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Detectives from the Major Crime Squad, responded to the Farmington River on Sunday, Sept. 11, at 2 p.m. and at the request of Farmington Police after reports of a rug found by a social media influencer, Sean Austin.
After investigating for several hours, detectives tested several large, irregular brownish-red stains on the rug and a presumptive test determined they were not blood, state police said.
"Detectives have found no evidence of the rug being related to any criminal case," the department said on Monday, Sept. 12.
Detectives located numerous rugs in the area and, after speaking with local kayakers, discovered that the rugs are used to launch and retrieve kayaks and to keep vegetation down at this location of the Farmington River, police said.
"We ask members of the public who find what might be evidence in a criminal investigation to contact 911 so that items can be processed and investigated by detectives and so that no potential evidence is contaminated," the department added.
Austin, who filmed the retrieval live on TikTok and YouTube, claimed the rug was possibly linked to the Jennifer Farber Dulos case, but detectives say there is no connection.
Farber Dulos was murdered by Fotis Dulos, her estranged husband at her New Canaan home on Friday, May 24, 2019, after she dropped off her five children at school. Her body has never been found.
Fotis Dulos later committed suicide.
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