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9[[quoteright:326:[[Webcomic/SluggyFreelance https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/never_found_the_body_alt.png]]]]
10[[caption-width-right:326:Riff is too GenreSavvy to count out Oasis.]]
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12->''"Never count a Human as dead until you see his body. And even then you can make a mistake."''
13-->-- '''Lady Margot Fenring''', quoting a Bene Gesserit aphorism, ''Literature/{{Dune}}''
14
15A character is killed off, but their death occurs in such a way that no body is recovered.
16
17No matter how all laws of physics and biology indicate NoOneCouldSurviveThat, remember, this old rule trumps all: "[[NotQuiteDead Never count someone dead unless you have the body in front of you]]." (And in some cases, [[BackFromTheDead not even then]].)
18
19The daytime SoapOpera frequently uses this trope combined with PutOnABus. The actor is leaving the show and the producers want to take advantage of the opportunity for drama. The character is in fact being written out and will be [[BusCrash presumed dead indefinitely]]. However, they leave themselves an out without closing the door in case [[TheBusCameBack the actor decides to return.]]
20
21A common {{inver|tedTrope}}sion of this trope can be seen in shows where EverythingFades; if there ''is'' a body to be found, [[NotQuiteDead try not to get too used to his absence]]. Compare NoBodyLeftBehind.
22
23Subtrope of UncertainDoom. See also LeftForDead, when the body is ''seen'' but left behind without confirming it's ''dead''. May lead to declarations that HesJustHiding.
24
25Modern audiences have long since gotten cynical of shows that pull this, so it's on the verge of becoming a DiscreditedTrope; it's almost more common for it to be subverted, with characters automatically assuming someone is alive if there's no corpse.
26
27When those left behind proceed to put the disappeared person's house in order, that's declaring the person LegallyDead. If the mortal remains are eventually found, it's FinallyFoundTheBody. If someone wants to hold a MeaningfulFuneral despite the lack of a body, it may involve BuryingASubstitute. Compare ChekhovMIA and FakingTheDead. Also compare, slightly ironically, both DisneyVillainDeath and DisneyDeath. Contrast MistakenDeathConfirmation, where the body is present and checked for lack of life signs.
28
29!!As this is a {{Death Trope|s}}, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked spoilers abound]]. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Beware]].
30----
31!!Example subpages
32[[index]]
33* NeverFoundTheBody/{{Literature}}
34* [[NeverFoundTheBody/LiveActionTV Live-Action TV]]
35* NeverFoundTheBody/VideoGames
36[[/index]]
37
38!!Other examples:
39[[foldercontrol]]
40
41[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
42* ''Manga/TwentiethCenturyBoys'':
43** Sadakiyo's death is never seen on-screen, and both the characters and the reader only hear about it through a news story (which could've been easily manufactured by Friend.) This, of course, sets up his return at the end of the manga.
44** The same goes for Kenji, who suddenly disappears from the plot after the first third of the story, and the reader is told that he apparently died on Bloody New Year's Eve. He eventually returns in the final third of the story after [[TookALevelInBadass Taking a Level in Badass]].
45* The end of ''Anime/AldnoahZero'''s first season states Asseylum's body was never found. This leaves a glimmer of hope she survived. The second season confirms it: she's [[ConvenientComa comatose but alive]] in the Martian moonbase.
46* Invoked by Erwin in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''; When the Female Titan a.k.a. Annie summons Titans to swarm and eat her body before the Survey Corps can capture her, he observes that the Titans did not eat a human as they tore the Female Titan apart. He takes this to mean the Female Titan-Shifter escaped and is hiding among them in disguise. He is proven right moments later when she attacks Levi's squad.
47** In the post-timeskip Marley arc, the Survey Corps mounts a coordinated surprise attack against the Marley military in the internment zone of Liberio, and Levi seemingly [[CurbStompBattle dispatches the Beast Titan in a matter of seconds]], with merely some well-aimed chops at the nape followed by a hand grenade to the same area. Right in front of Pieck, Magath, Gabi, and Falco, no less. In the chaos, the Marley forces have no time to check Zeke's status and he is presumed dead, but of course, he then surprises Gabi and Falco once they sneak aboard the Paradis airship by being alive and well, and the whole "murder" having just been a StagedShooting to get him out of there safely and smuggle him to Paradis. After the dust settles, Magath and the gang who stayed behind soon catch on to this as well, and Zeke is declared public enemy #1... or, well, maybe #2. After [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Eren]].
48* ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'' has a variation: a certain redheaded conductor was presumed to be dead because they ''did'' find the body... well, what's left of it, anyway. Of course, the body is really that of that one similarly redheaded and uniformed lackey of Ladd Russo, who made the mistake of assuming that the aforementioned conductor would not be absolutely AxCrazy. Said conductor cheerfully got off the train with a near-perfect alibi and nary a scratch.
49* In ''Anime/BlazBlueAlterMemory'', as part of his brutal MindRape of Noel to initiate her transformation into Kuzanagi, Terumi brutally tortures [[LittleBitBeastly Makoto]] [[ForcedToWatch in front of her]], almost crushing her to death, then throws her off the roof of the building they're on. Her body isn't shown, but Terumi makes it quite clear [[LittleBitBeastly not even]] [[FantasticRacism a Beastkin]] [[NoOneCouldHaveSurvivedThat could have survived that fall]]. However, at the end of the series we see that Makoto did indeed survive.
50* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
51** Three of the Espada sort of vanish after losing. Coyote Starrk, Tia Harribel, and Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez are scarcely if at all mentioned after defeat and their defeats are rather open-ended. The one most likely to have really died, Starrk, was cut down by a statedly powerful attack from Shunsui Kyoraku and sort of fell, apparently dying, into the city below. Harribel, after successfully fending off Hitsugaya, Hiyori, and Lisa, got [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness offed by Aizen himself]], but what Aizen does to her is very tame compared to what other characters have survived (not to mention that Aizen has a fairly poor track record of actually ''killing'' the people he cuts down), leaving speculation open. The most likely to have lived, Grimmjow, gets whacked by Nnoitra after losing to Ichigo. Ichigo stops Nnoitra from killing him, but he hasn't been seen or mentioned since.
52*** The novels mention that, thanks to Orihime, Harribel and her fraccion managed to survive. Harribel is later revealed to be ruling the Hollow World after Aizen's defeat, before being defeated by the new BigBad. As of Chapter 624, Grimmjow is also confirmed alive.
53** Tsukishima's fate is left ambiguous in the anime, as the anime omits the line from the manga where Orihime forgets about him, implying he may still be alive. Tsukishima has been confirmed dead as of Chapter 518, where he, along with Ginjou and Giriko, shows up in Soul Society.
54** Gin is last seen bleeding out, but since [[TheMedic Orihime]] was in the area, there's a small chance he's still alive. Though with no mention of him after a TimeSkip of seventeen months, those odds have been shrunk significantly.
55** A bit of a weird case: 3rd Division's Lieutenant, Izuru Kira, was seen falling down with a huge hole in his torso in Chapter 494. Other characters mentioned that his reiatsu had disappeared, but his state was considered ambiguous then and not revisited for three years. In Chapter 654, however, we see Kira, ''walking around'' with that ''same huge hole in his torso'', which now is being propped open by rods, and he refers to himself as a dead man. Jury's still out on what just happened.
56* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' played quite a bit with this.
57** You could say that if a character doesn't explode inside a HumongousMecha or isn't shown lying on the ground in a pool of blood, they're probably coming back. Case in point, Nunnally and Sayoko were thought to have been killed on their shuttle in the FLEYA explosion that destroyed Tokyo. Justified later on because there were actually two different escape shuttles and Schneizel had arranged the whole affair beforehand. A few episodes later, it was revealed that Guilford joined the club.
58** One argument about Lelouch is that despite the ReallyDeadMontage, part of what makes the epilogue ambiguous and/or open-ended is that it never explains anything about him beyond that, like what happened with the body afterward. While it remains unknown in the original version of the series, the ''Re;surrection'' movie confirms that Lelouch is alive, revealing that Shirley (who is SparedByTheAdaptation in the compilation movies) and Schneizel stowed away his body out of the country so that C.C. can resurrect him.
59* At the end of ''Literature/CoffinPrincessChaika'' Season 1, Alberic Gillette is seemingly caught in a blast fired by the Soara Fortress and obliterated: all that is found of him is his sword. Season 2, however, reveals that he survived seemingly unharmed.
60* Subverted in ''Manga/DeathNote'' -- Naomi Misora's body was never found, but that was because Light stipulated in the Note that she would kill herself in a way that made her body unlikely to be discovered.
61* ''Manga/DGrayMan'':
62** Lenalee and Lavi watched a recording of Allen Walker apparently dying, but all that was left was a card and a bit of a bloodstain on the forest floor. Then BAM! Guess who wakes up by the end of the episode?
63** They never found Cross Marian's body either. His guards were put to sleep, and his [[CoolMask mask]] was found with a bullet hole in it in the middle of a pool of blood large enough that the blood loss ought to have killed him, along with his EmpathicWeapon. Recent Chapter 222, which is 54 chapters after his disappearance, has confirmed that he's alive. Road mentions in her dream world that he's sleeping, and she wants him to continue doing so for a bit longer. But the trope can still apply as we still don't know who has his body while he's possibly comatose.
64* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
65** Tao Pai-Pai pulls this coupled with UnexplainedRecovery: his death at the hands of [[HoistByHisOwnPetard his own grenade]] shows nothing but an explosion. Tao would later show up [[WeCanRebuildHim as a cyborg]] three arcs later.
66** Frieza manages to pull this off ''twice'' in one fight. First, he takes Goku's Genki-Dama/Spirit Bomb, leaving behind nothing but a crater. He shows up soon after with nothing but a cut tail for his troubles. At the end of the fight, he is again annihilated by Goku's attack ([[SignatureShot including the classic close-up of the villain's distorted face just before death]]) and again only a crater remains. He is later recovered when his father does indeed find the body.
67** When Gohan is blasted to kingdom come by Majin Buu, the Z-Fighters are all convinced he's dead simply because [[ICantSenseTheirPresence they can't sense his Ki]]. Videl even invokes this, pointing out they didn't find Gohan's body. As it turns out, Gohan was NotQuiteDead; the Supreme Kai rescued him and took him to the Kai's realm, and he was simply too far away for them to detect.
68** In ''Anime/DragonBallZCoolersRevenge'', Cooler invokes this: when Goku takes a direct hit from his EyeBeams and falls into a river, he orders his [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Armored Squadron]] to hunt him down. Even after they raze an entire landscape with {{Beam Spam}}s, Cooler isn't convinced and orders them to search every last inch of the area until they find him.
69* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
70** In the Tower Of Heaven arc, they don't even try to find Jellal's body. They just assume that since Erza was still alive despite merging with the damaged R-System to redirect the critical magic power meltdown while he himself was nowhere in sight, he must have sacrificed himself to save her, give him a ReallyDeadMontage, and go on with their lives. When he comes back in a later arc (albeit comatose and recovered by the villains of said arc to revive him) they're all shocked.
71** They also invert this with Lisanna, whose body is found immediately after her death but she turns out to have never died two years later anyway. If you're confused, it's because {{Alternate Universe}}s were involved where she heavily injured got snatched up to [[BizarroUniverse Edolas]] by a magic portal while her DeadAlternateCounterpart got left in her place.
72* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':
73** Justified: the body missing is of a person who can regenerate any injury, and the leader of one of the two allied armies present knows enough to find the body first, or he plans to betray his allies, and grab power for himself, one or the other.
74** {{Downplayed|Trope}} in the case of 2nd Lt. Ross. There ''is'' a body recovered, but it's so badly damaged that no one could be absolutely certain that it's actually hers. The "evidence" (dental records, etc.) found allow her to be considered LegallyDead.
75* Occurred in ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'' with Gauron. Again, and again, and again, and I think again. He just refuses to ''stay dead''. Let's see... airfield hostage situation? Never found the body. Afghanistan (Helmajistan)? Never found the body. De Dannan's takeover? Never found the body. Before the series started, he was shot in the head. I guess they never found the body on that one, either.
76* There are a couple of these in the Franchise/{{Gundam}} multiverse.
77** This happens to Quattro Bajeena in the final battle of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Zeta Gundam]]'', as his trashed mobile suit is discovered afterwards with the cockpit hatch open.
78** Averted in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]'' when the cracked helmet of Mu La Flaga is seen floating in space after taking an anti-battleship cannon head-on. Then played straight in the compilation special as the helmet is edited out to set up his return in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]''.
79** There was some speculation as to the fate of the first Lockon Stratos in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'', but WordofGod put a stop to all of that.
80*** Not that it stopped almost anyone else who seemingly perished in the last couple episodes of the season from then being confirmed as alive.
81*** The Platform/PlayStation2 title ''VideoGame/MobileSuitGundam00GundamMeister'' showed the body. Though whether that can be considered canon is debatable.
82* ''Manga/InThisCornerOfTheWorld'': Suzu's brother was killed in action but his remains are never returned; all the family gets back is a rock that they morbidly joke is his brain. Later, her mother was in Hiroshima when Little Boy went off and she is last stated as missing.
83* Yashiro Isana in ''Anime/{{K}}''. Kuroh and Neko find his parasol after Mikoto kills him with an explosion, and both of them believe he's still alive.
84-->'''Neko''': He has to come back! He's the ''immortal'' king!
85* ''Literature/KyoKaraMaoh'':
86** Conrart and Yuuri are trapped by a bunch of opposing soldiers, and the last thing Yuuri sees before being forced back to Earth is Conrart getting his arm cut off. When Wolfram and Gwendal get to the scene, all they can find of them is Conrart's arm. He later turns up alive (and with a new arm) as a general for the army opposing Shin Makoku, but everyone pretty much thought he was dead.
87** Also shown later, when Cimaron General!Conrart turns his sword on Yozak and basically pushes him off the side of a cliff. Everyone witnessing thinks Conrart had just killed his best friend since childhood, but at the end of the episode Yozak shows up with the Shin Makoku army as back-up and with only minor bumps and bruises.
88* Averted in a rather frightening way in ''Manga/{{Loveless}}'', for while they ''did'' find the body of Seimei and even matched dental records -- Guess what? He's alive.
89* ''Anime/MazingerZ'':
90** Kouji, Sayaka and the remaining characters never found Dr. Hell's body and assumed he was dead. Granted, it would be hard to search and find his body given that in the original manga his SupervillainLair HumongousMecha got blown up in middle of the ocean; in the anime series, the CoolAirship where he was fleeing got blown to bits and the remains sank in the ocean; and in another manga version, he was inside of his SupervillainLair as it drifted spacewards, bleeding to death due to a stab wound. Still, he returned at the last season of ''Anime/GreatMazinger'' like the second DragonInChief of the BigBad.
91** In Episode 31, the bus where three workers of the Institute commuted crashed. The police believed they died, but Prof. Yumi refused to believe that because their bodies were not found.
92* Happening two times with the prince in ''Literature/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit''. First, he is missing after the fire burned down his mother's palace. The second time, the leader of the hunters sees the bodies of the prince and Balsa at the bottom of a pit of poisonous gas but is unable to get to them. But as has been shown earlier, Torogai [[ChekhovsGun can make very convincing looking golems]] for short durations of time.
93* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
94** This is what happened with Obito -- while he was undoubtedly buried under a ton of rock and understandably believed to be killed, his team was unable to secure his corpse due to both their mission and the insurmountable amount of debris that had crushed his body. Then, come Chapter 599...
95** After Jiraiya is killed, his body sinks into the ocean and is never retrieved. Kabuto has plans to use Jiraiya as part of his zombie army, but finds himself unable to retrieve the body because the ocean pressure is too high, and decides that it is not worth the risk.
96* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has a few:
97** Pell was seen making a HeroicSacrifice by flying a massive bomb out of the range of innocents, seemingly blowing himself up in the process. Sometime later, a limping Pell returns home, only to find his own grave. In ''One Piece'', a character is not dead unless you see him die, otherwise he'll come back. After all, ''One Piece'' characters are MadeOfIron.
98** One of the major indicators to the fans about Sabo's revival was the fact that his body was never recovered. Then come Chapter 731...
99** In the Wano Arc, the reason Shogun Orochi is so paranoid about Lord Oden's vassals coming to kill him, despite their last sighting being inside Oden's burning castle 20 years prior, is that none of their bodies were found. Most of his samurai think he's being paranoid, but readers know that Oden's samurai and children ''did'' survive, and have teamed up with the Straw Hat Pirates to take down Orochi and Kaido.
100* Happened to a little girl named Momoka Oginome in ''Anime/{{Penguindrum}}''. She died in a bomb attack in the metro, but all that was found of her was her [[MacGuffin journal...]] the infamous "Destiny Diary" that her sister Ringo would use 16 years later.
101* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':
102** Pokemon Hunter J's ship fills with water and ''explodes'', leaving no sign but her glasses floating on the water. Did we just see our first actual human death in the anime?
103** A similar situation occurs when Cyrus, finally succeeding with his plan to create the perfect universe using Dialga and Palkia's power, gets absorbed into it. This "universe" ends up being destroyed when Dialga and Palkia regain control of themselves.
104** The old Stoutland that was Litten's mentor/father-figure in the ''Sun and Moon'' saga. It was clear that it was nearing the end of its life, but it simply leaves to pass away off-screen.
105* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'':
106** As Homura explains to Madoka, a magical girl who dies in a witch's barrier [[NoBodyLeftBehind does not leave a corpse in the real world]]. Thus, they will forever be "missing".
107** {{Defied}} in [[Recap/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaEpisode11TheOnlyThingIHaveLeftToGuideMe "The Only Thing I Have Left to Guide Me"]] with regards to Sayaka. Kyoko makes sure to take her body out of the witch's barrier and place it in a hotel for it to be found by a {{muggle|s}}.
108** Mami was eaten alive.
109* Subverted in ''Manga/ShamanKing''; [[BigBad Asakura]] [[TheJuggernaut Hao's]] [[KillItWithFire preferred method of killing]] leaves no bodies, but it also leaves no doubt that the victims are dead.
110* It's played with in ''Anime/{{Simoun}}'', and they seem to enjoy poking the viewer with it. Aresia "dies" in the very first episode, but they never find the body and, perhaps even more telling, she remains in the opening credits to the very last episode. You ''constantly'' expect her to reappear, especially when it is revealed that the action that caused her death is also a TimeTravel thing-a-ma-jiggy....except no, she never comes back, you never learn her ultimate fate, and everybody else moves on with their own lives. The end.
111* A rather sadistic version was featured in ''[[Anime/TenchiMuyo Tenchi Universe]]'', near the end of the series, when it goes from HeroicSacrifice to this to Ryoko surviving all in the course of three episodes.
112* Bam in ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod''. This, however, was cleverly staged, as he was supposed to be declared LegallyDead and go undercover for the next five years.
113* In ''VideoGame/{{Utawarerumono}}'', Hakuoro had Karula destroy a bridge suspended atop a high cliff with Touka standing in the middle of it. Everyone believed she died as the bridge collapsed, but in the next episode, she survived unscratched. It's different in the game. It's Touka who destroys the bridge (by accident) falls down the cliff, but manages to climb back... to the Wrong Side, and gets captured by Hakuoro's soldiers. Characters are understandably embarrassed by her silliness.
114* Subverted in the ''Literature/VioletEvergarden'' anime, where the Major was last seen heavily wounded in an area that was bombed immediately afterwards, and his dogtags were found nearby. The fact that his body was never found causes Violet to insist that he's not really dead, but it's implied she's just in denial and he never shows up again. However, it is played straight in the Light Novel, where he did in fact survive.
115* ''Anime/WitchHunterRobin'': The final fate of Amon and Robin in the last episode. In fact, it is heavily implied that none of their colleagues believe the official story.
116* Occurred in ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' with [[ManipulativeBastard Divine]], who fell from the highest floor of the skyscraper he was in, after being attacked by [[EldritchAbomination Aslla Piscu]]. Coupled with the fact that the building's interior collapsed due to the damage, and everyone else in the series who lost a Dark Duel crumbled to dust upon defeat (later undermined when one returned), it seemed at the time like he was [[KarmicDeath well and truly dead]]. However, as with many examples of this trope, this wasn't quite enough...
117* ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'': Right before the Season 1 finale, 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.
118* ''Anime/PatlaborTheMovie'' opens with Hoba, the programmer of the BABEL virus that was hidden in his operating system for the [[HumongousMecha Labors]], jumping from the Ark into the ocean. Gotoh notes that they never found the body. [[spoiler:In the climax, when the protagonists go to the supposedly evacuated platform to destroy it to prevent the virus from spreading, they pick up a signal from one employee in the building they're trying to demolish: Hoba. Noa goes after him, but it turns out that he really is dead: he attached his employee badge to his pet raven, perhaps as part of a ThanatosGambit.]]
119[[/folder]]
120
121[[folder:Comic Books]]
122* ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'': Creator commentary in the trade-paperbacks for the series discussed [[DeathIsCheap the problems associated with killing a character]]. The writers knew that any reader would ''automatically'' view any character death as suspect, so they decided to deliberately avert this trope by showing ComicBook/BoosterGold's corpse. They initially scripted the panel as his body falling to the ground in several pieces, [[{{Narm}} but they thought this came off as hilarious instead of dramatic]], so they instead had his desiccated skeleton fall to the ground instead. It turns out he ''still'' was not dead, [[FakingTheDead he just wanted to trick the villain]].
123* ''ComicBook/AgeOfTheWolf'': Sister Sigrid, the female Alpha werewolf, is well aware of this. After it looks like Rowan might have been killed in a crash, Sigrid makes sure to leave another trap behind, since Sigrid's mother told her to assume prey isn't dead unless you've seen the body.
124* ''ComicBook/{{Alix}}'': Often [[ArchEnemy Arbaces]] appears as the book's BigBad, dies with or without leaving his body, and then returns in another story.
125* ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'': Originally subverted 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.
126* ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'': After [[spoiler:Jenkins]] seemingly dies by [[TakingYouWithMe suicide-bombing a Majestic-12 strike team]], a horrified Robo asks if there's a body. Vik answers that there isn't one, at which point [[GenreSavvy Robo instantly calms down and says that this means the man isn't actually dead]]. Sure enough, [[spoiler:Jenkins]] returns sometime later, having survived the explosion and the ended up in the Vampire Dimension. It's then brutally subverted, as [[spoiler:Jenkins]] ends up ''actually'' dying at the end of his return arc, this time in a completely unambiguous way that leaves behind a body and no denying his fate.
127* ''ComicBook/{{Azrael}}'': In the final issue, [[Characters/{{Azrael}} Jean-Paul Valley]]'s body was already falling apart when he donned the Azrael armor one last time, being shot twice with armor-piercing bullets as he tackled his attacker off a balcony. The attacker survived, but Azrael's costume was the only thing left of Jean-Paul. Batman had a vision of Jean-Paul ascending to heaven, but he admitted to Alfred that he was already suffering from sleep deprivation and could have easily just hallucinated it. It wasn't until ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' that it was confirmed Jean-Paul had died.
128* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
129** According to commentary on ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween'', this is how most readers seemed to zero in on the killer. 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.
130** [[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...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.
131* ''ComicBook/BlazeOfGlory'': [[ComicBook/{{Gunhawks}} Reno Jones]] drops into a ravine, only to get dragged out of by ComicBook/RedWolf.
132* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'': PlayedForLaughs in one issue.
133-->'''[[Characters/CaptainAmericaHeroes The Falcon]]''': See, we like things resolved. If we see a bad guy die, we '''know''' we gotta get the body or he might come back from the dead!\
134'''Captain America''': "Might"?\
135'''The Falcon''': Okay. '''Will'''. With alarming regularity, in fact.
136* ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'': Happens with regularity whenever the titular VillainProtagonist wants to [[FakingTheDead fake his death]]. Problem is, you can't be sure he's dead even when you ''do'' have a body: Diabolik has occasionally left behind someone else's body in such a situation it would be mistaken for his, in one occasion fooling even ''DNA tests'' (he had swapped the sample that was to be tested), and not even seeing him being shot ''and'' checking the body is a guarantee of him dying (when that happened the guy who checked the body was an accomplice).
137* ''ComicBook/ExMachina'': Discussed. Ivan, Mitchell Hundred's old "mentor", is constantly on the lookout for Jack Pherson, the closest thing to a true supervillain they ever faced, even though Pherson was last seen in an exploding building. While Ivan would be GenreSavvy in a straightforward superhero comic, in this one he just gets written off. His arguments ring even more hollow when it turns out they found ''several pieces'' of Pherson, just not his head.
138* ''ComicBook/TheEyeOfMongombo'': Jumballah, the WitchDoctor who [[ForcedTransformation turned adventurer Cliff Carlson into]] [[QuackingUp a duck]], falls down an elevator shaft in the first chapter. No one knows if he really is dead or not.
139* ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'': Implied with steampunk cyborg Nazi Kroenen's backstory comic in the ''Film/{{Hellboy|2004}}'' movie art book: "In 1956, an unmarked grave was found in Romania. Dental records identified the remains: Karl Ruprecht Kroenen. Many, however, do not believe he is dead...Chief among them: Kroenen himself!" Considering that he had already removed his own lips, ''genitalia'', ''eyelids'' and replaced his bones with steel and his blood with sand or maybe cocaine by then, teeth don't seem like that big a deal, really.
140* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': In one issue, the villainous Abra 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." The Flash looks at him like he's an idiot and responds "you're new to this supervillain thing, aren't you?"
141* ''ComicBook/KidColt2009'': After the rest of the Cole family were murdered, Blaine Cole - the future Kid Colt - didn't find his younger brother Jeb's body. He assumes Jeb died in the fire when the house was torched, but the other two bodies were left outside. Jeb's fate is [[SequelHook never confirmed]].
142* ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'': In ''ComicBook/BornAgain'', [[Characters/MarvelComicsTheKingpin The Kingpin]] realized immediately that [[Characters/MarvelComicsMattMurdock Daredevil]] was still alive when he learned that 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...
143-->'''Kingpin:''' There is no corpse. ''There is no corpse.''
144* ''ComicBook/{{Manhunter}}'': Averted toward the end of the run, where Manhunter defeats an alien cyborg, watches him burst, burn, and fall from a great height. Then climbs down to confirm the kill, and FINDS him, dead.
145* ''ComicBook/TheMazeAgency'': Invoked pretty much word for word in the Annual when Dr. Rune falls off a building roof into the river in the first issue.
146* ComicBook/ThePunisher'': After [[Characters/MarvelComicsFrankCastle the Punisher]] is thought to have died after the destruction of Mutant Liberation Front's headquarters, the US army hire Federal Marshals to find him, since his body was never found. They contact [[Characters/MarvelComicsPeterParker Spider-Man]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsMattMurdock Daredevil]], his most frequent team-ups, and even though they both know he's a [[BadassNormal human with no special powers]], they won't rule out his survival.
147* ''ComicBook/TheRedStar'': Maya tries to argue for her husband's survival on this basis.
148* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': 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.
149* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': Just before the series got cancelled, Old Lace's body suddenly (and conveniently) disappeared. She later turned up alive in ''ComicBook/AvengersAcademy'', albeit stuck in another dimension; supposedly, the explanation was that Nico Minoru sent her there sometime in all the chaos that surrounded her death.
150* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'':
151** ''ComicBook/StarfiresRevenge'': When the titular villainess gets thrown into a moat from a great height, Characters/{{Supergirl|TheCharacter}} and the police believe Starfire has fallen to her death, even though their body is not found. Unsurprisingly, Starfire would reappear two issues later.
152** ''ComicBook/BrainiacsBlitz'': After watching ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} writhing on her Kryptonite trap, Brainiac averts his eyes to turn his force-field into a beam which blasts into atoms Supergirl's prison. He assumes Supergirl has also been annihilated, but by looking away he missed her slipping out of her cage.
153* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
154** At the end of their battle in ''ComicBook/TwoForTheDeathOfOne'', Satanis -- still occupying Superman's body -- fires an energy blast at Syrene and she disappears without a trace. Satanis is convinced that he has killed her and refuses to listen when Superman tells him she is not dead. Later, Superman reveals he tweaked Satanis' spell without him noticing so it sent Syrene away instead of destroying her.
155** In "ComicBook/LuthorUnleashed", Superman assumes that Luthor has been incinerated by planet Lexor's destruction and leaves, failing to notice Luthor crawling behind an asteroid. Subverted in ''ComicBook/Superman1939'' #385, which continues the storyline, and has Superman to ponder his nemesis surely survived and wonder when and how Luthor will resurface.
156* ''ComicBook/SwampThing'':
157** In the first issue of Creator/AlanMoore's run, Swampy goes picking through the remains of Arcane's airship looking for his body. ''Not'', he muses, for the bodies of his friends -- he's certain they're dead, given that they lacked superhuman powers and were, well, good guys. He finds all the relevant bodies, even Arcane's. Arcane still shows up again, possessing the body of Abigail's husband -- a fact that Abigail doesn't discover until after several weeks have passed ''and she's had sex with him several times.''
158** Another time Arcane is using an insect-hybrid body. Arcane is exploded, burned, and falls from a great height. And Swamp Thing goes down to check because this it the third time Arcane came back from the dead. Yes, that body is dead, but is that the end? NO! Of course not, this is ARCANE! Hell can't hold him.
159* ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'': Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheJudasContract''. After Terra was revealed as TheMole, she fought the Titans and eventually used her earth-manipulating powers to destroy the underground lair they were in. As they start to dig through the rubble, Beast Boy says that she could've used her powers to escape...and then he finds her body a couple of panels later.
160* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'': In "The Cigars of the Pharaoh", the unidentified drug cartel boss falls off a cliff near the end, but his body is not found. It is revealed in the follow-up, ''The Blue Lotus'', that this is none other than Roberto Rastapopoulos, who was reported missing in a newspaper article in ''Pharaoh''.
161* ''ComicBook/TomStrong'': Subverted, as during a confrontation with his old archnemesis, Tom learns that one of his old enemies appeared to have pulled this trope in their previous confrontation at the Niagara Falls actually broke her neck and drowned that time.
162* ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'':
163** ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'':
164*** The Green Goblin is shot by the police and falls into the river. At the end of the story the police have ships around the crime scene, we see some bubbles in the water...the end. He turns up again some issues down the line.
165*** Lampshaded by ComicBook/NickFury, after Peter's first fight with Venom, which ended with Eddie getting a face full of electricity and vanishing: "There's not too many actual rules to this game of ours but one of the big ones is: if there is no corpse the guy's alive." Nick is, of course, completely right.
166** ''ComicBook/AllNewUltimates'': Crossbones, very badly injured, escapes into the sewers. The Ultimates go after him but find other people instead. And Crossbones? Of course, he survived after all.
167** ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': Defied by Herr Kleiser. Although the Ultimates fall into his trap and are caught in the ground zero of an atomic blast, he wants evidence that Captain America and his battalion are dead. Keep searching!
168* ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'':
169** Jei's first and second appearances in his last appearance no one actually saw him disintegrate, and he's a spirit anyway; teased for the ex-Neko Ninja chunin unfortunately the giant explosion from the gunpowder he was sitting on probably rules this out.
170** Tomoe has a nightmare where Noriko escaped the explosion/cave-in at the end of "Mother of Mountains", but Usagi assures her that even if they don't find a body she probably didn't survive.
171* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman2006 Vol. 3]]: Alkyone went into the megalodon protected sea off a cliff on Themyscira and was presumed dead. A few issues later a megalodon that had been cut open from the inside washed up on Themyscira's shore, informing the reader that the villain was making a comeback.
172* ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'': Lampshaded, then subverted, as after being caught in a massive explosion, teenage supervillain-in-training Harm's body can't be found. After being told nobody could survive that explosion, Robin responds, "guys like that have nine lives." Turns out Harm did escape, only to be shot and killed by his father, who'd spent the last two issues trying to stop him. He does come back as a ghost later, though.
173[[/folder]]
174
175[[folder:Fan Works]]
176* In ''Fanfic/LostLatte'', Cure Wing finds Latte's collar, which leads him to believe she's dead.
177* ''Fanfic/WeaverNine'' features Derrida, whose power allows him to deconstruct and then reconstruct Society members who are about to be killed in battle. They emerge whole, alive, and sane as long as he has enough non-living organic matter gathered in one mass nearby. The deconstruction process only leaves a bloody smear behind, so no actual body is found.
178* No one ever finds vampire corpses in ''Fanfic/{{Luminosity}}'', since [[KillItWithFire the standard method]] leaves ash that could easily come from several things, including another (RedShirt) vampire.
179* In 'Shadows Of The Past' Will is surprised to hear that both Megatron and Starscream had thought he was dead as they never found his body.
180* In ''Fanfic/TheDilgarWar'', Jenny immediately asks if they have found Jha'dur's body on the relic of her battlecruiser. It's a curious example, as the story is told by a very alive Jha'dur many years after her supposed death, and the reader knows that.
181* In ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' story "Let It Rain", Miranda Gilbert (Elena's mother) is said to have been ejected from the car in the crash and washed upstream. Though it shouldn't be surprising when she returns as a vampire.
182* ''Fanfic/JewelOfDarkness'': Robin lampshades this trope when explaining to Starfire his reasons for being certain that Midnight, who was last seen beaten half-dead, survived their climactic encounter and the destruction of her lair at the end of the Jump City Arc.
183-->'''Robin:''' No body, no death, in our line of work.
184* In the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' story, ''[[Fanfic/LegacyTotalDrama Legacy]]'', Izzy was reported to have been killed in the sinking of a ferryboat, but her body was never recovered. This is part of the reason why neither Duncan nor Courtney believes that she is really dead.
185* In [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/203448 this]] ''Series/{{Glee}}'' fanfic, Kurt vanishes in the middle of a school day and is never heard from again except for his car, which is found three towns over with dried blood inside. The author [[WordOfGod confirms]] that Kurt is, in fact, dead.
186* ''Fanfic/RemembranceOfTheFallen'': There are no bodies at the cluster of grave markers for the crew of the USS ''Wolfram'' in the cemetery on Goralis. They were all either turned into Fek'Ihri or incinerated when the ''Wolfram'''s shipboard ArtificialIntelligence Raging Heart vented drive plasma into the infected compartments to stop the ZombieApocalypse (see ''[[http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=915881 Faces in the Flames]]'').
187* ''Fanfic/SaetwosStory'': As noted in-universe, while [[BigBad Romelau]] seemingly suffers a DisneyVillainDeath during the FinalBattle, his body is never found. Either way, however, he's never seen again.
188* Mentioned in a backstory blog for ''The Empress Returns'' (sequel to ''Fanfic/TheGodEmpressOfPonykind''); some time after the Battle for Terra, Commissar Yarrik caught his old rival Ghazkhull Thraka on an unknown ice world. Yarrik eventually tackled the ork warlord into a crevasse, never to be seen again. Imperial records say Yarrik won, but the orks believe that the two are still fighting down there, and will do so until the end of time.
189* ''Fanfic/TheHaddockChronicles'': Elsa is presumed dead by Arendelle's royal family, the last person from there to see her being her nanny, who tried and failed to save her from the sinking ship.
190* The ''Series/Lucifer2016'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13132580/1/Tragic-Life-Changes Tragic Life Changes]]" opens with Chloe and Dan being apparently killed in a plane crash, although only Dan's body is explicitly identified; Marcus Pierce states that Chloe had to be identified by dental records. When Maze sees a still-living Chloe (Chloe was [[DeusExMachina saved by God]]), she explicitly tells herself "Future reference, [..] If you don't see the body, they're not dead!"
191* ''Fanfic/ToHellAndBackArrowverse'': Oliver and Barry, of course, though after ten long years, one can't blame their loved ones for assuming they were dead. In fact, when the U.S. Embassy in China called Joe to inform him about Barry's survival, he initially assumed they had FinallyFoundTheBody and was ready to plan Barry's funeral.
192* In ''Fanfic/TheInstituteSaga'', [[Characters/MarvelComicsAngel Angel]] has his wings snapped by [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Gala]][[EvilTwin tea]] and is thrown into the ocean to drown. A memorial service is held for him and The Falcon takes up his mantle, but no one knows that Apocalypse rescued him and turned him into Archangel.
193* ''Fanfic/RWBYScars'':
194** Subverted with Ruby and Yang's MissingMom Summer. Her body was never recovered after she left on a mission and never returned home, but Qrow mentions that he knows what happened to it. Summer ''is'' dead, and Qrow killed her himself, but Salem kept her body for herself.
195** Blake is considered dead after Beacon is destroyed but no one ever found her body. This is because she survived and ran off. Ruby was one of the few that didn't believe Blake was dead.
196* ''Fanfic/TheSevenMisfortunesOfLadyFortune'' has Marinette shot seven times and dropping off a bridge. A funeral with an empty grave follows.
197* ''Fanfic/WhiteSheepRWBY'': After her battle with Cinder, a disturbing amount of Pyrrha's blood is found, but no body. Considering that there were plenty of monsters (including a dragon) running around, she was reported as dead. Cinder was forced to stop right before killing Pyrrha, when she realized that Pyrrha was in love with Jaune and Salem would ''not'' be happy with Cinder [[IWantGrandkids killing a potential source of grandchildren]]. She kidnapped her and took her to Salem instead. Jaune finds this out (and soon shows his friends) when his mom sends him a selfie of herself and Pyrrha.
198* ''Fanfic/BeyondHeroes: Of Sunshine and Red Lyrium'': As in [[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition canon]], when the Inquisitor and her companions return from the Fade, it's revealed that a sacrifice was made in order to allow this to happen. Varric helpfully points out that this trope is in play.
199* ''Fanfic/BridgeToTerabithia2TheLastTime'': How do you bring back a character who's canonically deceased in the original story? With this trope, of course -- turns out that Leslie was dragged out of the creek where she allegedly drowned, but unfortunately, by her uncle / dad's younger brother, who planned to abduct her and sell her off when she reached teenage-hood...
200* At the start of ''Fanfic/AshAndPetals''. Ozai is only presumed dead, as no one saw him die and there was no body left behind.
201* In ''Fanfic/WhatTomorrowBrings'', Ax and Tobias go on a mission to rescue Elfangor, who took Ax's place on the Dome Ship... and it turns out that he detonated it so it wouldn't fall into Yeerk hands, leaving no body behind. Tobias is frustrated about the lack of closure, but it's revealed a few chapters later that Elfangor is still alive.
202* In ''Fanfic/WhenAllIsLostThenAllIsFound'', Anna refuses to believe her sister Elsa is dead because no one has found her body. Everyone else believes Elsa is dead because her magical creation Olaf died. Both answers are true: Elsa ''is'' dead, but her soul is stuck between life-and-death and she needs Anna to revive her.
203* ''Fanfic/FireDarkMark'': During one climactic battle, Doctor Doom exploits the chaos to try to blast both heroes and villains into oblivion. When the smoke clears, he cannot see the bodies of the Fantastic Four, but he knows better than believing them dead without evidence.
204-->But the bodies of the accursed Four had to be found. Nothing less would do. If needed to be, he'd take blood samples from every inch of this field, type them with his own equipment in Latveria, and verify the deaths of Richards, his wife, John Storm, and Benjamin Grimm.\
205Nothing less would do.
206* ''Fanfic/ChasingDragons'':
207** Aeron Greyjoy's body is never recovered when he's supposedly killed at the Battle of Fair Island. As such, when a Drowned Priest claiming to be him appears years later to lead an unsuccessful rebellion against mainland occupation of the Iron Islands, it's unclear whether it's really him or not.
208** Ned Stark's body disappears after he dies in the Second Battle of Ghoyan Drohe, carried away by the river he's killed in and never being recovered. This leads to the InUniverse myth being born that HesJustHiding and [[KingInTheMountain will return when he's most needed]].
209* ''Fanfic/{{Wolfblood}}'': Aiden's body was washed downriver after he died during a hunt with Jad, and Jad did not retrieve it.
210[[/folder]]
211
212[[folder:Films — Animation]]
213* In ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2'', ''[[TestosteronePoisoning ludicrously]]'' macho supervillain El Macho is said to have supposedly died in the most macho way possible, by riding a shark into the mouth of an active volcano, with 250 pounds of dynamite strapped to his chest, leaving behind a burnt pile of chest hair. Sure enough, he's still alive.
214* The finale of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' is surprisingly silent on this subject. While the [[FinishingMove Wuxi Finger Hold]] is never expressly claimed to be fatal, the reactions of Po and Tai Lung (and Shifu's expression when he threatens to use it) all suggest it is at least likely to batter someone to a pulp, if not unsurvivable -- and the [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything suspiciously-shaped cloud]] after Po uses it would suggest there isn't anything left. Whether to avoid the typical DisneyVillainDeath, as a SequelHook, or because the snow leopard is just too badass to kill off, however, his death -- if such it was -- [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome happens off-screen]]... so it all becomes moot, due to this trope. And since Po's excited words to Shifu are "I defeated Tai Lung!" not "I killed him," then. It's finally revealed what happened to Tai Lung in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3''. It turns out the express purpose of the Wuxi Finger Hold is to banish those on whom it's used to the [[SpiritWorld spirit realm]] (where [[BigBad Kai]] comes from). A FreezeFrameBonus shot reveals that Tai Lung was one of the masters in the spirit realm whom Kai captured and drained of their chi. Whether this counts as "dead" is debatable since Po was still able to return to the real world after having used the Wuxi Finger Hold on himself.
215* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'', Bean tells Rango that while her father is deceased, and she keeps ashes into a jar, they never found his body. At least he didn't fall drunk down a mineshaft, according to Mr. Merrimack.
216[[/folder]]
217
218[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
219* ''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater'': Robert Carlyle's character seemingly loses his wife this way, when the house they were sheltering in is overrun by [[TechnicallyLivingZombie the Infected]] while he's elsewhere, and he sees her get tackled by one of them before he can reach her. Given that the Rage virus has an almost 100% infection rate and an incubation period of minutes at most, believing she was dead was a pretty reasonable assumption at that point, but it turns out she's [[TheImmune one of a tiny percentage of the population with a natural immunity.]] Unfortunately, that doesn't mean she's not ''carrying'' the virus...
220* ''Film/{{Abominable}}:'' [[spoiler:CJ's body disappears soon after the main monster apparently kills her with a FinishingStomp, although it's likely that the monsters merely spirited it away to hide the evidence or for food.]]
221* ''Film/BatmanBegins'':
222** At the end, [[Characters/BatmanRasAlGhul Ra's-Al Ghul]] is apparently killed when the train car he is in derails and crashes. He has so far not returned, but the fact that we never see his body ([[ImmortalLifeIsCheap along with some of his defining characteristics from the comics]]) has fueled much fan speculation. The novelization of the film says, however, that his body was never found.
223** In the third film, Characters/{{Ba|tmanBane}}ne's {{mooks}} capture Commissioner Gordon. Bane is furious that they brought him to his secret location. Gordon manages to fall into water and is washed away into a sewer pipe. The mook claims that NoOneCouldSurviveThat, but Bane demands to see the body before he'll believe it. When the mook tries to complain, Bane puts a radio-beacon on him and [[YouHaveFailedMe shoots him]], letting the mook fall into the water (with the hope that wherever the mook ultimately washes out of the sewers, they can pick up Gordon's trail from there with the radio).
224* ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'' ends this way, but the audience is shown the truth; Nikki knows the truth as soon as she hears the news report.
225* ''Film/{{Brazil}}'': They never do find Buttle's body, despite his wife's repeated cries throughout the film. It's lost in the bureaucracy.
226* ''Film/{{Bullshot}}'': That Hun swine Otto von Bruno's plane crashes at the end, and [[{{Narrator}} Professor Fenton]] states that "his body was never found", but after TheHero and his {{Love Interest|s}} get married, we see Otto [[MasterOfDisguise disguised as their chauffeur]]. But that is another tale.
227* ''Film/Daylight2013'': Ray was convicted thirty years ago of the murder of the prostitute Rosita and her infant daughter Anna, but Anna's body was never found. Part of the reason Iris thinks he's innocent is that she doesn't think he would have been clear-headed enough to hide a body. [[spoiler:Sure enough, it turns out that Iris is really Anna, raised by [[FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo her biological grandmother Ageeth]].]]
228* ''Film/TheDeadGirl'': One character's (Leah) sister was abducted fifteen years ago, and Leah insists (to her mother!) that her sister must have been raped, murdered, and dismembered and then hidden somewhere she'll never be found. Much of her plotline deals with trying to find closure.
229* ''Film/DOADeadOrAlive '': The film-of-the-game starts with Kasumi being told by Ryu Hayabusa about her brother Hayate's death in the DOA tournament. Kasumi immediately demands to see the body. Hayabusa tells her that there is no body. Kasumi then flatly states that Hayate is not dead and goes to find him. On the other hand, Ayane, who is secretly in love with Hayate, doesn't question that he's dead. Later on, [[BigBad Victor Donovan]] personally tells her that, after his fight with Leon, Hayate fell off a cliff, and his body was never recovered. Naturally, Kasumi assumes Donovan is lying, especially after fighting Leon and finding out he's a mediocre fighter at best (i.e. no match for Hayate).
230* ''Film/{{Dredd}}'': After wrecking a quarter of a floor with a trio of mini-guns trying to kill them, Caleb insists that the Judges aren't dead until they've at least found some pieces of them. He's right to do so -- when he finds Dredd's body, it's still alive and is in the process of throwing him off a 76th story balcony.
231* ''Film/EddieAndTheCruisers'': Overanguished Jersey rock star Eddie Wilson fakes his death by driving his car off a bridge into the Raritan River. Eddie is seen in the last shot watching TV in a shop window. This becomes a plot driver in the sequel, when the Evil Record Company, which is cashing in on some previously unknown Eddie Wilson tracks, uses the lack of a corpse to build excitement by spreading the rumor that the tracks might have been recorded "after Eddie died." All this while Eddie is actually hiding out in Montreal, startled to be suddenly hearing his old music on the radio (sniff).
232--> '''Website/TheAgonyBooth:''' Is it even ''possible'' in movies for someone whose body was never found to ''actually be dead''?
233* ''Film/{{Freejack}}'': StableTimeLoop version: In this Creator/EmilioEstevez movie, race car driver Alex Furlong appears to die in a car crash in 1991, but his body is secretly teleported into [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture the futuristic year 2009]] by a businessman for use as a transplant host. When Alex escapes and looks up his old friend, the friend is not surprised to see someone who died 18 years ago, because...they never found the body.
234* ''Film/FridayThe13th1980'' has Jason Voorhees, who was said to have drowned in Crystal Lake in 1957, whose body was never found.
235* Defied in ''Film/TheFugitive''. The title character, Dr. Richard Kimble, leaps from the top of a dam to avoid being arrested. Most of the pursuing Feds are sure he's dead and one of the Marshals says their quarry is likely "fish food". Gerard doesn't believe it without a body and he turns out to be right, their fugitive survived the fall:
236-->'''Gerard''': [[DeadpanSnarker Alright then, go get a reel and rod and catch me the fish that ate him.]]
237* ''Film/GoneBabyGone'': The missing girl is declared dead, although the body was never found.
238* ''Film/TheGuard'': Uses this twice -- one with Aidan then at the end with Gerry.
239* ''Film/HalloweenII2009'':
240** Michael's body at the beginning of this Music/RobZombie film.
241** Every ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'' movie, for that matter. Michael has a habit of pulling disappearing acts after seemingly being killed.
242* In an indirect way in ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjayPart2''. When Katniss is shot during the liberation of District 2, Snow knows she survived because the resistance doesn't immediately treat her like a martyr.
243* ''Film/TheIncredibleShrinkingMan'': When Louise returns home she finds that Scott, her [[IncredibleShrinkingMan mouse-sized husband,]] is missing. She then sees that the dollhouse where he lives is smashed and finds their cat with a scrap of Scott's shirt in its mouth. This causes her to conclude that Scott has [[UndignifiedDeath been eaten by their pet cat.]] which explains the lack of a body. However, Scott survived his encounter with the cat but ended up trapped in the basement. Since everyone thinks he's dead no one looks for him there and the rest of the film is Scott's day to day survival in his new surroundings.
244* ''Film/TheInvisible'': AvertedTrope, as Nick's body ''is'' eventually found, even though he is NotQuiteDead.
245* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'':
246** Aragorn plunges off a cliff during the warg battle in ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers The Two Towers]]''. Naturally he proves to be NotQuiteDead.
247** Not to mention Gandalf's fall in ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]''. He actually died though, but not because of the fall, and, as he was a maia (angelic spirit), he was brought BackFromTheDead by his employers anyway.
248* The theatrical ending to ''{{Film/Ma}}'' has the title antagonist presumably die in a house fire, but an [[RevisedEnding alternate ending on the DVD]] adds a postscript where it's mentioned in dialogue that her body wasn't found -- naturally this leads into a scene that reveals her to be badly burned but still alive and in hiding.
249* ''Film/ManOnFire'': In the 2004 remake, Pita (Dakota Fanning) is kidnapped, and later said to have been killed. At the end of the movie, it is revealed she is still alive.
250* ''Film/ManOfSteel'': Sort of speculation here. Although the C-17 delivers its payload, the idea was to send Zod's mooks back to the Phantom Zone; this means they MAY not be dead, and all the people on the plane still kicking it may be trapped with everyone the Kryptonians ever threw into the Phantom Zone.
251* ''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.]]
252* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
253** ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'': Averted Trope. Agent Coulson ''appears'' to die, but the scene cuts away before we find out whether he was really OnlyMostlyDead and taken to a hospital room. [[Characters/ShieldDirectors Nick Fury]] plays the death for all it's worth in getting the bickering heroes to put aside their differences, but is explicitly shown to be a ConsummateLiar about other things (including lying about the ComicBook/CaptainAmerica trading cards being taken from Coulson's body, rather than his locker!). Furthermore, the actor who plays Coulson has said he was assured by Creator/JossWhedon that the character survives. As of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD,'' he's alive and kicking, and knowledge of this is restricted to 'level seven' clearance.
254*** This is only ''sorta'' accurate. The WhamEpisode reveals that Coulson did indeed die at Loki's hands, but was resurrected several days later (against his will) via a few different types of extremely disturbing ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} tech which included a memory wipe of the entire process.
255*** In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it part of a deleted scene, Steve is reviewing files after thawing out in the 21st century. One of them lists Bucky Barnes as M.I.A., meaning that S.H.I.E.L.D. thinks he may be still alive, alluding to the fact that Bucky "died" by falling off a train, his body never being recovered. This was foreshadowing for the upcoming ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' film, where the identity of the eponymous Winter Soldier is a ForegoneConclusion for anyone who has any knowledge of the comics.
256** In general, the only way you can know for sure if a character who dies midway through a film is dead in the MCU is if they're shown having a funeral for said character -- Coulson, Bucky, Loki, and Nick Fury all seemed to be killed at one point, but later turned up alive. This has led some fans to suspect Quicksilver will come back after seemingly being killed in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''.
257* ''Film/{{Maverick}}'': Played with:
258-->'''Maverick:''' Well, Porkchop Slim owed me too but he died and his widow used the money for the funeral.\
259'''Eugene:''' Oh, they never found the body.\
260'''Maverick:''' What?\
261'''Eugene:''' They never found his body.\
262'''Maverick:''' The widow Porkchop conned me? What is it with people nowadays, anyhow?
263* ''Film/MaxPayne'': Max Payne is shot by the bad guys and falls into the sea. The bad guys don't bother waiting around to see if he gets back up, they simply presume he is dead. All it took Max was some painkillers and the drug and he was good as new.
264* ''Film/MessalinaMessalina'': This 1979 Italian comedy insinuates that Messalina and Silius may have escaped the Gardens of Lucullus.
265* ''Film/MyFavoriteWife'' (1940) and its remake, ''Film/MoveOverDarling'' (1963): Ellen Arden was last seen falling into the ocean while trying to board a lifeboat to escape from a sinking ship. Her husband has her declared LegallyDead after seven years and remarries -- only for Ellen to return just as he is leaving on his honeymoon.
266* ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1962'': Professor Petrie fled the printers after his face was burned by acid and then jumped into the river. The policeman who witnessed what happened was certain Petrie then died as the current was so fast, and never bothered to have the river dragged for his body. As it turned out, though, Petrie survived and went to live under the local opera house as the Phantom.
267* ''Film/TheReturnOfGodzilla'': In the American version, Steve Martin pretty much says this about the [[Film/Godzilla1954 1954 version]] of Franchise/{{Godzilla}} and its [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters1956 1956 American cut]]. "Just for the record, they never found a body." Of course, in ''Film/GodzillaAgainstMechagodzilla'', they ''did'' find the body...And turned it into the titular Mechagodzilla.
268* ''Film/{{Revolution 1985}}'': Daisy is presumed dead when the British ambush her at Valley Forge. The ending reveals that she is alive and well.
269* ''Film/TheRock'': At the end, Stanley Goodspeed claims that John Mason was caught in a missile blast and either vaporized or blown to sea. When this report is made, Mason is standing right next to Goodspeed, totally unharmed. Mason then uses the report of his death to allow him to start a new life.
270* ''Film/RuthlessPeople'': SubvertedTrope after the kidnapper and his car fall into the water at the pier. A short time later, we see the police fishing the corpse of the Bedroom Killer (who died earlier in the kidnapper's house by accident) out of the water (the kidnappers put him there as a decoy) while the kidnapper survives thanks to SCUBA gear and makes it to the beach to be reunited with his girlfriend and Mrs. Stone before the end credits roll.
271* ''Film/SherlockCaseOfEvil'' opens with Moriarty being believed dead after he is shot by Sherlock Holmes and falls down an open excavation into the sewer where his body is washed away. Holmes actually uses the phrase word-for-word after he realizes that Moriarty is still alive.
272* ''Film/TheShining'': The original cut of this Creator/StanleyKubrick film had an epilogue in which Wendy is visited in the hospital by the Overlook's manager, Mr. Ullman, who tells her that they never found Jack's body. Kubrick [[DeletedScene excised]] this scene shortly after the film's initial premiere.
273* ''Film/{{Snatch}}'': Brick Top guarantees this by feeding the corpses to pigs. In a scene, he describes the animal's eating process.
274* ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022'': After the destruction of the Giant Eggman Robot, G.U.N. finds no trace of Robotnik's body among the debris. The commander is convinced Robotnik's a goner, but Stone is seen to have survived at least.
275* In ''Film/SpeedRacer'', the body of Rex Racer ''was'' found, but it was so badly burned up that it was impossible to recognize. Speed later uses this as evidence that Rex possibly survived the "fatal" accident and came back as Racer X. This is subverted later in the movie, when Racer X takes off his mask to show Speed that he's a different person entirely and assures him that his brother is dead. Double-subverted when it turns out that Racer X ''is'' Rex, who faked his death and got MagicPlasticSurgery so he could fight corruption in the racing league without bringing danger to his family.
276* ''Franchise/StarWars'' actually has a number of these.
277** Played straight in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' with Boba Fett falling into the Sarlacc up until his [[EnsembleDarkhorse extreme popularity]] [[InferredSurvival proved otherwise]]. The first episode of Season 2 of ''Series/TheMandalorian'' confirms that he survived, his armor having been claimed by a different character named Cobb Vanth before being gifted to the title character and an unmasked Boba cameos at the end of the episode.
278** Mace Windu is another prime example. Generally, any Jedi who has a considerable fanbase will have somebody speculating their survival of Order 66 at some point.
279** {{Subverted|Trope}} twice in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': First, when Order 66 is executed and Obi-Wan Kenobi is shot off a cliff and falls into the sinkhole, Commander Cody orders his men to keep searching for a body. It happens again after a battle with Palpatine which ends with Yoda falling to what should be his death, and Commander Thire reports that they haven't found the body.
280---> '''Mas Amedda:''' Then he is not dead!\
281'''Palpatine:''' ''Double'' your search!
282** Shaak Ti was definitely killed in a deleted scene of ''Revenge of the Sith'', but since her death scene was deleted there have been other tie-ins, like ''The Force Unleashed'' video game, where she survived.
283** ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' features the Emperor returning as the BigBad. Even though at the end of ''Return of the Jedi'' he was thrown down a seemingly bottomless shaft and seemed to explode, and then the Death Star II itself exploded shortly afterward, we never actually saw his body. ''Rise of Skywalker'' is vague on whether he really did survive or whether the body he has in that film is a clone instead.
284* ''Film/TheStendhalSyndrome'': In spite of all the things she does to him before pushing him over a cliff into rapids, Anna refuses to believe the killer is dead. Turns out, she's wrong. But there's a copycat. [[MindScrew And it's her.]]
285* ''Film/StrikingDistance'': Early in the movie, cop Jimmy Detillo apparently commits suicide by jumping off a bridge into a river. His body is never found, but he is given a funeral. Jimmy Detillo reappears at the end of the movie and reveals he was the mystery serial killer all along.
286* ''Film/TooManyHusbands:'' Bill Cardew is declared legally dead after a boating accident, based on a coast guard's report, so his wife marries his best friend and business partner Henry Lowndes. Then Bill shows up, having been on a DesertedIsland in the meantime. (Like ''Film/MyFavoriteWife,'' this story was InspiredBy ''Literature/EnochArden'' by Creator/AlfredLordTennyson.)
287* ''Film/TheTrumanShow'': Part of Truman's reasoning for why the man he saw could be his father after all. Naturally, part of the reason for his dad's disappearance and the way he returns follow the soap opera model.
288* ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'': Gets a LampshadeHanging twice. With Penn already having bitch-slapped a subordinate for thinking a SEAL team captain could die so easily, he himself falls folly to it and the below dialogue takes place (close to an exact mirror of his own earlier speech). As he immediately points out though, alive or not, Ryback is ''not'' on the train (since Ryback is the hero, this situation-redeeming fact obviously doesn't last very long):
289-->'''Marcus Penn''': [[Creator/StevenSeagal Ryback's]] gone, Dane.\
290'''Travis Dane''': Did you see the body?\
291'''Marcus Penn''': No, but I assumed...\
292'''Travis Dane''': Assumption is the mother of all FUCKUPS!
293* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
294** Sabretooth and Toad from [[Film/XMen1 the first movie]]. To this day, their fates are still unclear. Sabretooth was confirmed to have survived in the official video game prequel to ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', but the game itself has since been rendered CanonDiscontinuity by the events of ''Film/TheWolverine''. So basically his fate is once again up in the air.
295** In ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', Cyclops' body is never found after his death.
296[[/folder]]
297
298[[folder:Music]]
299* The pilot in Music/KimWilde's song "Cambodia" goes missing in action just when his wife is expecting him to return home.
300* The song ''Music/ToKeepMyLoveAlive'', there's Sir Alfred, who's sent on a hunting trip. As the song goes, "They're hunting for him still".
301* In the song "Hazard" by Richard Marx, a young woman goes missing and the narrator is blamed for the disappearance, but they never find the body. Averted in the [[MusicVideoOvershadowing accompanying video]] however, which adds a lot of backstory, several additional suspects not mentioned in the song, and importantly a corpse.
302* In the song "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia", by Creator/VickiLawrence, the female narrator of the song admits she was the actual killer of her brother's friend Andy (whom the brother has been wrongly executed for murdering). She murdered Andy and the brother's cheating wife (Who'd also slept with "That Amos boy, Seth") and confesses that the the wife "never left town" as most people thought but rather was killed by her but "That's one body that'll never be found".
303[[/folder]]
304
305[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
306* Practically a staple of Cherokee folklore. Ulagu, Spearfinger, and other monsters are given uncertain demises that suggest they may just be biding their time.
307* Also a staple of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. There's Elijah, Enoch, Moses, Mary mother of Jesus, and UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} himself. The first two are explicitly confirmed not to have died, the latter died and were buried, but God never disclosed where Moses' body went, Mary's tomb was later found to be empty (and many believe she was bodily assumed into Heaven), and Jesus came BackFromTheDead, bodily [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascending to Heaven]] in full view of his original band of Disciples later on. (What he did with his body after that is not known, though Christians, not sharing the Gnostics' presumption that flesh and blood are evil, presume he's still using it). The ultimate form is the ''Rapturos'' ("Catching Away") a.k.a. the Rapture, which will involve the resurrection of the dead, and every living member of the Faithful ascending into Heaven, presumably leaving many ''more'' empty graves and tombs.
308[[/folder]]
309
310[[folder:Pinball]]
311* In ''Pinball/WhoDunnit1995'', the brakes on Tex's car are sabotaged by Butler after he overhears Tex threatening Victoria. Tex drives off a cliff and the car explodes, but the body was never found. He gets plastic surgery, renames himself "Bruno", and plots revenge on Victoria.
312[[/folder]]
313
314[[folder:Podcasts]]
315* In ''Podcast/InStrangeWoods'', unlike Jacob, Howl's body was never found, leading some characters to speculate that he survived and went elsewhere.
316[[/folder]]
317
318[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
319* The Death Defiance Heroic Knack in the ''TabletopGame/{{Adventure}}!'' RPG allows for cases of this in order to come back when people think you're dead.
320* A villain flava in ''TabletopGame/{{Badass}}'' called "They Never Found The Body" allows the villain to "die" in a way that allows them to come back to haunt the Badasses in the future.
321* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
322** The original ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' modules for suggested this tactic to the Dungeon Master, as the MythArc of the adventures relies on several key [=NPCs=] surviving until the end.
323** Module I6 ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}''. In the BackStory, Tatyana threw herself from the walls of Ravenloft castle and disappeared in the mists. Her body was never found. She appears in the module in another body, under the name Ireena Kolyana.
324** Breaking a Staff of the Magi causes a titanic explosion -- but has a 50% chance of sending the user to the Astral Plane instead of killing them.
325** Vampires have a nasty habit of turning into SuperSmoke to escape defeat. If no body is found, make sure it's because it was destroyed by sunlight.
326* Invoked by name in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', where a character called Mist, the Eternal Revolutionary made a strange pact with TheFairFolk for the power to overthrow Tyrants ([[MotiveDecay and anyone else he deems unfit]]). If he should die by unverifiable means, somehow the Fae magic that protects his destiny is changed and he shows up again later, miraculously saved.
327* The ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' Advantage ''Extra Life'' is designed so that "no matter how sure your enemies are that you have been killed you'll come back". Of course, for purposes of game balance, you have to pay points of each Extra Life.
328* In ''TabletopGame/HongKongActionTheatre'', a character with the Mysterious Death signature move never dies in a way that would leave no doubt, and usually involves something that engineers this situation. Then, upon spending all your Chi pool or a number of Star Power points, the character can come back.
329* When someone in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' dies and doesn't leave a corpse, chances are they just became a planeswalker.
330* In''TabletopGame/SavageWorlds'', the ''Harder To Kill' Edge gives you a 50% chance of miraculous survival after being 'killed'.
331* Outright suggested to the DM in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'s'' fourth edition rulebook, as a story-telling sleight of hand to avoid having to do in important {{N|onPlayerCharacter}}PCs before their time, regardless of what the rules and dice would otherwise say.
332* ''TabletopGame/SpiritOfTheCentury'' has a stunt that lets {{Player Character}}s do this, but it's generally assumed that if anyone dies offscreen, then they're liable to come back. The stunt just lets you come back in the same session.
333* Encouraged for Game Masters in the PDQ-system superhero game ''Truth & Justice.'' Where heroes get Hero Points to spend on bursts of luck and desperation-fueled skill, villains get Villain Points to spend on "really" being robot clones (and thus never being in the fight in the first place), to have their body never be found, or to make miraculous escapes from prison. Given the free-form nature of power acquisition in the game, it's entirely reasonable to have "Body Never Found" be a standard power for some villains, as a form of [[JokerImmunity immortality]].
334* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
335** In ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy Battles'' vampires are quite fond of this.
336** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' in general now tend to use this when special characters come to grief -- if one "falls" in battle, expect them to make [[NotQuiteDead a miraculous (or diabolical) recovery,]] [[UnreliableNarrator have the reports of the death somewhat in doubt as propaganda or simple error,]] or just have them "falling in the swirl of battle" somewhere and coming back. Somehow.
337[[/folder]]
338
339[[folder:Theatre]]
340* In ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'', both main characters assume that their sibling was lost in a shipwreck and that they alone survived.
341[[/folder]]
342
343[[folder:Toys]]
344* In ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'', WordOfGod made it the official rule. Death off-screen, not found the body? So don't believe what other characters say, they will come back. This is possibly subverted with Matoro, though his body was turned into energy on-screen. [[spoiler:This includes [[BigBad Makuta Teridax]] whose death is left ever so slightly ambiguous with Tahu hoping that he is indeed dead for good this time]].
345[[/folder]]
346
347[[folder:Visual Novels]]
348* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
349** Happens in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' with Thalassa Gramarye. She was shot by accident by either Zak or Valant Gramarye (it's never determined) 7 years ago and disappeared before her killer could see her body. She turns out to be alive under a new name, Lamiroir, a character you actually meet before knowing about Thalassa. Valant Gramarye even lampshades this trope:
350--->'''Valant:''' ...I realize that I, no...we never saw proof of her demise. We never saw her body.
351** Pulled in ''Trials and Tribulations'' with Dahlia Hawthorne. You learn in case 4 that she dived into a river famous for taking corpses when she was a child, but because she appears in case 1 (which chronologically happens after 4), you know she survived.
352** Played with in ''Justice for All'' with Ini Miney. Her body was seen, but so badly burned that she was mistaken for her sister Mimi, who went on to have plastic surgery to imitate Ini.
353** Becomes a heavy plot-point in the sequel of ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'', as due to a series of tragic coincidences led to the accidental theft of the victim's body in the IS-7 incident, Manfred von Karma was forced to use a forged autopsy for it in order to avoid losing the case. Gregory Edgeworth finds this out and slams him with it and other evidence tampering that took place during the trial, leading to DL-6.
354* In ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', Mikan Tsumiki's execution is different from the rest in the sense that she's never shown dying on-screen. Back in the day, this, combined with the theories of her beloved being the previous BigBad (eventually proved correct), resulted in a theory that she would turn out to be the mastermind or at the very least an accomplice, although it doesn't happen.
355* Happens in the past to Kyousuke's elder brother Kyouhei aka "Maou" in ''VisualNovel/TheDevilOnGString'' whereby his body was never found in the London bombings, thus was presumed dead by the world prior to events of the game.
356* In ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'', after the second avalanche on Barbarossa, both Dennis and Dr. Mosely are presumed dead by the authorities, but their bodies are never found.
357* In ''VisualNovel/TheEmptyTurnabout'', Arts's body was found shortly after his murder and was declared dead by Mary Adair, a witness, but it was gone when the police arrived. The trial goes in circles as the defense, the witnesses, and the prosecution debate about the murder method and the body's whereabouts. Even Mary's report is called into question late in the trial by herself to complicate matters even more.
358* In [=ClockUp=]'s ''Euphoria'', Andou Miyako's is never stated as ''dead'' in the game. Her dying body just disappears from the electric chair room after the events of the first "Keyhole" room, no matter who you choose. This is something even her VA brings up in the extras.
359* Kirei Kotomine of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' in UBW where Tohsaka [[LampshadeHanging asks Caster]] if she made sure Kirei was really dead, and had she made sure to check the body?
360* At the start of ''VisualNovel/HotelDuskRoom215'', the body of Kyle's traitor partner, Bradley, isn't recovered after he was shot. Kyle naturally suspects that Bradley is still alive and goes looking for him.
361* ''Franchise/WhenTheyCry'':
362** ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'': Oyashiro-sama's annual curse results in one corpse and one disappearance, with both victims supposedly having angered Hinamizawa's local god. They're really just a string of coincidences (ex. Satoshi being secretly taken to the clinic for treatment of the HatePlague after killing his abuisve aunt), and occasionally the BigBad taking advantage of the superstition.
363** ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': The Rokkenjima incident of 1986 resulted in the apparent deaths of nearly the entire Ushiromiya family, leaving Eva as the SoleSurvivor and Ange, who'd avoided that year's family meeting because of illness. Most of the island is gone, and [[IdentificationByDentalRecords only a piece of Maria's jawbone]] could be recovered that placed little chance for anyone else surviving. It turns out that ''900 tons of explosives'' left over from World War II were set off to cover up a GoldFever murder spree.
364[[/folder]]
365
366[[folder:Web Animation]]
367* At the end of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZzbxNoMjGM "Mr. Puzzles Wants You to Be Less Alive"]] (aka. "The First Horror Movie Written Entirely by Bots"), Mr. Puzzles gets shot near the end, and after one final deadly puzzle that he had presumably recorded and set up in advance, he's nowhere to be seen and the detective remarks: "Mr. Puzzles is not here. He must be forever dead and gone." The woman, relieved, sits down, but then she receives a text from Mr. Puzzles, revealing that she's just failed one more puzzle, because the chair she sat down on was really a chair saw.
368* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'':
369** The Meta fell off a cliff after suffering injuries that [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat no one else could survive]], hooked to a falling ''Warthog''. His body was ID'd by the army, as implied by the fact that the guy debriefing the [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience Reds and Blues]] saying that they'd found three freelancers, and there were only three at Avalanche, including the aforementioned.
370** Played straight with Grif. Invoked and lampshaded while he's hanging there.
371** Invoked in ''Relocated''. Lopez claims he killed Sister back at Blood Gulch. Grif doesn't believe it.
372--->'''Grif:''' I'll tell you what: you produce a corpse, I'll believe it.\
373'''Simmons:''' Huh?\
374'''Grif:''' Listen, once when we were kids, we went ice skating, and she fell through the ice. She was under there for three hours, and when they pulled her out, not only was she still alive, she was pregnant. If you can explain that to me, I'll believe you when you tell me she's dead.
375** Near the end of Season 13, the heroes wonder if blasting Felix off a precipice was really enough to kill them. Immediately after, Locus subverts this trope's implications by taking Felix's Great Key and activating it -- something that would have been impossible had Felix survived his fall.
376* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': At the climax of volume 3, Ozpin fights Cinder and appears to be winning when the scene cuts away to Jaune and Pyrrha. As they debate what to do, Cinder suddenly bursts up the lift to the top of Beacon Tower; the students assume Ozpin's dead while the audience assumes HesJustHiding At the beginning of Volume 4, Salem interrogates Cinder over whether or not she really killed Ozpin because the idea of Cinder succeeding makes her suspicious. When Cinder insists she's telling the truth, a baffled Salem wonders what Ozpin is planning. Salem knows that Ozpin was a reincarnation of her ancient lover and nemesis Ozma, and that every time the physical body dies, Ozma's soul, Aura, memories, and abilities transfer to a [[TheChosenOne new host]]. The transfer begins a process of merging between Ozma and the identity and abilities of the new host to [[ResurrectiveImmortality become Ozma's newest reincarnation]]. While Salem remains mysteriously disturbed by Cinder's success, [[LegacyOfTheChosen Ozma's legacy]] transfers from Ozpin to Oscar.
377[[/folder]]
378
379[[folder:Webcomics]]
380* In ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}'', a dimensional distortion swallows Argent and Garshask while they were fighting. Karn insists that since no bodies were found, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160702150441/http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/20020510.html they're obviously still alive]]. He's right. And in another incident, after BigBad Khrima accidentally destroyed a magic crystal, wrecking a sizable part of his fortress, Drecker mentions that Khrima hasn't been heard from in months. Ardam speculates that he might have died in the accident, and wonders if they've seen the last of him. There is a pause, then both heroes burst out laughing.
381* Subverted in ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja''. Though Frans Rayner's body is never recovered, his death is confirmed when [[TheGrimReaper Death]] is heard inviting Frans Rayner to purgatory.
382** ...but played straight with Knickerbockers.
383** ...[[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/17p53 And now]] possibly [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverted]] or at least {{lampshade|Hanging}}d.
384* The i-Jin of Jeeves tried to use this trope in ''WebComic/AndShineHeavenNow'' to convince Walter that he was who he said he was: Jeeves had gone missing during World War 2 and was presumed dead, but they never found the body, so it was reasonable that he was still alive. He didn't count on one thing though: Walter was the one to MercyKill Jeeves in the first place.
385* ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' invokes the trope, [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=030716 lampooning a quirk in]] ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' where destroying a vehicle ''technically'' doesn't count as killing its occupant, even if NoOneCouldSurviveThat:
386-->'''Big Boss:''' ''(after [[StuffBlowingUp blowing up a helicopter with a rocket launcher]])'' Kaz, I said ''non''-lethal!\
387'''Miller:''' Do you see the pilot's body?\
388'''Big Boss:''' No, just smashed-up helicopter parts. It's pretty bad.\
389'''Miller:''' [[LoopholeAbuse How can you prove anyone died if you don't see a body?]]
390* ''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 [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20120213 "I knew it!"]]
391-->'''Bang:''' I always wondered how he planned to run off and leave you holding the bag. Impressive.
392* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' [[CardCarryingVillain Fructose Riboflavin]] was presumed dead for centuries before he turned up alive in Earth's solar system.
393* The ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'' version of the Mythbusters, having died in a broken submarine on the bottom of Loch Ness, ''again'', [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/comic.php?current=3971&theme=17&dir=prev successfully argue]] to the [[TheGrimReaper Death of Inadvisable Airlock Opening]] that since ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' is a TV show, and nobody found their bodies, they can't really be dead.
394* Several times in ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell''; Fenton, Vin, basically all the Witnesses Relocated by the bird conspiracy.
395* Helen's mother pulls this off twice in ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'':
396--> '''Helen''': I watched the villagers burn you at the stake, chop your corpse into little pieces, and hop all over them!\
397'''Dr. Narbon''': There's always an out, Beta. Remember that.
398** In the "filename story", it turns out that what she ''actually'' saw was a video brought by the family lawyer.
399** In a later arc, she's marked for death by the Dave Conspiracy (long story), who demand really solid evidence. Unfortunately, they're trying to get rid of an EvilutionaryBiologist with ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder; we don't see exactly what she leaves in a cardbox for Dave and Artie that will convince the other Daves, but [[DecapitationPresentation it's easy to guess]].
400--> '''Artie''': I'm sure the explanation for this is very clever, but I'm equally sure I never want to hear it.
401** Also said about ANTONIO SMITH, FORENSIC LINGUIST:
402--->'''Helen:''' You did kill him, I assume?\
403'''Mel:''' I blew up the English department. No bodies were recovered.\
404'''Helen:''' Oh well, I suppose it'll keep him out of my hair a little while.
405* Discussed and {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0793.html here]]. Apparently, being GenreSavvy requires you to be {{Genre Blind|ness}}.
406* ''Webcomic/ReBootCodeOfHonor'': Sprites hit with a Code Master's [[BoomStick Gibson Coil Pike]] are believed to have been deleted, but in reality, they are transported directly to the BigBad.
407* Lampshaded, subverted and parodied in short order in ''Webcomic/SamAndFuzzy'' after arc villain Mr. Blank takes a dive down the side of ''a flying skyscraper''.
408-->'''Sam:''' He's gone for good.\
409'''Fuzzy:''' You don't know that!\
410'''Sam:''' Fuzzy...\
411'''Fuzzy:''' We only saw him fall! He might have survived! We '''[[LampshadeHanging never saw the body]]!'''\
412'''Fuzzy:''' [[SubvertedTrope Oh...Nevermind]], '''[[SubvertedTrope there]]''' [[SubvertedTrope it is]]. [[{{Squick}} And there's some more of it over there]]!
413* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance''
414** Oasis 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 becomes a plot point that you might actually be able to ''find'' a body and still count on her coming back.
415** ZigZagged at the ending of "bROKEN" and the following stories. Riff and Zoë are inside a mecha that burns up and explodes, but Torg assures Gwynn that they must be alive because there were no bodies found and because he knows Riff had installed an emergency escape device that could teleport the pilots to a random dimension. But we subsequently see that the way the events were shown unfolding was not the real truth but false memories of Torg's born from his denial that it looked as though Riff and Zoë really had died. ''And'' we're shown that Riff and Zoë indeed ended up in a random dimension, but it looks as though they die on arrival. And then... well, there are just a ''lot'' of layers to this StoryArc.
416* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': After Duane and Miki's murders the scene is shown with Duane's body lying alone in the snow. Nearly a decade later in both the comic and realtime it's revealed that [[spoiler:Miki actually survived the night, though with serious life-threatening injuries]].
417[[/folder]]
418
419[[folder:Web Original]]
420* In ''Literature/TheCrawlspace'', [[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.
421* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'':
422** Cooler is [[GenreSavvy savvy enough to never believe an enemy is dead unless he sees a body]] to the point where he refuses to pay his underlings unless they find Goku's corpse as proof and later even states that his brother Frieza did a better job at killing him than them if Goku wasn't found, bear in mind Freeza not only failed to kill Goku but nailed himself with his own attack instead.
423** Vegeta mentions having shot down a pod carrying his brother Tarble while trying to hit Santa's sleigh as a child, specifying that they never found the body. Team Four Star has gone back and forth on whether he's still alive.
424* In the story ''[[http://matthewe.com/sliced-bread-2/ Sliced Bread 2]]'', Dennis's response to Greyghost describing that his archnemesis was finally dead:
425--> "Hold on a second," I said. I was never a big comic book guy, but [[GenreSavvy I've read enough to know what kind of a deal this was.]] "Did you actually see him dead? You personally saw his corpse and verified beyond doubt that it was him and he was dead?"\
426"[[SubvertedTrope Mm? Yes.]]"\
427"Okay then."
428[[/folder]]
429
430[[folder:Western Animation]]
431* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' had one [[MonsterOfTheWeek target]] shot by Archer and promptly buried under an avalanche. Archer, Ray, and Lana decide it'd be a lot easier to just assume that he's dead.
432* Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse:
433** Many times had The Joker seemingly faces his demise, only to turn up later unharmed.
434*** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm'' has Joker being taken away by The Phantasm, presumably to be killed. Guess who showed up later in the series, unharmed? Go on, guess!
435*** The ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "MadLove" (which was based on an earlier DCAU comic story) had Joker plummeting into a smokestack. Later, Characters/{{Harley Quinn|TheCharacter}} is in her cell at Arkham, and she sees a rose from Joker next to her bed. Discussed by Batman when he tells Harley that, even if she succeeded in killing him, the Joker wouldn't believe it, because any proof of it would seem faked. [[BatmanGambit He does this specifically to trick Harley into telling the Joker to come over, and the Joker would stop Harley, during which argument Batman would escape.]]
436*** In ''[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS2E16To18WorldsFinest The Batman/Superman Movie]]'' Joker is left for dead in a falling airplane; with explosions going on all around him, Joker simply laughs as the aircraft plummets into the water. A news reporter says that it is unlikely that Joker survived...[[JokerImmunity yeah right.]] (Curiously, this was one time [[OutOfCharacterMoment even Batman seemed to have doubts whether he had survived.]] When Harley -- whom Batman had managed to rescue -- shouted, "Puddin'!" in anguish, he replied, "Right now, he probably ''is''.") Joker is later confirmed to have ''[[UnexplainedRecovery somehow]]'' survived thanks to appearances in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' and {{Flashback}}s in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker''.
437** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'':
438*** After Blight is trapped in a sinking/exploding submarine, GoingCritical, Batman drops by Paxton Powers' office. The CoincidentalBroadcast mentions that Blight's remains have yet to be found. Paxton smirks and says "So, he melted with the sub." Batman responds "Sure he did," and walks off. Possibly a subversion, since Blight never appeared again on the show. He did return in the comic books based on the series but was frozen at the end of the issue.
439*** The situation is repeated in "Inqueling" after Inque's daughter Deanna doublecrosses her mother. In an echo of the previous scene with Paxton Powers, Batman turns up to warn Deanna not to get too comfortable: "She's been dead before." Sure enough, Inque reappears in "The Call, Part 1," proving Terry right. (Deanna's fate is never mentioned. She's last seen reacting fearfully to every shadow, as her shapeshifting mother could be literally anywhere.) The storyline with Deanna is actually resolved in the comics, where an origin of Inque is also revealed. In the comic story, Deanna is in the hospital, with the same disease her mother had that forced her to adopt her powers, and Inque seems willing to forgive, pausing to feed a small droplet of her own substance into Deanna's IV cord before vanishing.
440*** In a {{Flashback}} scene in [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker The Movie]], Harley Quinn [[DisneyVillainDeath seemingly falls to her death]] after her fight with Batgirl. Gordon does point out that a body was never recovered, but doubts Harley would be starting trouble again after decades. She is alive, and is not amused with the criminal activities of her granddaughters.
441* A crime in the ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' episode "To The Rescue" has all the earmarks of a crime committed by Aldrin Klordane, who is supposed to have drowned over a year ago. However...he still manages to be the mastermind behind a new crime, in addition to very much alive. Detective Drake points out the possibility of his survival using the title of this trope.
442* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E53HeroForHire Hero for Hire]]", the police only find the Webbed Wonder's costume, not the body, after a supposedly fatal crash. [[GenreBlindness This raises no one's suspicions.]]
443%%* Diane Simmons in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.
444* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E19And20Hereafter Hereafter]]", some of Superman's enemies teamed up and Toyman attacked him with a gun that makes everything disappear. There was no sign of Superman's body or anything that might have been his body but Batman was the only one who saw it as a reason to doubt Superman actually dying. [[Characters/DCComicsVandalSavage Vandal Savage]] also figured out Superman was alive (he was sent to the future) but it's not clear if he already suspected it from the beginning.
445* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Bolin and Varrick escape from Kuvira's custody when [[TakingYouWithMe Varrick sets off a mini-nuke on Kuvira's train]]. They narrowly escape alive, thanks to some quick earthbender tunneling, but Kuvira puts out wanted posters for them anyway, just in case they didn't die.
446* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'': In season 8, Garmadon uses his colossus to crush the Destiny's Bounty with Zane, Cole, Jay, Kai, and Wu onboard. They're presumed dead, and Lloyd and Nya mourn them as such, but no one investigates the wreckage. When Lloyd and Nya stumble upon it later, they realize there are traveler's tealeaves, which allow for interdimensional travel. With new hope, they search and realize there are no bodies and only half of the ship, which means everything else has to have gone ''somewhere''. (Of course, the audience already knew they'd been transported to the First Realm.)
447* Laserblast from ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'' entered a donut shop which was then sucked into a black hole created by a strange weapon. His teammates immediately [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat assumed he was almost certainly dead]], and that whether he was alive or not, he was definitely not in their world any more. It turns out that he's still around, having escaped and decided to live in hiding under another name.
448* Jack at the end of the ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' episode "Jack and the Spartans"; he seemingly sacrifices himself to protect the Spartan King from an explosion, and all that's left are the two shields he used. The Spartan King, however, believes that Jack survived, as anyone as badass as Jack wouldn't die like that. Naturally, Jack does, in fact, survive.
449* ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhost'': In the episodes in which they originally appeared, most of the major villains (Brak, Creature King, Metallus, Moltar, Spider Woman, and Zorak) suffered defeats in which they might have died but no body was found. Space Ghost even lampshades this: when Jan or Jace asks him if a villain survived or might return, he admits that they could have survived or that they might see that villain again.
450* [[ManipulativeBastard Toffee]] from ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' was last seen getting a face full of exploding wand at the end of Season 1 (said explosion being strong enough to level a castle). All that remained was the business suit that he had hung up earlier and the skeletal remains of his right hand clutching the gem fragment that forms the center of Ludo's wand. Toffee was shown to have impressive regenerative powers (regrowing an arm in seconds after Star vaporized it) and later details about his battles against Star's mother describe him as "the immortal monster", so his death remains up in the air. Turns out yes, he ''did'' die, but he sealed his spirit into the missing half of Star's wand. He had to wait for someone to take his discarded arm so that he could free himself from the crystal and possess his new host.
451* In the original ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'' animation, Asajj Ventress is thrown off a temple on Yavin 4 and is presumably killed. She actually survives in the Expanded Universe. And survives more "death scenes", including one where they ''did'' "find the body", because she knows a technique that can fool even a Jedi into thinking she's dead.
452* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': In "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS3E19Counterattack Counterattack]]", ARC trooper Echo is caught in an explosion, with the only thing seen afterwards being his [[DeadHatShot damaged, smoking helmet]]. Come Season 7's "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS7E1TheBadBatch The Bad Batch]]", he's revealed to have survived and been captured by the Separatists, having been kept prisoner in horrific conditions while they extracted information from his brain.
453* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The Crystal Gems believed Bismuth had gone MIA during a nasty battle and presumed her dead, when actually she was poofed and bubbled by Rose Quartz. They'd had an argument over Bismuth's new weapon designed to shatter Gems, which Rose refused to approve for reasons relating to her "all life is precious" worldview, and Bismuth believed was necessary for them to win the war they were fighting. Bismuth attacked Rose, and Rose poofed her in response and hid her away inside Lion's mane. She could never tell her teammates what happened, given Bismuth's popularity, and so Bismuth was presumed to be missing and likely dead.
454* 1973/74 ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' episode "Dr. Pelagian's War". Professor Ansel Hillbrand was a brilliant marine biologist and engineer. Aquaman suspects that he's actually the BigBad Dr. Pelagian, but an investigation discovers that Dr. Hillbrand died five years earlier in a deep-sea diving accident. Oddly enough, his body was never discovered. Guess who Dr. Pelagian turns out to be?
455* In ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan'', Young Lance notes at his Father's funeral that "He's not even in there" (the coffin). At first, Lance believed he might still be alive. Also, Scary Mary's body was never found the night of the DeadlyPrank because she didn't really die.
456* In the Season 2 finale of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'', Slade is thrown into a pit of lava. Later, in the third season, Robin comments that "he was never captured, never found" to justify his Slade paranoia. Cyborg immediately points out the absurdity of it all, "The dude fell in a pit of '''lava''', who lives through something like that?" Ironically, it turns out that he ''did'' actually die, but he manages to [[DeathIsCheap come back anyways]] with some help from [[DealWithTheDevil Raven's demon father]].
457* Wreck-Gar of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' is seemingly killed when microbots react negatively with his [[BagOfHolding backpack]] and he falls into a river. Ratchet is unable to recover his remains and only manages to fish out trash. The episode ends with him at the bottom of the river trapped with no way of escape...until the next season where he simply frees himself when he hears of a new opportunity to be a hero.
458* This wound up being very useful in ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries''. Initially, they intended to kill off Morph for real, but, after he "died" off-screen, they just happened to never show his body or say what happened to it (probably for [[MoralGuardians censorship]] reasons). As a result, when the character became [[EnsembleDarkhorse unexpectedly popular]], Season 2 was able to easily {{retcon}} Morph as having been rescued by Mister Sinister. The ''X-Men Adventures'' comic, a spin-off of the show, winds up partially averting this trope. In it, Morph is given an ''on-screen'' death, with Beast at his side, and Gyrich even mentions having possession of his corpse. This is completely ignored come Season 2 of the comic.
459[[/folder]]
460
461[[folder:Real Life]]
462* In real life, this usually leads to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_death legal presumption of death]]. Occurs when no identifiable remains have been found, but either the circumstances (i.e., a plane crash) make it extremely unlikely that they have survived, or they have been missing for a very long time (typically at least seven years) and there is no evidence that they could still be alive. Of course, there have been very rare cases where people have been found to be alive after being legally declared dead, such as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Campden_Wonder a particularly infamous one]] that occurred in the 17th century.
463* [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] has an article explaining [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_conviction_without_a_body how people can be charged and convicted with murder without the body of the victim to prove the murder even happened]], and also [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_murder_convictions_without_a_body a list of those cases]].
464* Welsh rebel and self-styled Prince of Wales [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_Glynd%C5%B5r Owain Glyndŵr]] (Owen Glendower in Shakespeare's Henry IV pt. I) led an initially successful rebellion against the English in the 1400s. He was last sighted in 1412 and his exact fate is unknown: despite many offers of rewards for his capture, and even royal pardons, he was neither killed nor betrayed. Most likely he died some time around 1415, however according to some legends he lived out a long retirement in disguise, and other more fanciful tales suggest he is hiding in a cave, possibly the same cave as King Arthur, awaiting the right time to return and defeat the English...
465* Sticking with Welshmen, the infamous pirate [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_Roberts Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts]] had specific instructions for his crew if he were ever to die. On February 10, 1722, he was shot dead during a battle with a ship from the Royal Navy. His crew wrapped his body in the main sail of his ship, the ''Royal Fortune'', weighed it down with treasure, and [[BurialAtSea tossed it overboard]]. His remains were never found.
466* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Holt Harold Holt]], [[UsefulNotes/PrimeMinistersOfAustralia a former Prime Minister of Australia]], has the dubious distinction of having gone missing after going for a swim at a now infamously hazardous beach. [[CrossesTheLineTwice A swimming pool in Melbourne is named in his honor]].
467* The first victim of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} Chernobyl disaster]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valery_Khodemchuk Valery Khodemchuk]], was in one of the main pump circulation rooms of the reactor 4 building when said reactor exploded, which presumably killed him instantly. His body is assumed to be under the debris of the circulation pumps. A memorial dedicated to him was built just outside of the reactor 4's now defunct control room.
468* Pretty much the basis for anyone who thinks UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden was not killed by a team of US Navy [=SEALs=], as President Obama announced he was. Although it has been officially confirmed, some still have doubt due to the fact that the Obama Administration never released any pictures of Osama's body before it was given a burial at sea. Not that a post-mortem photograph would have helped much; [[BoomHeadshot he took a bullet in the head.]]
469* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Alejandro_Bello Alejandro Bello]] was a lieutenant in the Chilean army who in 1914 took a qualifying flight to become a military pilot. Neither him or his aircraft were ever heard from again.
470[[/folder]]
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