Hi folks, pretty new to this game and had a situation come up today I couldn't find resolved in the rules. I may have been looking in the wrong spot. I had an investigator defeated, and when I set up their replacement I noticed one of their starting assets was already taken. What do you do in this situation? The decision I made was that they were out of luck and just had to start worse off than normal, is there an official take on this I missed? Or an unofficial but popularly used one?

if a character has it already they do not receive it, if it on a dead investigator, discard pile or to buy, they take it. I am sure there is a line in rule book.

Though if devoured by some reason(dark pact), it gone for good in my opinion.

I think it is in the reference book under defeated investigator.

It's filed under Gaining Possessions and Conditions (Ref. guide, pag. 6). Under "Gaining a Specific Card", we read:

"If the specified card cannot is not found while searching, he does not gain a card. For instance, if other investigators or defeated investigators possess all copies of the card or all copies of the card have been returned to the game box"

Ah, thanks!