Stating The Bleeding Obvious...

I was interested to learn, via the BBC, that the excavation of Cardinal Newman's grave has failed to find his body...

It turns out that he was not buried in a lead-lined coffin, and, although an inscribed plaque from the coffin, and brass, wood and cloth artefacts were found, no trace of his body remained.

According to Peter Jennings, speaking for the Birmingham Oratory, "burial in a wooden coffin in a very damp site makes this kind of total decomposition of the body unsurprising."

Personally, I would have expected the bones to decompose rather more slowly than wood or cloth,even in damp conditions, but I don't claim to have any specialist knowledge of decomposing bodies.  However, the thing which puzzled me was the attitude of the BBC report:

"Newman's body may have decomposed, as his coffin was not lead-lined," and, "Newman's remains are thought to have decomposed."

I am somewhat puzzled as to what else they consider might have happened...