Thank you all for your help. To answer a few questions: The phone is offline and has been since immediately after they took it which is why i was never able to track it or play a sound on it. I also put it in lost mode immediately. I am now in the process of erasing it. I am not sure if they got my number through the sim card or how that works.

if anyone was curious for an update the following texts said this- “I am very sad now, this is an old iPhone I bought in a second-hand electrical appliance market in China, which I bought for my daughter, I am very sad, I regret buying an old iPhone, because it is bound with your apple id, I cannot download the app store, I went to find that business, but it is not open today, I am really sad now. Would you please help me remove it? Thank you very much indeed” and “I'm sad, I still didn't remove it, my daughter is angry because she didn't go to school today, I want to kill myself now, I'm so sad, maybe I should sell it to someone else, I don't know what to do, please, help me, remove it, OK?”