Teacher horrified to find dead body in school toilet with chilling explanation

A primary school teacher was left horrified after discovering a dead body in the school toilet, a mystery that remains unsolved over 30 years later. Despite local speculation of a murder, no one knows how the body ended up there.

Yumi Tanaka, a local primary school teacher, had finished her day and was about to head home on a February evening in 1989 when she noticed something unusual sticking out of the squat toilet - it appeared to be the edge of a black shoe. The grim discovery sent shockwaves through the small Japanese village of Miyakoji.

Upon further inspection, Yumi found two bare human feet visible through the tank's access point, according to News 18. Police and firefighters were called to the scene but faced difficulties extracting the body due to the narrow entry point of the outer pipe, which was only 36 cm wide.

After many hours, they discovered the body 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, and near his head lay one black shoe - the only piece of footwear found at the scene.

The body was so filthy, forensics had to clean the deceased man twice. He had no visible injuries except for a few scrapes and his death was ruled as hypothermia, reports the Mirror.

It was determined he died around two days before he was discovered 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 stuck 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 suggested that the village was embroiled in a controversy over plans to expand the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Naoyuki's firm had ties to the plant, and he had made a visit there just weeks prior.

A workmate who had accompanied him to the plant tragically took his own life only a month before Naoyuki - leading some to speculate if the incidents were connected.

Despite over 4,000 villagers signing a petition urging authorities to reopen the case, no new investigation was ever initiated.