Basic Trope: A missing person is found dead.
- Straight: Bob looks for Alice after she goes missing but is only able to find her body.
- Exaggerated: Bob has never actually found a missing person alive.
- Downplayed: Bob looks for Alice after she goes missing and finds her severely injured.
- Justified:
- The thing that caused Alice to go missing was dangerous.
- Alice was kidnapped, and her kidnapper eventually killed her.
- Inverted: Bob looks for Alice's body/gravestone after she was reported killed; he finds her alive.
- Subverted: Bob looks for the missing Alice and finds her dead ... but it turns out she faked her death.
- Double Subverted: ...But then she really does die and Bob finds her body.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob looks for Alice after she goes missing and finds her corpse. On the way back to Bob's starting point, she comes Back from the Dead, but only temporarily.
- Averted: No one dies or goes missing.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "I knew it was a long shot to find her alive after that ... guess we got our answer."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice does everything she can to remain alive after going missing so that Bob will not find her dead.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Seeking the Missing, Finding the Dead.
