A girl in Ohio is being haunted by ghosts. Or perhaps she’s not. There’s a useless physique buried beneath her home, rolled up inside a rug. Or there’s really no physique in any respect, regardless of alerts from cadaver canines.
This week’s largest drama on TikTok tells the story of a girl from Ohio who was constructing a fence in her yard, solely to uncover a mysterious rug buried on her property. Viewers speculated that her dwelling could possibly be a possible homicide scene, and abruptly, native content material creator Katie Santry was on the middle of her personal real-life true crime story, unfolding video by video on TikTok.
Earlier than discovering the rug, Santry had roughly 6,000 followers on TikTok, the place she largely shared content material about her life as a mother, discussing difficult matters like being pregnant, miscarriages, and divorce. Nevertheless, in simply 4 days, Santry’s TikTok content material took a dramatic flip after she discovered the suspicious rug. Her followers, now climbing towards 2 million, have witnessed every thing unfold, from the preliminary discovery to the arrival of police and cadaver canines at her home and a subsequent excavation.
The concept of a doable physique in somebody’s yard is unsettling sufficient, and having thousands and thousands of individuals watch it’s even crazier. Nonetheless, Santry appeared to take consolation in understanding that others had been witnessing it. Commenters even inspired her to proceed digging (which we don’t advocate).
Tales like Santry’s have gotten startlingly peculiar — not the doable useless physique half, however the expertise of turning into the primary character of the web on the drop of a hat. The identical factor occurred to Reesa Teesa, a TikToker who posted an hours-long sequence known as “Who TF did I marry?” and ended up with a TV adaptation within the works based mostly on her life. Hailey Welch (Hawk Tuah woman) went viral for a lewd remark she made in one other creator’s video when she was randomly interviewed on the road in Tennessee. Now she has a podcast on Jake Paul’s community that’s ranked fifth amongst all exhibits on Spotify.
In contrast to different sudden TikTok stars, Santry isn’t new to social media. Fourteen years in the past, she and her sister had been early YouTube vloggers, posting “Glee” recaps, ideas concerning the Twilight sequence, and even interviews with the Jonas Brothers. Although Santry left that chapter of her life behind, she clearly realized the right way to inform a compelling story on the web.
By Thursday, murder detectives confirmed up with two cadaver canines to research the dug-up space. Santry livestreamed their go to on TikTok, as viewers anxiously watched on. The cadaver canines each sat by the opening within the dust, signaling that the canines sensed one thing was amiss. Quickly, Santry’s dwelling was cordoned off with yellow police tape.
The next day, law enforcement officials and crime scene investigators arrived with gear to dig up the realm. Fortunately, no human stays had been found, however this solely makes the rug much more perplexing to viewers.
“Perhaps the crime occurred on the rug, and it was buried to hide proof,” steered one follower.
Different followers had been disillusioned there wasn’t a physique in spite of everything, highlighting the web’s morbid fascination with true crime tales.
The true crime style has boomed during the last decade, partly as a result of reputation of the podcast “Serial,” which spawned a whole bunch of different exhibits in the identical style. Because the web made unfathomable quantities of public info extra simply accessible, some true crime followers grew to become hobbyist detectives, an ethically murky pursuit.
Netflix chronicled one such phenomenon within the docuseries “Don’t F**okay with Cats: Looking an Web Killer,” which was one of many streamer’s hottest releases when it premiered in 2019. The sequence follows two web vigilantes who arrange a Fb group in 2010 to trace down a person who posted a video of him killing cats. As the net neighborhood investigated, the story in some way turned even darker when the perpetrator struck once more, horrifically murdering a college scholar. Whereas web sleuthing can often remedy some mysteries, it typically reminds us why we must always go away such grotesque issues to precise educated professionals.
Although detectives didn’t discover a physique, Santry’s journey isn’t over. In response to the TikToker, the police have taken the rug in for testing. That’s excellent news for Santry’s viewers who’re salivating for her subsequent replace — however like web sleuths previous, Santry could be digging up greater than she bargained for.