The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much/Playing With

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Basic Trope: A murder is covered up by having the coroner claim some other (implausible) cause of death.

• Straight: Alice is found lying face down on a mattress with a knife in her back. The coroner's report states that her death was an accident.
• Exaggerated: Alice is found full of holes in a house shot full of holes. The coroner's report states that her death was by natural causes.
• Downplayed: Alice is found dead with a knife in her chest such that it is possible that her death could have been an accident. A few characters actually believe it.
• Justified: The local government wished to make an example of Alice in a way they could plausibly deny to neighboring states.
• Inverted: Alice commits suicide. Investigators look for her murderer.
• Subverted: Alice frames Bob for murder by stabbing herself in the back with a knife with Bob's fingerprints on them...
• Double Subverted: ...except that Bob actually did it, counting on the coroner knowing that Alice wanted to frame Bob.
• Parodied: In the aftermath of a bank heist, the police conclude that the money committed suicide.
• Zig Zagged: The coroner originally assigned to the investigation goes missing, and his replacement returns a verdict of suicide. When the original coroners notes are discovered, however...
• Averted: The coroner correctly identifies the cause of death as homicide.
• Enforced: The coroner does this regularly on corpses of the opposition because the oppressive majority secretly called for it.
• Lampshaded: "Certainly it is impossible that any two reasonable persons would disagree on the cause of the death, then."
• Invoked: ???
• Exploited: ???
• Defied: Beth, the coroner, resists the pressure to cover up the crime and reports her findings honestly.
• Discussed: ???
• Conversed: ???

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