Fallout 3 Caravan Traders... Interesting observation

I didnt see a Fallout 3 sticky so I am posting here....

We all know by now that the Caravan Traders are NOT immortal. in fact they drop like a sack o' potatoes. Unfortunately sometimes before you even get a chance to meet them.

I witnessed Lucky Harith get greased by a Sentry bot near Arefu, which was fine eventhough I invested in him, because I was able to loot his corpse, so no big deal there BUT what about the others. BTW his Brahmin survived only to die another day and I was able to loot that as well, of course I took the Karma hit.

Anyway, I came back to Arefu sometime later and found Docs corpse, eventhough he had died before Lucky and they were in close proximity yet I did NOT see his corpse before and there is no way I could have missed it. So it must have spawned there randomly? (any input on this?)

Meanwhile Crows Brahmin has stood its post outside Rivet City for quite awhile and I am unable to find his corpse. (if you kill the traders Brahmin its empty but if an NPC or creature kills it, then they are a treasure trove.)

Crazy Wolfgang STILL survives.. yes I am amazed too. I was unable to find hime for the longest and suddenly I located him at Paradise Falls which is on the trade route but I had been actively looking for him.

So does anyone have a clue about corpse spawn and or despawn times? Some corpses seem to last forever and are always in place while others dont last long at all.

Yah I forgot too mention, Im on Xbox so no console cheats for me.

I dont mind the whole random encounter concept it does add a sense of realism but good luck finding trader corpses.. GAG!

After posting this morning I followed Wolfgang from Rivet City, it was interesting as we moved along the river bank no enemies spawned directly in the path. There were definitely 2 Centaurs missing yet the super mutants off to the side were where they were supposed to be. Wolfgang immediately went into panic mode, covered his head and started wailing, waiting for his bodyguard to do all the work. No wonder these traders get picked off. I think we should all be honored to meet these guys before they get wasted.

I also forgot to mention in my previous post killing the traders pack Brahmin is a waste not only are they empty but have TONS of HP and you will take a bad karma hit for the kill.

Fallout3 definitely rocks but is not easy for the completist player. YIKES!