Body of a missing teacher found nailed inside coffin boat-like structure in his house
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Missing teacher found dead and his body nailed inside a coffin boat-like structure in his house in Nyeri County
Missing teacher found dead and his body nailed inside a coffin boat-like structure in his house in Nyeri County.
The body of a teacher who had been missing for three weeks was discovered Thursday sealed in a coffin inside his rented home in Nyeri County.
The body of Joseph Gathogo was found in a coffin inside of a boat-shaped structure in the living room of his two-room semi-permanent home in the Ihururu settlement.
The grave was a “boat” built of concrete blocks that was wrapped in cardboard.
Near the ‘boat’, were flowers and paraphilia including a black flag, a cow horn, and scrolls written in a foreign language.
Gathogo, 44, a computer teacher at Muhoya Secondary School, was reported missing on December 22 last year.
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According to Muhoya Assistant Chief Martha Wanjiru, the teacher had supervised the exams for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education on that particular day.
“The school’s administration had asked him to help ensure a smooth running of the national examinations,” said Ms. Wanjiru.
But after retiring to his house from work that day, he did not come out of the house.
None of his neighbours realized he was missing until his family came looking for him on January 7, 2022.
According to Ms. Wanjiru, the teacher’s family filed a missing report with the police.
Mr. William Gitau, caretaker of the homestead in which the deceased lived for 14 years said that he was last seen on December 19, last year.
He, however, added that he did not find this strange since the teacher hardly left his house even during weekends.
“You could only find him outside whenever he was going to the shop,” he said, adding the teacher hardly engaged in conversations with people.
The caretaker realized that some foul smell was coming from the teacher’s house as he cleaned the compound.
The main door had been locked from the outside with a padlock while the back door was locked from the inside.
“The police broke into the house and found the teacher’s naked body inside a three-foot coffin in his sitting room,” he said.
Shockingly, the body had been nailed inside the coffin. Near the coffin were drugs suspected to be poison.
Nyeri County Police Commander Steve Oloo said the police are suspecting the teacher might have died by suicide.
“The body had no physical injuries while the door had been locked from the inside,” he said.
Mr. Oloo said the police have launched investigations to establish if the teacher had died by suicide.
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