Why did I never recognize that at the time of the sign of the death of Christ that the Nephites had no central authority. They were not one people in any sense of the word save for a common ancestry. Each man, each family, each tribe was responsible for their own choices and felt the destruction and the guilt that came with it based on their own actions. There would have been little if any collective guilt in the mourning that was reported among the people. I guess there was some collective guilt since they had only been separated for less than four years.