MrBallen: The Watcher — The Stalking That Terrorized Westfield
Content note: this video discusses a real stalking case involving threatening letters targeting a family, including references to their young children.
MrBallen: The Watcher — The Stalking That Terrorized Westfield
The scariest stories are the ones with no ending. In 2014, a family bought their dream home in Westfield, New Jersey — and before they could move in, someone started writing to them. What follows is one of YouTube’s most-watched true crime stories, and it has never been solved.
The letter was addressed to “The New Owner.” It began warmly — a welcome to the neighborhood from someone who said their family had watched the house for generations. Then it turned. The writer knew the names of the couple’s three young children. Called them “the young blood.” Warned that “657 Boulevard is anxious for you to move in.”
That is the opening of the case of The Watcher, and it is not fiction. Derek and Maria Broaddus bought the six-bedroom house at 657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey, in June 2014 for $1.35 million. Before they ever moved in, the first of several anonymous, typewritten letters arrived. More followed over the coming weeks — each more disturbing, each referencing details of their lives. Police investigated. Private investigators investigated. Nobody was ever identified.
MrBallen — John Allen, the former Navy SEAL turned storyteller with one of YouTube’s largest true crime audiences — covered the case in 2020, when the Netflix series that would later dramatize it was still two years away. At roughly twenty minutes, “Family terrorized by STALKER | True story of ‘The Watcher'” is his signature format: a campfire retelling with a creeping dread that earned it 3.5 million views. This is our review.
At a Glance
| Detail | What to Know |
|---|---|
| Video | “Family terrorized by STALKER | True story of ‘The Watcher'” |
| Channel | MrBallen (11.3M+ subscribers) |
| Published | June 9, 2020 |
| Length | ~20 minutes |
| Views | 3.5M+ |
| Subject | Stalking case; the anonymous “Watcher” letters sent to a New Jersey family in 2014 |
What the Video Covers
The video walks through the facts as they were known in 2020: the Broaddus family buys 657 Boulevard, the letters begin arriving before they move in, and the contents — quoted directly in the video — read like something from a horror screenplay. The writer claims to have been put “in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming,” references the grandfather who watched the house in the 1920s, and asks, again and again, about the children.
MrBallen traces the fallout: the police investigation that briefly focused on the longtime neighbors next door and found nothing; DNA recovered from an envelope that suggested the sender may have been a woman but matched no one; the family’s decision never to move into the house; the 2019 sale of the property at a roughly $400,000 loss. And the ending that isn’t one — the letters were never traced to anyone.
Strengths
The restraint. This is a case that begs for tabloid treatment — a haunted house, anonymous letters, a terrified family. MrBallen keeps it grounded. The facts carry the dread on their own, and he lets the actual quoted letters do the unsettling work instead of embellishing them.
The structure. He opens with the letters, then rewinds to the purchase, then moves forward through the investigation. You understand the chronology without ever getting lost, which matters because the case itself is a sprawling, six-year mess of police work, lawsuits, and dead ends.
It respects the victims. The Broadduses never moved into their house. They never asked for any of this. The video treats them as people, not as content — and never speculates about who did it, even though the comment section always does.
Weaknesses
Light on sourcing. True crime storytelling this polished can feel like gospel. The video doesn’t show its work the way a documentary would — if you want the full reporting (New York Magazine’s 2018 piece, court documents from the dismissed lawsuit), you will need to look beyond the video.
Some details have aged. Published in 2020, the video predates the 2022 Netflix series that turned the case into a cultural phenomenon. Newer coverage layers in two more years of fallout. Still, the core facts have not changed — because the case itself hasn’t moved.
No resolution, by nature. Not a flaw of the video, but worth knowing: if you need a solved mystery, this is not it. The Watcher has never been identified, and the video can’t give you what the investigation couldn’t.
Who Should Watch
- Unsolved mystery fans — this is one of the great genuinely-unsolved stalking cases of the last decade.
- MrBallen viewers — this is him at his best: a tight twenty minutes, no filler, maximum dread.
- The Watcher viewers — watched the Netflix series? This is the real case underneath it, minus the dramatization.
- True crime newcomers — no gore, no graphic detail, just one of the most unsettling “what would you do” scenarios in the genre.
Verdict: 8/10 ★★★★★★★★★★
The perfect entry point to one of true crime’s great unsolved mysteries — tightly told, genuinely unsettling, and respectful of the family at its center. Watch it before the Netflix version so the real case hits first.
Source: MrBallen on YouTube; case facts via Wikipedia’s “The Watcher of Westfield, New Jersey,” Oxygen, and reporting from New York Magazine and The Cut.