Items Disappearing

I recently got tangled up with some of Momentus' little helpers, and noticed that my items despawned almost immediately after death. It happened twice, and least once prior that I remember (was out in wilderness with a friend at the time).
It seems that death by enraged zombie - at least for me - causes the items dropped to vanish instantly, allowing no hope of recovery. This isn't anything to do with draw distance either.

Can anyone tell me what's going on and why this happens? I've lost two sets of diamond armor, godsword / bow, and a few other things to this glitch and it's really beginning to irk me.

Good to see I'm not the only one having these troubles. I fell down a ravine yesterday and I lost a helmet, boots, leggings, bow, and steak.

They just have a tiger phobia

Hmm... I'll test this out and see if this happens to me... For now, here's a bit of advice: DON'T DIE.

EDIT: Is it only with the Zombies spawned by Momentus, or is it just any Enraged Zombie?
EDIT 2: Verified with regular Enraged Zombies. D:

Oh yes, I lost some of my most precious items the same way

Any enraged zombie - the third time I mentioned, there was just the one (he had regular zombie pals and a skeleton for support fire).

Is it just with enraged zombies?

Wassatthen and me theorized they set the items on fire and that's how they despawn, but we're not sure.

I fought a few of em, noticed similar item behaviour as well.

I'm testing this in a creative world right now...

Can't be - the lone Enraged that killed me in the wastelands a few weeks ago, I had a bucket of water down to try and evade him. No fire present.

Are the Enraged Zombies despawned by the time you get back?

My dropped items also despawned early.
I thought it may have been related to dying several times, even though 5 minutes had Not passed??

Nope. I've tried this in a test world.

So maybe they're despawned by the touch of the zombie alone (not the fire), which could be if enraged zombies can do damage to items. (which is not supposed to happen I think?)

EDIT:

Then I don't know

I've never had this problem before....

To describe in detail the last encounter:
I had three on me, and was backpedaling through the desert. One landed the killing blow, and through the red "death haze" I saw my items sit there, for a brief second. They vanished. The enraged zombie that killed me continued to walk at the camera. Then he also vanished.

Unlikely, but it could be possible that your items were picked up by the enraged zombie(s), and then the enraged zombie(s) despawned due to maybe them not having the same properties as regular mobs (that pick up items). Thats all I could think of :/