History Main / NeverFoundTheBody

* In a Behind The Scenes video for ''Series/BreakingBad'', Tio's actor jokes that, even though he was inches away from a large explosion, this trope applies because the dead body wasn't shown onscreen.

** Rhaegar, Symond, and Jared Frey disappear en route from White Harbor to Barrowtown while serving as the Freys' envoys to Lord Wyman Manderly. It is popularly believed that Wyman has the three Freys killed and baked into three "pork" pies he serves during Ramsay Bolton's wedding to Jeyne Poole in Winterfell later on. This constitutes a violation of SacredHospitality, which is damn deserving considering the Freys had severely violated sacred hospitality by massacring the Northern army during the Red Wedding.

** Subverted in ''The Last Olympian'': Percy knows that Beckendorf could not have survived the fall from a ship into water that is not SoftWater; Percy himself survived only because he's Poseidon's son. Poseidon's forces don't find the body either. But later Nico, being Hades' son, has talked to the ghost.

* Seems to be going on in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''. Baron Wulfenbach seemingly died when his hospital exploded -- but his body wasn't found, and indeed, one of his aides tried to rescue him ''before'' the hospital exploded and couldn't find him. [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20120120 When his son notes this]], he's told that the Baron left clear orders: if the Baron ever ''seemed'' dead, they should immediately proclaim his son the new Baron.

** When he ''does'' turn up alive, both his son, Gilgamesh, and his rival Tarvek both exclaim "I knew it!"

* In Creator/RobinMcKinley's ''Literature/BeautyARetellingOfBeautyAndTheBeast'', Robbie Tucker, the fiancé of Beauty's eldest sister Grace and the captain of one of their merchant father's ships, is lost at sea and presumed dead in the storm that destroys the merchant's ships and costs the family their fortune. He remains Grace's [[TheLostLenore Lost Lenore]] throughout the next several years. Near the climax of the book, the reason why Beauty goes home to visit her family is because, through the magic of the Beast's castle, she learns that Robbie is still alive and looking for Grace.

** Subverted in ''The Last Olympian'': Percy knows that Beckendorf could not have survived the fall from a ship into water that is not SoftWater; he survived only because he's Poseidon's son. Poseidon's forces don't find the body either. But later Nico, being Hades' son, has talked to the ghost.

** For troop morale, "Spartans never die!", they only get listed as Missing in Action. Given the missions they are sent on, there are rarely any bodies to cover up (indeed, standard practice is for their teammates to detonate the miniature nuclear reactors fueling their PoweredArmor, to prevent the armor falling into enemy hands). Interestingly, Dr. Catherine Halsey, the creator of the Spartans-[=IIs=], makes it a point of keeping track of which ones are really dead. This allows her in ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'' to identify Kurt (his EVA suit had malfunctioned before he was thrown into deep space, but he was actually secretly snatched by ONI) when they reunite. Kurt himself goes on to update his status as MIA before performing a HeroicSacrifice by nuking a Covenant army at point-blank range.

** For troop morale, "Spartans never die!", they only get listed as Missing in Action. Given the missions they are sent on, there are rarely any bodies to cover up (indeed, standard practice is for their teammates to detonate the miniature nuclear reactors fueling their [[PoweredArmor]], to prevent it falling into enemy hands). Interestingly, Dr. Catherine Halsey, the creator of the Spartans-[=IIs=], makes it a point of keeping track of which ones are really dead. This allows her in ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'' to identify Kurt (his EVA suit had malfunctioned before he was thrown into deep space, but he was actually secretly snatched by ONI) when they reunite. Kurt himself goes on to update his status as MIA before performing a HeroicSacrifice by nuking a Covenant army at point-blank range.

** For troop morale, "Spartans never die!", they only get listed as Missing in Action. Given the missions they are sent on, there are rarely any bodies to cover up. Interestingly, Dr. Catherine Halsey, the creator of the Spartans-[=IIs=], makes it a point of keeping track of which ones are really dead. This allows her in ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'' to identify Kurt (his EVA suit had malfunctioned before he was thrown into deep space, but he was actually secretly snatched by ONI) when they reunite. Kurt himself goes on to update his status as MIA before performing a HeroicSacrifice by nuking a Covenant army at point-blank range.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' series does this a lot. In ''Tekken 3'', Ogre killed a bunch of people and absorbed some of their moves. However, since it wasn't said outright, there is a plausible out for future games. Wang, Bruce, Lee, Anna, and Baek were revealed to be OK, but Kunimitsu is "probably" dead. As for Jun...Well, ''WordofGod'' is still avoiding a straight answer 12 years later.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. At the [[DownerBeginning very beginning]], Harbinger springs a surprise attack on Shepard's ship, the ''Normandy'', in order to kill Shepard, given what s/he did to Sovereign at the end of the previous game. The ''Normandy'' is utterly destroyed, and Shepard ''does'' die, but Harbinger specifically sends out patrols to find the body just to be sure. As it turns out, this is justified; human-survivalist group [[NGOSuperpower Cerberus]] gets Shepard's body to resurrect him/her. A tie-in comic reveals that Harbinger actually got Shepard's body first, but [[HotScientist Liara]] recaptured it for Cerberus.

* In ''WebOriginal/TheCrawspace'', [[spoiler:Stephanie, Alisha and Lindsay]] went missing soon after the narrator fled back to America, and no trace of them was ever found, though the narrator is convinced they are dead.

* [[{{Determinator}} Hajime]], the main character of ''LightNovel/ArifuretaFromCommonplaceToWorldsStrongest'', fell off a bridge which was already deeper in the [[DungeonCrawling Great Orcus Labyrinth]] than anyone had ever gone, down several ''more'' levels into the most terrifying dungeon in the world. Since he was basically the ButtMonkey of the entire Hero Party up to that point, the general reaction was "[[NoOneCouldSurviveThat We won't be seeing him again.]] No great loss." Well, [[HesBack about that...]]

* The final fate of Amon and Robin in the last episode of ''Anime/WitchHunterRobin''. In fact, it is heavily implied that none of their colleagues believe the official story.

* Right before the SeasonFinale of Season 1 of ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'', Yuma, Kaito, Shark, and the supporting cast confronted [[TheDragon Mr. Heartland]] and his army of Litterbots who were standing between them and [[BigBad Dr. Faker]]. Heartland was last seen falling down a shaft that led to a portal to the Astral World, and his true fate currently remains unknown.

* Almost a RunningGag in ''ComicBook/{{Alix}}'', where [[ArchEnemy Arbaces]] appears as the book's BigBad, dies with or without leaving his body, and then returns in another story.
* Originally subverted in ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'' with the death of Guardian. Guardian's suit malfunctions after a battle and his body is seemingly vaporized. A year later someone claiming to be Guardian returned from the dead gave Guardian's wife Heather an implausible story that he was warped through time and space and landed on Jupiter's moon Ganymede centuries in the past and repaired by aliens and sent back to earth in hibernation. The story proves to be false when Guardian is revealed to be the robot Delphine Courtney and that Guardian is really dead. Years later it is revealed that the bizarre story Delphine Courtney seemingly concocted was actually the truth and the real Guardian was indeed alive but now was a cyborg because of the aliens not understanding how human bodies work when they tried to repair Guardian.

* According to [[WordOfGod writer commentary]] on the ComicBook/{{Batman}} tale ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween'', this is how most readers seemed to zero in on the killer. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen As it turns out,]] a cut scene showed the discovery of a body that was played as being Alberto's. It was not, of course.

* Played straight by ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'': The devil does it in [[http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0058/0058_01.asp this]] tract.

* [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]] is well known for his frequent use of this trope. One can probably find a handful of other comics and Batman-related media that will have the Joker falling to his "death" at the end (or something similar), only for him to show up sometime later without any explanation. One need only to go back to his comic debut, '''''Batman''''' ''numero uno''. Intended as a one-shot character, he was apparently killed, but at an editor's behest Bob Kane scribbled up a final panel that left a back door open in case they wanted to bring back this clownish fellow...\\
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Lampshaded by Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}} at the end of ''ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily'', where the Joker is in a helicopter that crashes into the sea. Batman shouts at Superman: "Find the body!", but he already knows that it won't be found because the matters between him and the Joker always end up unresolved.
* In one issue, the villainous Kadabra is caught in an explosion. A cop says, "There's no body. The blast must have incinerated the corpse. Guess that's the last we've seen of him." ComicBook/TheFlash looks at him like he's an idiot and responds "you're new to this supervillain thing, aren't you?"
* ''Film/{{Mandalay}}'': Since they’re on a boat, they don’t really look for Tony’s body after his “suicide.” [[spoiler: And even when Tanya does kill him, he conveniently falls out the window into the endless sea.]]

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsTheKingpin The Kingpin]] realized immediately that Characters/{{Daredevil|MattMurdock}} was still alive when he learned that [[Comicbook/DaredevilBornAgain the car he was locked in]] and thrown into the river didn't contain his body. Sure, he might have drowned trying to reach the surface and sunk into the mud but...

* Invoked pretty much word for word when Dr. Rune falls off a building roof into the river in ''ComicBook/TheMazeAgency Annual'' #1.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'' the wannabe hero turned villain Dodge ends up apparently disintegrated in a teleportation accident. Robin notes that there's a chance Dodge could come back but that he's probably dead, and Dodge never appears again.

* Oasis, from ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', has been killed and returned several times; the trope was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=000528 here]]. Later on, it became a plot point that you might actually be able to ''find'' a body and still count on her coming back. Subverted with Riff and Zoë. Torg sees their piloted robot burn up, but since there are no bodies and he knows the DFA is built in, he assures Gwynn it will be okay. They did flux out, but Zoë was brain dead. Worse yet, the audience finds this out along with Riff... after months of thinking she'd died on arrival, followed by two years trying to find her on life support.

* ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'': If the protagonist doesn't go out to fight at the end of Year 9, they worry with their friends about Dys's fate. He mysteriously disappears during the explosion, and it's unknown if he died in it or survived.

** The Stark children's uncle, Benjen, disappears early on in the series, when he leads a ranging beyond the Wall sometime after his nephew Jon Snow joins the Night's Watch. Jon is really itching to do a ranging himself because he hopes to find his uncle himself, although he never does. A theory that he is the true identity of Coldhands, the mysterious figure guiding Bran Stark and his company during their journey beyond the Wall, has been {{Jossed}} by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin himself.

* ''Literature/FireAndBlood:'' Prince Daemon Targaryen died by jumping off his dragon and ramming a sword through his nephew Aemond's eye, causing his dragon to crash into a lake at some speed. Years later, the body of Aemond and his dragon was recovered, but there was no sign of Daemon's. The romantically inclined Westerosi believe Daemon survived, swam to shore, and may have then quietly lived out his life in obscurity.