Why has the Picture folder (in Gallery with the edited photos) -- disappeared?

[AC Question]

I believe the Picture folder (in Gallery) with edited photos was on the SD card under DCIM along with Camera folder. Now Picture folder and files are gone. I searched internal memory and SD card. Only found a .thumbnail file in internal memory showing thumbnail files of all pictures including the edited ones that are missing. Not sure what to do so edited a photo and saved it. The path saved to is on SD card under Android/data/com.google.android.apps.plus/files/Pictures. Not sure why the Pictures folder is appearing here? I am not to my knowledge using Google+. All edited photos except the one just saved are still missing. Please help.