HI,
If you have an Original you can make a link to it called an Alias on a Mac and Shortcut on PCs.
It sounds like you have found an Alias but that the Alias has in fact lost contact with the Original.
It is supposed to be in the same place the other com.apple.ichat ... .plists are.
As I also said the Search options on a Mac doesn't search certain places.
If you were opening the Mac at the top level (click open the Hard Drive name) then System and the Library item at this level are not search (or rather the results are not shown).
Broadly speaking the Users folder is Searched but inside individual Users own Folders their own Libraries are not searched.
As you should be looking inside your own Library and then the Preferences folder within that it sounds like your search is turning up something you may have moved before, such as moving the contents of the Preferences making them searchable.
If this explains what is being "found" then you need to go to the Preferences Folder manually.
7:50 PM Saturday; December 1, 2012
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
Mac OS X (10.6.8),
Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images." No, Seriously