Netflix is known for some of the best crime documentaries across all streaming platforms, tantalizing viewers with true crime solving and interviews with all parties involved. But usually, the main suspect of the crime is easy to guess, and the documentary takes its time building the case against them. That was not the case with their most recent doc, Unknown Number: The High School Catfish.
A warning, there will be spoilers in this review.
The documentary opens with a gentle spoken teenage girl and the main victim of the documentary, Lauryn Licari. Her story begins in Middle School, where she begins to date her childhood friend and fellow schoolmate Owen McKenny. Lauryn is portrayed as a shy girl, introverted and slightly emotionally disconnected with her other schoolmates.
Regardless, her innocence is made obvious when she begins to receive explicit messages from an unknown number. The messages are vulgar and suggestive, implying that the unknown person was having a sexual relationship with Owen, and that Lauryn was clueless not to know about it. To Lauryn’s credit, she didn’t place much stock in the validity of these messages, choosing instead to trust McKenny’s word.
But then, McKenny became a victim to the unknown number, too. The messenger would take a few months break at a time before resuming a tirade of harmful and cruel messages that were not only sexually explicit, but hateful in nature towards Lauryn. Some texts said, “she [Lauryn] is a waste] and needed to be “taken down”. Lauryn considered blocking the number, but she knew the caller could then find a new number to text her from, so she and McKenny allowed the messages to continue.
The parents grew concerned after being informed of the messages. Lauryn was at her wits end, and both she and McKenny struggled to want to go back to school. The two stated they felt
like they were being watched, because the messenger appeared to have real-time knowledge of conversations they had.
Lauryn’s mother, Kendra Licari and McKenny’s mother, Jill McKenny, worked with the fathers and local school officials and law enforcement to unravel the identity of the messenger. The usual suspect is pinpointed – in this case, a classmate – Khloe Wilson - that had a reputation of being a school bully. But Wilson was cleared and the investigation kept on. Eventually, investigators stumbled on the unbelievable conclusion: The messenger was Lauryn’s own mother, Kendra.
How in the world can a mother do this to their own child, many asked. Numerous messages from Kendra encouraged her daughter to take her own life. Was that what Kendra wanted? According to Kendra, it wasn’t. She claimed that she wanted to make sure she maintained a strong mother-daughter bond that she never had with her own mother, and the text messages were a means to ensure that.
Whatever she believed, Kendra pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking and minor and served 19 months of a 5-year prison sentence, having been released on August 8, 2024. Not surprisingly, Kendra’s relationship with Lauryn is now strained, though the Netflix Documentary did not capture that. In fact, the ending left viewers more confused, as Lauryn appeared to have forgiven her mother quickly and stated she “could not live without her mother”.
Family members of Kendra provided a theory: Kendra had a case of Cyber-Munchausen, and Lauryn grew to feel the need for her mother’s comfort through cyber-bullying. Each day, Lauryn would come home distressed over the hateful text messages and be comforted by mother dearest. It’s important to remember that victims don’t act the same way. Some grow to love their
abusers – and it may be difficult to understand, but Lauryn was young when these events occurred.
While all parties involved have moved on, all of them agree on one thing: Their lives will never be the same. This documentary is a MUCH WATCH and is available on Netflix.
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