A Rhode Island beach town police department searched for clandestine graves following rumors of a New England serial killer spreading like wildfire on social media.

The rumors stem from the discoveries of eight bodies across Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts between March and April, fueling hysteria of a potential New England serial killer on Facebook, TikTok and other social media. So far, however, local and state police have not linked any of the eight deaths, and it is unclear how many of the victims, if any, died by homicide.

“During the past week, the Narragansett Police were made aware of concerning posts circulating online where the author posted anonymously in a Facebook group dedicated to New England Serial Killers,” Narragansett police wrote on Facebook on Thursday. “Only the group administrator could see the actual user name of the individual. The post alluded to the possibility that multiple bodies were buried in Black Point area of Scarborough Beach.”

A private Facebook group previously dubbed “New England Serial Killer,” which has since lost its name due to Facebook policies, has more than 65,300 members. Last week, an anonymous member of the group made an eerie confession that prompted the Narragansett police to investigate.

Narragansett police say “detectives have also been in communication with the FBI regarding this matter.” ( John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe)

The Facebook group has garnered more than 15,000 new members over a few weeks.

Kuzman noted that within the Facebook group, “there must be some sort of confirmation bias, because you’re in the group for that reason,” and members may be making connections between cases that are not relevant.

Searches for “New England serial killer” on Google spiked around April 7, according to data from the search engine.