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Never Found the Body: Difference between revisions
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* [[Defied Trope]] in the ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' novel ''[[Grey Knights]]'': The Inquisition sends the Grey Knight expedition down to Khorion IX instead of simply [[Earthshattering Kaboom|calling Exterminatus on it]] because they need eyes on the ground to see Ghargatuloth's defeat.
* A key problem the prosecution has in ''The Other Side of Midnight'' with their case against Noelle Page and Larry Douglas for the murder of Catherine, the latter's wife, is that her body was never found. {{spoiler|That's because she fled the hotel before they could kill her and her rowboat capsized. But in truth, she was rescued by people employed by Constantin, whom Noelle is mistress to. Catherine, now an amnesiac, lives with an order of nuns; Constantin hides this so the lovers will pay for cuckolding him.}}
* Referenced in ''[[
** Not exactly. Gaspode did find the body, and did see the body get taken away by a vagrant who sold it for the pelt. But none of the other dogs saw the body, so they chose to not believe Gaspode's version of the story.
* In ''[[Les Misérables]]'', the recaptured Jean Valjean risks his life to rescue a man who fell from a ship's rigging; in the process he himself "accidentally" falls into the water, from which his body is never recovered. Guess who turns up a month later in Montfermeil?
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] chairman [[Vince McMahon]]'s on-screen death in a car bombing already had wrestling fans speculating about how long it would take him to come back the day after it aired, both because this trope was repeatedly invoked, and because, even off-screen, McMahon is a [[Large Ham]] who has a problem taking himself off TV voluntarily. It eventually became a moot point, as the storyline was largely abandoned in the wake of [[Real Life Writes the Plot|wrestler Chris Benoit's real-life murder/suicide]], with McMahon returning a few weeks later and [[Hand Wave|handwaving]] the whole thing.
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** By the way, that is before counting the Mishimas, who frequently get shot, laser blasted, burnt, blown up, trapped {{spoiler|underneath a haunted temple for 50 years with the supreme evil being}}, flung off cliffs, thrown out of helicopters, and in one notorious case ''dropped into a volcano'', with no ill effects.
* In ''[[Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg]]'', when you defeat a boss they [[Everything Fades|fade away]]. {{spoiler|Dark Corvo}} however, does not. {{spoiler|He instead falls into a pool of darkness that materializes underneath him, without fading away}}, leading fans to wonder whether he's actually dead or not.
* While [[Big Bad| Demise]] is pretty soundly defeated in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword]]'', the fate of his servant [[Dragon-in-Chief| Ghirahim]] (arguably the true main antagonist of the story) is left ambiguous - when Demise is freed, Ghirahim assumes his true form, that of the of the Demon King's Sword, which Demise uses in the [[Final Battle]] against Link. When Demise is defeated, Ghirahim simply disappears, and he has yet to return in any of the canon timelines. Some fans have theorized that other [[Evil Weapon]]s in the franchise such as those used by [[Four Swords Adventures| Vaati]] and [[Majora's Mask| Majora]] might have been him, but this is unconfirmed.
== Web Comics ==
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* Subverted in [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic_plus/series.php?view=archive&chapter=21513#strip3 this strip] of ''[[Narbonic]]'': "I watched the villagers burn you at the stake, chop your corpse into little pieces, and hop all over them!" "There's always an out, Beta. Remember that." {{spoiler|(In the "filename story", it turns out that what she ''actually'' saw was a video brought by the family lawyer.)}}
** Also, [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic_plus/series.php?view=archive&chapter=49435&name=narbonic_plus#strip6 this strip] about ANTONIO SMITH, FORENSIC LINGUIST.
* In ''[[Adventurers!]]'', a dimensional distortion swallows Argent and Garshask while they were fighting. [[Genre Savvy]] Karn insists that since no bodies were found, [https://web.archive.org/web/20100206073708/http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/20020510.html they're obviously still alive]. {{spoiler|He's right.}}
** And in another incident, after [[Big Bad]] 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.
* Subverted in ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]''. Though Frans Rayner's body is never recovered, his death is confirmed when [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] is heard inviting Frans Rayner to purgatory.
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** An episode of the animated series called "[[Mad Love]]" (which was based off an earlier DCAU comic story) had Joker plummeting into a smoke stack. Later on, [[Harley Quinn]] is in her cell at Arkham, and she sees a rose from Joker next to her bed.
** In ''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.... yeah right.
* ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' (which is part of the above mentioned DCAU) has a few examples:
*
** 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. <ref> ''But'', like in the case of Blight, this is resolved in the comics, where Inque forgives her daughter, the end suggests Deanna might become a new incarnation of Inque.</ref>
** In [[Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker|The Movie]], Harley Quinn [[Disney Villain Death|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. {{spoiler|She is alive, and is not amused with the criminal activity of her granddaughters.}}
* Other examples in the [[DC Animated Universe| DCAU]]:
** In the ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' Batman's second encounter with a villainous ninja, Kyodai Ken, ends with the ninja stranded on a rock in the middle of a lava flow. Despite all that has passed between them, Batman throws a line and offers to try and pull him to safety. Kyodai refuses to take it, and he presumably dies seconds later. While this may have set up the possibility for a return, he never appeared again, so he most likely did perish.
** In "The Clock King", Fugit's body is never found when the clock tower collapses, but Batman doubts he was killed, telling Gordon, "If I could escape, he could". And Batman is right on this one.
** In part 2 of "Secret Society", Clayface is seemingly blown to pieces by a cache of fireworks, and no trace of him remains. Again, this was his last appearance in the series, so one can assume he didn't survive.
** At the end of "Moon of the Wolf", Anthony falls into a river; his body is never found, and the episode ends with his house being sold off to pay his creditors. While Bullock suggests the police are still looking for him, he never reappeared, so he likely didn't survive. Even if he ''did'', the antidote is destroyed, meaning he would be a werewolf forever, possibly an even worse fate.
* A crime in the ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' 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... {{spoiler|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.
* The finale of ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' is surprisingly silent on this subject. While the [[Finishing Move|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 [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|suspiciously-shaped cloud]] after Po uses it would suggest there isn't anything left. Whether to avoid the typical [[Disney Villain Death]], as a [[Sequel Hook]], or because the snow leopard is just too [[Badass]] to kill off, however, {{spoiler|his death--if such it was--[[Offscreen Moment of Awesome|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...}}
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* In one episode of ''[[Justice League]]'', some of Superman's enemies teamed up and 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. [[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.
* 1973/74 ''[[Superfriends]]'' episode "Dr. Pelagian's War". Professor Ansel Hillbrand was a brilliant marine biologist and engineer. Aquaman suspects that he's actually the [[Big Bad]] 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?
* Heroic example, in an episode of ''[[DC Super Hero Girls]]'', Supergirl gets beaten up by Livewire in a very public battle, and with no body found, everyone assumes she is dead. She is not, of course, and decides this is a good opportunity to start afresh and improve her image with a new identity - she becomes [[Power Girl]].
== Real Life ==
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* Roald Amundsen, and the other passengers of the disappeared plane he was on.
* Percy Fawcett went into the Brazilian wilderness with his son and his son's best friend looking for a [[Lost World]]. Like Earhart he got something of an Elvis legend with his fanclub. Unlike her Fawcett had the fact that he could be termed [[Understatement|"odd"]] or less kindly, completely bonkers to give his disappearance added zest. Naturally it is assumed that something interesting happened even though skeptics might say he just died of fever like most people who die on the trail in the tropics. And there is no particular reason for the body to be found as the jungle is a pretty big place and Fawcett was going off the main routes.
* Harold Godwinson, the last [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon King]] is a [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Zig-Zag.]] There were all sorts of accounts of what happened to him. The best that can be determined is that he was mauled unrecognizably and then stripped naked by looters. According to
* Azaria Chamberlain, in Australia.
* [[wikipedia:Henry Hudson|Henry Hudson]] was cast adrift by his mutinous crew, never to be seen again.
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