The same keeps happening to me. It's not the case with villages itself (though sometimes my villages suddenly become unpopulated, so I just try not to be around them when I don't have to). So, when I bring villagers to my special cells, away from villages, and making them trade what I want, then letting them turn to a zombie, then cure again, then naming them and boost their level - after all of that – they decide to disappear. For some time it's fine - I am going for some other stuff in the world, come back - they are where they expected. And then, one day BOOM! A cell is empty, there was no way out, my villager was nametagged, cured and traded with. I thought it might be because there wasn't any bed around, but the same happened to the villager with a bed in his cell. The only thing, that might cause it (though I don't have an opportunity to check that myself) - no doors around. I don't have any doors in their cells, nor inin my villager room. BUT! What difference a bed and a door make? when they are traded with already, named and cured? It's should make them "despawnproof".
That is not separate ears. It's one ear. 2D pixels represent the channel, that goes inside their head.