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E050: The Watcher
1.8k Plays5 years ago
The Broaddus family found their dream home; then the dream morphed into a nightmare.
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Starting a Podcast: Challenges and Support
00:00:00
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Sleuthhounds, have you ever considered creating your own podcast? Have you been inspired by listening to some of your favorites and thought, I'd love to try this out on my own? Whether it's a true crime podcast like ours, a motivational podcast, or maybe one filled with tips and strategies for those interested in the same activities you are,
00:00:22
Speaker
When Maggie and I first decided to start our podcast, we knew absolutely nothing about what podcasting would entail. But when we found the platform Buzzsprout was one for which we didn't really need any special equipment, just a computer microphone, some quiet space, and each other, we knew this was the way to go.
00:00:44
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It is intuitive to use, fun to play around with, and so helpful in getting analytical data about our number of downloads to track trends and from where our listeners hail. Best yet, Bussprout is affordable, even by our teacher salary standards.
Listener Engagement and Incentives
00:01:03
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Bussprout will get your podcast listed on every major podcasting platform. So what are you waiting for?
00:01:10
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Fulfill that dream of yours and start today. If you use our Coffee & Cases referral code, 709643, which will be linked on Facebook and in our show notes, not only will you help support our show, but you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card after your second month on a paid plan. It's that easy. Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners.
00:01:39
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Join over a hundred thousand podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. Now it's time for the world to hear what you have to say.
Why Are We Drawn to Horror?
00:01:49
Speaker
This is the season of scares. The time of year when children likely look forward to the treats and adults to the tricks.
00:02:01
Speaker
Whether we indulge our deepest fears through horror films or through haunted houses, Americans spent a whopping $178 million last year to be scared out of our wits in the Halloween season.
00:02:19
Speaker
There's something in horror that appeals to all of us, whether we want to admit it or not. It's why you listen to this podcast. It's why when we see a motor vehicle accident on the side of the road, we crane our necks to get a good look. Even if, and especially when we see an ambulance,
00:02:39
Speaker
It's the attraction of repulsion. In one and the same instant, we want to see, but we also know that if we do see something, it might scar us.
Stephen King's Insights on Horror's Appeal
00:02:52
Speaker
The same principle applies when you peek through your fingers during a particularly scary scene in a film.
00:02:59
Speaker
Stephen King, arguably the king of horror, in an essay entitled, Why We Crave Horror Movies, argued that we enjoy horror because deep down, those violent, vengeful emotions at the root of most horror are still within us, just covered up with a civilized facade by the continual recognition that those emotions must be suppressed.
00:03:27
Speaker
that good people don't act on those impulses. But that doesn't negate the fact that they're still there. And horror movies allow us to recognize those emotions without acting on them ourselves. He argues the following, quote, the mythic horror movie, like the sick joke, has a dirty job to do. It deliberately appeals to all that is worst in us.
00:03:55
Speaker
It is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized, and it all happens, fittingly enough, in the dark. He continued with his view of the most dark and worry films as, quote, lifting a trap door in the civilized forebrain,
00:04:19
Speaker
and throwing a basket of raw meat to the hungry alligators swimming around in that subterranean river beneath. Why bother? Because it keeps them from getting out, man. It keeps them down there and me up here. It was Lennon and McCartney who said that all you need is love, and I would agree with that as long as you keep the gators fed, end quote.
The Fear of Evil: The Broaddus Family's Story Begins
00:04:48
Speaker
The recurring thing I see, Sleuthhounds, is that we don't mind so much the acknowledging of darkness, violence, and horror in those hungry alligators deep in our minds, so long as they stay buried. But what happens when evil doesn't stay buried? What happens when it looks you right in the eye? Or when it speaks to you? Would you listen and respond?
00:05:18
Speaker
or would you run? And what if that presence were entrapped in the very place where you should find comfort and safety? Your home. These are the very questions the Broaddus family had to face when in June 2014, they thought they had just purchased their forever home at 657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey.
00:05:47
Speaker
This is the story of The Watcher.
Introduction to Coffee and Cases Podcast
00:06:23
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement.
00:06:39
Speaker
so justice and closure can be brought to these families. With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because, as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
Encouraging Audience Participation
00:07:00
Speaker
Guys, we are so close, so close we can taste it. Allison and I are up to 137 ratings on Apple Podcasts. That means we're only 13 ratings away from a bonus episode and 13 ratings away from you not having to hear us beg one more time to take a moment to rate the show.
00:07:23
Speaker
So for those of you that are new to the podcast quite some time ago, Allison and I set a very lofty goal of 150 ratings on Apple Podcasts. We knew it was going to take a while, it wasn't going to be easy, but we also had faith in our listeners to get us there and we're finally in the home stretch. In this Halloween season, please treat us by sharing our podcast with
00:07:49
Speaker
by sharing our podcast with at least two people. And if you haven't taken a second to rate the show, please do so. If you have a few seconds longer, also leave us a few words to tell us what you like most about the podcast. When we get to that 150 ratings, we'll announce that we're going to do another bonus episode.
00:08:09
Speaker
So just make sure that you follow us on social media, Coffee and Case's podcast on Facebook, or at Coffee Case's podcast on Instagram, or as always, listening each week to know when that bonus episode will air.
Dream Homes and Horror Potential
00:08:22
Speaker
Okay, Allison, I think I might be ready for today's show. Maybe.
00:08:28
Speaker
Okay, before we start our show today, Maggie, I want you to picture your dream home. If money is no object, your forever home, what would it look like? Okay, I am picturing like a snow white cottage except bigger, like in the woods near a lake.
00:08:59
Speaker
Okay, so would you have like lots of rooms? Yeah, lots of rooms, lots of land, or lots of room on the beach. But lots of room either way. Yeah, because I gotta spread out and get away from like my 7,000 animals every once in a while. Oh, true. They could each have a room. Yeah, exactly. Would you have a library in it?
00:09:24
Speaker
Yeah, 100% for sure. I'm slowly turning the extra bedroom that we have in our house into a library. Love that. How about closet space? Yeah, that's a must because I don't like clutter and so I'd want to have places where I can hide things. A big laundry room where I can put all my dirty clothes if I need to and shut the door when I'm over so they don't know how messy I can be.
00:09:54
Speaker
This is why I could never do like an open floor plan because then everybody sees everything. I need like to put all of my crap in and close the door. Yes we looked at a couple of open concept places but I like the house we got because if somebody's just like dropping something off at my front door you can't see like my whole house. You just see like
00:10:19
Speaker
my little entryway and I like that because my kitchen could be a mess and they wouldn't know.
00:10:25
Speaker
Now, do you like older homes too? Like those big opulent houses that are, you know, historic? Yeah, I love those. Like when we're driving through like downtown, I love all of like the old houses, like the Victorian type homes. Right. Okay. So you like the Victorian homes, lots of rooms, a library, lots of closets, things kind of closed off for privacy, somewhere remote with plenty of land.
00:10:55
Speaker
Yeah, I need to win the lottery. Well, I'm gonna point something out that I never really thought about until I was doing this episode. Oh, God. I am asking these specific questions for a particular purpose.
00:11:13
Speaker
because, well, you know, it's Halloween season. So I started thinking because your dream home is exactly what mine is as well. And then I realized how many of those same attributes that you, me, so many of us admire and long for in a dream home are the same attributes that can turn horrific, that become terrifying in a haunted house.
The Psychology of Haunted Houses
00:11:41
Speaker
Yeah Anthony is like really weird about because we looked at like a couple really old houses that needed like we basically would have had to redo the inside and he was like I can't live here there's probably ghosts here. Well listen maybe Anthony's right because I read an article that was called A Psychologist Explains Why Haunted Houses Terrify Us. The guy's name was Frank T. McAndrew
00:12:06
Speaker
And he outlined what triggers that subconscious dread like in a haunted house. And it is that the house is isolated because it means it's removed from society and safety that you can find in close neighbors with all the rooms in the closet. So yes, there are plenty of places for you to hide, but there's also now plenty of places for some danger to be hidden.
00:12:29
Speaker
Oh okay, way across my dreams. Right, and the biggest thing though is that these houses lack, and I've never heard this term before until I read this in that McAndrew article, something that environmental scientists called legibility.
00:12:46
Speaker
And I started thinking about, well, legible handwriting means I could read it easily. It's easily understood. And the same kind of applies to a home. A home with legibility means the floor plan is in an organized pattern. So there's like a natural flow to the home so that it would be hard to get lost in it.
00:13:08
Speaker
Like it's more like an open floor plan, but older opulent homes with plenty of rooms lack that. Like it's easy to get turned around, which means it's easy to get trapped.
00:13:22
Speaker
What is that horror movie? It's a Stephen King, I'm pretty sure novel, but it's like based on a true story that the house in the novel or the movie, it grows. Like in real life, they just kept like adding rooms to it because there was like some superstition that this man had. And so he kept adding rooms. Oh, no, no, no. I know what you're thinking of.
The Broaddus Family Moves to Westfield
00:13:44
Speaker
You are thinking of the Winchester House, because, and that's real. The widow of, I don't know his first name, but the Winchester, the guy who created the Winchester rifle, she thought that all of the people who had been killed by these guns that had been created were gonna come and haunt her. And so she would build like staircases that went up into the ceiling and doors- Or doors that opened nowhere. Yeah, there was like a wall behind it.
00:14:14
Speaker
I'm pretty sure though that Stephen King kind of did a spoof off that and there's also like a horror movie but the house like grows or something. It's like one of Anthony's favorite horror movies but I can't remember but if y'all know what I'm talking about let us know because I can't remember. But yeah I mean that makes sense like it's scary to get turned around and not know where you are. Yeah
00:14:36
Speaker
And I feel like kind of basic requirement for a haunted house is the age of the home. It needs to be older. So basically what I'm saying is that your dream home and mine, well, now I'm worried that we are likely making poor decisions because I mean, I don't mind talking about mysteries and dangers, but I don't want to be part of them.
00:14:58
Speaker
Oh no, no, no, no. Maybe we should change our dream home. My dream home is a three-bedroom house in a crowded subdivision of a floor plan. No closet trap. No closet space. Well, I bring this up because the concept of a dream home in a haunted house come to a head in our case this week. So let me tell you how.
00:15:28
Speaker
Derek and Maria Broadus had been desperate to try to get back to the town in which Maria had grown up, Westfield, New Jersey.
00:15:39
Speaker
I'm gonna be upfront that one of the reasons this week's story struck me as so terrifying is that Westfield and the specific address where this story takes place is not even seven miles from where I taught high school in South Plainfield when I lived in New Jersey. Were you there when this happened? No, I was already back in Kentucky. Okay, I see. And no minute was that close.
00:16:08
Speaker
That's seven miles, it's like seven miles, not even. Well, the town in our story this week, Westfield, New Jersey, is also only about 16 miles southwest of Manhattan. And it was called by the New York Times, quote, the place where small town meets urban.
00:16:31
Speaker
because it was this small, quaint, affluent town that was surrounded by train tracks taking anyone and everyone into the bustling mega center of New York City.
00:16:41
Speaker
So I feel like this is another just lesson to take away from just like life. Don't live in a town that is like given some type of award about being like the country's safest town or the country's most beautiful place to live because that's like the Bard town. Bard sounds like one of the most beautiful places to live or whatever it was voted and they had like five murders within like
00:17:05
Speaker
X amount of years. Right. And this was, I forget what number it was, but it was considered one of the safest towns. So I know. So you're right. Spot on. And this street, the boulevard in particular, was a sought after neighborhood street in general and even more so for Maria because her childhood home was only a few blocks away.
00:17:30
Speaker
Oh, that's nice. I know. This was like the ideal place for her. Small town, train right away from the city, right around the corner from where she grew up and close to grandparents. Perfect place to raise their three children.
00:17:46
Speaker
Yeah, sounds amazing. Yeah. And Derek, her husband, had worked incredibly hard to get them there. Living in and affording a house on Boulevard was no small feat.
00:18:01
Speaker
657 Boulevard had hit the market with an astounding $1.3 million price tag. Wow. Yeah. So this is like not in the range for everybody. Not for me. Not for me either. Not even if I saved my whole life. Yeah.
00:18:19
Speaker
Well, Derek himself, he had not grown up in the lifestyle of the wealthy. He had wanted to provide that life though, or the best life he could for his children. He was actually born in Maine to a working class family, but he had, according to an article in The Cut by Reeves Weideman at age 40, which is still pretty young.
00:18:41
Speaker
Mm-hmm worked his way up the corporate ladder to become senior vice president at a Manhattan insurance company Wow Yeah, it was that job that had allowed him to purchase his home for his growing family as you can imagine Maria and the kids ages 5 8 and 10 were ecstatic and
00:19:05
Speaker
They met some of their neighbors and chatted with them a bit when they came to look at the house. They walked around. Are you ready for this? The 3,920 square foot six bedroom home.
00:19:21
Speaker
Wow, my mouth is like wide open. I'm like 10 families could live there. Yeah. How do you keep your house that big clean? You'd have to hire somebody. There's no way. Well, if you got a $1.3 million home, you can probably afford to hire someone to clean your house. You could. And so they walked around the home. It was an old colonial home. And here's how it was described on Zillow.
00:19:47
Speaker
It was described as having, quote, period features, including high ceilings, elegant foyers, built in window seats, fireplaces and more. The stunning master suite boasts a custom dressing room and closet and a renovated bath.
00:20:05
Speaker
Two porches, a covered open front porch and an enclosed side sun porch that was 27 by 11 with stone fireplace add to the inviting appeal. An open staircase leads to the third floor with sitting area, two bedrooms and renovated bath with skylight. A finished playroom is located in the basement." End quote.
00:20:31
Speaker
Okay, yeah, let's go ahead. It's on the contract. This is my house. Yeah, I'll figure out when the lottery and the whole building went. And this was so cute, but several of the sources that I read even noted that the first argument that the three children had when they visited the home wasn't which bedroom was going to belong to which one, but which fireplace Santa would likely come down.
00:20:56
Speaker
Okay, that's first world problems right there. I know, I think it's good to know. But this was a place where their future looked bright, right? I mean, they're thinking, this is it for us. But this was also the place where that feeling turned to fear only three days after closing on the home.
The Watcher's First Letter
00:21:23
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah. So when they bought the house, there were still, which I can't imagine spending 1.3 million and then having money left over to do renovations. But there were a few renovations that Derek and Maria wanted to do before they moved in. And I totally understand wanting to do renovations before you move in because number one, this is an older home.
00:21:45
Speaker
Right? And number two, they say that if you don't do renovations before you move in, that you rarely end up doing them at all. True that. I can attest to that in my last house.
00:21:56
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, will you just get too bogged down with everything that you need to do or else you convince yourself that it's not that pressing, right? Like it can wait, we've waited this long. Or I'm not gonna move all of my furniture to change the floors in here, it's fine. Right, I'll deal. Yeah. So I understand this desire to, you know, wanna go ahead and get started on those renovations right away that they had in mind, but someone or something wasn't happy.
00:22:25
Speaker
with the renovations. After working all day with contractors detailing what he and his wife wanted completed, Derek Broadus went to the mailbox at 10 PM. Remember, this is three days after they closed.
00:22:42
Speaker
Okay. Finally, check the mail. Now Maggie, you recently moved, so you know that you aren't likely to have any junk mail yet, luckily, but maybe like a bill or two from where you had electricity or water or garbage or something switched over into your name. Correct. Unless you move like right now and then you're going to have 7,000 political ads in your books. Yes, true.
00:23:06
Speaker
Well, sure enough, Derek brought us, when he checked the mail, he had a couple of bills, but there was also a white envelope in there and it was the size of like a small note card. And I'm sure he thought, oh, that's sweet. Like this has to be from a neighbor welcoming us, you know, to the neighborhood because it had written on the outside in these like thick letters to the new homeowner. And I'm sure Derek likely smiled because he thought, oh my gosh, how kind is this?
00:23:36
Speaker
So that did happen to Anthony and I. Did it? Yeah, like the first week we were here, I went to check the mail and we had an envelope that said, um, welcome to your new home. And it was like the people that live beside of us gave us like a $20 Lowe's gift card and like just welcomed us to like the neighborhood and just introduced themselves to stuff. It was very nice. Well, I'm glad yours ended nicely.
00:24:04
Speaker
Because I can imagine that Derek brought us a smile, slowly faded, and his eyes probably grew wide with panic as he read the content of this typed letter. And it was typed in like that cursive font. And here's what it read, quote,
00:24:27
Speaker
Dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard, allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood. How did you end up here? Did 657 Boulevard call to you with its force within?
00:24:42
Speaker
657 Boulevard has been the subject of my family for decades now. And as it approaches its 110th birthday, I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming. My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched in the 1960s. It's now my time. Do you know the history of the house?
00:25:10
Speaker
Do you know what lies within the walls of 657 Boulevard? Why are you here? I will find out."
00:25:23
Speaker
Well, if you're not, if you're already out, wait till you hear how it continues. So the letter then identified the Honda minivan that the Broadus has owned as well as the renovations already taking place in the home. Aw. Woke. I see already that you have flooded 657 Boulevard with contractors so that you can destroy the house as it was supposed to be.
00:25:51
Speaker
Tsk tsk tsk. Bad move. You don't want to make 657 Boulevard unhappy. Oh y'all I have chills. You just wait. The rider also seemed to know that the broadest family had spoken with neighbors. Remember when they came by and they spoke with the neighbors and had seen their children.
00:26:18
Speaker
because here is how the letter ended. Quote, you have children. I've seen them. So far, I think there are three that I've counted. Are there more on the way? Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested? Better for me.
00:26:39
Speaker
Was your old house too small for the growing family? Or was it greed to bring me your children? Once I know their names, I will call to them and draw them to me. Who am I? There are hundreds and hundreds of cars that drive by 657 Boulevard each day. Maybe I'm in one. Look at all the windows you can see from 657 Boulevard.
00:27:09
Speaker
Maybe I am in one. Look out any of the many windows in 657 Boulevard at all the people who stroll by each day. Maybe I am one. Welcome, my friends. Welcome. Let the party begin. And it was signed, The Watcher.
00:27:32
Speaker
Listen, I'll be going into my wife and be like, don't even unpack those boxes. Like, this place is going back on the market. We're up out of here. Right. This is three days after closing. No. And so, I mean, he's checking in at 10 o'clock at night. So I'm sure it being dark outside. I mean, it didn't make the content of the letter settle any easier. No, I hate being outside after dark. I run. Oh. Take garbage out. I run. Right. Check it out. I run. I know.
00:28:03
Speaker
And Derek, you know, he's alone now because the contractors had long since left for the day. And according to that Weideman article in The Cut, Derek, quote, raced around the house turning off lights so no one could see inside and then called the Westfield Police Department, end quote.
00:28:22
Speaker
Which I mean, I'm turning on every single light because I would be scared somebody's nodding in the shadows. That's true. And I guess I'm torn on that because if if it's a new house, it doesn't have blinds or curtains or anything like that up in it.
00:28:36
Speaker
I would be freaking out. I know. I don't know if I would turn all the lights off so I could hide or if I would turn them all on, but then anyone outside can see in and you can't see out. That's true. Ooh, God, it's like a Michael Myers movie. I know. And I do like him running around and then calling the police department. That's exactly what any sane person would do. I would add crying because I would be crying and praying.
00:29:02
Speaker
Yeah, me too. I really love those things. And when the officer arrived, Derek brought a show the officer the letter and the policeman then proceeded to ask if Derek had any enemies, which I mean, again, obviously thinking the logical response, somebody dislikes Derek or the family enough that they're trying to scare them and maybe trying to make it seem like they don't know much about the family. But, you know, since this is a threatening letter,
00:29:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's creepy. Yeah, it's not concrete threats, but it's like ominous It's almost like the house is making him like the letter came from the house, right? And I mean that comment. I will call your children to me when your names Sounds like anyways, yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like well
00:29:55
Speaker
Later that night when Derek got back home to his wife that evening, because remember they hadn't moved in yet because of the renovations, he told her about the letter.
Uncovering the Threat: Seeking Help
00:30:05
Speaker
Understandably, while they kept their children in the dark about the letters, right, I think that's a good move, they were shaken. They decided to email the previous owners of 657 Boulevard, John and Andrea Woods,
00:30:20
Speaker
to see if they had ever received such a letter. Is this something new? Did you guys get these? Or do you know possibly who the watcher could be? Is there a neighbor who didn't want us to move in? Was there a disgruntled buyer who lost out on the property and maybe they're trying to scare us away? Those are logical questions.
00:30:43
Speaker
Yeah, so side note, my cat just jumped over the baby gate in my house and I just saw like a flash of gray and nearly peed my pants just so you had snow. So when they sent this email, I'm sure they were, I don't know what kind of response they were hoping to get. I don't know if it would make me feel better to know like, okay, I'm not the only one who's gotten these letters or no, this is just me.
00:31:12
Speaker
But the next morning they did receive an answer and Andrea Woods told them that she, her husband and her children had lived happily at 657 Boulevard for 23 years without incident.
00:31:27
Speaker
She did say, though, that merely a couple of days before moving out, they had received a letter that contained information in a similar fashion. So it was a letter where the writer said that his or her family had been watching the house for generations and thanked them for taking such good care of the house.
00:31:49
Speaker
But she noted that while she thought the note was odd, she wasn't threatened by it, and she had simply thrown it away and not thought anything else of it.
00:32:03
Speaker
The good news is that now that she became aware that the same rider had contacted the new owners and with comments that were much more menacing, Mrs. Woods actually went with Maria Broadus to the police station to file a report.
00:32:23
Speaker
The two women spoke with Detective Leonard Lugo and he made plans on how to proceed with the investigation. Most important was that neither family, the Woods or the Bratuses, make known to anyone else in the neighborhood about the letters because the neighbors are the primary suspects. Right.
00:32:46
Speaker
But when heavy signs that had been hammered into the front yard by the contractor were starting to be ripped out of the ground by the next day, even knowing that police were on the case did little to calm their fears and misgivings.
00:33:05
Speaker
When the broadest family was invited to a neighborhood get-together to welcome them and another family to the neighborhood, I'm sure those fears were on high alert. I mean, I can only imagine. I would be reading so far into every look
00:33:21
Speaker
every comment being made, you know, and every time the three broadest children would wander too far away, like just out of eyeshot of Maria, she would, you know, yell for them to come back, like beckoning them to come back close to her because that's the only way she could protect them.
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah, I don't blame her for that. When I was younger and I would see people that had their kids with those backpacks that had the leash things attached to them, I was like, that's crazy. I would never do that to my kid. And then after we started doing this, I'm like, I'm going to super glue my kid to the side of me. You're going nowhere. Yeah, you will go nowhere.
00:34:01
Speaker
And I'm sure the kids, I mean, they were probably annoyed by it because kids are. They want to have their freedom. They don't want to have it taken away. They weren't able to like roam around and make friends and explore. But the broadest kids didn't know what was going on because... Yeah, they couldn't tell them. You're absolutely right. That's far too terrifying to let them know.
00:34:22
Speaker
and in hindsight Maria recalls continually yelling for her kids and she noted quote people must have thought we were crazy end quote but if they had only known why and I see like other you know
00:34:38
Speaker
people in the neighborhood who aren't guilty. And they're like, man, why does this woman keep yelling at her kids when they're like, she's a helicopter mom. Exactly. She's taking it a bit too far. But at the barbecue welcoming party, Derek, meanwhile, was searching for clues and he actually thought he might've solved the case himself. Derek was speaking with his neighbor from two doors down who told him about a particular family in the neighborhood.
00:35:09
Speaker
The matriarch of the family was in her nineties and she lived with several of her adult children who were all in their sixties. And while the neighbor told Derek that the family was quote, harmless, but odd, he specifically mentioned a son who the neighbor called a boo Radley type.
00:35:32
Speaker
implying for those listeners out there who have not enjoyed reading To Kill a Mockingbird that he was a recluse. He didn't like to be around people, usually only came out at night, and he was someone who, because of that invisibility, was often the scapegoat for fears and superstition.
00:35:51
Speaker
And in our world today, unfortunately, those who are not vocal or visible are often the scapegoats for problems and fears. And this gentleman, for Derek Broadus, seemed the likely culprit. Well, that's kind of sad. Just because you, like, he keeps to himself, you're going to automatically assume that's the dude that put the creepy litter in your mailbox. You've never even said hello to him. Right.
00:36:19
Speaker
And I will say though, to be fair, the theory seemed to fit. The family had been living there for decades, long enough for a grandfather and a father to have quote, watched the house as well, like the letter mentioned. It would have been someone who knew the broadesses or knew the neighborhood because the first letter that they received was postmarked
00:36:49
Speaker
on June 4th and that was before the sale was public.
00:36:56
Speaker
So when the woods sold their home, they didn't put a for sale sign up in the yard. And it was not public knowledge yet that the broadesses had purchased the house. So it had to be somebody who knew the broadesses, knew the woods or somebody who lived in this neighborhood and had heard. So are we saying like that the letter that the woods received was postmarked June 4th or the letter the broadest family got was June 4th?
00:37:25
Speaker
No, the letter the broadest family got was changed. And at least that was some kind of a lead, right? Because then it narrows it down a little bit. But then for the next two weeks, nothing. And there had to have been some kind of relief, like thinking, okay, well surely the police questioning people had scared whoever this was into stopping. Yeah, or maybe it was like a prank or something like that. Right.
00:37:55
Speaker
but then another letter came on June 18th, 2014. This time when Maria was visiting the new home to look at and choose between some paint samples and to check the mail. Again, there was a small white note card. Again, there was no return address, but this time the broadesses were named specifically.
00:38:23
Speaker
though their name was misspelled as Braddus. So they'd obviously heard it at least. The content though Maggie, as hard as this is to believe, was even more terrifying than the previous one had been. I'm gonna get ready to have nightmares tonight. I know. Here is the content of the second letter.
The Watcher's Increased Threats
00:38:50
Speaker
Quote,
00:38:51
Speaker
Welcome again to your new home at 657 Boulevard. The workers have been busy and I've been watching you unload carfuls of your personal belongings. The dumpster is a nice touch. Have they found what is in the walls yet? Oh, yes.
00:39:12
Speaker
in time they will." Then the Watcher named all three of their children from oldest to youngest by their nicknames, which were the names that Derek and Maria had called for them at the barbecue when they wandered too far away.
00:39:32
Speaker
Oh, no. The letter noted, quote, I am pleased to know your names now and the names of the young blood you have brought to me. You certainly say their names often. End quote. Oh, OK. Great. Yes.
00:39:52
Speaker
Then, the Watcher noted seeing one of the three children painting. They had set up an easel in that enclosed side porch and they had allowed her to sit out there and paint. The Watcher wrote, quote, is she the artist in the family? Before continuing on back into his commentary linked to the house itself, quote,
00:40:19
Speaker
657 Boulevard is anxious for you to move in. It's been years and years since the Young Blood ruled the hallways of the house. Have you found all of the secrets it holds yet? Will the Young Blood play in the basement? Or are they too afraid to go down there alone?
00:40:41
Speaker
I would be very afraid if I were them. It's far away from the rest of the house. If you were upstairs, you would never hear them scream. Will they sleep in the attic? Or will you all sleep on the second floor? Who has the bedrooms facing the street? I'll know as soon as you move in. It will help me to know who is in which bedroom. Then I can plan better.
00:41:10
Speaker
All of the windows and doors in 657 Boulevard allow me to watch you and track you as you move through the house. Who am I? I'm the Watcher. And I've been in control of 657 Boulevard for the better part of two decades now. The Woods family turned it over to you. It was their time to move on and kindly sold it when I asked them to.
00:41:37
Speaker
I pass by many times a day. 657 Boulevard is my job, my life, my obsession. And now, you are too, Brad's family. Welcome to the product of your greed. Greed is what brought the past three families to 657 Boulevard, and now it has brought you to me. Have a happy moving in day. You know I'll be watching.
00:42:06
Speaker
holy crap yeah i'm telling you when i read the the basement guess you'll never hear them scream
00:42:18
Speaker
And like, so, okay, the Woods family, were they young children when they lived there? Or were they like, teens? No, they're older when the Woods move out. So they had to have been young when the Woods moved in because they lived there for like 23 years. So maybe they just, this watcher just does not like this Bratus family. I mean, there is an awful lot of talk of like greed. Yeah.
00:42:46
Speaker
I mean, it really sounds to me like a spirit. Like. I know. Well, that's one theory and we're going to talk. Well, I'll mention it briefly, but that is one theory that like, is it the house itself? So it's creepy. I know. And well, as you just said you would, and I would be too, Derek and Maria began to question if they should even move in. Yeah, I wouldn't have been moving in.
00:43:14
Speaker
And I mean, this was supposed to be a town like Mayberry, a place where people look out for one another, where you could leave your doors unlocked. Well, there's no chance of that now. Well, people apparently do watch out for each other or they at least watch each other. That's true. They're watching a little too closely. Yeah.
00:43:33
Speaker
After showing Detective Lugo the second letter, which mentioned their children by name, as well as threats of not being able to hear them scream, combined with the fact that the side porch where the easel had been set up was hidden from the road by foliage,
00:43:52
Speaker
the parents began to feel that they should stop bringing their children to the new home, which is a step they did end up taking, right? Because I would do, I'd be like, well, my kids aren't coming with me the next time I come to this house. And it made law enforcement believe that the rider must be a neighbor, like on the backside or the side where the side porch would be visible. Because remember, it's not visible from the road. I mean, it's either that or someone is sneaking into their backyard and hiding.
00:44:21
Speaker
taking in all these details. Okay, either way, creepy, scary. Derek became even more convinced that the writer was the Boo Radley character mentioned at the barbecue, especially because this letter said that the watcher had been watching the house for the better part of two decades, right? Like he'd been responsible, or he had been responsible for the better part of two decades.
00:44:48
Speaker
And the patriarch of that family, the one that Derek is questioning, had passed away 12 years earlier. But Detective Lugo did question this gentleman, and his name is in a bunch of articles, but again, I don't like to name people if they're not name assistants.
00:45:10
Speaker
So Detective Lugo did question him and according to the broadest family they state that Detective Lugo told them that while the gentleman denied any knowledge of the letters that there were things in his answers that matched some of the content. Now whether that matching is just that he lost his father
00:45:31
Speaker
you know, over a decade ago. So it's the second decade. Yeah. Or you could have just heard like people talking about the new people in town and like new, they had three kids or whatever. Right. And so I feel like he couldn't have said anything that was specifically linking him to the letters because detective Lugo let him go saying that there wasn't any hard evidence to prove he's the one who sent them. Gotcha.
00:45:56
Speaker
But Derek was enraged by that because, I mean, after all, his kids had been directly threatened. And, I mean, it's one thing to threaten adults, but to make veiled threats about children. Yeah. And after time passing again, they were told, the broadest family was that, quote, probably nothing will come of it.
00:46:21
Speaker
Oh, that's lovely. I know. That made Derek furious. And Maggie, you and I both know we would not take probably as enough security that nothing is going to happen to our children. No, definitely not. Absolutely not. But with Derek's anger came obsession.
00:46:41
Speaker
You know, like if the police aren't going to do anything about it, I will. Oh, I would have cameras like in every inch of my house and I would be able to see every inch of the outside of my house. Yep. Well, what he did, he would stay the night in the home hidden, crouching in the darkness, not sleeping, observing like the outside world in an attempt to catch the watcher in the act.
00:47:05
Speaker
He calculated and drew maps of when different neighbors had moved in or moved out. He drew circles on the map to indicate the distance from where someone could have seen the easel and then circles of like earshot where they might have heard him or Maria call to the children.
The Private Investigation Begins
00:47:24
Speaker
He called investigators to run background checks on people in the neighborhood. He hired other people to keep watch.
00:47:32
Speaker
And this house had taken its hold on Derek. Yeah, it's like this is really just kind of creeping me out. This is supernatural for sure. Carry on. Because it is like this house is like holding him in this fear-stricken state, like paralyzed inability to make the danger stop.
00:47:53
Speaker
Derek even hired a former FBI agent to analyze the letters. And there were some indications, and this might make you think even more the supernatural, there were some indications that the person who had written them was older.
00:48:11
Speaker
For example, each letter would indicate the weather, like quote, cool for a summer day. And then when I was in college, my grandma would write me letters sometimes and she would always include details like that. Like she would say, it's nice and warm outside for November. You know, and she, it's like an older generation thing.
00:48:35
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And the letter was addressed to M slash M Braddus. Now obviously they're the broadest family, but that M slash M instead of Mr. and Mrs.
00:48:50
Speaker
I had never seen that salutation and so I didn't know if it was something that was like concentrated in one region of the US or if it was more of an international salutation or one that older people might use. I'd never seen it before but this FBI agent said that indicated an older writer.
00:49:15
Speaker
I couldn't find any information about its roots, but the other indication of an older writer was two spaces after a period.
00:49:28
Speaker
you know, other than like, if you're writing an APA format, which is the only reason that I could think of that you would do it, you don't like you said Maggie, you don't use two spaces. And so the FBI was thinking, well, you know, that dates back to when people would you type on typewriters, you would add two spaces, that was the standard. And when I was searching for more information about the two spaces, there was even an article that was titled, quote,
00:49:54
Speaker
Nothing says over 40, like two spaces after a period. And I was like, okay then. Gotcha. And the FBI agent also noted the lack of profanity that was contrasted with the hatred that was seething through the letters. And to me, I mean, I guess I get why that made them think older.
00:50:21
Speaker
But I don't know if for me that necessarily indicates an older person, more so for me, and okay, I realize that what I'm about to say is definitely generalized and stereotypical, but it makes me think the writer in my eyes is more likely female.
00:50:42
Speaker
Well, it made me also probably stereotypical, but again, made me think of somebody who is like kind of innocent and wouldn't have that type of vocabulary. Right. I mean, not innocent, like not guilty, but innocent, like not mature. Naive. Yeah. Yeah. But I guess my biggest question is who is the anger directed toward?
00:51:08
Speaker
Like is it the broadest family specifically and who they are? Because they are like new money versus old money. Or is the anger rooted more in just wealth itself? Where they keep talking about greed? So I don't know if they're angry about wealth or they're angry
00:51:26
Speaker
like it's directed towards the family. Because one of the letters also stated, quote, the house is crying from all the pain it is going through. You have changed it and made it so fancy. You're stealing its history. It cries for the past and what it used to be in the time when I roamed its halls.
00:51:51
Speaker
The 1960s were a good time for 657 Boulevard when I ran from room to room, imagining the life with the rich occupants there. The house was full of life and young blood. Then it got old, and so did my father. But he kept watching until the day he died. And now I watch, and wait for the day when the young blood will be mine again."
00:52:19
Speaker
Okay like I'm getting like a very like Mr. Gatsby feel about this house for some reason like I don't know like this is just like something that I feel like we should be reading this in his like English class with her kids this story. It sounds like we're reading fiction like this scary short story and just in time for Halloween. Yeah.
00:52:41
Speaker
You know, and I'm with you. Like some of the comments in that part, it does almost make it sound like it is the house. Like it cries for the past and what it used to be when I roamed its halls. Yeah. And the 1960s were a good time. Like, okay. I don't know. It's just weird. This is strange. And now I wait for the day when the young blood will be mine again. Yeah. It's like, it's like this person or thing is like,
00:53:09
Speaker
That makes me think it's almost always been there. Yeah.
00:53:15
Speaker
The neighbor to the gentleman that I mentioned earlier, he was brought in for questioning again, but he and his family insisted that he was innocent. Derek and Maria, even in conjunction with the police, sent a fake letter to the family in question that contained bogus claims that they were going to tear down the house entirely, thinking that, okay, well, if this guy is the watcher,
00:53:42
Speaker
This would probably prompt another response from him, right, with this. And maybe it would mention information that was contained in that letter, and then we know it's them. But nothing came.
00:53:55
Speaker
And there were other suspects. Remember I told you that Derek hired some investigators and things like that. And they found a couple sex offenders were discovered in the area. There were also neighbors who kept their lawn furniture a bit too close to the broadest fence. And what they thought was weird about it is that the lawn furniture was actually facing the broadest house and not their own home.
00:54:22
Speaker
So basically anything out of the ordinary became like fodder for nightmares. And trust me, the broadesses had nightmares. They had alarm systems put in, just like you suggested, Maggie, in case the writer of these letters decided to become more bold and enter the home.
00:54:44
Speaker
According to the Weideman article, the most comprehensive source of information on this case, and from whom most of my information has come, in addition to some court paperwork that I'll get to in a minute, said that Derek began searching for, and this seems crazy, but I totally get it, military veterans to just work out in the backyard as a deterrent.
00:55:08
Speaker
And he even called for a priest to bless the house. There you go. Yep. In case the threat were otherworldly. And you know, one that wouldn't be scared off by alarms and strong men. Just as large and looming as the physical threat though, were the threats imposed by their own thoughts left unchecked. Would they ever be safe?
00:55:35
Speaker
Could they even leave their children alone in their bedrooms? Would they let their children have friends over? Oh yeah, imagine. Would they constantly have to keep the shades drawn and the lights out so no one could see in? Would they feel comfortable letting their children play outside? Could the children ever visit a neighborhood friend? Like where would the danger stop? Who could they trust? I mean, this is enough to drive you literally insane.
00:56:03
Speaker
Like I'm telling you, I just really don't think I would have been able to move in. I know. The problem Maggie at this point is that Derek and Maria had already sold their old home and they were actually living with Maria's parents while the final renovations were being made and they were already paying the mortgage and other bills on this new house on Boulevard. But then they started questioning like, is that worth it?
00:56:33
Speaker
The financial toll and the psychological one? I mean, the psychological one, I'd say no, nothing is worth that. Then the third letter arrived on July 18, 2014, more erratic still.
Deciding to Sell: The Watcher's Hold
00:56:51
Speaker
It said, quote,
00:56:54
Speaker
657 Boulevard is turning on me. It is coming after me. I don't understand why. What spell did you cast on it? It used to be my friend and now it's my enemy.
00:57:06
Speaker
I am in charge of 657 Boulevard. It is not in charge of me. I will fend off its bad things and wait for it to become good again. It will not punish me. I will rise again. I will be patient and wait for this to pass and for you to bring the young blood back to me.
00:57:25
Speaker
657 Boulevard needs young blood. It needs you. Come back. Let the young blood play again like I once did. Let the young blood sleep in 657 Boulevard. Stop changing it and let it alone." So this to me is just super creepy. It's like the house is like, I don't know, it's like whoever wrote it is like kind of changing and like it sounds like the house is like
00:57:55
Speaker
now kind of after the person that's writing the letter and the letter is like or the letter writer is like no the house is changing and my enemy now it's just weird it's like they're like a ghost or something that's lived there
00:58:08
Speaker
I don't know, it's creeping me out. And they're like good ghosts and bad ghosts both living in it and they're at war with one another. Yeah. But then what's weird is I see the writer as bad, but then they're saying I fend off its bad things. I don't know, it's weird. And then like it needs to, like, it keeps giving you young blood. I'll see, I think.
00:58:31
Speaker
I don't know. It's weird. Like the children are its food. Yeah, that's the part that creeps me out the most. Akisha referring to like young blood. Yeah, who grows? I know.
00:58:44
Speaker
Well, Maggie, you can imagine that was it. I mean, they said the home has to go. It has to be sold. They decided that the safety of the family had to be made a priority over this dream home. And six months after Derek and Maria made the purchase, before they'd even moved in, the home at 657 Boulevard was back on the market. I don't blame them. I don't judge them. I would do the same thing. Oh, absolutely.
00:59:10
Speaker
Initially, and quite hopefully, they listed the home for more than what they had paid because after all, they had done nearly $100,000 worth of renovations.
00:59:24
Speaker
But even then the broadesses were not dishonest. They made a partial disclosure about the letters to those interested in the home and they promised the full letters would be fully disclosed before any offer was accepted because they didn't want other people to be taken aback like they were. I feel like that's only fair and like when you buy a house or you sell a house like I know we had to go through like
00:59:49
Speaker
anything that was wrong with the house, we had to list it, how we repaired it and like all that stuff. So, I mean, I feel like that's a good thing to do on their end, just to kind of cover your behind. Right.
01:00:03
Speaker
And Maggie, let me ask you, if you had seen these letters, would you move in? Oh, no way. No. No way. No. And no one did. There were a couple of offers that were far below the asking price, too far to be taken seriously. And then no response, nothing close to what they needed to even break even. And eventually they, they even lowered the price and there was still no interest.
01:00:34
Speaker
And when the house didn't sell after a whole year on the market, a whole year being empty, you had the broadest family paying the mortgage and the taxes, they decided that they needed to get a little bit more aggressive.
01:00:49
Speaker
They weren't able to sell the home with buyers being forewarned of the watcher. And that's when they realized that they too wouldn't have purchased a home if they had known. And since we already established that the Woods family had also received a letter from the unnamed watcher and had chosen not to disclose that information before the closing on the home, Derek and Maria Broadus decided to sue John and Andrea Woods.
01:01:15
Speaker
I mean, I really don't blame them. Like we just said, neither one of us would have bought the house if we had known about any type of creepy watcher person thing involving the house. Person thing, yeah.
01:01:31
Speaker
And all of this was based on the court documents from the Superior Court of New Jersey Union County. And the claims that the Broaddus family's lawyer made against the Wood family is that they would have known of the Watchers quote nefarious intentions.
01:01:48
Speaker
that the letter received was knowingly concealed in order to procure the sale at the asking price. And they even cited lines in the letters that seemed to implicate the Woods family. Things like, quote, I asked the Woods to bring me young blood, end quote.
01:02:08
Speaker
and quote, the Woods family turned it over to you. It was their time to move on and kindly sold it when I asked them to end quote. So the broadest family asked for a refund of the entire purchase price with interest.
Legal Battle and Continued Threats
01:02:24
Speaker
Wow. Like that does seem, I don't know to say they sold it when I asked them to. Yeah. It does seem kind of like these people, like this person was working like in cohort with the Woods family.
01:02:39
Speaker
It's just weird to me. Right. And then you just, but why? And that's the part that doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Like what would they have to gain? Right.
01:02:50
Speaker
As soon as the lawsuit became public, so did the knowledge of the watcher's letters. Their story was picked up by major news stations and Derek and Maria were forced to tell their children about the horrors associated with at home because otherwise they would hear it everywhere else.
01:03:10
Speaker
Despite all of their work of now being the center of stories of their children knowing the truth, the lawsuit was dismissed and the broadest family was stuck with the bills. Wow. They tried again to put the home on the market in 2016. They compared even, and I thought this was smart, they compare the handwriting of every single person interested in viewing the home with the handwriting on the envelopes.
01:03:41
Speaker
But there was never a match, just as there was never a prospective buyer still interested after reading the letters. That's because the letters were written by spirit. And they're creepy. Yeah. So the Broadus family decided to try a different tactic.
01:03:59
Speaker
they decided to raise the home completely. So like tear it all down and build on that property to separate structures to divide up the land, right? If it is the house, like if the house is
01:04:12
Speaker
Has a spirit in it. Yeah. Let's try to get rid of it. But putting two structures on that property would have to get approval though, because each property would then be roughly two and a half feet shy of the mandated 70 foot lot size. So, I mean, they're close, but they were unanimously denied.
01:04:38
Speaker
despite the fact that another family down the street had been approved for a similar request on lots that would fall even shorter of the mandate than the proposal made by the broadest family. What is this nonsense? I know. It's like everybody's conspiring against them. And it makes you wonder though, was the house in some way like ensuring its own haunting legacy? You know,
01:05:06
Speaker
I just can't get over the fact that these people are paying a mortgage for a $1.3 million home that they can't live in. I cannot imagine. I can't afford that anyway, let alone paying that and having to find someplace else to live. Yeah, exactly.
01:05:22
Speaker
And after that unanimous vote, Maria Broadus responded in an interview with Reeves Weiderman, quote, this is my town. I grew up here. I came back. I chose to raise my kids here.
01:05:37
Speaker
You know what we've been through. You had the ability two and a half years into a nightmare to make it a little better. And you've decided that this house is more important than we are. That's really how it felt, end quote. Yeah, I mean, I can only imagine. I would feel like if that happened to me in the town I grew up in, I would be like, OK, forget you all then, because I see how important my life and my family's life is to you all. Right, over a house? Yeah.
01:06:07
Speaker
Could they not have just tore it down and built like one big house there?
01:06:12
Speaker
I guess they could. I don't know why they, unless they were thinking if it's built on this, like the exact same spot. Oh yeah. Worry the same. And maybe the people of the town did decide that the house was more important or maybe they knew of the very real danger that was lingering in the walls of that house and they didn't want to make it. That's true. Especially if like the people that live there have lived there, like, you know, even some of them generations, they would know like,
01:06:41
Speaker
the stories of the house. Right. And despite bad news at every turn, it seems, the Broaddus family did find someone with grown children who was willing to rent the home while they continued to try and sell it. And they even told the renter that if the letters pick back up again, that the renter could break the lease at any time. Oh, that's nice. Right.
01:07:10
Speaker
Two weeks after the renter moved in, and two and a half years after the first letter, the renter handed Derek something that came in the mail, a white notecard envelope. This final letter, dated February 13th, read this, quote,
01:07:33
Speaker
violent winds and bitter cold, to the vile and spiteful Derek and his wench of a wife, Maria. You wonder who the watcher is? Turn around, idiots. Maybe you even spoke to me, one of the so-called neighbors who has no idea who the watcher could be. Or maybe you do know, and you're too scared to tell anyone. Good move.
01:08:01
Speaker
I walked by the news trucks when I took over my neighborhood and mocked me. I watched as you watched from the dark house in an attempt to find me. Telescopes and binoculars are wonderful inventions. 657 Boulevard survived your attempted assault and stood strong with its army of supporters barricading its gates.
01:08:25
Speaker
My soldiers of the boulevard followed my orders to a T. They carried out their mission and saved the soul of 657 boulevard with my orders. All hail the watcher." End quote. Yo, I'm pretty sure that gave me full body chills when you read that. I'm telling you, this is like
01:08:52
Speaker
I'm certain this is like a spirit in this house and these people that helped or experience these are spirits of other houses in this historic strip of like a road or whatever that are helping protect this house. I'm telling you that is oh this is crazy. I know.
01:09:14
Speaker
And then to end this final letter, it shifted to potential forms of revenge that the watcher might take. Quote, maybe a car accident, maybe a fire, maybe something as simple as a mild illness that never seems to go away, but makes you feel sick day after day after day after day after day.
01:09:43
Speaker
Maybe the mysterious death of a pet. Loved ones suddenly die. Planes and cars and bicycles crash. Bones break. You are despised by the house. And the watcher won. Well, now we know who's responsible for COVID. It was the watcher. Yep. Yep. That was it. Day after day after day.
01:10:08
Speaker
Since renovations halted and the sounds of jackhammers were silenced, indeed the watcher, the house, the fear, did win. So like, is this family? Like, are they okay? Yes.
01:10:28
Speaker
from what I have read, but they are not in the news much and I probably wouldn't want to either because I would be afraid if it is a person that they're gonna find out where I am now and they're gonna come there. Yeah, exactly. No, I would probably be like in the fitness protection program. Yeah, I wouldn't want anybody to know where I was. Well, at least they're alive. Yes. That's a happy ending. That is, that is.
01:10:55
Speaker
657 Boulevard did finally sell in August 2019 to a couple who want to remain anonymous.
The House Sells, The Mystery Remains
01:11:05
Speaker
We don't know if the letters continued, but the legend definitely has. Some speculate that the gentleman in the neighborhood did send the letters, but there's no concrete proof that he had done so.
01:11:20
Speaker
Besides, when some DNA evidence on one of the note cards was analyzed, it belonged to a woman. Maria Broadus was no match. What woman could it be? Or was the DNA there to throw off the investigation? Others believe the Broaduses themselves planted the notes, that they figured out too late that they couldn't afford the home and they were looking for a way to get out of the contract.
01:11:50
Speaker
But with the nearly $400,000 loss the Bratuses finally took on the home, I find that theory hard to believe. Negative publicity in this case is not good publicity. Still others wonder if there were an evil presence within the home.
01:12:10
Speaker
Is that why, quote, all of the windows and doors and 657 Boulevard allow this entity to, quote, watch and track as they, quote, move through the house? Could it be a spirit making reality into a nightmare? We will never know. What we do know from this situation is the palpable nature of fear.
01:12:40
Speaker
and its power to control our actions. When the darkness, the one appealing to us all the time to peek, to know, to see, to avenge, doesn't stay buried, it can make a prisoner of us as it did the broadest family. I guess we know what happens when the alligators Stephen King spoke of don't get fed. They won't starve.
01:13:08
Speaker
They'll just feed on our mental health, our sense of comfort from the inside. When the darkness beckons, how will you respond?
01:13:20
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
01:13:50
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.