AAE Files Deleted - Lost Photos

While transferring photos - about 6 months worth - from my iPhone 5s to my PC (by copying the JPEG files from my phone's internal storage and pasting on my desktop), I noticed each JPEG had a corresponding AAE file (example photo1.aae) containing the metadata of edits I had made to that photo in the iPhone camera/photos app. I deleted the AAE files as I did not want the edits, just the original photos; however, once the AAE files were deleted, the JPEGs became inaccessible on Windows Explorer, and then simply disappeared from my iPhone's internal storage. When looking on my phone, the photos app now does not display any of these photos either. I never deleted the JPEG files as those (original) images are what I need. I don't understand how my iPhone would simply delete these photos, even without the AAE files which, as I understand, are only metadata of edits but not actual graphics files.

When trying to recover images from my phone via third-party software, I do not see the photos that my iPhone deleted. I do not have a system backup point that includes all of these photos and have been unable to find them on iCloud. Is there a chance these are still recoverable, even though I cannot see them on my iPhone?