Why mum who catfished her own daughter in sickening ordeal agreed to appear in Netflix series

A lot of Netflix viewers who tuned into Unknown Number: The High School Catfish couldn't believe Kendra Licari actually appeared in it.

Now, the documentary's director, Skye Borgman, has revealed how she managed to convince the mum to share her side of the shocking story with the world.

Two years after her daughter Lauryn's ordeal began in October 2020, Licari was unmasked as the tormentor who had been sending the teenager thousands of threatening and abusive text messages.

She cruelly branded her own child 'worthless' and 'the ugliest person I've ever seen', while also sending her harrowing warnings such as 'we will make everyday miserable' and 'finish yourself or we will'.

Licari initially managed to fool police, fellow parents and Lauryn's school into thinking that she had no idea who could be cyberbullying her daughter and her then-boyfriend, Owen.

But it later emerged that the former school basketball coach, 45, was the one who had been harassing the pair all along.

The FBI traced the mercilessly insulting messages and vile death threats back to Licari and Netflix viewers got to see the moment the mum was confronted with the truth.

Police bodycam footage shown in Unknown Number: The High School Catfish captured the moment Lauryn realised her own mother had been sending her the horrible messages online.

Her horrified husband, Shawn, then also discovered that his wife had been lying to him for years about their finances and her employment status.

Ultimately, Licari was arrested in December 2022 and later pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor. She was sentenced to spend between 19 months and five years behind bars for her crimes.

Isabella County prosecutor David Barberi said the case was both 'bizarre and almost hard to believe', while comparing the mother's actions to 'cyber Munchausen's syndrome', according to WKRC.

Kendra Licari didn't agree to appear in the documentary until most of it had already been filmed, Borgman said (Netflix)

Judge Mark Duthie, who presided over Licari's case, shared a similar sentiment while sentencing the disgraced mum, saying: "I can’t imagine any parent saying such horrible things to her own daughter."

"This is a truly horrible case," he said, as per The Morning Sun. "It’s the kind of case that makes me glad that at the end of my term, I’m retiring."

Licari denied sending the original messages to Lauryn and her ex Owen, claiming she only began doing so 11 months after they first began in the hopes of identifying the cyberbully herself.

She was released on parole in August last year and will remain under supervision until February 2026, the Michigan Department of Corrections said.

Licari is currently banned from seeing her daughter, although she spoke of her wish to build a 'healthy relationship' with Lauryn in the future in the Netflix doc.

To put it bluntly, the majority of viewers couldn't believe that the mother had the brass neck to appear in Unknown Number: The High School Catfish to discuss the web of lies she weaved.

One person said in a post on Reddit: "Why even give her the platform to tell 'her side of the story'? F**ked up."

She was released on parole in August last year (Michigan Department of Corrections)

Another wrote: "I agree she shouldn’t have been given this platform. She didn’t even say a single thing that makes a lick of sense in her own defence anyway."

Borgman, the director behind the documentary, revealed that persuading Licari to appear in Unknown Number: The High School Catfish was a 'long process'.

Most of it was already filmed by the time the mum agreed to be interviewed, and Borgman explaining why she believes Licari eventually said yes to answering some questions.

"That was appealing to her, [to] sit down and tell her story from her perspective and that Lauryn [could] see her do that," Borgman told Netflix's Tudum. "She wanted to do it, I think, for her daughter."

Despite believing that Licari is desperate to earn her child's forgiveness, Borgman said she thinks the damage might be too great for the mother and daughter to recover from.

She continued: "I mean, will they have a relationship? Will they get through this? I don’t know. There will probably be some kind of relationship. Will it be the same? Absolutely not. There’s no way it can be the same."

Borgman said she isn't sure whether Licari herself 'really knows why she did it', aside from the alleged trauma she suffered as a teenager.

The mum was unmasked as the cyberbully who terrorised Lauryn for two years (Netflix)

"She does mention in the documentary an assault that happened [to her] when she was right around Lauryn’s age," the director continued.

"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."

Lauryn is now 18 years old and lives with her father Shawn - who has full custody of her - in Michigan.