“Unknown Number: The High School Catfish” is a documentary that was released August 29 on Netflix. It is a documentary about how two freshmen from a small town received an alarming number of harassing messages from an anonymous phone number.
The documentary is about teenagers Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny. The two were romantically involved for around two years, until the pair began to receive texts from an unknown number who seemingly wanted the couple to break up. The texts began when the two were supposed to go to a Halloween party, but then the texter did not contact them again until much later.
Nearly a year after the texts abruptly stopped, they picked up once more. Only this time, Lauryn and Owen were spammed with texts on a daily basis. These messages spanned from harassment and bullying about Lauryn’s appearance to making extremely crude and sexual comments about Owen. Friends and family of the teenagers suspected a high school student who was close to either one of them was possibly sending the texts.
Several people are considered to be suspects within the film, and the culprit is not one a person would expect. Anybody close to either family is questioned and Owen’s own cousin was considered a suspect at one point in time. However, more texts came in even after the police found who they thought was behind the scheme.
I believe that this is an extremely interesting documentary. I am going to spare the details of who exactly the online catfish was because it is mindblowing. I would put a slight content warning before watching this. The sexually explicit things said in these texts are about 14-year old teens, and it can get rather disgusting. Overall, I do find this case intriguing. I highly recommend watching this documentary if one enjoys true crime.