History Main / SeekingTheMissingFindingTheDead

* ''VideoGame/NightInTheWoods'': [[spoiler:Mae comes home to find out her friend Casey disappeared without a word a while back. No one aside from his parents seems too concerned -- Mae's other friends theorize he simply skipped town like he always wanted to. But there are multiple hints something may have happened to him, culminating in the climax of the game, when you find out that the cultists kidnapped him and sacrificed him to the [[EldritchAbomination Black Goat]], figuring he wouldn't be missed. Mae and her friends are all horrified by this, and to make matters worse, because no one will ever believe them about the cult, and all the cultists are dead (or close to it) by the end of the game, meaning there's no proof for their story, they can't tell anyone about what they saw. Casey's parents will never know the truth.]]

* Inverted in an episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'', "The Elephant in the Room." After the gang identifies a corpse as '''not''' a [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome newsworthy missing child]] but actually another, non-newsworthy child, Booth says, "Why do we only care about dead bodies?" and proceeds to find the missing child in about five minutes.

* In ''Anime/APlaceFurtherThanTheUniverse'', Shirase's main goal is to find her MissingMom in Antarctica. Gin, a close friend of Shirase's mother, tells Shirase that her mother is almost certainly dead after being missing for three years. At the end of Episode 12, [[spoiler:Shirase finds her mother's laptop and sees that all 1,105 emails that she sent (one per day since her mother's disappearance) were unread, so she realizes that her mother is dead]].

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/{{Ugly}}'' (2014) is about the search for a kidnapped girl who turns out to be dead by the end.

* ''Film/UncommonValor'': A grieving father and retired army colonel recruits a squad of Vietnam War veterans to go back and rescue American prisoners of war, including his long-missing son. In the end, the squad rescues the [=POWs=]--but not his son, who is revealed to have died of an illness some time ago.

* At play throughout ''Series/{{Endeavour}}'', and even lampshaded ''in the pilot episode'' when a character refers to the missing person investigation as a murder investigation before the body has been found.
* There have been at least a couple of [[InvertedTrope inversions]] in ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' that the detectives have looked for a dead person only to find that she was missing for all those years, staying with or waiting for her kidnapper.
* This is the DownerEnding for a few ''Series/WithoutATrace'' episodes. Most of the time the team is able to find the missing person but sometimes all they can do is find the body and give the person's next of kin some closure. The show often lampshades the fact that the longer someone is missing, the smaller the chance of finding him/her alive.
* In ''Series/{{CSINY}}'', Mac's wife's grown-up son (whom she gave up for adoption before meeting Mac) shows up. Mac has to [[TearJerker explain that she died on 9/11.]]
* A slight variation in the eighth season of ''Series/TwentyFour'' in which CTU [[spoiler:is searching for the president of another country that was kidnapped while the beginning of his execution is being broadcast but find that the broadcast was a recording and that the president was already dead]].
* In the first half of season 2 of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'', the group is trying to find [[spoiler:Sophia]]. They stayed at Hershel's farm until they could find that person. But at the mid-season finale, they discover that Hershel kept a [[spoiler:barn full of walkers and when they freed the walkers to kill them, they discover that the last walker to leave the barn was Sophia, who was bitten]].
* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': In the episode "[[Recap/MurderSheWroteS3E17NoLaughingMurder No Laughing Murder]]", Phil Rinker goes missing after Murray gets stabbed in the shoulder, and before most of the guests can locate him again, he turns up hanged in the store room.

* For the first arc or so of ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'', Kouta and his friends intermittently search for their missing friend Yuya. They eventually find that he's not only dead but [[spoiler:he mutated into the first MonsterOfTheWeek and ''Kouta'' killed him back in the first episode.]]
* In ''Series/OliversTravels'', the purpose of Oliver's travels is to find his friend who left town in a hurry after getting on the wrong side of a criminal conspiracy. Eventually he comes to the town his friend settled in, and on asking a local where he can find his friend is given directions to the friend's grave.
* Over the first half of ''Series/PersonOfInterest'''s fifth season, Fusco starts tracking several missing persons cases. In the sixth episode, he finds most of them dead and only narrowly escapes being buried with them.

* Many, many side missions in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' end like this: you find more people dead or dying than ones still able to fight.
* ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}} 2'' has an example of this, when Shepherd has been sent to locate a team of scientists and their guard only to find them dead.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' contains a heartbreaking variation of this. [[spoiler:Hawke's mother is taken captive by a serial kidnapper/killer that you'd been chasing. By the time you reach her, she's dead. Well, [[BodyHorror close enough]].]]

* ''VideoGame/AtelierTotori'': Totori was looking for her missing mother, only to find a grave. It turns out that Totori had known her mother was dead, but [[TraumaInducedAmnesia had forgotten because she couldn't handle the truth before.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3'' offers several "find the missing person" secondary quests. Almost all of the missing persons are already dead, and Geralt usually has to kill whatever was responsible.

* In ''VideoGame/IllusionOfGaia'', Will's goal is to find his father. He finds his father's corpse in the Tower of Babel, shortly before the final battle.

* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}:

* In ''Literature/{{Redwall}}: Rakkety Tam'', Gulo the Savage is seeking revenge on his brother Askor, who stole The Walking Stone and fled. Unbeknownst to him, Askor had a tree fall on him and died of his injuries before Gulo reached Mossflower. Rakkety Tam finally tells Gulo, "Thou art looking for a deadbeast" and claims to have killed Askor.
** Subverted in ''The Taggerung'' of the same series. Ruggan Bor thinks Gruven is lying about being The Taggering by virtue of [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt killing the previous one]], who hasn't been seen since he ran away. Upon a visit to Redwall Abbey, Deyna the otter confirms Gruvan's story. [[spoiler:However, Deyna is lying. ''He'' is the missing Taggerung]]. Ruggan, having his confirmation, promptly [[OffWithHisHead beheads Gruvan]] to take the title.

* ''Film/BatmanBegins'': As shown in the above quote, Rachel lampshades this trope.

* ''Series/BloodOverWater'' features this.

When someone is on the hunt for a missing person but finds out that the person is no longer alive--either recently deceased or long dead.

This usually comes as a surprise, but if someone has been missing for a ''very'' long time, [[LegallyDead there may be doubts whether he is still alive]], [[FinallyFoundTheBody and finding the corpse merely proves those suspicions.]] Usually overlaps with LateToTheTragedy. Tragic when it involved SearchingForTheLostRelative. Contrast NeverFoundTheBody, where the presumed dead is really missing.

This usually comes as a surprise, but if someone has been missing for a ''very'' long time, [[LegallyDead there may be doubts whether he is still alive]], [[FinallyFoundTheBody and finding the corpse merely proves those suspicions.]] Usually overlaps with LateToTheTragedy. Tragic when it involved SearchingForTheLostRelative. Contrast NeverFoundTheBody.

This usually comes as a surprise, but if someone has been missing for a ''very'' long time, [[LegallyDead there may be doubts whether he is still alive]], [[FinallyFoundTheBody and finding the corpse merely proves those suspicions.]] Usually overlaps with LateToTheTragedy. Tragic when it involved SearchingForTheLostRelative.

This usually comes as a surprise, but if someone has been missing for a ''very'' long time, [[LegallyDead there may be doubts whether he is still alive]], [[FinallyFoundTheBody and finding the corpse merely proves those suspicions.]] Usually overlaps with LateToTheTragedy.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* There have been numerous cases of people searching for long-lost relatives, but learn of their whereabouts via an obituary, gravestone, etc.
* A spate of unusually low rainfall in parts of the American Midwest resulted in a number of examples of this trope, as several cars belonging to missing persons who'd driven off on some errand and never returned were pulled out of rivers or lakes when the water level dropped far enough to uncover them.
* Inverted shortly after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, when two friends were reunited while each sought the other's gravestone.
[[/folder]]

When someone is on the hunt for a missing person, but finds out that the person is no longer alive--either recently deceased or long dead.

* ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'': In the beginning of the series, Jean tells Nadia that he wants to build a airplane so he can search for his father, who went missing at sea years ago. In the 16th episode, he learns his search would've been in vain, [[spoiler: when he finds his father's tombstone in the Atlantean graveyard.]]
* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', Kamina's father went into the surface and never came back. Kamina wants to go there and find him.... [[spoiler: But in the second episode, he finds his old man's skeleton.]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* The first issue of ''ComicBook/MouseGuard'' has Saxon, Kenzie and Lieam searching for a missing grain merchant. They find him [[spoiler:in the belly of the serpent that Lieam kills]].

[[folder: Fan Works]]

* ''Film/TheSearchers''. Ethan Edwards and Martin Pawley ride out to find Martin's two sisters, who were kidnapped by Comanche raiders. They soon find the older sister's body. (The younger sister lives, and the search for her takes the majority of the film.)

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Hagrid reveals Harry, Ron, and Hermione that Dumbledore sent him to convince the giants to join forces with the order. He says that he took the opportunity to look up his mother, who abandoned him and his father when he was three, while he was at it, and that he found out she died.

* A slight variation in the eighth season of ''Series/TwentyFour'' in which CTU [[spoiler:is searching for the president of another country that was kidnapped while the beginning of his execution is being broadcast, but find that the broadcast was a recording and that the president was already dead]].

* In ''Series/{{Psych}}'', "A Very Juliet Episode", Juliet is trying to locate an old boyfriend with which she was supposed to meet but never appeared. Shawn starts investigating and finds out the guy had died a couple years ago in a car accident, but suspects it wasn't actually an accident...[[spoiler:It turned out he was still alive, and in a witness protection program, and they just blew his cover]].

* For the first arc or so of ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'', Kouta and his friends intermittently search for their missing friend Yuya. They eventually find that he's not only dead, but [[spoiler:he mutated into the first MonsterOfTheWeek and ''Kouta'' killed him back in the first episode.]]

* Over the first half of ''Series/PersonOfInterest'''s fifth season, Fusco starts tracking several missing persons cases. In the sixth episode, he finds most of them dead, and only narrowly escapes being buried with them.

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', after you fully join the Jedi Order on Dantooine, you're sent to investigate nearby ruins, and discover what happened to the last Jedi sent there. You find that Jedi has been killed by ancient droids in the ruins.

* ''VideoGame/NightInTheWoods'': [[spoiler:Mae comes home to find out her friend Casey disappeared without a word awhile back. No one aside from his parents seem too concerned -- Mae's other friends theorize he simply skipped town like he always wanted to. But there are multiple hints something may have happened to him, culminating to the climax of the game, when you find out that the cultists kidnapped him and sacrificed him to the [[EldritchAbomination Black Goat]], figuring he wouldn't be missed. Mae and her friends are all horrified by this, and to make matters worse, because no one will ever believe them about the cult, and all the cultists are dead (or close to it) by the end of the game, meaning there's no proof for their story, they can't tell anyone about what they saw. Casey's parents will never know the truth.]]

** The episode "Rise Of The Old Masters" has the ''Ghost'' crew learn that Jedi Master Luminara Unduli apparently survived the destruction of the Jedi Order and is currently being held by the Empire. While on a rescue mission the ''Ghost'' crew soon learn Luminara [[spoiler: was DeadAllAlong]].

* ''Film/TheHost'': Hyun-seo is swallowed by the creature and suffocates shortly before her father Gang-du can rescue her. Se-joo survives being swallowed, and Gang-du [[HappilyAdopted adopts him.]]

* In ''Literature/Harry PotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Hagrid reveals Harry, Ron, and Hermione that Dumbledore sent him to convince the giants to join forces with the order. He says that he took the opportunity to look up his mother, who abandoned him and his father when he was three, while he was at it, and that he found out she died.