re the 2nd round of comments... There's no need (post Elizabethan period) to hide pain & suffering behind the curtain.
If your goal is to draw our attention to it, write it. Some actior will find you later and shake your hand for giving him the spotlight.
I did this hiding act in some of the early writes of VQ. I had [4 0 3] (my female ninja ballerina villain) at the end assigned to kill someone who she was told she was related to (but didn't believe it (and what villain politely requests DNA samples?)). I had the area around the mark coated in wet paint, then I showed footsteps in that paint at first showing haste (spread apart) then slowing, then turn away.
Implication: "someone" had rushed forward to make the kill, stopped, thought it over and changed her mind. Then a chapter later, I reveal the villain had paint on her shoes.
A few years later I was reading that complicated act and had a BFO. I was hiding the important part... that moment someone comes to deep, potentially life-changing terms. Why was I hiding it? To create a mystery. Okay, no problem. But it wasn't central to the plot. Many readers would have missed the connection.
This is what I see in the scene as you describe it. You've declared it's important your character sees the body and suffers a breakdown / moment of reverence. I see give the future director a scene with meat on its bones
PS: I'm still going to try to use the paint in VQ. Only as a way for a few smart characters to realize what happened. But I'll show the scene when I get there.
Edited to close that pesky double bracket
