Alright, so my latest save was hit by this bug:
That's my founder, and of course, she wasn't dead or anywhere close to it when I saved. (Her husband was hit by the same bug, but I didn't get a popup because he didn't have a car in his inventory)
There are actually two options I can consider:
1. Go back to my last good save, but lose a fair chunk of progress and risk my sculptor dying before he can get generation two's child sculpture (he's sitting at 95 or so in that save).
2. Go to Edit Town, move the family to the clipboard, and move them back into their house. I tried this in a
copy of the bugged save, and it worked in bringing my "dead" founder and spouse back, at the expense of two motive mobiles, but it's generation two's child birthday and I can cake him up and get his child sculpture, and half my founder's ops will be done instead of none at all.