IIn 2014, married couple Maria and Derek Broaddus bought the 1905 Dutch colonial revival-style house for nearly $1.4 million. However they were forced to abandon their new home over chilling letters from “The Watcher,” who claimed to have been “watching” the house for decades. “I am the Watcher. Bring me your young blood,” one of the notes read.

In 2018, they told the story to journalist Reeves Wiedeman, who published the skin-crawling encounter for The Cut, in a piece titled The Haunting of 657 Boulevard, Westfield, New Jersey.

The Watcher: the true story behind Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix horror, starring Naomi Watts, is the stuff of nightmares