SHE looked like any other regular school gate mum – but behind closed doors Kendra Licari was committing unthinkably depraved acts on her 13-year-old girl.
The sick abuse, which sometimes lasted for eight hours a day and went on for a gruelling two years, sent shock waves through America when it was finally exposed by the FBI.
Shawn Licaria and Kendra Licari, pictured with their daughter Lauryn, who was subjected to years of abuse from an unknown number
The anonymous texter told Lauryn to end her own life and that they would steal her boyfriend
The FBI uncovered that her mum Kendra was behind the sick messages
Kendra had been anonymously sending daughter Lauryn and her then-boyfriend Owen McKenny, 13, a barrage of twisted text messages, slating her thin appearance and urging her to commit suicide.
In one vile text to Lauryn the 44-year-old wrote: “Kill yourself now, b**ch. His life would be better if you were dead.”
Shaken, Lauryn sought solace in her mother who told her to take no notice – but little did she know she was the perpetrator behind it all.
‘Kill yourself now’
Lauryn and Owen got together when they were 12 but a year after dating, in October 2020, their romance was abruptly soured when they were added to a group chat with an unknown number.
“Hi Lauryn, Owen is breaking up with you,” read the text, continuing, “He no longer likes you and hasn’t liked you for a while. It’s obvious he wants me. He laughs, smiles, and touches my hair.”
The text added: “We are both down to f***. You are a sweet girl but I know I can give him what he wants, sorry not sorry.”
Recalling the moment she received the text, Lauryn told the , Unknown Number: The High School , “I was just really confused of who this could be.”
After the shock initial message, the pair were left alone for 11 months. But then they started receiving at least six messages a day from a different anonymous number – with most of the nasty remarks aimed at Lauryn.
The first new text read: “How’s the happy couple? Preparing for the end of a golden relationship? We hear about how you are the forever couple. Owen loves me, and I will always be the girl he loves. He will be with me while your lonely, ugly a** is alone.”
“You are the ugliest person I’ve ever seen,” read one, while another said, “Get the f*** lost, b****. He is f***ing done with you.”
As time went on, the messages from this new number got worse. One told Lauryn to “jump off a bridge” while others read “Trash b****, don’t wear leggings ain’t no one want to see your anorexic flat a**.”
Lauryn desperately tried to find out who was behind the messages but her attempts failed. She couldn’t block the number either because the sender was using a random number generator.
At this point, it was having a profound effect on Lauryn’s life. She told the documentary: “I would question what I’d wear to school. It definitely affected how I thought about myself.”
Lauryn and Owen dated for two years before the harrassment got too much and they called things off
Many of the messages referenced people at school, and Lauryn and Owen decided to tell their parents about the harassment they were receiving.
By this point, the parents had all become good friends and had decided to go to the school to report it while also getting the police involved.
In the meantime, Lauryn and Owen’s relationship deteriorated and Owen ended up breaking off their two-year romance.
While he hoped it would get the bully to leave them alone, it did nothing to stop them abusing Lauryn.
Lauryn then received messages such as, “He thinks you’re ugly”, “He thinks you’re trash”, “We won”, and “You’re worthless.”
The texter again told Lauryn to kill herself: “Finish yourself or we will #bang”, “Owen wants u dead today” and “Warning. U finish yourself before we do.”
It wasn’t until the FBI got involved that they found out that Lauryn’s mum Kendra was behind it all.
‘Finish yourself or we will #bang’
FBI liaison Peter Bradley tracked down the IP addresses used by the randomised phone number generator and linked it to Kendra’s devices.
Cops were quick to secure a search warrant and question Kendra, who admitted to sending the messages to her daughter and Owen.
Kendra claimed the initial message wasn’t sent from her but admits sending the messages 11 months later. She claims she was trying to find out who sent the original text.
She told the programme: “The messages stopped for a little bit and then they picked back up. In my mind, I’m like, ‘How long do we let this go on? What do I do as a parent?’
The texts didn’t stop when the young couple eventually split up
Kendra shared the sick reason she started the abuse
“Honestly, the best way would have been to stop it by shutting her cell phone down, right? But then I was like, ‘Well, why should she have to do that?’ You know? ‘Why should I have to get her a new cell phone because of someone else’s actions?’
“I really wanted to get to the bottom of who it was. And that’s when I started sending the text messages to Lauryn and Owen.”
The mum’s confession caused shock waves in Lauryn’s family, including for her father, who had no idea about his wife’s actions, as well as Owen’s parents, who had become close friends with Kendra.
Kendra had not only been harassing her own daughter, she had also lied about getting a job to support her family financially.
I really wanted to get to the bottom of who it was. And that’s when I started sending the text messages to Lauryn and Owen
Kendra Licari
Instead of going out to work, she confessed she had been fired and instead spent her days abusing her daughter.
Speaking of the day of her arrest, Kendra said: “It was a very emotional day in our house.
“A day of confusion, unknown answers, shock, a day of not even knowing how we move forward to the next day, so it was a hard day, but at the same time, it was an end.”
Justifying her actions with a sick excuse, she added: “Every single one of us makes mistakes, not a single one of us has lived a perfect life, and realistically, a lot of us have probably broken the at some point or another and not gotten caught.”
Kendra was sentenced to 19 months to five years in after she pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting a minor.
Currently, Kendra is not allowed to meet with Lauryn in person, but she does has contact with her.
Speaking of why she did it, Kendra said: “I started in the thoughts of needing some answers, and then I just kept going, it was a spiral, kind of a snowball effect, I don’t think I knew how to stop.
“I was somebody different in those moments. I was in an awful place mentally. It was like I had a mask on or something, I didn’t even know who I was.”
She added: “I let it consume me. I think it was more of an escape. It took me kind of out of , in a sense, even though it was real life. So when I was doing that and I wasn’t myself, it removed me from my everyday life. Just kept going and going.”
Realistically, a lot of us have probably broken the law at some point or another and not gotten caught.
Kendra Licari
Superintendent Bill Chillman told the documentary that he believed the whole incident was a “cyber Munchausen’s case”.
Munchausen syndrome is typically a psychological disorder where a person intentionally fakes or creates symptoms of illness on themselves or another in order to garner sympathy, attention and care.
Chillman explained: “[Kendra] wanted her daughter to need her in such a way that she was willing to hurt her, and this is the way she chose to do that, versus physically trying to make her ill, which is typical Munchausen’s behaviour.”
Addressing the messages where she made comments on Lauryn’s body, Kendra said: “Lauryn knows she’s skinny, she knows she’s petite, she knows she’s thin, so I might have kind of picked up on some of her insecurities. But honestly, the messages weren’t really targeted at her insecurities.”
Kendra brushed off the messages urging Lauryn to harm herself claiming she never thought she would go through with anything.
She said: “I can say I was not scared of her hurting herself. I know some people may question that or diminish that or whatever. But I know Lauryn and I know the conversations that her and I have. But if I didn’t know her as well as I did, it might be different.”
Despite what her mother did, Lauryn, who is in college studying criminology, still wants a relationship with her mum.
She said: “Not having a relationship with my mum, I just don’t feel like myself. I really need her in my life.”
British cases of Munchausen Syndrome revealed
In August 2016 a woman from south London has been jailed for fraud and child abuse after causing her children to undergo surgery for fictitious medical problems.
Croydon Crown Court heard the mother of six, who cannot be named for legal reasons, persuaded doctors to prescribe copious medication and provide equipment for her children worth more than £145,000, which – as they did not require it – was potentially dangerous for them, the prosecution said.
She also convinced them to perform invasive operations and insert feeding tubes into her son and daughter’s stomachs.
Serial killer nurse Beverley Allitt, dubbed the Angel of Death was given 13 life sentences in 1993 for murdering four children, attempting to murder another three and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to further six at Grantham and Kesteven hospital in Lincolnshire.
The former nurse was diagnosed as suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP) when she carried out the attacks between 1991 and 1993.
In January 2010, Lisa Hayden-Johnson, pictured above, was sentenced to three years and three months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of child cruelty and perverting the course of justice – in one of the most notable examples of Munchausens by proxy.
Hayden-Johnson began her deceitful actions shortly after the birth of her son Matthew in 2001. Claiming he was afflicted with numerous severe health issues, including cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, and severe food allergies, she subjected him to unnecessary medical procedures and interventions. These included the use of a wheelchair, feeding tubes, and numerous hospital visits, totalling over 325 medical encounters.
Dr Sasha Hall, an educational psychologist, told : “Kendra’s behaviour can be seen as the product of unresolved trauma, unmet psychological needs, and a struggle for control.
“During adolescence, children naturally seek independence and shift their attachments towards peers, which can be deeply unsettling for a parent already with insecurity or fear of abandonment.
“Kendra appeared to respond by undermining Lauryn, attempting to pull her back into dependence.
“Some of her behaviour suggests she may have wanted to position herself as both the one causing harm and the one able to provide comfort, forcing Lauryn into a cycle where Kendra became her only source of support.”
However, messages about Lauryn’s looks and needing to end her life went beyond Kendra’s need for control.
Dr Hall adds: ” Telling Lauryn she was ‘ugly’ or had ‘no friends’ seemed less about reality and more about projection.
“It was as if she was holding up a mirror to her own darkest insecurities, potentially voicing painful thoughts she had perhaps carried since adolescence.
“The volume and intensity of the abuse felt like the bursting of a dam, with long-suppressed grievances spilling out unchecked. Her apparent fixation on Lauryn’s boyfriend Owen adds another layer.
“Others described feeling that Kendra was ‘obsessed’ with Owen, and it is possible that both Lauryn and Owen represented figures from Kendra’s own youth, the kind of people she had longed to be, or wished had desired her, or who triggered jealousy and feelings of exclusion.”
While Kendra and Lauryn both want to fix their relationship, the psychologist adds that Kendra’s focus on herself rather than Lauryn’s pain is a red flag.
“When reflecting, Kendra said she felt she had ‘let herself down’. This wording is striking, as it centres her own sense of failure rather than the profound harm done to her daughter,” she explains.
“In prison, she sent Lauryn affectionate, apologetic messages that some might describe as ‘love bombing’, raising questions about whether these were genuine acts of remorse or further attempts to re-establish control and rewrite the narrative.
“True accountability involves acknowledging the depth of damage caused to others, not simply focusing on one’s own regret.”
