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Four states that look identical
Deleted, deactivated, renamed and blocked all present the same way from outside: the handle resolves to nothing, or to an error. From a browser, you cannot tell which one you are seeing.
That matters because the four states mean different things. A deactivated account can return; a renamed one still exists under a new string; a blocked one still exists and simply hides from you.
Telling the states apart from evidence
Search the old handle in other places: mentions, tags, cross-links from other profiles. A renamed account often leaves the old handle in someone else mention or in a post that survives.
A blocked relationship has a distinctive shape — public pages might work while the profile does not, and a second account you control can sometimes see what your main account cannot. Check with care; the difference between blocked and deleted is not worth an accusation.
What survives after deletion
Archived copies are the practical answer: the Wayback Machine, Google cache, and reposts. A public profile with any traffic usually left at least one archived page.
Aggregator sites that scraped the profile may still hold a cached copy with follower counts and bio text. Treat those as historical snapshots, not as the live account.
Finding where the person went instead
People rarely leave a platform without landing somewhere. Check for the same handle on adjacent platforms, the same photo reused under a new name, and any link-in-bio page that was archived with the old profile.
If the goal is contact, respect the deletion. Someone who removed an account may have done so precisely to stop being findable.