On a casual stroll along the Great Miami River in Dayton, Ohio, Jenna Lynn discovered a box labeled “trash.” However, it was actually filled with sensitive evidence envelopes from the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab. The discovery sparked a massive conversation online after Lynn shared the footage on Facebook, which was then reshared on Instagram by Shantivia Newton.
The video captures the moment Lynn and her boyfriend realized they were looking at something truly strange. We see her climb down the riverbank and then show us the contents of the box: “Y’all, we’re walking down here by the Miami River, down Riverscape, and look at this sh-t,” Lynn noted. “Someone threw a box away. Miami Regional Crime Lab. It says these are blood swabs from an apartment. 2024. Blood swabs. Bullets for magazines. She’s all 2024.”
“A whole freaking box of them,” Lynn exclaimed. Later she added, “It’s just all sitting here. It says trash. It says trash, but someone trashed it here and not in another place. So I guess they didn’t need this anymore, really.” She also noted that there was a person’s name amongst the envelopes, Calvin Gibson. At the end, she turns the camera to herself and asks, “What’s really going on, Dayton? What is really going on?”
Lost by negligence, found by serendipity
On Instagram, Newton reposted the video with the caption, “WTFFFFF.” Honestly, the comments section for both platforms echoed this sentiment. On Instagram, one user commented, “As a defense attorney…. Where are you so I can notify the state bar and local district attorney …. This is how clients end up locked up & we know the DA is stalling but I can’t explain to them why…. Please let me know where you are.”
Another person wrote, “For anyone questioning how so many Black people are wrongfully convicted……” Other reactions included, “Dirty cops disposing evidence?” and “Call the Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB)in your area; they need to investigate that entire department!!” One commenter noted, “Dayton Ohio. they tried to discard evidence, so that means whole department should be investigated.”
Others suggested divine intervention or pointed to systemic issues, saying, “God WANTED IT TO BE FOUND.” On Facebook, one lamented, “So when they say someone’s case got thrown out. Is this what they really mean?” Many others called for her to escalate the complaint. One wrote, “Call the fbi cuz somebody hiding something! All that confidential information just sitting by the water.” Someone else wrote, “They saying call the police but they damn near the ones tryna cover something up.”
According to WXIX, Lynn explained that she and her boyfriend initially thought they had found discarded mail. “We thought it was just mail or something,” Lynn said. She emphasized her frustration with how the materials were handled, stating, “I just think that it was crazy to find this because it was only two years old and to throw evidence out like that. I just understand maybe if they don’t need it, but there’s proper ways to do it.” She also noted that she felt the situation was a safety hazard.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office provided some context regarding the incident. The Dayton Daily News reported that the Sheriff’s office took to Facebook to state that the boxes were supposed to be properly disposed of. They were disposed of in a special dumpster at the sheriff’s office headquarters after it was determined “the property contained in the envelopes was no longer needed because the associated criminal cases had been closed.”
Officials reportedly explained that the dumpster is typically kept under a lock. “It is believed that someone entered the dumpster and removed the discarded envelopes,” the post stated. While the sheriff’s office noted that removing discarded material from a dumpster is not considered illegal in itself, they are investigating how the items were transported from their facility to the riverbank.
Lynn confirmed that law enforcement arrived to collect the items shortly after she made the discovery. “Regardless of what this man did, the evidence of his case was found by the river,” she told WXIX.
Published: Sep 25, 2026 06:10 am