Lightroom 10.3 deleted images as I was working on them

I keep my image files and catalog on an external SSD. Uploaded my files from the card to the SSD, opened LRC and imported them. Worked on them for about 15-20 minutes and noticed several times where my 2014 iMac (w/ 16GB ram) was giving me the spinning beachball. This would last about 1-1.5 minutes and then would disappear. Figuring a restart of LRC might help, quit and restarted. Once restarted the images all showed the "!" and mousing over them gave the "can't locate file" error. I tried to have LRC relocate the file, but when I navigated to the correct folder on the SSD (through LRC) all that was left were the XMP files. All the images files were gone. Navigating to the folder in the Finder showed the same thing. There were no files in the trash.

I re-uploaded the files from the card into the original folder and since the XMP files were there, all my edits were intact. I was able to complete editing the files with out a repetition of the deletion error.

Has anyone experienced this before? I am now reluctant to open up any image files (especially older ones) for fear of LRC deleting them as well.