Ouch, sorry to revive a dead thread, been very busy. Yeah, I tried traveling far, I just got up to finding Alduin (I don't wanna kill Paarthurnax, well I don't think I should now anyway), and I'm almost level 30. He's still dead on the ground, sometimes he ends up dead in a different spot when I go into the inn. It could be that glitch where it autosaved. I did kill everyone at one point when I was bored, I'm not sure if it autosaved, but when I started playing again I know for a fact I went back to an old game save, and he was alive when I started again (it was the first thing I checked).
I guess now that I'm so far, there's no point going all that way back for him to be alive again. Yes, I don't have the PC version.
I wasn't sure if I'd really like this game or not, so I got it half price on 360, which saved me buying a new graphics card. The dragon/encounter could be that too, every time a dragon attacks during an awkward time for me and kills NPCs, I tend to go back and do something else before going back to the city (so it doesn't appear).