The case of Kendra Licari, a Michigan mother who secretly bullied her teenage daughter online, has captivated viewers worldwide through Netflix’s documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish. The shocking story raises the question of why a mother would harass her own child and others online. Now, the prosecutor involved in the case, David Barberi, has provided his insight into the unsettling motives behind Kendra’s actions.
The Dark Secret Unveiled
In 2020, 13-year-old Lauryn Licari began receiving suspicious texts from an unknown number. These anonymous messages stopped for a while, only to start again in September 2021, continuing for the next 15 months. Initially, detectives looked at Lauryn’s friends and even considered that she might have been sending the messages to herself. But the truth was far darker—Kendra Licari, Lauryn’s own mother, was behind the harassment.
Kendra Licari sent her young daughter vile messages over the course of a year. (Netflix)
A ‘Million-Dollar Question’
When asked why Kendra engaged in such cruel behavior, prosecutor David Barberi said, “That’s a million-dollar question. I don’t think anybody is ever really going to know why she did this.” He went on to suggest that a possible motive stemmed from Kendra’s complicated relationship with her daughter. “I think her daughter looked to her for comfort, and over the course of that relationship and this harassment, I think that she kind of fed on that,” Barberi speculated. However, he emphasized that no clear motive was ever definitively identified during the investigation.
Kendra’s Apology Falls Short
During the trial, Kendra did offer an apology in court. “She did apologize in court, she offered some sort of an explanation for her behavior. But I think it really fell short for a lot of the families that were involved and a lot of the harm that she caused everybody,” Barberi noted. Her apology, however, was not seen as sufficient by those who had been affected by her actions, including Lauryn, Owen (Lauryn’s then-boyfriend), and their families.
The Impact Beyond the Licari Family
Barberi also discussed the documentary’s portrayal of the case, noting that while it did a good job of capturing the graphic nature of the messages Lauryn received, it didn’t fully address the broader impact on the other families involved. “It’s really hard to capture that in an hour-and-a-half when these families dealt with this for over a year, this trauma was going on,” he explained. The harassment and its consequences were felt deeply not only by Lauryn but by those around her.
Kendra Licari’s Sentence and Release
In December 2022, Kendra Licari was arrested and charged with stalking and using a computer to commit a crime. She pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor and was sentenced to a prison term of 19 months to 5 years. However, she was released in August 2024.
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is currently available for streaming on Netflix and continues to spark conversations about the disturbing nature of online harassment, especially when it comes from within a family.
