thanks for watching, everybody, good night! ♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, the watcher. a look back at the unsolved mystery behind the netflix true crime sensation. >> "i am pleased to know your names now and the names of the young blood you have brought me." >> a new jersey family's dream home turned into a nightmare. the letters themselves are kind of impossibly creepy and spooky and scary. >> a quiet community haunted, and it's not the first time. >> it seems like a horror movie, but it's real. >> the shocking murders a half century ago, now part of the plot line. destination unknown. we revisit the latest craze hitting the travel industry, surprise vacations. >> oh, you're going on a trip, where? i'm like, i have no idea.

>> pack your bags, head to the airport, and then -- >> we have our envelope, it has our destination, it says "no peeking." >> would you trust someone else to book your vacation? ♪ biofreeze, the number one clinician recommended menthol topical pain relief brand. works fast. lasts long. cool the pain with biofreeze. find your beat your moment of calm find your potential then own it support your immune system with a potent blend of nutrients and emerge your best every day with emergen-c

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you know, it's a quiet community thrust into an eerie spotlight this year. the backdrop of an unsolved case that left a family terrorized and is now featured in a spooky new streaming sensation. tonight we revisit the story and it's not the only ghost tale in town. westfield, new jersey. a picturesque bedroom community just 23 miles outside new york city. >> the schools are great. the people are very friendly. >> it's a beautiful town, great architecture, beautiful houses. >> you've got a house in west field, you've pretty much made it. >> reporter: these treelined streets now home to a true crime obsession. >> "welcome. you know i will be watching." >> who are you? >> reporter: netflix's smash hit series "the watcher" based on the real-life terror that gripped the former owners of this house. >> they started getting these very strange letters from the watcher. each letter seemed to get a little more ominous.

>> whoever it was claimed that they were not only watching the house, but there were a lineage in their family. >> reporter: tonight the stories behind the torment. >> there was no way the broaduss were going to move into this house without figuring out what was going on. >> reporter: the gruesome murders that gripped this small community a half century ago. >> west field, people were afraid he was hiding in the woods or their attic. people were really afraid. >> it's pretty scary when the banker of your town is a volunteer at the lutheran church, goes to all the soccer matches. when they go off the rails like that, it scares people. >> reporter: it was 2014. derek and maria broadus bought what they thought was their forever home, a nearly $1.4 million house in westfield. >> the broaduses could not be a more normal suburban american fa family. they had some financial security, they could go buy this sort of dream home of theirs with their three kids.

>> reporter: but the house came with a sinister threat. a watcher who sent the family several menacing letters alluding to imminent danger. the letters themselves are kind of impossibly creepy and spooky and scary. >> reporter: reid wideman wrote the shocking "new york magazine" article detailing the situation. he saw the letters firsthand. the letters recreated in "the watcher." starring naomi watts and bobby cannavale. >> mr. and mrs. broadus, i am pleased to know your name now and the names of the young blood you have brought me. >> reporter: it also details westfield's notorious list family murders and has become a massive hit despite a police investigation, private investigators, and forensic analysts all looking into the case. the watcher was never identified. >> i felt very bad for derek and his wife, maria. i think they -- you know, they were very troubled, which i

would be too, if i received those at my new home. >> reporter: andy skabitski was mayor of westfield at the time. >> it was reported we didn't do enough, but trust me, the westfield police department is very capable, unlike those depicted in the movie. >> they did all they could with the information they had in that they did dna samples on the few letters. there were only four letters total, so they didn't have a lot to go on. >> reporter: the family of five so fearful, never moved in. they struggled for years to offload the home, ultimately taking a $400,000 loss when they sold it in 2019. later selling their story rights to netflix. >> "i am the watcher." >> the show has been exaggerated and hollywoodized in all kinds of ways, but i think it at least, you know, captures some of the truth of what the broaduses went through. >> it's so far from reality,

it's silly. i was mayor in westfield for 12 1/2 years. we have our share of characters. but none of them are like the ones that are depicted in the show. >>fid polic ofal reluctant to talk about the renewed attention to the case. they say, out of respect for the home's current occupants. >> i am wych guty of, you know, giving in to that hype a little bit. >> people do talk about it. a lot of my co-workers are, where's the house in comparison to where you live? >> "greed is your sin, john." >> reporter: the watcher uses another piece of westfield's spooky history. >> we should all be prepared for the day when it comes. i want to see you all again in heaven. >> reporter: in the series, the character, john graph, used to live in the watcher house and murdered his family there. john graph is based on a real westfield resident, john list,

who shot and killed his mother, wife, and three children in a different westfield home in 1971. >> it was a real-life horror story in westfield. there's an entire generation of people that were afraid john list was coming for them. he was on the run for 18 years. he became known as the bogeyman of westfield. >> reporter: "father wants us dead" is a podcast about the list murders. >> the mass murder of an innocent family 50 years ago forever shook this quiet town. >> reporter: at the time of the killings, list, a devout christian, had lost a series of jobs. >> he was too proud to file for unemployment or even admit to his wife that he had lost his jobs. in his mind, living in poverty was a sin. and so he decided that the thing to do would be to kill his family. >> reporter: list shot his wife and mother first, and later his three children after school. in between killings, going about his day.

that scene portrayed in "the watcher." >> he said he made a sandwich and ate lunch that day. just as though his wife and mother weren't lying dead in the house. john list had carefully planned how he was going to kill his family. he had already started to spread the cover story, which was that they were going to visit a relative in north carolina. >> reporter: it took a month for the murders to be discovered. by then, list was long gone. >> the true sociopathic narcissist. he went on the run, he met a woman, he got married, he thought he would be safe. he was out in colorado, i think, when he met his second wife. he moved to richmond. he was hiding in plain sight. >> reporter: list was finally caught in 1989, thanks to an episode of "america's most wanted." >> the suspect, john list, is accused of murdering his family 17 years ago. >> reporter: the show hired a forensic sculptor to create a bust showing how john list would have aged.

how uncanny was the likeness between the bust and john list? >> it looked like the same guy with the same hairline, with the same glasses, with the same weight. it was beyond uncanny, and it made the front page of the "new york times." >> reporter: in 1990, list was convicted of five counts of murder and sentenced to five life terms in prison. were you determined to kill them? >> once i made the plan, yeah. just like d-day. you go in, there's no stopping after -- after you start. >> reporter: in 2002, abc's connie chung spoke with john list in his first on-camera interview about the murders. >> you ate lunch in the kitchen where you had shot your wife in cold blood? >> that's correct. >> how could you? >> i was hungry. it was just the way it was. >> reporter: list died in prison in 2008. he was 82 years old.

>> you helped solve the john list case. what do you think it will take to solve the watcher case? >> you know what, it's a combination of serendipitous luck, it's also hard work. hard, hard work on the side of investigators, law enforcement. >> reporter: the watcher case remains unsolved, with millions of households tuning in to "the watcher" series. clues starting to pour in once again. >> i've continued to get tips. one of the reasons people have been obsessed with this story is it's a mystery to solve. >> everybody has a theory about who the watcher might be and what their motivation is. >> reporter: now the house at the center of it all, "no trespassing" signs dotting the line, warning off curious onlookers. >> it's a great house to own if you're not spooked by this. >> and as far as we've heard, they have not gotten any letters. up next, where do you want to go on your next vacation?

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♪ picking your next vacation destination can be stressful. it's not just where to go but what to do once you get there. but what if you could just leave it all to somebody else? well, now you can. here's abc's ashan singh with another look at surprise vacations. >> reporter: what if you could go on a vacation like this? one catch. you have no idea where you're headed. companies are now offering a new way to get away.

>> for me, i think it's just, why not have someone else do it? why not surprise yourself? >> reporter: erika silverman and lexi marchbank are young professionals living in new york city. but in four weeks, they could be anywhere in the country. >> we have no idea where we're going. essentially it's a surprise vacation. >> really excited to kind of, a, not plan anything, because all i do is plan things. >> reporter: the two are going on a surprise vacation, paying the company pack up and go to not tell them where they're going. this friend is a growing part of the travel industry. companies offering surprise trips, saying they've seen the demand for their services explode post-covid. pack up and go sends over 7,000 travelers a year around the country. how are you explaining it to people at work? "oh, i'm going on vacation." "where are you going?" >> i think it's kind of fun to say that. "oh, where are you going?" "i have no idea, i'll find out when i go." >> what is your budget going in? >> the recommended budget for

two travelers is $1,700. so sticking to that. >> reporter: pack up and go has its clients fill out a comprehensive form. >> when you travel, what do you prioritize? >> definitely food and dining. >> reporter: laying out everything they would and wouldn't want for their dream trip. >> we have a real person who is looking to see where this traveler has been recently, where they visit frequently, what they like to do, dietary restrictions, hobbies and interests. we book it from there. >> a week before our trip, we'll get an envelope in the mail that has our destination and recommended itineraries and all these things. we go to the airport, we'll open the envelope and find out where we're going. >> you know each other well. who is going to have the harder time not opening the envelope for that week? >> me. i'm the person that reads what happens in tv shows. >> oh, come on. >> ready for our trip? >> i am, i'm so excited. >> reporter: two weeks later, after packing for somewhere,

they arrive at the airport ready for the big reveal. >> we have our envelope from pack up and go that has our destination. okay, it says "no peeking." ready? >> nashville! >> oh my god, yay! >> reporter: after a short flight, arriving in nashville. ♪ aka music city. ready to explore. >> we're just going to end up in the wild. >> yes, probably. >> reporter: the day's events, visiting the country music hall of fame. >> oh, whoa. >> reporter: a must-see for music lover erika. and taking in nashville's iconic broadway strip. ♪ home of the late-night honky tonks. ♪ but that late night didn't stop them from a 13-mile bike tour in

the morning. their trip a much-needed break from daily life. but for others, only a life-changing vacation will do. >> for me, when i travel, there has to be meaning behind it. so absolutely soul-searching, finding meaning. >> reporter: astra booked a trip with black tomato, a vacation company that books clients on surprise trips to death-defying places with a hefty price tag. >> i had this weird childhood fantasy my whole life, being on my own, isolated, out in the middle of nowhere. i really felt this -- i don't know, calling on my life, that i was going to go places where nobody had ever been before. >> reporter: the texas mother of two sent on an 11-day journey into the atlas mountains of morocco. were there some days that were mentally tough? >> at the very outset of the second day, i had to do this scramble up a pretty steep, rocky cliff thing. whoo, i was cold and numb when i

started, and i was sweating by the time i got to the top. >> reporter: to pay the $13,000 price tag, she started a gofundme and even sold her plasma as a last-ditch money-making effort. she says it was all worth it. >> for the first time in about ten years, something inside of me started -- like my heart started beating again. >> reporter: but not everyone walks away feeling so good. for michael wade and taylor diedrich, that $3,000 surprise was unwelcome. when they signed up for a surprise vacation using a different company, they thought they'd listed all the places they didn't want to go. >> we got to the airport, we're sitting in the parking garage -- >> i open it up, it's got a sheet of paper, it's got a picture of one of the main buildings of austin, texas. "austin!" eight exclamation points. i shut it, "are you sure you didn't choose texas as a place we didn't want to go?" >> how did you react when you saw it on paper? austin, eight exclamation points. >> i said, i don't want to go on this trip anymore.

>> reporter: but the couple kept an open mind. >> we had a wine and barbecue tour. that was scheduled by them. and we ended up making really good friends with everyone on our tour. now we've gone to tennessee with them. >> reporter: even an unexpected envelope managing to turn serendipitous. whether the cliffs of morocco or the bars of nashville. or a place you've already been. whether you know where you're going or not. at the end of the day, it's still a vacation. >> there are so few times in our lives as adults that we are genuinely surprised. in a good way. and having something as fun as a vacation that you're already so excited about and already looking forward to and amplifying that by just adding one more element of an anticipation, i think it's really, really exciting for a lot of travelers. >> our thanks to ashan. we'll be right back. living with hiv,

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♪ that's "nightline." you can watch all our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here same time tomorrow. thanks for staying up with us. hope you had a wonderful

thanksgiving holiday. good night, america.