Katie Santry and her boyfriend discovered a rug buried deep in the ground as they were digging up their lawn to build a fence
The Columbus, Ohio, local shared the story on TikTok, which hooked millions of people
After some deliberation on how to handle the situation, Santry eventually decided to call the police. On Thursday, Oct. 3, investigators arrived at her home with cadaver dogs
Katie Santry has finally figured out what was hiding in the rug buried under her house.
The 34-year-old Columbus, Ohio, local first went viral on TikTok after sharing a video of herself and her boyfriend, Brandon, finding a rug buried deep in the ground while building a fence in their yard. After some deliberation on how to handle the situation, Santry eventually decided to call the police. On Thursday, Oct. 3, investigators arrived at her home with cadaver dogs.
Santry livestreamed the update on TikTok, capturing footage of two cadaver dogs sitting on the spot where the carpet had been found. The sight left Santry and the 100,000 viewers on the livestream in shock. She also posted more about the investigation in a TikTok video, which went viral with 8.2 million views.
On Friday, Oct. 4, a crew of police officers and investigators returned to Santry’s house to dig themselves. And after keeping her followers on the edges of their seats, Santry is finally getting answers, revealing to the world what the team found.
“They have recovered the hole and this has been the most absurd, insane experience of my life,” Santry says in a TikTok video. “What did they find? No, they didn’t find a body, they found a mother effing rug with some rubber. The question remains of why the dogs sat. I don’t know. Both dogs, not just one two. I don’t know. The other question remains is who broke my laptop,” she adds, referring to an incident inside of her home in which her computer was mysteriously shattered.
“I’m so confused,” she continues. “There’s no body, there’s no body. Honestly, let’s praise the Lord there’s no body. I can stay in my house … everyone knows where I live but at least it’s not haunted.”
“But the mystery of the effing rug has been solved, and there is no body,” she continues. “And they are doing a fine job of putting my stuff back up.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Woman Discovers Rug Buried in Her Lawn — and the Internet Is Convinced It’s a Dead Body (Exclusive)
Since posting on Friday afternoon, more than 7,000 people have chimed into the conversation in the comments.
“I simply cannot accept this answer,” one person commented.
“Why am I bothered that there wasn’t a body …” someone else wrote.
“I don’t know what to do with my life now!!!” another comment read.
Leading up to the conclusion, Santry, who’s since garnered almost 2 million followers on TikTok and 40,000 followers on Instagram, told PEOPLE in a previous interview how before going to the police she had done some investigating and digging of her own.
Initially, after finding the rug, she tracked down her home’s listing agent and spoke with the daughter of the original homeowners. She learned that the house was built in 1967 and had only one family living there before her. From their conversation, the previous family had no idea why the rug was buried; although they had dogs, none had ever dug in that spot, and all were cremated after they’d died, ruling out the idea of a pet being buried there.
Santry next decided to host her own digging party with her friends to see what they could find. At the time, she told PEOPLE that if they weren’t able to dig up the rug themselves she was eventually going to give up.
She said, “If I dig in one direction, I hit a rock fire pit area, which would ruin everything. If I dig in the other direction, just two feet over, there’s a bush taller than me — like a 10-foot bush.”
“I’ve already ruined one tree, which has some agriculturists on TikTok really upset because, apparently, bloodgood trees are very expensive,” she added. “I don’t want to kill another bush, so I’m honestly torn. If I put a post there and then something else weird happens, now there’s cement over it and I’m kind of stuck, trying to figure this out again. So, I’m like, okay, we’re just pausing on the fence for now while we try to decide what to do.”