History Main / NotEnoughToBury

* ''Film/MissionToMars'': The crew of the first human mission to the Red Planet gets attacked by a [[ItMakesSenseInContext killer sand tornado that rose from the Face on Mars]] and the only survivor manages to retrieve the body of the astronaut who got her face smashed-in by a flying rock, while the other two got brutally [[CruelAndUnusualDeath sucked and torn to pieces]] by the vortex, but he still dug graves in their memory.

* ''Film/MissionToMars'': The crew of the first human mission to the Red Planet gets attacked by a [[ItMakesSenseInContext killer sand tornado that rose from the Face on Mars]] and the only survivor manages to retrieve the body of one who got their face smashed-in by a flying rock, while the other two got brutally [[CruelAndUnusualDeath sucked and torn to pieces]] by the vortex, but he still dug graves in their memory.

* ''Film/MissionToMars'': The crew of the first human mission to the Red Planet gets attacked by a [[ItMakesSenseInContext killer sand tornado that rose from the Face on Mars]] and the only survivor manages to retrieve the body of one who got their face smashed-in by a flying rock, while the other two got brutally [[CruelAndUnsualDeath sucked and torn to pieces]] by the vortex, but he still dug graves in their memory.

* From ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', [[spoiler: Primrose Everdeen.]]

** In ''Film/JurassicPark'', Ellie and Muldoon arrive at the scene of a ''T. rex'' attack:

*** [[spoiler:All Sattler finds of Mr. Arnold after his disappearance is his arm]].

* ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'': Invoked by Zenigata in episode 75 when he laments [[spoiler:the (seeming) demise of Lupin in a fiery explosion]]. He puts up a brief fight with a dog over a scrap of bone, before concluding that it doesn't belong to [[spoiler:his late FriendlyEnemy]].

* This is the unfortunate fate of [[spoiler: Molly Schultz]] in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' after [[spoiler: she]] runs in front of a jet turbine and gets [[TurbineBlender reduced to nothing more than a hand and a chunky red mess]].

* Implied in ''Series/{{Casualty}} after the death of [[spoiler:Paramedic Jeff Collier]] in a car explosion. His wife, ranting at colleagues who are celebrating [[spoiler:Jeff's]] life instead of mourning his death, mentions that he was blown to pieces and there was nothing to celebrate. Pan round to [[spoiler:Jamie Collier]] standing behind her, asking if it's true.

* When a player is killed in ''VideoGame/MutantLeagueFootball'', the killer gets to make a snappy remark to the camera. Relevant to this trope:

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': Jon Osterman gets vaporised in an "intrinsic field" (Picture a nuclear explosion without the BOOM[). He later [[BackFromTheDead reassembles]] [[SelfConstructedBeing himself on an atomic level]] and [[CameBackStrong becomes Dr. Manhattan]].

* In Episode 12 of the 2003 anime adaptation of ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'', Kino travels to a county that achieved peace with its neighbor by competing to slaughter the indigenous tribes in the reason. The curator of the museum, who came up with the plan, reveals her FreudianExcuse to Kino- her husband and children's death- and that this trope applied to her husband.

[[folder: Real Life ]]
* One way of disposing of a body is reducing it to this. Cremation is a widespread and (generally) more formal and respectful way of doing so.
* When someone is attacked by a predator, very often, there's not a lot left. Many predators will even eat bones for the calcium, with larger scavengers coming by afterwards to diligently pick up and eat whatever’s left.
* Nominally the ''Verdun'' [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI campaign of February-December 1916]] took place over an area 10km deep and 30km wide, within which more than 400,000 men were wounded and 250,000 died (high-intensity combat even by WWI standards). Actually, the bulk of the fighting took place over an area just 5km deep and 10km wide - where Fort Douamont offered the artillery spotters a commanding view of the battlefield. More than 12 million artillery shells landed within that area. The remains of 130,000 men were too fragmentary to be distinguished by side, and so were interred together at the Franco-German Douamont Ossuary. Although they are distinguished by (likely) bone type for the most part, there are also chambers for the indeterminable.
* On the morning of September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners departing from the East Coast of the United States and crashed them into multiple targets, most famously Towers 1 and 2 of the World Trade Center, NYC; the third plane was crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the fourth was crashed in a field near Shanksville, PA. The towers caught fire and collapsed soon after. Of the 2,977 victims (excluding the 19 terrorists), many could not be identified because of how their bodies had been burned, crushed, or torn to pieces. On May 10, 2014, the still-unidentified remains of 1,115 victims were transferred from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City to a new facility inside the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, where OCME staff are still attempting to identify more remains using state-of-the-art techniques.
** A few weeks after 9/11, the City of New York issued an edict that allowed family members of people missing since 9/11 and believed to have died at the World Trade Center to get death certificates without the usual proof of death requirements. This was because it became very clear early on in the cleanup efforts that even small bits of remains that could be DNA tested would probably not be found for most of the victims, much less actual bodies.
** In general, plane crashes where the plane hits terrain or water at a high rate of speed will result in the plane's occupants being reduced to pulp.
** Also happens in the case of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. The shuttle blew up over Texas and various body parts were found scattered on the ground there.
* In 2016, a college graduate intending to take a dip in one of the "hot springs" at Yellowstone Park slipped into what turned out to be a highly acidic, boiling geyser.[[note]][[SincerityMode Please, please stay on the path, folks.]][[/note]] By the time recovery workers were able to reach him the next day, there was literally nothing left that could be identified as human.
* When Charles Stephens went over Niagara Falls in a barrel, he strapped himself into the barrel and strapped an anvil to his feet to stabilize himself. When the barrel finally floated to shore, the only sign anyone had been in it was a right arm. That's what went into his grave, as the rest of Mr. Stephens was never found.
* Horrifically defied in the case of the Soyuz 1 incident, which caused the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. Even though little more than a hunk of burnt flesh was left of his body, as most of it had ''literally'' melted away on impact, he was given the open casket funeral he'd demanded because he knew he would die, and had [[ThanatosGambit insisted on such a funeral]] so the higher-ups in the Soviet space program would be forced to look at what they'd done.
* Happened to murdered Welsh schoolgirl April Jones. Despite an extensive search, all that has been found of her to date is a few fragments of bone found at the home of Mark Bridger, the man later jailed for her murder.
* Common for burning tanks, especially when a tank explodes. Sometimes happily subverted, when a crew member managed to escape shortly before the explosion, ended up as an unrecognised wounded patient in a hospital, and was mistakenly reported dead. There was a Soviet [=WW2=] tank commander who had as many as ''five'' empty graves and was still alive by the mid-1990s.
* While artillery strikes in general are notorious for having this sort of effect on people, battleship shore bombardments really took it to another level. One documented incident involved the USS ''New Jersey'' firing on an infantry position during the Vietnam War. After the war, the Vietnamese said they could not find any trace of the soldier's equipment or bodies.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Helle_Crafts Helle Crafts]] was murdered by her husband Richard in 1986 and had her body fed through a wood chipper into a river, and all that was recovered was around 3 ounces of remains (mostly hair, bone fragments, and a fragment of her jaw with an intact tooth that [[IdentificationByDentalRecords allowed her to be identified]]). Richard became the first person charged in Connecticut for murder without a full body being present.
* The Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet was a German interceptor plane used in World War II, whose rocket motor utilized two highly dangerous chemicals called C-Stoff and T-Stoff that would combust upon contact with each other. Two instances of this trope are mentioned in the memoirs of one of the test pilots. In the first, the fuel tank ruptured into the cabin and a pilot was [[HollywoodAcid literally melted]]. In the second, one of the technicians accidentally mixed the C-Stoff and T-Stoff together, causing an explosion; half of a jawbone was the biggest piece they could find.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_George_Haigh John George Haigh]], the Acid Bath Murderer, dissolved his victims in sulphuric acid. All that was found of his last victim was "28 pounds of human body fat, part of a human foot, human gallstones, and part of a denture." That was enough to identify her and convict him.
* One of the more memorable photos that surfaced in the wake of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire the Grenfell Tower fire]] in London in 2017 was one hastily taken by a firefighter of his helmet, with his name and the ID code for the unit he was assigned to hastily written on it with a marker pen so they could be identified if he didn't get out alive. In the event, the Fire Brigade suffered no fatalities that day but it took weeks to get an accurate final death toll for the 72 residents who didn't make it out, some of whom could only be identified with DNA extracted from ''bone fragments'' recovered in a fingertip search.
* One of the victims of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byford_Dolphin Byford Dolphin diving bell accident]] was subjected to ExplosiveDecompression wherein they were sucked out into the ocean through a hole only 60 centimeters in diameter, ripping him in half and expelling nearly all of his internal organs into the sea.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larissa_Schuster Larissa Schuster]] murdered her estranged husband Tim by knocking him out with a stun gun and shoving him into a barrel filled with hydrochloric acid. When police found the barrel, the only recognizable body parts left were the legs.
* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempi_train_crash Tempi train crash]] was a railway accident that happened in Larisa, Greece on 28 February 2023. It involved a commercial freight train accidentally colliding head-on with a passenger train due to human error and lack of an automated train safety system. The accident happened at nighttime and both trains were going over 100 mph. When the trains collided, the first 2 carriages of the passenger train were completely destroyed by the fires and the high kinetic energy that occurred when both objects crashed. This resulted in almost everyone inside (except 1 passenger who was thrown out by the explosion) being melted away and fused with the train's metal, leaving no remains behind. Most of the people in these first carriages were students. The accident is largely credited as being the worst railway disaster in the country to occur so far.
[[/folder]]

-->"One year, they brought my husband's legs home to me... because they couldn't the find the rest of him."

** Endeavor claims that his eldest son Toya burned to death in 2000 degree Celsius flames, and the only part of him left after the fire was a piece of his lower jawbone. [[spoiler:In reality, Toya survived with horrific burn scars and became the villain Dabi, who sought vengeance against Endeavor.]]

* A plot point in Creator/KevinSmith's ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' run. The "Quiver" story arc revealed that after being killed back in the 90s, Oliver had secretly been resurrected by a guilt-ridden [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Hal Jordan]]. However, because Ollie died in an explosion that had reduced his body to mere atoms, Parallax was forced to use lingering particles that had landed on Superman's costume to reconstitute his old friend's physical form.

* ''ComicBook/TheOtherSideOfDoomsday'': Subverted. When a mysterious beam hits Linda Danvers, Iris West and Jean Loring, it looks like they have been reduced to three little mounds of soot. However, it is revealed that they were teleported into another dimension, and the soot were residuals of the teleportation beam.

* ''Fanfic/SlippingBetweenWorlds'': This is a common fate for those caught by car bombs in UsefulNotes/StrokeCountry. In general, the family are sent a tightly sealed coffin with whatever bits could be located, sand to make up the missing weight, and a gently worded message to a family member (usually one with military or law enforcement background) to discourage people from trying to sneak a peek, since there is nothing in the coffin that's identifiable as the remains of a loved one anyway. Denise Holtack bursts into hysterical laughter when she realizes that the family getting together to mourn around a coffin full of UsefulNotes/StrokeCountry concrete rubble that may or may not contain a few atoms of her deceased brother's carbonized blood is exactly the kind of [[DeadBabyComedy sick joke]] he would find hilarious.

* In ''Film/TheCrimsonRivers'', this is said of the young victim of a traffic accident. All that was left to identify her by was her index finger. Subverted in that [[spoiler:the finger actually came from another girl]]. She did get a grave, though.

** In ''Literature/{{Thud}}'', troll mob boss Crysophrase assures Vimes that some trolls who were foolish enough to [[TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive threaten his family]] against his orders were [[YouHaveFailedMe "dealt with"]], and asks if they've ever thought of adding a rockery to Ramkin Manor, while gesturing to a box the narration describes as "not big enough to contain an ''entire'' troll".

* A popular campfire song ''Music/HeJumpedFrom40ThousandFeet (without a parachute)'' relates the grisly fate of someone who leapt from a plane without their parachute on. According to various verses they "They scraped him off the runway like a lump of strawberry jam" and "They put him in a matchbox and they sent him home to Mum". [[note]]Set ToTheTuneOf ''Music/JohnBrownsBody''[[/note]]

* In ''VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic'', you can sometimes find a lost helmet that once belonged to another dwarf, which points to a location where they might be found. When you get there, all you find is discarded body armor and several pieces of materials strewn about. Your dwarf will sometime lament over the loss of a fellow dwarf and might sometimes say they'll take their lost gear home as a way of paying their last respects.

* Nominally the ''Verdun'' [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI campaign of February-December 1916]] took place over an area 10km deep and 30km wide, within which more than 400,000 men were wounded and 250,000 died (high-intensity combat even by WWI standards). Actually, the bulk of the fighting took place over an area just 5km deep and 10km wide - where Fort Douamont offered the artillery-spotters a commanding view of the battlefield. More than 12 million artillery shells landed within that area. The remains of 130,000 men were too fragmentary to be distinguished by side, and so were interred together at the Franco-German Douamont Ossuary. Although they are distinguished by (likely) bone type for the most part, there are also chambers for the indeterminable.

* In 2016, a college graduate intending to take a dip in one of the "hot springs" at Yellowstone park slipped into what turned out to be a highly acidic, boiling geyser.[[note]][[SincerityMode Please, please stay on the path, folks.]][[/note]] By the time recovery workers were able to reach him the next day, there was literally nothing left that could be identified as human.
* When Charles Stephens went over Niagara Falls in a barrel, he strapped himself into the barrel, and strapped an anvil to his feet to stabilize himself. When the barrel finally floated to shore, the only sign anyone had been in it was a right arm. That's what went into his grave, as the rest of Mr. Stephens was never found.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempi_train_crash Tempi train crash]] was a railway accident that happened in Larisa, Greece on 28 February 2023. It involved a commercial freight train accidentally colliding head-on with a passenger train due to human error and lack of an automated train safety system. The accident happened at nighttime and both trains were going over 100 mph. When the trains collided, the first 2 carriages of the passenger train were completely destroyed by the fires and the high kinetic energy that occured when both objects crashed. This resulted in almost everyone inside (except 1 passenger who was thrown out by the explosion) to be melted away and fused with the train's metal, leaving no remains behind. Most of the people in these first carriages were students. The accident is largely credited as being the worst railway disaster in the country to occur so far.

->''"But I tell you: a man walks in there alive in the evening, and in the morning the servants have to search the floor for the little bits of his bones."''

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': Jon Osterman gets vaporised in an "intrinsic field"[[note]]Picture a nuclear explosion without the BOOM[[/note]]. He later [[BackFromTheDead reassembles]] [[SelfConstructedBeing himself on an atomic level]] and [[CameBackStrong becomes Dr. Manhattan]].

* ''Fanfic/SlippingBetweenWorlds'': This is a common fate for those caught by car bombs in UsefulNotes/StrokeCountry. In general, the family are sent a tightly sealed coffin with whatever bits could be located, sand to make up the missing weight, and a gently worded message to a family member (usually one with military or law enforcement background) to discourage people from trying to sneak a peek, since there is nothing in the coffin that's identifiable as the remains of a loved one anyway. Denise Holtack bursts into hysterical laughter when she realizes that the family getting together to mourn around a coffin full of UsefulNotes/StrokeCountry concrete rubble that may or may not contain a few atoms of carbonized blood is exactly the kind of [[DeadBabyComedy sick joke]] her deceased brother would find hilarious.

->''"They're going have to bury what's left of ya in a soup can!"''

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempi_train_crash Tempi train crash]] was a railway accident that happened in Larisa, Greece on 28 February 2023. It involved a commercial freight train accidentally colliding head-on with a passenger train due to human error. The accident happened at nighttime and both trains were going over 100 mph. When the trains collided, the first 2 carriages of the passenger train were completely destroyed by the fires and the high kinetic energy that occured when both objects crashed. This resulted in almost everyone inside (except 1 passenger who was thrown out by the explosion) to be melted away and fused with the train's metal, leaving no remains behind.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempi_train_crash Tempi train crash]] was a railway accident that happened in Larisa, Greece on 28 February 2023. It involved a commercial freight train accidentally colliding with a passenger train due to human error. The accident happened at nighttime and both trains were going over 100 mph. When the trains collided, the first 2 carriages of the passenger train were completely destroyed by the fires and the high kinetic energy that occured when both objects crashed. This resulted in almost everyone inside (except 1 passenger who was thrown out by the explosion) to be melted away and fused with the train's metal, leaving no remain's behind.