Of course, it's much harder to find out a character has died than to find out that they have lived. After all, you only need to find one
subsequent line of
dialogue or
action, and hey presto, they're still there. But if they're dead, you either have to find a reference to "gosh, it's a terrible thing that Mabel/Butch/
Old Yeller died, isn't it" or comb through the rest of the book to determine they are indeed gone. (I will leave comparisons with proving scientific
theories as an exercise for the reader.)
Easier to just read the damn book correctly.