In Ihururu village, Nyeri county, the body of a 46-year old teacher who went missing on December 22,2022 was on Thursday discovered nailed to a coffin inside his residential home.
The deceased, Joseph Gathogo was discovered inside his living room after a foul smell started emanating from his house. The foul smell lead the homestead caretaker, William Gitau, to alert police who soon after broke into Joseph’s house.
The police discovered, the secondary teacher’s naked body nailed to the coffin which had been placed inside a boat-like structure like acted like a make-shift grave marker.
The scene looked as a horror movie shoot, as a bouquet of flowers, a black flag and scrolls written in weird writings and a cow horn had been placed near the boat-like structure. Drugs suspected to be poison were also found.
On the day of his disappearance, Muhonya assistant chief Martha Wanjiru said Joseph had just come from supervising the K.C.S.E exams. He was not seen since.
The neighbors of Joseph found out about his missing as his relatives came to the homestead in search of him on Saturday last week. They later filed a missing’s persons report.
Joseph Gathogo
The relatives of Gathogo said, he occasionally visited their homestead but suddenly he stopped prompting the search.
Gitau, the caretaker to the homes, says he last saw Joseph , who he describes to be a loner who kept mostly to himself, on December 19,2022.
“You could only find him outside whenever he was going to the shop,” Gitau told nation
“The police broke into the house and found the teacher’s naked body inside a three-foot coffin in his sitting room.”
Investigations into the grotesque incident are underway according to Nyeri County Police Commander Steve Oloo who added that the deceased’s body has been moved to Nyeri provincial general hospital mortuary for storage and post mortem.
However, questions arise on how such an incident could occur as the body was nailed inside the coffin, and the door locked from outside.
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