home or seek alternative accommodation.
Speaker 2: In the end, being too afraid to risk their children's
Speaker 2: safety and crippled by the pressure of keeping the truth
Speaker 2: about the letters from their neighbours, they decided eventually to
Speaker 2: forego the switch to six five seven and moved in
Speaker 2: with Maria's parents instead. In early December, having run out
Speaker 2: of leeds, Detective Lgo informed them that the police were
Speaker 2: ending their investigation by the end of the year. Seeing
Speaker 2: no other option, the couple made up their minds to
Speaker 2: sell the house and be done with it all. In
Speaker 2: February two thousand fifteen sixty five, seven Boulevard was put
Speaker 2: back on the market for an asking price just short
Speaker 2: of one point five million dollars, over one hundred thousand
Speaker 2: more than the Broadesses had originally bought it, taking into
Speaker 2: account the recent renovations. Having felt lied to in the
Speaker 2: original sale, the couple also decided to be completely open
Speaker 2: about the sinister letters to any prospective buyers. Only there
Speaker 2: was one problem. Rumors about the letters had already begun
Speaker 2: to circulate. Within three months, the couple had dropped the
Speaker 2: asking price by a quarter of a million dollars, but
Speaker 2: it was to no avail. In the end, there was
Speaker 2: no need to disclose the letters because nobody made an
Speaker 2: offer and the house was taken off the market. Having
Speaker 2: continued to make mortgage payments, not to mention spending thousands
Speaker 2: of pounds on property taxes for a house they didn't want,
Speaker 2: the couple reached their last resort in June two thousand fifteen.
Speaker 2: They filed a legal complaint against the former owners for
Speaker 2: failure to disclose their awareness of the watcher. Since all
Speaker 2: such legal disputes become a matter of public record once
Speaker 2: they are filed, it wasn't long before the extraordinary story
Speaker 2: of the Westfield Watcher was picked up by the press
Speaker 2: and soon after became international news as the Broadesses and
Speaker 2: Woods prepared to battle it out in court. The sudden
Speaker 2: spotlight on the picturesque town and the sinister goings on
Speaker 2: concerning six five seven Boulevard left many residents feeling exposed
Speaker 2: and the local police scrambling to explain why they hadn't
Speaker 2: caught the suspect. Yet another, detective, Baron Chamberliss, was promptly
Speaker 2: assigned to look into it again. When a DNA sample
Speaker 2: taken from the envelopes was found to be from a female,
Speaker 2: he turned his attention to Abbey Langford, the Broadess's neighbour
Speaker 2: and sister of Michael Langford. One afternoon Joon, after instruction
Speaker 2: from Detective Chamberlas, a security guard at the local department
Speaker 2: store where Langford worked, waited for the perfect moment before
Speaker 2: secretly confiscating a plastic water bottle she had been using.
Speaker 2: The bottle was in turn tested for DNA, but the
Speaker 2: result wasn't a match. The investigation was back to square one,
Speaker 2: and soon another theory was beginning to emerge. For those
Speaker 2: who aren't familiar with the Netflix documentary Making a Murderer,
Speaker 2: directed by Laura Richardi and Moira de Moss, It details
Speaker 2: the trial of two men whom many believe may have
Speaker 2: been wrongfully convicted of murder. Watching as the story progressed
Speaker 2: and the prosecution's case became increasingly problematic, what struck me
Speaker 2: as particularly interesting, almost more than the possible injustice of
Speaker 2: it all, was the forerocity with which many members of
Speaker 2: the local community refused to accept that there was any
Speaker 2: doubt to the guilty verdict. It is a strangely common reaction,
Speaker 2: this compulsion for a community to come together and, in
Speaker 2: the absence of any clear truth, commit to some kind
Speaker 2: of closure, whatever the cost, be it by finding a
Speaker 2: hapless scapegoat who best fits the profile, or by denying
Speaker 2: that a crime was even committed in the first place.
Speaker 2: It is almost as though the continuation of the illusion
Speaker 2: that nothing bad could ever happen, or at the very least,
Speaker 2: finding a way to neutralize that bad thing, is more
Speaker 2: important than getting to the real truth of the crime, or,
Speaker 2: in the case of making a murderer, for many in
Speaker 2: the local community, having somebody locked up for the crime
Speaker 2: and being able to move on from it appeared to
Speaker 2: take precedence over whether the accused were innocent or not.
Speaker 2: In the case of the Westfield Watcher, no doubt scarred
Speaker 2: by the not two distant crimes of John List the
Speaker 2: community prompted for the latter, Driven by concern for house
Speaker 2: prices and local reputation, many began to wander aloud, a
Speaker 2: view shared on social media and in homes throughout the
Speaker 2: town if the Broadesses hadn't merely got out of depth
Speaker 2: with their purchase and made the whole thing up to
Speaker 2: cover themselves. After attempting to sell the house in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 2: the Broadesses once again came up short. As a last resort,
Speaker 2: they put in a bid with the local planning authority
Speaker 2: to sell the property to a developer who would replace
Speaker 2: it with two separate homes. The proposal was later defeated
Speaker 2: at a town hall meeting when over one hundred local residents,
Speaker 2: including Abby Langford, turned up to vote against it. By then,
Speaker 2: Derreck and Maria had spent over one hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 2: in taxes for the house with no compensation. Some relief arrived, however,
Speaker 2: when soon after they finally succeeded in renting the place.
Speaker 2: Out efforts continued meanwhile, to put the house back on
Speaker 2: the market. Despite all the ensuing drama, it had been
Speaker 2: almost two years since the Broadesses had received their last
Speaker 2: letter from the Watcher. Perhaps their luck was beginning to
Speaker 2: turn after all. Two weeks after the Renters moved in,
Speaker 2: Derek arrived at the property to carry out some routine
Speaker 2: maintenance work when they handed him a familiar looking letter.
Speaker 2: It was dated February thirteenth, twenty seventeen. You wonder who
Speaker 2: the Watcher is? Turn around, idiots. Maybe you even spoke
Speaker 2: to me, one of the so called neighbors who has
Speaker 2: no idea who the Watcher could be. Or maybe you
Speaker 2: do know and are too scared to tell anyone. Good move.
Speaker 2: I walked by the news trucks when they took over
Speaker 2: my neighborhood and mocked me. I watched as you watched
Speaker 2: from the dark house in an attempt to find me.
Speaker 2: Telescopes and binoculars are wonderful inventions. Six five seven Boulevards
Speaker 2: survived your attempted assault and stood strong with its army
Speaker 2: of supporters barricading its gates. My soldiers of the boulevard
Speaker 2: followed my orders to a t.
Speaker 1: All hail. The Watcher.
Speaker 2: As the letter continued, it was clear that revenge was
Speaker 2: on their mind. Maybe a car accident, maybe a fire.
Speaker 2: Maybe something as simple as a mild illness that never
Speaker 2: seems to go away but makes you feel sick day
Speaker 2: after day after day after day. Maybe the mysterious death
Speaker 2: of a pet. Loved one suddenly die. Planes and cars
Speaker 2: and bicycles crash, bones break, you are despised by the
Speaker 2: house and the watcher one. Thank you to Hannah Jones
Speaker 2: for suggesting this week's story. This episode was written by
Speaker 2: Richard McClean smith Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast
Speaker 2: created by Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of the podcast,
Speaker 2: including the music, are also produced by me mcin Smith unexplained.
Speaker 2: The book and audiobook, with stories never before featured on
Speaker 2: the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can
Speaker 2: purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores.
Speaker 2: Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get
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