Who was the bully in Netflix's Unknown Number: The High School Catfish?

Netflix is known for its gripping collection of true crime documentaries, and Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is another worthy addition to the catalogue.

Directed by Skye Borgman (Abducted in Plain Sight), the documentary delves into a catfishing case that began in October 2020.

Lauryn Licari and her then-boyfriend, Owen, were 13 years old when they started receiving suspicious texts from an unknown number. The messages stopped briefly before resuming again in September 2021.

When they started up again, they unravelled into a daily assault of threats and insults lasting 15 months. A key piece of evidence in the case related to the messages containing information that only someone who knew Lauryn really well could have known.

At this stage, Lauren and Owen's parents and concerned school officials sought help from the police. But who was the catfishing bully? We take a look.

Who was the bully in Netflix's Unknown Number: The High School Catfish?

Incredibly, the catfishing bully turned out to be none other than Lauryn's mother, Kendra Licari.

The initial investigation focused on Lauryn and Owen’s classmates and friends, a demographic who would've appeared to be the most likely culprits.

When this line of investigation didn't uncover any substantial evidence, a police officer named Peter Bradley was brought in to look into the troubling case and act as a liaison officer to the FBI.

It was Bradley who eventually traced the messages to Kendra Licari. Of course, the biggest question on everyone's lips after this shocking revelation is, why did she do it?

There's no easy answer to this, despite Kendra appearing in the documentary after agreeing to be interviewed - a lot of it had already been made by the time she agreed to go on camera.

Sky Borgman believes Kendra could have been motivated by previous trauma, although she ultimately concludes she has no firm idea why Lauryn's mother did what she did.

"She does mention in the documentary an assault that happened [to her] when she was right around Lauryn’s age," Skye told Tudum.

"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," she adds.

Law enforcement and other experts believed Kendra's actions were a result of some level of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

However, while Skye feels this could be a possibility, she urges caution over viewing it as the root cause of Kendra's catfishing.

"I think that there are elements about Munchausen by proxy - about harming someone to keep them close - that definitely existed," she explains, but also feels this is a problematic label.

In December 2022, Kendra was arrested and charged with multiple counts of stalking and using a computer to commit a crime. After pleading guilty to two counts of stalking a minor, she was sentenced to serve between 19 months to 5 years in prison.

She was released on August 8, 2024, and unsurprisingly, has a difficult relationship with Lauryn.

Initially, part of Kendra's plea deal was that she couldn't have contact with her daughter when she got out of prison. However, when the documentary was in the early stages, Lauryn wanted the pair's relationship to return to the way it once was.

Further down the line and having had some time to reflect, Lauryn, now aged 18, thinks a little differently. According to Skye Borgman, Lauryn is still exploring her feelings and is yet to decide on how to approach resuming contact with her mother.

As for Lauryn and Owen, the pair are no longer together. They broke up before the investigation reached a conclusion, and no longer speak or have any contact.