Where Is Kendra Licari Now? Inside Her Life 3 Years After Being Arrested for Cyberbullying Her Daughter By Samantha Stutsman

Netflix’s new documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish revisits one of the most shocking cyberbullying cases in recent memory — when a Michigan mother was unmasked as the person tormenting her own daughter.

In Beal City, Mich., teenagers Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny were once known as the “Golden Couple,” inseparable since junior high. But their lives were thrown into chaos in October 2020 when they began receiving strange text messages from an anonymous number. The texts eventually stopped, only to start again a year later.

The anonymous messages, which at times reached 40–50 per day, accused Owen of cheating and targeted Lauryn with threats. The sender used an app that constantly generated new phone numbers, which meant blocking the harassment was impossible — and even law enforcement initially struggled to trace the source.

The bullying stretched on for about two years — until the FBI cracked the case. The culprit turned out to be none other than Lauryn’s own mother, Kendra Licari, who was arrested in December 2022, per NBC News.

So, where is Kendra Licari now? Here’s everything to know about the Michigan mother and her relationship with Lauryn Licari today.

Who is Kendra Licari?

Before her arrest, Kendra — who was born in August 1980, per the Michigan Department of Corrections — lived a seemingly ordinary life in Beal City. She was married to her husband, Shawn, and she coached their daughter, Lauryn, in sports like baseball and basketball. She worked in the IT department at Ferris State University, per The Cut.

Meanwhile, her closest friends included her cousin Melissa Perry and Lauryn’s boyfriend’s mom, Jill McKenny.

“We were pretty close growing up. She was fun, outgoing, the life of the party. She does like attention, I think,” Perry said in the Netflix doc, adding, “As far as being a good person, she was.”

Then, in 2021, Kendra suddenly changed, according to her family and friends. This coincided with the time that she quit her job at Ferris State after being placed on a performance-improvement plan, according to The Cut. However, she didn’t tell her loved ones about losing her role, instead maintaining that she was working from home and feigning work calls.

“She was more introverted, didn’t reach out as much. I guess more self-absorbed, too, maybe,” Perry said in the documentary.

Why did Kendra Licari catfish her own daughter?

Lauryn and Owen first began receiving strange text messages from an unknown number in October 2020. These early messages were sporadic and relatively mild, making Lauryn and Owen think it was simply a prank.

Kendra has denied being behind the original messages. She later said in the documentary that she only started sending texts to Lauryn and Owen 11 months later in an attempt to identify the person responsible for the first harassment incidents.

“I was sending messages in the hopes that they might send back asking, ‘Is this so-and-so?’ I started with the thought, ‘We need some answers.’ And then it just kept going,” Kendra said in Unknown Number: The High School Catfish.

From Sept. 13, 2021, to Feb. 20, 2022, Kendra carried out a harassment campaign against Lauryn and Owen, per NBC News. The teens were bombarded with as many as 40 to 50 text messages a day, many of which contained threats and sexually explicit content.

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To cover her tracks, Kendra used apps that generated new phone numbers each time, making it impossible for Lauryn and Owen to block the harassment and difficult for the police to trace the source.

Kendra has claimed that suppressed childhood trauma led her to harass Lauryn and Owen.

“As [Lauryn] started getting older, I had things that were suppressed come forward. A lot of it was previous trauma starting to resurface that I didn’t know how to handle. When I was 17, I was raped, and as my daughter was hitting those teenage years, I got scared,” she said in the documentary.

“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 continued.

How did Kendra Licari get caught?

The cyberstalking case eventually reached the FBI, who subpoenaed the app company’s phone records and carefully analyzed every number that the sender had used.

Their goal was to find an IP address — the unique identifier assigned to every cell phone and computer — that could reveal the source. There was only one match: Kendra Licari.

When police arrived at the Licari home in August 2022 with a search warrant, Kendra admitted almost immediately that she was behind the messages. Unknown Number: The High School Catfish includes footage of the confrontation, showing Lauryn in disbelief and her father visibly furious upon learning the truth.

Did Kendra Licari go to prison?

Kendra was arrested in December 2022 and charged with two counts of stalking a minor and two counts of communicating with another to commit a crime, per NBC News.

In March 2023, she pleaded guilty to the two counts of stalking, and a month later, she was sentenced to serve 19 months to five years in prison, per UpNorthLive.

Are Kendra Licari and Shawn Licari still married?

In the aftermath of her crime, Shawn divorced Kendra and won full custody of Lauryn, according to The Cut.

“I just can’t believe she would do something like that to her daughter that supposedly she loved dearly,” he said in the documentary. “Just makes me sick. She stabbed me in the heart — shot me in the heart — and threw it away.”

Where is Kendra Licari now?

Kendra was released on parole on Aug. 8, 2024, and will remain under supervision until February 2026, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. She and Lauryn are currently not permitted to see each other.

“It’s been about a year and a half since I’ve seen her,” Kendra said in the Netflix documentary. “We both know that we’re with each other no matter what. I definitely think we can have a healthy relationship. I know we both hold that bond that we have close.”

As for Lauryn, she wants to see her mom “when the time is right” and hopes Kendra can “get the help that she needs” now that she’s out of prison.

“Being without that relationship is really hurting me. I think rebuilding our relationship will help both of us a lot. I love her more than anything,” Lauryn added.