[Q] Text messages from one contact blank on wifes and my Note 4 using stock app

[Q] On both my Note 4 (rooted running hybrid X 2.0 lollipop 5.01) and my wife's Note 4 (rooted running Hybrid X lollipop 5.1.1) in group text messages most of the texts from her brother are blank. They have his name but no message. A few will come through and if he sends a message to just one of us it works. It does not matter if he has a picture attached or just plain text. He is on Verizon and has been to one of their stores to see if the problem was on his end. They said it must be on our Sprint end, of course.

I have deleted his contact on both our phones and re-added it and still get blank messages from him when he replies to a group message. A few will slip through where we see his text but most are just his name with the body of the message blank. This does not happen with any other contact regardless of carrier. I have been through all the settings in the stock app and changed things one at a time but nothing there fixes the problem. Googling turned up a few with similar issues but with no suggestions that fixed our problem. All the others in the group message get his replies every time.

Any ideas on a fix? It must be rare because searches do not find much that is similar.
Thanks