Mother-Daughter Nightmare: The Chilling Case of Lauryn Licari and Her Catfishing Mom

Hello there, I’m Jordan Collins, and I’ll be guiding you through this rather disturbing tale of a mother’s descent into madness. I suppose it’s not every day you come across a story as jaw-dropping as this one, so let’s dive right in. The Netflix documentary “Unknown Number: The High School Catfish” has left viewers stunned with its revelation that a mother’s own daughter was the target of her sinister catfishing scheme.

The story centers around Lauryn Licari, a teenager from Beal City, Michigan, and her boyfriend, Owen McKenny, who began receiving a barrage of vulgar and threatening texts in 2020 and again in 2021. The messages, which sometimes totaled 50 a day, not only targeted the young couple but also spread chaos throughout their small high school and wider community. One text read, “Hi Lauryn, Owen is breaking up with you,” claiming that he no longer liked Lauryn and had been interested in the texter instead. Other messages were even more obscene and sexually explicit, with one stating, “We’re both DTF [down to f–k],” and another referring to Lauryn’s teenage boyfriend’s “d–k n fingers n my p—y n mouth.”

Lauryn and Owen, who had dated for two years before the mysterious texts began, ultimately broke up in the hopes that the messages would stop. However, the messages continued, and the unknown bully started to get even more aggressive despite the high school couple no longer being together. The harassment escalated to the point where the FBI got involved in April 2022, using cyber-forensics to track down the culprit.

In a shocking twist, the anonymous texter was revealed to be Lauryn’s own mother, Kendra Licari. The former basketball coach and PTA mom had been hiding behind spoofing apps to torment her daughter for 22 months. Body cam footage included in the documentary captures the moment police showed up at the Licari family home to arrest Kendra and seize her devices in December 2022. Following her arrest on two counts of stalking a minor and two counts of communicating with another to commit a crime, Kendra pleaded guilty to the two stalking counts and was sentenced to up to five years in prison in 2023 before being released on parole last summer.

Kendra’s motivations for her actions were explored in the documentary, with her claiming that her behavior stemmed from being raped at 17 and never processing that trauma. “As my daughter was hitting those teenage years, I got scared,” she explained. “I was afraid of letting her grow up, wanted to protect her and keep her safe.” However, Lauryn expressed her confusion and sadness over her mother’s actions, stating, “Shock feeling turned into sad, which turned into mad, which turned into crazy… I don’t even know how to describe the feeling. Why would my mom do this? But like, did she really, actually do this? I can’t believe it, honestly. I was just really confused.”

The documentary has sparked a heated conversation on social media, with many viewers expressing their outrage and disgust over Kendra’s actions. “The fact that no one suspected [Kendra] in the beginning of this documentary should be an example of how manipulative she is,” one person wrote on TikTok. As for Lauryn, she seems to be moving forward, with her father, Shawn Licari, divorcing Kendra and winning full custody of Lauryn.

In the end, it’s clear that this case is a disturbing example of the darker side of human nature. Hopefully, this story serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked emotions and the devastating consequences of toxic behavior.

New York Post, NBC News, People Magazine

Sources: Celebrity Storm and New York Post, NBC News, People Magazine
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed