A Neutral is Numbing my mind.

[GoldDigger]

No more than his normal state...

Especially if there was a drywall surface on the wall that did not have a hole in it when he arrived! (Not his problem....)
Roofers cover vent pipe locations and exhaust fans have their outlet ducts dead ended at walls more often than you might expect. Especially in tract homes.

 

[readydave8]

Lite had worked for several years, so the switch was already installed when stack rock went up.

I don't think braindead, I think don't care.

 

[texie]

I'm inclined to agree. If the "downstream" cable is a switch leg, and the switch is closed, the breaker would trip when wired black to black and white to white.

A continuity check of the receptacles' hot to neutral would confirm.

After reading all this discussion, it seems to me that this would be better described as a switch loop rather than a switch leg.