Jewish bereavement when there's no body?

[Haphazard]

This is for a short story, by the way.

I'm wondering what the ritual is for Jewish bereavement when there's no body to bury or anything (as in, lost at sea, burned beyond recognition from rubble, crushed and lost in a mining accident, etc). I am guessing the family still sits shiva but because a lot of ritual involves actual burial and stuff, well, do Jews do a symbolic burial or is there something different or does the family just skip these parts all together?

I know there probably aren't a whole lot of people who would know about this on this forum, but I'm having trouble finding anything online, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. Thanks for any help on the matter.

 

[Haight]

askmoses.com

 

[Haphazard]

askmoses.com

Thank you very much!

I didn't quite get an answer, but, well, that's usually how these things go, isn't it.