Straight Nonsense: Let's talk Netflix's Unknown Number: The High School Catfish doc

In the column Straight Nonsense, columnist Moises Mendez II takes a queer eye to the insanity of straight culture. Warning: spoilers for Netflix's Unknown Number: The High School Catfish documentary ahead.

True crime documentaries are all the rage right now, and it feels like every time a new one is released, it's more unbelievable than the last. Having watched my fair share of these sorts of documentaries, it's hard to surprise me — but Netflix's latest true crime investigation into a truly absurd case out of Michigan actually stunned me, and I'm at a loss for words.

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Unknown Number: The High School Catfish documentary is becoming one of the most talked-about films this past week because of its sheer absurdity. The story follows two high school students, Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny, who recount their experiences receiving anonymous text messages harassing them and those around them. For over a year and a half, the two high school freshmen would receive explicit, vile messages — sometimes up to 30 a day.

While the two dated, the perpetrator would send the messages mainly to Licari: taunting her, calling her ugly, worthless, and anorexic in new ways every day; sending photos of the pair with vomit emojis plastered over Licari's face; and telling Licari that McKenny didn't want to be with her, with the perpetrator describing in detail what they would do to Owen, sexually. The worst messages of all were the ones telling Licari to kill herself.

Some of the text messages included things like: "It is obvious he wants me, his attention is constantly on me … Not sure what he told you but he is coming to the Halloween party and we are both DTF." And: "He wants nothing to do with you … He think you’re annoying and an ugly ass bitch and wishes you would leave him the fuck alone … Why do you think he is on his phone all the time texting me? … You didn’t get invited to sleep with him, I did. I’m spending the night with him, I’m sharing a bed with him, not you."

It's an incredibly dark story that lasted for months as the town's police department investigated the source of the messages. The teens' mothers — Kendra Licari and Jill McKenny — got involved and worked with local law enforcement to get to the bottom of this ordeal. During this time, the police worked with the school's principal and superintendent to pin down the harasser. But because the phone number frequently changed, they were unable to crack the case. That was until Officer Brad Peter was brought on to the investigation by Sheriff Michael Main.

Peter works for the Mid-Michigan Computer Crimes Task Force, a partnership between the FBI and local law enforcement, and he was the person to find the culprit. He found out that the bully was using an app called Pinger, which is used to message and call people from different numbers.

Only one number popped up repeatedly and it belonged to Lauryn's mom, Kendra.

(L to R) Kendra Licari,and Lauryn in 'Unknown Number: The High School Catfish'Courtesy Netflix

For almost two years, this woman was cyber-bullying her own teenage daughter with the most vile and nasty messages — even going so far as to sending her a message (from a burner number) saying, "KILL YOURSELF NOW BITCH."

In the documentary, audiences see Kendra get caught red-handed in front of her daughter who has dealt with the relentless bullying for over a year. The mother's response? She immediately gets up to start hugging Lauryn, saying she can't be away from her. Her husband and Lauryn's father, Shawn, is notified that the nightmare has come to an end — but for he and Lauryn, it was just the beginning of a much larger issue. Kendra lied about the family's finances — she was fired from her job at Central Michigan University and Ferris State because of her performance — according to an investigation from The Cut, it was because she spent "excessive time” on non-work texting and calls.

(L to R) Sophie, Khloe, and Macy in 'Unknown Number: The High School Catfish'Courtesy Netflix

As the whole town breathed a sigh of relief, the damage that Kendra caused was met with punishment. In December 2022, she was arrested and in spring 2023, she was sentenced to 19 months in prison on two counts of cyberstalking. While in prison, she was still able to have communication with her daughter, and they messaged regularly through phone calls and emails.

The reason for Kendra's behavior, she said during her sentencing, was that after doing months of counseling, she discovered she had a mental illness and mentioned depression — anxiety and suppressed childhood trauma stemming from a sexual assault that occurred when she was a teenager. In the documentary, through a flood of tears, she said did this to keep Lauryn close to her because she felt her daughter drifting from her. Her actions bore the intended results as Lauryn leaned heavily on her mom, who got to act like the hero. The superintendent dubbed Kendra's actions as "cyber-Munchausen’s," tearing Lauryn down just to build her back up again.

Her truly heinous actions quickly became national news and the subject of conversation online, but mainly due to the way she was given space to share her story in the documentary. At the beginning of the film, Kendra comes off a concerned parent up until the moment she's revealed as the person sending hundreds of egregious messages to her daughter.

There's no question about the severity of her crimes, but the general public felt that she should not have gotten access to her daughter after telling her to kill herself — and felt that her prison sentence was too short. On top of that, the documentary rarely challenged Kendra when it came to her intentions, never pushing further than just one question nor was she met with a rebuttal.

At the end of the documentary, Lauryn expressed wanting to still have a relationship with her mother and moving past this ordeal — which makes sense but you can't help but feel bad for this young girl who has only ever known this person as her mother. It's a heartbreaking story and Kendra undoubtedly deserved jail time, but in my opinion, she should not have had contact with Lauryn while there — nor should she be given the opportunity to rebuild her relationship until she's done some serious mental health work. It's gut-wrenching to watch a teenage girl, already dealing with the awkwardness of high school, deal with this vitriol from her own mother.

After watching this documentary, the only thought on my mind was: Are Straight People™ OK? The answer: Absolutely not.

Moises Mendez II is a staff writer at Out magazine. Follow him on Instagram @moisesfenty.

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