The touching story of how a professional Santa comforted a dying child in his last moments went viral - then screeched a halt when the newspaper that published it revealed its reporting could not prove it was true.

Now a television station has come forward to say it was able to verify the story - but is electing not to publish any new details, out of privacy concerns.

Eric Schmitt-Matzen's story of suiting up as Santa and comforting the terminally ill child  went viral.

Now here's WBIR 10News saying it "has independently verified several critical details of this story, but has agreed not to publish those for the sake of privacy."

Instead, the station quoted Schmitt-Matzen's wife and a friend citing details they say he told them about the visit.

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