Threw away files to trash, now they're gone - plus others NOT thrown

Doing some cleaning of files yesterday and threw dozen or so documents in trash. Back this morning to finish working on docs I did NOT throw away, but they're gone - the folder where I was storing all of them (good docs plus ones I threw out) is now completely EMPTY.

Looked thoroughly through trash to see if I accidentally threw them ALL away by accident, thereby leaving the file empty like I found it this morning, but NONE of the files are anywhere on this computer.

Where could all of them gone? Is there a "hidden" area of the trash? Why would files I did NOT throw away be gone, but the folder remain..?

thanks for helping me with this