Skye Borgman, director of the Netflix documentary series Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, said the Michigan mother who catfished her own daughter agreed to appear because she wanted to tell her side of the story and so her daughter could see her tell it.
Kendra Licardi, 44, pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor after prosecutors say she spent months sending abusive and threatening messages to her then-13-year-old daughter, Lauryn, and the girl's boyfriend, Owen McKenny. Licardi served more than a year in jail. Borgman said Licardi was initially nervous about being on camera but ultimately welcomed the opportunity to reflect on her actions.
Borgman told Netflix’s Tudum that it was "a long process with Kendra" and that what appealed to Licardi was the chance to "tell her story from her perspective and that Lauryn could see her do that." In an interview with Variety, Borgman said Licardi "ended up really loving the experience" and that the interviews required the mother to think through and explain her behavior at length.
The series reconstructs the months-long campaign of anonymous texts and calls that began in October 2020, when Lauryn and McKenny, both 13 at the time, were added to a group chat from an unknown number. After a lull, the messages resumed nearly a year later and escalated in frequency and severity, the documentary shows. Investigators and family members ultimately traced the anonymous messages to Licardi, who has a background in information technology.
Lauryn told the filmmakers she was confused when she first received a Halloween-era text that claimed the sender would be at a party she had decided not to attend and included sexual language directed at McKenny. The messages later intensified, according to the documentary: Lauryn recounted receiving repeated insults about her body and appearance, and the anonymous texter urged her to harm herself, at times writing, "Kill yourself now, b**ch" and "jump off a bridge." McKenny said he sometimes received as many as 50 messages a day.
The barrage strained the teenagers' relationship and ultimately contributed to their breakup. Friends and families of both teens began searching for the source, and McKenny's parents at times confiscated his phone to read the messages. About a year after the first texts, four parents sought answers at the school. The local sheriff's office called in the FBI; an FBI liaison, Peter Bradley, was able to trace the IP addresses associated with the anonymous messages to devices linked to Licardi.
Police obtained a search warrant roughly 22 months after the first messages and confronted Licardi, who admitted to sending them, the documentary reports. The revelation shocked both families. McKenny told the filmmakers he and his parents had considered Licardi a friend and were stunned to learn she was the source of the harassment. Lauryn's father said he had had no idea about his wife's actions.
In interviews shown in the series, Licardi explained to Borgman that she began sending messages to try to identify who had been texting the teens and because she felt compelled to protect her daughter. "In my mind, I'm like, 'How long do we let this go on? What do I do as a parent?'" she said in the film. Licardi said she hoped the teens or their friends would respond in a way that would reveal the sender's identity. She later described the behavior as a spiraling response driven by a poor mental state, saying she was "somebody different in those moments. I was in an awful place mentally."
The documentary includes passages in which Licardi rationalizes aspects of the campaign. She told Borgman she was not afraid Lauryn would hurt herself and suggested some messages may have reflected her own struggles with food and body image. She acknowledged losing two jobs while she was sending messages and said she sometimes spent between one and eight hours a day engaged in the texting.
The Netflix series does not focus solely on Licardi's interviews. It recounts investigative steps and presents the impact the texts had on the teenagers, their families and the school district. School Superintendent Bill Chillman told the filmmakers he regarded the incident as a "cyber Munchausen's case," saying he believed Licardi wanted her daughter to need her in a way that led her to harm the child emotionally rather than physically.
Licardi pleaded guilty to stalking charges and served more than a year behind bars. She is not currently allowed contact with her daughter, and Lauryn, now a college student studying criminology, told the series she still longs for a relationship with her mother. "Not having a relationship with my mom, I just don't feel like myself," Lauryn said.
The decision by Netflix to feature Licardi prominently in the series drew criticism on social media. Several users on X, formerly Twitter, said the platforming of Licardi allowed her to present herself without sufficient challenge and accused the show of blurring the line between exposing wrongdoing and providing a platform for manipulation. "Netflix is platforming predators in documentaries without challenging them," one user wrote. Another said the series "downplayed her and the whole situation way too much." The filmmakers and Netflix have defended the choice to include interviews with Licardi as part of a broader effort to present the full record of the case.
The series documents how the case moved from confusing, hurtful messages sent to two teenagers into a law enforcement investigation that used digital forensics to identify a perpetrator. The filmmakers show law enforcement officials presenting pages of messages to an FBI liaison, the tracing of IP addresses and the moments leading to a search warrant and confession. Peter Bradley, the FBI liaison who assisted on the investigation, said he was unsure what to say when the trace led to a family member.
Members of both families told the series that the emotional fallout lingered after Licardi's admission. McKenny and his parents described the sense of betrayal they felt in learning someone they considered close had been responsible. Lauryn described how constant insults affected her choices and sense of self in high school, saying the messages made her question what to wear and contributed to anxiety about her body.
In the Netflix interviews, Licardi at times expressed remorse and at other times attempted to contextualize her conduct by pointing to personal struggles. Borgman said the director's role required pressing interview subjects to explain and examine their actions, and she described Licardi's on-camera reflections as genuine steps toward understanding. Whether viewers consider that presentation sufficient has been part of the public debate sparked since the series premiered.
The documentary appears amid broader conversations about how streaming services handle true-crime and trauma-centered programming, particularly when material includes perspectives from people accused or convicted of harming others. Advocates and some viewers have questioned how producers balance giving subjects a chance to explain themselves with the risk of retraumatizing victims or amplifying harmful voices.
The Netflix series reunites those competing concerns with the particulars of a case that combined adolescent relationships, digital harassment and family betrayal. It traces the messages from their first cryptic appearance through an investigative process that ended with a guilty plea and jail time, and it presents the complicated aftermath for the teenagers who were targeted and the family members left to reckon with the actions of a parent.
Licardi has said she hopes to repair the relationship with her daughter in the future. Lauryn, who has pursued an interest in criminology, said she wants to move forward but has also described the ongoing emotional cost of the incident.
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish frames the season-long investigation and the ethical questions that arise when filmmakers put those involved, including the perpetrator, on camera to explain what happened.