This came up over at SR4, and it was pointed out this was the more appropriate place to respond.
Well, stop for a moment and think about that. When it comes to street soldiers and organized crime, what do you honestly think one side would do do an enemy's corpse? They would be inclined to give it back, yes, but as a warning. Boss probably woke up one morning and found Johnny's naked corpse on his doorstep with a message from Loren carved into his back, maybe even signed by Loren himself. Gangs and mafiosos do shit like that all the time, so yes. I believe Loren probably did send Johnny's mutilated corpse back to the Saints as a huge middle finger.
Judging by Jonny's body being only mentiod when you blow up the syndicate tower, i think there was some scenes planned where the Saints find his body as some sort of trophy (fitting Loren's comment about making his corpse a sign to not resist the Syndicate) and before leaving take it with them. With the blowing up bit being the original turn of events.
Overall the devs simply failed to simple show a dead body.
BUT, all that is is nothing more than supposition. It may be a _possible_ scenario, but there is ZERO hard evidence that proves that the Saints got Gat's body back in any condition. Further, given how shocked and dismayed and angry all of the Saints were by Gat's (highly probable) demise, getting his body back would have been a monumental BIG DEAL -- of which we didn't hear a peep?
And didn't Loren say something like, "Let Mr. Gat's _death_ serve as a warning," rather than "Let Mr. Gat's _body_ serve as a warning"? Either way really doesn't matter because it is just as possible that Loren was speaking allegorically along the lines of, "That body there shows what happens when they try to resist us." Besides, if you figure that if Loren knows where to send the body, then he also knows where to send a super-sized strike team to disrupt the Saints' operations.
Which is, frankly, one of the things that puzzled me the most throughout the game. WHY wasn't the Synidacte constantly attacking their old haunt that had been transformed into the Saints HQ? The Syndicate had unlimited helicopters, APCs, Morningstar thugs, Luchadore goons, and Decker soldiers to make frequent assaults. But then just because a large team of assassination hookers fail, they NEVER bothered to try from a different angle? That fact that they didn't do what "Gangs and mafiosos" would logically do underscores why they also wouldn't send over Gat's body on the premise that that's what "Gangs and mafiosos" would logically do. Apparently, the Syndicate was not hampered by an excess of logic.
