Off the back of the popular Netflix documentary, the case of a Michigan mum who turned out to be her daughter's bully has been brought to a global audience.
In just under two weeks, the streaming company's newest true crime documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish has raised eyebrows and questions as to why one woman, Kendra Licari, would relentlessly harass her teenage daughter Lauryn and her then-boyfriend Owen.
Now, the prosecutor highlighted in the Netflix doc has attempted to give an answer, speculating about Kendra's reasoning for sending cruel texts to her own daughter.
It all started in 2020 in Beal City, Michigan. At the time, 13-year-old Lauryn started receiving suspicious texts from an unknown number. These stopped, only to resume in September 2021, continuing for the next 15 months.
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The detectives working the case first looked at all school friends of Lauryn and Owen, while some even suggested the girl could've sent those to herself. But the truth was revealed to be much darker when Kendra was identified as the catfish.
Speaking on what could've prompted Lauryn's mum to harass her, the prosecutor on the case, David Barberi, said it's 'a million-dollar question'.
"That’s a million-dollar question. I don't think anybody ever really is going to know why she did this," Barberi told host Ashleigh Banfield on NewsNation’s Banfield.
"I think that the theory that we all have—that we lean on, anyways—is that it was kind of when this started to cause harm to 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, but it’s hard to say for sure, and we were never able to really identify a true motive."
Barberi was also asked whether Kendra ever offered Lauryn an apology.
"She did apologise 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," he said.
Barberi thinks the documentary directed by Skye Borgman, which currently tops the most-watched TV content on Netflix, does a 'good job' of capturing 'the graphicness' of the messages Lauryn received, but falls short on capturing the impact on those involved outside of the Licari family and Owen.
"But I think what it came short on is really showing the impact that this had on all the families involved," he continued.
"And 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, this harassment, this constant graphic text messages that were being received by all of these individuals."
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 19 months to 5 years in prison. She was released in August 2024.
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is streaming on Netflix.
Topics: Netflix, True crime
Stefania Sarrubba