What’s within the rug? How TikTok acquired swept right into a real-time true crime story | TechCrunch

A girl in Ohio is being haunted by ghosts. Or possibly 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 indicators from cadaver canine.

This week’s greatest drama on TikTok tells the story of a lady from Ohio who was constructing a fence in her yard, solely to uncover a mysterious rug buried on her property. Viewers speculated that her house could possibly be a possible homicide scene, and immediately, 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 subjects 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 canine at her home and a subsequent excavation.

The thought of a attainable physique in somebody’s yard is unsettling sufficient, and having hundreds of thousands of individuals watch it’s even crazier. Nonetheless, Santry appeared to take consolation in figuring out that others have been witnessing it. Commenters even inspired her to proceed digging (which we don’t advocate).

Tales like Santry’s have gotten startlingly strange — not the attainable 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 collection referred to as “Who TF did I marry?” and ended up with a TV adaptation within the works primarily based on her life. Hailey Welch (Hawk Tuah girl) 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 reveals 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 have been early YouTube vloggers, posting “Glee” recaps, ideas concerning the Twilight collection, and even interviews with the Jonas Brothers. Although Santry left that chapter of her life behind, she clearly discovered inform a compelling story on the web. 

By Thursday, murder detectives confirmed up with two cadaver canine to research the dug-up space. Santry livestreamed their go to on TikTok, as viewers anxiously watched on. The cadaver canine each sat by the opening within the grime, signaling that the canine sensed one thing was amiss. Quickly, Santry’s house was cordoned off with yellow police tape.

The next day, cops and crime scene investigators arrived with tools to dig up the realm. Fortunately, no human stays have been found, however this solely makes the rug much more perplexing to viewers.

“Possibly the crime occurred on the rug, and it was buried to hide proof,” steered one follower.

Different followers have been disenchanted 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 lot of different reveals in the identical style. Because the web made unfathomable quantities of public data extra simply accessible, some true crime followers turned hobbyist detectives, an ethically murky pursuit. 

Netflix chronicled one such phenomenon within the docuseries “Don’t F**ok with Cats: Searching an Web Killer,” which was one of many streamer’s hottest releases when it premiered in 2019. The collection 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 group investigated, the story by some means turned even darker when the perpetrator struck once more, horrifically murdering a college pupil. Whereas web sleuthing can often remedy some mysteries, it usually reminds us why we should always depart such ugly issues to precise skilled professionals.

Although detectives didn’t discover a physique, Santry’s journey isn’t over. In keeping with 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 is likely to be digging up greater than she bargained for.