NEED TO KNOW
- Netflix’s Unknown Number: The High School Catfish revisits a shocking cyberstalking case that took place in Beal City, Mich., for nearly two years
- Teenagers Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny were cyberstalked and bullied by an anonymous sender, who many believed was Khloe Wilson
- Khloe’s parents, Tami and Craig, speak out in the documentary about what it was like for their daughter to be falsely accused
While much of Beal City, Mich. believed Khloe Wilson was anonymously cyberstalking Lauryn Licari and her boyfriend Owen McKenny, her parents instead had their eyes on the true culprit.
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, which was released on Netflix on Aug. 29, sheds light on a disturbing cyberbullying case that took place in a small town in Michigan, when a mother was exposed as the person behind hundreds of cruel anonymous messages terrorizing her daughter Lauryn and her boyfriend Owen.
The harassment began in October 2020, with an initial text telling Lauryn that she wasn’t invited to the annual Halloween party thrown by Khloe’s mother, Tami, per The Cut. After a brief pause, the messages resumed months later and escalated to 40-50 a day, ranging from insults about Lauryn’s appearance to alarming threats against her relationship.
Suspicion initially fell on Khloe, but she consistently denied involvement. It wasn’t until August 2022 that the FBI uncovered the truth: the messages had been sent by Lauryn’s mother, Kendra Licari, who had been impersonating Khloe and other students.
Alongside Lauryn, Owen and their families, Khloe and her parents also appear in the documentary, sharing what it was like to be falsely accused of cyberbullying.
So, where are Khloe Wilson’s parents now? Here’s everything to know about their lives after their daughter was falsely accused of catfishing Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny.
Who is Khloe Wilson?
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Khloe is a fellow Beal City High School graduate who was a friend of Owen’s. Although they were close when they began high school, Owen noted in the documentary that Khloe “wasn’t the nicest person growing up.”
“She wasn’t a bully, but she wasn’t a nice person by any means,” Owen said. “I think she said some things to Lauryn that just made Lauryn not like her.”
Despite her friendship with Owen, Khloe didn’t get along with Lauryn, who believed that Khloe “had a crush on Owen.”
“I think she would always just go and talk to him to make me jealous,” Lauryn said in the documentary. “I didn’t like Khloe because I feel like we just had two completely different vibes.”
As shared in the documentary, Khloe quickly became the prime suspect in the case after several clues appeared to point her way, starting with texts related to Lauryn’s basketball team, which Khloe also played on.
“I got one text where the sender talked about how many points they scored in the game the night before,” Lauryn said. “My mom was the volunteer scorekeeper at most games, so we thought that we could look at the score chart. When we looked, only one person had that many points — Khloe Wilson.”
On top of that, messages came in from Florida area codes while Khloe was on a trip with her family there for spring break, adding to the suspicion.
Khloe maintained that she had nothing to do with the texts. Although she knew she looked guilty, she felt as though she was being deliberately framed.
Who are Khloe Wilson’s parents?
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Khloe was raised by her parents — mom Tami and dad Craig — in Beal City. In the documentary, Tami shared that during seventh and eighth grade, Khloe was accused multiple times of bullying. “The principal called Khloe in constantly, and she’s like, ‘I’m not doing anything,’ ” Tami recalled.
Craig described his daughter as a “leader” with a “huge friend group” that spanned several other schools.
“I think to some people, I’m not going to say they were offended by that, but maybe they wanted that sort of thing for themselves,” he added.
Craig is a police officer, which led Lauryn’s dad, Shawn Licari, to further suspect it was Khloe behind the texts to his daughter.
“I thought, ‘Khloe’s gonna get away with this. Her dad is a police officer,” he said. “He’s gonna do certain things to get rid of things, and there was all kinds of thoughts going on with that.”
Did Khloe Wilson’s parents get involved in the cyberbullying case against Lauryn and Owen?
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As several people began suspecting Khloe was behind the texts, her parents came to her defense.
After the texts from the Florida area code, Craig encouraged Khloe to turn her phone in, hoping it would clear her name. After a forensic download, Khloe’s phone came up clean, which led officials to consider that she might have been being framed by somebody.
As shown in the documentary, Tami and Craig were alongside Khloe as she was questioned by officials, and even chimed in to defend her daughter. At one point, Tami said her “finger is pointing towards Adrianna,” Owen’s cousin who some believed could have been the one framing Khloe.
However, according to The Cut, Khloe’s parents had a gut feeling about Kendra years earlier; although Craig wasn’t an official cop on the case, there were several signs that were suspicious. In early February, Craig texted the sheriff on the case, saying, “Honestly Mike I don’t know if you know Kendra or not but you really need to be cautious. There is a pretty good part of me that thinks that she may very well be doing this.”
Where are Khloe Wilson’s parents now?
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As Khloe revealed in the documentary, she and her parents attended Kendra’s sentencing in April 2023. Although Kendra was sentenced to serve 19 months to five years in prison, per UpNorthLive, Khloe’s parents opened up in the documentary about still reeling from the aftermath of the scandal.
“Khloe missed a whole goddamn year of what should have been some of the best memories of her life,” Craig said. “A whole year of people pointing the finger at her and not believing what she’s saying, being grilled by her parents and not believed by the majority.”
Meanwhile, Owen’s mother Jill expressed feeling “guilty” about placing blame on Khloe and her family, explaining that she had just been going off the “little bit of information that we had, which was not a lot.”
But, Craig expressed that he does still hold a grudge against Jill, saying, “She invited this in. The impact to my family, to our family, is largely because of her and [sheriff] Mike Main.”
Tami added that she had told someone during the years-long investigation that Shawn and Lauryn would “play this off like they were the victim in this [s—], they had no clue what was going on and they’re gonna get away with it because Mike Main didn’t do his [f——] job and investigate them.”
“And that’s exactly what happened,” Tami said, with Craig chiming in that he was “proud” of her for saying that.
Craig further expressed gratitude for FBI liaison Bradley Peter, saying that “without him, it wouldn’t have went anywhere.”
Although Kendra was released from prison on parole in August 2024, Tami said she was glad she was caught before it could’ve gotten even worse.
“You watch all these other documentaries of how this ends. It’s not good,” Tami said. “Who knows what else she would have done if this didn’t catch up to her?”
According to The Cut, Tami also impersonated Kendra for her last Halloween party, dressing as a scarecrow in a prison jumpsuit paired with a mask of her mugshot and phones clutched in its hands.
Per the outlet, Tami considered having a watch party of the documentary with her friends around the Beal community. However, she changed her mind and decided to just watch it as a family.