There is definitely something to this. I had a 70 shaman I raided with for 1 year before I started 5 boxing about 3 years ago. I quit a few months later.

Came back to the game 2 months ago, signed all my accounts into one battle.net account, and he's missing. Hell, I can still see him in the armory. Called blizzard, they say he doesn't exist. How is that?

Everything else was there, and I decided to just move on. Can't help but wonder though.