Unknown Number: The High School Catfish [What Was That?!]

Unknown Number is a Netflix true crime doc that starts as cyberbullying and catfishing and ends with a jaw-dropping twist you won’t believe.

Spoiler Warning!!! I can’t talk about this documentary without spoiling it, so let’s get this out of the way up front: if you haven’t seen Unknown Number: The High School Catfish on Netflix, stop reading right now. Bookmark this page, watch the doc, and then come back. If you’ve already seen it—or don’t plan to—you may proceed.

A Small-Town Cyberbullying Nightmare

Unknown Number: The High School Catfish unpacks a true cyberbullying case that rattled Beal City, Michigan. In 2020, 13-year-old Lauryn Licari and her boyfriend, Owen, started getting disturbing texts from an unknown number. The messages stopped briefly, but by 2021, they were back—this time relentless, vile, and personal. Whoever was behind it knew details only someone close to Lauryn could know.

Suspicion turned on her classmates, friends, even Owen. The case dragged on for over a year until investigators traced the messages back to the unthinkable source: Lauryn’s own mother, Kendra Licari. The moment Sheriff Mike Main revealed the truth to Lauryn—caught on body cam and shown in the doc—was gut-wrenching.

From Mild to Mind-Blowing

What was that?! When I hit play, it was on a whim. I love true crime docs, but I wasn’t expecting much—just another sad story about kids being cruel. And honestly? The first half felt slow. My heart broke for the real teens and families involved, but as a doc, it wasn’t grabbing me.

Then came the twist.

I literally paused the documentary, grabbed my phone, and told every true-crime-loving friend I had to drop what they were doing—jobs, kids, dinner, whatever—and watch this thing immediately. The reveal was so shocking it felt like fiction. Hollywood-level fiction. But it wasn’t.

Her Own Mother?!

Yes. The catfish was her mother. I still can’t wrap my head around it. The psychological torment Kendra inflicted—on kids, parents, her community, and most of all, her daughter—is staggering.

The documentary floats the theory that Kendra might suffer from FDIA (Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another, formerly Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy). Think Dee Dee Blanchard and Gypsy Rose. Or, as the doc notes, even Eminem’s mother, Debbie Nelson. Maybe that explains it. Maybe. But it doesn’t soften the cruelty or the sheer madness of what she did.

In the end, the story is just devastating and unnecessary. It didn’t solve anything. It only shattered relationships and left Lauryn with scars she didn’t deserve.

If you haven’t watched yet (and ignored my spoiler warning), you need to queue this up on Netflix immediately. Even knowing the twist, watching the details unfold is wild. This is one true crime doc that will absolutely leave you with your jaw on the floor.

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