We learn the fate of Vern Tessio at the end of the short story The Body by Stephen King. Gordie, the narrator, when describing what has become of him and his three friends after the end of their search for the body, tells us that Vern tragically died in a house fire that occurred at a party in 1966, six years after the events the story. Like the other two friends, Teddy and Chris, Vern does not survive long past his childhood. As for Teddy, he dies along with his fellow passengers in a car accident while driving drunk. Chris, perhaps the most promising of them all, is stabbed to death in a restaurant while trying to break up a fight.

Ray Brower is the name of the child who has gone missing and is presumed to be dead. It turns out that the body in the woods was indeed his. He has been hit by a train and likely killed instantly. Finding Ray's body has a profound effect on the other boys. What they thought was going to be a lark in the woods turns out to deeply affect them, as they realize the finality and gravity and death upon finding Ray's remains beside the tracks.