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It started as Most things do, with a ghost story.

When Katie Santry of Columbus, Ohio, posted a TikTok four days ago, she wanted to hear from her followers if they thought her house was haunted. The evidence? When she left her study the day before, it was untouched. But when she returned, her office supplies were in disarray and her computer screen was broken. Did any of her followers think this had something to do with the rolled up carpet she and her husband found buried in their yard?

“So we build a fence and we dig a hole back here,” Santry said in her first video about the incident. “Under the ground there is a rolled up carpet that we came across when we were digging this hole. Who the hell and why the hell is there a rolled up carpet under the ground?” What started with Santry crowdsourcing the reasons for her broken laptop quickly turned into a mystery that captivated over 4 million TikTok viewers in his Banned, implicated the Columbus Division of Police and – despite some solutions – still leaves thousands of people believing that something else is going on.

True Crime and TikTok

There has long been a connection between the social media app TikTok and the true crime genre. TikTok viewers not only use the app to discuss past cases, but also often follow current investigations. (The Idaho murders and the Karen Read trial are some recent examples.) Amateur sleuthing is rampant on people's For You pages, and results in users fairly quickly rallying behind a mystery that is exactly what Santry happened. Her follower count went from 6,000 to over 1 million people in just seven days. And there's already a subreddit on Reddit dedicated solely to Santry's videos, aptly titled r/whatsintherug.

After the viral TikTok, Santry continued to post videos about the discovery; In several follow-up videos, she and her husband attempted to remove the carpet but discovered it was too big for the hole they had dug. She then found a sign identifying the tree above the carpet as the Bloodgood tree. After thousands of commenters urged her to call the police, Santry contacted the Columbus Police Department and told her followers on TikTok that officers would arrive the next day.

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“The whole world told me to let the police come,” Santry told the local NBC affiliate. “When I called the police and asked them, 'Hey, would you like to come to my house and look at a carpet?' I felt crazy.”

Santry didn't answer Rolling Stone's request for comment, but according to several videos she posted, at least two officers came to her home and inspected the hole and carpet but said they couldn't devote any more resources to what might turn out to be nothing. They recommended she dig it up herself and call back if she found anything. Santry continued to post, mostly rambling because she said she didn't want to ruin her garden for nothing. But after thousands more people commented, Santry finally gave in to her audience and said she would dig the carpet to satisfy the waiting viewers. But before she could, she received a call back from the Columbus Police Department – this time from Homicide.

The Columbus Homicide Unit gets involved

Santry live-streamed her visit on TikTok, which she said she later regretted. The dogs were released separately so that they did not introduce any other confirmation bias. As each cadaver dog slowly and intently sniffed around the yard, both approached the hole and sat down – alerting their handlers that they smelled something. “Absolute fucking shock,” she said in a later TikTok. “I thought today would be the end of everything. This has taken a damn turn. I completely freaked out.”

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A Columbus Police spokesman confirmed this Rolling Stone in a statement that two K-9 dogs were deployed as part of a preliminary investigation. “CPD held the scene overnight and officers resumed the investigation this morning,” the statement said. “As of the date of this email, there are no conclusive findings.”

The investigation is coming to an end

Santry then declined to take part in any of the excavations, saying that if there was a body she did not want to be disrespectful to either human remains or potential family members. Commenters also noted that the tone of her videos had changed drastically, from ghost jokes to serious concern that her house might be involved in a possible murder. “If anything, I hope it's just a bloody carpet where someone got a bloody nose or a scraped knee,” Santry said in a later video. “But if it ends up being more than that and we manage to get it done, it wouldn’t have happened without TikTok.”

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On Friday afternoon, Santry said police had dug up all of the carpet. There was no body, but the rolled up carpet contained pieces of rubber. “The question remains, why did both dogs hit?” Santry said in her latest update. “I don't know. But praise the Lord, there is no body. I can stay in my house! Everyone knows where I live, but at least it's not haunted.”

Although Santry seems relieved that the carpet contained no remains, her comments are not as pleased. One comment might sum up the general consensus of viewers: “I just can't accept this answer.”

On By John Fenwick

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