A “big crime junkie” found a creepy rolled-up rug buried in the backyard of her new Ohio home — sparking a police investigation and a viral online following from people assuming it’s a dead body.
Katie Santry, 34, of Columbus enthralled true crime buffs when she posted a viral Tiktok video earlier this week revealing that she and her boyfriend had found a mysterious shag carpet underground while digging up their lawn to build a fence.
“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,” Santry said in a series of videos, one of which had raked in more than 9 million views as of Friday.
“The Internet is about 50/50 on whether it’s a dead body or an animal, and maybe 10 percent think this was just a junkyard.”
Her spooky saga began when she posted a video about her new house, describing an incident in which her computer was found shattered a couple of days after finding the rug.
“Is there a dead body in that rug? Or is it the ghost of the rug’s past?” she wondered in the video, which also shows items tossed around her desk. “What on earth happened? Is there a ghost breaking my stuff?”
The clip soon went viral, and she posted follow-up footage showing that the rug was eerily buried under a “Bloodgood tree.”
“I pulled [a plant tag] out and said, ‘This is called a Bloodgood tree. If I were a murderer with a sense of humor, I’d plant a Bloodgood tree on top of a dead body and be like, ha!’ ” she told People magazine. “I think that’s actually the video that went the most viral.”
When floods of observers pointed out it actually could be a crime scene, she eventually called the police.
“[I said], ‘Hey, this could be the dumbest call you get today, but there’s a rug in the ground,’” she said. Two police officers arrived at her home in 15 minutes.
The cops told her it was strange, but it would take more time to investigate, she said.
Still curious, she tracked down the daughter of a couple who formerly owned the home. The woman told her she had no clue why the rug would be there, but promised to ask her elderly parents about it.
As of Friday, Santry still had no answers — but the investigation continues, she said.
“I truly don’t think there’s a dead body down there,” she said. “[But] the curiosity about why that rug is there definitely haunts me.”