January 1, Mom Charged for “Catfishing” Her Own Daughter

Police in Isabella County, Michigan, arrested a woman for allegedly catfishing two teenagers, including her own daughter.

Kendra Licari, 42, was arrested after a year-long investigation that began last December when a Beal City Schools received a complaint that Licari’s daughter and her boyfriend were being cyberbullied.

“When the case first came into our office, it was bizarre and almost hard to believe,” said David Barberi, Isabella County’s prosecutor.

Authorities say Licari was engaged in an elaborate scheme to frame other teenagers for the online harassment. Licari was the Beal City girls basketball coach at the time.

Barberi confirmed that Licari and the other student’s mother cooperated with school officials during the initial investigation. But the school passed the complaint to local law enforcement in Jan. 2022, given that most of the messages didn’t occur on school property or devices.

Licari allegedly used virtual private networks to mask her location and identity, and also adapted age-appropriate slang and abbreviations to appear as a teenager.

“By and large it was mostly just harassing type text messages, demeaning, demoralizing, and just mean texts,” Barberi said.

Prosecutors compiled 349 pages of harassing social media and text messages, Barberi said.

“We’re talking about several hundreds of text messages, over 1,000 pages of discovery in the case,” Barberi said. “As it related to communications between the suspect and the victims in this matter.”

In mid-April 2021, local law enforcement turned to the FBI’s computer crime division. FBI analysts identified Licari’s IP addresses as the ones used to send the messages.

Barberi said that Licari made a full confession when confronted.

She was arrested and charged 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 was released on a $5,000 bond. She is due back in court on Dec. 29 to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for a trial.

If convicted, Licari faces up to 10 years for the computer crime charge and five years for each separate count of stalking and obstruction.

Sources: WWTV | The Morning Sun