What happened to Emmerdale's Nate and is he the body in the lake?

One troubling thought is that Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter) could have been sent to the watery grave, after his rather low-key exit last year.

Of course, there's always the possibility that it's actually evil abuser Anthony Fox (Nicholas Day) who ended up in the lake after being murdered recently.

But there are too many clues that are starting to stack up for the alternative option, so we must give Nate the attention he deserves.

Before we delve into this big twist, though, let's remind ourselves what happened to Nate.

What happened to Nate and why did he exit Emmerdale?

In September 2024, Nate was given a savage beating from his father, Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley).

Unaware that his erratic wife Moira (Natalie J Robb) was suffering the effects of a brain tumour, Cain wrongly believed that Nate had resumed his old affair with Moira, leading to the violent scenes.

With Nate having taken a new job in Shetland, his ex-wife Tracy (Amy Walsh) opted not to join him due to Cain's accusations, so Nate was forced to say goodbye to their young daughter Frankie.

Tracy later received a text from Nate, urging her to wait to hear from him regarding when he could next see Frankie.

After Moira's diagnosis, Cain tried and failed to get in touch with Nate to apologise for what happened, but assumed he had been disowned when he got no response.

Is Nate the body in the lake in Emmerdale?

Although there has never been any direct hints that Nate had been killed off, eagle-eyed fans spotted the familiar jacket sleeve, and the bracelet worn on the hand of the mystery body in the water.

They soon flocked to social media network 'X' (formerly known as Twitter) to declare that it matched the jewellery Frankie had made for her parents, as well as Amy herself when she babysat for the little girl this year.

Nate was also wearing an identical bracelet in his last episode.

This theory might just have been confirmed by Emmerdale during Tuesday's (18th February 2025) episode.

After Tracy pulled Amy from the water, she was trying to help her keep warm. Amy clocked the bracelet that Tracy was wearing, but soon fell unconscious. Did Amy make the connection?

As mentioned above, one character's death we know of for certain is Anthony's, but John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth) disposed of Anthony's body and refused to tell anyone else involved where it is!

John was also the very last person to see Nate on-screen, in what was a rather odd, quiet exit under the circumstances. It was John who stopped Nate from confronting Cain over his behaviour towards him, with Nate agreeing it was time to leave the village.

But what if John, for reasons as yet unknown, murdered Nate and used his phone to make Tracy think he had arrived in Shetland safe and well?

John is so keen to keep his cards close to his chest, and something about him has never sat right with us.

Whether John is involved or not, it's looking likely that Nate's exit wasn't as straightforward as it seemed, and given one of Emmerdale's New Year flash-forwards featured a distressed Cain by a graveside, could he soon be mourning his son?

We'll just have to wait and see if the body is ever uncovered, but with poor Suzy Merton's (Martelle Edinborough) body waiting to be recovered, it's only a matter of time before the man in the lake is also found.

Read more:

• Emmerdale airs shock death – with more lives at risk as body is discovered in sinister twist
• Emmerdale confirms second death in icy crash – who dies?
• Emmerdale 2025 preview: 12 spoilers for the year ahead
• Emmerdale teases five flashforwards as Ruby's world implodes and night out turns into disaster
• 7 Emmerdale characters who should have a big 2025 – from Kim Tate to Aaron Dingle

Emmerdale airs Monday to Friday at 7:30pm on ITV1. Stream on ITVX.

Check out more of our Soaps coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.