TikTok viewers believed they were watching a true crime case play out in real time as Katie Santry documented the wild story of a rug buried in her background. Now, they finally have answers about the rug.
Santry is a TikTok influencer with over 1 million followers. Until several days ago, she was primarily known for posting content about motherhood, pregnancy, and relationships. However, her content shifted radically when she uploaded a video concerned that her Columbus house might be haunted. In the video, she claimed she had left her home office the previous night around 6:30 PM. She closed the doors on her way out and explained that no one went into the office for the rest of the night. Hence, she was shocked in the morning when she discovered her computer screen cracked and the items on her desk were out of place.
The story only gets stranger from there as Santry reveals that the “haunting” coincides with the discovery of a strange object in her yard. While digging a hole to build a fence, she stumbled across what appeared to be a “rolled-up carpet buried underground.”
In her next video, she showed viewers the hole. Sure enough, the video shows a two-foot-deep hole where one can vaguely see a dirt-encrusted edge of a rug. Another video showed that a Bloodgood tree had been planted over the buried rug.
The whole incident was strange enough that viewers began urging Santry to call the police, so she did. Then, things got very interesting.
What is in the buried rug?
Any skepticism over whether the whole rug thing was real quickly dissipated when Santry uploaded a series of videos of police officers examining the hole. After she went viral for the rug, she revealed that she and her family couldn’t remove it independently, as it was so large and deeply buried that they’d have to dig up a huge portion of their backyard. So, she took the plunge and called the police.
While the officers appeared interested in the carpet, she revealed that there wasn’t much they could do. They estimated the carpet was six feet long, at least. Unfortunately, without knowing if it was significant, they couldn’t get the approval to dedicate their resources to digging up the carpet.
However, so many TikTok users begged Santry to dig it up herself that she and some of her friends began doing so. Along the way, she began expressing doubt about the necessity of doing so. After all, the carpet could literally be anything. One of the most logical theories was that perhaps it was the burial of a family pet. Meanwhile, Santry researched the house and found only one family had lived in it previously, and from what she could learn about them, they seemed like friendly, ordinary people. She suggested she wouldn’t move forward with anything regarding the rug unless someone managed to secure cadaver dogs to see if they could catch a scent.
In a surprise twist, Columbus’ homicide division did order cadaver dogs and detectives to examine the yard. When they called to notify her they were coming, they warned that if the dogs picked up on anything, her home would become a “fiasco.” Hours later, Santry gave an update, revealing her whole house was taped off in cautious tape after both dogs got a hit near the hole where the rug was buried. She uploaded a chill-inducing video of the dogs sitting near the hole with the rug. The sit means that they’ve detected the scent of human remains or blood.
Of course, TikTok instantly went wild. The video quickly garnered over 7 million views, and users shared news of the cadaver dogs’ hitting far and wide. Many users were convinced that the rug held a body and began pondering if it would be connected to a homicide cold case or a missing person’s case. However, the rug may hold no remains and perhaps just remnants of human blood. Santry noted that she hoped someone had just gotten a bloody nose on the rug and buried it. The cadaver dogs, at the very least, gave the police reason enough to dedicate their resources to digging up Santry’s backyard. On October 4, the CSI arrived at Santry’s home to dig.
Upon their arrival, they blocked off her home, even limiting her access to the excavation point. However, she continued providing updates, watching from her window and lawn. After the hole was deep enough for the diggers to enter, they brought in an excavator. She later noted that the digging had stopped.
Santry then jumped on TikTok Live to share the final results of the dig. She revealed that there is no body and no bones. The police found the rug in one piece, but no human remains. However, she said the police took the rug, which may be tested. Ultimately, though, the police noted there was no indication of foul play. It remains to be seen if we’ll never know why the rug was buried, but the theory of a nosebleed could be true for all we know. At the same time, Santry still remains perplexed about her alleged haunted house.
