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Alguien habría encontrado el cadáver en el jardín.

Alguien habría encontrado el cadáver en el jardín.
Someone would have found the corpse in the garden.
From Lesson 304:Past conjecture (habría)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Alguien habría encontrado el cadáver en el jardín.

How does habría encontrado show past probability here, rather than just a hypothetical scenario?
While it literally translates to "would have found" for hypothetical situations, native speakers frequently use the conditional perfect to guess what probably happened in the past. Depending on context, this sentence can mean "Someone would have found the corpse" (if it hadn't been hidden) or "Someone must have found the corpse" (deducing what happened before a certain point in the past).
Could I use the future perfect (habrá encontrado) to say "someone must have found"?
It depends on the timeframe you are thinking about. Use the future perfect (habrá encontrado) if you are guessing about a recent event connected to the present (for example, guessing someone just found it right now). Use the conditional perfect (habría encontrado) to make an assumption about an event fully in the past (for example, guessing what happened yesterday before the police arrived).
Why doesn't alguien have the personal "a" in front of it here?
The personal "a" is required when a person is the direct object of the verb, meaning they are the one receiving the action. In this sentence, alguien is the subject (the one doing the finding), so no "a" is needed. If the action were reversed and you wanted to say "The dog would have found someone," then you would need it: El perro habría encontrado a alguien.
Is cadáver the most natural word for "body" in this context?
cadáver translates specifically to "corpse" or "cadaver." It sounds a bit clinical or dramatic, which fits a crime scene or mystery context perfectly. However, just like in English, it is often more common and slightly softer to simply refer to it as el cuerpo (the body).

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