The Netflix documentary “Unknown Number: The High School Catfish” tells the story of Lauryn Licari, whose own mother, Kendra Licari, anonymously cyberbullied her for over a year.
Lauryn was 13 when she and her then-boyfriend, Owen McKenny, started receiving messages from an unknown number in October 2020. The messenger claimed that Owen planned to break up with Lauryn and didn’t actually like her. The young couple had no idea who sent the texts and tried to forget about it. Then in September 2021, the messages resumed.
“It had to be someone who had been around me or one of my close friends,” Lauryn said in the doc, noting that the anonymous cyberbully called her by her nickname, “Lo.”
Lauryn was right to suspect someone close to her, but she never could’ve prepared herself for the revelation that her mom was her cyberbully. For over a year, Kendra incessantly texted both Lauryn and Owen, hurling insults at them and using sexually explicit language.
Even after Owen and Lauryn broke up, Kendra continued to send Lauryn hateful messages, including ones telling her to “kill herself.” There were also threats of physical harm, including a text that read, “Finish yourself, or we will.”
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In December 2022, Kendra was arrested and charged with multiple counts of stalking and using a computer to commit a crime. She pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor and was sentenced to 19 months to 5 years in prison. Kendra was released from prison in August 2024 and will be on supervised release until February 2026.
Although Lauryn now knows the truth about her mom’s actions, she has expressed interest in repairing their relationship.
“Being without that relationship is really hurting me,” Lauryn said in the doc. “I think rebuilding our relationship will help both of us a lot. I love her more than anything.”
Kendra said in “Unknown Number” that she hadn’t seen Lauryn “in about a year and half.” Per her prison release agreement, she can’t reunite with Lauryn yet. But Lauryn told cameras that she wants to see her mom again “when the time is right.”
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“I think I want to trust her now, but I don’t think I can,” Lauryn said. “Now that she’s out [of prison], I just want her to get the help she needs so then when we see each other, it doesn’t go back to the old ways and how it was before.”
Why did Kendra Licari catfish her daughter?
“Unknown Number” filmmaker Skye Borgman told Tudum that she doesn’t think Kendra even knows herself why she catfished her own daughter.
“She does mention in the documentary an assault that happened [to her] when she was right around Lauryn’s age,” Borgman said. “She talks about how scary that was for her to see her only child, her little girl, growing up, and that’s what she really relates to and that’s what she believes led her to sending these text messages and trying to keep Lauryn close.”
Some people have speculated that Kendra’s actions were a form of Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (FDIA), formerly called Munchausen by proxy. Borgan told Tudum that she thinks it’s “a little bit problematic” to give “any sort of medical foundation” to Kendra’s behavior.
“But I think that there are elements about Munchausen by proxy — about harming someone to keep them close — that definitely existed,” she added.
“Unknown Number: The High School Catfish” is available to stream on Netflix.
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