Who Were The Real-Life 'The Watcher' Suspects? From Neighbors to Gamers

The Watcher is the new true-crime series streaming on Netflix now about the hair-raising ordeal faced by Maria and Derek Broaddus.

In June 2014, the couple purchased their dream home at 657 Boulevard, Westfield, New Jersey, but their dream quickly became an a nightmare when they started to receive haunting letters from an anonymous person known only as "The Watcher."

In The Watcher, Maria and Derek Broaddus are portrayed by Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale, with their characters' names altered to Nora and Dean Brannock.

As each episode progresses, the letters they receive become even more threatening with the suspect pool growing larger and larger. However, in real life, no one has ever been uncovered as the 'Watcher.'

Newsweek has everything you need to know about the real-life suspects.

Who Were The Real-Life The Watcher Suspects?

Due to the detailed nature of the letters Maria and Derek Broaddus were receiving, they immediately suspected the Watcher to be a neighbor or a close acquaintance.

For example, the letters knew everything about the renovations there were doing the house, writing: "Welcome again to your new home at 657 Boulevard. The workers have been busy and I have been watching you unload carfuls of your personal belongings. The dumpster is a nice touch. Have they found what is in the walls yet? In time they will."

In one letter, the Watcher also spoke in detail about the Broadduses children, including their names, ages and the fact their daughter was a talented artist and they had spotted her drawing inside the enclosed porch.

The letters also made the Broadduses fear their children were in some form of danger.

One excerpt read: "ill the young blood play in the basement? Or are they too afraid to go down there alone. I would [be] very afraid if I were them. It is far away from the rest of the house. If you were upstairs you would never hear them scream."

To uncover the Watcher's identity, the Broadduses worked with police and hired a private investigator and an ex-FBI profiler, but with no fingerprints, DNA, or digital trace, the Watcher has never been found.

The Langfords

The most obvious suspects were the Broadduses' nextdoor neighbors, The Langfords. In particular, a man named Michael Langford found himself a person of interest.

According to neighbors, he lived at home with his 90-something-year-old mother Peggy, and his siblings who were all in their 60s.

In the New York Magazine article on which the Netflix series is based, neighbors described Langford as "a bit odd" but "harmless" and a "kind of Boo Radley character," wrote Reeves Wiedeman.

When Michael Langford was questioned, he denied knowing anything about the letters. He was brought in for further questioning but ultimately there was not enough evidence to name him as the Watcher.

The Langfords became persons of interest again when female DNA was found in one of the letters. Michael Langford's sister, Abby was spoken to by police but when the DNA did not match, she was ruled out as a suspect.

The Langford family has repeatedly denied any involvement with the letters.

Speaking to The Independent, Michael Langford's sibling said: "It f*****g never ends. I'm his brother; I own the g*****n house. We got accused of doing something that we didn't do. Did we ever get a f*****g apology from the police?"

The Gamer

There was also the suspect known as the "The Gamer."

One evening when the police were surveilling the Broadduses' home, a car that belonged to a young woman stopped outside 657 Boulevard for an unusually long time.

When police approached the car, they learned that her boyfriend lived on the same road at 657 Boulevard.

She proceeded to tell police that her boyfriend was "into some really dark video games" and in one of them, he played a character known as "The Watcher."

The boyfriend agreed to be questioned by police but never turned up for the two scheduled interviews. Because there was not enough evidence, the police could take the line of questioning any further.

The Broadduses

At one point, Maria and Derek Broaddus found themselves as suspects, a theory many still have today.

When the Broadduses explored plans to sell the home to a developer and their proposal was rejected by the neighborhood planning board, they learned some of their neighbors suspected they had written the letters themselves to get out of moving into the property and paying the cost of renovation.

Maria and Derek Broaddus have denied sending the letters to themselves, with Derek Broaddus taking to Twitter to deny claims.

In August 2019, he tweeted in response to an article by CNN which reported the Broaddus family had sold 657 Boulvebard that they were "still waiting for an apology."

He wrote: "@LeaderTimes hey Horace how's the hoax theory you started about my family holding up? I'm still waiting for my apology. #gutless @WestfieldTAP.2."

In 2019, the Broaddus family sold 657 Boulevard for a $400,000 loss, according to the Union County Clerk's Office.

As of October 2022, there has been no news of the Watcher's return and their identity remains unknown.

The Watcher is streaming on Netflix now.