Similar thing has happened to me a few times. I prone under a pine tree, log off, come back to the same server later on and the first thing I see is the player list that shows the names of those on the server and I can see 1 death in the column next to my name. I don't get the option to create a new character as if I had really died. I spawn on the coast with nothing, absolutely nothing (no weapons, backpack or tools). The only thing that spawns with me is a ghillie suit if I was wearing one before I 'died'. Odd thing is that I still have all my stats, zombie kills, humanity etc I had before I 'died'. Just all my gear, everything, is gone.