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We know Jack's father body was put on the plane (we clearly see the coffin in one of the very first episodes), and we know that someone took the body (probably MIB) from Episode 5, when Jack smashed the coffin into pieces.

Now, since Christian Shepard's body is never found. Where did it go?

Bonus question: Why did the MIB take it in the first place? (we know he can impersonate somebody without literally taking their body)

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It is indeed never answered, but I think given the fact that Yemi (Mr. Eko's brother)'s body was in the Nigerian plane, and then disappeared, shows that MiB probably moved Christians body somewhere else in order to freak out Jack. One good question is why didn't he do that with Locke? Maybe he didn't have the opportunity, maybe he wanted to be discovered at some point, maybe it's just bad writing.

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As far as I am aware this was never answered in the show.

There are a bunch of theories about Christian's body on the LOST wikipedia web page. Notably here is one of the most common theories:

  • During the crash, Christian's body was ejected from the coffin. The ultimate evidence is the sport shoes (possibly Jack´s) we can see hanging in a tree, in the first scene of the pilot. MiB must have found both the body and the coffin. He made Christian's body disappear but kept the coffin knowing that he would be able to drive Jack mad (or, at least, to spread a lot of doubts).

My personal opinion is that the man in black or smoke monster had to take his body to be able to imitate Christians form. How or what the MiB/SM did to assimilate the form from Christian's body nobody knows.

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  • "[...] smoke monster had to take his body to be able to imitate Christians form." -- Well, in the last season, MIB, imitates Locke without ever being in contact with the dead body.
    – Shoe
    Jan 8, 2014 at 20:51
  • This could be explained because Jacob was dead at this point. which hindered him from doing so on live individuals before.
    – Jared
    Jan 8, 2014 at 20:54
  • Nope, Jacob was not dead when MIB impersonated Locke for the first time (he went to kill Jacob with the Locke "skin").
    – Shoe
    Jan 8, 2014 at 20:55
  • You are right, the wiki page mentions "Eventually, and permanently after the death of Jacob, he took the form of John Locke.", but he took johns form to convince Benjamin to kill Jacob. I still in the camp of believing he took the body for whatever reason so he could imitate Christian's form.
    – Jared
    Jan 8, 2014 at 21:00
  • After reading more and remembering the later seasons (I should really re-watch it again:) John Locke was indeed dead by the time the MiB took Johns form. Thus it seems the only logical explanation that the MiB can only take forms of dead characters. Whilst doesn't explain what happened to Christian's body, some of the theories pertaining to the MiB deliberately destroying Christian's body as a way to confuse Jack.
    – Jared
    Jan 9, 2014 at 1:18
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Mib tells jack in season 6 he can only assume the role of dead people, MIB also stated at a different time he used John Locke body to gain trust. MIB needed the candidates dead so he told John Locke say hello to my son so he can lure Jack back to the island, in season 6 he tells Jack that he was the obvious choice for Protector of the island, Christian Shepards body is just another Lost mystery that will remain so.

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The black smoke / MIB did not require a body to be present in order to take form; this is proven several times over with other manifestations where bodies could not have been present.

It is implied in the airport (episode "White Rabbit") that Christian's body will not be loaded into the plane, as Jack does not have the proper documentation. The coffin was always empty. In the alternate timeline, Christian's body never made it to LAX.

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  • Counterpoint: the shoes. If the body didn't make it, why are Christian's shoes on the island? See: Pilot.
    – Justin Young
    May 16, 2018 at 15:58

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