Garden renovation turns into crime scene after woman makes grim discovery

A content creator was left in shock after discovering something sinister while renovating her back garden.

The American woman from Columbus, Ohio, shared what she stumbled upon through a series of TikTok videos that have gone viral with millions of views, each.

Katie Santry was innocently digging in her garden when she stumbled upon the item, and in the video revealing her discovery, her and two others sound just as confused about what it was.

Text in this video read: "WHY IS THERE A RUG BURIED IN OUR YARD?"

The mysterious rug was found about two feet below the surface as she was digging holes to put up a new fence.

After calls from her followers to call the police, she caved and told them what had happened for peace of mind.

They came over and didn't seem too worried about the rug, but detectives returned to her home on Friday (4 October) this week, along with K-9 dogs and excavation crews.

Of course, the social media creator filmed everything that she could, providing updates along the way.

But the sister of a Columbus man that went missing five years ago, Dennis 'Danny' Fout, was among those at the crime scene, as she explained to NBC4 that she was 'hopeful' about the situation.

Millions of true crime fans couldn't get enough of her updates, as police spent all day digging around in her garden.

They revealed on Friday afternoon that no body remains were found and that the dig was ending, with the video series shooting the content creator to stardom, now boasting tens of millions of views across her videos since discovering the rug and gaining two million followers on TikTok.

She went live on the video platform as cadaver dogs got to work as one dog sat near the hole, asking an officer: "When they sit that means something though, right?"

To which they replied with, 'usually'.

Another dog then did the same thing, as Columbus Division of Police spokeswoman Jennifer Watson revealed to the Colombus Dispatch at the time that 'it could be anything' beneath the ground.

She added: "It could be body oil, it could be sweat. It could be blood, like maybe a nick or a paper cut, something as insignificant as that. At this time, we don't know what we're looking at."

Police were treating the matter 'seriously' as they couldn't 'leave any stone unturned' in situations like this.

On Thursday, parts of Santry's garden were cordoned off, with authorities resuming their investigation the following day, as the content creator provided several updates throughout the dat on Friday, as detectives surrounded the house and got to work.

An excavator also showed up later in the day.

"There's a tent set up and there's nine police officers and CSI in the backyard," the mother shared. "Homicide is here and missing persons, and CSI is bringing the shovels out."

She then revealed that she wasn't allowed to go near the area: "They've blocked how far I'm allowed to even go."

Officers were at work as a crowd built up around the scene, though now they have all left, for a fleeting couple of days, true crime TikTok fans were hooked.