I don't use Hotmail cuz it sucks but by chance did you open your "Save" folder to see if the email is in there ? or there must be a search option at the top of your Hotmail, search for Saved folder and if that doesn't work, than search for the subject of that email. With gmail, you just need to use key words for the search and it will bring up all emails with those key words.

Also gmail has an ALL Email folder where I can find email that I've misdirected. If you find your email, send it to your inbox and then move it to whatever folder.