History Main / ItWasHereISwear

* ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'': In "Misdiagnosis Murder", Jesse sees a man die of a heart attack in the parking garage. When he returns with aid, the body is gone and another man is faking tachycardia. Jesse spends the rest of the episode trying to persuade people of what he saw.

[[caption-width-right:350:Wait, what do you mean this page doesn't have an image? It had one just a second ago, I swear!]]

* A Misaka clone's corpse in episode 11 of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' disappears by the time the police arrive. The police then berate Touma for "prank calling" them. Touma later finds that the other Misaka clones cleaned up the crime scene while he was busy calling the police.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': Happens when Judy tries to bring the police to the [[spoiler:feral Manchas after she'd cuffed him to a post.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'': Kent Mansley discovers a giant bite taken out of his car and runs back to the power plant to tell the foreman. By the time he returns, the Giant has taken the rest of the car, and all that's left is the mangled BB gun which fell out of the car.

* In the film ''Film/InTheLineOfFire'', Creator/ClintEastwood's character is a Secret Service Agent, on the trail of someone determined to assassinate the American President. His first encounter with him is when a landlord notices her tenant has a "shrine" of sorts to other assassins. He visits the room, but when he comes back with a search warrant, the pictures have been replaced by a single one of him standing behind JFK, a president he failed to protect, a sign that ItsPersonal.
* Used repeatedly -- and relentlessly -- in the ''Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer'' franchise. The scene where the murderer cleans a dead body and a hundred living crabs from a car's trunk in five minutes without leaving a trace of anything being there has prompted a joke that he could have started a very successful cleaning company if he hadn't gone AxCrazy.
* ''Film/ScaryMovie'' mocked the ability of the killer to get away with this so readily. Finding no blood or body at a murder scene, the protagonists argue over whether it really happened. Meanwhile, ten feet away, the killer -- ''still in costume'' -- is mopping up a trail of blood before dragging out a trash bag with a leg sticking out of it.
* Inverted in ''Film/GoneInSixtySeconds1974'', where the protagonist is the leader of a group that steals cars, and in the process of stealing a car out of a man's garage, he spots them, but they take off. He gives chase at high speed, and is seen by the police. When he is pulled over, he tells the police the truth, that he was chasing a car thief. The police escort him back to his house, where his car is where it is supposed to be. So in this case he's trying to swear that it ''wasn't'' there. It seems that the guy they stole it from was [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the president of a crooked insurance company]] known for cheating people on claims, so he "temporarily borrowed" it in order to do some payback on the guy.
* In the film ''Film/TheSpanishPrisoner'', Joe attempts to prove that Jimmy Dell actually existed by leading the authorities to Dell's suite of offices, only to find them abandoned. A bit harder to explain is the exclusive club Jimmy took him to which turns out to actually be a public restaurant.
* In the movie ''Film/TheGame1997'', Nicholas Van Orton is sick of being toyed with by CRS. He calls the cops into their offices, but there's nothing there. [[spoiler: CRS own the whole building and move their offices about for exactly this reason.]]
* In the ''Film/JamesBond'' film ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'', Bond discovers a lab where they are constructing satellites with deadly chemical agents. When he brings "M" and the police back there, the lab is replaced with a huge, opulent office. The lab was smaller than the office, so presumably one had been kit-assembled inside the other. Luckily Bond did have a vial of the nerve gas that the lab was working with.
* Subverted in the ''Film/GetSmart'' movie: Smart discovers a secret uranium production facility in a bakery. 23 tells him that all that's actually found is a simple (though remarkably exaggerated) bakery scene -- despite the fact that Smart, despite his failings, is an agent who pays attention to detail. This is used to imply that Smart is a double-agent. [[spoiler:23 in fact turns out to be a mole, who lied to both the Chief and 99 to discredit CONTROL. And even though the evidence is easily disposed off, he can't get rid of the tell-tale background radiation he's covered with so easily...]].
* ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'' provides a slightly more low-key example in which Cary Grant's character is mistaken for a government agent and interrogated with the aid of lots of carelessly poured bourbon; when he alerts the police and tries to convince them of his story, they return to a room devoid of any evidence of alcohol -- or anything confirming what happened.

* In the movie ''Film/TheManhattanProject'', when Paul and his girlfriend try to enter his homemade nuclear bomb in a New York state science fair, federal agents capture and detain them there. Paul eventually confesses that the bomb is in his girlfriend's car, but it's gone when they all go down to the hotel's parking garage to get it. [[spoiler:The bomb was stolen by a trio of other science-fair contestants who were eavesdropping on the initial interrogation, with the intent of keeping it out of the government's hands. They give it back to Paul later on when they rescue him from further interrogation and help him and his girlfriend get back to his hometown.]]
* Used to comedic effect many times in various Creator/AbbottAndCostello movies. The film with the most abundance of it is ''Film/AbbottAndCostelloMeetFrankenstein'', in which slightly-eccentric Costello is constantly trying to inform straight-man Abbott about the existence/location of Frankenstein's Monster/Dracula/a secret room/Dracula's coffin, only to have it moved before he gets there (often within mere seconds).
* In the original ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}'', Dana sees a temple and terror dogs in her fridge. When she brings Peter to investigate, he opens the fridge to find... junk food. In this particular case the explanation is supernatural, since it turns out that Dana lives "in the corner penthouse of Spook Central".

* In ''Film/AllThroughTheNight'', Humphrey Bogart's character escapes from the headquarters of a gang of Nazi saboteurs during [=WW2=]. When he attempts to lead the police (who are skeptical of his story, as he's a mobster himself) back to the lair, it's been tidied up and all the swastikas, Hilter portraits, etc., have been removed.
* In ''[[Film/CountYorga Return of Count Yorga]]'', Yorga sends his vampire brides to kill a family of his main target and then kidnap her. They do the deed and leave a murder scene behind which their maid, who happens to be mute, stumbles upon the next morning as well as the living survivor, the family's youngest son. She calls the police, but before they get there. Yorga's servant, Burda, drops by unnoticed and clears the scene so by the time the police get to arrive there's nothing left. She tries to get the boy to tell them but he, unfortunately under Yorga's control, denies her claims.
* Happens a couple of times to Goldie Hawn's character in ''Film/FoulPlay''.

* Inverted in ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow''.
-->'''Joe:''' It's a dead end.\\
'''Polly:''' That wasn't supposed to be there!\\
'''Joe:''' '''IT'S A DEAD END!!!'''
* In ''Film/BeverlyHillsCopIII'', Axel Foley discovers a counterfeiting ring being run in an amusement park. When the authorities come to investigate, all they see being printed is novelty money for use within the park. There's also a subversion in which a seized van turns out to be empty, except for, as it later turns out, a crucial piece of evidence.
* ''Film/TheSentinel2006'': the fugitive secret service agent has tracked down the headquarters of the real bad guys and killed several of them. He flees the scene, not wanting to get caught, but not before tipping off several colleagues in the hopes that the evidence they find in the apartment will clear him. Unfortunately, by the time the other agents get there, the other bad guys have managed to remove the bodies and the other incriminating evidence. To their credit, the other agents don't dismiss his story and are now less certain of his guilt.
* ''Film/TheThing2011''. The female protagonist realizes that the alien shapeshifter can assimilate human beings when she finds blood and metal tooth fillings in the shower. She runs to warn the crew of a helicopter that's returning to civilization. The alien is forced to quickly assimilate them, causing the helicopter to crash. When she returns to the shower stall however, it's been cleaned up. While this removes the evidence, it [[RevealingCoverUp also tells her that the Thing is still among them, and wasn't just on the helicopter]].
* In ''Film/TheNumber23'', the hero digs up a skull and leaves to get Police support. When they return the skull is gone and this trope comes in.
* Happens to Davey Osborne when the body of the government agent disappears in ''Film/CloakAndDagger''.
* ''Film/OurManFlint''. A taxi driver takes Flint to the offices of Exotica. After Flint is captured later, Galaxy operatives cause the building to sink into the ground and set up a cafe in its place. When the taxi driver brings the authorities to look for Flint, he appears to have gone crazy when he claims there was a building there.

* ''Film/{{Society}}'': One of Bill's classmates tries to warn him about the suspicious stuff going on behind closed doors, and arranges to meet him at a location late at night. Bill finds the guy's murdered body in the trunk of an abandoned car, but when he returns with the police the evidence has already been removed. [[spoiler:Said classmate set it up himself, and he shows up unharmed the next day to fuck with Billy's mind even further]].
* In ''Film/{{Vabank}}'', it (a classy lady's apartament) was there in the evening, only to be replaced the next day by the workshop of an irritable tailor. Somehow Kramer's TheAlibi ''suddenly'' stops holding water...
* In ''Film/TheCobbler'', after Max kills Ludlow, he turns himself in and returns to the crime scene with two detective. But now the body is gone and the blood-stained carpet looks clean. Max is flabbergasted and the detectives believe they have been taken for a ride by a lunatic. Little did they know, Max had a MysteriousProtector.
* Maurice in ''Film/TheTallBlondManWithOneBlackShoe'' finds the dead bodies of four agents in his flat and runs out. When he wants to show the evidence to François, all the bodies are gone.

* ''Film/TheHouseThatDrippedBlood'': In "Method for Murder", all of Charles' attempts to convince Alice that Dominick is real and in the house end with him showing her an apparently empty room and her thinking he is cracking up.
* In ''Film/TheBabadook'', Amelia attempts to show the social workers the hole where the cockroaches were getting in, only to find a flat, undamaged section of wall. This makes her look even crazier.
* ''Film/WhatACarveUp'': When Ernie falls into the vaults and emerges from Uncle Gabriel's coffin, he goes racing back to the house to tell Syd and Guy that the coffin is empty. When the three of them return, Gabriel's body is back in place. Later, Syd takes Inspector Arkwright to the vault to show him Malcolm's body in Gabriel's coffin, only to find the entire coffin has vanished.
* ''Film/FrankensteinIsland'': When the heroes return to the island with the Colonel and his men, all signs of human habitation have vanished: the Frankenstein house, the Amazon huts, everything. The Colonel accuses them of having a shared hallucination.
* ''Film/TortureGarden'': In "Enoch", the cat appears in Colin's cell. Panicked, he yells out for the constable. The constable arrives and asks what the problem is. Colin starts babbling about the cat and points at the window sill, but the cat is not there and cannot be seen anywhere in the empty cell. Later the constable returns to find Colin dead and his head missing.

* ''Film/TheBody2012'': When Álex wants to show the inspector the body of Javier Alonso at the morgue, the man in the body bag is somebody else. Later, the police check out Álex's story by visiting Carla's apartment but find it empty with no sign anyone has been living there.
* ''Film/DrMinx'': After learning that David have discovered where they buried Gus's body, Carol and Brian did it up and move it. The next night David returns with the sheriff to show him the body, only to make a fool of himself by digging a huge hole and discovering nothing.
* ''Film/DarkHeritage'': [[TakeOurWordForIt According to Clint]] this what happened when he brought the police back to the Dansen mansion to show them the bodies of Roger and Daryl. Not only were the bodies gone, so was all the cameras and equipment they had brought with them, leaving no evidence they had ever been there. For some reason, this leads the police to suspect him of murder, and not wasting police time.

* Matt from ''Literature/ThePowerOfFive'' becomes victim to this when he's living in the TownWithADarkSecret. Someone who believes Matt is brutally murdered, and Matt sees the room where it was done. He goes to get someone, and comes back ''less than ten minutes later''. Everything is perfectly in order. Say what you want about the formula of Anthony Horowitz's writing, that was a freakin' creepy scene.
* In ''Literature/LudInTheMist'' by Hope Mirrlees, the protagonist and his friend discover a secret room in a public building lined with mysterious tapestries and filled with (illegally smuggled) fairy fruit. By the time they return with the authorities, the room is completely empty, much to their frustration. It is implied that this is because the first time they entered the room they accidentally gave the correct password while cursing at the locked door, while the second time they didn't remember what they had said and just broke down the door instead.
* Used in ''[[Literature/PrettyLittleLiars Killer]]'' when the girls tell the police about Ian's death, and his body is gone from the forest when they return.

* In ''Literature/{{Murderess}}'', [[AlphaBitch Bridget]] tries to tell on Lu to the headteacher after the SnowballFight; when the teacher arrives, Lu is inexplicably dry and even ''hot'', and her clothes are all dry.

* In ''Theatre/ArsenicAndOldLace'', the hero Mortimer Brewster, visiting his kindly old aunts' house in Brooklyn, is shocked to discover a dead body in the window seat. He's even more shocked later to discover that it's missing (it was taken to the basement for burial). It turns into a RunningGag when a second, completely different body shows up in the window seat, this time brought by his AxCrazy brother Jonathan.

* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' comes across an operation in progress, eliminating members of a conspiracy and any evidence of their existence. The assassins are even called "cleaners".

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
** Subverted in "Treehouse of Horror II", along with TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday. When the family asks Homer where he got a cursed monkey paw, he says "I got it from that stall that was right over... there..?", realizing he's pointing to a empty alleyway on the last syllable. Then, the camera pans, showing the stall, and Homer continues "Oh wait, ''there'' it is."
--->''"You'll be sorry!"''
** Parodied in the episode "Grift of the Magi", after Lisa fails to show the authorities a surveillance room hidden in a closet, and Homer displays an unusual level of [[GenreSavvy trope awareness]]:
--->'''Homer:''' Uh, is this going to be like one of those horror movies where we open the door and everything's normal and we think you're crazy, but then there really is a killer robot and the next morning you find me impaled on the weather vane? Is that what this is, Lisa?
** Used in the episode "Hungry, Hungry Homer", where the Springfield Isotopes' owner removes the evidence from his office closet. [[LosingHorns Just a trombone player giving an appropriate flat note.]]

* Defied in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' season two, where half the season is about combating and investigating Cadmus, the shadowy government organization [[CapeBusters whose mandate is to prepare to take down the Justice League in the event that they overstep their bounds]]. When ComicBook/TheQuestion is kidnapped and tortured by Cadmus the Huntress, recently kicked out of the League, goes to Superman for help and becomes frantic out of the fear that they will never find their headquarters. Superman, however, is perfectly at ease because ''the League already knows where Cadmus is''. They have held off on actually attacking the base because [[ByTheBookCop they have been quietly amassing evidence in preparation for going public about Cadmus's true activities]], and when the secret facility is moved after Superman and Huntress break in to rescue the Question ''the League know when and where they moved''. Batman [[DiscussedTrope explains it pretty clearly]] when he points out that they have been monitoring Cadmus for months, [[DefiedTrope so of]] ''[[DefiedTrope course]]'' [[DefiedTrope they have kept track of its whereabouts]]. Ironically, it is only Lex Luthor who is kept out of the loop, and when he betrays Waller and attacks the now-abandoned headquarters Batman uses that as evidence that it was not the League, [[IfIWantedYouDead since they would not have attacked an abandoned warehouse]].

* Used and then avoided in the ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' [[TheMovie movie]] ''So The Drama'': Ron is chased across town by a horde of tiny robots until he reaches the hall hosting the Junior Prom. When he opens the door, the robots hide. It looks like there's nothing there and [[TheMole Erik]] notes how ludicrous the claim is, but Kim chooses to believe Ron anyway.
* This is essentially Michigan J. Frog's entire schtick in ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''. This was the premise of both shorts Michigan J. Frog appeared in, ''WesternAnimation/OneFroggyEvening'' and the sequel, ''Another Froggy Evening''. He is, well, a frog that sings only for his owner, and the whole plot revolves around him being found, and performing so that only the person who found him ever sees it. Any time the man is actually about to get someone to witness it, he stops singing at just the right moment. Then the man is left to try and insist on his super special singing frog, only to be assumed a loon.
** He also showed up once in ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' with a slightly creepier variant. He's dead (or so it seems) and scheduled for dissection by Hamton, who is the only one he'll sing for. Whenever somebody else looks, he immediately [[IncrediblyLamePun croaks]].
* This happened in the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'' episode "Toadie's Wild Ride". Tummi is the only Gummi in Gummi Glen to have seen Toadie enter the glen, but because he had been lying about who ate the cake that Grammi made earlier, the other Gummis initially don't believe him about there being an ogre in the glen. Subverted at the end when the rest of the Gummis finally see Toadie when he tries to make off with their supply of Gummiberry juice.
* ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'': Taz's attempts to convince Bushwacker Bob that someone is trying to murder them in "A Midsummer Night's Scream".
* Repeatedly subverted in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "In Your Footsteps". Each time the bear does something strange, Finn acts like everyone else is missing critical evidence, only for it to turn out everyone already believes him.
* Used in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Obama Wins!" when Kyle leads the police to Cartman's bedroom only to find that the swing state election ballots that Cartman had stolen were gone. YouHaveToBelieveMe ensues.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superlopez}}: Happens in "El caserón fantasma", when Superlópez uses a road landmark to report the finding of the titular house to the police; but when the cops arrive the next morning, the house has seemingly vanished. [[spoiler:It's revealed later in the story that the bad guys built a mechanism that allows them to lower the house into the ground to hide it from the police.]]

* ''Film/{{Anazapta}}''. Lady Matilda is hoping to ransom Jacques de Saint Amant in exchange for her captured husband and enough money to settle her debts. Halfway through the movie, a letter arrives from Jacques' father [[DeadPersonImpersonation revealing his son was killed in battle.]] The priest who received the letter dies soon after in suspicious circumstances. When a manservant who overheard the conversation tries to warn Matilda, she finds a letter agreeing to her ransom on the condition that Jacques is well treated, and has her manservant flogged and thrown into a cell for his supposed bungling.

* In the ''Film/JamesBond'' film ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'', Bond discovers a lab where they are constructing satellites with deadly chemical agents. When he brings "M" and the police back there, everything is gone. The lab is replaced with a huge, opulent office. No explanation is ever given for how this happened. The lab was smaller than the office, so presumably one had been kit-assembled inside the other. Luckily Bond did have a vial of the nerve gas that the lab was working with.

* Referenced by Ivan Bezdomny in ''Webcomic/TheWotch'', when he [[http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2006-09-19 finds a cult of militant feminists in a secret sub-basement of the school]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'': When Mirabel sees the house starting to crack and the candle about to go out, she fetches her family and all of the party's guests to come see the damage, but by the time they've come downstairs, the house has already been magically healed.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'': Mirabel witnesses their house cracking apart and cuts her hand on a piece of tile. Panicked, she runs to get her Abuela and others to come see, but by the time they returned there was no sign of destruction. Subverted in that while Abuela denies to the partygoers that anything is wrong, she knows that Mirabel was telling the truth. Her denial was partially to keep up appearances and out of a desperate need to pretend nothing is wrong with her house or her family.

* Inverted in Season 1 of ''Series/{{Life}}'': the hero, Det. Charlie Crews has a locked closet in his home where he assembles evidence against the conspiracy that framed him. The DA's office obtains a search warrant for a related murder, and Charlie gets home too late to stop the search, but when the cops break into the closet, all the evidence is gone, having been removed by Charlie's roommate, Ted.

* In the movie ''Film/TheGame'', Nicholas Van Orton is sick of being toyed with by CRS. He calls the cops into their offices, but there's nothing there. [[spoiler: CRS own the whole building and move their offices about for exactly this reason.]]

* Happens a few times on ''Series/RemingtonSteele'' by either Steele and Laura, or thier clients.
** One episode has Steele kidnapped at a mansion and nearly killed. When he returns with Laurel, Steele, a classic old movie buff, openly lampshades how he fully expects to find absolutely no evidence of what had happened. He's right.

* In ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', George Costanza gets himself invited to a night club populated almost entirely by beautiful model-types by... well, ItsALongStory. Once he shows up after losing his "credentials", the next day the same building is devoid of anything but a meat-packing plant.

* Inverted in Season 1 of ''Series/{{Life}}'': the hero, Det. Charlie Crews has a locked closet in his home where he assembles evidence against the conspiracy that framed him. The DA's office obtains a search warrant for a related murder, and Charlie gets home too late to stop the search, but when the cops break into the closet, all the evidence is gone, having been removed by Charlie's roommate, Ted.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'', Tyler tries to prove he's not crazy by showing off many parts of his life that suddenly disappear, including Windy's apartment, where he informs her he wants her to talk with the people, and then when he brings them by to do so, the entire apartment is empty and Windy is nowhere to be found, nowhere near enough time passing by and making Tyler further doubt his sanity.

* Invoked in an episode of ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', "Three Days of the Hunter Job". Nate and the episode's bad guy walk into what she thinks is the apartment belonging to someone who is unraveling a government conspiracy, to find the material gone and Eliot coming out, cleaning up.
* ''Series/DoctorWho''
** Used in its standard version in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E5BlackOrchid Black Orchid]]" with the Doctor finding a body and trying to tell someone about it. The ''first'' time he tries to tell someone it is indeed there, but the second time it's not. True to the trope, it's been replaced with a mildly interesting thing (a doll). Later he tries to tell the police about his TARDIS, and leads them to it. Of course it's not there either.
** Inverted in "Shada" where a man tells a police officer that a room has been stolen and so ''isn't'' there and of course when the policeman looks, it is.
** Also used in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E6TheKeeperOfTraken The Keeper of Traken]]" when the Doctor explains that he arrived in the TARDIS. The Trakenites go to verify the existence of the TARDIS, but by then it's nowhere to be seen.
** Happens to Sarah Jane Smith in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E1TerrorOfTheZygons Terror of the Zygons]]".
* In the second episode of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', John discovers a wall painted with graffiti that is vitally important evidence. By the time he finds Sherlock and brings him back, however, the evidence has been wiped clean. [[spoiler: It's subverted, since that trick is a lot more difficult to completely pull off when people have camera phones that allow them to take instant photos of such things...]]
** Sherlock also believed John instantly, and was only concerned about how much of the graffiti John would be able to remember, since the human mind is on average only capable of remembering "62%" of what's it's seen. But the above spoiler solved that problem, too.
* One episode of ''Series/TheRockfordFiles'' features a StalkerShrine for Beth Davenport mysteriously vanishing before the police can see it.
** Immediately subverted: she says "I saw them," Lt. Becker says "I'm sure you did," usually a lead-in to a patronizing "you're just stressed" until he points to tiny holes in the walls, saying "They were put up with pins."

* A ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode has a variant of this. Klinger goes to a traveling black-market bazaar called "Little Chicago" to buy back a camera that was stolen from BJ and Hawkeye. On the way back he's nabbed by [=MP=]s for having stolen merchandise, and when he tries to take them back to "Little Chicago" to clear things up, the place has already moved on without a trace.
* ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'':
** Merlin regularly stumbles upon a CassandraTruth. He either has no evidence or the [[ItWasHereISwear evidence disappears]].
** Inverted in "The Hunter's Heart" when he tries to prove Agravaine is a traitor by saying he stole the plans to the siege tunnels. When Arthur checks, Agravaine has already duplicated them and put the original back.
* ''Series/{{Hunter}}''. Hunter goes home after his shift ends to find a [[DropDeadGorgeous very beautiful and very dead woman]] there. Thinking he's being framed for murder, he leaves and gets his partner Dee Dee to come home with him so he can 'discover' the body with a witness. Only the body has disappeared by the time they arrive.
* On ''Series/MagnumPI2018'', a missing cat brings Magnum and Higgins to a ransacked house with a dead body. They call in the cops only to find the place cleaned up and the body missing. The cop makes it clear he'd be doubtful if it was just Magnum telling the story but Higgins backing it up sways him. He dryly notes that if Magnum should find a dead body "take a photo of it first."
* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': In "Tinker, Tailor, Liar, Thief", Jessica finds a body in her hotel room. By the time the police arrive, the body has disappeared. She later finds the corpse in the service area of the hotel, only for it to disappear again before the police arrive.
* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': Murdoch and Crabtree essentially say this when they bring the others to the yard where the dirigible had been based in "The Angry Red Planet".

* Averted in [[Creator/{{Netflix}} Netflix's]] Series/{{Diablero}}. Keta, a santera, is [[spoiler: kidnapped by a mysterious man]]. When she brings her brother Elvis (the titular demon-hunter) to the house where it happened, there's nothing there, and Keta, upset, says she's not crazy. Elvis says he doesn't think she's crazy and completely believes her--in fact, he's ''more'' worried by the total lack of evidence, because it means whoever they're up against has the resources to make everything vanish overnight, which is not good for them.

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode "Anonymous" focuses on the hunt for a serial killer. Grissom concludes that the killer is Paul Millander, who owns a Halloween supplies company. When Grissom leads a raid on Millander's warehouse, it is bare apart from a stool with an envelope addressed to him. It has a blank piece of paper inside, a sign that Grissom interprets as meaning, "We have nothing."

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode "Anonymous" focuses on the hunt for a serial killer. Grissom concludes that the killer is Paul Millander, who owns a Halloween supplies company. When Grissom leads a raid on Millander's warehouse, it is bare apart from a stool with an envelope addressed to him. It has a blank piece of paper inside, a sign that Grissom interprets as meaning, "We have nothing."

* ''Series/TheInvaders1967''. About OncePerEpisode, any evidence that David Vincent could have gathered on the Invaders disappears before he can show it to someone else.
* ''Series/TheXFiles''
** Every. Single. MythArc. Episode. Oh my God.
** Arguably, this could be Mulder's catchphrase.
** Notably in "Je Souhaite", when Scully finally has solid proof of the supernatural in the form of the corpse of an invisible man. Of course, when she brings in the experts to look at it, it's completely gone. Just a few hours later, Scully herself starts to wonder if it was real, much to Mulder's annoyance.
* In the ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "Passing Through Gethsemane", Brother Edward encounters the message "DEATH WALKS AMONG YOU" scrawled in blood on a bulkhead; it's gone when he tries to show it to Garibaldi. In fact, the message was [[spoiler: a chemical that sprayed on the walls that '''looked''' like blood, then reacted with air and disappeared. Traces of it were found later in the episode.]]

* A ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode has a variant of this. Klinger goes to a traveling black-market bazaar called "Little Chicago" to buy back a camera that was stolen from BJ and Hawkeye. On the way back he's nabbed by [=MP=]s for having stolen merchandise, and when he tries to take them back to "Little Chicago" to clear things up, the place has already moved on without a trace.
* On ''Series/{{Bitten}}'' Philip meets with an amateur film maker who made a video of two wolves (actually Elena and another werewolf) killing a coyote in a park in Toronto. The film maker gives off a weird vibe but Philip just wants the video for use in a commercial so he does not inquire further. Some time later Philip wants to get more information about the video and goes to see the film maker. However, when he goes to the apartment where they previously met, it is completely empty. When he asks the landlord about the previous occupant, the landlord insists that the last tenant was an old lady who died months ago and the apartment has been completely empty ever since. The landlord further insists that no one could have been squatting in the apartment since the landlord was trying to renovate the apartment for new tenants and would have seen anyone living in it. This establishes that the conspiracy against the werewolf Pack is much more sophisticated and organized than just a few mutts acting out.
* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E9SomethingBlue Something Blue]]", Buffy discovers Spike searching the lawns near the college, claiming this was where he escaped from the Initiative, but there's [[BookcasePassage no sign of any exit]]. He starts tearing at the grass, shouting threats and demands to be [[JerkassWoobie put back the way he was]]. Buffy naturally assumes Spike is just stalling and hauls him away.

* Happens in ''Series/DayBreak2006'', when Hopper wants to show the police the dead body in the bath tub above his apartment. It's gone by the time they get there.
* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': In "Tinker, Tailor, Liar, Thief", Jessica finds a body in her hotel room. By the time the police arrive, the body has disappeared. She later finds the corpse in the service area of the hotel, only for it to disappear again before the police arrive.
* ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'': In "Misdiagnosis Murder", Jesse sees a man die of a heart attack in the parking garage. When he returns with aid, the body is gone and another man is faking tachycardia. Jesse spends the rest of the episode trying to persuade people of what he saw.
* ''Series/{{Cannon}}'': This happens in "A Lonely Place to Die", when the town drunk tries to convince the sheriff that a triple-murder occurred at the abondoned beach house next to his home.
* ''Series/TheEqualizer''. A client of [=McCall=] tries to convince her daughter that she's dating a criminal after discovering a gun in his apartment. When she goes to show her daughter the gun, it's been replaced by an innocuous flashlight.
* ''Series/{{Hunter}}''. Hunter goes home after his shift ends to find a [[DropDeadGorgeous very beautiful and very dead woman]] there. Thinking he's being framed for murder, he leaves and gets his partner Dee Dee to come home with him so he can 'discover' the body with a witness. Only the body has disappeared by the time they arrive.
* ''Series/{{ER}}''. Carter treats a doctor who runs an inner-city clinic, visiting him there to check up on him and give him his medication. When the man returns to the hospital a few weeks later, Carter gives him a generous donation, but is stunned to find the clinic completely deserted when he visits again. The cop with him informs him that contrary to what the man told him, the clinic had been there only a few ''weeks'', not the twenty-something years the guy claimed.
* On ''Series/MagnumPI2018'', a missing cat brings Magnum and Higgins to a ransacked house with a dead body. They call in the cops only to find the place cleaned up and the body missing. The cop makes it clear he'd be doubtful if it was just Magnum telling the story but Higgins backing it up sways him. He dryly notes that if Magnum should find a dead body "take a photo of it first."
* Averted in [[Creator/{{Netflix}} Netflix's]] Series/{{Diablero}}. Keta, a santera, is [[spoiler: kidnapped by a mysterious man]]. When she brings her brother Elvis (the titular demon-hunter) to the house where it happened, there's nothing there, and Keta, upset, says she's not crazy. Elvis says he doesn't think she's crazy and completely believes her--in fact, he's ''more'' worried by the total lack of evidence, because it means whoever they're up against has the resources to make everything vanish overnight, which is not good for them.

* In the film ''Film/TheSentinel'', the fugitive secret service agent has tracked down the headquarters of the real bad guys and killed several of them. He flees the scene, not wanting to get caught, but not before tipping off several colleagues in the hopes that the evidence they find in the apartment will clear him. Unfortunately, by the time the other agents get there, the other bad guys have managed to remove the bodies and the other incriminating evidence. To their credit, the other agents don't dismiss his story and are now less certain of his guilt.

** This problem, used as a comedic device, continually plagues Candace; whatever amazing and bizarre thing Phineas and Ferb are doing that time, there's no sign of it by the time Candace tries to show Mom. This happening OncePerEpisode is the premise of the whole show. Phineas and Ferb's creations must [[ContrivedCoincidence have Plot Armor in reverse or something]]. Candace [[spoiler:and sometimes Phineas and Ferb]] tries extremely hard to show Mom what Phineas and Ferb did, but the creations are always completely destroyed. Candace even "discovered" a nonexistent sensor that was buried in the family driveway and triggered a creation's invisibility.

* ''Series/TheInvadersTVSeries''. About OncePerEpisode, any evidence that David Vincent could have gathered on the Invaders disappears before he can show it to someone else.

* ''Series/TheInvaders''. About OncePerEpisode, any evidence that David Vincent could have gathered on the Invaders disappears before he can show it someone else.

* Discussed in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTalesTheMovieTreasureOfTheLostLamp''. Webby's first wish on the genie's lamp is for a baby elephant. However, RealityEnsues when the elephant makes a gigantic mess after Webby can't control it, scaring Mrs. Beakley in the process. She goes to get Scrooge [=McDuck=] to show him, but by that time, Louie uses up one of his wishes to undo Webby's, making the elephant vanish and cleaning up the mess. Beakley even lampshades how crazy she must look after Scrooge finds nothing, saying "you think I'm crazy, don't you?" However, Scrooge sees his nephews sneaking out, replying "maybe not."