Expert explains why mum who catfished and sent daughter death threats used nickname ‘Lo’ in texts

A psychologist has spoken out to explain why Kendra Licari, the mum who catfished her daughter and sent her death threats, used her nickname ‘Lo’ in the bizarre texts.

Licari is the focus of a brand new Netflix true crime documentary, Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, which explores how her daughter Lauryn and Lauryn’s boyfriend at the time Owen began receiving bizarre text messages.

These initially looked to simply be trying to split the pair up, but they eventually escalated to calls for her to kill herself, death threats, and horrific abusive messages about Lauryn’s body.

Early on in the documentary, it is noted that the texts used ‘Lo’, a nickname for Lauryn used only by her close family and friends.

This, of course, ended up being her mother Kendra sending her the nearly 40-50 messages a day, which will lead to one clear question for many: Why would Kendra use her daughter’s nickname if she was trying to remain anonymous?

Many of the texts sent used Lauryn's nickname (Netflix)

This is not answered in the documentary, nor why Kendra did it, with the mother simply claiming in the doc that she did not start the texts, but joined in as an attempt to try decipher who was sending them to Lauryn.

While this makes little sense, what does make more sense is why she may have used Lauryn’s nickname in the text messages.

Speaking exclusively to LADbible Dannielle Haig, Chief Psychologist at DH Consulting, revealed the possibilities for why she used the nickname ‘Lo’ in the texts.

She said: “Nicknames carry strong emotional weight; they’re intimate and often tied to identity. Even when someone is trying to hide, those slips into familiar language can emerge unconsciously.”

Lauryn received the messages for nearly two years (Netflix)

Danielle also stated that it could reflect ‘an ambivalence because on one level she wanted to stay concealed, but on another, there may have been an underlying desire to be recognised, or at least to maintain that emotional closeness with her daughter, even through the deception’.

She went on to finally add: “In psychology, we often see that when someone is torn between concealment and exposure, these ‘leakages’ happen.”

It was revealed in the documentary that Kendra spent as much as eight hours a day texting Lauryn and Owen, sending as many as '40-50’ messages a day.

The pair received texts daily over a 22-month period before she was caught.

Kendra Licari used her daughter's nickname in many of the texts (Netflix)

Though she claimed someone else started it the texts stopped after she was arrested and no one else has confessed so far.

She said in the documentary: “I was sending messages in the hopes that they might send back asking, 'Is this so-and-so?' I started with the thought, 'We need some answers.' And then it just kept going.”

She was eventually prisoned for two counts of stalking a minor, leading her to be sentenced to a maximum of five years, though she only served just over a year and was released in August 2024.

Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is available to stream on Netflix now.