Netflix's Unknown Number: The High School Catfish – 2025's Most Insane Documentary
Think you know the people around you? Trust your family and friends? Convinced there’s no way someone close could say those things to you? Well, you might start doubting everyone after watching Netflix’s chilling new documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish. Here’s our review of one of the most skin-crawling true-crime stories Netflix has put out in years.
Spoiler Warning
Before we go further, let me throw out a big SPOILER WARNING. There’s simply no way to discuss this documentary without addressing its shocking twist. And while I call it a twist, this isn’t fiction. It’s a real case that left me stunned.
The story is based on events that unfolded in Beal City, Michigan, between 2020 and 2024. It follows the horrifying cyberbullying ordeal of 13 year old Lauryn Licari and her then boyfriend, Owen Mckenny, as they entered high school.
How It All Began
In 2020, Lauryn and Owen received a text from an unknown number just before a Halloween party. The sender suggested Owen wasn’t interested in Lauryn and urged her to break up with him. Naturally, the kids were annoyed. They asked around, tried to figure out who it was, and eventually brushed it off as a prank.
But ten months later, the texts came back and this time they were nastier, meaner, and disturbingly personal. Lauryn was suddenly the target of messages mocking her looks, body-shaming her, slut-shaming her, and relentlessly trying to sabotage her relationship.
Escalation and Desperation
The texts got so severe that parents, school officials, and the police got involved. Lauryn and Owen’s mothers were doing everything they could to protect their kids, but the damage was showing. Both teens were emotionally wrecked, angry, broken, and at times suicidal.
Beal City is a small, tight-knit town, so the school authorities thought the culprit had to be among the limited pool of students. They tried to triangulate suspects, but the harassment kept escalating.
Then it turned sexual. Lauryn began receiving graphic texts implying that Owen was secretly involved with the sender. Eventually, the constant harassment and pressure led Lauryn and Owen to break up.
That’s when things spiraled out of control. Lauryn’s phone was flooded with vile messages encouraging her to kill herself. Every text tore at her femininity, her body, and her identity. It was psychological torture.
The Pressure Mounts
Meanwhile, Owen tried to move on. He began dating a girl from a neighboring county, but soon her mother started receiving the same style of anonymous texts. Shaken and disturbed, Owen distanced himself from relationships altogether, retreating under immense mental pressure.
With no answers, suspicion even fell on Lauryn herself. Authorities wondered: could she be texting herself for attention or as a cry for help? That theory was quickly discarded. Still, the community was left grasping for explanations as the harassment dragged on.
Sheriff Mike Main spearheaded the investigation, focusing on Lauryn and Owen’s classmates, friends, and even relatives. But every lead came up empty.
A Break in the Case
The problem was the app used to send the messages. Each time a number was blocked, a new scrambled number appeared. The case seemed unsolvable until officer Bradley Peter from nearby Bay City stepped in as a liaison to the FBI.
By digging into call logs, app usage data, and IP addresses, investigators finally uncovered a pattern. One Verizon IP address appeared over and over across the texts. Shockingly, it belonged to someone no one expected: Kendra Licari, Lauryn’s own mother.
The Bone-Chilling Reveal
This revelation recontextualizes everything you’ve been watching. Throughout the documentary, in all the recreated scenes, you never actually see Kendra outside her couch interviews. The scenes of parents going to the police, meeting with the principal, or chasing leads? Those were Owen’s mother, Jill McKenny, and a body double.
When Sheriff Mike went to search their house for electronic devices and met with Kendra, the body-cam footage became one of the most unsettling parts of the documentary. She wasn’t apologetic, nor did she seem to fully grasp what she had done. Director Skye Borgman even said he doesn’t think Kendra realizes to this day just how wrong her actions were.
Her only emotional breakdown came when her husband, Shawn, returned home and told her to stay away from their family. It didn’t seem to be about guilt but more about the loss of control over her daughter.
Kendra Licari’s Justifications
In her interviews, Kendra gave shifting explanations for her actions. She spoke about her own history of sexual assault at Lauryn’s age, claiming she wanted to protect her daughter. Other times, she described the harassment as a thrill, or framed it as a way to keep Lauryn close and under her control.
But none of her excuses stick. The documentary paints her as a master manipulator, twisting narratives without ever showing remorse.
Aftermath and Fallout
The Licari family was torn apart. Kendra was sentenced to 19 months in prison. Yet Lauryn, still entangled in her mother’s psychological grip, remains in contact with her. She exchanges emails but insists she’ll only meet her mother again on her own terms, and only if Kendra gets help.
Watching those final moments, Kendra’s lies, her manipulative tears, Lauryn’s heartbreaking loyalty feels both infuriating and deeply sad. Even as her father Shawn raged at the betrayal, Lauryn and Kendra were seen embracing and crying. The emotional damage runs that deep.
Why This Documentary Hits Hard
On a personal note, I usually avoid true-crime documentaries. With fiction, you can detach, no matter how dark the story, you know it’s made-up. Reality doesn’t give you that buffer. Reality is always worse. You don’t want a chilling plot twist, you didn’t see coming, when it is about real stories.
Parents are supposed to be the safe place, the protective cocoon for their children. Unknown Number: The High School Catfish forces you to confront what happens when that cocoon becomes a trap. And that thought lingers long after the credits roll.
Final Thoughts
Did you catch Unknown Number: The High School Catfish on Netflix? Did your skin crawl as much as mine when Kendra calmly said, “Some might judge me for what I did,” only to justify herself afterward? It’s one of the most disturbing true-crime cases Netflix has put on screen and a reminder that sometimes the monsters aren’t strangers at all.
Rating:
You can stream Unknown Number: The High School Catfish now on Netflix.
If this documentary rattled you as much as it did me, share your thoughts in the comments. Do you think Lauryn will ever truly break free from her mother’s influence? And how do you process a betrayal of this scale? For more raw and unfiltered takes on movies and series click here. Let’s keep the conversation alive because these stories deserve to be talked about, not forgotten.
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