This is TRUE.
I have a friend, who's cousins were visiting from Florida. My friend lives on a lake nearby. Anyway, one hot day, she and her cousins were swimming in the lake, and having a good time. I should mention the cousins ages: Brody, 13, AnneMarie, 17, Denny, 15, Mandy, 8. My friend was 12. Anyways, like I said, they were swimming. Their parents were not watching them, as AnneMarie was old enough to take charge. The older kids wanted to go out deeper, but little Mandy wasn't a very strong swimmer. The rest of them swam out towards the middle of the lake, leaving Mandy behind. They swam out, and swam out until they were about 25-30 yards from the other side. They yelled to Mandy, making fun of her for being such a little kid and not being able to swim like the rest of them. Finally, Mandy couldn't take it anymore. She started swimming out to them. Now, this isn't too deep of a lake, nor is it very wide across. But for an eight year old, yes, it was. She was not even a quarter of the way across, when she started to tire. She decided to take a break and float on her back for a while. When she was ready to go again, she made to the halfway point. The other kids were still close to the other side, shallow enough for them to stand, and cheering Mandy on. "Come on Mandy! You can make it!" etc. Well, Mandy was doing pretty good. She was 40-50 yards from the kids when she started struggling. She yelled Help! Help! Somethings got me! My friend and her cousins thought she was joking. What could possibly "got her" in this small lake! they thought. They were laughing, telling her to stop fooling around and get over by them, when Mandy disappeared. The kids freaked out, very worried. Then Mandy reappeared. The kids saw something strange. A shape came up out of the water. It...looked like a hand. It grabbed the top of her head, and dragged her down. The kids ran, swam, pretty much stumbled to the shore, when they got on the sand, they ran, ran, ran, all the way around the lake back to the house, screaming to their parents. When they told of what happened, no one believed them. I do, though. I believe. This happened 3 years ago come August and no one has swam in the lake since.