Ohio woman goes viral with livestream of cops digging in her backyard after she made grim discovery while planting a fence
An Ohio mother’s backyard renovation took a sinister turn after police were called to investigate a mysterious rug found buried in the yard.
Katie Santry, from Columbus, Ohio, started sharing a series of TikTok videos after she came across the carpet about two feet underground while she was digging holes to install a new fence.
She called the police for peace of mind, and although they were not initially too concerned about the discovery, detectives returned to her home on Friday with K-9 dogs and digging crews.
The sister of missing Columbus man Dennis “Danny” Fout, who disappeared in the area five years ago, was among onlookers at the scene and said NBC4 she is ‘hopeful’ about the research.
Police cannot say whether they believe there is a body in the ground.
Millions of true crime fans tune in to every minute update that Santry provides in the app.
While her pre-mystery videos were viewed by a few thousand people each, her “what’s in the rug” series racks up seven million hits per video.
About 100,000 TikTok users watched her livestream of the cadaver dogs at work. She gasped audibly as the first dog sat down near the den.
“If they’re sitting, that means something, right?” Santry asked one of the officers at her home.
“Mostly,” he said.
Katie Santry, from Columbus, Ohio, started sharing a series of TikTok videos after she came across the carpet about two feet underground
Parts of Santry’s backyard were cordoned off on Thursday and police promised to return on Friday to continue their investigation.
A second dog was brought in, also in the same location, indicating something was wrong.
Columbus Police spokeswoman Jennifer Watson told police Columbus Shipping that ‘it could be anything’ buried on site.
“It could be body oil, it could be sweat. It could be blood, like maybe a cut or a cut in the paper, something so insignificant. At this point, we don’t know what we’re looking at.”
While it may be insignificant, the police still treat it as seriously as we can.
Officers were seen around her home as the investigation resumed
“There’s a tent there and there’s nine police officers and CSI in the backyard,” she said
“You can’t leave any stone unturned with these incidents, so we want to make sure we do our due diligence,” Watson said.
Parts of Santry’s backyard were cordoned off on Thursday and police promised to return on Friday to continue their investigation.
She provided another update Friday morning, sharing a video of officers walking through her home as the investigation resumed.
“There’s a tent there and there’s nine police officers and CSI in the backyard,” she said.
“There’s a murder and there’s missing persons, and CSI is pulling out all the stops.
“They’ve blocked how far I can even go.”
Live streams captured much of the excavation 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 possible finds.
“Katie said they started digging two hours ago. If they’re still there, they’ve found something,” one online sleuth suggested.
“If it was nothing they wouldn’t be there so long,” said another.
Around noon, Santry provided another update indicating that police had just brought in a backhoe to continue the search.