WESTFIELD — A house that has been vacant more than two years because of letters from a stalker calling himself “the Watcher” is now occupied, rented to a man who apparently has no frets over the threatening missives.
The man who would only identify himself as “Chris” has been renting the house on the Boulevard since Feb. 1.
Answering a knock at the door of the home, the smiling tenant came out on the wide front porch and quickly closed the door behind him to keep his three dogs inside.
He said he never heard about the threatening letters sent by “the Watcher” until after he responded to the ad in which the owners were offering to lease the six-bedroom home.
“Never followed it,” Chris told a reporter for NJ Advance Media this week. “That is not my issue,” he said with an apparent complete lack of concern about the alleged threats that have made the house infamous and gained world-wide attention.
He did not want to comment further about the stalker, and politely said he didn’t want to give a long interview.
The owners of the home, Derek and Maria Broaddus, purchased the property for $1.3 million in June 2014, but say they could not move in because three days after the purchase, they received the first of three letters from the stalker.
The couple, who have young children, said the stalker asked in the letter if they were bringing “young blood” into the home. Within weeks, two more letters arrived in which the writer asked the names of the children and said he would call them to him.
Instead of moving in, the couple tried selling the house, but said they found potential buyers scared off by the letters. In June 2015, the couple sued the prior owners, claiming they had also received a letter from the stalker days before the sale but never disclosed it. The lawsuit was so widely reported that the prior owners, John and Andrea Woods, counter sued, claiming they had been damaged by all the attention.
Unable to move in or sell the house, the Broadduses last year filed an application with the township to demolish the house, subdivide the property and build two new homes. After a public outcry that small lots would be out of character with the neighborhood, the township planning board in January rejected the application for the subdvision.
Lee Levitt, the Broadduses’ attorney in their suit against the prior owners, confirmed that the couple is now leasing the home. Levitt declined to comment further arrangement.
Levitt said the suit against the prior owners – and their counter suit – are still pending in court.
Tom Haydon may be reached at thaydon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Tom_HaydonSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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