A small Japanese village was shook by a body found dead in the cess pit of the toilet. The man was so filfthy he had to be cleaned up twice before he could be identified.
A primary school teacher was horrified to discover the reality of what she thought was a strange object sticking out of a school toilet.
More than 30 years since the grim discovery, no one knows how the dead body ended up in the toilet remains a mystery, despite the pleas of locals who were convinced a murder had been committed.
Yumi Tanaka, a local primary school teacher had finished up her day and headed to the bathroom before going home on one February evening in 1989. She spotted something unusual sticking out of the squat toilet – it looked like the edge of a black shoe.
The truth shook the small Japanese village of Miyakoji. Yumi stepped outside to inspect the connected sess pit. She was horrified to find two bare human feet visible through the tank’s access point, according to News 18.
Police and firefighters arrived at the scene but struggled to pull the body out as the entry point of the outer pipe was only 36 cm wide – meaning the structure needed to be cut open. After many hours the body was found eerily curled up in the cramped spot, unclothed from the waist up, with his coat folded neatly to his chest.
He was positioned facing the toilet opening. Near his head lay one black shoe, which was the only piece of footwear found on the scene.
The body was so filthy, forensics had to clean the dead man twice. He had no visible injuries except for a few scrapes and his death was ruled as hypothermia. It was found that he died around two days before being found by Yumi.
Ultimately, the body was identified as 26-year-old Naoyuki Kanno, an employee at a nuclear power maintenance company and an active member of the village’s youth group. Naoyuki had left home around two days before his body was found.
His parents didn’t worry initially but after three days of no contact, they searched for him only to find his car abandoned near a farmhouse. The following day, his body was discovered.
Several theories to explain Naoyuki’s death have been discussed over the years, with one explanation being that he crawled into the pipe on his own, possibly to watch women in the restroom – to spy through the toilet opening.
It is unknown exactly what his relationship with Yumi was but it was rumoured he was either involved with her or was a close friend of her partner.
But nothing in his past suggested similar behaviour and his father had not noticed anything unusual leading up to his death. It also did not explain why he would risk getting stck in such a small space. Many also questioned how someone like him couldn’t realise the risk of getting stuck in such a narrow space.
Another theory pointed to the village facing debate over a plan to expand the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Naoyuki’s company was connected to the plant, and he had visited the site with a few weeks earlier.
A colleague he had visited the plant with had died by suicide just a month before Naoyuki’s death – leaving some to wonder if the cases were linked.
Despite more than 4,000 villagers signed a request asking the authorities to look into the case again – no new investigation was ever launched.