A dastardly spy that disguised themselves as a victim

Ned is a halfling that the party freed from their bindings in the haunted house.
 
Presumably, he was actually a part of the local bandits defense system trying to convince adventurers to leave and never come back. He is now dead, when the party forced his hand he died trying to kill them...
 
...It was assumed such, but his corpse was missing at the haunted house, and bandits have no recollection of a Ned.