Emmerdale viewers are adamant that Mackenzie Boyd, played by Lawrence Robb, is not truly dead.

The character has been a mainstay on the ITV soap since 2020 and has been involved in numerous major plotlines.

This week, he made a startling revelation about covert murderer John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth). As fans will remember, John killed Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter) last year and disposed of his body in a lake.

He then successfully concealed his actions by framing Owen Michaels (Simon Haines). However, earlier this week, Mack - who had previously expressed his suspicions about enigmatic John - sifted through John's possessions and pieced together the puzzle, realising that John was Nate's killer.

In Thursday's episode (August 21), released early on ITVX, John realised that Mack had figured everything out. A tense confrontation ensued in the woods, with John pursuing Mack armed with a crossbow.

John managed to shoot Mack, the arrow piercing his chest. Still alive but injured, Mack was cornered by John who found a large rock and hurled it down, apparently killing Mack, reports the Daily Star.

Later in the village, after John and Aaron Dingle's (Danny Miller) farewell party ended, John noticed blood seeping down the door of his van. He quickly went over and cleaned up the evidence.

Viewers were left in suspense as a body, presumably Mack's, was shown covered in a blanket in the back of his van, with blood dripping and flies buzzing around it. However, fans are convinced that the corpse in the van isn't actually Mackenzie - and they claim to have 'proof'.

On an Emmerdale Facebook fan page, one viewer queried: "Surely Mack has to be alive?" Another chimed in: "We didn't see proof of death. I need that before I'll believe it!" A third speculated: "I think John is keeping him hostage and didn't actually go ahead with killing him."

One fan suggested the dead body could be Macaulay Cooper, who has been terrorising Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson). They proposed: "Maybe it's that Mike, the one who attacked Vinny?".

Other viewers pointed out that the flies buzzing around the corpse could indicate that the person has been dead for some time. They asserted: "It's not Mack. That body has been dead for a while because of the flies." Another agreed: "I thought the same."

Emmerdale airs weeknights on ITV1 and ITVX at 7.30pm