Netflix director speaks out on mom who catfished her daughter with threatening messages for over a year
Netflix's latest true crime documentary is here, and while there were thankfully no deaths like in the cases of American Murder: The Family Next Door, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey, or Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer, that doesn't make Unknown Number: The High School Catfish any less gripping.
After being harassed for a year by an unknown number, the big twist comes when it's revealed that the person sending messages to Lauryn Licari is actually her own mother, Kendra.
Jaws are on the floor with this Line of Duty-esque twist, and with the FBI hunting down the assailant, the Netflix documentary reveals that Kendra had been using a VPN to hide her identity.
The documentary goes through some of the shocking messages Kendra sent to her own daughter, calling her 'ugly', claiming that she was going to sleep with Lauryn's boyfriend, Owen, and even telling her to jump off a bridge.
Advert
You're seemingly obsessed with Unknown Number, and having racked up over 13.6 million views, we smell a sequel coming on. The documentary was the work of Skye Borgman, who even managed to interview Kendra about her actions.
Kendra took part in the documentary for five hours, with Borgman telling PEOPLE whether she thought Licari was telling the truth. The documentary maker explained: "I think it was important to me to get Kendra's perspective out there, and it was more important to get the kids' perspective out there, but to hear from her and to hear what her answers are was something that I felt was really beneficial to the documentary.
"Weighing whether or not those things are true or not, I can't really judge that 100 per cent."
Kendra Licari pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor in 2023 and was given a maximum sentence of five years. Although she's already out, she isn't allowed to communicate with her daughter.
We only get a snippet of Kendra's thoughts during the documentary, with Borgman saying that because she spent much of her time repeating herself, it didn’t make the final cut. In terms of what edits were used, Borgman added: "I felt like the clearest answers that she gave to things were what eventually made it into the documentary," Borgman said of the edits she chose to include of Kendra's interview."
Licari has defended herself and claimed that she wasn't the person to send the initial message to Lauryn, maintaining that she started messaging in an attempt to find the 'real' culprit.
During the documentary, Kendra states: "I really wanted to get to the bottom of who it was. And that's when I started sending the text messages to Lauryn and Owen."
She's adamant that she was trying to uncover the mystery, hoping that "something might come up that could help pinpoint where they were originating from."
As for Borgman, she's not convinced Kendra Licari knows why she started messaging her daughter and her boyfriend.
Speaking to the You Can’t Make This Up podcast via TUDUM, Borgman concluded: "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."