After TikToker Katie Santry (@katiesantry) and her boyfriend, Brandon, found a rug buried in their yard last year, they decided to call the police to handle the situation. They live in Columbus, Ohio, and had been digging up their lawn to build a fence.
Investigators promptly showed up at her house with cadaver dogs. She filmed two dogs sitting on the hole where the rug had been found, which left her and her viewers in shock.
Reporters also came to her house, and the cops stayed overnight. They blocked off her house with caution tape. The next day, more police officers and investigators returned to do some digging themselves. Later, she revealed what the team had discovered.
Apparently, it was just a rug, and nothing more, which was somewhat underwhelming. The police took the rug away to be tested and covered up the hole in the ground. This move made viewers suspicious, as if there was something the police weren’t telling Katie.
Before going to the police, Katie did some detective work of her own. She tracked down the home’s listing agent and was able to contact the daughter of the previous homeowners.
The house was built in 1967, and only one family lived there before her. The previous family didn’t seem to have any idea why a rug would be buried in the yard.
They had dogs, but the dogs never dug in that particular spot, and their remains were cremated after they died, meaning that no pets were buried there.
Katie also noted that she had dug up a Bloodgood tree, trying to uncover the whole rug. She received a lot of flak from nature lovers who said that those types of trees were expensive.
Theories circulated about why the tree was planted in that particular spot.
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Others focused on the behavior of the cadaver dogs, saying that they had definitely caught a whiff of a dead body that must’ve been buried in the area at one point.
“Cadaver dogs aren’t trained to smell blood; they’re trained to smell the scent of rotting human flesh, specifically. If cadaver dogs hit, they smelled a dead human body,” commented one viewer.
“I was thinking maybe it was a miscarriage or an unexpected/unplanned home birth that was a cover-up or went wrong. Seems sentimental to me,” stated another.
“I’m telling you, girl, I think it’s a placenta tree, and the carpet was put there to protect from wildlife digging it up initially. Makes sense for the nice tree choice,” added a third.
The situation could take a while to resolve, so Katie decided to wait on building the fence. If the case ends up being a murder, hopefully, it can bring closure to someone’s family.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
