Netflix’s 2025 crime-thriller documentary, Unknown Number: High School Catfish, is nothing short of crazy. The real-life case introduced us to a mother, Kendra Licari, who, for some very problematic reasons, started sending disgusting texts, laced with explicit graphic descriptions, to her fifteen-year-old daughter, Lauryn, and her former boyfriend, Owen McKenny. After watching the documentary, one could only imagine the psychological trauma and emotional torture these kids might have gone through. Through these messages, Kendra started body-shaming her own daughter and targeted her insecurities, because of which Lauryn lost all confidence in herself and stopped engaging in any extracurricular activities in school. She even broke up with Owen because that was what the catfish-texter wanted. Meanwhile, Owen and his family, especially his mother, Jill McKenny, couldn’t understand why this anonymous texter was harassing and verbally attacking this young couple.
These families live in a close-knit community in Beal City, Michigan. When the cyberbullying got really serious, Owen’s mother, Jill, and Lauryn’s mother, Kendra, started investigating the case together, as the school wasn’t doing much to address their concerns. They always knew that the person sending those nasty texts had to be someone in their inner circle, because the texter often called Lauryn “Lo,” a nickname only a handful of people knew or used. In another instance, the perpetrator sent Owen and Lauryn an image of a sweatshirt and a phone case, which no one had access to except the family. That was the moment Jill became certain that whoever this bully was, it was someone from the family, but never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that it would be her close friend, with whom she had shared all her secrets. Jill felt betrayed, to say the least. As soon as Kendra was exposed, Jill started remembering all the conversations she’d had with Kendra in the past, trying to connect the dots of how Kendra might have misled the authorities and jeopardized the investigation so that they would never be able to catch her.
After Kendra confessed to her crimes, Jill wanted to have a conversation with her so she could ask her all those questions she had on her mind. She wanted to know why she’d targeted her young son and betrayed her trust. During the trial, when Jill was allowed to speak with Kendra in court, she looked her in the eye and asked her, “Was all of it worth it?” You see, it wasn’t a mere prank. Kendra wasn’t just bullying the kids for something they had done. She started sexualizing them in conversations, and these kids were minors. And now, if you view the entire incident in this context, then it’s even more wild how she, being a grown woman, gave those explicit graphical descriptions to a 15 or 16-year-old boy. When these messages started flooding the kids’ inbox, they believed it was one of their classmates who was envious of their relationship. They first tried to ignore it, but then the texts became more sexual and demeaning. They started questioning themselves and eventually gave in to the threats of the catfisher, who had asked them to break up with each other. Owen and Lauryn severed all forms of communication, but these texts didn’t stop. Kendra went to unimaginable lengths to find out the number of the new girl Owen was dating, and she started doing the same thing with her that she had done with Lauryn. It was evident that Kendra didn’t want to let Owen be in peace. But why? The young lad hadn’t done anything wrong to her or caused any harm. So, why was she making his life a living hell? What did she really want?
After Kendra texted Owen’s second girlfriend, he started thinking about harming himself. He believed that was the only solution to stop these messages. Fortunately, his mother saw the texts and stopped him from doing anything stupid. But what if someone had gotten seriously hurt because of these nasty messages? What if either of the children had done the unspeakable? Did Kendra ever think about it?
Kendra kept harassing and bullying the kids for almost 22 months (if you count the first messages as well), and these minors had no choice but to live under constant emotional and mental torment, unable to process who was doing it to them and why. It’s obvious that neither of them are going to recover from such a traumatic experience anytime soon. They will never be able to trust anyone again, and any text from an unknown number will trigger all those memories that they have been trying to forget.
As of today, Owen and his family still live in Michigan. Owen graduated from the Beal City Public School, and in 2025, he will be attending Hope College in Holland, Michigan, to pursue his love for sports and play baseball. Whereas Jill, her husband, David, and their younger daughter live in Beal City. Jill and Owen have also been a part of Netflix’s documentary, where they were interviewed by the director so that they could share their end of the story and how it affected them and their family.
