Netflix’s new documentary Unknown Quantity: The Excessive College Catfish proves that generally, the decision actually is coming from inside the home. And generally, the particular person on the opposite finish of the road is — spoiler alert — your mother.
The brand new documentary focuses on Lauryn Licari, a then-13-year-old highschool scholar in Beal Metropolis, Mich., who, in October 2020, started receiving merciless, nameless texts alongside along with her boyfriend Owen McKenney. The messages briefly paused earlier than resuming in September 2021. This led to greater than a yr of harassment, which generally included the nameless particular person sending greater than 40 messages per day. Most of the messages inspired Lauryn to finish her life.
An investigation led by Isabella County Sheriff Michael Most important initially centered on their classmates — together with Khloe Wilson, a freshman athlete in Lauryn and Owen’s wider circle who was instantly eyed as a possible suspect. And since this harasser was utilizing an app to alter their quantity (which additionally made it not possible to dam the messages), preliminary proof steered that Wilson was in truth the perpetrator. Nevertheless it was all a intelligent ruse: The particular person sending the messages deliberately posed as Wilson to cover their id, figuring out she can be blamed.
However when Wilson handed over her cellphone to forensics to show she wasn’t the perpetrator, the leads into who could possibly be harassing Lauryn and Owen ran dry. Bay Metropolis police officer Bradley Peter, who was working with the FBI, stepped in and traced the messages again to a surprising supply. The nameless texter? Lauryn’s mom, Kendra Licari.
The reveal upended every little thing folks thought they knew concerning the case — and for Lauryn, it modified her relationship along with her mother ceaselessly. However now that the mud has settled, the place is everybody from the documentary? Right here’s what we all know.
What occurred to Kendra Licari?
Kendra was taken into custody in December 2022 and confronted two prices of stalking a minor and two prices of utilizing communication to assist against the law. In April 2023, after pleading responsible to the stalking prices, she obtained a jail sentence of a minimal of 19 months, as much as 5 years. She was launched from jail in August 2024. She selected to take part within the documentary after a lot of it was already filmed, director Skye Borgman instructed Netflix’s Tudum.
Shawn, Lauryn and Kendra Licari. (Netflix)
“She’s remorseful that she has severely altered her relationship along with her daughter in most definitely a unfavorable method,” Borgman stated. “I imply, will they’ve a relationship? Will they get via this? I don’t know. There’ll in all probability be some type of relationship. Will it’s the identical? Completely not. There’s no method it may be the identical.”
Kendra’s husband, Shawn Licari, filed for divorce following the scandal. Within the documentary, he stated that he couldn’t consider what his then spouse had finished to their daughter. “Simply makes me sick,” he stated. “She stabbed me within the coronary heart — shot me within the coronary heart — and threw it away.”
When requested for her aspect of the story by the Reduce, which wrote concerning the saga in January 2025, Kendra stated: “I do ask that you simply really take into consideration the children (minor youngsters) which can be concerned on this state of affairs, together with my daughter, who’s making an attempt to maneuver ahead and has a shiny future forward of herself.”
She added that tales concerning the state of affairs are “doing further hurt” to Lauryn. “I can deal with the ache, however she can not and doesn’t deserve it,” Kendra wrote in an e-mail. “She is transferring ahead with life and doesn’t need to be put within the highlight any extra (or having folks considering her mother is a villain, as that’s laborious mentally and emotionally for her).”
Based on the Michigan Division of Corrections web site, Kendra will stay a supervised parolee till February 2026.
The place is Lauryn Licari now?
The harassing messages altered the course of Lauryn’s life. It led to a cut up from Owen, who thought it might be greatest for them to interrupt up to ensure that the messages to cease — which they didn’t. When Owen started relationship another person, that woman additionally started receiving messages. Within the documentary, Lauryn said that she and Owen not communicate.
However the greatest shift was in her relationship to her mom. Lauryn, who’s now 18, was residence when the police got here to her home to confront Kendra, and sat along with her mom as the reality was revealed to her about who was behind the harassment.
Kendra and Lauryn Licari. (Netflix)
In a section for the documentary that was filmed after Kendra was launched from jail, Lauryn stated she was not allowed to see her. “I wish to see my mother when the time is correct,” she defined. “I feel it might simply be a aid to see her however, like, additionally laborious.”
“I feel I wish to belief her now, however I don’t suppose I can,” she continued. “Now that she’s out, I simply need her to get the assistance that she wants so then after we see one another it doesn’t return to the previous methods and the way it was earlier than.”
Borgman instructed Tudum that the primary time the filmmaking crew sat down with Lauryn within the spring of 2023, she stated she nonetheless liked her mother. “She simply needed her mother again in her life,” Borgman stated.
Nevertheless, a yr later, Borgman stated her emotions towards her mom shifted, and that she was approaching their relationship with “extra warning.”
“She is at first of determining that she may be the one in cost, that she will be able to make all the selections for herself and for her relationship along with her mom,” Borgman stated. “I feel that’s going to be a very fascinating place for Lauryn to discover.”
Based on the Reduce, Lauryn’s father Shawn obtained full custody of her. Borgman known as the connection, which strengthened within the wake of Kendra’s arrest and jail sentence, “actually loving” and “respectful.”
What occurred to Owen?
Lauryn Licari’s former boyfriend Owen McKenny. (Netflix)
Owen and Lauryn cut up for good as a result of occasions of the catfishing ordeal. He instructed the filmmakers, “I used to be mad at Lauryn. I do not suppose I’ll discuss to her sooner or later.”
In April 2025, Owen reportedly dedicated to Hope Faculty to play baseball.
What occurred to Khloe?
Khloe graduated from Beal Metropolis Excessive College in Might 2025. She has since used social media to share her aspect of the story.
In a multipart TikTok sequence posted in August 2025, Khloe responded to allegations of bullying towards Lauryn that have been made within the documentary.
