{"id":1155,"date":"2025-09-05T04:04:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/unknown-number-high-school-catfish\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T04:04:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:04:02","slug":"unknown-number-high-school-catfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/unknown-number-high-school-catfish\/","title":{"rendered":"The True Story Behind Netflix&#8217;s Unknown Number: The High School Catfish"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p>In Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, anonymous harassing texts began in October 2020 and escalated on Sept. 13, 2021, targeting teenage couple Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny; investigators later traced the messages to Lauryn&#8217;s mother, Kendra Licari, who was arrested Dec. 12, 2022, pleaded guilty to stalking charges in April 2023, served jail time and was paroled Aug. 8, 2024 with supervised release until Feb. 8, 2026.<\/p>\n<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Anonymous texts first reached Lauryn and Owen in October 2020 and returned in large volume beginning Sept. 13, 2021.<\/li>\n<li>Messages included targeted, hateful language and repeated encouragements for self-harm, according to an Isabella County Sheriff&#8217;s report.<\/li>\n<li>Law enforcement involved the FBI and a cybercrimes expert who linked texts to a Spectrum-host IP in the Mt. Pleasant area and to a phone using a number-generating app.<\/li>\n<li>Investigators say Kendra Licari&#8217;s phone number was associated with the IP address when messages were sent; she later admitted she began sending texts in September 2021.<\/li>\n<li>Kendra was arrested Dec. 12, 2022, pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor, and received an April 2023 sentence of at least 19 months, with credit for 22 days served.<\/li>\n<li>After the case became public, custody of Lauryn moved to her father, Shawn Licari; Kendra was paroled Aug. 8, 2024 and is under supervised release until Feb. 8, 2026.<\/li>\n<li>The story and interviews are documented in Netflix&#8217;s 2025 series Unknown Number: The High School Catfish.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Verified Facts<\/h2>\n<p>Beal City High School families first reported the texts to school officials, who referred the matter to local law enforcement. The Isabella County Sheriff&#8217;s Office then requested FBI assistance to analyze the digital evidence.<\/p>\n<p>According to the sheriff&#8217;s report, a cybercrimes expert identified an IP address tied to a Spectrum host in the Mt. Pleasant area and observed a user opening a number-generating app from an iPhone at times messages were sent. The expert reported that Kendra Licari&#8217;s phone number was attached to that IP address each time texts reached the victims.<\/p>\n<p>In interviews recorded in the Netflix series and in law enforcement reports, Kendra said she did not send the initial October 2020 messages but acknowledged she began sending texts in September 2021 to try to identify the original sender. Investigators counted tens of thousands of messages in the digital record, per local prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p>Charges were filed in December 2022. Kendra pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor as part of a plea deal that led to an April 2023 sentence carrying a minimum of 19 months, with 22 days of time served credited. Following the revelations, Shawn Licari was granted full custody of Lauryn and later divorced Kendra.<\/p>\n<h2>Context &#038; Impact<\/h2>\n<p>Cases where an adult, rather than peers, is responsible for targeted online harassment are rare but particularly complex for schools and investigators. The family&#8217;s assumption that the sender was a student prolonged the search for answers while the abuse continued.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation highlights how digital forensics\u2014IP logs, device activity and app usage\u2014can link online harassment to physical locations and phone numbers, even when messages are routed through anonymizing services or generated numbers.<\/p>\n<p>For victims, this episode shows the long emotional toll of sustained cyberbullying: Lauryn and Owen ultimately split, Lauryn has expressed both pain and cautious hope about reconciliation, and the school community described shock when a parent emerged as the perpetrator.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Implications for schools: timely referral to law enforcement and digital-evidence preservation are critical.<\/li>\n<li>Implications for families: adults can both protect and harm; transparency and support services matter for recovery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I wanted to try to control the outcome of her journey,&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><cite>Kendra Licari, as shown in Unknown Number: The High School Catfish (Netflix, 2025)<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<aside>\n<details>\n<summary>How investigators traced the texts<\/summary>\n<p>Investigators combined carrier and IP logs, device activity, and expert analysis of an app that generated temporary numbers. An FBI-linked cybercrime expert matched message timestamps to an IP address from a Spectrum account in the Mt. Pleasant area and found a phone number linked to that address when messages were sent.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/aside>\n<h3>Unconfirmed<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Who sent the very first batch of messages in October 2020 remains unproven; Kendra denied sending that initial set.<\/li>\n<li>Whether any other individuals assisted or were aware of the texting campaign has not been publicly corroborated.<\/li>\n<li>Future reconciliation between Lauryn and Kendra is possible but currently constrained by supervised-release conditions and family decisions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Bottom Line<\/h2>\n<p>The Netflix series brought national attention to a local case in which forensic digital evidence helped identify a parent as the source of prolonged online abuse against her own daughter and the daughter&#8217;s peers. The case underscores the need for rapid reporting, careful preservation of electronic evidence, and mental-health support for victims of sustained cyberbullying.<\/p>\n<h2>Sources<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown Number: The High School Catfish (Netflix, 2025)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NBC News reporting on the Isabella County Sheriff&#8217;s report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/GMA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Good Morning America coverage and prosecutor statements<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/corrections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Michigan Department of Corrections: parole and supervised-release records<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.isabellacounty.org\/sheriff\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Isabella County Sheriff&#8217;s Office<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, anonymous harassing texts began in October 2020 and escalated on Sept. 13, 2021, targeting teenage couple Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny; investigators later traced the messages to Lauryn&#8217;s mother, Kendra Licari, who was arrested Dec. 12, 2022, pleaded guilty to stalking charges in April 2023, served jail time and was paroled &#8230; <a title=\"The True Story Behind Netflix&#8217;s Unknown Number: The High School Catfish\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/unknown-number-high-school-catfish\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about The True Story Behind Netflix&#8217;s Unknown Number: The High School Catfish\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_title":"The True Story Behind Netflix's Unknown Number \u2014 Newsroom","rank_math_description":"A Michigan mother pleaded guilty after sending thousands of anonymous texts that targeted her teen daughter and friends. Read how investigators traced the harassment.","rank_math_focus_keyword":"Unknown Number, Lauryn Licari, Kendra Licari, cyberbullying, Beal City","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readtrends.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}