History Main / VehicleRoofBodyDisposal

** In "American Dreamers," a skeleton is placed on the open upper deck of a double-decker tour bus. This was really more of a practical joke, but as the skeleton came from an undiscovered murder, it still fits.
** In "Hush," Mac and Stella investigate when half of a crushed body is found on top of a shipping container on a truck. The other half is eventually located in the shipping yard. It turns out that after the murder, the person who helped the murderer clean up placed the body on top of a shipping container, hoping it would be crushed and look like an accident.
** In "Happily Never After," the killer drops the BodyOfTheWeek out of a window on to the top of a school bus. The body isn't found till the driver slams on the brakes and the body slides off the roof.

* A variation in the ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode "XX." The killer ties the body to the underside of a prison bus. The body gets chewed up, and the CSI crew initially think they are dealing with a prisoner who was killed why attempting an UndersideRide escape.

Compare WhatADrag if the body is dragged by the vehicle.

* In the ''Series/{{Bottom}}'' episode "Gas", Richie and Eddie believe they've managed to kill the Gas inspector when they knocked him out with a frying pan (and hit him a few more times after he hit the floor for good measure). They decide to add an extra entry to his diary ("Left in high spirits, to indulge in my hobby of bus surfing.") and post his body out of the window onto the roof of a double decker bus. However just when about to push him out he wakes up.
* A variation in the ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode "XX". The killer ties the body to the underside of a prison bus. The body gets chewed up, and the CSI crew initially think they are dealing with a prisoner who was killed why attempting an UndersideRide escape.

** In "American Dreamers", a skeleton is placed on the open upper deck of a doubledecker tour bus. This was really more of a practical joke, but as the skeleton came from an undiscovered murder, it still fits.
** In "Hush", Mac and Stella investigate when half of a crushed body is found on top of a shipping container on a truck. The other half is eventually located in a warehouse. It turns out that after the murder, the person who helped the murderer clean up placed the body on top of a shipping container, hoping it would be crushed and look like an accident.
** In "Happily Never After", the killer drops the BodyOfTheWeek out of a window on to the top of a school bus. The body isn't found till the driver slams on the brakes and the body slides off the roof.

** Played straight in "Blood is Thicker". A delivery driver hears a loud bang while delivering a parcel but fails to notice it's from a body hitting the roof of his vehicle. The woman, who had been stabbed and thrown off her balcony, isn't discovered until much later on his route. Holmes is able to work out where she came from based on the interior of the vehicle and backtracks to her apartment.
** A variant of the accidental version occurs in "Rip Off". The body of the VictimOfTheWeek is shoved under an illegally parked car. The body gets snagged on the undercarriage of the car and is dragged away when the car is towed.
* ''Series/{{Motive}}'': In "Fallen", the VictimOfTheWeek is shoved off an overpass where he is struck by the top of a container truck passing underneath. He would have wound up on top of the truck if he had not been tied to the bridge.
* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': In "The Great Game", Andrew West's killer places the his body on top of a train to get it as far away as possible. The body falls off when the train jolts over switch points in a rail yard. This segment of the story was based on "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" discussed above in Literature.
* ''Series/{{Vera}}'': The accidental version happens in "A Certain Samaritan". After being stabbed, the VictimOfTheWeek staggers against the railing of the overpass. The killer pushes him over and he lands on top of a passing long-distance lorry, where he breaks his spine. The lorry carries him all the way across the country (from Newcastle to Portsmouth).

* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': A variant of the accidental version occurs in "Rip Off", The body of the VictimOfTheWeek is shoved under an illegally parked car. The body gets snagged on the undercarriage of the car and is dragged away when the car is towed.

* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': A variant of the accidental version occurs in "Rip Off", The body of the VictimOfTheWeek is shoved under an illegally parked car. The body gets snagged on the undercarriage of the car and is dragged away when the car is towed.

** In "American Dreamers", a skeleton is placed on the open upper deck of a doubledecker tour bus.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1543057003049597900
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

* ''Series/{{Vera}}'': The accidental version happens in "A Certain Samaritan." After being stabbed, the VictimOfTheWeek staggers against the railing of the overpass. The killer pushes him over and he lands on top of a passing long-distance lorry, where he breaks his spine. The lorry carries him all the way across the country (from Newcastle to Portsmouth).
* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': In "The Great Game," Andrew West's killer places the his body on top of a train to get it as far away as possible. The body falls off when the train jolts over switch points in a rail yard. This segment of the story was based on "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" discussed above in Literature.
* A variation in the ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode "XX." The killer ties the body to the underside of a prison bus. The body gets chewed up, and the CSI crew initially think they are dealing with a prisoner who was killed why attempting an UndersideRide escape.

** In "American Dreamers," a skeleton is placed on the open upper deck of a doubledecker tour bus.
** In "Hush," Mac and Stella investigate when half of a crushed body is found on top of a shipping container on a truck. The other half is eventually located in a warehouse. It turns out that after the murder, the person who helped the murderer clean up placed the body on top of a shipping container, hoping it would be crushed and look like an accident.
** In "Happily Never After," the killer drops the BodyOfTheWeek out of a window on to the top of a school bus. The body isn't found till the driver slams on the brakes and the body slides off the roof.
* ''Series/{{Motive}}'': In "Fallen," the VictimOfTheWeek is shoved off an overpass where he is struck by the top of a container truck passing underneath. He would have wound up on top of the truck if he had not been tied to the bridge.
* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': A variant of the accidental version occurs in "Rip Off." The body of the VictimOfTheWeek is shoved under an illegally parked car. The body gets snagged on the undercarriage of the car and is dragged away when the car is towed.
* In the ''Series/{{Bottom}}'' episode "Gas," Richie and Eddie believe they've managed to kill the Gas inspector when they knocked him out with a frying pan (and hit him a few more times after he hit the floor for good measure). They decide to add an extra entry to his diary ("Left in high spirits, to indulge in my hobby of bus surfing.") and post his body out of the window onto the roof of a double decker bus. However just when about to push him out he wakes up.

* ''Series/{{Vera}}'': The accidental version happens in "A Certain Samaritan". After being stabbed, the VictimOfTheWeek staggers against the railing of the overpass. The killer pushes him over and he lands on top of a passing long-distance lorry, where he breaks his spine. The lorry carries him all the way across the country (from Newcastle to Portsmouth).
* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': In "The Great Game", Andrew West's killer places the his body on top of a train to get it as far away as possible. The body falls off when the train jolts over switch points in a rail yard. This segment of the story was based on "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" discussed above in Literature.
* A variation in the ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode ''XX". The killer ties the body to the underside of a prison bus. The body gets chewed up, and the CSI crew initially think they are dealing with a prisoner who was killed why attempting an UndersideRide escape.

** In "American Dreamers", a skeleton is placed on the open upper deck of a doubledecker tour bus.
** In "Hush", Mac and Stella investigate when half of a crushed body is found on top of a shipping container on a truck. The other half is eventually located in a warehouse. It turns out that after the murder, the person who helped the murderer clean up placed the body on top of a shipping container, hoping it would be crushed and look like an accident.
** In "Happily Never After", the killer drops the BodyOfTheWeek out of a window on to the top of a school bus. The body isn't found till the driver slams on the brakes and the body slides off the roof.
* ''Series/{{Motive}}'': In "Fallen", the VictimOfTheWeek is shoved off an overpass where he is struck by the top of a container truck passing underneath. He would have wound up on top of the truck if he had not been tied to the bridge.
* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': A variant of the accidental version occurs in "Rip Off". The body of the VictimOfTheWeek is shoved under an illegally parked car. The body gets snagged on the undercarriage of the car and is dragged away when the car is towed.
* In the ''Series/{{Bottom}}'' episode "Gas", Richie and Eddie believe they've managed to kill the Gas inspector when they knocked him out with a frying pan (and hit him a few more times after he hit the floor for good measure). They decide to add an extra entry to his diary ("Left in high spirits, to indulge in my hobby of Bus surfing.") and post his body out of the window onto the roof of a double decker bus. However just when about to push him out he wakes up.

* In the ''Series/{{Bottom}}'' episode "Gas", Richie and Eddie believe they've managed to kill the Gas inspector when they knocked him out with a frying pan (and hit him a few more times after he hit the floor for good measure). They decide to add an extra entry to his diary ("Left in high spirits, to indulge in my hobby of Bus surfing.") and post his body out of the window onto the roof of a double decker bus.

[[quoteright:286:[[Film/TheLadykillers1955 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vehicle_roof_6.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:286:The Major starts his final journey]]

[[quoteright:286:[[Film/TheLadykillers https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vehicle_roof_6.jpg]]]]

* In ''Film/TheLadykillers'', it becomes a RunningGag, as every time a character dies he gets thrown off a bridge and into a passing freight train. The 2004 remake uses a garbage barge instead.

[[quoteright:286:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vehicle_roof_6.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:286:[[Film/TheLadykillers The Major starts his final journey]]]]

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]
* A subversion occurs in ''Film/{{Fury 2014}}'', when the Sherman crew puts a dead German soldier onto their disabled tank and set the corpse on fire. When the SS troops arrive shortly after, they approach the tank carelessly to investigate the odd situation, and the crew opens up with everything they still have at point-blank range, with devastating results.
* In ''Film/TheLadykillers'', it becomes a RunningGag, as every time a character dies he gets thrown off a bridge and into a passing freight train. The 2004 remake uses a garbage barge instead.
* ''Film/{{No Man of Her Own|1950}}'': This is how Bill and Helen get rid of Stephan's body: they throw him on a slow moving train that's heading out of town.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'': After "Nothing" Yonson stabs Joe Period in the head with an icepick, he instructs one of his henchmen to get rid of the body. The henchman [[DeadMansChest stuffs the body into a double bass case]] and throws the case into an open car on a passing freight train. Joe, however, turns out to be NotQuiteDead.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/{{Motive}}'': In "Fallen", the VictimOfTheWeek is shoved off an overpass where he is struck by the top of a container truck passing underneath.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]
* ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'': After "Nothing" Yonson stabs Joe Period in the head with an icepick, he instructs one of his henchmen to get rid of the body. The henchman [[DeadMansChest stuffs the body into a double bass case]] and throws the case into an open car on a passing freight train. Joe, however, turns out to be NotQuiteDead.

* The UrExample and TropeMaker is the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans". The killer deposited the corpse on top of a train that was stopped outside the window of the flat where the murder was committed. The body later fell off in the Underground.

* A subversion occurs in ''Film/{{Fury 2014}}'', when the Sherman crew puts a dead German soldier onto their disabled tank and set the corpse on fire. When the SS troopes arrive shortly after, they approach the tank carelessly to investigate the odd situation, and the crew opens up with everything they still hav at point-blank range, with devastating results.

* A subversion occurs in ''Film/{{Fury}}'', when the Sherman crew puts a dead German soldier onto their disabled tank and set the corpse on fire. When the SS troopes arrive shortly after, they approach the tank carelessly to investigate the odd situation, and the crew opens up with everything they still hav at point-blank range, with devastating results.