[HPforGrownups] Are we sure about Sirius?

[T.M. Sommers]

No: HPFGUIDX 69698

Dave Hardenbrook wrote:
> a Mystery buff, says, "No _corpus delicti_, no proven death",
> by which he means that if there's no dead body of Sirius, then
> we cannot from a legal standpoint assume he *is* dead.

'Corpus delicti' means 'the body of the crime', meaning all the 
evidece of the crime, not necessarily the body of the victim, 
although the victim's body can be part of the corpus delicti. 
Murder can be proven without the victim's body.  And the crime 
does not have to be murder.  Compare 'corpus juris', 'the body of 
the law', meaning all the laws of a jurisdiction.