Someone stole the body!

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Also, I should also say we don't know anything about Joseph of Arimathea except the one reference to him in the account that labels him as a "secret follower".

Yes, and even worse is that history and archaeology cannot identify any place called "Arimathea."   And even worse than that the usage X of Y is not consistent with the Jewish aristocracy which would have been the patronymic X son of Y.

All in all it just looks like they had to invent a character who would get jesus' sorry ass down off the cross.

Arimathea was supposedly about a day's travel (20 miles) from Jerusalem.  It seems silly to think that a guy who lived a day away would have a tomb in another city when the practice was to entomb the corpse immediately.

http://images.slideplayer.com/26/8684116...lide_6.jpg