Borrowed Bones

The Licari Family and the Unknown Number

• Sarah Sexton • Episode 21

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 We get into "Unknown Number: The High School Cat Fish ,” documentary that dives into a cyberstalking scandal that blindsided families and friends in small town, Beal City, MI 


Sources:

The Cut, Cole's MLive Article, MLive, MLive, MLive, MDOC, Forbes

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello everyone.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm Sarah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm Cole.

SPEAKER_00:

And you're listening to Borrowed Bones. Podcast about fucked up, interesting, and toxic families.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

Just wanted to say my name very badly there and just wanted to cut you off.

SPEAKER_01:

Apparently.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm just excited to get into this.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. It's a weird one.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And real quick before we get super into it, I do want to do some announcements up top. We normally do them at the bottom, but I just wanted to let everyone know that we might be going dark for like a week or two. Um, I am getting surgery on Friday.

SPEAKER_01:

Two surgeries.

SPEAKER_00:

In a couple weeks, in a couple few days. I don't know. I don't know what day it is when I'm gonna throw this out because I'm off schedule now.

SPEAKER_01:

But of this recording.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So when this is heard, I will have had surgery already. Yeah. And hopefully I'm alive.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not a big deal. It's not it's it's foot surgery. Feet surgery, technically, because it's on both of them separately. Two separate issues.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's really fun. Yeah, nothing obviously like life-threatening, but surgery is always a little nerve-wracking just in general. I have great feet due to my genetics. Thanks, Dad, and grandma, if you're listening. I might be gone for a week or two, but then I will have nothing better to do than this podcast after I am off of the pain medication. I'll be out of work for a little while. Anyway, what will help me get through all of that healing process is if everyone could engage with the podcast, like and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you listen. The rating and reviews help a lot. Like I've said before, it helps move us up to the front, allows people to find us easier, faster, everything. So very helpful. Thank you. We also have merch. I've been mentioning that.

SPEAKER_01:

Got an official website.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. The website is borrowedbonespodcast.com. If you want to get our merch, the link is also in the show notes. If you just want to scroll down, however you're listening, you'll see it.

SPEAKER_01:

It's also shirts. Yep. All the typical swag things. Everything.

SPEAKER_00:

And you can see it in our Instagram as well, the Borrowed Bones Podcast Instagram. So, yes, that is all of the announcements up front. Because I wanted to make sure you guys heard that I'm having surgery. Misery loves company, right? So I want you all with me on this.

SPEAKER_01:

Getting her bones operated on.

SPEAKER_00:

Anyway, let's get into it. Today we are talking about something that has been pretty popular. The nation seems to be talking about it. And this story, this family event, happened yet again near Bay City, Michigan. I feel like a lot happens around Bay City. At least recently I've been noticing it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you got it kind of a skewed perspective because I'm the one who kind of chronicles the Bay City crime and that's true, I guess.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I mean like nationwide things that you wouldn't understand are like Jonestown is connected to Bay City.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, Trick or Treat was first published in Bay City. Um Madonna was born in Bay City. Uh it's just there's a lot here that you wouldn't think about because 96 Tears was recorded in Bay City. Oh, I don't know what's that. Question Mark the Mysterion song? Oh, yes, yeah, do, I do. Sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_01:

You know if you're hurt, it's yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But yes, um, however, this did not happen in Bay City exactly, just happened, I don't know, about 40 minutes away in Beale City, Michigan.

SPEAKER_01:

Isabella County.

SPEAKER_00:

Mm-hmm. Near Mount Pleasant.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

It's not really a city, though. I think it's more of a village. It's very, very small. According to the 2020 census, it only had 332 people. That's have you been to Beale?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think I was. I don't think I ever went out there while I was covering this.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like I've played Beale in sports. I played softball a lot and did tournaments and everything, and I've I've seen Beale City like shirts and sweats. And so I think I've interacted, but I don't I if I have, I've only driven through. I don't remember. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, if you've been to one small Michigan town, you've been to them all kinds of.

SPEAKER_00:

I know they all kind of seem the same. But yes, it's a small city, and there's only one public school, just one entirely, it that takes over the elementary, middle, and high school all in one. And I've seen a lot of people that aren't from the Midwest really, or if they're not from smaller communities, they seem confused by this. Like, how does a sixth grader or a third grader interact with a senior or junior?

SPEAKER_01:

They don't. They're on the same property, but it's not literally the same, or like, you know, it's maybe architecturally the same building, but they're not as connected. There's different wings that are, you know, there's the K through five wing, maybe there's the six through eight, and then high school. So it's not like senior high schools walking down the same hallway with a kindergartner and knocking them over. I mean, it's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Usually separated by gyms or maybe like cafeteria, school offices. It's yeah, there's it's separated in some way.

SPEAKER_01:

Where every there's just a school mom teaching everyone between five and eighteen.

SPEAKER_00:

Like yes. So I just I wanted to get a few of those things out of the way because these big city people that talk about it don't seem to quite get it. It's not that weird, it's different than what the coastal elites are used to, but it's it's the Midwest. It's fine, it's economical. So if you haven't guessed by now, we are talking about the documentary on Netflix called Unknown Number. So we will talk about it entirely. If you have not watched that documentary and you want to, we will we're gonna spoil it. So choose what you want to do first. Listen to us, then watch it or watch that. But I'm letting you know we're going through the whole process here. And Cole, were you one of the first ones to write about this? Or did you break the story or what?

SPEAKER_01:

I was one of the first. I think I might have I I can't swear to this with 100%, but I think I was the first to get a police report from the Isabella County Sheriff's Office shortly after like they got details of their investigation and how it went, and I'm not gonna spoil it right now, but um yeah, because I sent a shortly after a person was charged with a crime, I submitted a good job not yes, a crime does occur in this. And that's yeah, leads to criminal charges. So shortly after this person was charged, I sent a FOIA request to the sheriff's office for their reports and copies of the text messages that were involved. And they gave me quite a bit.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they did, I remember.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I had to drive out there and pick it up in person because it was all printed out. Um but yeah. So then I wrote an article kind of summarizing, detailing their investigation that led to this person being charged. And that kind of broke the larger narrative out.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, yeah, it was it was pretty crazy as it was happening, how you kept coming home and telling me more and more, and I just was like, wait, what? And then I remember I would get confused and say, This is the same thing, right? For how long it was. I would forget about it, and then you'd bring it up again, and I was like, What? What are you talking about? Like this was such a long process.

SPEAKER_01:

About a year and a half, I think, from it was a long time charging till. And that's the legal side of it. Yeah, that's just the legal side. That's just yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And then um, you were even asked to be a part of a podcast or help with a podcast for it. That kind of fizzled out, and then we realized there's documentary, and we're like, oh, this is getting really big. So now you get to talk about it on our podcast. Yeah, yay, yeah. Oh, and are you sorry, are you friends with Brad Peter?

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, you are? Oh, okay. Well, hi, Officer Brad.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no, we've we've hung out.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's cool. Have I met him?

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe I mean we used to be we used to hang out, you know, 10, 15 years ago close, and then we just okay.

SPEAKER_00:

There are some people that I see sometimes out and about that I know we recognize each other through you. I wonder if he's one of those people that you've just said hi to and I've been like, you know, near. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, hello, Officer Brad Peter. I have read about you.

SPEAKER_01:

I will text him a link to this once it's published and be like, we mentioned you on this.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um Officer Brad Peter comes into the story. I say his full name because it's two first names, and it's weird just to say Officer Peter, but uh whatever. Officer Peter. Um, he's from Bay City.

SPEAKER_01:

He's a Bay City police officer.

SPEAKER_00:

It's all connected, and he'll come into the story later. So anyway, let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Starting from the top, Kendra and Sean Lakari met while Kendra was a student at Central Michigan University, living in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. What is that, about 15 minutes away from Beale? If even.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, if even.

SPEAKER_00:

It's pretty close. Okay, yeah. Sean is born and raised Beale City. After Kendra and Sean met, their relationship grew and Kendra would eventually move into Sean's house. In 2007, their daughter, Lauren, was born. And she would be their only child. Kendra was the breadwinner for the family. She was a bank branch supervisor, and then she ended up working in the human resources department at Central Michigan University. Sean worked at the local auto body shop.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. You know more about this than I do, even though I kind of started knowing it because I was only focused really on my job and the yeah, like I wasn't worried about their anyone's biographies. I was just this is the crime that happened. You know, how did that lead to there? So you know more about the players involved, even the minors to me. Minors O R meaning children. Oh, right now, yes.

SPEAKER_03:

The pickaxe.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, but like you know, obviously, I can't publish names of minors, so I had no interest in even really digging into them too much because they're minors, they're you know, anyway.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, Lauren is no longer a minor. Yes, yes, this is uh no one is a minor anymore. Yes, just for the record, they're not. Um, and this is not slanderous to anyone who was a minor at the time, anyway. So I feel comfortable talking about it. Um but yeah, you did more of the criminal side of it after it came to the police, but I found this really great article. Uh it's the cut article, and it's written by Lauren Smiley. She did a really great job. She interviewed everyone and talked to them and got these more detailed stories versus yes. So I use both of you in researching this, and there's a few other things I've looked at as well. Obviously, I watched documentary too, so I have a lot of different things, but a lot of this does come from the cut. So I want to give that proper shout out.

unknown:

Cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Sean was the supportive father role, and Kendra was the one that like ran the house. She oversaw the schedule, finances, and everything. In the spring of 2019, Lauren was in sixth grade and Kendra got a new job at Fair State University. She would work at the IT service desk as a specialist in cell phones. So she knows her gadgets, she knows how to said the salary was a huge increase from her previous job at CMU. So it was a good switch. Yay. And then the family was able to upgrade to a four-bedroom rustic chic log cabin in the woods.

SPEAKER_01:

Damn.

SPEAKER_00:

Sean said that it was his dream home.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Four-bedroom, that's pretty nice.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Co-workers of Sean's would joke that Kendra was a sugar mama and that Sean couldn't get dressed without Kendra's help. Even though their friends would joke about this with Sean, they never really saw any red flags or anything. They just were like, hey, they both had their roles and they both seemed very happy in them. Now, Kendra was not from the area. She is from Pontiac, which is a suburb of Detroit, very close. So people will say she's from Detroit. Yeah. So she's from the big city, living in a very small town.

SPEAKER_01:

And yeah, it'd be a culture shock.

SPEAKER_00:

Culture shock for her, but also people always say, you know, small towns take care of their own. Well, they really only take care of their own, and no one else outside of that. And Kendra was not one of their own.

SPEAKER_01:

You're not born and raised.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And so you married into it.

SPEAKER_00:

You married into it. And I that's how I put it. I took me a while to adjust living here. Coming from Dallas to Bay City was a big switch for me. And I was 17, and it took us a good year, year and a half for people to start being like, oh yeah, like you're in our friend group routinely. I was just kind of me and my twin for a long time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, twin.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I can imagine Beal was a little bit harder to like cut through. It's just, I don't know what it is. It's just hard to get in. But once you're in, it is a warm embrace. It's very nice, but it's hard to get in. So it was difficult for Kendra to sort of make her own way as she's trying to fit in better. And not that she's being bullied or anyone's being mean to her. There's just this standoffness that happens in small towns. So Kendra gets really involved with Lauren, her daughter.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Kendra ends up coaching Lauren's softball team when Lauren was in elementary school. And then later, Lauren was in middle school and Kendra coached Lauren's basketball team. Everything was going well. Kendra was fitting in. She made friends with other families. They had groups together. Yeah, it all it all was working out. Like the longer you're there, you will be accepted. It will happen. It just is hard. It's hard to move to small towns. It really is. The Lakaris and other families would go on these big group spring break trips to Florida or Alabama. They'd all pitch in their share and like get a condo or something.

SPEAKER_01:

Nothing like vacationing in Alabama. No offense to even in Alabama. It's just not a place I would go on my vacation.

SPEAKER_00:

It's coastal.

SPEAKER_01:

Very little bit.

SPEAKER_00:

It's pretty. I mean, I've never really been, but no. I know people that have. It's normal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Like 50 other places I'd rather go off the top.

SPEAKER_00:

Like I know. I don't think we have any Alabama listeners. Maybe we will now if we say Alabama enough. Oh no, they're gonna get mad. Okay. Anyway. Daughter Lauren was on the quieter side, a little bit shy, but a good student, good daughter. Once you got to know her, she was open and friendly. She was involved in a lot of sports. She also did a lot of travel sports, so always on the go, always busy. Unlike Lauren, Kendra was a little more outgoing, a little more sociable. Kendra would often go up to Lauren's classmates and gossip with them.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. Aye.

SPEAKER_00:

Lauren wasn't really bothered by her mom chatting it up with her friends, though, because the two of them were very close. They had a really close mother-daughter bond.

unknown:

That's always weird.

SPEAKER_01:

There's always I remember being a kid, and I Yeah, you're an only child. Yeah, and you can't be a little bit of a child. I'm an only child. I grew up from kindergarten through eighth grade, essentially, was the same 18 to 20 people. Yeah, you hated like like eight girls, eight, nine guys, roughly this that that's it. So but there'd always be that one kid's mom that like wouldn't leave the parties and would like try to cool mom. Yeah, and like try to talk and just like I don't want to got yeah, just it was weird.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

There's always that one mom that just hangs around, doesn't know. Like, all right, time to let your kids be kids. You can leave now.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, it yeah, they were very close, like that. Very, yeah. By the time Lauren was in middle school, other parents were starting to get annoyed with how much Kendra was all about Lauren constantly talking about her, bragging, just everything you said.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you know how overbearing you have to be as a parent to the other? Other parents, yeah. I know it's like the Puritans getting kicked out of England. Like, do you know how prudish you had to be as a Christian, get kicked out of Middle Eastern, or not, excuse me, Middle Eastern, but uh middle-aged, excuse me, not middle age, middle ages, medieval? Yeah, medieval Europe. Like Jesus, literally, yeah, like you were that prudish.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So if you're that annoying to parents talking about your kid, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Other parents got annoyed with her talking about Lauren so much. In the fall of 2019, Lauren is now in seventh grade. Um, so she's like what, 12 or 13 here, just for anyone who's not from our country. Yeah, seventh grade is 12 or 13. You turn 13 in seventh grade. So I don't know when her birthday is exactly. So she's 12 or 13.

unknown:

All right.

SPEAKER_00:

A boy named Owen McKenny became interested in Lauren romantically. Okay. It's kind of the first, you know, middle school love. In classic middle school fashion, Owen asked his friends to tell Lauren that he liked her.

SPEAKER_01:

You never say it yourself at that age.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no.

SPEAKER_01:

Tell a friend.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, hey, go tell her I like her and see what she says.

SPEAKER_01:

Or you, yeah, you have your boy your male friend ask her girlfriend to ask her.

SPEAKER_00:

It sounds like they went straight to Lauren, which is, you know, they're getting more direct these days. These kids. Later that day, Lauren went to watch Owen play in his football game. Cute. And then after the game, Owen texted Lauren and asked her, Are we dating? And Lauren replied, Do you want to be? And Owen responded, sure. And their love story begins.

SPEAKER_01:

Must have been so much easier when I'm thinking because there was no texting when I was a kid. Like there was no lights or phone calls or face-to-face. That was it. There's so much more distance cable, and you can take more, I don't know, it's just so detached.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. A little bit about Owen's family now. Owen's parents, Jill and Dave McKenny, began dating when they were in seventh grade.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Dave was a star outfielder for Beale City High's baseball team, and Jill was once a cheerleader for Beale City High. They're both born and raised. Yep. Dave coaches kids baseball and works as an IT manager, and Jill is very big into volunteering at the Catholic Elementary School. When Owen and Lauren started dating, Kendra was all about it. She was a very involved mom with her daughter's first boyfriend. Jill, Owen's mom, said that Kendra would talk about them as if they would be together forever.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh.

SPEAKER_00:

One time one of Lauren's friends saw Kendra take Lauren's phone and read her texts with Owen. And then Kendra replied to Owen as if she were Lauren and said, I love you to Owen in place of Lauren. So just interesting boundaries there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Or lack their own.

SPEAKER_00:

In the spring of 2020, the world shut down due to COVID.

SPEAKER_01:

Isolationism sets in.

SPEAKER_00:

Mm-hmm. When the lockdown was in full force, the Lacaris and the McKennies were in each other's small social circles. So they still saw each other a lot. They hung out throughout the summer. The families traveled together for like Lauren and Owen's sports games, teens. They were still a part of all that. Because that's all outside, so that makes sense. I know I miss the lockdown. The families would all stay together on travel weekends and they would go camping together. They just spent a lot of time together this summer. When Owen and Lauren entered eighth grade, Kendra signed up to be the coach for Owen's track team.

SPEAKER_03:

All right.

SPEAKER_00:

And Owen said that Kendra became like a second mom to him. Like this was all hunky dory.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. It's small, small.

SPEAKER_00:

There's not a lot of people to sign up for things. You know, that's 332 people total. That's not a lot.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Kendra would also take Lauren to all of Owen's games, like for every sport, even if he was playing three hours away for some tournament or championship or something. Then another time, Kendra suggested that they have a Lakari family vacation down in Florida to watch Owen play a tournament down there.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

These kids are in eighth grade.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Still in middle school. To this Florida adventure, Jill politely said no to that idea. Owen's mom was like, we can, we'll just do this on our own. It's fine. And Jill at this point didn't really see anything alarming. She just thought that Lauren was quirky. Or that Kendra was one of those involved, you know, over involved moms. Yeah, just one of those. Because she's always like nice. Like she's not rude or anything. She's just in your face.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. A bit much.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, a bit much. Now we're gonna go back a little bit to the fall of 2019 when Lauren and Owen first started dating. A few weeks after they started dating, there was an anonymous text message that was sent to Lauren and Owen.

SPEAKER_01:

Sent to both of them.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. The text said that Lauren was not invited to the annual Halloween party thrown by Tammy Wilson. Tammy's daughter, Chloe, is a classmate of theirs.

SPEAKER_03:

All right.

SPEAKER_00:

Tammy Wilson always throws a great Halloween party that said to be the headliner of the year for Beale City. It kind of sounds like us because we always throw a really great Halloween party.

SPEAKER_01:

I had someone messaged me today asking if we were having our party, and I said yes, and I'm not entirely sure how I know this person. It's just a number. No, it was uh on Facebook. I'm someone I'm Facebook friends with, but I don't know why I'm friends with them.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, on Facebook, but you know them. Yeah. Okay, cool. That's sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I they knew about the party. Great. Sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Come on down.

SPEAKER_01:

That person's not listening right now.

unknown:

That'd be weird.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you just didn't know you were friends with them on Facebook.

SPEAKER_01:

That's why I don't know who they are.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, you don't know who they are at all.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you want me to edit this out?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00:

We do know this Facebook person. The costume is always so good every year that we do not recognize them every year. And then when they have a normal face on, like the face that they were born with, it's hard to remember who they were. So, yes, if you are listening, we do know who you are. We figured it out and um continue on. Happy listening. Bye. Yeah, it sounds like our Halloween party every year we end up getting more and more people to come. We have such a big, big, a big blowout. Ooh.

SPEAKER_01:

We have a DJ.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. It's it's a lot of fun. So I get it. Like some a Halloween party is the place you want to be. So getting a text saying you're not invited, rude. Yeah. No, thank you. We would never do that to someone. Rude.

SPEAKER_01:

Have I done that to someone?

SPEAKER_00:

No, you don't text and say you're not invited.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. I would just tell them to their face.

SPEAKER_00:

If you saw them, but we would just do nothing if they weren't invited.

SPEAKER_01:

Like no, yeah, I wouldn't be not a good idea. Or unless they messaged me. Like, yeah, don't come.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. So preemptively. Weird to get a text out of the blue that's like, hey, you're not invited. Yeah. Okay. So it was pretty upsetting to this young couple when they got this text. Like, what the fuck? Why? Why? What? Owen showed the text to his parents and they just shrugged it off as someone who was jealous of them. Like someone just trying to break you guys up. You know, you're you're 13, hormonal. And Tammy, Chloe's mom, got wind of this, and she the classmate that did you introduce Chloe? I did just like three seconds ago. So Tammy is the Tammy Wilson is the one that throws the party. Okay. Chloe is her daughter, which is a classmate in the same grade as Lauren and Owen. So when Tammy got wind of this, Chloe's mom, Tammy called the families and assured them that she nor Chloe sent the text and they're both very much invited to the party.

SPEAKER_01:

Unless it's the host, because I would think like what value is there with a number you don't recognize.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, Lauren at first thought maybe it was Chloe. Yeah, you're just like, you know, being a little bitch, but like they were like, no, it's not us. Yeah. So they went to the Halloween party, no issue, everything was fine. And then there was no text or anything after that for one year. But in the fall of 2020, after the summer they all had together and everything, Lauren and Owen started receiving more anonymous text messages. And these ones were like pretty bad. You saw them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm not gonna feign ignorance. I've yeah, I've read through a lot of them. I don't remember a lot, but I remember the I remember you telling me about them.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, they were they shocked me.

SPEAKER_00:

And like I'm so frustrated, but we didn't know back then that we'd be doing a podcast, but you threw you FOIA'd for all of them and you had all of the texts. You had them all and they're gone. You threw them away.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't you don't keep stuff because you would you would be nowhere to put all of it. You FOIA for like every day.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it's just write the story.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm just so I thought you had them, and I was so excited to add. I mean, I still have text messages, but they're from the cut article. I'm not gonna even pretend here they're from other articles, so they're already out there. I just wanted I remember you saying some pretty graphic ones sexually graphic that were like ridiculous, like like uber porn level of brainage that was like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, like what the hell?

SPEAKER_00:

Like, how'd you minor even yeah, like what knows these high schooler, let alone middle schooler, knows this stuff. Like, I wouldn't speak that anyway. Let's get to it. There are some texts that I am gonna read. I just wish that you had yours. Yeah, that's all. So here are some examples from the cut article written by Lauren smiley. It's obvious he wants me. His attention is constantly on me. Not sure what he told you, but he is coming to the Halloween party and we are both DTF. Down to fuck.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. That's fine.

SPEAKER_00:

And then another one, another one. He wants nothing to do with you. He thinks you're annoying and an ugly ass bitch and wishes you would leave him the fuck alone. Why do you think he's on his phone all the time texting me? You didn't get invited to sleep with him. I did. I'm spending the night with him, I'm sharing a bed with him, not you. So that's a few. But I feel like they were worse.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there was a lot of like graphic language and graphic stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And I can't remember them.

SPEAKER_01:

I remember the phrase, this is just weird, but I remember the adjective creamy was used a lot. Like graphics. I was like, why do they keep describing things? Like, oh you know what?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, will you FOIA that again? And I will do a Patreon reading those text messages.

SPEAKER_01:

You might get some creams.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't give a shit.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh money's money.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you gotta pay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't care.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not gonna read them like sexily. I'm just I just I'm someone who gets annoyed when people are like, these texts were so bad, I'm only gonna read the light ones. I want to know all of it. And I want whoever else wants to know all of it to know all of it. I'm not gonna be weird about it. Like, whatever. If you get off on me just reading, then pay me. Great. So will you FOIA for them?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we can FOIA for them again.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, look, look for it, guys. My one Patreon member, Allison, look for it. Hey, why not? Yeah. Anyway, these texts continued throughout the rest of the year, these anonymous messages coming in to both Owen and Lauren's phones. Jill, Owen's mom, showed the text to school officials and they suggested blocking the number. They're like, just block the number. Well, whenever they did, the numbers the number had their numbers. So the number would get a new number and then just text them again. So blocking the number didn't do anything. It stopped for a little bit, but that's it. Lauren and Owen tried to ignore the messages. And for the most part, they they did, but every so often they they would fight back or respond. Lauren would say things like, I don't care what you say, Owen and I are solid, and you're not gonna break us. But then other times Lauren would be defeated by it and she would give in and she would ask Owen if he was seeing someone else or if he wanted to break up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, breeds paranoia.

SPEAKER_00:

And by the time they were in ninth grade, they were drifting apart. And it was just becoming too difficult. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Side note this is what I always recommend. I don't can't attest to its efficacy, but I've never been harassed via tech. But if I was harassed via I mean, well, I have been, but through work shit and I just let it roll off. But like if someone's sending you harassing text anonymously, you gotta out harass them back. Like I would just respond with like the graphicest images that they probably have no they're not planning for at all. Like it's in like one of those beheading videos or something. Oh god. Or you know, the ghosts out of nowhere. Just something that they're gonna go like, oh my god, and they'll regret opening that door. But these 13 to 14 year olds don't know that. For future anyone who might be listening.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Just do that.

SPEAKER_00:

For the future. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Someone's harassing you, outharass them back.

SPEAKER_00:

It's kind of like your theory on conspiracy theorists, how yo, you you think we went to the moon? Oh, you think there is a moon?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, this is a simulation, my guy. Let's be real.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. You think only one person killed JFK? You you think JFK was the president? Yeah, just really make them take another step back in their theory. Just double down.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's see how far we can go here. Anyway, their relationship, of course, became difficult. They were drifting, and this anonymous texter just continued to harass them. In September of their freshman year, this was time for homecoming now. And the unknown number messaged Lauren and Owen saying, could this be the end of the AKA golden couple with the relationship everyone idolizes?

SPEAKER_01:

What teen or juvenile of this era knows that?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and it's capitalized.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So like they're using pretty decent grammar here. I'm just saying, it's decent. So yeah, this texter still taunting them, harassing them. And in early November of 2021, Lauren and Owen broke up. They were hoping that after the breakup, the text would stop.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, that was not the case. Once the texter heard of the news, they texted the couple or the ex-couple saying, He already chose us, not you. He won't be with you this weekend, so don't even ask. Maybe you shouldn't have picked cross country over him. You proved he isn't important to you. We were there, though. You don't get with him in bed. You don't sneak out with him. You fucking dress awful. Ain't no guy want that. So the texts are getting less grammatically good, good, less grammatically good.

SPEAKER_01:

She don't speak English no good. She didn't type American no good.

SPEAKER_00:

There's just too much bad spelling and bad grammar on my screen right now.

SPEAKER_01:

Infect you.

SPEAKER_00:

I can't handle it. In the following weeks, the messages got more detailed, like more aware of Lauren's day-to-day life. For example, one morning before a Friday night football game, they this texter called out Lauren for wearing Owen's jersey. They broke up, right? And the the text said, WTF, you need to take that shit off. You are embarrassing him.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Lauren's like, who the fuck is watching me? Now it's not even just anonymous. It's like, who's watching me at this point? When the girls' basketball season started in November, a few of the freshman girls were moved up from JV to varsity, but Lauren was not one of the ones asked to move up. So she stayed on JV. Some people overheard Kendra complaining, saying that these girls that moved up only did so because their parents are friends with the coach. She was like, oh, it's all politics, bullshit, bullshit.

SPEAKER_01:

It's so weird to me that people care about this.

SPEAKER_00:

The thing is, is that coaches don't. I've been a coach. I've been a coach for middle school for volleyball. And I've had parents be like, um, you are only choosing to play these people because you're friends with da-da-da. And I've looked, there was one parent one time that was pissing me off so much that I invited them to come to the practice. And I said, come to the practice and see what the other girls are doing compared to your daughter. And I said, I don't play her as much as the others because she's not as good. And the parent did come to practice, and then when the practice was over, they shook my hand, thanked me, and left. And never again did I have an issue because they fucking saw. Sorry, you're not all that good. A lot of you guys, including myself, are not gonna be professional volleyball players, basketball players. Like you're I didn't even get a college scholarship for it. I just have arthritis in my wrist now.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, I just don't get like parents care, like it's anything more than just something to occupy their time.

SPEAKER_00:

And the coaches don't want to fight with the parents, especially today's parents. Are you fucking kidding me? No, thank you. They don't get paid enough to be political with 13-year-olds.

SPEAKER_01:

Kids out to recess, they all play and no one gives a shit. But suddenly you put matching laundry on them, and the parents care.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Like who gives a shit? Yeah. Do you think it matters?

SPEAKER_00:

As long as they're having fun, exercising.

SPEAKER_01:

Who gives a shit?

SPEAKER_00:

Why do we get so mad over? He's not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You think he's gonna be a pro?

SPEAKER_00:

He's more likely to go to prison than be a professional player.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Statistically, but really he's just gonna be a normal person. Be happy with normal, y'all. Be happy. I just don't understand.

unknown:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

Sorry, that just analogy. It just pisses me off to think about that kind of stuff. Cause like we don't care that much. Anyway, sorry, that's a rant. Moving on. After the girls moved were told they're moving up to varsity later that day. Lauren received a text message from the texter referring to this basketball move. And the text said, You suck at basketball. He ain't dating, no suck ass anorexic, not good enough JV girl. Lauren thought that the texter in question was Chloe Wilson. She was thinking it's gotta be Chloe. They weren't really friends. They were in the same friend group, though, because there was probably only one friend group. Yeah. So they had to kind of interact, but they just they weren't really friends. However, Owen and Chloe were friends. And Chloe and Owen did admit to having an on-again, off-again like crush on each other, but not a big deal. Owen was also worried about everyone around him, wondering who it was watching them, wondering what thing he was going to say that would then be turned against him. Owen didn't want his friends knowing how much the cyberbullying was bothering him. His friends were not really being nice, it sounds like they called him names like Pussy Bitch.

SPEAKER_03:

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00:

Stop adding to it.

SPEAKER_01:

Just funny.

SPEAKER_00:

No, Jill thinks No, it's wrong. Yeah, well, Jill thinks that, you know, they're calling him these things because the messages are most likely from a girl, right? That's what it seems like. And that that is worse for Owen because he can't defend himself. Not even against a girl. And so these boys in Beale are calling a little pussy bitch. Like, he's not doing anything wrong. And like, we don't know who it is that's texting him. And it's terrifying to someone watching you. I've noticed there's a big issue in middle schools lately of people being very, very mean. Girls are being meaner, boys are being meaner, and I don't know why.

SPEAKER_01:

The culture of the last 10 years? Why would you not be mean? What do you think? How do you even honestly, with a straight face, tell someone not to be a bully in America? What are they gonna say? Why? If I keep being a bully, I might become the most powerful man in the world. Like there's no reason not to be. Just because you shouldn't, you just shouldn't be mean. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Why? You do kind of get what you want by being mean in America. All right, well, rant over. Okay. Then on November 30th, 2021, Jill saw the news of the school shooting in Oxford, Michigan.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, I covered that too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, you covered that. The 15-year-old boy that shot up his school, killed four classmates. This one stands out because this is the one where the parents are finally held accountable.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So good on that, finally, because parents are responsible for their children's actions. Period. Anyway, Jill thought of Owen and Lauren when this Oxford shooting happened. She thought that what if what if they're pushed to their limits and one of them shows up to school with a gun? Good for her to see something and say, hey, that could happen to me, instead of the classic American way of, well, that happened over there. That happened in Detroit area. That doesn't happen in small town. Jill told Kendra that she was going to go to the sheriff with all of this. Kendra agreed and went along with her. Even though the Oxford shooting was in November and Jill wanted to talk to the sheriff, they didn't actually talk to the sheriff until January of 2022. So November 30th was the Oxford shooting that triggered Jill. Bad word. That triggered Jill to think of, hey, we should really get more serious about stopping this now. And then probably had to get through the holidays and then, you know, get the sheriff involved. When the parents met with the sheriff, the McKenneys were struck by how little Sean knew about the cyberbullying. Kendra, on the other hand, really seemed to take this issue up with great fervor. She was very invested. Kendra was still coaching eighth grade basketball, and Kendra would bring up the text to other coaches and warned that the bullying could throw Lauren's focus off. The coaches sympathized with her, but they also gave suggestions like, why don't you take Lauren's phone, hold it for her for a little bit, give her a break, or change her number.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't understand the I mean I get like change Lauren's number. I shouldn't have to change because no, you shouldn't have to, but it's affecting your child.

SPEAKER_00:

Do something. Just change the fucking number. Yeah. Like Kendra never took their advice, though. She would instead come back the next day saying she's drained, but she was always really ready to discuss it, time and time again. Kendra would also message Lauren's friends when Lauren was at school. Lauren would like go to the bathroom because she'd be really upset from the messages and she would like let her mom know she was in the bathroom crying. So then Kendra would message Lauren's friends and say, Hey, go check on Lauren in the bathroom. She's upset. Take care of her. Students would see Kendra parked in the school parking lot in the middle of the school day.

SPEAKER_01:

Not at work.

SPEAKER_00:

Nope. When Kendra was confronted about this, she said that she's able to work from home at Ferris.

SPEAKER_01:

Then why aren't you at home?

SPEAKER_00:

Why aren't you at home? Right. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Not sure. But that was the answer given. Apparently accepted and moved along. Meanwhile, Lauren is spending hours trying to figure out what to wear to school and fear that whatever she chooses, this anonymous person will see and ridicule her. She's also getting increasingly anxious for her games, knowing that this too would become a taunting point for the texter. When Lauren and Owen finally broke up, the families did stay close. Dave McKenney sent a message to Kendra saying, I don't think this means we can't still get together. Like we can still hang out, we can still, you know, be friends. And Kendra would still sit next to Jill at games and they would talk about the texts and how to get them to stop. So, like I said, the texts were still happening post-breakup. Jill, however, did say that it seemed like Kendra wanted Lauren and Owen to get back together.

SPEAKER_03:

Weird.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. She would ask Jill if she thought they would ever get back together again and if they only broke up because of the bullying. Like, I don't know, just being different.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Jill and Kendra were thinking that classmate Chloe was behind it all, just like Lauren was suspecting. The texter would say bruh a lot, and that was something that Chloe did. The texter mentioned that she knew cops and that the cops could defend her, and her dad was a local officer.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Jill and Dave would take Owen's phone every night and they would look at the messages that this unknown number was sending. Sometimes Jill would say stuff back as if she were Owen, but for the most part, she just read the messages. One time though, Jill did message Chloe acting as Owen and asked her to just be honest if it is her. And Chloe responded very mad and she's she FaceTimed Owen right away and was angry about it. Owen got upset, didn't like that his mom did that, and he ended up not talking to his mom for a few days and was like, Mom, I'm already struggling to keep my friends after losing my girlfriend. Now I'm losing my friends. Like, stop.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Lauren would still sit at the same table or group as Chloe, though, at lunch. Again, small town, one group. The other friend said that Lauren didn't really talk much and that Lauren was kind of referred to as a ghost friend. That's sad. Lauren told her dad that because of the messages, she no longer has any friends. And in response to this isolation, Lauren and Kendra grew even closer.

SPEAKER_01:

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And if you haven't watched the documentary, you might be wondering has the school really just done nothing with all of this? Like they asked the school, and the school was like, change the numbers and just do your best, you know? What's the school? The school can't do too much. But the parents were pressing while all this was happening. The parents were pressing the school to do things. So behind the scenes, this is also happening with the school. In 2021, Kendra and Jill first met with the high school principal Dan Boyer. He looked through the texts and he noticed that the earlier ones were complete sentences, proper grammar, and the principal knew that this was not how kids text. As time went on, the text became looser. There were more acronyms and slang. So Principal Boyer asked Lauren to tell him whenever she got a text at school. Okay. Said, let me know whenever you get a text message while you're at school. He then would ask the other teachers if they noticed any students on their phones around the time of the text. Other teachers, did you notice any kids on their phones around two o'clock at this time?

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. Well, they just not let the kids have the cell phones.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

No one. Just like you don't have them during class during school hours.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. They tried that as well. So nothing came of them doing this whole like teachers keep be on the lookout of kids being on their phones. They tried, the parents did ask for the kids just to leave the phones in the locker. Not allowed to have it on them. Just put the phones in the lockers when you get to school, take them out when you when you go home. Beale City High School felt like that couldn't happen because parents expected to have communication with their kids at all times, direct communication.

SPEAKER_01:

Why do they expect that?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm assuming it's guns. Well, without them saying it, they're not gonna know it. But the fear that you have is guns. Like, I'm sorry, I can't talk about a public school without talking about guns. But that's stupid. I think it's so dumb because I went to school without a cell phone. I went to when and like you, you parents, you parents, you parents went to school without a cell phone and you survived. What are you scared of? And if you're honest, it's guns, and most of you vote to have guns in school. So, so why do we need Kendra and Jill wanted the principal to start digging into the basketball team as well, mainly Chloe. But there were other suspects on the team as well. Principal Boyer was not comfortable with this. He did not want parents to start accusing students of things and have this whole like back and forth. He just saw that that was gonna be a bad idea, which was smart. He did allow for this sting operation, though. Kendra complained that Lauren's necklace and jerse had gone missing, kind of insinuating that they were stolen. This was odd because Beale High School is like a 1960s America, according to Boyer. No one locks their lockers or doors, right?

SPEAKER_03:

That's dumb.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So to find this person who might have stolen her jersey and necklace, they're thinking it's the same texture. They set out Lauren's tennis shoes in the sports foyer under some cameras. Yes. So Principal Boyer watches, hoping the shoes would get stolen, leading them to their first suspect. But after hours of watching, no one came to take the shoes. Eventually, the janitor took the shoes to the Lost and Found.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That's it. Yeah. What Boyer did notice while watching the cameras, though, was that Coach Kendra had her phone out a lot while she was conducting practice. He noted that. He was like, that's weird. Why is she always doing this when she's coaching?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Boyer also suggested changing their numbers, but we know that the texter would find out anyway that the parents said no to that. However, like you've said, according to the cut article, quite a few parents did wonder why the parents didn't just take the phones away from the kids.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Why didn't you just take them away? Just have your kid not have a phone for a little bit and just figure this out. Stop. Love their phones. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

This doesn't sound like it. Sounds like they hate their phones.

SPEAKER_00:

Jill argued that Owen needed his phone to communicate with coaches, his travel teammates, and just to be a normal kid. And she went on to say that kids don't know how to function without a phone today.

SPEAKER_01:

Teach them.

SPEAKER_00:

Teach them because you know how.

SPEAKER_01:

Apply that same logic. You know how. Apply that logic to anything else.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's well, kids love their cocaine these days.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

You're gonna let them not have cocaine. Yeah. They love it.

SPEAKER_00:

So once the school realized that this was too big for them, they brought in Sheriff Michael Main, Sheriff of Isabella County. Sheriff Maine calls Craig Wilson and says, Hey, just so you know, your daughter Chloe is a suspect. This is January of 2022. When Craig and his wife Tammy confronted their daughter Chloe about this, she cried and insisted she did nothing wrong. Owen and Lauren were already questioning her. She was so sick of it that even one day before this, she gave Owen her phone for the whole day, said, Hold on to it, and you'll know that I'm not the one texting you. And so again, she gives her phone up. She gives it to her dad, his cop friends download the contents, do whatever they do in a cop way, and it comes up clean. Not Chloe. Tammy and Craig Wilson were in a meeting with Sheriff Main when Sheriff Main showed the Wilsons text that Kendra sent him. Texts from the bully to Lauren. So Kendra has them like screenshots. Within these texts, there were there was a screenshot from Snapchat. Some of the messages exchanged through Snapchat, Chloe said they weren't her and that someone made a fake account. Simple enough. However, Chloe did recognize some of her own words. Some of her chats with Owen that she did screenshot and she sent to Lauren as proof that she was not flirting with Owen. So she had sent stuff to Lauren that are now in these words are being repeated in this fake Snapchat account. This caused quite a bit of confusion. Like, how is this person getting this information? Craig Wilson, being a cop, he had a hunch. He began to add it all up. The weird texting in middle school about Lauren not being invited to the Wilson's Halloween party, and then Kendra's resentment that Chloe moved up to varsity basketball and not Lauren. And then there was this weird incident at a basketball tournament years earlier when Tammy and another mother were cleaning up after the tournament. They must have been hosting it. So they're cleaning up and they're searching for this dirty mat to like clean and put away. As they're looking for it, Kendra was standing around watching. Then growing frustrated, these parents were like, We need to find this mat. How do you just miss a mat? Yeah. And they're like, We're gonna look at the we have to look at the security cameras to see where it is, where'd it go? All of a sudden, Kendra is like, Hey, oh, I moved it to the equipment room. Sorry, guys.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. That's it. That's the incident. But people noted that. They were like, she was standing there watching us look for it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Just weird. People are starting to notice her weirdness. In early February of 2022, Craig Wilson texted Sheriff Main 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 she may very well be doing this. And instead of heeding Craig's warning, Sheriff Main brought in 10 student suspects for questioning. He questioned them in the school office one by one. I mean, you have to ask. Eventually, kids were going to be questioned. You've got to. And at this point, the bully was now texting other girls that Owen was talking to, even girls from other schools. Owen broke down one day and said to his mother that it was her job to make the bullying stop because she was his mother. Yeah. And this caused Jill to cry. Like they're just, everyone's hitting breaking points. And you know, softball season rolls around, and Lauren would often be seen crying on the bus to and from games from all these text messages. One of the messages said, all of our lives would be better if with you not here. People were still thinking that Chloe was to blame, but she wasn't. So Chloe was starting to wilt away, and she was crying every day after school as well in her bedroom. But people were starting to be like, this is really weird for any teenager to keep a secret like this for this long. It's been years at this point, 2019 to 2022. Like, it's a long time. And the town was growing more and more suspicious of Kendra. Parents noticed Kendra was seeking a lot of attention with this cyberbullying of her daughter. And others thought that the text could only be from adults. Sheriff Mayne asked Jill and Dave if it could be Kendra, and Jill was very quick to say, absolutely not. There's no way it could be Kendra. And with all the confusion and what seemed to be a dead end, Beale City was out of resources. Now enter Bay City Zone, Officer Brad Peter.

SPEAKER_01:

Indeed.

SPEAKER_00:

Mm-hmm. Officer Brad Peter works on the Mid-Michigan Computer Crimes Task Force. Or he did.

SPEAKER_01:

He's retiring soon. He might be retired by the time we're speaking. I don't know. It's very close to an orange. Sometime in October. He's a Bay City police department officer, but there's like a local collaborative team amongst different agencies. FBI, Michigan State Police. So he's kind of like on loan from his actual department to this task force of different jurisdictions.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So he gets called in to help with this in Beale City, basically working under the FBI umbrella.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Please from Bay City.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Sheriff Main reached out to Officer Peter in April of 2022. They knew they had to work fast. There were these burner apps that the anonymous texter was using, an app called Pinger. And this app, a lot like many of them, will wipe away their records every two weeks. So once you discover a new number that's created from this app, you have to track it down very quickly because then it goes away.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like Snapchat for phone numbers.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Why these are legal, I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know why they're legal because only bad people use them. I mean, the the non-bad people that use them are probably children that are trying to evade their parents. But that's it.

SPEAKER_01:

Like with Snapchat, I've said this. It's for pedophiles and preteens. That's it. If you're an adult who isn't ashamed of what you're sending, why does it need to delete, you freaking weirdo?

SPEAKER_00:

You've written a lot about pedophiles on Snapchat. Like predators on Snapchat and these apps. So like really it's bad. Yeah. It's bad.

SPEAKER_01:

Rocket science.

SPEAKER_00:

Officer Peter asked Jill to send him the texter's latest phone numbers. Anytime the phone number would change, she would let Officer Peter know. Okay, new number, here you are. Officer Peter also emailed Kendra about the case. He was aware of people's suspicions about her, but both himself and Sheriff Main just felt that this was way too far-fetched. They're like, there's no way that Kendra is behind this. Now, after not hearing back from Kendra for two days after sending the email, Officer Peter calls Kendra and he says he had a normal conversation with her, that she was worried, but nothing really stood out to him. Did you communicate with Officer Peter during this time or was it all after the fact?

SPEAKER_01:

It was after the fact. Okay. Yeah. So in mid-April, because we knew none of this investigation was even going on until a person was charged. And then like this person's charged with doing this, so no one really knew what was happening that there was this pending investigation going on until the police gave like a press release and like here it all is.

SPEAKER_00:

That that makes sense, I guess. Why would you know about it with nothing there yet? Yeah. In mid-April, Jill sent Officer Peter for new numbers. And at this time, the Pinger app was under a search warranty or warranty. Search warrant. Search warrant. Yeah. Is your car under warranty? Anyway, uh the Pinger app was now under a search warrant that was given by Officer Peter. Officer Peter emailed the school's IT director saying that through this warrant, he now knows that it is someone from the school that is doing this. He's tracking IP addresses and all that. If you don't understand IP addresses, look it up.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know how he does an IP address is basically a fingerprint to your server.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And there there was a lot of digging he did, and it gets a little intricate, but through the IP addresses, he's able to track phones. Not just phone numbers, but you're able to see the phone that these apps are using. So it's more in depth in the phone number.

SPEAKER_01:

It's very convoluted, this forensic digital analysis. That's why he's like he's a singular kind of pro at this locally. Like it's so involved they select someone to train and he handles it regionally.

SPEAKER_00:

And he had to connect with Verizon because these were Verizon Towers and I don't know, all this stuff. So he could tell that it was from the school, but didn't know who it was yet. He had to wait for more information to come to him. As Officer Peter is investigating, Jill is beginning to pick up some weirdness from Kendra. It's been months since the breakup, and Kendra just keeps prying into Owen's love life. And it got to the point where Jill was like, hey, we're only going to talk about the cyberbullying from here on out. Like, leave, like stop worrying about Owen. In May, after basketball season was over, so Kendra was the eighth-grade basketball coach, and she no longer has any reason to be at the school because the season's over. Dave notices Kendra's car parked near the Catholic church, half a block from the school. He saw that Kendra was looking down at her lap. When she glanced up and saw Dave, she waved. And then later that day, unprompted, Kendra was talking to Jill on the phone and she brought it up. She said, Oh, I'm sure Dave thought it was funny seeing me in the parking lot. I drove to Beale to get gas and got a coffee and I spilled it all over me. And so I pulled in there to wipe it off. And Jill said that she could tell that Kendra was lying, but didn't know why. Yeah. Just like, what? Okay. Weird.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And at this point, the bullying is getting worse. For example, in mid-May, there was a text that Lauren received, and in all caps, it said, kill yourself now, bitch. And then the following week, Officer Peter got word from Verizon about these IP addresses. And as he sifted through these numbers, only one showed up repeatedly. Two months later in August, I'm assuming they had to do some more work.

SPEAKER_01:

Everything takes a while.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Two months later in August, Sheriff Main pulls up to the house that the family is living in. As the sheriff drives up, Kendra is taking out the trash. Sheriff Main and a detective get out of the car and they said, We're here to seize your devices, Kendra. Now, this is from the sheriff's investigative log, so it's a little dry, but I just wanted to read it. The sheriff handed Kendra a search warrant saying she was being investigated as a cyberbully. When she denied it, the sheriff told her to be honest. Her number showed up each time a text was sent. They're like, We see it. Yeah. We know it's you.

SPEAKER_01:

Pulled the veil away and now it's just cut and dry.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. The sheriff asks, Were you infatuated with Owen? And Kendra said, No, nothing like that. And then the sheriff demanded that she explain. And then the sheriff wrote that something shifted, that Kendra felt very uncomfortable. And Kendra tells the sheriff that the first text in 2019 saying you can't come to the Halloween party, that was not from her, but that she fed off of that. And that's why she began to send her text messages to her daughter and to Owen.

SPEAKER_01:

All right.

SPEAKER_00:

So Kendra's the one doing it, and that's her reason. She said that a group of kids really was trying to come between Lauren and Owen. And then the sheriff was like, but why did you continue?

SPEAKER_01:

So she's according to her own story, she's a copycat of an anonymous teen.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. And the reason why.

SPEAKER_01:

Sadder than just being like, I did it. Like you're copying a child.

SPEAKER_00:

And the reason she says is because of stress and financial issues.

SPEAKER_01:

How is this supposed to relieve either of those?

SPEAKER_00:

Right. I don't know. Go for a run, girl. Get your cortisol levels up. Like, what are you doing? Or down. Cortisol, whatever. Whichever way the cortisol levels are supposed to go, control it. Lauren was at the house when Kendra was confronted by the sheriff. Sean was not. He was at work. Lauren called her dad. Okay, you gotta get home. This is happening. And one of Sean's coworkers said that he remembers Sean saying, as he's red in the face and in shock, they think it's Kendra. Sean's fuming when he races home. And this is a little, I'm not sure what's happening here because in the documentary, it's different than the articles. So the sheriff, according to the article, met Sean outside the house first.

SPEAKER_01:

Well the body cam footage, I'd go with, I mean, the body cam footage is seen in the documentary. Yeah, he like walks outside and greets him at he comes in, like he drives in. He sheriff like meets him outside and gives him kind of like a preface. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Like okay. I don't I misremembered that then. Okay, because I thought that was inside the house, uh, according to the body cam footage. So the this is correct then. Okay. Okay. I was misremembering. Um, so the sheriff tells Sean about it outside before he comes into the house, and Sean tells the police about the other phones that Kendra has. She has three phones. She only gave two. And Sean was like, Oh, she's got a third. Let's go find it. And the third phone was found in a stack of wood outside where Kendra had stashed it as she saw the sheriff pull up. And then this is where I think we both, when we were watching the documentary, felt like Kendra's dad, Sean, handled it.

SPEAKER_01:

Husband.

SPEAKER_00:

Or Kendra's husband, sorry, Lauren's dad. Lauren's dad, Sean, handles this, I think Remarkably well. Remarkably well. You can see on the body cam footage that he is pacing back and forth. He's so angry, but he looks directly at the sheriff and he said, and he points to his wife and he says, She can't be here. If you can't leave while she's here.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You have to stay, sheriff, while she's here. Because he basically is saying, I'm gonna lose my shit.

SPEAKER_01:

He's had like one or one of us is gonna go to jail tonight if you leave.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. He was very honest, and but he never, you know, ran at her or got aggressive. He was just, you could tell that he was doing everything he could to keep it together. And he did. And he called Kendra's parents and said, You have to come get your daughter. She can't stay here. Come get her. And good, good for you, Sean. Good on you. You did the best, I think, given the shock you must have been in and rage you must have felt. The sheriff at this time also reveals to Sean and Lauren that Kendra hasn't had a job for a whole year. She hasn't been working. Kendra has been lying about their finances for years. So remember back, all the way back in 2019, when Kendra got her new job at Ferris State University, and then they moved into Sean's dream home, that four-bedroom cabin. Well, even back then, things were seeming a bit off. Sean would say things to his friends and coworkers, like, oh, we missed a house payment because someone in New Mexico stole our identity or that his pickup truck was repossessed because of a scammer in Saginaw. And then one of Kendra's checks bounced when she was supposed to pay for her portion of like a spring break group trip. And then when Kendra switched jobs from Central Michigan University to Fair State, this is when, remember, she tells her family, Oh, I'm getting a pay raise. This is wonderful. When in reality, she was fired from CMU, didn't have a job for a hot minute, and then took a pay cut to work for Fair State. Now, how could they move into this bigger home though when she's already in financial trouble?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, it seems like everyone in America lives above their means.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, basically, do it. Yep. I don't understand.

SPEAKER_01:

I can't. I don't understand how everybody else but me seemingly just lives above their means.

SPEAKER_00:

Credit. You don't really have a lot of credit cards or anything, but that's that's how credit. So they got this four-bedroom log cabin after they were no longer able to live in their other home that was smaller because it was foreclosed upon. She just told family and friends that they sold it, but it was actually foreclosed. And then they moved into this log cabin under a land contract, which is something for people with bad credit. And you basically rent to own, you pay monthly to the owner of the home. And then eventually you pay enough and you pay off the home and you own the home, is the idea. In the spring of 2021, Kendra was put on a performative improvement plan at Ferris. It was reported that she spent excessive time on non-work texts and calls. Kendra told Ferris that she was overwhelmed and stressed out from COVID and sports. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

If you're stressed from sports, you're it's defeating the purpose of sports. It's entertainment. It's elective. If entertainment stresses you, don't be entertained by it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Let it go.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. You don't have to catch balls and kick them around.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm sure Sean would take Lauren to games and let you rest a little bit, Kendra. All you do is communicate with your husband. It's not hard. In August of Lauren's freshman year, Kendra ended up quitting her job at Fair State University because she knew that she fell short of her performance improvement plan. And she quit rather than getting fired. And she didn't tell anyone. So that was her last job. And that year, in 2021, that's when the texts really started to ramp up. And Kendra claimed to be working from home at this time. She would pretend to be on calls when Sean was home. Whenever Sean would ask about anything financial, she would quickly change the subject to cyberbullying. And in the fall of 2021, the owner of the log cabin had enough of Kendra's excuses as to why she wasn't making the house payments. And he began the eviction process. By the end of April of 2022, they were evicted. Kendra told family and friends that the house's foundation was cracked and they moved out while repairs were being done. Kendra's confession spread through Beale City like wildfire. When Owen's parents told him who it was, he was quiet, shocked, and angry. When close friends of Lauren's heard, they felt angry as well and used by Kendra. Because, like, remember, Kendra would ask Lauren's friends to check on Lauren while she was in the bathroom crying and upset. It's just there's some kind of like psychosis there, like control, you know? And Chloe Wilson finally felt relief when she heard the news. Like her name is finally cleared. Kendra was arrested in December of 2022. Charged with two counts of stalking a minor, two counts of communicating with another to commit a crime. Who was she communicating with?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that might have been Pink like using the Pinger app as a secondary source, maybe. Like they don't have a word, a place for it yet because it's so new, but Yeah, she's communicating with an entity.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, not like an individual, but a corporation kind of. Yeah. With a service provided by a corporate, you know, something to that effect.

SPEAKER_00:

That was the only one that I read a few times, and I was like, what does this mean? And then one count of obstruction of justice. Lauren would finish her sophomore year of high school online. In the spring of 2023, Kendra read a statement in court, and you weren't at any of these court proceedings, were you?

SPEAKER_01:

I had to miss it for other things.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, when you're in it, you don't know what's gonna be big and what's not. So Kendra's statement in court, she reads through her blubbering eyes. I'm sorry for my behavior to Owen McKenney and his family. I'm sorry for my behavior to Chloe Wilson and her family. I'm sorry for my daughter, Lauren, and my husband, Sean. Then she continues to go on and explain that she has a mental illness, depression, anxiety, and suppressed childhood trauma, including sexual abuse. I don't give a shit. What woman doesn't have all of those under her belt? I'm not fucking like fuck you, Kendra. Fuck off with all of that. Just fuck off.

SPEAKER_01:

All the every villain starts as a victim.

SPEAKER_00:

No excuse. So anyway, Kendra was looking at 19 months to five years in prison. And this was only after Kendra pleaded guilty to the two stalking counts in exchange for this plea, the other charges against her were dismissed. So if those other charges were still on the table, she could be looking at up to 10 years. But she cut that down.

SPEAKER_01:

She should be the lesser ones. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

And she was ultimately sentenced to the minimum of 19 months in prison. And the judge, Judge Doothie, said upon Oh, do you know?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I I've been in his courtroom for other things. I know he's like, I think he's the only circuit judge in Isabella County. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, okay. Well, you're gonna have to meet a new one soon because this was his statement upon sentencing. I can't imagine any parent saying such horrible things to her own daughter. It's the kind of case that makes me glad that at the end of my term I'm retiring. So she made him happy to like no longer do his career job. Yeah. Again, fuck you, Kendra. Sorry, the documentary pisses me off so much because she acts like she's just this, oh, I'm just this little mid, this Michigan girl. No, you're a disgusting human being and you ruin the lives of many people. Like you're not a victim, you're the predator. Lauren Smiley, the author of the cut article, she wrote to Kendra while she was still in prison asking for an interview. And Kendra said that upon her release, she'll give one. But in the meantime, here's this email that she sends.

SPEAKER_01:

Never once.

SPEAKER_00:

Again, fuck you, Kendra. Yeah, I know. You're used to that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So Kendra writes, I do ask that you truly think about the kids, minor kids that are involved in this situation, including my daughter.

SPEAKER_01:

Why didn't you? Exactly. It's weird. I always hate when parents ask strangers to think more about their kids than they do.

SPEAKER_00:

I won't suddenly think of the children. I won't.

SPEAKER_01:

You first. I didn't. I won't.

SPEAKER_00:

I won't think of her. You have to. That's your job. I'm thinking of my cats that I own. Fuck off. Sorry. Kendra really pisses me off because again, watching the documentary, she acts like she's just not at fault. Like she's just not to blame. It's crazy. Well, she continues on to say, like, don't talk about this. And then at the end, because I don't care to read all of her words. So at the end, she's saying how, like, you know, this doesn't need to have any more spotlight on it. And she doesn't need Lauren having people thinking her mom is a villain, as that is hard mentally and emotionally for her.

SPEAKER_01:

Why didn't she decline the Netflix interview?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

If she genuinely wanted this to just fade away, why'd you do a Netflix interview?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And why are you agreeing to a cut interview? And why are you emailing this person who has more clout than you do? A local reporter. She went for someone who is a nationwide reporter. Like she wants to be in the spotlight. You want attention, Kendra. That's all you want. Be real. So Kendra was released out on parole in August of 2024. Kendra now currently lives in Pontiac with her family.

SPEAKER_01:

Per the terms of her parole.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Sean divorced and received full custody of Lauren during this time. Lauren is now 18, so no custody anymore. But for the last little bit, he had full custody. Kendra is not allowed much contact with Lauren, if any. I read her parole provisions or conditions. Conditions. Provisions, conditions. Um, and it said she's not allowed contact with Lauren, but then according to some of the articles I've read, she has had contact, like minimally with Lauren.

SPEAKER_01:

They might give some.

SPEAKER_00:

Maybe once Lauren turned 18, maybe she was allowed a little more.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because I would like if she's still on parole. If the victim I'm just speaking in general here, not I don't know the specifics of this case, but in general, no contact orders between the criminal and the victim are pretty standard. But if the victim wants contact, then that's that usually the courts can amend things if the the victim is the one who petitions like, no, I really do want to talk to this person. I don't then they'll lift it. Sometimes they'll consider it. So maybe there's some allowance.

SPEAKER_00:

Something there.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

The last thing that Lauren was really heard saying in the documentary, um, that she does want a relationship with her mom, but doesn't really know how to do that. She's conflicted, she's, you know, torn up by this and doesn't know what to do. Which, how could you know what to do at any age, let alone your teen years? Lauren returned to Beale City High School for her junior year and then would end up graduating. I think they graduated this past year, May of 2025. Okay. I think. Whatever. They like just graduated. It doesn't matter because we're not following them. They need to be left alone now, their story is done. Let them live their lives as college students and have the last bit of like 13 years left in them. I will say though, after the documentary came out, or right before it came out, however it was, the Wilsons had their Halloween party like they do every year. And Tammy dressed a scarecrow up in like a prison jumpsuit and a mask of Kendra, of Kendra's mugshot specifically.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh put phones, like attached phones to the scarecrow, scarecrow's hands. Nice. And that was like a part of her decor. And the cut article didn't seem to really like it too much. Or like they they quoted people that didn't like it. I don't know. She didn't really have much of an opinion. Um I kind of think it's funny. I'm sorry. I I wouldn't have thought to do that, I don't think myself, but I I wouldn't really care if I saw it. I, you know, the I don't care. I think it's funny. But yeah, that's it. That's all we have for this. And uh wish me luck on my surgeries tomorrow. Oh, or not tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we started recording this yesterday.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we have a we had a break. There's been a lot going on this week. So messy, messy, but here we are doing it, and yeah, I'll have my surgeries tomorrow. So please engage and make my healing fun. Thank you guys.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, until next time.

SPEAKER_00:

Bye. Bye.

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Sarah and Cole

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