I agree, code after a return is unreachable.

The last sentence of that first paragraph ("The problem is ...") should really have been on a new paragraph; and it should have indicated a general case, rather than the specific case with return. I recall that being my thought process at the time, but clearly it didn't make it to my fingers whilst typing.

Having said that, I would still recommend adding the semicolon. It clearly indicates where the statement was intended to end. Had an interruption occurred whilst coding, perhaps return was meant to be one of:

return;
return $var;
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Or return $var was meant to be one of:

return $var;
return $var if $condition;
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It's even possible there were meant to be more lines after return $var:

return $var
       ? 'TRUE'
       : 'FALSE';
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