why didn't my restore retrieve a certain message iphone 5c

I restored my iPhone 5c back from an iTunes backup. The date of the backup included a date range for a text message I am looking for. The restore brought up all the messages except for the one I really need, Is it possible for the other person who is involved in the text to delete the conversation from their phone and somehow manage to keep my phone from retrieving the message. The message before and the message after were retrieved when I did the restore.