I was in a similar situation to the OP once - landed off an intl flight at IAD, watched the carousel and did not see my bag. At that point it was getting tight to make the domestic connection. I went to the United Service Desk within the customs hall. They confirmed that a couple of bags were still in the plane hold and they were trying to send someone to retrieve them (late checked at origin and stored elsewhere I guess). They saw I did not have much time to make my connection, so suggested I go minus the bag. I had the bag home delivered to me after three days - can't say if it was searched or not, but the dirty laundry was just as dirty as I'd packed it.