Who is The Watcher? These Theories Will Leave You Shook
Content warning: This article contains spoilers for The Watcher and references to stalking and murder that some may find upsetting. Reader discretion is advised.
The Watcher is Netflix's latest hit true crime show that earned an impressive number of views. According to a Netflix press release, the thriller series holds the No. 1 spot on the streamer's Top 10 English TV list and has garnered more than 125 Million hours within the first week of its release. It also made the top 10 in 90 countries.
The Ryan Murphy-produced series is based on the creepy real-life case surrounding the Broaddus family, who received threatening letters from an anonymous source when they attempted to move into their Westfield, New Jersey home in 2014. The show's first season ended on a serious cliffhanger, and the Broaddus' case is still unsolved in real life.
While the family worked with the Westfield police department, the Union County Prosecutor's Office, an ex-FBI profiler, and a private investigator to track down the culprit, very few clues were found. Today reports that The Watcher's true identity "has not been conclusively decided" and The Union County Prosecutor's Office reveals that the Broaddus' case isn't closed, but it also isn't currently active.
This shocking mystery has led true crime fans to put on their thinking caps á la Only Murders in the Building and come up with their own theories as to who the Watcher actually is in real life. Ahead, we lined up some of the most convincing theories that may help track down the identity of the Watcher.
The Watcher may be a woman in the neighborhood
According to The Cut, a DNA analysis found that the envelopes for the letters were allegedly licked shut by a woman. In a 2019 report by CNN, Derek Broaddus confirmed that an FBI profiler he hired had found The Watcher to be someone "in their 50s or 60s" who lived in the area and that the family's surrounding neighbors didn't "seem normal."
While the Broadduses suspected one of their neighbors might be behind the unsettling letters, they were told that additional DNA samples were obtained and did not make a match to the envelopes. To this day, the identity of The Watcher is still unknown.
Is author Robert Kaplow the Watcher?
On the Netflix series, the Brannocks (who are based on the Broadduses, BTW) make a teacher named Roger Kaplan the prime suspect for their extensive investigation after they discover that he encouraged his students to write letters to houses they loved as a homework assignment. Like most of the show, Roger's character is also based on a real-life counterpart — a novelist and retired English teacher named Robert Kaplow.
In real life, Kaplow raised suspicion in a similar fashion to Roger in the seventh episode of The Watcher. His former students told The Cut that he had told a story about a particular house in Westfield and that he had an "obsession with it."
"He had this idea to start writing letters to the house — not the occupants, but to the house," one student told the outlet. Another student added that Kaplow revealed he had sent more than 50 letters to the house he was "obsessed" with.
There has been no developments with Kaplow as a suspect, but he has since retired as a school teacher and has written several books. His novel Me and Orson Welles was adapted into a major motion picture starring Zac Efron and Claire Danes in 2008.
The Watcher could be a wealthy Westfield resident
On the other hand, a Reddit theory suggests that The Watcher could very well be an older resident in the Westfield area. The person who posted their theory shared a very similar situation containing anonymous threats that occurred in Creekshill, a nearby town that is similar in nature to the New Jersey suburb. "To sum it up, a wealthy family was sending anonymous threats to the local town basketball coach for not playing their teenage son. The threats were often directed at his young children (with specifics about them) and resulted in high levels of psychological trauma for him and his wife. Sound familiar?" they wrote on the thread.
"The similarity between the two stories has led me to believe that the Watcher is not a mentally deranged stalker, but some wealthy suburbanite who has petty personal issues with the Broadduses or the old owners of the house," they continued, before suggesting that the Watcher may be a "Karen" or "wealthy old couple" who had "petty issues" with the previous owners and wanted them to suffer.
While it hasn't been proven to be true, this theory could be a possibility considering the eerily similar events that took place in Creekshill.
You Might Also Like
