IPhoto ate my pictures

I upgraded to iLife 08 with out hitch... until my photo's went missing 3 weeks later. I had 14,500 images in iPhoto ~300 were recovered from the original and modified folders. There were about 500 .jpg files that had the name of my pictures but the files were 0KB in size.
I created a backup of the iPhoto Library. Ran Disk Utility, photo still missing. Rebuilt library, still missing.
I created a new library. Imported 10,000 photos from backup and the 300 from my old library. The latest 4,500 photos were not on backup.
Is there any way to get them back?
What could cause jpg files in the modified and original folders to be zeroed out and out right deleted?

You have a corrupted database, Better off trying to fix it.
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.  
Regards
TD

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