What started as a creepy-yet-entertaining discovery of a buried rug in an Ohio backyard turned into a serious police investigation, thanks to the viral power of the internet.
The saga began earlier this week when Katie Santry, a 34-year-old homeowner in Columbus, Ohio, posted video to TikTok revealing that she and her boyfriend discovered a mysterious rolled up shag carpet as they were digging up their lawn to build a fence.
She said she didn’t really think much about the deep-buried rug until a few days later, when she went into the office in her sunroom and found her computer screen shattered and contents on top of the desk in disarray.
“I think my house is haunted and I’m freaking out. I’m literally shaking,” she said in her first clip of the saga, wondering out loud if the office and buried carpet were linked.
Almost immediately, true crime enthusiasts glommed onto the video, eager to post their theories and thirsty for more updates.
Eager to give her audience what they were asking for, Santry posted additional videos, showing footage of an almost two-foot-deep hole where they first discovered the carpet and sharing the tag for a tree that had been planted above the buried item – eerily called a “Bloodgood” tree.
Meanwhile, the comments under each video began to pop off, with people urging Santry to dig deeper and discover what, if anything, was rolled up in the rug.
“There are guesses about actual bodies. Apparently, a lot of people go missing in Columbus, Ohio — something I’m not too familiar with, even though I am a big crime junkie,” she told People of the intense interest in her videos, which had racked up millions of views as of Friday.
“The internet is about 50/50 on whether it’s a dead body or an animal, and maybe 10 per cent think this was just a junkyard.”
Swayed by the comments, Santry said she put in a call to police, who sent two officers over to take a closer look. Ultimately, the officers told her that while they thought it was worth calling in an excavator to dig up the rug, the chief of police shot them down and it would be up to Santry to dig up the item herself.
In another video, Santry explained that she considered leaving the rug in the ground. While she debated her next move, she made a phone call to the realtor who listed the house last year, who helped put her in touch with the daughter of the couple who formerly owned the 1967 home.
The daughter told Santry she wasn’t aware of the rug, and confirmed that any former family pets had been cremated, but promised to ask her elderly parents and get back in touch with Santry.
After her “virtual digging” stalled, Santry said she recruited some friends to come help her dig up the rug. But before she could begin a livestream of the dig, she got a call from homicide investigators, who were ready to send over detectives and cadaver dogs.
When the dogs were released separately into her backyard, both immediately went to the area in question and sat down. Very suspicious, Santry said, but also noted that this could also mean something as little as blood from a scraped knee or bloody nose.
“Even when the first dog sat, I really didn’t think the second dog was going to do it too. I thought it was just an accident. And when the second dog did it to, I freaked out,” Santry told WCMH.
Not long after, a dedicated team of investigators showed up with an excavator and began to tear apart Santry’s backyard on Thursday.
They returned to the scene Friday morning to continue digging, and as the world waited on the edge of their seats, Santry posted her latest video revealing what they had found.
“They have recovered the hole and this has been the most absurd, insane experience of my life,” Santry told the camera. “What did they find? No, they didn’t find a body, they found a mother-effing rug with some rubber. The question remains of why the dogs sat. I don’t know. Both dogs, not just one two. I don’t know. The other question remains is who broke my laptop.”
“I’m so confused,” she continued. “There’s no body, there’s no body. Honestly, let’s praise the Lord there’s no body. I can stay in my house… everyone knows where I live but at least it’s not haunted.”
“But the mystery of the effing rug has been solved, and there is no body,” she continued. “And they are doing a fine job of putting my stuff back up.”
While the hole revealed nothing of interest in the end, and the rolled up carpet wasn’t hiding any dark secrets, those following along had a hard time accepting the rather anti-climactic conclusion.
“Why am I bothered that there wasn’t a body…😂” one person commented.
“I simply cannot accept this answer,” another person added.
“I don’t know what to do with my life now!!!” another comment read.