Liv Bridge
The story of a mom who horrifically cyberbullied her daughter anonymously for around a year has come out in a new documentary, which also showed the moment police confronted her.
In October 2020, 13-year-old Lauryn Licari, from Michigan, and her then-boyfriend Owen McKenny received suspicious messages from an unknown number.
"Hi Lauryn, Owen is breaking up with you,' the first text read. "He no longer likes you and hasn't liked you for a while. It's obvious he wants me. He laughs, smiles, and touches my hair.
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"We are both down to f**k. You are a sweet girl, but I know I can give him what he wants, sorry not sorry."
However, the odd texts came to an abrupt end - only to again in September 2021, where the youngsters were on the receiving end of a barrage of insults and threats almost daily for the next 15 months.
The texts eventually took a darker turn, picking at the teen's appearance and personality, calling her an 'ugly a**,' 'trash b**ch' and 'anorexic flat a**.'
Other disturbing messages read: 'Kill yourself now b***h', 'jump off a bridge', 'his life would be better if you were dead', and 'finish yourself or we will #bang'.
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From the content of the messages that touched on Lauryn's relationship with Owen, it became clear that the person behind it could only be someone she knew personally, so their parents and school officials turned to law enforcement for help to find the culprit - only to make the harrowing discovery that the flurry of hate was coming from none other than Lauryn's own mom.
As told in a new Netflix documentary, Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, Kendra Licari was found out when the FBI traced the IP addresses of the messages back to her.
Licari had used virtual private networks (VPNs) to hide her location, according to Isabella County Prosecutor David Barberi, and tried to make it seem like the messages, which prosecutors compiled 349 pages worth, were coming from areas where other teenagers were located.
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The sheriff's office had initially suspected several of the victims' classmates and friends, since the messages had used slang and abbreviations to make it look like another teen was behind the nasty content, in turn casting suspicion across the community and fracturing relationships.
Once cops raided her home, the 42-year-old confessed to her crimes while a horrified Lauryn witnessed the unmasking of her tormentor - with the encounter being caught on the officer's bodycam.
Kendra was charged with multiple counts of stalking and using a computer to commit a crime.
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She pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor and was sentenced to 19 months to five years in prison, but was released on August 8 last year.
A court order currently prohibits her from having any contact with her daughter. However, in the documentary, the mom said she remains hopeful they can rebuild a relationship in the future.
"Every single one of us makes mistakes, not a single one of us has lived a perfect life, and realistically, a lot of us have probably broken the law at some point or another and not gotten caught," she said in the documentary.
Licari revealed a little bit behind the reasoning for her actions; however, Barberi has an unfounded theory: that she has a kind of 'cyber' Munchausen syndrome by proxy, though he also stressed against offering up any 'medical' diagnosis or basis for her crimes.