A woman from Michigan was charged with a felony after she allegedly catfished and cyberbullied her own teenage daughter for an entire year. The allegations come from an incident that occurred in Michigan. Kendra Gail Licari, of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, was charged with a few felonies following a year-long investigation that started when Beal City Schools received a complaint about cyberbullying.
Since Licari's daughter and her daughter's boyfriend were the victims of the harassment, Licari collaborated with the mother of her daughter's boyfriend as well as the school authorities to find out who was behind the cyberbullying.
Since the incidents did not take place on school property and did not involve the use of school equipment, district officials ran out of resources while trying to identify the offender. In January 2021, the district made a request for assistance from law enforcement, and by April of that same year, even the computer crime division of the FBI was participating in the investigation.
The federal agency was successful in locking down the IP addresses that were used to send the messages. It was later discovered that those messages were linked to Licari. According to the prosecutor's explanation, the mother is suspected of having hidden her location by using virtual private networks (VPNs) and making it appear as though the messages came from places where other teenagers were located.
She attempted to make it appear as though the messages were sent by another teenager by using a lot of abbreviations used by teens. The office of the prosecutor compiled 349 pages of harassing messages received via text and social media platforms. Licari was questioned about her actions after she was traced down, and according to reports, she gave a full confession about what she had done.
The mother, who is 42 years old, was charged with two counts of stalking a minor, two counts of using a computer to conduct a crime, and one count of obstructing justice. The most recent allegation says that the mother attempted to frame another minor for her actions while the investigation was ongoing.
Licari was allowed to be released on bail in the amount of $5,000 and was later released. Stalking a juvenile and obstructing the administration of justice are both felonies that carry a sentence of five years in prison each, while the use of a computer to commit a crime carries a sentence of ten years.
Comments / 52