Happened to me recently on my Realm, fwiw. Discovered a village full of villagers near my spawn point, interacted with some of them, then traveled a handful of chunks away (the length of a map, give or take) to grind for trade items. I returned to the village about 20min later, only to find that it was completely deserted! Doors on every house, difficulty on "Easy" so zombies breaking down doors shouldn't have been an issue. All the villagers just seemed to disappear!
Logan Derbin!
Happened to me recently on my Realm, fwiw. Discovered a village full of villagers near my spawn point, interacted with some of them, then traveled a handful of chunks away (the length of a map, give or take) to grind for trade items. I returned to the village about 20min later, only to find that it was completely deserted! Doors on every house, difficulty on "Easy" so zombies breaking down doors shouldn't have been an issue. All the villagers just seemed to disappear!