Stealth kill with no witnesses. Still get bounty.

[RedHeadAngel]

I'm currently doing the "Permanent Retirement" quest for the Dark Brotherhood, where I need to kill the retired Imperial officer. I wait until he's swimming in the gross pond, kill his buddy while no one is looking so he can't report the death, and then I shoot what's-his-name with the arrow from the Argonian lady, which kills him in 1 shot. Also, his buddy dies in 1 hit because I'm sneaking when I hit him. However, even though no one saw jack, and they both die instantly, I still end up with a bounty of 2,000 gold. My stealth skill is 75, I use an invisibility spell for good measure, and I make sure no one can see me after I take them out. The eye never opens while I'm doing this, either. How am I getting a bounty when no one sees anything? Every other mission I've done before didn't have this problem. What's the deal?

I'm playing the remastered version on Xbox, so mods and console commands are out of the question. Do I need to just cut my losses and pay the bounty, or is there something I can do to work around this? If I have to pay the bounty, that'll ruin the immersion.

[fejeena]

In my game it works with sneak and Invisible  ( item with Chameleon)  Works with melee and missile.  No bounty.

Tested with another NPC in same cell. Dead NPC next to the NPC I killed.

 

But my sneak skill is above 150.

 

I am not in the Dark Brotherhood,, so I still get the message  "Your killing has been observed by forces unknown...".     But no bounty.