...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Never a Runaway

182 statements
35 feature instances
23 referencing feature instances

Never a Runaway	type	FeatureClass
Never a Runaway	label	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway	page	NeverARunaway
Never a Runaway	comment	Someone is missing. Nobody's seen them for weeks. Where could they be? Expect the police to decide they're The Runaway. And, one thing's for certain: when you hear that, the odds are good that they didn't. Sadly, this is Truth in Television on both sides. Sometimes people really do run away. Other times, they're part of a population that is historically mistreated or neglected, especially by the police. However, this is also convenient in stories for multiple reasons. The clearest, and most obvious, is that it answers the question of why the police aren't investigating and gives the audience a very clear reason to think that the Police Are Useless. It gives the protagonist a clear and obvious motivation to need to take over where they've failed. Itâ€™s also very difficult to prove or disprove, except in cases of Finally Found the Body. It's also a staple of Not the First Victim and a form of Chekhov M.I.A.. Compare Never Suicide, which is another common, but less sinister, explanation for a death that turns out to have some form of third-party involvement. Often leads to Seeking the Missing, Finding the Dead if a character decides to go looking for the so-called runaway. Contrast with Disposable Vagrant and Kill the Poor, when homeless characters may have run away, but are then preyed upon. Not to be confused with He's Just Hiding, which despite the title, is an audience reaction, though it's still about people who are dead being thought to have run away or been in hiding instead.
Never a Runaway	fetched	2024-04-20T20:32:15Z
Never a Runaway	parsed	2024-04-20T20:32:15Z
Never a Runaway	isPartOf	DBTropes
Never a Runaway / int_13658868	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_13658868	comment	Room: At least in the book, it's heavily implied that, while she was actually kidnapped by Old Nick, Ma's parents thought that she had run away for reasons they didn't understand. The police suggested that she might've been a drug addict, despite no evidence of this.
Never a Runaway / int_13658868	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_13658868	featureConfidence	1.0
Room	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_13658868
Never a Runaway / int_19dec099	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_19dec099	comment	I Hunt Killers: The victim that actually got Billy caught — the murder of a high school girl — was presumed to have run away to L.A. Only G. William Turner believed differently, which led to Billy's capture.
Never a Runaway / int_19dec099	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_19dec099	featureConfidence	1.0
I Hunt Killers	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_19dec099
Never a Runaway / int_2f6b4063	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_2f6b4063	comment	Cinema Purgatorio: Discussed at the end of Hushed Up! One of the Fatal Officers gets a call from the station that a child's been reported missing, which he bets the parents were responsible for.
Never a Runaway / int_2f6b4063	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_2f6b4063	featureConfidence	1.0
Cinema Purgatorio (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_2f6b4063
Never a Runaway / int_3a0b742e	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_3a0b742e	comment	Stir of Echoes: Debbie's mother says that her older daughter, Samantha, ran away. She's actually the girl that was murdered in the house.
Never a Runaway / int_3a0b742e	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_3a0b742e	featureConfidence	1.0
Stir of Echoes	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_3a0b742e
Never a Runaway / int_4ab90e9e	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_4ab90e9e	comment	From Next Door: The Son collected newspaper clippings about the disappearance of the young boy next door, who the police dismissed as a runaway despite his parents' protests. He was a victim of the creature.
Never a Runaway / int_4ab90e9e	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_4ab90e9e	featureConfidence	1.0
From Next Door (Video Game)	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_4ab90e9e
Never a Runaway / int_543757f5	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_543757f5	comment	I Stop Somewhere: When Ellie is missing, after being raped and murdered by Noah and she's assumed to have run away, which only her father Alex doesn't believe. When the thaw comes months later, her body is finally found and the truth discovered.
Never a Runaway / int_543757f5	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_543757f5	featureConfidence	1.0
I Stop Somewhere	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_543757f5
Never a Runaway / int_6916eab7	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_6916eab7	comment	Missing (Miraculous Ladybug): When Marinette doesn't resurface even after Ladybug defeats an akuma that made its victims vanish, Lila tries to convince the police that the other girl must have run away from home, even claiming to have seen her meeting up with an older man. In reality, the problem is that Ladybug got hit by the akuma's powers without realizing it and has forgotten her civilian identity, staying transformed and focusing on patrolling Paris for any signs of Hawkmoth.
Never a Runaway / int_6916eab7	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_6916eab7	featureConfidence	1.0
Missing (Miraculous Ladybug) (Fanfic)	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_6916eab7
Never a Runaway / int_695ae9ef	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_695ae9ef	comment	Disturbing Behavior: Gavin tells Steve that he saw Andy kill Mary-Jo in a police officer's presence, but that he can't prove it and that everybody's saying she ran away.
Never a Runaway / int_695ae9ef	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_695ae9ef	featureConfidence	1.0
Disturbing Behavior	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_695ae9ef
Never a Runaway / int_7504c972	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_7504c972	comment	Tony Hill and Carol Jordan: Jacko Vance's victims are all teenage girls, and are all believed to have run away. Even though Donna's mother knows that her daughter wouldn't run away, she is unable to convince the police of this.
Never a Runaway / int_7504c972	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_7504c972	featureConfidence	1.0
Tony Hill and Carol Jordan	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_7504c972
Never a Runaway / int_865c4621	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_865c4621	comment	Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The Thompsons notified the police about their sons being missing, unaware that they have shrunk. One of the cops assumes they might have run away due to their dad apparently being too hard on his eldest son, but tells the cops that both their sons are happy and could never have run away.
Never a Runaway / int_865c4621	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_865c4621	featureConfidence	1.0
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_865c4621
Never a Runaway / int_89e3893d	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_89e3893d	comment	Running on Air features a partial Subversion when it comes to Draco's disappearance: he did run away from home. After three months, however, his father caught up with him, and during the ensuing confrontation used a time-turner that effectively stranded his son outside of time itself.
Never a Runaway / int_89e3893d	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_89e3893d	featureConfidence	1.0
Running on Air (Fanfic)	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_89e3893d
Never a Runaway / int_8bf621b6	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_8bf621b6	comment	The Pale Blue Eye: Landor's daughter Mattie eloped, and was disowned by him as a result. Except she didn't. She committed suicide after being gang-raped, and Landor concealed the true circumstances so he could hunt down her rapists.
Never a Runaway / int_8bf621b6	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_8bf621b6	featureConfidence	1.0
The Pale Blue Eye	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_8bf621b6
Never a Runaway / int_8d85e2c5	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_8d85e2c5	comment	Vera: In "Old Wounds", the police refused to investigate Carrie's disappearance, dismissing her as a mere runaway because they didn't want to spend time searcching for "a mere miner's daughter" who happened to be biracial. This led to her parents' Grief-Induced Split.
Never a Runaway / int_8d85e2c5	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_8d85e2c5	featureConfidence	1.0
Vera	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_8d85e2c5
Never a Runaway / int_95edb236	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_95edb236	comment	Living Dead Girl: Ray tells Alice that her parents think she ran away, especially after "the horrible letters she sent". It's not clear if this is true or just Ray's manipulation technique.
Never a Runaway / int_95edb236	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_95edb236	featureConfidence	1.0
Living Dead Girl	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_95edb236
Never a Runaway / int_9dd34381	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_9dd34381	comment	Dark (2017): The series begins with the teenager Erik Obendorf being missing without a trace for weeks. Ulrich Nielsen, the local police chief, seriously doubts that actually a crime happened and Erik just ran away, as he has already done that a few times before. Only after Ulrich's own son is missing too and the corpse of another boy is found, he and the police in general starts investigating seriously. As it turns out, while Ulrich's son is still alive, but travelled to 1986, Erik actually was abducted and died in a failed time travel experiment.
Never a Runaway / int_9dd34381	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_9dd34381	featureConfidence	1.0
Dark (2017)	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_9dd34381
Never a Runaway / int_9f5af515	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_9f5af515	comment	Forensic Files: Several cases involve people going missing but are presumed to have run away for whatever reason, until either something happens to cause the police to no longer consider it likely... or until the body shows up.
Never a Runaway / int_9f5af515	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_9f5af515	featureConfidence	1.0
Forensic Files	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_9f5af515
Never a Runaway / int_a61bda23	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_a61bda23	comment	Life Is Strange: Everybody in Arcadia Bay except Chloe believes that Rachel Amber ran away. Even Max has a moment's hesitation upon finding concrete evidence that Rachel was planning to run away and go to LA. However, Chloe was right all along. Rachel was murdered by Nathan Prescott at the behest of Mark Jefferson.
Never a Runaway / int_a61bda23	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_a61bda23	featureConfidence	1.0
Life Is Strange (Video Game)	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_a61bda23
Never a Runaway / int_bf5b0a8f	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_bf5b0a8f	comment	Under the Silver Lake: A classic subversion. After Sarah disappears, characters constantly speculate to Sam that she has simply moved. Sam resolutely believes differently... then he tracks her down and she actually has run away to join an underground suicide cult of rich and powerful men.
Never a Runaway / int_bf5b0a8f	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_bf5b0a8f	featureConfidence	1.0
Under the Silver Lake	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_bf5b0a8f
Never a Runaway / int_c0777aea	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_c0777aea	comment	In Gannibal, everyone in the village assumes that Osamu Kano ran away because he'd amassed too much gambling debt. The only one who doesn't believe this is his daughter Mashiro, who insists her father didn't gamble at all and would never have abandoned his family. Naturally, it turns out that she's right.
Never a Runaway / int_c0777aea	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_c0777aea	featureConfidence	1.0
Gannibal (Manga)	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_c0777aea
Never a Runaway / int_cc2e518	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_cc2e518	comment	Things We Have In Common: Invoked by Yasmin. When she sees Sam stalking Alice, she looks for other people he might've kidnapped and comes across Amelia Bell on a missing persons website. She looks uncannily like Alice, and Yasmin immediately jumps to the conclusion that Sam might have killed her, even though she's described as a runaway.
Never a Runaway / int_cc2e518	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_cc2e518	featureConfidence	1.0
Things We Have In Common	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_cc2e518
Never a Runaway / int_d1e1037f	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_d1e1037f	comment	Night in the Woods: Mae is surprised to come home to find her old friend Casey has up and disappeared, with his parents putting up "Missing Persons" signs all around the area. No one else, including Mae and the rest of Casey's friends, are particularly worried, as Casey often talked about wanting to hop a train and escape their Dying Town, and the lack of communication is chalked up to him wanting to make a clean break. Naturally, the truth is much more sinister. Casey was actually kidnapped and murdered as part of a cult ritual.
Never a Runaway / int_d1e1037f	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_d1e1037f	featureConfidence	1.0
Night in the Woods (Video Game)	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_d1e1037f
Never a Runaway / int_d319bcd9	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_d319bcd9	comment	The Night of the Hunter: After Harry kills Willa, he lies to the townsfolk (the Spoons particularly) that she has run away and left him a note.
Never a Runaway / int_d319bcd9	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_d319bcd9	featureConfidence	1.0
The Night of the Hunter	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_d319bcd9
Never a Runaway / int_d6f3a198	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_d6f3a198	comment	Nearly every Unsolved Mysteries segment involving a missing child has their parents insisting on this, and although the cops still have to consider the possibility, it's clear that they ultimately agree. In particular, the case of Kari Lynn Nixon, who vanished while walking home from a local convenience store. One of the lead detectives cited numerous factors about her case before adamantly declaring "She is not a runaway. She is the victim of a kidnapping." note 7 years after she vanished, a man arrested for an entirely different crime confessed to abducting and murdering her. This has also applied to adults, as while some people will suggest that they opted to abandon their old lives and start new ones elsewhere, while others staunchly insist that they would never abandon their families/children (particularly in the cases of missing women) note Considering how many of these women's husbands/boyfriends were eventually charged with their murders, they were right.
Never a Runaway / int_d6f3a198	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_d6f3a198	featureConfidence	1.0
Unsolved Mysteries	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_d6f3a198
Never a Runaway / int_d80ecce5	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_d80ecce5	comment	WORKING!!: Inverted. Aoi "Yamada" claims to be an orphan, with a story so full of Blatant Lies that Souta Takahashi immediately pegs her as a runaway using a fake name.
Never a Runaway / int_d80ecce5	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_d80ecce5	featureConfidence	1.0
Working	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_d80ecce5
Never a Runaway / int_d9c602eb	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_d9c602eb	comment	South Park: The plot behind "City on the Edge of Forever" is that the bus strands on the edge of a mysterious cliff during a blizzard. When the kids are trapped there for an extended period whilst Ms. Crabtree searches for help, the parents and school faculty automatically jump to the conclusion that they ran away.
Never a Runaway / int_d9c602eb	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_d9c602eb	featureConfidence	1.0
South Park	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_d9c602eb
Never a Runaway / int_db4df41e	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_db4df41e	comment	Don't Walk Home Alone After Dark: In The Pine Creepers, some people believed Pike Lister, a trouble-making teenager who went missing in November of 1994, just took off by himself. However, others thought he might've drowned in the lake, while Jordy and his dad are convinced the Pine Creepers "got him", especially as something similar occurred back in The '70s. It's implied that Jordy and his dad were right, as Jordy himself is taken by the Creepers.
Never a Runaway / int_db4df41e	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_db4df41e	featureConfidence	1.0
Don't Walk Home Alone After Dark (Web Animation)	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_db4df41e
Never a Runaway / int_de27241a	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_de27241a	comment	Unforgotten: Hayley Reid, the victim of Series 3, was dismissed as a runaway by the officers investigating her disappearance at the time. When her body is eventually discovered twenty years later, the lead detective feels extremely guilty.
Never a Runaway / int_de27241a	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_de27241a	featureConfidence	1.0
Unforgotten	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_de27241a
Never a Runaway / int_df277244	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_df277244	comment	American Gods: The town of Lakeside is a quaint little town time seems to have forgotten. Occasionally a teen, bored with the town, runs off to the big city never to be seen again. It's sad but is treated as a fact of life by the townsfolk. Shadow discovers the actual truth though, that the children are being sacrificed by Hinzelmann in a ritual to keep outside influences from changing the town. He uses the town's yearly ritual of putting a clunker out on the frozen lake and waiting to see when the spring thaw causes it to sink, drowning the children and hiding the bodies at the same time. When the ruse is discovered, the lake is dredged and dozens of bodies are discovered in the trunks of every car sent down.
Never a Runaway / int_df277244	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_df277244	featureConfidence	1.0
American Gods	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_df277244
Never a Runaway / int_e4163696	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_e4163696	comment	Werewolves Within: Cecily tells Finn near the start that Jeanine's husband left town with his mistress for Belize. Finn actually discovers his gored body under the porch at her inn.
Never a Runaway / int_e4163696	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_e4163696	featureConfidence	1.0
Werewolves Within	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_e4163696
Never a Runaway / int_e6318baf	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_e6318baf	comment	Midsomer Murders: "With Baited Breath" features a variation, the entire village of Solomon Gorge believes Lola Silverman ran away after she left with her suitcase following a major fight with her mother Isobel ten years ago. Isobel likewise regularly receives postcards from all over the world from Lola to tell that she's safely traveling. In reality Lola was killed in a road accident whilst coming back to her mother, with the killer hiding the body and writing the postcards to sell the illusion.
Never a Runaway / int_e6318baf	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_e6318baf	featureConfidence	1.0
Midsomer Murders	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_e6318baf
Never a Runaway / int_e91033c0	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_e91033c0	comment	Troubled Blood: Downplayed. It's briefly discussed that Margot might have run away with Satchwell, who she was (incorrectly) believed to be cheating on her husband with. Cormoran and Robin consider the possibility but dismiss it pretty quickly. And, in fact, Margot was murdered by a Serial Killer.
Never a Runaway / int_e91033c0	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_e91033c0	featureConfidence	1.0
Troubled Blood	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_e91033c0
Never a Runaway / int_ebcccd7c	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_ebcccd7c	comment	Millennium Series: Mikael raises the possibility that Harriet Vanger ran away, which Henrik shuts down. Then comes the revelation that Harriet's father Gottfried, and then her brother Martin, were serial rapists and murderers. Mikael and Lisbeth naturally assume that Harriet was murdered. Only for it to then turn out that she wasn't; she survived, and ran away, making this a subversion.
Never a Runaway / int_ebcccd7c	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_ebcccd7c	featureConfidence	1.0
Millennium Series	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_ebcccd7c
Never a Runaway / int_f3c92203	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_f3c92203	comment	The Cat Who... Series: In The Cat Who Saw Red, Qwill reunites with his first love Joy, who is married to a ceramic artist that Qwill instantly despises. Later in the story, Qwill writes her a check so she can try to get away from him, but a few days later the check bounces because someone tried to change the amount for much more than what was in his account. He confronts her husband, who shrugs and says that Joy ran out on him and isn't as innocent as Qwill wants to think. Her running away is accepted as the official story, but Qwill isn't buying it. The husband is lying, of course. He killed Joy and put her body in his kiln to destroy the evidence, then tried to cash the modified check.
Never a Runaway / int_f3c92203	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_f3c92203	featureConfidence	1.0
The Cat Who... Series	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_f3c92203
Never a Runaway / int_f4291939	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_f4291939	comment	The Rescuers: Rufus the cat initially thinks Penny ran away from the orphanage, but she turns out to have been kidnapped instead.
Never a Runaway / int_f4291939	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_f4291939	featureConfidence	1.0
The Rescuers	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_f4291939
Never a Runaway / int_f43b3a51	type	Never a Runaway
Never a Runaway / int_f43b3a51	comment	Diagnosis: Murder: This is the fate of Mark Sloan's father in the episode "Sins of the Father." Mark had always thought he had run out on the family. He had actually been sealed in a tomb while investigating a case.
Never a Runaway / int_f43b3a51	featureApplicability	1.0
Never a Runaway / int_f43b3a51	featureConfidence	1.0
Diagnosis: Murder	hasFeature	Never a Runaway / int_f43b3a51

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Never a Runaway	processingCategory2	Mystery Tropes
Never a Runaway	processingCategory2	Youngsters
Cinema Purgatorio (Comic Book) / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Running on Air (Fanfic) / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Disturbing Behavior / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
The Pale Blue Eye / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Werewolves Within / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
What Lies Beneath / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
American Gods / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Living Dead Girl / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Room / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
The Cat Who... Series / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Tony Hill and Carol Jordan / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Troubled Blood / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Gannibal (Manga) / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Beyond Paradise (2023) / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Diagnosis: Murder / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2021) / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Midsomer Murders / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Unforgotten / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
Don't Walk Home Alone After Dark (Web Animation) / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway
The Rescuers / int_b3a8053f	type	Never a Runaway

Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.