Q: I don't have the password to my account and i erased it to get rid of the account. now I'm locked out of my phone. what do i do?

My Wife thinks maybe it was hacked or someone else might have access to it now but shes had it for years past 2009. the reason we erased the phone was to get rid of the account because of how many restrictions their are due to us not being able to enter the previous password that logged us in before. Erasing it did not work...now we are stuck with the only choice being to enter the Apple ID and password. what should i do? Weve tried going to forgot password for apple but it sends it to the email and we donot have access to...(the password changed) and when we go to security questions the anwsers to the questions are apparently not the same either.