Wow, that's crazy! I've never heard of that before. This hobby is full of first time for everything moments. You may also just have had a resistant strain that managed to make it longer than usual in the cyst stage rather than the parasite existed longer by feeding on frozen/fresh foods. We know Ich and velvet absolutely need host fish to continue their cycle; however, the time frame for cyst and free swimming is different for each parasite. According to thesprucepets.com "Typically these cells can survive seven to eight days without a host, but in lower tank temperatures at around 75-80 degrees, some strains may last up to 30+ days." This longer time frame coincides with what I've read about resistant strains of velvet.
@Humblefish also has an interesting thread that theorizes the type of lighting used on a tank can "feed" velvet and thereby keep free swimming dinoflagellatse alive longer, giving the velvet parasite longer to find a host fish.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/theory-on-velvet.359758/
I wonder... what kind of lighting did you have going on your tank at the time and what temperature did you keep your tank at during the fallow period?