Stolen phone texts?

Until you disable the SIM with your wife’s carrier, the thief controls her phone number.

This includes placing and receiving calls as well as SMS / MMS texts.

Hi Gnomad22, sorry to hear about your wife's iPhone.

Without further details it's difficult to say exactly if iMessage is still sending/receiving messages from the stolen iPhone. If the iPhone has been remotely erased using Find My, it won't function any longer.

Your wife may also wish to go to appleid.apple.com, navigate to Devices, and check if the device is showing as being logged in. If it is, she can remotely log the device out from here. This may disable iMessage on the stolen phone.

If the iPhone contained your wife's SIM, any texts sent to that associated phone number will still be received by the iPhone containing the SIM. You will need to contact your network provider to assist with this.

Gnomad22 wrote:

we removed it from her trusted device list.

Sounds like you cleared any Activation Lock, making it possible for the thief (or fence, or a stolen goods customer) to reset the phone and "make it their own."