Teen Learns Her Mother Was The Anonymous Cyberbully Who Harassed & Catfished Her For A Year
It can sometimes be your own family.
Isabella County Jail A Michigan woman was arrested after targeting two teenagers in a year-long catfishing plan, where she cyberbullied and harassed them on social media.
Kendra Licari, 42, was charged on December 12 with two counts of stalking a minor, two counts of using a computer to commit a crime and one count of obstruction of justice.
Licari had attempted to obstruct police by framing another minor for her actions during the investigation.
Licari was accused of harrassing and cyberbullying her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend.
According to Morning Sun, police began the investigation after a report was filed to officials with the Beal City Schools.
The report consisted of a cyberbullying complaint involving Licari's daughter, who attends Beal City Schools, and her boyfriend.
The complaint was first made in December 2021. Licari was employed as a girls' basketball coach at her daughter's school, Beal City superintendent William Chilman told Morning Sun.
However, by the end of the basketball season, Licari was told not to return due to a change in coaches.
Most of the online harassment, cyberbullying and catfishing happened off of school grounds and didn't involve school devices, and by mid-January 2022, after district officials realized they weren't able to find the perpetrator on their own, they called law enforcement for assistance.
Despite law enforcement getting involved in January 2022, family members of both victims admitted that the messages from their cyberbully started in early 2021, Isabella County Prosecutor, David Barberi told Morning Sun.
Police were able to identify Licari by matching the IP addresses.
After Licari's arrest, Barberi revealed that police were able to track her down by connecting her to the IP addresses used to send the messages.
She was accused of using virtual private networks to hide the location she had been sending the messages from.
Whenever her daughter and boyfriend moved locations, Licari made it appear as if the messages had been sent from whatever location they had been in.
Licari had also used a specific identity in an attempt to make it seem as if the harassing messages were coming from a peer close in age to the two teenagers, which included using slang abbreviations commonly used among people their age.
In mid-April 2022, local law enforcement eventually turned to use the FBI's computer crime division after not being able to locate the suspect with their local computer crime resources.
It wasn't until the end of April into the beginning of May 2022 that law enforcement notified Chilman that they believed Licari to be the anonymous cyberbully.
During their investigation, Barberi told Morning Sun that his office had managed to compile over 349 pages of harassing texts and social media messages sent by Licari to her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend over the course of their investigation.
When police finally confronted Licari, she reportedly confessed to the crime, though her motive is unknown.
Following her arraignment on December 12, Licari was released from police custody on a $5,000 bond.
She awaits a December 29 hearing to determine whether the evidence presented against her is enough to proceed with a trial.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.