All language subtitles for Unknown.Number.The.High.School.Catfish.2025.1080p.NF.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.Atmos.H.264-FLUX.en

- Close it?
- Yeah.

Perfect.

My name's Lauryn Licari.

I grew up in Beal City, Michigan.

Beal City is so extremely small.
There's one stoplight and two bars.

I go to Beal City High School.

It's a really small school
in a small area,

and everybody knows everybody.

My name is Sophie Weber.

I go to Beal City High School
with Owen and Macy and Lauryn.

There's nothing in the area to do

besides walk around the small town.

No one really has anything better to do
than talk about other people.

Like, even the parents.

Like, they talk about
what us teenagers are doing,

and I feel like that's kind of
a toxic thing that just gets passed down.

A lot of people spend
up to 13 hours on their phone a day,

which I think is
a little bit, like, excessive.

I really like going on my phone.

I love going on TikTok and Snapchat.

I love texting my friends.

It's kind of the only way
that people communicate now,

like, is with their phones.

Go, little mama, shake it fast...

I was 13 years old
when I got my first phone.

Everyone else had a phone, you know?
I just... I wanted to fit in.

I was getting to that age where, like,
social media was becoming popular,

and I just wanted to be cool, you know?

Your phone can be a good thing
to, like, communicate with your friends,

but it could definitely be a way
that something dangerous could happen.

It's crazy how having a phone could become
the worst thing that happened to me.

A high school girl in Michigan
was cyberbullied for more than a year.

And who turned out to be the suspect
shocked everyone.

There were details in some of the texts

that made it seem
as though somebody was stalking them.

You had to be careful
of every single word you said,

or else you could look guilty.

These texts were coming in
at a clip of 40, 50 a day.

When they involve the state police
and then eventually the FBI,

you can just see how fast this escalates.

Have you ever sent anything
to either one of them like this?

This is felony stalking.

I have to make sure you are safe
before I leave.

The more friends you have,

the easier it is to be betrayed by them.

It's crazy how something
like that could happen at Beal.

Things were about to get so much worse.

There was a girl in my class
that threw a Halloween party every year,

and all of our classmates would go,
and all of our parents would go.

We were about a year
into our relationship, me and Lauryn,

and she was not invited,

but, like, I basically invited her.

Like, "If I'm going,
you're gonna come with me."

I didn't wanna go to the Halloween party.

She wasn't a fan
of the girls in our grade.

She just wanted it to be me and her,
no one else.

About two weeks
before the Halloween party,

we got a text from an unknown number
in a group chat.

...and we are both down to fuck.

I was just really confused
of who this could be.

Maybe one of our friends
just trying to mess with me and Owen.

I asked Khloe 'cause we were,
like, best friends, and it was her party.

You know, I'm like,
"Do you know who sent this?"

Or, like, "Did you send it?"
You know, just asking around.

I was like, "Okay, it's just gonna stop.
Just give it some time."

After the Halloween party,
the messages had kind of stopped,

and things seemed to get better.

Everything is normal, you know,
at the school. Like, everyone's friends.

You know, like,

there was, like, no beef between anyone
that would have started these messages.

I was actually excited
about the new school year.

But then, after almost a year,

the messages came back.

It seemed like the text messages
were trying to break me and Owen up.

I knew it wasn't somebody I knew

because I would have had
their phone number saved in my phone.

There was no reason for it, you know?

Like, the first text
was for the Halloween party.

Like, this just happened,
and then we got more.

I wanted them to answer the phone
so we could maybe figure out who it was.

But they would just text us
right after we called them.

They would never answer the phone.

In a lot of the texts, the unknown sender

called me by my nickname, Lo.

So it really made me think it had to be

someone who had been around me
or one of my close friends before.

I was getting
at least six text messages-plus a day.

It was just really annoying

because I knew
Owen wasn't involved with it,

and I knew he didn't know
what was going on either.

Before all of this, dating Owen,
I was just having a good life.

I loved life.

Daydreams...

I first met Owen in seventh grade
when I was 12 years old.

Move me, baby, like no one's watching...

I thought he was cute.

Lauryn was shy,
but, you know, she was sweet.

She was caring.

We always just were talking,

and then one day,
eventually, I asked her out.

It was very, like, nerve-racking.

And so I was like, "I don't know
if I'm ready for this." I was super red.

My head is spinning...

Lauryn started talking
to a boy named Owen.

And I'm like, "You're talking to a boy?
Aren't you a little young for that?"

You know, dad talk, you know?

They liked a lot of the same stuff,
you know? A lot of the sports.

They went trick-or-treating together.

Little things like that.

What was your first date?
Where did you go?

Hmm.

Mom, do you know?

I remember Owen just coming home

and telling me
there was this cute blonde in his class.

Daydreams, I hear the...

They shared common interests,
particularly in athletics.

Owen was very athletic
and involved in sports, and so was Lauryn,

and so I thought
they were a really nice fit.

We all just started hanging out
as a group, started doing things.

My whole family liked her.
You know, we just clicked.

Kendra and Owen's mom, Jill,
became really good friends.

We would invite each other over.
We'd have bonfires and just hang out

and spend time together
while the kids were off playing.

- Yeah.
- It's gonna go.

It'll set on fire.

Lauryn and Owen, they were
always smiling and giggling together.

They were just like
a high-school couple in a movie.

Their freshman year,

they were referred to
as the golden couple.

I do think that there was some jealousy,
you know, in their class,

maybe wanting a relationship,
or wanting boys to notice the girls,

and, you know, they both had that.

I'm sure there was some... some of that.

Beal City School is preschool
through 12th grade, all in one building.

The people in my high school,

I've grown up with
since kindergarten, basically.

There are only 30 kids a class.

We all have group chats.
We're all friends.

No one really, truly hates each other.

We had this class together,

which was science,
and we would sit together.

And one day,
Owen told us what was going on.

At first, it was like,

"Oh, I'm getting these weird messages.
I don't know who they're from."

But as they would come in more,

he would start to tell us, like,
actually what they were saying

and how they were saying things

from the conversations
we were having in class.

I never really suspected
it was the boys in our grade,

just 'cause the boys in our grade
aren't super involved with people.

They don't really care about drama.

Boys don't really have drama. We just
play sports and have fun. That's all.

Usually, there's a lot of mean girls.

I wanted to try to narrow it down
to a certain amount of people.

We would FaceTime each other at night
and just talk about it

and be like, "Okay,
what came up in the text today?"

Like, "Who was around?"

We were making a list
of what group it could be

or who specifically it could be.

I feel like, at Beal,
like, there's certain groups.

The more popular one,

then there was the cheer group that...

They were just cheerleaders.

And there was just another group of girls
that my cousin Adrianna was in,

who didn't have much drama.

And I thought
it could've been the quieter ones

'cause they could have been more techy.

I was like,
"Is it someone that even goes to Beal?"

"Is it someone inside the school?"

If it's a student,

when I get it at a certain time,
there's only so many people it can be.

If I got a text message
during the middle of a school day,

I would look around
and see if anyone was on their phone.

They knew, like,
what I was doing in class, I feel like.

Fuckin' trash bitch.
Don't fuckin' wear leggings...

I would question what I wear to school,

how I look, how's my hair.

Definitely affected
how I thought about myself.

Lauryn came home from school one day,

and she just had
this look on her face and attitude.

And I'm like, "What's going on?"

She's just like,
"No, I just got this dumb text at school."

I was just getting
super frustrated with it.

But my mom was like, "Just ignore them."

"Obviously, you're beautiful."

Like, she was just encouraging me
to not read them.

I told her just to keep being her

and just not even worry
about anything, right?

I didn't believe
anybody would do anything harmful.

Then it started to get worse and worse.

It was so bad where I didn't want
to even go to school anymore.

I didn't really know who to trust.

And then I said, "Okay, that's it.
I have to tell my parents."

They're 13.

If this is a ninth-grade girl or boy,

these are pretty intense.

We started, unfortunately,

having to take Owen's phone every night.

I tried to fight them on it. I haven't had
my phone for a year. I wanted privacy.

We would have to sit and read
all the messages, start to end.

There were times that these text messages
were coming in at a clip of, you know,

30, 40, 50 a day.

And that just seemed very, very excessive.

Shawn and Kendra and Dave and I decided,

"Okay, the four of us
need to go to the school and sit down

and really show
how terrible this has gotten."

We were hoping
for some type of action, right?

'Cause some of the messages
were happening during school hours.

The school is responsible for them
when they're on school property.

So we really thought
the school would, you know, kind of,

"Let's see what we can do."

Unfortunately, in my opinion,

I don't think
the school handled things very well.

I thought we were gonna be doing a typical

cyberbullying type of investigation,

which we handle a lot of,
unfortunately, in schools today.

Obviously, this situation turned out
much different than most.

When they showed me
some of the text messages,

I... I... I was astounded
by how vitriolic they were.

I've never seen
this kind of volume in my career.

What in the world?

They were vulgar
and nasty enough in nature

to make a 53-year-old man blush.

The evidence was extraordinary,

the egregiousness of these texts,

and we knew this was a serious matter.

Me and Owen got called out
of last hour, I think it was,

and we walked in there, and I was like,

"Oh no, this is not about to happen."

"I'm so scared."

We didn't know exactly what was going on,
so we called Lauryn in,

'cause we didn't know.

She could be sending them
to herself for attention or...

We had no clue.

So we would try to, like,
say things loud next to certain people

to see if it would get brought up
into the text messages.

And the only time
it got brought into the text

was when we would say it around Lauryn,

which was definitely a red flag.

Lauryn would never really directly
talk to me about things.

Lauryn was always just, like, to herself,

never showed any emotion,

and only talked about, like, sports

and just stuff
that didn't really mean a lot to her.

Everybody want to know
What I would do if I didn't win

I guess we'll never know

She had friends,

but not, like, a ton,
and she was always kind of a quiet person.

So I thought that Lauryn could have been
sending the text messages to herself

to try to, honestly, get closer with Owen.

And it kind of seemed like
she wanted attention,

and this would be a way
that she could get it.

We talked to Owen and Lauryn,

but we did feel that we ruled them out
pretty quickly by their responses,

genuine responses.

It kind of became
a little hot topic of the school.

There's 700 kids that go to Beal City.

Really, at this point,

you know, this could be anybody.

I went to some of my students

who I knew would be
the most truthful with me

and asked them about the situation.

We asked every question imaginable
to these kids.

They knew little to nothing about it.

So I began with some video surveillance,

marking when the text would come in,

and then looking at video to see
if we could see someone in the hallway

sending a text at that particular time.

Mr. Boyer wanted me to text him
when I got a text message,

so then he could see
who was on their phone.

So that I would know, here's a time stamp,

and we could begin checking cameras
and looking to see

if we see someone
who excused themself from class.

They did all this, and they still couldn't
come up with it, you know?

And they kept getting these text messages.

It's hard to say if they're sending
a Snapchat or a harassing text

when we're just looking at video.

Kendra and I started comparing notes.

We were at the school almost every day
with a practice or some sort of event.

So it would just be like, "Hey, you know,
did Lauryn get any messages today?"

"This is what Owen got."

Jill and I spoke about it.

When we were together,
we could talk about just about anything,

share things, you know,

kind of really feel,
like, a support there.

We would sit down
and have conversations with Mr. Boyer

about the messages.

Some of the first techniques
that we talked about

is to simply block the caller.

In this case, that wasn't possible
because they were using

a random number generator application
for their phone.

You know, we did try blocking the number,

but then it would come
from another number.

We gave further advice
to change the students' numbers.

We did contemplate that for a while,

but we knew that it was someone
that we were close with.

The information that they knew.

They knew where they were at all the time,

and we were afraid of never finding out
and allowing this person into our home.

You know, if it's one of their friends,
are we inviting them over?

Are we opening the doors
to somebody who did so much damage?

So we were not willing to give up
that hope of finding out.

I can't tell you the countless times

just standing in the principal's office,
in tears, going,

"Can we please enforce
a cell phone policy?"

"Why does my kid have access
to look at this

when he should be learning?"

I'm kind of all over the board
with kids having phones at school,

because our cell phones...
I mean, I use mine as a personal office.

I work a lot from my phone.

You know, I know that they can be used
in a classroom as an educational tool.

So me and Lauryn were fine
through the text messages,

but then they started to make Lauryn
question herself and our relationship.

And then the texter was saying
that we hung out.

So then I was like,

"Okay, I don't even know
if I can trust Owen anymore."

Me and Lauryn got into a lot more fights.

She would accuse me
of things that aren't true at all

'cause she would listen
to the text messages.

We were just getting mad
at each other about it

when we shouldn't have been
mad at each other.

The one thing the texter wanted
was for me and Lauryn to break up.

Me and Lauryn, we FaceTime,

and I told her that it just got too much

and that maybe if we give them
what they want and they stop,

maybe one day, we can try again.

She was very heartbroken.

She was super hurt.

He was my first love.

We had been together for over two years.

And we just kind of stopped
talking to each other.

I talked to Lauryn, just reminding her,

"You know who Owen is,

and... as a person,

even if he didn't like you,
he's not gonna say these things."

And, unfortunately,
it became a strain in their relationship.

The messages had
just gotten to be too much,

and I think that's really what the last
several months of their relationship

revolved around, was,

"Did you talk to this girl?"

"Were you, you know, with this person?"

'Cause it's a lot of lies.

I feel like, in the messages,
all they want us to do was break up.

But then, when we broke up,
it seemed like the messages got worse.

The fact that they're still going
after the one thing they wanted,

that was really heartbreaking.

When I first read that,
I was, like, totally in shock.

Made me definitely feel sad.
I was in a bad mental state.

This is getting bad.

There are some sick messages.

"Lauryn needs to go kill herself."

"She shouldn't be alive.
She shouldn't be at this school anymore."

My blood pressure is skyrocketing.

When I think about a student

who's been subjected
to this kind of harassment

for this period of time,

I'm worried about their mental health.

The incredible toll that that must take

on the emotional well-being
of a young person.

It could definitely
mess with someone's mind.

What happens one day
if this kid has enough of this

and they're not getting the satisfaction

or the reaction that they're wanting
from the messages anymore?

One day, somebody is going to snap.

I said,
"We gotta nail this son of a bitch."

When the physical harm
started coming out in the messages,

we were afraid, as parents,

that something could happen
to our children.

It was a breaking point.

That was also about the time
that Officer Main got involved.

I was contacted by the school district

in regards to some cyberbullying
and harassment.

We met at the Beal City high school.
Both sets of parents were there.

The school superintendent
and principal were there.

And the parents explained
that this harassment had been going on

for over a year.

Both Jill and Kendra, the mothers,

they were extremely concerned
about their children,

their mental health status,

how it was affecting
their school academics.

They were pleading for help.

The worst fear ever

is that both of the kids
have emotional trauma over this.

And when that gets to the point

where they can't sustain
that emotional trauma anymore,

their potential
for risk of self-harm is huge.

It's actually extremely concerning.

I knew I was looking
for a group of students

who had a very close bond.

Like, they're sworn to secrecy.

They're not gonna tell anybody
about what's going on.

So early on,
I thought that's probably what it was.

Once or twice a week,
Sheriff Main would come to school

and just ask questions like,
"When was your last message?"

"What was it about?"

How are things transpiring? Any different?

- Anything less, more, same?
- Hmm.

- Not as many messages.
- Okay.

Don't let it get you down.
It's just garbage. Somebody's...

Somebody needs some serious help.
So, um, we'll go from there.

Shot is good.

During basketball season,
I started getting messages

related to our games.

I remember there was one basketball game

where I didn't have
any points or something,

so they were hating on me in the messages.

The sad part is
that Lauryn is a really good athlete,

and she just, you know, kind of gave up.

Maybe somebody watching the game
could have been sending it.

There were details in some of the texts

that made it seem as though
that somebody was stalking them.

I called Kendra and said, "You know
the girls on the basketball team."

"I don't know them very well."

"Does this look like any of them?
I mean, you've coached them."

"Who competes with Lauryn?"

This is where I started to really think,

"Okay, is somebody on the high school team
jealous or envious?"

I got one text
where the sender talked about

how many points they scored
in the game the night before.

So me and my mom thought
maybe we could figure out

who scored that many points.

My mom was a volunteer scorekeeper
at most games,

so she thought
we could look at the score chart.

And when we looked,
only one person had that amount of points.

Khloe Wilson.

It's like, "Whoa." Like, "Hold on."

"It can't be Khloe."

Khloe and Owen kind of like...

They weren't... I don't know
how to explain their relationship.

They were a little bit more than friends.
They kind of always liked each other.

Khloe really had a crush on Owen.

I think she would always just go
and talk to him just to make me jealous.

Owen and Khloe became,
like, really good friends,

but then he started dating Lauryn.

So, yeah,
Lauryn and Khloe never got along.

Khloe wasn't the nicest person growing up,

and she wasn't a bully, but she...
she wasn't a nice person by any means.

And I think
that she said some things to Lauryn

that just made Lauryn not like her.

I didn't like Khloe

because I feel like we just had
two completely different vibes.

We played basketball together,
and we just didn't match each other.

We were told by the school that,
when we took the name,

like, "Could this potentially...
Could you see this being Khloe?"

At that point, it was like,
"Well, we've had some issues in the past."

Seventh through eighth grade, there was
just multiple allegations against Khloe

where she was bullying
or she wasn't being nice to this person.

The principal called Khloe in constantly,
and she's like, "I'm not doing anything."

Where I wanna go, break free

Tattoos on her body
And she light-skin...

She was a leader.

At the time, she had a huge friend group.

It spanned, you know...

- To other schools.
- ...to several other schools.

And, you know,
so I think that, to some people...

I'm not gonna say
they were offended by that,

but maybe they wanted
that sort of thing for themselves.

I started to look at a young lady
by the name of Khloe Wilson.

She had scored the 12 points
in the basketball game.

I learned that there was
a lot of messaging going on,

talking about a Halloween party.

And it was interesting
because I discovered that that party,

it was actually put on
by Khloe and her family.

Maybe Khloe was interested in Owen
and that was one of the other motives.

Was she

jealous of Lauryn?

- All right. Khloe, how are you?
- Hi.

Have a seat right here.

Sheriff Main, here you go.

Tell me your story. I mean, let's hear it.

Okay. So... I didn't even...

I didn't know about all of this stuff

that was happening until, like,
probably around volleyball season.

I would just hear, like, little things
here and there from Owen.

I didn't really talk to them
that much at all really.

Like, I'm not close with Lauryn.

And... then it started
getting blamed on me.

There's 348 pages.

They're nasty. I mean, they're... they're
past, like, harassment. These are...

This is stalking.

I just wanna get it stopped.
Like, it's gotta stop.

Well, I don't have anything to do with it.

I'm with people all the time,
and if something were happening like that,

someone would see it.

I thought, "Khloe's gonna get away
with this. Her dad is a police officer."

"He's gonna do certain things
to get rid of things."

And there was all kinds of, like,
thoughts going on with that.

I did some research
and asked questions at the school,

and they said Sophie and Macy
are really good friends with Khloe.

They're a pretty close group.
So I thought, "Well, there we are."

"There's my close group."

"There's the three that are...
that know about what's going on here."

"I'll talk to one
of these two young girls."

"We'll get to the bottom of this quickly."

Me and Sophie have always been close.
Our parents were super close friends.

And so our whole childhood, basically,
was spending time with each other.

I might have been, like,
taking Owen away from Sophie a little bit,

so she might have wanted
to get back at me.

- Hi. Sophie?
- Yeah.

Hi. I'm talking to lots of people today.

Any idea why?

I don't know. I kind of have an idea,
'cause I'm close with Owen.

Okay. Are you friends with Khloe?

Yeah, she's one of my close friends.

Do you think Khloe would do it?

I couldn't, 'cause her dad's a police,

so she wouldn't be dumb enough
to do something like that.

Thank you.

I got a phone call from Mike Main

stating that he had pulled Sophie
into an interview,

and they had actually interviewed
an entire group of kids.

I remember reaching out to Korin,
who's my best friend,

saying, "Can you please talk
to your daughter about this?"

"This is getting out of control."

So I had taken Sophie's phone
and gone through it.

She was looking if there's messages
from Khloe to Sophie,

or if Sophie has these burner apps
on her phone.

There had been arguments
and, you know, yelling.

"I think you know what's going on.
You have to know."

Khloe, Macy,
Sophie were always in a certain area,

just all huddled up together
on their phones.

At that point, the parents started to get
more and more upset with the school

because we weren't doing more.

I reached out to the basketball coach,

who was fed up at this point
'cause the girls on the team are fighting.

And I said, "Is there any way
that we can talk to your basketball team

and just show them, like,

'This is what's happening.
Can you go through your kids' phones?'"

And he was like, "Yes, absolutely."

"I think this is a great idea.
Just run it through the school."

Then we were informed by Mr. Chillman
that that was not going to happen.

The parents wanted
to come into classrooms.

And they just...

They wanted to get involved
in the investigation themselves,

you know, have these group meetings

and confront people
and start pointing fingers.

We told the parents,
I told them point-blank,

"That isn't gonna go
how you think it's gonna go."

You got Jill and Kendra
going into the school,

just bitching at Dan.

And luckily, the superintendent is like,
"You're crazy."

They made quite a scene at the school.

There was a point

to where Owen was trying
to get Khloe to confess to this.

He was giving her the what-for constantly,
like a daily thing.

Owen later texted Khloe
or called her the next day

and said, "That was my mom.
I'm sorry about that."

Jill was sending texts that wasn't...
that was not her, pretending to be Owen.

All the evidence kept pointing to Khloe.

Me and Macy did confront her,

and she, like... got upset,

and she was like, "I... I'm not doing it.
I don't know why no one will believe me."

Owen said something to me first.
"Are you doing this?"

And I was just like, "No."

After a while,
I kept getting asked more and more,

'cause after I got asked once,

it really just all started to look
more and more like me.

As it continued,
Owen and Lauryn received area codes

from an area in Florida.

And we're told Khloe and her family
had taken a spring break trip

to the Florida area
during that period of time.

So when those messages come in
with those area codes, you start to think,

"Okay, this is, you know,
potentially pointing right back to her

as a person of interest."

I don't think we were across the border

for not even an hour,

and Mike's texting us
that it's coming from Florida now.

I was just like, "It's not me.
I don't know what you want me to do."

And my dad was like,
"You should get your phone dumped."

Khloe and her family provided
Khloe's phone for a forensic download.

But there was just nothing on her phone.

Khloe was searched by the police,
her phone was dumped,

and we kept on getting messages
saying that she got her phone dumped.

It was weird
because if Khloe was the one texting,

why would she reference herself?

I would get texts
of pictures of me and Khloe,

and it just... it just got so weird.

Like, she was referencing herself
too much.

Why would Khloe send a picture of herself
if she didn't wanna get caught?

Nobody would actually
directly point to themselves.

It almost had to be
somebody setting her up.

I was just thinking about
who in my class would want to, like,

frame me like this and just do this.

As an investigator,

we have to be very careful
that we don't get that tunnel vision.

We were probably over
a thousand pages of full messages.

So I read every one of them,

looking for that... that hidden clue.

A few weeks prior,

there was a text message conversation
about a sweatshirt and a phone case,

and a picture had been taken.

And that picture was sent to Owen
and Lauryn from this perpetrator.

It was very alarming

because the only people
that would have been able

to even take that picture
at our family Christmas

were obviously people
that were there with us,

which would just have been our families.

Sheriff Main asked us who would have been
potentially at the Christmas

that also would have been in Owen's class.

The only family member
that is in Owen's class

is his cousin Adrianna.

I think Adrianna
could have been a part of this.

She was in a group of girls
that just kind of kept to themselves.

We grew up playing sports together
with these girls,

and maybe they thought
I was just being rude to them,

or I just didn't like them
for some reason,

just 'cause I can be a little competitive
in sports and stuff like that.

So maybe they just didn't like me
because of that, I thought.

When we were in middle school,
Adrianna, like, made up this rumor

that we bullied her
and that we threw carrots at her.

Khloe thinks
somebody's setting her up.

Your cousin is, uh, Adrianna, right?

Yes.

Sounds like maybe there was history
with Khloe or something from forever ago,

but she was just trying to figure out
who could be doing it.

There's no one else
that would dislike us that much

to make it sound like
we're bullying someone else.

There was a couple of times
I did not wanna go to school.

It was a very stressful time for me.

I was on the volleyball team
with Khloe, Macy, and Sophie.

They had their group,
and if you weren't part of that group,

you were considered
what I call "the outsiders."

And if you were an outsider,
they weren't nice to you.

It was last volleyball season
that we dealt with Adrianna and her mom.

It started last year.

They started this huge thing
in volleyball.

And this... There was another time
that we got called into Boyer's office,

and they got caught lying.

And it wasn't until a couple of parents
stood up,

that go to the games, see all this,
say, "This is ridiculous."

None of it's true.

It makes you feel like
the entire world is going against you.

Like, it feels like there is no way out.

There was no good days I had
at that point.

I didn't tell anybody.
My mom had noticed it, and she spoke up.

She made a Facebook post.

It wasn't calling anybody out or anything.

She was just saying,
"This is what my kid is going through."

"We need to get this fixed" type thing.

And after that, it kind of...

I wouldn't say it spiraled,
but it didn't get any better.

Parents were involved in it,
making all these Facebook posts.

Her mom was, like, on a "I'm a victim,"
you know, journey.

My finger is pointing towards Adrianna.
That's who I think it is.

People thought it was me
trying to frame Khloe

because of the way
she had been treating me.

When I first heard about the messages,
Owen had texted me

and asked if, like,
I was getting these text messages.

I remember I told him,
"Just send me the numbers."

"I'll check and see if I have them
in my contacts." And I did not.

But that was really
the last I heard about it

until after I got questioned by the cops.

The next step in the investigation
was obviously to speak with Adrianna.

I asked her if she was involved
or if she had any information on this.

He was drilling me with questions.
Like, it was very intense.

He had asked me, like,
if I had anything against Lauryn.

Um, and, of course, I was like, "No,
I don't have anything against Lauryn."

I asked about the picture
that had been taken at a Christmas party.

He had asked me
if I knew who took the picture

or if I took the picture.

I just... I didn't know
how people thought I could do that.

But it was also very hurtful,
'cause I was this quiet kid at school.

I didn't really talk to anybody.
I... I wronged nobody.

I was just kinda confused
as to why they thought I would do that.

Walking into class
after being questioned by Sheriff Main,

everybody was looking at me
like they knew what happened.

They were looking at me like I was guilty.

My opinion towards police officers
has changed since then.

Now, every time I pass a cop on the road,
like, I am scared.

Like, I'm scared of cops now.

It was very traumatic for her,
A, to think...

I mean, you got called
into the office to talk to a cop

about a situation
that she really didn't know a lot about.

And, I mean, absolutely, there was no way
that she was a part of this.

After I had talked to Sheriff Main,

there was one day I was sitting
in the living room with my parents...

...and I got a message
from an unknown number.

I was terrified.

As soon as I got the message,
I dropped my phone. I cried.

Like, I was bawling my eyes out.
Like, I was... I was terrified.

I was really worried about like,
"Who is this person?"

"Why do they have my phone number?"

It was scary 'cause I didn't think
that it would ever happen to me.

In the spring of 2022,
we were not living our normal lives.

Every night was practically sleepless.

The messages would just go nonstop.

I mean, 1:00 in the morning,
3:00 in the morning. It was relentless.

You wake up and see this. You're like,
"Oh, okay. Good morning to you too."

Kind of turned into an argument
at home about these messages.

And the tension in the house, you know,
you could just feel the vibe in the house.

No one could get along right now,
you know,

and just everybody is mad, you know.

I started to yell at Kendra because,

"You're doing nothing.
You told me you can handle this."

And she's like, "Oh, you know what?
I'll keep taking care of it."

I wasn't spending enough time at home.

Yes, Lauryn was a priority,
and I spent tons of time with her.

But unfortunately...
Shawn wasn't made a priority.

Kendra and I were arguing and fighting.

Then, all of a sudden, we had to start
moving from place to place.

Went through four houses
through all this mess.

And it just, you know,
led to financial struggle,

worse financial struggles
than we were already in.

Lauryn can't sleep.
We're forcing her to go to school.

She's crying in the morning.
She doesn't wanna go to school.

Like, reading them now,

little me was just trying
to stick up for myself.

Uh-huh. Wow.

Oh my God. Clearly this is lack of sleep
and stress, but...

Okay.

So there is nothing...
nothing that we can do?

I... This is like...

Have we taken the phone,
changed the number?

I have the phone.

- Okay.
- I... I have it, um...

It's already going off all morning.

It was horrible yesterday, and...

I... I don't know
how to handle Owen with it,

and, um...

I mean, there's no way to just track this

when they send their messages.

And they're doing it...

They're taunting me right now about

the police, and, like, it's...

I just can't...

Did... did you get...
did you get Owen a new phone?

- No. No.
- Okay.

He just doesn't have one at the moment.

Like, a week or so ago,

I think it was two... Oh, no.

They would not leave Owen alone.

So he sent them this message

that said, "I hope you people know
that you make me feel suicidal."

Um, you know, he didn't actually
spell it all correctly,

but that's what he responded,

um, which totally put me over the edge.

Jill had said to Mike
that she was gonna go to the papers

if they couldn't figure something out.

Mike Main had talked
to all of these people,

Khloe, Sophie, Macy, Adrianna,

and still was no closer to finding out
who was behind this.

Again, he said, "I think you're just gonna
have to get Owen another phone."

And I said, "That's not good enough."

"Someone needs to be held accountable
for what they've done."

I had tapped out the resources
that I felt that I had available to me.

So I provided my reports
and my case to the FBI

and asked for assistance
in their cybercrimes unit.

In April of '22,

Sheriff Mike Main
requested some assistance

in a case he was investigating.

He gave me a thumb drive
that contained 720 pages of messages.

Brad was appalled at the messages
and the lack of help.

I've seen cases like this
where the victim can't handle any more,

and they commit suicide, unfortunately.

The first thing I wanted to do

was a full phone extraction
of Owen's phone

to see if, maybe somewhere in his phone,

I could gather some clues
as to who may be sending these messages.

I did perform a full extraction.

So, basically, messages, pictures, emails,

geolocations is presented to me
in separate files,

but I was not able to find anything
that was linking

any of his friends
that may be sending these messages.

So I didn't really gather anything new
after doing a phone extraction.

I started dating a girl from Pinconning.

We talked a lot. We were close.
Like, it was a serious thing.

I slowly started to feel happy again.
Like, maybe everything will be okay.

Owen had been over
in the Pinconning, Michigan, area,

which is a couple hours away
from our location, for a sporting event,

and had met a girl
and started communicating with this girl.

One day, she texted me,

and she's like, "Um, my mom just got
a random text from someone."

And it... Here we go again.

It's the same format, same words,

telling the girl from Pinconning
to back off me 'cause I'm theirs.

The texter went out of their way

to find her mom's phone number
that lives in Pinconning.

I just felt like
I couldn't do anything anymore.

I... I had no freedom.

I felt like I couldn't date anyone
'cause I was putting them in danger,

and just... I don't wanna put them through
the same thing Lauryn went through.

It would eat me alive. Each and every day,
I'd feel like I'd lose trust in everyone.

That was terrifying, knowing that
somebody was watching him that closely

and also had the ability

to find phone numbers
of people that I didn't even know.

It was somebody who was truly watching,
like, every movement of his.

So me and the girl from Pinconning
ended up breaking up 'cause of this.

Now you're wondering
how would those messages,

that we've seen
by the hundreds and hundreds of,

start to go to this family?

He was very fidgety and angry.

The anger really started
to become apparent to us.

A lot of aggression
on the basketball court

was something that we noticed.

It was very obvious,
the days that were harder on him,

especially with the content
of the messages.

It was almost like he was trying
to take it out in a physical way

without physically hurting anyone.

The next thing I do is

I take a look at the phone number
that was sending these messages

and try to determine
what company owned this phone number.

I did some research and found out
at least one of them came from Pinger.

It's an application that people use
to disguise their phone number.

I submitted a search warrant to Pinger,

and they gave me two IP addresses
that belonged to a Verizon network.

So, at this point,
I submitted a search warrant to Verizon

for information on these two IP addresses.

Tuesday, May 23rd, Verizon did send me
the search warrant results back,

and they gave me a several-page document

with what phone numbers
were attached to these two IP addresses.

He called me one day and told me

that they got the list of phone numbers
from the IP address

and wanted me to give him any phone number

from any possible suspect.

So I talked to Owen and had him
send me basically any of his friends,

any phone numbers that he had.

I could not find any of those numbers

connected to this IP address.

What about adults?
What about, you know, whoever?

So we... we just dumped contacts.

And then I found
one phone number that kept coming up

being connected to that IP address
at the time these messages were sent.

And the phone number was...

...Lauryn's mom, uh, Kendra.

Um...

I really didn't know what to say.

Brad got back a hold of me and said,

"The only phone number on all these pages
out of everybody you've sent me

that matches is Kendra's phone number."

And I said, "It's not her."

He's like, "Do you think
there's a possibility it could be her?"

And I said, "No."

"She's helping me. She's Lauryn's mom."

I said, "It's... it's not her."

I ended up meeting with Sheriff Main.

I presented to him
who I felt was involved in the case.

I gave him a thumb drive
with all the search warrant results,

all my search warrants, my whole report.

I remember thinking in my head...

"This doesn't make sense."

A reasonable person would say,

"There is no absolute way

that Kendra Licari is sending
these messages to her daughter,"

but we've eliminated everything
up to this point.

And then I started realizing
that Kendra has tried to interject herself

into my investigation a few times
under the guise of,

"Can you tell me
where you're at with everything?"

"Can you... can you update me on the case?"

Sheriff Main called me and said,

"We have some concerns
that it might be one of the parents."

And I'm like,

"No way!"

Kendra helped coach and... and...
and was at the school involved.

I... Even when Lauryn was
in elementary school,

I can remember
Kendra helping with the book fair

and other events
that we had at the school.

I mean, she was
a supportive, caring parent.

When the sheriff came to me

and said, "Hey, we've identified the mom
as a potential suspect,"

I said, "You gotta be shitting me."

No one in their right mind would have
thought a mother would do this to a child.

When we get involved,

our role is typically
to review a search warrant.

The sheriff approached me
and said we may need a search warrant

for the electronics
belonging to Ms. Licari.

You start to look at it, and you say,
"She's involved as a coach at the school."

"She's got an IT background."

You know, "She's... she's always around

when the kids are... are receiving
these text messages."

So one of my detectives and I,
armed with a search warrant,

head to Kendra Licari's home.

There was very limited evidence,
so it was a tightrope to walk.

It wasn't exactly a straightforward case.

We were able to identify an IP address
that belonged to Kendra Licari,

but we weren't necessarily able to say
who was behind that device.

We had to make sure
that we had enough information

to get a conviction in this case.

I needed a recorded confession.

We want as much evidence as possible.

- Hi, Kendra.
- Hi.

- We gotta have a conversation.
- Okay.

- And I have a search warrant...
- Okay.

...for your devices and your phones.

- Okay.
- All right?

I wanna go in, sit down, and talk.
Anybody else here?

Lauryn is.

I'd rather Lauryn stay in her room.

You have a place we can sit down
and have a chat?

Um... yeah.

- Is there a phone on you?
- Yeah.

Here's the warrant.

Do you have any other devices
you use? Do you have a laptop?

My computer is outside.

- Where is it at?
- On the back porch.

So this is the deal.

When we were doing the investigation
and the FBI got involved,

we come up with some stuff
that comes back to you.

What do you mean?

The messages coming
and originating from you.

No.

Every message that went to the kids,

your number come back through Pinger
or whatever it is,

the app that's tried to hide it.

Your number, even though it was being hid,
showed up every single message.

- My number?
- Yep.

Is it... Does it have to do with Owen?

- Is there an infatuation there with Owen?
- No, nothing like that.

Okay. Then just tell me what... You know,
did he treat Lauryn bad? I mean...

Um...

It's something serious,
'cause it went on a while, right?

Yeah. And it didn't start that way.

- And I'm sure it didn't.
- It...

- I don't even know.
- That's okay.

Just start from the beginning.

So they were dating,
and then they started... they broke up.

So how did... how did it really start?
Like, why did it start at...

Did it start during...
when they were still dating?

- It did.
- Was he treating her bad?

But it... Like, it didn't...

The first ones didn't start,
like, with me.

- Okay.
- I will say that.

Those ones were,

like, random or whatever.

So somebody else started those.
You don't know 'em.

Yeah, um, but then
I, like, fed off of it some.

Her confession
isn't an over-the-top admission.

She more or less is tacitly admitting
that she did it by not denying it,

but it wasn't a, you know,
clear admission of guilt.

Does Lauryn know anything about it?

No.

- All right.
- I really don't want her to.

Not sure that's gonna be
something we can solve, right?

Because I have to let Jill know
and those guys, um...

Really? I mean...

There's others that are gonna
wanna know because their daughter,

like the Wilsons,
has been accused of all this throughout.

And it's a bad deal. I get it.

Once this is out there, like,
I don't know how she can go to school.

I know. I know.

Do you have
any other electronic devices you use?

I haven't... No.

You want me to go out and talk to Lauryn?

- Can we just bring her in here?
- Mm-hmm. Yup.

Miss Lauryn, can you come in?

- How are you today?
- Good. How are you?

Good.

When your mom comes back out,
we're gonna chat for a few minutes, okay?

All right.

All right, Miss Lauryn.
So I'm just gonna start the conversation.

You guys have been
under a lot of stress lately,

some moves going on,

some financial issues,
and everything else going on.

Mom got wrapped up into some stuff,

and she didn't start it but continued it.

So we found some evidence
and have a search warrant.

We're gonna take her phone and stuff.

Sometimes when
we're not... thinking straight,

we do some things that aren't right.

Your mom doesn't want this to get out,
but it is some public information.

So it's not going to not get out.
I wanna be honest about it, all right?

Um, she said you had no idea
what was going on, and I believe that.

What has to happen now is

I have to make sure
you and your mom are safe before I leave.

So I'd like you to call your dad

so maybe he can come home
and meet with us, okay?

Yeah.

Hey, Sha... Shawn?

- Yeah?
- Hi, this is Sheriff Mike Main.

- I'm with Lauryn and Kendra.
- Oh, hey. What's going on?

Do you have a minute to chat where
you're available in some place quiet?

Yeah.

I get this crazy phone call
while I'm at work,

and it's the sheriff saying
that they figured it out.

I'm like, "Sweet.
Finally, this is gonna be over with."

He's like, "I'm sorry.
I gotta tell you this."

I'm like, "What? I wanna know who it is."

He's like,
"Unfortunately, it's your wife."

And I'm like, "Okay."

You know, I don't know what to say to him
because, you know, I'm in shock.

And just, you know, "She's the one
doing this for the year and a half,

the text messaging?"

And he's like, "Are you still there?"
And I'm like, "Are you for real?"

I said,
"This is my fucking wife doing this?"

So I come flying home.

The sheriff was standing
on the front porch.

So this is the deal.

Every time the kids received a message,
her number came back.

So that was enough for a search warrant,
and that's why we're here today.

So we took her phone and her computer.
My detective was collecting that.

I started talking to her.
I said, "It's over with. It's done."

May I ask what... what phone did you take?

Mmm... She had it in her pocket.
I can show you. So...

She's got a couple of them.

Okay, I have a search warrant
for all of them, so I'd like all of them.

Should she go to jail? I mean...

Well... So this is the deal.

Felony stalking.
That's what the charge is.

I knew there was a lot of things going on.

Yeah. Worst, yeah.

Yep, I know
she was let go from Ferris, you know,

and she had IT backgrounds.

He's like,
"She's doing all the text messaging."

"She lost, you know, both of her jobs,

and she hasn't had a job in over a year."

"She hasn't had a job for over a year?"

You just said she got let go.
She told me that she quit.

Uh... I was told by somebody
I know over there that she was let go.

She was no longer employed.
So I think there's more to that story too.

Shawn looked like a broken person.

He just... He was trying to

process what I had just told him

and understand

this whole ordeal
and... and... and how this could be.

There was a lot more to unpack
than just what was going on with Lauryn.

But we do wanna go ask her
about this other phone. I appreciate that.

And those devices need to be
away from her.

Let's go in the house.

Yeah.

Hey, Kendra,
so I wanna be real clear here.

Like, you have any other devices?

Apparently, there's another phone
somewhere, so where's that at?

I...

You... you gotta tell me. Right?
You've already confessed to it.

You gotta tell me where.

I don't wanna rip
this house apart, but I will.

That search warrant right there
gives us the authority

to flip it upside down.

I have no will to destroy this house,
but I will.

- It's outside.
- Outside where?

- Where?
- On the side.

That house
where you tried to walk away from us?

Okay.

I'll go grab the other copy.
Just unlock the door.

So what happened at Ferris?

What?

- Tell me the truth.
- Time to get it off your shoulders.

If I blow a gasket when they leave,
I'll probably go to jail, so tell me now.

I got let go from it.

Yeah. What about the Texas job?

You still have that
or you got terminated from that?

No, I don't have that.

- You don't have that either?
- No.

So when did you get let go from that?

A while ago.

Are you fucking telling me the truth?
Or are you lying?

No.

When did you get let go from there?

About the same time.

So you've been lying to me
for, like, six months, a year?

- You haven't been working for Texas?
- Right.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Okay. You need to go somewhere tonight.

I don't know where you gotta go,
but she's gotta go.

You need to call your parents,
have them come get you,

because... this is it.

I can't do this anymore.
The other house, this house...

Now I know what the truth is.

And having her in the middle?
This is not good.

Okay. You need to call your parents.
Here's my phone.

You need to go.

You need to call your parents. Nope.

- While he's here... No. You need to go.
- No. Hold on, please.

You gotta go. I'll call them.

Shawn, just wait for a second, please.

No. I can't do this, Kendra. I'm sorry.

I... I can't leave her.

Nah, you gotta.

No.

I can't.

They're getting their stuff around
and they're heading north.

All right.

They're in Waterford, so...

I don't wanna go with them.

Well, your dad and mom's on their way.

So I told them
I'd talk to them face-to-face.

- I need to stay with her.
- You... We gotta get some time apart.

I think...

If I or you do something stupid,
we're both in trouble,

and then she's gonna go away.

Okay?

We gotta work through this.

We just gotta be separated
for a little while.

Miss Lauryn, I'm so sorry
that I had to knock on your door today,

and I hope you guys find a path,
all right?

- Okay.
- All right. Thank you.

Thanks, Mike.

I don't know.

- Sorry.
- There's a Kleenex there.

- I'm sorry.
- It's okay.

You guys are gonna think
I'm the crazy lady.

No.

It was a very high emotional day
in our house, um...

A day of... confusion,

unknown answers,

um... shock.

A day of not even knowing
how we move forward to the next day, um...

So it was a hard day, um...

but at the same time,

it was an end.

I think the shock feeling turned into sad,

which turned into mad,
which turned into crazy.

I don't even know
how to describe the feeling.

Why would my mom do this?

But, like,
did she really, actually do this?

Like, I can't believe it, honestly.

I was just really confused.

I can't believe she would do
something like that to her daughter...

that supposedly she loved dearly.

You know, a 14-, 15-year-old daughter...

You know, it just makes me sick.

You know, she stabbed me in the heart,
shot me in the heart, and threw it away.

Mike called me and just said,

you know, "It's over."

And I'm like,
"Wha... I don't understand. It's over?"

And he said, "I went to Kendra's house,
and, um, she confessed to everything."

And it was like...

I...

I can't ever get that feeling out of me,

just the disgust and, like, betrayal.

This woman we allowed into our lives
and our house and my kids' lives,

and I just...

You just can't...

You just cannot imagine
what that felt like.

Hmm.

I don't know.

I was just speechless.

Hmm.

Just, like, I didn't know
how to handle it.

You know, it was just like
my... my head was spinning, like...

Yeah.

How... how could a mom do such a thing?

It's just, like, crazy

that someone that close
could do something like that,

well, to me, but also to her own daughter.

Every single one of us makes mistakes.

Not a single one of us
has lived a perfect life.

And, realistically,
a lot of us have probably broke the law

at some point or another
and not got caught.

I mean, I'll be honest, you know.

I'm sure people drove drunk,
haven't been caught, right?

But again, if you get caught,

you're in the same situation I'm in
but for a different thing.

So I do feel that, you know,

people lose sight of that.

I know, to some, I'm a headline.

I'm a villain.

I'm a bad mom. I'm a whatever.

But that's because they know
one little piece of my story.

They don't know my whole story.

Kendra's mom and my mom are sisters.

They were the only two kids,
so we were close growing up

'cause there was just the two of them.

She was fun, outgoing,
like, the life of the party.

We've been on tons of cruises.
Probably about six or seven cruises.

Some girls' cruises, family cruises.

I said, ladies!

She does like attention, I think.

If she was here right now
and you were talking to me,

she would be dancing over there
to try and get you to look at her.

Tell me what you want
What you really, really want!

So tell me what you want
What you really want!

But as far as being there
for people and being... a good person,

yes, I mean, she was.

She would help you. She would...

You know, I could... Before all this,
I probably could have called her anytime

and said, "I need you to do this,"
and she would be there.

She was the baseball coach for Lauryn.
She was basketball coach for Lauryn.

So she always seemed to be very involved.

Kendra being a mom, you know, I thought
she was great at what she's done,

you know, with Lauryn, and made sure
she was always there and on time

and just being a mom, you know.

Life was perfect and everything was great,
and then, you know...

...things started happening.

So the first text message
started around Halloween.

And did you send those text messages?

No, those ones, I did not.

It wasn't until...

...way later, um, on.

So the messages kind of stopped
for a little bit,

and then they picked back up.

In my mind, I'm like,
"How long do we let this go on?"

"What do I do as a parent?"

Honestly, the best way
would have been to stop it

by shutting her cell phone down, right?

But then I was like,
"Well, why should she have to do that?"

You know? "Why should I have to
get her a new cell phone?"

Like,

because of someone else's actions, right?

I really wanted to get to the bottom
of who it was, right?

And that's when I started sending
the text messages to Lauryn and Owen.

I was sending the messages
in hopes that maybe they would send back,

asking, "Is this somebody?"
or, "Is this so-and-so?"

To just kind of give me something, right?

And then also hoping that,

as they maybe talked about the messages
amongst their friend groups and stuff,

that something might come up
that could help pinpoint,

you know,
where they were originating from.

I started in the thoughts of,

"We need some answers," um...

And then it just...

...kept going.

It was a spiral.

Kind of a snowball effect.

I don't think I knew how to stop.

I was somebody different in those moments.

I was in an awful place mentally.

It was like I had a mask on or something.

I don't even know who I was.

She just kind of changed.
She was more introverted,

didn't reach out as much.

I guess more self-absorbed too, maybe.

Sometimes, it was an hour a day

or eight hours a day.

I let it consume me.

Her saying that she didn't send
the first couple messages

makes it sound a little bit weird,

but, I don't know,
I think it might have just been her.

I had evidence and proof
through search warrants

to third-party vendors and apps
that she had been sending the messages.

Sometimes, you know, in law enforcement,
we see people try to deflect.

But I did ask who started it.
She said she didn't know.

To this day, I do not believe
that no one else started it.

Up until the time
Kendra Licari was revealed

as the perpetrator of the text messages,

we believed that she was fully employed
at Ferris State University

in their tech department.

But that was not the case.

She hadn't been working for a long time.

This, in hindsight,
made clear how she was able to send

all of the hundreds and thousands
of messages throughout the day.

I am not sure
if she ever went to work at Ferris.

And I don't know that...

I think Shawn thought
she was working there.

So I don't know what she was doing,

as far as getting up in the morning,
getting ready for work.

How did you...? I don't know.
I've tried to figure it out.

I don't know how you pull that one over
on somebody you're living with.

So, to my knowledge, she never worked
at Ferris, no. Kendra didn't.

She acted like she was working
and said she had stuff to do.

And she just...
She played it off really well.

I think it was more of an escape, um...

It more...

took me...

kind of out of real life, in a sense,
even though it was real life.

So when I was... really doing that,
and I wasn't myself,

it removed me from... my everyday life.

Um...

Just kept going and going.

Lauryn knows she's petite.
She knows she's small.

She knows she's thin. So...

I might have kind of picked up
on some of her insecurities,

her appearance, her hair,
her looks, her... you know.

But, honestly,

the messages weren't really
targeted at her insecurities.

Were they targeted at you?

Were you sending these messages
to yourself?

That very well, possibly, um, because

I was way too thin.

I was not eating.

So you could put me
in that anorexic category.

And were you afraid
she was gonna hurt herself?

Because there were messages
telling her to kill herself.

So...

I... can say, I...

I was not scared of her hurting herself.

Um, and I know
some people may question that

or diminish that or whatever.

But I know Lauryn, and I know
the conversations that her and I have.

But if I didn't know her as well as I did,
it might be different.

So, um...

Yeah.

One of the texts
that I specifically remember,

she said something about a blowjob...

and how Owen doesn't like Lauryn anymore

because Lauryn doesn't give him blowjobs.

That little girl was 14 years old.

She shouldn't be doing that!

So I think it gave Kendra
a false sense of,

"Lauryn and I are friends.
She needs me. She..."

And, I mean, you do, as a teenager.
You do need your mom, but not in that way.

I think it was a cyber Munchausen's case.

She wanted her daughter

to need her in such a way

that she was willing to hurt her,

and this is the way she chose to do that,

versus physically trying to make her ill,
which is typical Munchausen's behavior.

I think that's exactly it,

because Lauryn would come home
upset about these text messages,

and Kendra got to play the hero
and be there for her

and, you know, do that. So, um...

But as far as Lauryn, I...

I can't even imagine how it made her feel.

So I'm sure she's... I'm sure
Lauryn is just... eaten alive inside.

But I don't think that you can

escape the grips of Kendra's manipulation

when you're still talking to her.

Kendra Licari was very manipulative
to her family.

She was very controlling.
She took care of the finances.

And whatever they did was determined
and organized by Kendra Licari.

Kendra was telling Shawn
and Lauryn they were fine financially,

so she had to figure out
how to come up with all of this money

while not going to work.

At one time, she had told us
that their house got struck by lightning.

She made some insurance claims,

and I think it's possible
that she could have just kept the money.

One time, we pull in the driveway,

and there's this big ol' piece of paper
on the front door,

saying that you've been evicted.

She finally told me that,
you know, she wasn't paying the bills.

And I'm hustling,
getting everything out of there.

Phoned the storage units,
got it all in there.

We're like, "We can pay this
so we don't lose any of our stuff."

And she's like, "Oh, yeah.
It's no problem. It's only a few dollars."

But she really was not taking care
of that stuff.

So we ended up losing everything
that we owned in our storage units.

It had my tools.

All important stuff that
we got souvenirs from was all in there.

Just all the stuff that I worked for
all my life is now gone.

I think pretty much everything
she's told Shawn

for the last at least ten years
has been a lie.

Is that true? Is that...

Is that your perspective?

No.

But...

I handled more of the finances
than he did.

Um...

But we were both aware
of situations we were in,

but neither one of us
had the answers to the right actions

that needed to be taken,

so, yeah, unfortunately.

After the identity of the perpetrator
became publicly known,

it shocked our whole community.

We were sitting in class
with Macy and Sophie,

and we had looked on Instagram,

and there was Kendra's mugshot
posted everywhere online.

I got a text message at school
from my cousin that said, "Are you okay?"

And I'm sitting in class,
and I'm like, "Yeah, I'm fine. Like, why?"

Everyone was kind of
looking around at Lauryn and everything

'cause her mom is everywhere
right now online.

And then the next hour,
I got pulled into the office.

They were like,
"Your mom got arrested today."

And so then I texted my dad,
and I was like, "What is going on?"

She's like, "They pulled me in the office
and told me Mom went to jail."

And now to the bizarre case of a mother

accused of cyberstalking
her very own daughter.

A high school girl in Michigan
was cyberbullied for more than a year.

And who turned out to be the suspect
shocked everyone.

Prosecutors accusing a mother
of catfishing.

- Catfishing.
- Catfishing.

Even when we realized
that it wasn't a kid,

we weren't expecting
that it would be a parent.

This mother is facing criminal charges.

Licari is charged
with five crimes, mainly for stalking,

as the messages went on
for more than a year.

We had tens of thousands of text messages.

Kendra Licari was in
Isabella County courtroom Thursday.

The judge made it a point to ban Licari
from having contact with the victims.

That includes Licari's daughter.

One of the challenges
on this case was the level of closeness

between Kendra and her daughter.

And we were hoping
that creating that separation

would provide an opportunity for her
to get outside of that umbrella of control

that she'd had on her
throughout the entirety of this process.

Licari and her attorney asked
to have the no-contact order lifted.

The court received letters
from her daughter

saying she wanted to be back
with her mother.

Not having the relationship with my mom,
I just don't feel like myself.

I feel like I really need her in my life.

Do you think people judge you
for missing your mom?

Um, I think some people might have
their own opinions on it.

But...

Honestly, I don't really care.

Ultimately, Kendra pled to two counts
of stalking a minor,

one count for Owen
and one count for Lauryn.

I went to Kendra's sentencing
for court, and my whole family was there.

There was a bunch of people there.
The room was filled.

And I saw Kendra,

and it was just very shocking to see her
after everything had happened,

'cause it was just really weird

seeing your coach
from seventh grade like that.

Kendra got to speak first,
the day of court, and, um,

she is very convincing.

I am sorry, Your Honor.

I am sorry for my behavior

to Owen McKenny and his family.

I'm sorry for my behavior
to Khloe Wilson and her family.

I am sorry to my daughter, Lauryn.

I have learned
that I have a mental illness,

and I was unaware
that I was in crisis for many years.

I have learned to acknowledge
and cope with my childhood trauma.

There were a lot of excuses
as to what she did,

things that had happened to her
in her life.

And I'm not saying
that those things didn't happen,

but to use those as an excuse
as to why you hurt children

just doesn't seem right or fair.

If I could go back
and undo everything I did,

please know that I would do so
in a heartbeat.

I knew Owen and Jill
were both gonna be talking there,

and I honestly didn't wanna hear
what they were gonna say,

because I knew
it wasn't gonna be anything good.

At the end of the day, this will be over,

and we can try to go back
to our own lives.

You can try, but it scarred me.

This whole thing is gonna affect
the rest of my life.

I didn't get to speak with Kendra
from the time she confessed

until that day in court.

It was the only thing
we were gonna get to do

because we didn't get to go to trial
and speak, so it was our one chance.

I will never forget the sick feeling
that overcame me the day we found out.

The hurt, anger, betrayal, sadness

all hit me at once.

I have waited years for this moment,

the day that you could look me in the eye
and tell me why.

Was it worth it? Was all of this worth it?

When you look at the trauma
that this caused,

there's no doubt that it'll have
a lasting impact on all of these families.

And the impact that this is gonna have
on these kids may be lifelong.

Well, this is truly a horrible case.

So I think, you know,
based on your conduct, you deserve...

you've earned a prison sentence.

Kendra Licari, the catfish mom,

is going to prison
for at least a year and a half.

In this case, the judge sentenced
on what I would consider

to be the high end of the guideline range,
19 months.

It felt good to just address her
and... ask why.

I know I'll never get the reason that I...
you know, a true reason.

I think she became obsessed with Owen,

which is hard, being a mom,
and that she's a grown woman.

But I... I think that there was
some level of relationship

that she wanted to have with Owen

that obviously is not acceptable
at her age.

It felt like she was attracted to me.

She was super friendly and super like,

"Here, I'll get you this.
I'll go do this for you."

You know, it's just...

It wasn't like it was my girlfriend's mom.

It felt like it was something more.

She would do things for me. She would...

She would cut my own steak for me.

It was just to the point
where, like, it was almost too weird.

If you look at how she treated him
and how she glorified him,

and she would go out of her way
to do anything and everything for him,

or just to be noticed by him.

She would randomly just text him

and try to keep a connection with him.

She came to all of his sporting events,
even after Lauryn and him broke up.

This is disgusting.

She told me to kill myself.

It makes me feel a little bit sad, like,

"Why is my own mom telling me to do that?"

I've, like, talked to her about it,

but not necessarily like,
"Why did you tell me to kill myself?"

I still question it every day.
Like, I still don't know why.

Would I love to know the truth?
Absolutely.

And what caused it, you know, in her mind.

You know, what... what made her do this?

I know my dad's angry and will probably,
like, never forgive her,

but I just kind of put that aside

and just have the relationship
with my mom that I want.

I liked communicating with my mom
while she was in prison.

I could talk to my mom
on Mondays and Wednesdays.

We were just talking about our days,
things that happened, funny stories,

and she would send me emails,
and we were able to email back and forth.

She made it seem like everything's better,

and she just made me feel better.

My mom got out of prison August 8th, 2024.

I hope me and Mom
can rebuild our relationship

because I feel like
I'm definitely missing a part of me,

whether it's, like,

the female part of it,
or just, like, not having my mom.

When I go back,

I... am very disappointed in myself

for allowing myself to get to where I got.

Um...

You know, I... I let my family down.

I let myself down, and that's hard.

So...

Because that time frame in life

is not who I am as a person.

It's not who I was,

and it's not who I am today.

Ever since Lauryn was born,
her and I have always been close.

Family really means a lot to me,

so I always knew
I wanted to have that family.

And when we,

you know, got pregnant,

you know, I remember us
sitting in the doctor's office

and hearing that heartbeat
for the first time.

It gives you chills, you know? Um...

You know, sometimes you think you can't

love any more.

And then, all of a sudden,
this little baby is placed in your arms,

and it's a whole new world.

It's a whole new feeling.

As, you know, she started getting older,

I started having things
that were suppressed come forward.

A lot of it, really,
was previous trauma starting to resurface

that I didn't know how to handle.

When I was 17,

I was raped.

Um...

And as...

...my daughter was hitting
those teenage years, I got scared.

Very scared.

I didn't want her to go through
that process that I did.

And...

And I think that really led to...

...me not know how to handle things, right?

Um...

It was hard because I was reliving
what I had been through, um,

but also, at the same time...

wanting to protect her.

I wanted to try to, like,
control the outcome of her journey.

I was afraid of letting her
grow up some, right?

Wanting to protect her
and keep her safe and keep her close,

um, and scared to let her grow up

because scared
of what could happen to her.

I have not talked to Lauryn

since, pff, a very long time ago.

Me and Owen don't talk at all now.

I see him in the hallways and stuff,

but we don't really have interactions
at all.

Yeah, I was mad at Lauryn.

I don't think
I will talk to her in the future.

Lauryn, she was just so young
for all this to happen.

I really don't think
that it's truly her fault

that her mom was like that
and wanted things to go this way.

Khloe missed a whole goddamn year

of what should have been some of the,
you know, best memories of her life.

A whole year
of people pointing the finger at her

and not believing what she's saying,

being grilled by her parents,

and, you know,
not believed by the majority.

I thought that I was losing
a lot of friendships because of it.

At first, me and Owen,
like, we were all friends.

Me, Macy, Owen, and Sophie,
we'd sit at a table, um...

I do feel guilty about Khloe, um,

placing blame on her or, you know,

her family.

We just, at that point,

were going off of any little bit
of information that we had,

which was not a lot
throughout two years of this.

And I... I feel very...

You know, I feel guilty
for doing that to her.

Jill, she... she invited this in.

The impact to my family, to our family,

is largely because of her and Mike Main.

I remember, within a day or two
of our initial interview,

I had sent him a text message
that said that a very good part of me

believes that this is
probably Kendra doing this.

You know, she... I said, "I don't know
what you know of her, Mike,

but she's not a truthful person."

I told someone else

that Shawn and Lauryn
are going to play this off

like they were the victim in this shit,

they had no clue what was going on,
and they're gonna get away with it

because Mike Main didn't do
his fucking job and investigate them.

And that's exactly what happened.

I'm... I'm proud of her for that.

I kept that good. That's good.

Thank God for Brad Peters,

'cause without him,
it wouldn't have went anywhere.

Or who knows where it would have ended
with Kendra?

You watch all these other documentaries
of how this ends. It's not good.

You know, who knows
what else she would have done

if this didn't catch up to her?

Okay.

- That's all you got?
- Go on!

Me and my dad have gotten so much closer
since this has happened.

You know how much I love you, right?

- Yeah, sometimes.
- Sometimes? Well, I love you.

- I love you.
- Okay.

I'm proud of you. You're a good kid. Okay?

Love you.

We just bond so well together.

In everything we do,
we can find a way to laugh.

It's fun to watch her smile
and giggle and be a kid

and do stupid things
like we all used to do.

Now she's starting to come to Dad
a lot more.

She's growing,
and it's just... it's unbelievable.

You know, she's just growing up
to be a beautiful woman.

I'm not allowed to see my mom
now that she's out of prison.

I wanna see my mom when the time is right.

I think it would just be

a relief to see her, but, like, also hard.

It's been about a year and a half
since I've seen her.

We both know that

we're with each other, no matter what.

I think I wanna trust her now,
but I don't think I can.

Now that she's out, I just want
her to get the help she needs...

...so then when we see each other,

it doesn't go back to, uh, the old ways
and how it was before.

I definitely think

that we can have a healthy relationship.

I know that we both hold that bond we have

close.

Being without that relationship,
I think, is really hurting me,

and I think rebuilding our relationship
will help both of us a lot.

I love her more than anything.