BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Moriarty's body

**Posted by Azelma** August 27, 2013 3:37 am

So I have seen a lot of discussion regarding Moriarty after TRF. Whether he hasn't actually died, or if Sherlock threw his body off the roof in his place. But I have an entirely different question.

Providing that Moriary's body stayed where it was when he shot himself, it will no doubt be found soon after Sherlock's 'body'. Sherlock actually threw his phone onto his roof, so maybe Moriarty will have been discovered while collecting Sherlock's phone for evidence. What are we to believe that other characters in the show are going to think when finding that Moriarty has died along with Sherlock? Will they think that Sherlock killed him? Or because Moriarty was holding the gun, will it be assumed that Sherlock forced him to kill himself? OR will they think that Sherlock and Moriarty were involved in some sort of suicide pact?

Another thing is, the newspaper simply mentions the death of a fake genious. There is no headline or picture indicating the death of a criminal mastermind. Moriarty was high-profile at that point. If he died along with Sherlock, they both would have gotten press, especially having died together- unless his body was never found. In which case, maybe we ought to suspect Molly or Moran. I mean, logically it would have been very suspicous both Moriarty and Sherlock having commited suicide, but that was never mentioned.

Thoughts?

**Posted by Mattlocked** August 27, 2013 8:11 am

Long question, short answer:
Sherlock said on the roof he invented Moriarty. So I think he let the body disappear in time. They didn't find him.

**Posted by Russell** August 27, 2013 7:06 pm

Not a bad question! And I don't claim to have any idea of what they have in mind as far as the aftermath and who did what (mostly just a few things I'm convinced of and a wait-and-see vibe!), but I just couldn't help but notice you only mentioned Molly or Moran being suspect if no body was found. Sure, Molly helped Sherlock as far as his 'death' went, but I think helping with Moriarty's body as well involved things a little too 'big' for her. The Holmes brothers had been wanting to take down Moriarty for a while... quite a bit of what they were doing was with that goal in mind. I'm not positive, but hearkening back to the canon, if Sherlock was using his period of 'death' to bring down his web, it might be pretty useful to him to have Moriarty's people think he was still alive, in order to infiltrate. (or maybe not, who knows, considering if his people knew he died, there might be some toss-up from that as well that Sherlock could try to follow).
To that end, Mycroft, with all his resources, would have been helping his brother cover things up, fake things, get his people to clean-up the scene, etc, so they could continue the hunt under the radar, whichever direction things turned (because despite preparation for it, I'm sure neither of them were sure how that scene would end).

Of course, this doesn't address the fact that one of his people might have seen Moriarty shoot himself, I know. Or if people (or Kitty!) started noticing Richard Brooks suddenly wasn't around anymore. Fun to imagine the different scenarios you mention, but it just seems too likely that the Holmes' would have been more careful than to leave it there! Dont'cha think?