[Evolution] Inbox gone

[Robert Mitchell <robert mitchell4 sympatico ca>]

Yesterday, my wife accessed my email to look something up.  She claimed
the following:

1) went to 'sent items'
2) found what she wanted
3) forwarded it to herself
4) hit send/receive.

Prior to 4, she said she saw the normal email in 'Inbox'.  After send
receive, there were only a few new mails.  All the rest was gone.

She also said that after send/receive the inbox disappeared for a few
seconds and then reappeared (with only a few mails)

At some point, somebody closed Evolution.

1) Any chance the above is really what happened?
2) Any chance to get the mail back?  I'm using an ext3 partition.

This is on Linux, Fedora core 3, Evolution 2.2.3

Rob