There is no way to have the bounty refunded. Bounties pay for attention, not answers. You got your attention, regardless of whether or not it resulted in an answer.
Given your description of the resolution your question should clearly be closed with the reason:
This question was caused by a problem that can no longer be reproduced or a simple typographical error. While similar questions may be on-topic here, this one was resolved in a manner unlikely to help future readers. This can often be avoided by identifying and closely inspecting the shortest program necessary to reproduce the problem before posting.
