In a small Michigan town where everyone knows each other’s business, an unsettling mystery unfolds in Netflix’s latest true-crime documentary.
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is the latest exposè documentary on the ominous world of social media adolescence. A look inside the murky pools of social media use in a middle American high school with a wild twist: a twist of our worst nightmares, flipping all we believed about trust and cyber-safety in our own home.
What Is Unknown Number About?
The story centres on 13-year old Lauryn Licari and her boyfriend Owen McKenny, two school sweethearts navigating early adolescence in tight-knit Beal City.
One Halloween a single, ominous text arrives:
“Hi Lauryn Owen is breaking up with you”.
This unnerving text marks the beginning of a nearly two-year ordeal that escalates into relentless cyberbullying.
Lauryn received up to 30 to 50 messages a day that escalate to unnerving harassment. Threats and manipulation that reference personal details like Lauryn’s nickname “Lo” stirring suspicion that the perpetrator is someone close.
Who Was Sending The Texts In Unknown Number?
As expected, anxiety mounts among students and parents. Initially suspicion falls on her classmates. Numerous friends in Lauryn’s circle are questioned, with rumours swirling around the text messages anonymity.
Thanks to the many apps that generate fake numbers, attempts to pin down the culprit become hazy. Local efforts are thwarted and forces intervention from the FBI.
In an unlikely turn, that upends everyone’s assumptions, the harassing messages are traced not to a peer, but to Lauryn’s own mother, Kendra Licari.
The revelation is nothing short of devastating, filmed in a real-time confrontation, the viewers get a front row seat to the emotional turnout.
The Sentencing Of Kendra Licari
Kendra pleaded guilty to stalking charges in April 2023 and was sentenced to 19 months to 5 years in prison.
She was released on parole in August 2024. As a result, the family have been torn apart, their reputation now completely in shambles.
Kendra’s custody rights were quickly dashed, and the lifelong trust between the family was completely shattered. Lauryn has since cut off contact with her mother but throughout the series she expressed a tentative hope to reconnect someday.
Where Can I Watch Unknown Number?
This documentary is more than a whodunit, it’s a study in fractured trust, adolescent vulnerability, and the unseen hazards of technology. It delivers a powerful truth: sometimes the most damaging betrayal can come from the person you rely on most.
Social media has been rife with hot takes from Reddit threads, to TikTok think pieces. The show is set to land on Netflix on August 29, bringing with it a fresh wave of followers and cybercrime sleuths.
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