Kendra Gail Licari: Michigan mom who catfished daughter for a year got arrested

In Isabella County, Michigan, a mother has been charged with felonies for her involvement in a catfishing and cyberbullying scam that was intended to harm her own daughter. Following a year-long investigation, Kendra Gail Licari, 42, of Mount Pleasant, Michigan, was charged on Monday, December 12. A report of cyberbullying was made to Beal City Schools, claiming that Licari's daughter and the boy she was seeing at the time were the targets of the abuse. In order to identify the person behind the anonymous bullying, Licari collaborated with the boy's mother and school administrators, according to Unilad. When Licari was employed by her daughter's school as a girls' basketball coach in December, a complaint was filed. David Barberi, the prosecutor for Isabella County, claims that the texts started in early 2021. The district requested law enforcement's aid in January 2021, and by April even the FBI's computer crime section was involved. The federal agency was able to locate the communications' IP addresses and found that they were connected to Licari. In order to hide her location and make it appear as though the communications were originating from locations where other minors were present, the accused used virtual private networks (VPNs), according to Barberi. To try to make it seem like the texts were sent by another youngster, the mother added lingo and acronyms in the exchanges. In total, 349 pages of abusive text and social media communications were gathered by the prosecutor's office. Licari apparently made a complete confession about her behavior after being discovered. It is still unknown why she singled out her daughter. The mother, 42, was accused of stalking a youngster twice and of using a computer to commit crimes twice. She is also accused of trying to use another youngster as a scapegoat for her conduct during the investigation, which results in one count of obstructing justice against her. Licari was released after the arraignment on a $5,000 bail. Her acts, which included using a computer to commit a crime, which is a 10-year felony while stalking a juvenile and obstructing justice are all five-year felonies, might result in her spending time in prison. Licari will show up on December 29 for a hearing to see if there is enough proof to hold her over for trial.