Sumpin going on I've not heard about? On the Optics Discussion forum only Zach, me or Matt should be deleting posts. Now Matt has set some Moderators as Global Moderators and they actually CAN but are not supposed to do so unless some gross rule violation happens.
ALL deleted posts and threads go to the Trash Can not into cyper space. So any moderator can look there and see if a post they are missing is there. IF so I can move it back at your request.
If it's not in the Trash Can then it never was on the site to begin with. You cannot make one just go away no matter what you do. Moderators can move posts to other forums or delete but delete is really only a move to the trash can.