[mercantile]

That seems to be right, but your parent's point still stands — the house may have burned down during an eight year absence, but it really doesn't seem to have "vanished". The title and lead into the story have been heavily sensationalized for click purposes.

[monkeynotes]

My thinking is he was unreachable for 8 years, house burned down (for whatever reason) and became a dangerous eyesore, so they took it down.

The islanders faced with his reappearance decided not to incriminate anyone and keep quiet.

The only question I have is how did it burn down? I imagine it was in quite a state of disrepair after almost a decade of low to no maintenance. Part of it may have been falling down already and the islanders may have assumed he'd simply abandoned his house and the island.