Pulled the Mess that was my Timing Chain....

Two weeks back I changed the oil (when I initially brought the car into the shop and it was running; mind you, it stopped running all of a sudden overnight), and I did check it for 'sparkles' or the metal flakes. No such thing; The oil, albeit extremely dirty, didn't have any sorts of particles or sparkling that indicated metal. Could have larger particles been caught in the filter?