Viewers have been gripped by the new Netflix documentary, Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, which details the shocking story of how one mother, Kendra Licari, subjected her teenage daughter, Lauryn, and her then-boyfriend, Owen, to an endless barrage of abusive texts.
The messages ranged from urging Lauryn to kill herself, to lewd ones that were sexual in nature concerning Owen, and many seemed intent on breaking the teenage couple up.
After many of their friends were put in the frame as being the anonymous culprit, a police investigation found that Lauryn's mother, Kendra, was to blame—Kendra later claimed she was trying to protect Lauryn from harm, citing a poor mental state and an experience of trauma that happened in her own life, when she was around Lauryn's age.
In April 2023, Kendra pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking, earning herself a 20-month prison sentence and five years of probation. She is no longer allowed to see Lauryn.
Elsewhere, viewers of the documentary have pointed out some key missing elements – with many expressing shock at how many people initially suspected Kendra could be behind the endless slew of demeaning messages, something not widely explored in the program.
Here are five key details missed out of Unknown Number: The High School Catfish that we'd have *loved* more information on...
Lauryn apparently was invited to the Wilsons' Halloween party.
The first load of texts that Lauryn received, back in October 2020, were all about an annual Halloween party hosted by a popular local family, the Wilsons.
"We were about a year into our relationship, me and Lauryn, and she was not invited," Owen says in the documentary. "But, like, I basically invited her. If I'm going, you're coming with me."
One anonymous message Lauryn received read: "It is obvious he wants me, his attention is constantly on me… Not sure what he told you but he is coming to the Halloween party and we are both DTF [down to f*ck]."
However, according to an article published by The Cut prior to the Netflix documentary, when Tami Wilson [Khloe's mother] "caught wind of the incident" she "called Kendra to assure her that [Lauryn] was certainly invited to the party." So... how come Lauryn believed she wasn't on the guest list?
Kendra overstepped boundaries with some other young people.
While not deeply explored in the documentary, the article alleges that Kendra was known to have messaged other teenagers urging them to comfort Lauryn who was upset about being cyberbullied, overshared with anyone who would listen about the cruel messages and even asked Owen's mother, Jill, so many questions about her son's love life after he split from Lauryn, that Jill had to tell Kendra that topic of conversation was no longer okay.
The school's head teacher once suspected Kendra...
During a sting operation, in which Kendra suggested to Lauryn's school that they ought to leave a pair of her daughter's shoes out in the open to lure the bully into stealing or damaging them, Principal Dan Boyer, who studied the CCTV footage while waiting for something to happen, said he noticed Kendra had two phones. She reportedly, at the time, claimed one was for work and one was a personal device.
And so did a school secretary.
Again, as per an article published before the documentary: "Diane Fussman, told Principal Boyer she suspected [Kendra], which Boyer found implausible. ("I always thought she was a little obsessive with her child," Fussman said. "My gut told me this just isn’t one of our kids.")
Tami Wilson made a Kendra Licaria Halloween decoration.
I mean??? The Cut reports, "At the Wilsons’ last Halloween party, Tami dressed a scarecrow in a prison jumpsuit and a mask of Kendra’s mug shot, phones clutched in its gnarled hands.
"At one point, she pondered gathering friends in Beal for a big watch party of the documentary."
Considering the gravity of the situation and how much trauma Kendra caused, this is a pretty bold move...
