cannot delete shortcut (VISTA - .lnk file)

I recently moved some files from my laptop to an external drive, and subsequently deleted the files from my laptop.

I did a start menu search, and blank shortcuts to the files I moved and deleted show up in the search. When I try to delete the files I get a "Item not found" error. When I right click and Open File Location, it opens an empty folder (C:\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent).

I have tried simply clearing my recent items list, that does clear the recent items, but the blank shortcuts still show up when I do a search.

I have tried everything I can think of, please help!