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Multiple people died during an obscurus attack on New York City in the movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The deaths include

senator Henry Shaw Jr., Mary Lou Barebone, and perhaps others.

Given that one of them was famous, how did the aurors explain their deaths when they cleaned up New York City and wiped the memories of muggles at the end of the movie?

We know magi can't bring people back from the dead, so those deaths can't be restored to normal when the aurors restored everything else to normal.

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  • 2
    Probably handled by the Department of No-Maj Misinformation (mentioned in the new edition of FB).
    – ibid
    Commented May 5, 2017 at 5:22
  • 1
    @ibid If you have a quote directly from the new edition of Fantastic Beasts, you could write an answer based on it. :-)
    – RichS
    Commented May 5, 2017 at 6:22
  • Related, possible dupe: scifi.stackexchange.com/q/63097/55866
    – ibid
    Commented May 5, 2017 at 8:53

2 Answers 2

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The MACUSA has an entire department devoted to spreading misinformation to muggles no-majs.

Hodag
M.O.M. Classification: XXX
The Hodag is horned, with red, glowing eyes and long fangs, and the size of a large dog. The Hodag’s magic resides largely in its horns which, when powdered, make a man immune to the effects of alcohol and able to go without sleep for seven days and seven nights. Like the Snallygaster, the Hodag is a North American creature whose antics have excited considerable Muggle interest and curiosity. It feeds largely on Mooncalves and is consequently attracted to Muggle farms at night. MACUSA’s Department of No-Maj Misinformation has put in considerable work to successfully convince Muggles that sightings of Hodags have been hoaxes. It is now confined, mostly successfully, to a protected area around Wisconsin.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2017 edition)

We never get more information about them, but we can assume that they a play a similar role to the Ministry's 'Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee' and 'Office of Misinformation'.

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It's not mentioned, but it would be easy enough for the wizarding world to explain it away.

All the wizarding world would have to do is make up a fake cause for the deaths. They could Confund a doctor or a medical examiner into saying they died of natural causes, or something like that. Also, remember, everyone would have lost their memories, so there would be no non-wizard witnesses to either death. We saw an Auror change the articles in the newspapers, so they could do something similar and add in articles about them dying of mundane and completely normal causes. They could also magic away any injuries on the bodies that would make anyone suspicious of their origin.

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