Salem

So after killing a bear, I carried it home but crashed half way. When I logged back in, the bear disappeared. I suppose this is a bug.

Maybe. Where were you when you crashed? How long was it before you logged back in? Did you get ported to your homestead and have to walk back for it? Need more information about the situation.

I was walking home in a forest, quite near shallow water tiles. I logged right back in after crash and was still at the same spot as before. I did double check the surrounding area and I still lost the freaking bear.

It possibly fell in the water if you were close enough. Anything falling into the water is automatically destroyed.

That's beary unfortunate of you.

I didn't think animal carcasses could disappear in shallow water...Well, thank you, MagicMan.

At this point, that would be my best guess. That I'm aware of, they won't despawn when a map unloads, and I don't think they decay quite so fast otherwise.