CapitainKirk,
Sorry to hear your tale of woe.
Unfortunatley, unless you've got a bit of cash to burn, this sounds like one of those "live & learn" events.
If you do have cash to burn, send it off to a reputable digital forensics organisation and you might be surprised at what they can get back from a seemingly dead-end scenario. No guarantees of course, but they've got access to a wider variety of tools to choose from then you could ever have.