Mother’s Chilling Secret: Daily Death Threats Sent to Daughter Uncovered in Shocking Catfish Mystery

Imagine discovering that the tormenting texts haunting your teenage years weren’t from some creepy stranger—but actually from your own mother. Sounds like the plot twist of a dark thriller, right? Well, buckle up, because the Netflix documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish dives deep into the bizarre—and frankly unsettling—true story of Lauryn Licari, a high schooler whose life was turned upside down by anonymous death threats. As investigators scrambled to unveil the masked harasser, the truth hit harder than a spoiler alert: her own mom, Kendra Licari, was behind the digital facade, sending daily abuse that shook everyone to their core. How does a relationship unravel so drastically, and can it ever stitch back together? This gripping tale doesn’t just reveal a twisted catfish caper—it challenges our very notions of trust, family, and forgiveness. Ready to unmask the full story? LEARN MORE

A mother secretly catfished her own daughter and for months sent the girl death threats on a daily basis in a true story told by a Netflix documentary.

Unknown Number: The High School Catfish follows the story of teenager Lauryn Licari and her at-the-time boyfriend Owen, who started getting strange text messages from an unknown person, which eventually turned into regular death threats and graphic, abusive messages.

The police looked into the matter, and the initial suspects were Lauryn’s friends and classmates, but investigators could not unmask the catfish.

Things got so bad that the FBI became involved in the investigation, which eventually led to the death threats and other messages being traced back to Lauryn’s own mother, Kendra Licari.

Yes, it turned out that she had been the one who was sending her very own daughter abuse and death threats.

Viewers of the Netflix documentary have been utterly stunned to learn the truth behind this horrific story, and of Kendra’s claim that she didn’t start sending the messages but later joined in.

What happened to Kendra Licari?

As for what happened to Kendra Licari, she pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor and was sentenced to spend between 19 months and five years in prison.

She was released on 8 August, 2024 and wanted to remain a part of her daughter’s life – so much so, she even contributed to the Netflix documentary.

However, documentary director Skye Borgman said getting the mother who had sent death threats to her own daughter to agree ‘was a long process’, but they eventually persuaded her to sit down and talk about it.

The director said the mother was ‘remorseful that she has severely altered her relationship with her daughter in most likely a negative way’.

She wondered: “Will they have a relationship? Will they get through this? I don’t know. There will probably be some kind of relationship. Will it be the same? Absolutely not. There’s no way it can be the same.”

Back in 2023 Lauryn ‘just wanted her mom back in her life’ but according to Borgman, when the filmmakers returned a year later, they’d found that her position on the subject had shifted.

Kendra Licari was sent to prison, and following her release wanted to stay a part of her daughter’s life (Michigan Department of Corrections)

‘Every single one of us makes mistakes’

Borgman said that a year later, the teenager ‘wanted to approach the relationship with more caution in our second interview’.

She lives with her father Shawn, who has full custody, while Kendra cried and became emotional during her appearance in Unknown Number: The High School Catfish.

Speaking about getting caught catfishing her own daughter and sending her death threats, she said: “It was a very high emotional day in our house, a day of confusion. Every single one of us makes mistakes, not a single one of us has lived a perfect life and, realistically, a lot of have probably broke the law at one point or another and not got caught.

“I know to some I’m a headline; I’m a villain I’m a bad mum, I’m a whatever. But that’s because they know one little piece of my story, they don’t know my whole story.”

Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is available to stream now on Netflix.