This story was in fate magazine a while back. the teen went out with friends to some secluded location, he returned alone and his friends were never seen again, he gave a vivid detailed story of how this cartoon character (from a show that recently started airing at the time) came and killed his friends one by one. he immediately told the parents of the deceased boys this story and tried to tell it to the news press but they wouldn't accept his story because they thought he was 'hysterical' so they asked him to omit the cartoon character part.

Only one body was ever found (4 of his friends had gone missing), and the cause of death was drowning, with no injuries on the body.

i remember hearing a podcast about this case and it said later on in his life before he died he seeked out therapy and eventually convinced himself there was no cartoon character.

does that mean a cartoon character was there the night the friends died and they died for paranormal reasons or did he make it up to cover himself/avoid survivors guilt? if I recall correctly shortly after he returned he wrote private letters to paranormal researchers about his encounter.