Here’s everything you need to know about the real life private investigator in The Watcher

Ryan Murphy’s latest series, The Watcher, dropped on Netflix recently and it’s already firmly in the top ten list. The show follows the Brannock family, who move into their dream home in New Jersey only to find they’re being stalked by The Watcher. The seven-part series was inspired by a true story and reveals the family hired a private investigator, Theodora Birch, to help crack the case but we’re all wondering whether she is real or not.

Theodora’s character is memorable for a few reasons, one of them being the fact she is at the very centre of how it all ends. The second reason is because she’s often wearing gloves too. So here’s everything you need to know about Theodora Birch from The Watcher and whether she was actually real:

Theodora Birch’s life story in the show is wild

So when we meet Theodora we learn she was a jazz singer with a big drinking problem. Her husband gave her the ultimatum of him or alcohol and she chose drinking. One day she had a huge heart attack and died for 10 whole minutes. She then entered treatment and found her niche in murder mysteries. She later got diagnosed with liver cancer but wants to solve The Watcher case as her final one, plus she needs the money to help her daughter and her grandchild. The inspiration for her character and the real life private investigator in The Watcher case is literally nothing like her whatsoever.

Is Theodora Birch from The Watcher based on a real life character?

Frank Shea was the real private investigator for the Broadduses. He was a New York Police officer turned private investigator. It has been confirmed he was not a jazz singer in his former life unlike Theodora. Such a shame!

Where is the real private investigator from The Watcher now?

According to Frank’s LinkedIn, he served as a detective at the New York City Police Department for 12 years from 1973 until 1985. He also served three years in the US Marine Corps from 1966 until 1969.

Okay so as of right now, and since 1997, Frank Shea has been the president and CEO of Alpha Group Investigations. It’s a company which performs domestic and international investigations for private and corporate clients.

In terms of fresh leads with the The Watcher case, The Cut reported Frank Shea said the US Postal Service looked into the letters and were “just as confused as everybody else.” He said cameras were installed at the local post office as well as at the library, where someone might use a computer to type out an anonymous letter, however that was a dead end.

The Watcher is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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