Kendra Gail Licari: Michigan mom who catfished daughter for a year and blamed it on other teens arrested
MOUNT PLEASANT, MICHIGAN: A Michigan woman has been hit with felony charges in Isabella County for her role in a catfishing and cyberbullying scheme to target her own daughter. 42-year-old Kendra Gail Licari, from Mt Pleasant, Michigan, was charged on Monday, December 12, following a year-long investigation.
It was Beal City Schools that received a complaint about cyberbullying stating that Licari’s daughter and a boy her daughter was seeing at that time were victims of online harassment. As per Unilad, Licari worked with the boy’s mother and school officials to determine the face behind the anonymous bullying. The complaint was lodged in December when Licari was working as a girls' basketball coach at her daughter's school. However, according to Isabella County Prosecutor David Barberi, the messages began in early 2021.
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In January 2021, The district asked for assistance from law enforcement and by April even the FBI's computer crime division was involved. The federal agency was able to track down the IP addresses used to send the messages and discovered that they were linked to Licari.
Barberi explained that the accused used virtual private networks (VPNs) to conceal her location and made it look like the messages were coming from areas where other teenagers were located. The mother used slang and abbreviations during the conversations to try and make it appear like the messages were sent from another teen. The prosecutor's office compiled 349 pages of harassing text and social media messages in total.
Once caught, Licari reportedly made a full confession about her actions. However, the reason she targeted her daughter is still unclear. The 42-year-old mother was charged with two counts of stalking a minor, and two counts of using a computer to commit a crime. She is also charged with one count of obstruction of justice for allegedly attempting to frame another minor for her actions during the investigation.
Following the arraignment, Licari was released on a $5,000 bond. She might face years behind bars because of her actions that included using a computer to commit a crime which is a 10-year felony whereas stalking a minor, and obstruction of justice are both five-year felonies. Licari will appear on December 29, for a hearing that will determine whether sufficient evidence exists to bind her over for trial.