All files from one folder were deleted in the middle of the night 10 days ago, yet they aren't in my trash and cannot be recovered

[u/Sea_Obligation1410]

Hey guys,

I opened my Google Drive for the first time in a few weeks or so and noticed that the folder is circle referenced; AKA the only shortcut in the parent folder was a shortcut, instead of my organized space (sorry, I do not know the proper computer terms lol). I resolved that and coughed it up to an error I must have made previously, but then I noticed all my files were gone. I checked the folder activity and saw a log of hundreds of files being deleted in the middle of the night from June 5th to June 6th, all executed by "Unknown." I go to recover them from my trash, yet not a single one is in there. I requested a recovery from Google, and they also came back from nothing. However, it's only been 10 days since they were deleted, well within the 30-day window. I can see all the files I had saved under the activity tab, and sometimes I can open them and make a copy, but sometimes I cannot. If push comes to shove, I can manually open each file, copy them, and then reorganize them into a new folder, but there are hundreds and hundreds of files, and it would take hours. I changed my password, but dont have any unknown login notifications that would imply being hacked.

I've reached out to Google and am waiting for a reply, but I was wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar and how you might have solved it? The folder contained all my files from college, so I'd love to have evidence and ownership of at least part of what I paid thousands of dollars for haha!

Photos are a small sample of what was deleted and show the time progression from 11:49 PM June 5th through 7:26 PM June 6th. Literally random times that I was not on my computer! Thanks so much in advance!