In a situation like this I'm sure we will find out he had some serious "family emergency" where even though a lot of us will be thinking "how convenient" no one would dare say something in the event that something terrible did actually happen.
My roommate back in University (we worked together) missed a really important meeting and he was going to get fired for not showing up. Next time he was in and the boss was about to lay into him, he said his grandmother had passed away (reason he missed the meeting). Of course I knew this was complete bullshit but what could the boss do? Fire him? I don't think so. He got off free and clean, even though the boss knew in the back of his mind it was a lie, how dare he question it right?
And I know, what sort of asshole uses the death of his grandma to save his sorry ass from getting fired? Pretty low, but it happens.