TikTok has been rife with potential true crime scenarios these past weeks. Just last month, a woman from Ohio discovered a rug buried in her backyard, prompting her to alert the police in fear that something sinister had happened. The viral video was dubbed “RugTok,” which explores the mysteries of rugs and what may be hidden in them.
Now, keyboard sleuths are at it again. A man named Dan (@smoothiedan164) was renovating his home in Utah when he stumbled upon bones in his crawlspace. He placed the bones on his kitchen counter and showed the audience, asking, “Does that look like what I think it looks like? It kinda looks like a human bone.” The bones were dirty and weathered, and Dan found several of them.
Comments quickly flooded Dan’s TikTok, with one saying, “tiktok dropping seasons quicken than Netflix. Wasn’t expecting season 2 of rugtok already.” Many advised Dan to immediately notify the authorities, while others shared their opinion about what Dan had discovered. One user wrote, “femur, patella, tibia, radius, ulna, humerus is my guess.” One said that they might be “old beef bones used for a stew.”
However, the bones weren’t all that Dan found. He uploaded another TikTok, this time showing a yellowing and dirty newspaper that he said was folded next to the bones in the crawlspace. It was the Ogden Standard Examiner dated Feb. 5, 1971, with the headline “Astronauts Set Down on Alien Moon, Take Their First Walk.” A user asked Dan whether there was an obituary in the newspaper, but Dan said it was the first thing he checked and there was none. The mystery just keeps getting better.
Are they human bones?
It’s quite difficult to distinguish human bones from animal bones to the untrained eye, so Dan sought help from the police. A third update on the series shows officers taking photos of the bones and checking out the crawlspace where Dan discovered them. Those following the series were kept on the edge of their seats, anxiously awaiting what the police had to say. “I’m canceling Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and MAX. TikTok is all I need and it’s free??” one user wrote.
The next TikTok Dan uploaded was a tour of their basement where the crawlspace is located. Toward the end of the video, Dan also showed an outdoor portion of the house where there were fingerprints and footprints on the cement — presumably from the former residents — with the date May 5, 1985. In the comments section, Dan wrote, “The forensics team took the bones and are confirming whether they are human or not. It will take time.”
For the fifth update, Dan and his girlfriend showed the crawlspace once again and provided more details. The bones were placed directly under the location of the master bedroom. They also found children’s toys including LEGOs and crayons, but it was far from the crawlspace. He also answered a question and revealed the house was built in 1963. As for how the investigation is going, Dan said it’s a waiting game. If the bones are determined to be human, he expects authorities to be back for an investigation. If not, he figures he won’t hear from them again.
The last TikTok was posted on Oct. 14 and as of writing, Dan hasn’t provided a new update. Many took this as a sign the police discovered something significant and aren’t disclosing information. On a side note, Dan did say that her girlfriend received a FaceTime call from him while they were both in the crawlspace, and he checked his phone only to see that he wasn’t calling her. Was it a ghost, or a technical glitch? At this point, we’ll just have to wait until Dan posts another update.
Published: Nov 14, 2024 06:33 am