#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--THE INSPIRATION BEHIND SCRAPBOOK OF MURDER

The Watcher: "Is she the artist in the family?"

Since we’ve been featuring posts on where authors get their ideas, I thought I’d give you an update today on a real-life mystery in the real-life town where I live. Lois Winston, she who writes about me, incorporated this ongoing mystery as a subplot in Scrapbook of Murder, the sixth book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries.

If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, you may remember the posts about The Watcher House, which sits on a stately historic street a short walk from where I live. The first post appeared in January, 2016 and the second in October 2017 (Note: even though my house and The Watcher house are close in proximity, the comparison ends there. I live in a 1950s era tract rancher. The Watcher House is a Dutch Colonial built in 1905 that last sold in 2014 for 1.35 million dollars.)

The Watcher House

Shortly after the new owners took possession of the house back then, they received a very disturbing anonymous letter from someone who called himself The Watcher. Subsequent letters followed, threatening the new owners’ children. The Watcher knew the children' nicknames and mentioned having seen their young daughter painting at an easel, asking, "Is she the artist in the family?" Fearful for their safety, the family never moved into the house, although they continued to make extensive renovations to the property.

The story made international headlines, resulting in media coverage, the likes of which we hadn’t seen in our quiet commuter town since 1971 when John List murdered his entire family and disappeared for eighteen years.  

Since the family received that first letter, they’ve sued and been counter-sued by the former owners. They tried selling the house three times, each time reducing the price. It’s currently on the market for under a million dollars, but the home’s notoriety has kept buyers away. They’ve tried to have the house demolished, but they failed to get zoning approval to divide the property into two lots to build two smaller houses in order to recoup their losses.

In a bizarre twist, the husband admitted to sending nasty anonymous letters to some of their neighbors. The house became the inspiration behind a Lifetime movie and toppled the Jersey Devil from the top of the state’s creepiest horror myths.

Extensive investigations over the years have yet to unmask the identity of The Watcher. Suspects include the family themselves, who recently sold the rights to their story to Netflix after a bidding war that included Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Amazon, and Fox. This gives credence to those who believe that the family concocted the entire story, and there never was a Watcher.

Now in the latest chapter, BuzzFeed’s Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej of “Unsolved” have profiled the Watcher House in the first episode of their fifth season. Watch it here.

In Scrapbook of Murder The Watcher becomes The Sentinel, and his first letter arrives shortly after food editor Cloris McWerther and her husband sell their house. Although the police haven’t been able to solve the mystery of The Watch after five years, I solve the mystery of The Sentinel, thanks to an incident that occurred years ago, involving my sons, which is based on a real-life incident that happened to one of Lois’s sons.

Scrapbook of Murder

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 6

Crafts and murder don’t normally go hand-in-hand, but normal deserted craft editor Anastasia Pollack’s world nearly a year ago. Now, tripping over dead bodies seems to be the “new normal” for this reluctant amateur sleuth.

When the daughter of a murdered neighbor asks Anastasia to create a family scrapbook from old photographs and memorabilia discovered in a battered suitcase, she agrees—not only out of friendship but also from a sense of guilt over the older woman’s death. However, as Anastasia begins sorting through the contents of the suitcase, she discovers a letter revealing a fifty-year-old secret, one that unearths a long-buried scandal and unleashes a killer. Suddenly Anastasia is back in sleuthing mode as she races to prevent a suitcase full of trouble from leading to more deaths.

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CLORIS COOKS UP A MYSTERY

Anastasia often talks about how author Lois Winston complicates her life by dumping her into the middle of murder and mayhem. I don’t know if Lois got tired of picking on Anastasia or just wanted to give her a bit of a respite from all that murder and mayhem, but in Scrapbook of Murder, her newest Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, she targets me in an extremely scary subplot.

As you may know if you follow this blog, Lois gets many of her plot ideas from actual news story. One of those is an ongoing mystery in her own hometown, which also happens to be Anastasia’s hometown. The mystery, known as The Watcher House, began back in 2014 and still hasn’t been resolved. It’s made international news and even inspired a Lifetime made-for-TV movie. Lois has blogged about it in the past. In Scrapbook of Murder The Watcher becomes The Sentinel, and the house in question is the one my husband and I recently sold when we decided to downsize.

There are horror myths in every state. In New Jersey the creepiest—until now—is the Jersey Devil, who supposedly lives in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey. However, the Jersey Devil has now lost his top spot. According to Thrillist, he’s been surpassed by The Watcher.

Does The Watcher really exist? After three years of investigating, the police have no suspects, but the letters keep coming. Maybe it’s a hoax. Or maybe it’s an attempt to drive up real estate prices—or drive them down—given that real estate in this particular New Jersey town keeps increasing at an astounding rate.

Anastasia, good friend that she is, solved the mystery of The Sentinel in Scrapbook of Murder. Maybe the police should check out how she did it.

Scrapbook of Murder

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 6

Crafts and murder don’t normally go hand-in-hand, but normal deserted craft editor Anastasia Pollack’s world nearly a year ago. Now, tripping over dead bodies seems to be the “new normal” for this reluctant amateur sleuth.

When the daughter of a murdered neighbor asks Anastasia to create a family scrapbook from old photographs and memorabilia discovered in a battered suitcase, she agrees—not only out of friendship but also from a sense of guilt over the older woman’s death. However, as Anastasia begins sorting through the contents of the suitcase, she discovers a letter revealing a fifty-year-old secret, one that unearths a long-buried scandal and unleashes a killer. Suddenly Anastasia is back in sleuthing mode as she races to prevent a suitcase full of trouble from leading to more deaths.

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A REAL-LIFE MYSTERY IN ANASTASIA'S REAL-LIFE HOMETOWN

The Watcher House in Westfield, NJ

Sometimes stuff happens and other stuff—like guest blogs—fall through the cracks. Such was the case with the author scheduled to blog today. So because I’m such a lady of leisure (this is sarcasm for any of you not familiar with the life author Lois Winston has created for me,) I’m stepping in to tell you about a real-life mystery in the real-life town where the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries take place.

Lois often gets many of her plot ideas from real-life events. My latest Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, A Stitch to Die For, is no exception. She’s woven several recent news stories into my latest foray as a reluctant amateur sleuth.

Shortly after the book was released our little suburban commuter town made national news. A short walk from my home is a house that is being stalked by someone calling himself The Watcher. Or so the owners claim. Here are the facts:

In June 2014 the house, built in 1905 and located on a street that has been designated historical, was sold for 1.35 million dollars. (a far cry from the value of the 1950’s tract rancher that’s home to me, my two sons, my communist mother-in-law, her devil dog, Ralph the Shakespeare-quoting parrot, and occasionally my DAR mother and her zaftig Persian cat.) The sellers had lived in the house since 1990. The new owners made extensive renovations to the house but never moved in. Last June they filed a lawsuit against the former owner for not disclosing that the house had been stalked for decades.

According to the new owners, the seller received a letter from The Watcher several days prior to settlement but failed to disclose it. Three days after settlement the new owners received the first of three letters from The Watcher. The Watcher claimed the house “has been the subject of my family for decades” and that he was put in charge of “watching and waiting for the second coming” after his father and grandfather before him. He went on to make threats against the new owners’ three children. No letters were ever received after mid-July of last year. Meanwhile the new owners went ahead with their renovations.

The new owners turned the three letters over to the police who investigated but found nothing. No letter addressed to the former owner has surfaced, and she hasn’t admitted ever having received any. Other former owners have stated there was never any problems regarding the house and all had happy memories of living there.

In February of last year the new owners put the house up for sale without ever having lived in it. The lawsuit claims they haven’t been able to sell the house, even after repeated price reductions, because of The Watcher. However, no one knew anything about The Watcher and the letters until this past June when the lawsuit was filed and became public record.

Home disclosure laws vary from state to state. In some states the seller would have had to disclose information about The Watcher prior to closing. Not in New Jersey. Here the seller only has to disclose prior physical problems such as a fire or flood. And who’s to say the seller had even heard of The Watcher, let alone ever received a letter from him? That’s only on the word of the new owners, and how do they know the seller received a letter?

I suspect Lois has her own theories about all this, and she’ll probably wind up plopping me right into the middle of it when she gets around to dumping me into a new mystery in Book 6. At least I know I’ll survive whatever she has in store for me. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a Book 7.

A Stitch to Die For

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 5

The adventures of reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack continue in A Stitch to Die For, the 5th book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series by USA Today bestselling author Lois Winston.

Ever since her husband died and left her in debt equal to the gross national product of Uzbekistan, magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack has stumbled across one dead body after another—but always in work-related settings. When a killer targets the elderly nasty neighbor who lives across the street from her, murder strikes too close to home. Couple that with a series of unsettling events days before Halloween, and Anastasia begins to wonder if someone is sending her a deadly message.

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(Other books in the series include Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, Death by Killer Mop Doll, Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, and three mini-mysteries: Crewel Intentions, Mosaic Mayhem, and Patchwork Peril.)