Michigan high school student Lauryn Licari started to receive concerning text messages in 2021, which consisted of hostile and threatening messages about her relationship with her boyfriend, Owen McKenny. After Owen began to receive similar text messages of his own, police got involved in the matter. Following an intense investigation, Lauryn’s mother, Kendra Licari, was ultimately identified as the person behind the messages. On the latest episode of Us Weekly’s Uncovered, officer Brad Peter spoke to investigative journalist Kristin Thorne about the “hurtful” and “disturbing” messages Kendra sent to the teens.
Peter, who is a former FBI Computer Crimes Task Force liaison, was directly involved in the investigation and saw the text messages firsthand.
“A lot of them want the female to commit suicide and ‘Owen doesn’t love you’ and ‘I’ll be with him soon,’” Peter explained of the messages Kendra sent to Lauryn, adding that they were “very hurtful” and “very disturbing” texts.
Peter also revealed that Kendra wasn’t actively involved in the case and recalled their only conversation. “I basically told her where I was, what I was trying to do and she’s like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s been a problem. You know, Lauryn’s having a hard time with it. I’ll email you some of the stuff I know,’” Peter recalled.
However, Peter said Kendra didn’t offer any insight and possibly only emailed him one time during the investigation. He said that Kendra’s lack of involvement in the case seemed odd, but it was still surprising when she was the person linked to the text messages.
“I was able to determine, after some Verizon IP address search warrants, that Kendra’s phone number was linked to these IP addresses at the time some of these messages were sent,” Peter shared. “No other phone numbers from any of Owen or Lauryn’s friends were on this sheet at all.”
After he double checked that his findings were correct, he admitted he was “shocked” that Kendra was the person harassing Lauryn and Owen all along.
Kendra was arrested in December 2022. She has never denied being behind the messages, and she pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor in 2023. She served about two years in prison and was later released in August 2024.
The case has shocked many true crime lovers and has even gained national attention after it was the subject of Netflix’s 2025 documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish.
