someone somewhere has to know how to locate a dead iphone without find my iphone being enabled

This support article has a list of things to do if your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is lost or stolen. --> If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is lost or stolen - Apple Support

- The Find My service described in the article is the only recovery feature Apple offers. It must be set up before the device is lost.

The other way to find it is to post notices about a lost item, ask friends, take a walk to places you visited recently.

If the phone has been powered down, or the battery has died, there no way for it to communicate a cellular network. A phone without power can't magically operate.

Assuming this is the case, the only way you're going to find it is by physically locating/seeing it.

someone somewhere has to know how to locate a dead iphone without find my iphone being enabled

No one anywhere would be able to locate 1) a phone that does not have Find My enabled and 2) a phone that has a dead battery without physically looking for it.

jojododo9987 wrote:

someone somewhere has to know how to locate a dead iphone without find my iphone being enabled

So ask yourself this question. If your iPhone is dead and is not putting out signal, because it has no power left, how would you expect to find it? If you had had Find My enabled it would at least have told you the last location before the iPhone died.

You retrace your steps and look for it the old fashioned way.