Unknown Number: The High School Catfish director Skye Borgman opened up about where the Licari family stands after their lives were featured in the Netflix documentary.
The documentary follows then-13-year-old Lauryn Licari and her then-boyfriend, Owen, who began receiving suspicious texts from an unknown number in 2020. Following a brief break, the text messages that consisted of threats and mean insults resumed in September 2021 and continued to be sent for the next 15 months.
The texts targeted at Lauryn quickly created cause for concern, with parents and school officials turning to law enforcement for help.
Officers eventually discovered that Lauryn’s mother, Kendra Licari, was behind the messages. After Kendra was arrested and charged with multiple counts of stalking and using a computer to commit a crime, she pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor. She was sentenced to 19 months to 5 years in prison, and she was released in August 2024.
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“She’s remorseful that she has severely altered her relationship with her daughter in most likely a negative way,” Borgman told Netflix’s Tudum about Kendra, who hoped to have a relationship with Lauryn following her release from prison.
“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.”
Kendra participated in the documentary, which was finishing up filming upon her release. While speaking to the outlet, Borgman recalled watching the family process the betrayal in real time.
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“The way that Kendra and Lauryn are interacting is really fascinating to watch,” she said. “You don’t see [Lauryn] sort of break down with any real emotion until Sean is home and she can see the fracture happening in her family. And that is just so heartbreaking to me … That’s when you see Lauryn understand that her family’s never going to be the same again.”
Borgman also looked back on Lauryn’s attitude about the situation while filming the documentary. “The first time we sat down with Lauryn was in the spring of 2023 … and she at the time loved her mom. She just wanted her mom back in her life,” Borgman recalled of Lauryn, who is now 18.
However, she noted that Lauryn “wanted to approach the relationship with more caution” after Kendra was released.
“She’s done a lot of pretty critical thinking, especially between that time and now … These years are such critical years for young people.” Borgman said of how Lauryn’s stance had changed.
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“She’s got the most complicated feelings to deal with. Everybody else can hate Kendra. I don’t think Lauryn can, right? It’s your mom. I mean, how do you navigate that? It’s really uncharted waters.”
Borgman went on to note that Lauryn “is at the beginning of figuring out that she can be the one in charge, that she can make all the decisions for herself and for her relationship with her mother.”
She continued, “I think that’s going to be a really interesting place for Lauryn to explore.”
