Ms Licari made a full confession. Her motive in the campaign is yet to be known. (Representative pic)
A woman in the United States has been arrested for allegedly sending hateful and bullying messages to teenage students, including her own daughter, under a fake name and number. The 42-year-old woman, identified as Kenra Gail Licari, was arrested on December 12 and is now facing five charges, including stalking a minor and obstruction of justice, ABC News reported citing a criminal complaint filed against the mother.
As per the outlet, Ms Licari created an online persona to cyberbully her daughter and the girl's then-boyfriend. She then allegedly attempted to frame another classmate of the teens for the harassment.
The shocking charges against the 42-year-old came after a yearlong investigation into a complaint filed by Beal City Public Schools after Ms Licari's daughter and her boyfriend reported getting harassing messages. Ms Licari, who was employed by the district school as a basketball coach, and the mother of the boyfriend worked together to find the source of the cyberbullying.
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According to The Independent, Isabella County Prosecutor David Barberi said that local law enforcement joined the investigation in mid-January, before asking the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for help in April.
The officials found the 42-year-old woman had been targeting the teens with harassing messages under a fake identity since 2021. She allegedly used software to hide her location and used several numbers and area codes, even allegedly trying to pin the origin of the messages as coming from her daughter's classmates.
David Barberi, an Isabella County prosecuting attorney, said that the woman was tracked down by using the IP addresses attached to the messages. Authorities also uncovered hundreds of pages of hateful and harassing messages.
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"We had tens of thousands of text messages, whether they were messages that were just for her daughter or some of her daughter's friends. And the digital footprint was just insane," Mr Barberi said, as per the outlet.
When confronted by the cops, Ms Licari made a full confession. Her motive in the campaign is yet to be known. The 42-year-old has since been released on a $5,000 bond. As per The Independent, she faces up to 10 years in prison for the computer crimes charges and five years for stalking and obstruction.