The Broaddus family: who are Derek and Maria Broaddus in Netflix’s The Watcher, did they live at 657 Boulevard?

Netflix’s latest thriller series The Watcher follows the Brannock family as they move to their dream home on 657 Boulevard, New Jersey only to find themselves tormented by an unknown stalker.

The series, which was created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, stars Naomi Watts (King Kong) and Bobby Cannavale (Blonde) as Nora and Dean Brannock who start receiving disturbing letters after they move into their new neighbourhood.

Despite alerting the police and hiring a private investigator the family are still plagued by the unmasked stalker and start to suspect their new neighbours know more than they are letting on.

What makes the Netflix show even more terrifying is that it is based the true story. So, who are the real Derek and Maria Broaddus and did they live at 657 Boulevard? Here’s everything you need to know.

What happened in The Watcher?

The Watcher is based on the true story of the Broaddus family who bought their dream home on 657 Boulevard, New Jersey only to find themselves tormented by an unknown stalker. The family received numerous threatening letters from a mystery person who appeared to be watching their every move.

Who are Derek and Maria Broaddus?

Derek and Maria Broaddus bought their dream home in Westfield, New Jersey for $1.3 million in June 2014. However six months after the sale of the house had been completed the family started to receive threatening letters from a person who called themselves “The Watcher”.

The letters seemed to reveal intimate details about the family and their personal life, mentioning their children and anger at the fact they were refurbishing the property before moving in.

Reported by Newsweek one of the letters to the house read: “will 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.”

The family’s experience is now featured in Netflix’s fictionalised version of their story called The Watcher. Their names have been changed to Nora and Dean Brannock, with the roles played by Naomi Watts (King Kong) and Bobby Cannavale (Blonde).

Did they live at 657 Boulevard?

The family bought the home on 657 Boulevard in 2014, however unlike the Netflix series they never officially moved into it. They had initially begun renovations on the property and received the first letter six months after the sale had been completed. Fearing for their children’s safety they decided to not live in the home.

Reported by Style Caster, the family tried to sell the home but struggled to find a buyer, they also tried to sell the land for development but this was rejected by local planning authority. In 2016 they were able to rent the property out, however just two weeks after they moved in another letter arrived addressed to “The vile and spiteful Derek and his wench of a wife Maria.”

Where is the Broaddus family now?

The Broaddus family eventually sold the home in 2019 for around $400,000 less than they paid for it. The new owners have not reported receiving any further letters from The Watcher.

Derek is active on Twitter and regularly retweets articles about the story or other cases of stalking. In 2019 he replied to CNN asking them to apologise for the family, his tweet said: “hey Horace how’s the hoax theory you started about my family holding up? I’m still waiting for my apology.”