An FBI investigation determined that a New Jersey mother was the anonymous author of a two-year campaign of online harassment directed at her 13-year-old daughter and the girl's boyfriend, authorities and a documentary account say.
The abuse began in October 2020, when the couple was added to a group chat from an unknown number. Messages escalated from taunts about the teenage relationship to repeated threats urging the girl to kill herself, arriving as often as six to eight hours a day, family members and the Netflix documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish say. Some texts used a random-number generator, making them difficult to block, and at least one message told the girl to "kill yourself now, b**ch." The campaign persisted for roughly two years before investigators identified the sender.
The FBI traced IP addresses linked to the anonymous messages to devices registered to 44-year-old Kendra Licari, who lived in the same community as the victim and had been seen as a school-gate parent. Confronted with the digital evidence, Licari confessed to sending most of the messages, according to the documentary and court records. She later told investigators she had initially sought to identify the source of the harassment but became "consumed" by her actions.
Lauryn Licari and her then-boyfriend, identified in media reports as Owen McKenny, told documentary filmmakers that the texts affected school life, self-image and their relationship. Early messages falsely claimed Owen was breaking up with Lauryn and suggested he preferred the sender. As the harassment continued, texts attacked Lauryn’s appearance, called her "ugly" and "worthless," and included messages telling her to "jump off a bridge," the accounts say. Owen eventually ended the relationship in the hope the messages would stop; they did not.
Family members reported the harassment to school officials and local police before the case was referred to federal authorities. Liaison officers worked with the FBI to trace message metadata and IP addresses back to Licari's devices. Prosecutors say Licari had been secretly unemployed after being fired, contrary to representations she had made to friends and other family members, and that she spent much of her time sending the messages.
Licari pleaded guilty to two counts of assault of a minor. A judge sentenced her to a term of between 19 months and five years in prison and issued an order barring her from seeing her daughter in person; court records indicate the two remain in some form of contact. The sentence and plea were reported in connection with the documentary, which includes on-camera interviews with Licari and family members.
School and mental-health professionals cited by the documentary described the case as an unusual form of abuse in which a parent inflicts emotional harm on a child to maintain control or dependence. Superintendent Bill Chillman, speaking in the program, described the behavior as a kind of "cyber Munchausen's," a reference to cases in which caregivers fabricate or induce illness to keep a child dependent. Educational psychologist Dr. Sasha Hall told filmmakers that Licari's conduct suggested unresolved trauma and insecurity and that the mother may have positioned herself as both the source of harm and the only provider of comfort.
Lauryn, now studying criminology, said she still struggles with the loss of a normal relationship with her mother. "Not having a relationship with my mum, I just don't feel like myself. I really need her in my life," she told the documentary. Mental-health experts who reviewed the case emphasized that accountability requires acknowledging the full harm done to the victim rather than focusing chiefly on a perpetrator’s regrets.
The case illustrates the challenges investigators face when anonymous harassment is routed through disposable phone numbers and online services. Federal tracing of IP addresses and device data ultimately produced the evidence that local authorities had been unable to obtain on their own, leading to criminal charges.
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, which includes interviews with the victims, the accused and law enforcement, is available to stream on Netflix.