Ohio woman goes viral with livestream of cops digging in her backyard after she made grim discovery while planting a fence
An Ohio mom’s backyard renovation took a sinister turn after police were called in to investigate a mysterious rug buried in the garden.
Katie Santry, from Columbus Ohio, started sharing a series of TikTok videos after she stumbled upon the rug about two feet below ground while she was digging holes to put in a new fence.
She called police for peace of mind, and while they initially weren’t too concerned about the discovery, detectives returned to her home on Friday with K-9 dogs and escavation crews.
The sister of missing Columbus man Dennis ‘Danny’ Fout, who vanished in the area five years ago, was among onlookers at the scene and told NBC4 she is ‘hopeful’ about the investigation.
After digging for hours, police revealed on Friday afternoon no remains were found and they were ending the dig.
Even still, millions of true crime fans are tuning in to every minute update Santry provides on social media.
While her videos prior to the mystery were watched by a few thousand people each, her ‘what’s in the rug’ series is racking up seven million hits per video.
Some 135,000 TikTok users tuned in to her livestream of the cadaver dogs at work and subsequent updates. She audibly gasped when the first dog sat down right near the hole.
‘When they sit that means something though, right?’ Santry asked one of the officers at her home.
‘Usually,’ he said.
Katie Santry, from Columbus Ohio, started sharing a series of TikTok videos after she stumbled upon the rug about two feet below ground
Sections of Santry’s backyard were cordoned off on Thursday, with police vowing to return to continue their investigation on Friday
A second dog was brought in, and also sat at the same location, signalling that something was amiss.
Columbus Division of Police spokeswoman Jennifer Watson told the Columbus Dispatch that ‘it could be anything’ buried at the spot.
‘It could be body oil, it could be sweat. It could be blood, like maybe a nick or a paper cut, something as insignificant as that. At this time, we don’t know what we’re looking at.’
While it could be insignificant, police are still ‘treating it as seriously as we can.’
Officers were seen milling around her house as the investigation got back underway
‘There’s a tent set up and there’s nine police officers and CSI in the backyard,’ she said
‘You can’t leave any stone unturned in these incidents, so we just want to make sure that we are doing our due diligence,’ Watson said.
Sections of Santry’s backyard were cordoned off on Thursday, with police vowing to return to continue their investigation on Friday.
She provided yet another update Friday morning, sharing video of officers milling around her house as the investigation got back underway.
‘There’s a tent set up and there’s nine police officers and CSI in the backyard,’ she said.
‘Homicide is here and missing persons, and CSI is bringing the shovels out.
‘They’ve blocked how far I’m allowed to even go.’
Livestreams captured much of the dig on Friday, showing officers at work as a crowd of neighbors and onlookers gathered.
More than 30,000 people tuned into an ABC livestream, demanding answers about any potential finds.
‘Katie said two hours ago they started digging. If they’re still there, they’ve found something,’ one online sleuth suggested.
‘If it was nothing, they would not be there that long,’ another said.
At midday, Santry provided yet another update revealing police had just brought in an escavator to continue the search.
