So, thanks to the discussion about profiles of deceased people on Furaffinity, it is now my time to drop some knowledge here:
Furaffinity actually changes the status of a person's profile if they are provided proof that said person is dead! The symbol next to a person's name determines if they're a Member, Admin, Suspended, Banned, or Deceased, and they'll literally change people's account status to Deceased! I think the original reason for this was because yeeeeeears back there were people who would fake die for one reason or another (I actually dated one of those people, but that's a story for another day) so they made it so that the only way it would really be "confirmed" was if their account changed, usually after someone contacted an admin in private with details/proof. That way people could get confirmation and grieve/leave the text equivalent of a flower on the grave/whatever. Back when FA was "the" primary hub of communication for furries (since other sites like VCL didnt serve for actual talking much) it probably served a bigger purpose and was the only way people would find out sometimes, but now that social media like Twitter is prominent it's definitely a weird remnant of an older time.