Regarding her husband not being able to find the Airtag, Apple's announcement this week of planned improvements[1] also include the ability for recent-model iPhones to be able to do precision tracking of unknown Airtags, just as they can when looking for known Airtags.

I've personally come around to the idea that Airtags are a product that shouldn't exist, but at least Apple is making an effort to make these less attractive to stalkers.

[1]: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/02/10/airtag-updates-unwanted...