Why do I see references of deleted accounts?

Deleting an account doesn't delete account-related objects.

When you delete an account, the entire record is removed from the sales application and can't be restored. In general, when you delete an account:

• The account party status becomes inactive in the database.
• The deleted account doesn't appear in the accounts list, account search, account list of values, account data quality match, segmentation, and recent items.
• The deleted account's profile and children, such as attachments and notes, can no longer be viewed.
• The account's contact relationships, if any, are deleted. The contact can still be viewed, but deleted contact relationships aren't shown in the contact.
• Deleting an account doesn't delete account-related objects, such as opportunities, leads and tasks. You can still view related objects and the account name on these objects, but you can no longer access the deleted account's details.
• To remove inactive accounts, you can manually remove them or run the Purge Inactive Data process. When you run the process all the references to the purged data are also deleted. Purged accounts, contacts, or households won't appear on application pages, web service response, and BI reports. For more information on purging data, refer to the Purge Inactive Data scheduled process documentation.