Can deerclops despawn in winter?

Some friends and I were playing dst and had made it to the first winter. We got the cues that deerclops was spawning and moved out of our base and placed some campfires. For whatever reason, one of us needed to run back to base. The moment they arrived he spawned there, off screen. They ran back to us and we all went over there to find a couple of things destroyed but no deerclops anywhere. Is it possible for him to despawn in winter?