5 biggest reveals from 'Unknown Number: The High School Catfish'

Netflix's Unknown Number: The High School Catfish takes fans into the lives of 13-year-old Lauryn Licari and her then-boyfriend, Owen McKenny, in Beal City, Michigan. Directed by Sky Borgman, the documentary explores two years of their lives being relentlessly tormented by texts from an unknown number. When things got increasingly horrific, the police and the FBI got involved in the cyberbullying case.

This chilling true crime documentary explores bullying in the digital age, producing a cautionary tale that shakes viewers to their cores. It premiered on August 29, 2025, and has since taken over discourses all over the internet for its shocking reveals, from who the culprit was to their motives. While some already followed the case when it came out in 2022, others who are new to the story were left in disbelief.

Disclaimer: All opinions in this article belong solely to the writer. Spoilers for Unknown Number: The High School Catfish ahead.

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Who was the cyberbully? What were their motives? The most important revelations from Unknown Number: The High School Catfish

1) The couple broke up due to the cyber-pressure

Lauryn and Owen are no longer in touch (Image via YouTube/Netflix)

Unknown Number: The High School Catfish established Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny's relationship as unshakeable. Having known each other since childhood, they began dating in junior high school and became the small town's "Golden Couple." Everything was going fine until the messages started coming in. While they were unbothered at first, the relentlessness put pressure on their romance.

Licari's insecurity about the messages led to constant fighting, and McKenny decided a break might end their misery and the explicit texts, with threats of suicide, bullying, and innuendos. But things escalated when he realized his new girlfriend from another town was being stalked, too. By the time the film concluded, the couple, now 18, were no longer in contact.

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2) Lauryn Licari's mother was behind it all

Kendra Licari admitted to her crimes (Image via YouTube/Netflix)

The most shocking reveal in Unknown Number: The High School Catfish was that Kendra Licari, Lauryn Licari's mother, was behind the two-year cyberbullying. What shocked the police and the FBI was how closely Kendra was involved with the investigation, and how empathetic she had been. The way she texted raised suspicion that the perpetrator could be Lauryn's classmate, addressing her with 'Lo,' her nickname.

For two years, Kendra used different phone numbers and masked her messages through encrypted apps to avoid getting caught. This made the police officials wonder if it could be a classmate named Khloe, whose texting lingo and burner phones matched the bully's MO.

While it all added up, Kendra Licari was revealed to be behind the whole thing, much to Lauryn's utter disbelief and her father, Shawn's, anger.

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3) The FBI cracked the case

Officials got involved in the case (Image via YouTube/Netflix)

It took years for officials to crack the case because Kendra circumvented leaving behind a digital footprint. This made local officials reach out to cyber experts from the FBI Computer Crimes Task Force. They subpoenaed the app that Kendra used for phone records and combed through every number used by the sender to narrow down an IP address that matched. This led them to Kendra Licari.

Police bodycam footage in the Unknown Number: The High School Catfish documentary shows Kendra admitting to the crimes almost immediately. She was later arrested and charged with two counts of stalking a minor and two counts of communicating with another to commit a crime. After pleading guilty to the former, she was sentenced to 19 months to five years in prison.

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4) Kendra's motives are convoluted

Kendra claimed she wanted to protect her daughter and keep her close (Image via YouTube/Netflix)

While Kendra agreed to be on Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, her true motives, however, were never revealed. The viewers and the director, Sky Borgman, are on the same boat, trying to piece together her behavior based on what she said in her interviews. Past traumas, possible mental health lapses, and an uneasy affection towards Lauryn's boyfriend might have been possible causes.

"She does mention in the documentary an assault that happened [to her] when she was right around Lauryn's age. She talks about how scary that was for her to see her only child, her little girl, growing up, and that's what she really relates to and that's what she believes led her to sending these text messages and trying to keep Lauryn close," Sky Borgman said in an interview with Netflix Tudum, published August 29, 2025.

McKenny claimed that Kendra was keenly attentive to his needs, even attending his sports events after the couple had broken up. His mother backed the claim by saying even after Lauryn and her son broke up, Kendra continued to ask her about her son's love life, which would explain how the cyber bully knew about Owen's new girlfriend.

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5) Kendra and Lauryn have a measured relationship

Kendra and Lauryn are no longer in contact (Image via Netflix)

In his conversation with Netflix Tudum, director Sky Borgman revealed that Kendra and Lauryn's relationship has entered "uncharted waters" because of the incident. Unknown Number: The High School Catfish talks about Lauryn's journey and how the mother-daughter duo remained in touch even after the arrest.

"The first time we sat down with Lauryn was in the spring of 2023 … and she at the time loved her mom. She just wanted her mom back in her life... [She] wanted to approach the relationship with more caution in our second interview," Borgman noted.

The documentary also elaborates on Lauryn's growing relationship with her father, Shawn, in the wake of the incident. 18-year-old Laura has a different relationship with her mother, following her parents' divorce and Shawn's sole custody of her. According to Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, Kendra is not allowed to contact Lauryn.

However, Lauryn has noted that she'd like to have a relationship with Kendra when the "time is right."

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Watch Unknown Number: The High School Catfish and other true crime documentaries on Netflix.