I had first 1, then 2 levels invested in the Shadow Kill skill during my playthrough of the Knife of Dunwall and Witches of Brigmore DLC for Dishonored. When I kill enemies, they dissolve and leave no body behind, as intended.
However, I've noticed that even though there are no bodies, enemies will still be able to detect that someone's been killed. I noticed that enemies will drop things like pistols and swords when they die, even though they leave no bodies behind.
Are the dropped items the things that are alerting the guards to the fact that someone died? Am I misunderstanding how Shadow Kill works? Or is this merely an unfortunate bug?
Best Answer
I searched for an answer to this and discovered similarly confused players.
Odd Shadow Kill Experience
However, I did find one possible explanation. According to IGN, you can't Shadow Kill someone in a conversation unnoticed. This makes me wonder that, as the NPCs wander, they expect to "check in" with other NPCs. If you Shadow Kill one and the other NPC can't "talk" to him or her, maybe they get alarmed.
IGN: Shadow Kill