Do murderous zombies take all your loot?

Solution 1:

According to the wiki (and confirmed by personal experience) certain zombies have the ability to pick up and wear a set of armor and wield a single item in their hand. See Armed Zombie

Therefore, if you are looking for your stuff, a set of your armor (what you were wearing or carrying) may be on the zombie still, and an item may be in its hand, but the rest of your stuff should be on the ground unless it has despawned, which I believe happens after 5 minutes of being in a loaded chunk.

Solution 2:

Some zombies can take them, some can't. If you find the zombie with your stuff, who wont be far off, and then kill him, you can get your stuff he picked up back. But if he hasn't and its been more than five minutes, they probably despawned.