Unknown Number, The High School Catfish on Netflix, Inside the Shocking True Story of a Mom Who Targeted Her Own Daughter

Netflix’s Unknown Number, The High School Catfish unravels the disturbing Michigan case of Kendra Licari, a mother who spent more than a year sending anonymous, abusive texts to her teenage daughter Lauryn and Lauryn’s boyfriend. The documentary, directed by Skye Borgman, uses police body-camera footage, threatening messages, and interviews with Lauryn, Owen, their families, classmates, and investigators to show how the harassment escalated and how the FBI ultimately traced the texts back to Kendra. Sentenced to up to five years in prison in 2023, Kendra has since been released, while Lauryn—now 18—remains cautious about reconnecting with her mother. The film highlights the emotional toll of digital abuse, the complexities of family betrayal, and the resilience of a teenager forced to confront cruelty from the person she trusted most.

Unknown Number, The High School Catfish 

Unknown Number, The High School Catfish, a documentary that premiered last Friday on Netflix, investigates the shocking case of Kendra Licari, a Michigan mother who secretly tormented her teenage daughter by sending anonymous, abusive text messages, including repeated messages urging her to take her own life.

According to authorities in Beal City, a town of just a few hundred residents, the harassment began in the fall of 2021 when Lauryn Licari and her boyfriend, Owen McKenny, started receiving dozens of hostile texts each day. Investigators later determined that Kendra had used software to disguise her identity and make it appear the messages were coming from multiple classmates. She not only demanded that the teens end their relationship but also impersonated a supposed rival for Owen’s attention, creating a false narrative that fueled suspicion and fear. Over the span of fifteen months, she sent hundreds of texts that grew increasingly vulgar, threatening, and manipulative.

In March 2023, after pleading guilty to two counts of stalking a minor, Kendra was sentenced to a minimum of 19 months in prison with a maximum term of five years. Directed by Skye Borgman, Unknown Number incorporates the abusive text exchanges, police body-camera footage from the day of Kendra’s arrest, and new interviews with Lauryn, Owen, their families, classmates, school officials, local police, and the FBI liaison who ultimately traced the messages back to Kendra.

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The Text Messages

In "Unknown Number, The High School Catfish," viewers see just how disturbing the anonymous messages become. At first, the texts looked like they came from another student, with lines such as, “Hi Lauryn, Owen is breaking up with you” or “He likes me better.” The sender pushed the idea of a love triangle, writing that both she and Owen were “DTF,” and taunting Lauryn with insults about her appearance: “He will be with me while your lonely ugly a* is alone.”*

What made the messages even more unsettling was the use of “Lo,” Lauryn’s private nickname, suggesting that whoever was behind the account had to be someone close. The harassment escalated quickly, with Owen receiving 30 to 50 texts a day. Many were crude and graphic, claiming he wanted sexual acts Lauryn wasn’t providing. One read, “he wants sex, bjs n making out, he don’t want ur sry a*,”* while another referred to explicit descriptions of what Owen was supposedly doing with the other girl.

After nearly two years together, Lauryn and Owen broke up, hoping that ending their relationship would stop the texts. Instead, the campaign intensified. Lauryn began receiving violent messages telling her to end her life, including “kill yourself now b***”* and “his life would be better if you were dead.” The most chilling messages arrived with hashtags like #bangbang and #suicide, leaving no doubt about the sender’s intent to terrorize her.

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How the Mom Got Caught

Unknown Number, The High School Catfish details how investigators unraveled the scheme that had tormented Lauryn and Owen for more than a year. Local authorities in Beal City first opened the case in January 2022, but as the barrage of messages continued, the FBI was brought in that spring.

In the documentary, FBI liaison Bradley Peter explains that the texts weren’t coming from ordinary phone numbers but were routed through an app designed to disguise a sender’s identity. With a search warrant, Peter traced the data to numbers connected to Verizon. A second warrant revealed the same number appearing again and again, registered to Lauryn’s mother, Kendra Licari.

The discovery shocked local law enforcement. As the documentary shows, Kendra had regularly checked in with the sheriff’s office to ask about the progress of the investigation, a move that made her appear invested in helping to solve the case.

Viewers will also see the police body-camera footage from December 2022, when officers arrived at Kendra’s home to arrest her and seize her electronic devices. In the footage, she remains calm and cooperative, even as the scope of the accusations against her becomes clear.

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Why the Mom Catfished Her Daughter

Unknown Number, The High School Catfish digs into the question at the center of the case: why would a mother torment her own child?

In interviews, Kendra Licari insists that what happened was a mistake, even comparing her actions to common crimes that often go unpunished. “Realistically, a lot of us have probably broken the law at some point or another and not gotten caught. I’m sure people drove drunk, haven’t been caught,” she says in the film. The documentary reveals that Kendra, who had told her husband she left her teaching job voluntarily, had actually been fired and never secured new work, leaving her with ample time to carry out the harassment.

The film also includes unsettling speculation from Owen and his mother, who suggest that Kendra’s behavior bordered on inappropriate. They recall her cutting Owen’s food into bite-sized pieces, checking in on him privately, and attending his sporting events even after he and Lauryn broke up. These accusations are presented in the documentary without a direct response from Kendra.

Kendra instead frames her actions as stemming from unprocessed trauma. She recounts being raped at 17 and says those memories resurfaced as Lauryn entered her teenage years. “As my daughter was hitting those teenage years, I got scared,” she explains. “I was afraid of letting her grow up, wanted to protect her and keep her safe.” Director Skye Borgman, however, interprets her rationale differently. In an interview with TIME, Borgman notes that Kendra’s texts appeared designed to keep Lauryn dependent on her, saying, “By sending these text messages, she was essentially forcing Lauryn closer to her.”

The escalation to death threats remains the most disturbing element. Borgman presses Kendra on why she told her daughter to kill herself, and Kendra admits she has no clear answer. “Maybe the escalation to telling Lauryn to kill herself is the last attempt to get her as close as she possibly can,” Borgman reflects. “But it just seems so incredibly extreme.”

Others featured in the documentary offer their own interpretations. Former Beal City superintendent Bill Chillman argues that Kendra’s behavior resembled a digital form of Munchausen syndrome, saying, “She wanted her daughter to need her in such a way that she was willing to hurt her, and this is the way she chose to do that versus physically trying to make her ill, which is typical Munchausen behavior.”

Kendra also acknowledges moments where her messages may have reflected her own insecurities. When asked if calling Lauryn anorexic was really self-directed, she admits, “Possibly, because I was way too thin. I was not eating. So you could put me in that anorexic category.”

Even after extensive interviews, Borgman concludes that Kendra’s true motivations remain murky. “I don’t know that we’re ever going to understand that fully,” she says in the film. “I think it’s going to take a lot of work on Kendra’s part to figure that out, some real big self-reflection.”

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Why the Mom Catfished Her Daughter

By the time Unknown Number, The High School Catfish was filmed, Lauryn had graduated high school and turned 18, old enough to decide what kind of relationship she wanted with her parents. The documentary shows her growing especially close to her father, Shawn, with scenes of the two spending time together on long nature walks.

When director Skye Borgman first interviewed Lauryn in 2023, shortly after Kendra went to prison, Lauryn admitted that she missed her mother deeply. The two stayed in touch throughout Kendra’s sentence. But when filmmakers returned a year later in 2024, Lauryn’s perspective had shifted. Borgman explains, “She didn’t hate her mother at all, but she was a little bit more measured in communications with her and a little bit more measured about how much she was willing to let Kendra into her life.”

By the end of the documentary, Kendra has been released from prison but has not seen her daughter in over eighteen months. Lauryn is not ready for a reunion. As screenshots of the threatening texts flash across the screen, she reflects on what it would take to rebuild trust. “Now that she’s out, I just want her to get the help she needs, so when we see each other, it doesn’t go back to the old ways and the way it was before.” The film ends with Lauryn’s words, a mix of pain and love: “I love her more than anything.”

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental-health crisis or contemplating suicide, call or text 988. In emergencies, dial 911 or seek care from a local hospital or mental health provider.

Celine Lorenze is a former entrepreneur and self-described workaholic who built her life around business at the expense of balance. After years of running companies and living tethered to constant demands, she now writes cultural commentary and personal essays that examine the cost of overwork, the pressures of digital connectivity, and the struggle to reclaim time for family and self.