Unknown Number: The High School Catfish gave Kendra Licari the opportunity to speak for herself.

The case explored in the documentary has captured the attention of viewers: it’s not every day a mother is found guilty of catfishing and cyber stalking her own daughter and her daughter’s then-boyfriend.

So why would Kendra willingly and publicly speak to the actions she took against then-13-year-olds Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenney? Documentary director Skye Borgman has a theory.

“She was nervous about going on camera, because just sitting down and telling your story is a nerve-racking thing sometimes,” Skye told Variety in an interview published Sept. 5. “But she was so great, and she actually ended up really loving the experience. At the end of it, she said it was kind of fun. She laughed about things, and I think it was really an opportunity for her to think about things a little bit more in depth.”

Looking at her conversations with Kendra, the filmmaker continued, “Every time I would ask a question, she would really have to think about some things, and I think that was really good for her.”

And on whether Kendra—who pled guilty to two counts of stalking a minor and was sentenced to 19 months in jail—truly feels remorseful over her actions, Skye admitted Kendra is “a little bit of an enigma.”

“I think that she had a lot of time to think about what she did,” she continued. “She was in therapy when she was incarcerated, and I believe that she’s still seeing a therapist. She has put thought into what she did. I don’t know that she’s fully realized or recognized what it was that she did or why she did it.”

As she put it, “I guess only Kendra could really answer that.”

The harassment of Lauren and Owen began in the fall of 2020 but took a turn in September 2021, growing more disturbing and numbering up to 40 to 50 a day. It was these latter texts that Kendra was behind.

"Most messages contain hateful speech and contain language like, 'kill yourself,'" a 2022 Isabella County Sheriff's report stated, per NBC News. "A lot of the messages repeat this same language."

Kendra denied being behind the original messages, but admitted to detectives, per the report, she "just fed off from it" and, once she started, she "got caught up" and kept going.

For more on the shocking case, keep reading.

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Sweethearts since junior high, Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny started getting anonymous texts from an unknown number in October 2020, the sender seemingly wanting to drive a wedge between the couple.

The first message read, “Hi Lauryn, Owen is breaking up with you." Subsequent texts read, "He no longer likes you and hasn't liked you for a while" and "It's obvious he wants me."

Eventually the messages stopped and months went by. But on Sept. 13, 2021, the texts started up again—only this time, the pair started receiving dozens a day and they were far more upsetting.

"The messages are specific in nature indicating that they may be from someone who they know," Isabella County Sheriff Michael Main wrote in a December 2022 report, per NBC News. "Most messages contain hateful speech and contain language like, 'kill yourself ...' A lot of the messages repeat this same language."

Owen and Lauryn broke up while this was unfolding, as recounted in the 2025 Netflix docuseries Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, but the messages kept coming.

When the cyberbullying began, Lauryn was living with her parents Shawn Licari and Kendra Licari in Mt. Pleasant, Mich.

Kendra worked in IT at Ferris State University and coached girls' basketball at Lauryn's high school.

Lauryn and Owen's families first reported the messages to the kids' school, assuming it had to be other students who were responsible for the harassment. Beal City Public Schools referred the case to local law enforcement.

The Isabella County Sheriff's Office called in the FBI for assistance. According to Sheriff Main's report, a cybercrimes expert connected the texts to "an IP address from a Spectrum host from the Mt Pleasant area" and a user who was opening a number-generating app from an iPhone.

The FBI expert, per the report, "found that [Kendra's] phone number was attached to the IP address each time a text message was sent to the victims."

Kendra told detectives Aug. 10, 2022, per Main's report, that she did not send the original batch of messages that her daughter and Owen received in October 2020, but rather "she just fed off from it and began to send them" in September 2021. She "got caught up in sending the messages," the report said, "and it just continued."

In Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, Kendra said she started her own texting campaign to try to catch who was allegedly harassing her daughter in the first place.

"I was sending messages in the hopes that they might send back asking, 'Is this so-and-so?'" she said in the series. "I started with the thought, 'We need some answers.' And then it just kept going."

Kendra then said that trauma she herself experienced as a teen fueled her desire to protect her daughter from harm at all costs.

"As [Lauryn] started getting older, I had things that were suppressed come forward," Kendra said in Unknown Number. She explained, "I wanted to try to control the outcome of her journey. I was afraid of letting her grow up. I was scared of what could happen to her."

Kendra was arrested Dec. 12, 2022, and charged with two counts of stalking a minor and two counts of communicating with another to commit a crime, according to NBC News.

"We had tens of thousands of text messages, whether they were messages that were just for her daughter or some of her daughter's friends," Isabella County prosecutor David Barberi told Good Morning America at the time. "And the digital footprint was just insane."

Beal City Public Schools Superintendent William Chilman told GMA that, even once they realized they weren't dealing with a student prank, "we weren't expecting that it would be a parent. When they informed us later in the spring that they were suspecting that it possibly was her, it was a shock to all of us."

Kendra ultimately cut a deal and pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor in exchange for the other charges being dropped. She was sentenced in April 2023 to a minimum of 19 months in jail, minus 22 days for time served.

After Kendra was revealed to be their daughter's harasser, Shawn divorced her and was granted full custody of Lauryn.

"I just can't believe she would do something like that to her daughter that supposedly she loved dearly," Shawn said in the Netflix series. "Just makes me sick. She stabbed me in the heart—shot me in the heart—and threw it away."

Kendra, now 45, was paroled on Aug. 8, 2024, and is on supervised release until Feb. 8, 2026, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.

She said in Unknown Number that she hadn't seen Lauryn in "about a year and a half," and per the terms of her release they're not allowed to reunite for the time being.

"We both know that we're with each other no matter what," Kendra said. "I definitely think we can have a healthy relationship. I know we both hold that bond that we have close."

Lauryn, now 18, is not opposed to reconciling with her mom and expressed hope Kendra would get "the help that she needs" now that she's out of jail.

"Being without that relationship is really hurting me," Lauryn said in the series. "I think rebuilding our relationship will help both of us a lot. I love her more than anything."

The series also noted that Lauryn is no longer in touch with Owen.

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