Mom’s Cruel Catfishing of Teens in 'Unknown Number' Is 'Long-Term Thing' Families Will Be 'Dealing With': Director (Exclusive) By Liam Quinn

Lauryn Licari and her boyfriend Owen McKenny were a pair of happy 13-year-olds in October 2020, ready to conquer the new school year together in the tiny, close-knit town of Beal City, Mich.

Both star athletes, and thought of as their school’s “golden couple,” they’d met in the seventh grade and appeared to have an enduring bond. But then the torrent of anonymous text messages that would put their relationship to the test began flooding in.

“Hi Lauryn,” the first one read. “Owen is breaking up with you.”

It would only get worse, with more and more messages blowing up their phones, turning increasingly threatening and sexually explicit.

The mysterious sender, who used a variety of different phone numbers, suggested Owen was “DTF” and wanted to have oral sex, and began preying on Lauryn’s insecurities, calling her “anorexic” and claiming no one wanted her around.

Eventually, the cyberbullying, as depicted in Netflix’s new hit documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, reached a disturbing fever pitch.

“Kill yourself now, b—-,” one text read. “[Owen’s] life would be better if you were dead.”

The film features interviews with several of the students involved, as well as Lauryn’s and Owen’s parents, who detail what it was like seeing their children become targets of relentless vitriol.

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Nearly two years after the first message, investigators revealed a shocking twist: the stalker was Lauryn’s own mother, 45-year-old Kendra Licari.

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“These kids have been through so much, and this is a long-term thing that they’re going to be dealing with,” says Unknown Number director Skye Borgman.

Kendra’s unmasking sent shockwaves through the community and remains a matter of debate for documentary viewers.

Theories as to why she would bully her own daughter, with whom she seemingly had a close and loving relationship, range from Kendra having a crush on her daughter’s boyfriend to the possibility of what former Beal City Public Schools superintendent Bill Chilman called “cyber Munchausen’s,” suggesting that Kendra was motivated to harm her daughter in order to act as her protector and an even closer confidante.

In a nearly five-hour interview with Unknown Number’s Borgman, Kendra claimed her own past sexual trauma and a fear of her daughter growing up led her down a dark spiral and that she didn’t “think I knew how to stop.”

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Charged with five felonies, Kendra pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor and served just over a year in prison. Released in 2024, she is currently on parole.

Now both 18, Owen and Lauryn are trying to move on. While Owen plays baseball at his Michigan college, Lauryn plans to study criminology and says she has found a new rock in her father, Shawn, 47: “We just bond so well together.”

And even though her mother once urged her to take her own life, Lauryn wants to rebuild their relationship.

“I love her more than anything,” she says.