October 17, 2025 • 78 mins
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello everyone.
SPEAKER_01 (00:02):
Hey.
SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
I'm Sarah.
SPEAKER_01 (00:04):
I'm Cole.
SPEAKER_00 (00:05):
And you're listening to Borrowed Bones.
Podcast about fucked up,interesting, and toxic families.
SPEAKER_01 (00:11):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (00:13):
Just wanted to say my name very badly there and
just wanted to cut you off.
SPEAKER_01 (00:16):
Apparently.
SPEAKER_00 (00:17):
I'm just excited to get into this.
SPEAKER_01 (00:19):
Yeah.
It's a weird one.
SPEAKER_00 (00:21):
Yeah.
And real quick before we getsuper into it, I do want to do
some announcements up top.
We normally do them at thebottom, but I just wanted to let
everyone know that we might begoing dark for like a week or
two.
Um, I am getting surgery onFriday.
SPEAKER_01 (00:38):
Two surgeries.
SPEAKER_00 (00:39):
In a couple weeks, in a couple few days.
I don't know.
I don't know what day it is whenI'm gonna throw this out because
I'm off schedule now.
SPEAKER_01 (00:44):
But of this recording.
SPEAKER_00 (00:46):
Yes.
So when this is heard, I willhave had surgery already.
Yeah.
And hopefully I'm alive.
SPEAKER_01 (00:53):
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 (01:01):
Yeah, it's really fun.
Yeah, nothing obviously likelife-threatening, but surgery is
always a little nerve-wrackingjust in general.
I have great feet due to mygenetics.
Thanks, Dad, and grandma, ifyou're listening.
I might be gone for a week ortwo, but then I will have
nothing better to do than thispodcast after I am off of the
(01:22):
pain medication.
I'll be out of work for a littlewhile.
Anyway, what will help me getthrough all of that healing
process is if everyone couldengage with the podcast, like
and follow us on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, YouTube, wherever you
listen.
(01:42):
The rating and reviews help alot.
Like I've said before, it helpsmove 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 (01:55):
Got an official website.
SPEAKER_00 (01:57):
Yep.
The website isborrowedbonespodcast.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 (02:07):
It's also shirts.
Yep.
All the typical swag things.
Everything.
SPEAKER_00 (02:13):
And you can see it in our Instagram as well, the
Borrowed Bones PodcastInstagram.
So, yes, that is all of theannouncements up front.
Because I wanted to make sureyou guys heard that I'm having
surgery.
Misery loves company, right?
So I want you all with me onthis.
SPEAKER_01 (02:28):
Getting her bones operated on.
SPEAKER_00 (02:31):
Anyway, let's get into it.
Today we are talking aboutsomething that has been pretty
popular.
The nation seems to be talkingabout it.
And this story, this familyevent, happened yet again near
Bay City, Michigan.
(02:52):
I feel like a lot happens aroundBay City.
At least recently I've beennoticing it.
SPEAKER_01 (02:56):
Well, you got it kind of a skewed perspective
because I'm the one who kind ofchronicles the Bay City crime
and that's true, I guess.
SPEAKER_00 (03:05):
Well, I mean like nationwide things that you
wouldn't understand are likeJonestown is connected to Bay
City.
SPEAKER_03 (03:11):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (03:12):
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 herethat you wouldn't think about
because 96 Tears was recorded inBay City.
Oh, I don't know what's that.
Question Mark the Mysterionsong?
Oh, yes, yeah, do, I do.
Sorry, sorry.
SPEAKER_01 (03:28):
You know if you're hurt, it's yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (03:30):
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 (03:40):
Isabella County.
SPEAKER_00 (03:42):
Mm-hmm.
Near Mount Pleasant.
SPEAKER_01 (03:44):
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (03:46):
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, itonly had 332 people.
That's have you been to Beale?
SPEAKER_01 (04:00):
I don't think I was.
I don't think I ever went outthere while I was covering this.
SPEAKER_00 (04:06):
I feel like I've played Beale in sports.
I played softball a lot and didtournaments and everything, and
I've I've seen Beale City likeshirts 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 (04:23):
I mean, if you've been to one small Michigan town,
you've been to them all kindsof.
SPEAKER_00 (04:27):
I know they all kind of seem the same.
But yes, it's a small city, andthere's only one public school,
just one entirely, it that takesover the elementary, middle, and
high school all in one.
And I've seen a lot of peoplethat aren't from the Midwest
really, or if they're not fromsmaller communities, they seem
(04:49):
confused by this.
Like, how does a sixth grader ora third grader interact with a
senior or junior?
SPEAKER_01 (04:55):
They don't.
They're on the same property,but it's not literally the same,
or like, you know, it's maybearchitecturally the same
building, but they're not asconnected.
There's different wings thatare, you know, there's the K
through five wing, maybe there'sthe six through eight, and then
high school.
So it's not like senior highschools walking down the same
hallway with a kindergartner andknocking them over.
(05:16):
I mean, it's yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:17):
Usually separated by gyms or maybe like cafeteria,
school offices.
It's yeah, there's it'sseparated in some way.
SPEAKER_01 (05:29):
Where every there's just a school mom teaching
everyone between five andeighteen.
SPEAKER_00 (05:34):
Like yes.
So I just I wanted to get a fewof those things out of the way
because these big city peoplethat talk about it don't seem to
quite get it.
It's not that weird, it'sdifferent than what the coastal
elites are used to, but it'sit's the Midwest.
It's fine, it's economical.
So if you haven't guessed bynow, we are talking about the
(05:58):
documentary on Netflix calledUnknown Number.
So we will talk about itentirely.
If you have not watched thatdocumentary and you want to, we
will we're gonna spoil it.
So choose what you want to dofirst.
Listen to us, then watch it orwatch that.
But I'm letting you know we'regoing through the whole process
here.
And Cole, were you one of thefirst ones to write about this?
(06:22):
Or did you break the story orwhat?
SPEAKER_01 (06:25):
I was one of the first.
I think I might have I I can'tswear to this with 100%, but I
think I was the first to get apolice report from the Isabella
County Sheriff's Office shortlyafter like they got details of
their investigation and how itwent, and I'm not gonna spoil it
right now, but um yeah, becauseI sent a shortly after a person
(06:50):
was charged with a crime, Isubmitted a good job not yes, a
crime does occur in this.
And that's yeah, leads tocriminal charges.
So shortly after this person wascharged, I sent a FOIA request
to the sheriff's office fortheir reports and copies of the
text messages that wereinvolved.
(07:11):
And they gave me quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00 (07:13):
Yeah, they did, I remember.
SPEAKER_01 (07:15):
Yeah, I had to drive out there and pick it up in
person because it was allprinted out.
Um but yeah.
So then I wrote an article kindof summarizing, detailing their
investigation that led to thisperson being charged.
And that kind of broke thelarger narrative out.
SPEAKER_00 (07:33):
Yes, yeah, it was it was pretty crazy as it was
happening, how you kept cominghome and telling me more and
more, and I just was like, wait,what?
And then I remember I would getconfused and say, This is the
same thing, right?
For how long it was.
I would forget about it, andthen you'd bring it up again,
and I was like, What?
What are you talking about?
Like this was such a longprocess.
SPEAKER_01 (07:53):
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 legalside.
That's just yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:01):
Right.
And then um, you were even askedto be a part of a podcast or
help with a podcast for it.
That kind of fizzled out, andthen we realized there's
documentary, and we're like, oh,this is getting really big.
So now you get to talk about iton our podcast.
Yeah, yay, yeah.
Oh, and are you sorry, are youfriends with Brad Peter?
SPEAKER_01 (08:21):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (08:22):
Oh, you are?
Oh, okay.
Well, hi, Officer Brad.
SPEAKER_01 (08:26):
Oh no, we've we've hung out.
SPEAKER_00 (08:28):
Oh, that's cool.
Have I met him?
SPEAKER_01 (08:30):
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 (08:36):
There are some people that I see sometimes out
and about that I know werecognize each other through
you.
I wonder if he's one of thosepeople that you've just said hi
to and I've been like, you know,near.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, well, hello, Officer BradPeter.
I have read about you.
SPEAKER_01 (08:50):
I will text him a link to this once it's published
and be like, we mentioned you onthis.
SPEAKER_00 (08:55):
Yeah.
Um Officer Brad Peter comes intothe story.
I say his full name because it'stwo first names, and it's weird
just to say Officer Peter, butuh whatever.
Officer Peter.
Um, he's from Bay City.
SPEAKER_01 (09:07):
He's a Bay City police officer.
SPEAKER_00 (09:08):
It's all connected, and he'll come into the story
later.
So anyway, let's get into it.
SPEAKER_01 (09:13):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (09:13):
Starting from the top, Kendra and Sean Lakari met
while Kendra was a student atCentral Michigan University,
living in Mount Pleasant,Michigan.
What is that, about 15 minutesaway from Beale?
If even.
SPEAKER_01 (09:30):
Yeah, if even.
SPEAKER_00 (09:31):
It's pretty close.
Okay, yeah.
Sean is born and raised BealeCity.
After Kendra and Sean met, theirrelationship grew and Kendra
would eventually move intoSean's house.
In 2007, their daughter, Lauren,was born.
And she would be their onlychild.
(09:53):
Kendra was the breadwinner forthe family.
She was a bank branchsupervisor, and then she ended
up working in the humanresources department at Central
Michigan University.
Sean worked at the local autobody shop.
SPEAKER_01 (10:08):
Oh, yeah.
You know more about this than Ido, even though I kind of
started knowing it because I wasonly focused really on my job
and the yeah, like I wasn'tworried about their anyone's
biographies.
I was just this is the crimethat happened.
You know, how did that lead tothere?
So you know more about theplayers involved, even the
(10:29):
minors to me.
Minors O R meaning children.
Oh, right now, yes.
SPEAKER_03 (10:34):
The pickaxe.
SPEAKER_01 (10:35):
Um, but like you know, obviously, I can't publish
names of minors, so I had nointerest in even really digging
into them too much becausethey're minors, they're you
know, anyway.
SPEAKER_00 (10:46):
Yes, Lauren is no longer a minor.
Yes, yes, this is uh no one is aminor anymore.
Yes, just for the record,they're not.
Um, and this is not slanderousto anyone who was a minor at the
time, anyway.
So I feel comfortable talkingabout it.
Um but yeah, you did more of thecriminal side of it after it
came to the police, but I foundthis really great article.
(11:06):
Uh it's the cut article, andit's written by Lauren Smiley.
She did a really great job.
She interviewed everyone andtalked to them and got these
more detailed stories versusyes.
So I use both of you inresearching this, and there's a
few other things I've looked atas well.
Obviously, I watched documentarytoo, so I have a lot of
(11:27):
different things, but a lot ofthis does come from the cut.
So I want to give that propershout out.
unknown (11:32):
Cool.
SPEAKER_00 (11:33):
Sean was the supportive father role, and
Kendra was the one that like ranthe house.
She oversaw the schedule,finances, and everything.
In the spring of 2019, Laurenwas in sixth grade and Kendra
got a new job at Fair StateUniversity.
(11:54):
She would work at the IT servicedesk as a specialist in cell
phones.
So she knows her gadgets, sheknows how to said the salary was
a huge increase from herprevious job at CMU.
So it was a good switch.
Yay.
And then the family was able toupgrade to a four-bedroom rustic
(12:17):
chic log cabin in the woods.
SPEAKER_01 (12:19):
Damn.
SPEAKER_00 (12:20):
Sean said that it was his dream home.
SPEAKER_01 (12:22):
Yeah.
Four-bedroom, that's prettynice.
SPEAKER_00 (12:24):
Yeah.
Co-workers of Sean's would jokethat Kendra was a sugar mama and
that Sean couldn't get dressedwithout Kendra's help.
Even though their friends wouldjoke about this with Sean, they
never really saw any red flagsor anything.
They just were like, hey, theyboth had their roles and they
both seemed very happy in them.
Now, Kendra was not from thearea.
(12:46):
She is from Pontiac, which is asuburb of Detroit, very close.
So people will say she's fromDetroit.
Yeah.
So she's from the big city,living in a very small town.
SPEAKER_01 (12:58):
And yeah, it'd be a culture shock.
SPEAKER_00 (13:00):
Culture shock for her, but also people always say,
you know, small towns take careof their own.
Well, they really only take careof their own, and no one else
outside of that.
And Kendra was not one of theirown.
SPEAKER_01 (13:13):
You're not born and raised.
SPEAKER_00 (13:14):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (13:15):
And so you married into it.
SPEAKER_00 (13:17):
You married into it.
And I that's how I put it.
I took me a while to adjustliving here.
Coming from Dallas to Bay Citywas a big switch for me.
And I was 17, and it took us agood year, year and a half for
people to start being like, ohyeah, like you're in our friend
group routinely.
I was just kind of me and mytwin for a long time.
SPEAKER_03 (13:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:38):
Hey, twin.
unknown (13:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:39):
So I can imagine Beal was a little bit harder to
like cut through.
It's just, I don't know what itis.
It's just hard to get in.
But once you're in, it is a warmembrace.
It's very nice, but it's hard toget in.
So it was difficult for Kendrato sort of make her own way as
she's trying to fit in better.
And not that she's being bulliedor anyone's being mean to her.
There's just this standoffnessthat happens in small towns.
(14:02):
So Kendra gets really involvedwith Lauren, her daughter.
SPEAKER_03 (14:08):
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:08):
Right.
Kendra ends up coaching Lauren'ssoftball team when Lauren was in
elementary school.
And then later, Lauren was inmiddle school and Kendra coached
Lauren's basketball team.
Everything was going well.
Kendra was fitting in.
She made friends with otherfamilies.
They had groups together.
Yeah, it all it all was workingout.
Like the longer you're there,you will be accepted.
(14:30):
It will happen.
It just is hard.
It's hard to move to smalltowns.
It really is.
The Lakaris and other familieswould go on these big group
spring break trips to Florida orAlabama.
They'd all pitch in their shareand like get a condo or
something.
SPEAKER_01 (14:45):
Nothing like vacationing in Alabama.
No offense to even in Alabama.
It's just not a place I would goon my vacation.
SPEAKER_00 (14:54):
It's coastal.
SPEAKER_01 (14:55):
Very little bit.
SPEAKER_00 (14:56):
It's pretty.
I mean, I've never really been,but no.
I know people that have.
It's normal.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:04):
Like 50 other places I'd rather go off the top.
SPEAKER_00 (15:07):
Like I know.
I don't think we have anyAlabama listeners.
Maybe we will now if we sayAlabama enough.
Oh no, they're gonna get mad.
Okay.
Anyway.
Daughter Lauren was on thequieter side, a little bit shy,
but a good student, gooddaughter.
Once you got to know her, shewas open and friendly.
(15:28):
She was involved in a lot ofsports.
She also did a lot of travelsports, so always on the go,
always busy.
Unlike Lauren, Kendra was alittle more outgoing, a little
more sociable.
Kendra would often go up toLauren's classmates and gossip
with them.
SPEAKER_03 (15:45):
Okay.
Aye.
SPEAKER_00 (15:48):
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 closemother-daughter bond.
unknown (15:57):
That's always weird.
SPEAKER_01 (15:58):
There's always I remember being a kid, and I
Yeah, you're an only child.
Yeah, and you can't be a littlebit of a child.
I'm an only child.
I grew up from kindergartenthrough eighth grade,
essentially, was the same 18 to20 people.
Yeah, you hated like like eightgirls, eight, nine guys, roughly
this that that's it.
So but there'd always be thatone kid's mom that like wouldn't
(16:23):
leave the parties and would liketry to cool mom.
Yeah, and like try to talk andjust like I don't want to got
yeah, just it was weird.
SPEAKER_00 (16:32):
Yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (16:34):
There's always that one mom that just hangs around,
doesn't know.
Like, all right, time to letyour kids be kids.
You can leave now.
SPEAKER_00 (16:40):
Oh yeah, it yeah, they were very close, like that.
Very, yeah.
By the time Lauren was in middleschool, other parents were
starting to get annoyed with howmuch Kendra was all about Lauren
constantly talking about her,bragging, just everything you
said.
SPEAKER_01 (16:56):
Do you know how overbearing you have to be as a
parent to the other?
Other parents, yeah.
I know it's like the Puritansgetting kicked out of England.
Like, do you know how prudishyou had to be as a Christian,
get kicked out of MiddleEastern, or not, excuse me,
Middle Eastern, but uhmiddle-aged, excuse me, not
middle age, middle ages,medieval?
Yeah, medieval Europe.
Like Jesus, literally, yeah,like you were that prudish.
SPEAKER_00 (17:21):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:22):
So if you're that annoying to parents talking
about your kid, yes.
SPEAKER_00 (17:26):
Other parents got annoyed with her talking about
Lauren so much.
In the fall of 2019, Lauren isnow in seventh grade.
Um, so she's like what, 12 or 13here, 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 herbirthday is exactly.
(17:46):
So she's 12 or 13.
unknown (17:48):
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (17:49):
A boy named Owen McKenny became interested in
Lauren romantically.
Okay.
It's kind of the first, youknow, middle school love.
In classic middle schoolfashion, Owen asked his friends
to tell Lauren that he likedher.
SPEAKER_01 (18:05):
You never say it yourself at that age.
SPEAKER_00 (18:07):
No, no.
SPEAKER_01 (18:08):
Tell a friend.
SPEAKER_00 (18:09):
Yeah, hey, go tell her I like her and see what she
says.
SPEAKER_01 (18:11):
Or you, yeah, you have your boy your male friend
ask her girlfriend to ask her.
SPEAKER_00 (18:17):
It sounds like they went straight to Lauren, which
is, you know, they're gettingmore direct these days.
These kids.
Later that day, Lauren went towatch Owen play in his football
game.
Cute.
And then after the game, Owentexted Lauren and asked her, Are
we dating?
And Lauren replied, Do you wantto be?
And Owen responded, sure.
(18:40):
And their love story begins.
SPEAKER_01 (18:42):
Must have been so much easier when I'm thinking
because there was no textingwhen I was a kid.
Like there was no lights orphone calls or face-to-face.
That was it.
There's so much more distancecable, and you can take more, I
don't know, it's just sodetached.
SPEAKER_00 (18:57):
All right.
A little bit about Owen's familynow.
Owen's parents, Jill and DaveMcKenny, began dating when they
were in seventh grade.
SPEAKER_03 (19:06):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (19:07):
Dave was a star outfielder for Beale City High's
baseball team, and Jill was oncea cheerleader for Beale City
High.
They're both born and raised.
Yep.
Dave coaches kids baseball andworks as an IT manager, and Jill
is very big into volunteering atthe Catholic Elementary School.
When Owen and Lauren starteddating, Kendra was all about it.
(19:30):
She was a very involved mom withher daughter's first boyfriend.
Jill, Owen's mom, said thatKendra would talk about them as
if they would be togetherforever.
SPEAKER_03 (19:42):
Oh.
SPEAKER_00 (19:42):
One time one of Lauren's friends saw Kendra take
Lauren's phone and read hertexts with Owen.
And then Kendra replied to Owenas if she were Lauren and said,
I love you to Owen in place ofLauren.
So just interesting boundariesthere.
SPEAKER_01 (20:04):
Yeah.
Or lack their own.
SPEAKER_00 (20:07):
In the spring of 2020, the world shut down due to
COVID.
SPEAKER_01 (20:13):
Isolationism sets in.
SPEAKER_00 (20:15):
Mm-hmm.
When the lockdown was in fullforce, the Lacaris and the
McKennies were in each other'ssmall social circles.
So they still saw each other alot.
They hung out throughout thesummer.
The families traveled togetherfor like Lauren and Owen's
sports games, teens.
They were still a part of allthat.
Because that's all outside, sothat makes sense.
(20:37):
I know I miss the lockdown.
The families would all staytogether on travel weekends and
they would go camping together.
They just spent a lot of timetogether this summer.
When Owen and Lauren enteredeighth grade, Kendra signed up
to be the coach for Owen's trackteam.
SPEAKER_03 (20:59):
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (21:00):
And Owen said that Kendra became like a second mom
to him.
Like this was all hunky dory.
SPEAKER_01 (21:06):
Yeah.
It's small, small.
SPEAKER_00 (21:08):
There's not a lot of people to sign up for things.
You know, that's 332 peopletotal.
That's not a lot.
SPEAKER_03 (21:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
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 tournamentor championship or something.
Then another time, Kendrasuggested that they have a
Lakari family vacation down inFlorida to watch Owen play a
tournament down there.
unknown (21:37):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (21:38):
These kids are in eighth grade.
SPEAKER_03 (21:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:40):
Still in middle school.
To this Florida adventure, Jillpolitely 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'treally see anything alarming.
She just thought that Lauren wasquirky.
Or that Kendra was one of thoseinvolved, you know, over
involved moms.
(22:00):
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 (22:07):
Yeah.
A bit much.
SPEAKER_00 (22:09):
Yeah, a bit much.
Now we're gonna go back a littlebit to the fall of 2019 when
Lauren and Owen first starteddating.
A few weeks after they starteddating, there was an anonymous
text message that was sent toLauren and Owen.
SPEAKER_01 (22:26):
Sent to both of them.
SPEAKER_00 (22:27):
Okay.
The text said that Lauren wasnot invited to the annual
Halloween party thrown by TammyWilson.
Tammy's daughter, Chloe, is aclassmate of theirs.
SPEAKER_03 (22:41):
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (22:42):
Tammy Wilson always throws a great Halloween party
that said to be the headliner ofthe year for Beale City.
It kind of sounds like usbecause we always throw a really
great Halloween party.
SPEAKER_01 (22:52):
I had someone messaged me today asking if we
were having our party, and Isaid 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 friendswith, but I don't know why I'm
friends with them.
SPEAKER_00 (23:04):
Oh, on Facebook, but you know them.
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
That's sure.
SPEAKER_01 (23:07):
Yeah, I they knew about the party.
Great.
Sure.
SPEAKER_00 (23:09):
Come on down.
SPEAKER_01 (23:11):
That person's not listening right now.
unknown (23:12):
That'd be weird.
SPEAKER_00 (23:13):
Well, you just didn't know you were friends
with them on Facebook.
SPEAKER_01 (23:15):
That's why I don't know who they are.
SPEAKER_00 (23:17):
Oh, you don't know who they are at all.
SPEAKER_01 (23:18):
Yeah, I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00 (23:20):
Do you want me to edit this out?
SPEAKER_01 (23:21):
Yeah.
unknown (23:22):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (23:23):
I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00 (23:26):
We do know this Facebook person.
The costume is always so goodevery year that we do not
recognize them every year.
And then when they have a normalface on, like the face that they
were born with, it's hard toremember who they were.
So, yes, if you are listening,we do know who you are.
We figured it out and umcontinue on.
(23:49):
Happy listening.
Bye.
Yeah, it sounds like ourHalloween party every year we
end up getting more and morepeople to come.
We have such a big, big, a bigblowout.
Ooh.
SPEAKER_01 (23:59):
We have a DJ.
SPEAKER_00 (24:01):
Yeah.
It's it's a lot of fun.
So I get it.
Like some a Halloween party isthe place you want to be.
So getting a text saying you'renot invited, rude.
Yeah.
No, thank you.
We would never do that tosomeone.
Rude.
SPEAKER_01 (24:12):
Have I done that to someone?
SPEAKER_00 (24:14):
No, you don't text and say you're not invited.
SPEAKER_01 (24:17):
That's right.
I would just tell them to theirface.
SPEAKER_00 (24:19):
If you saw them, but we would just do nothing if they
weren't invited.
SPEAKER_01 (24:22):
Like no, yeah, I wouldn't be not a good idea.
Or unless they messaged me.
Like, yeah, don't come.
SPEAKER_00 (24:27):
Exactly.
So preemptively.
Weird to get a text out of theblue that's like, hey, you're
not invited.
Yeah.
Okay.
So it was pretty upsetting tothis young couple when they got
this text.
Like, what the fuck?
Why?
Why?
What?
Owen showed the text to hisparents and they just shrugged
it off as someone who wasjealous of them.
Like someone just trying tobreak you guys up.
You know, you're you're 13,hormonal.
(24:49):
And Tammy, Chloe's mom, got windof this, and she the classmate
that did you introduce Chloe?
I did just like three secondsago.
So Tammy is the Tammy Wilson isthe one that throws the party.
Okay.
Chloe is her daughter, which isa classmate in the same grade as
Lauren and Owen.
So when Tammy got wind of this,Chloe's mom, Tammy called the
(25:14):
families and assured them thatshe nor Chloe sent the text and
they're both very much invitedto the party.
SPEAKER_01 (25:20):
Unless it's the host, because I would think like
what value is there with anumber you don't recognize.
SPEAKER_00 (25:24):
Well, Lauren at first thought maybe it was
Chloe.
Yeah, you're just like, youknow, being a little bitch, but
like they were like, no, it'snot us.
Yeah.
So they went to the Halloweenparty, no issue, everything was
fine.
And then there was no text oranything after that for one
year.
But in the fall of 2020, afterthe summer they all had together
and everything, Lauren and Owenstarted receiving more anonymous
(25:49):
text messages.
And these ones were like prettybad.
You saw them.
SPEAKER_01 (25:54):
Yeah, I'm not gonna feign ignorance.
I've yeah, I've read through alot of them.
I don't remember a lot, but Iremember the I remember you
telling me about them.
SPEAKER_00 (26:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (26:01):
I mean, they were they shocked me.
SPEAKER_00 (26:03):
And like I'm so frustrated, but we didn't know
back then that we'd be doing apodcast, but you threw you
FOIA'd for all of them and youhad all of the texts.
You had them all and they'regone.
You threw them away.
SPEAKER_01 (26:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:16):
I don't you don't keep stuff because you would you
would be nowhere to put all ofit.
You FOIA for like every day.
SPEAKER_01 (26:22):
Yeah, and it's just write the story.
SPEAKER_00 (26:23):
I'm just so I thought you had them, and I was
so excited to add.
I mean, I still have textmessages, but they're from the
cut article.
I'm not gonna even pretend herethey're from other articles, so
they're already out there.
I just wanted I remember yousaying some pretty graphic ones
sexually graphic that were likeridiculous, like like uber porn
(26:44):
level of brainage that was like,oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (26:47):
Yeah, like what the hell?
SPEAKER_00 (26:48):
Like, how'd you minor even yeah, like what knows
these high schooler, let alonemiddle schooler, knows this
stuff.
Like, I wouldn't speak thatanyway.
Let's get to it.
There are some texts that I amgonna read.
I just wish that you had yours.
Yeah, that's all.
So here are some examples fromthe cut article written by
Lauren smiley.
(27:09):
It's obvious he wants me.
His attention is constantly onme.
Not sure what he told you, buthe is coming to the Halloween
party and we are both DTF.
Down to fuck.
SPEAKER_03 (27:20):
Yeah.
That's fine.
SPEAKER_00 (27:22):
And then another one, another one.
He wants nothing to do with you.
He thinks you're annoying and anugly ass bitch and wishes you
would leave him the fuck alone.
Why do you think he's on hisphone all the time texting me?
You didn't get invited to sleepwith him.
I did.
I'm spending the night with him,I'm sharing a bed with him, not
you.
(27:42):
So that's a few.
But I feel like they were worse.
SPEAKER_01 (27:46):
Yeah, there was a lot of like graphic language and
graphic stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (27:51):
Yeah.
And I can't remember them.
SPEAKER_01 (27:52):
I remember the phrase, this is just weird, but
I remember the adjective creamywas used a lot.
Like graphics.
I was like, why do they keepdescribing things?
Like, oh you know what?
SPEAKER_00 (28:06):
Yeah, will you FOIA that again?
And I will do a Patreon readingthose text messages.
SPEAKER_01 (28:12):
You might get some creams.
SPEAKER_00 (28:14):
I don't give a shit.
SPEAKER_01 (28:15):
Uh money's money.
SPEAKER_00 (28:16):
Yeah, you gotta pay.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:18):
I don't care.
SPEAKER_00 (28:20):
I'm not gonna read them like sexily.
I'm just I just I'm someone whogets 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 toknow all of it to know all of
it.
I'm not gonna be weird about it.
Like, whatever.
If you get off on me justreading, then pay me.
Great.
So will you FOIA for them?
SPEAKER_01 (28:39):
Yeah, we can FOIA for them again.
SPEAKER_00 (28:41):
All right, look, look for it, guys.
My one Patreon member, Allison,look for it.
Hey, why not?
Yeah.
Anyway, these texts continuedthroughout the rest of the year,
these anonymous messages comingin to both Owen and Lauren's
phones.
Jill, Owen's mom, showed thetext to school officials and
(29:01):
they suggested blocking thenumber.
They're like, just block thenumber.
Well, whenever they did, thenumbers the number had their
numbers.
So the number would get a newnumber and then just text them
again.
So blocking the number didn't doanything.
It stopped for a little bit, butthat's it.
Lauren and Owen tried to ignorethe messages.
And for the most part, they theydid, but every so often they
(29:24):
they would fight back orrespond.
Lauren would say things like, Idon't care what you say, Owen
and I are solid, and you're notgonna break us.
But then other times Laurenwould be defeated by it and she
would give in and she would askOwen if he was seeing someone
else or if he wanted to breakup.
SPEAKER_01 (29:41):
Yeah, breeds paranoia.
SPEAKER_00 (29:44):
And by the time they were in ninth grade, they were
drifting apart.
And it was just becoming toodifficult.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (29:52):
Side note this is what I always recommend.
I don't can't attest to itsefficacy, but I've never been
harassed via tech.
But if I was harassed via Imean, well, I have been, but
through work shit and I just letit roll off.
But like if someone's sendingyou harassing text anonymously,
you gotta out harass them back.
Like I would just respond withlike the graphicest images that
(30:14):
they probably have no they'renot planning for at all.
Like it's in like one of thosebeheading videos or something.
Oh god.
Or you know, the ghosts out ofnowhere.
Just something that they'regonna go like, oh my god, and
they'll regret opening thatdoor.
But these 13 to 14 year oldsdon't know that.
For future anyone who might belistening.
SPEAKER_00 (30:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:32):
Just do that.
SPEAKER_00 (30:33):
For the future.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:34):
Someone's harassing you, outharass them back.
SPEAKER_00 (30:36):
It's kind of like your theory on conspiracy
theorists, how yo, you you thinkwe went to the moon?
Oh, you think there is a moon?
SPEAKER_01 (30:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:43):
Oh, this is a simulation, my guy.
Let's be real.
SPEAKER_01 (30:47):
Yeah.
You think only one person killedJFK?
You you think JFK was thepresident?
Yeah, just really make them takeanother step back in their
theory.
Just double down.
SPEAKER_00 (30:56):
Let's see how far we can go here.
Anyway, their relationship, ofcourse, became difficult.
They were drifting, and thisanonymous texter just continued
to harass them.
In September of their freshmanyear, this was time for
homecoming now.
And the unknown number messagedLauren and Owen saying, could
(31:18):
this be the end of the AKAgolden couple with the
relationship everyone idolizes?
SPEAKER_01 (31:27):
What teen or juvenile of this era knows that?
SPEAKER_00 (31:31):
Yeah, and it's capitalized.
SPEAKER_01 (31:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:33):
So like they're using pretty decent grammar
here.
I'm just saying, it's decent.
So yeah, this texter stilltaunting them, harassing them.
And in early November of 2021,Lauren and Owen broke up.
They were hoping that after thebreakup, the text would stop.
SPEAKER_03 (31:51):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:52):
Uh, that was not the case.
Once the texter heard of thenews, they texted the couple or
the ex-couple saying, He alreadychose us, not you.
He won't be with you thisweekend, so don't even ask.
Maybe you shouldn't have pickedcross country over him.
You proved he isn't important toyou.
We were there, though.
(32:13):
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 lessgrammatically good, good, less
grammatically good.
SPEAKER_01 (32:28):
She don't speak English no good.
She didn't type American nogood.
SPEAKER_00 (32:32):
There's just too much bad spelling and bad
grammar on my screen right now.
SPEAKER_01 (32:39):
Infect you.
SPEAKER_00 (32:40):
I can't handle it.
In the following weeks, themessages got more detailed, like
more aware of Lauren'sday-to-day life.
For example, one morning beforea Friday night football game,
they this texter called outLauren for wearing Owen's
jersey.
They broke up, right?
(33:00):
And the the text said, WTF, youneed to take that shit off.
You are embarrassing him.
SPEAKER_03 (33:08):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (33:08):
Lauren's like, who the fuck is watching me?
Now it's not even justanonymous.
It's like, who's watching me atthis point?
When the girls' basketballseason started in November, a
few of the freshman girls weremoved up from JV to varsity, but
Lauren was not one of the onesasked to move up.
So she stayed on JV.
Some people overheard Kendracomplaining, saying that these
(33:32):
girls that moved up only did sobecause their parents are
friends with the coach.
She was like, oh, it's allpolitics, bullshit, bullshit.
SPEAKER_01 (33:40):
It's so weird to me that people care about this.
SPEAKER_00 (33:42):
The thing is, is that coaches don't.
I've been a coach.
I've been a coach for middleschool for volleyball.
And I've had parents be like,um, you are only choosing to
play these people because you'refriends with da-da-da.
And I've looked, there was oneparent one time that was pissing
me off so much that I invitedthem to come to the practice.
And I said, come to the practiceand see what the other girls are
doing compared to your daughter.
(34:04):
And I said, I don't play her asmuch as the others because she's
not as good.
And the parent did come topractice, and then when the
practice was over, they shook myhand, thanked me, and left.
And never again did I have anissue because they fucking saw.
Sorry, you're not all that good.
A lot of you guys, includingmyself, are not gonna be
(34:24):
professional volleyball players,basketball players.
Like you're I didn't even get acollege scholarship for it.
I just have arthritis in mywrist now.
SPEAKER_01 (34:31):
Like, I just don't get like parents care, like it's
anything more than justsomething to occupy their time.
SPEAKER_00 (34:37):
And the coaches don't want to fight with the
parents, especially today'sparents.
Are you fucking kidding me?
No, thank you.
They don't get paid enough to bepolitical with 13-year-olds.
SPEAKER_01 (34:47):
Kids out to recess, they all play and no one gives a
shit.
But suddenly you put matchinglaundry on them, and the parents
care.
SPEAKER_00 (34:55):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:55):
Like who gives a shit?
Yeah.
Do you think it matters?
SPEAKER_00 (34:58):
As long as they're having fun, exercising.
SPEAKER_01 (35:01):
Who gives a shit?
SPEAKER_00 (35:02):
Why do we get so mad over?
He's not.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (35:05):
You think he's gonna be a pro?
SPEAKER_00 (35:06):
He's more likely to go to prison than be a
professional player.
SPEAKER_01 (35:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:10):
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 (35:17):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_00 (35:17):
Sorry, that just analogy.
It just pisses me off to thinkabout that kind of stuff.
Cause like we don't care thatmuch.
Anyway, sorry, that's a rant.
Moving on.
After the girls moved were toldthey're moving up to varsity
later that day.
Lauren received a text messagefrom the texter referring to
this basketball move.
(35:39):
And the text said, You suck atbasketball.
He ain't dating, no suck assanorexic, not good enough JV
girl.
Lauren thought that the texterin question was Chloe Wilson.
She was thinking it's gotta beChloe.
They weren't really friends.
They were in the same friendgroup, though, because there was
(36:00):
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 werefriends.
And Chloe and Owen did admit tohaving an on-again, off-again
like crush on each other, butnot a big deal.
Owen was also worried abouteveryone around him, wondering
who it was watching them,wondering what thing he was
(36:23):
going to say that would then beturned against him.
Owen didn't want his friendsknowing how much the
cyberbullying was bothering him.
His friends were not reallybeing nice, it sounds like they
called him names like PussyBitch.
SPEAKER_03 (36:38):
Sorry.
SPEAKER_00 (36:39):
Stop adding to it.
SPEAKER_01 (36:42):
Just funny.
SPEAKER_00 (36:43):
No, Jill thinks No, it's wrong.
Yeah, well, Jill thinks that,you know, they're calling him
these things because themessages are most likely from a
girl, right?
That's what it seems like.
And that that is worse for Owenbecause he can't defend himself.
Not even against a girl.
And so these boys in Beale arecalling a little pussy bitch.
Like, he's not doing anythingwrong.
(37:04):
And like, we don't know who itis that's texting him.
And it's terrifying to someonewatching you.
I've noticed there's a big issuein middle schools lately of
people being very, very mean.
Girls are being meaner, boys arebeing meaner, and I don't know
why.
SPEAKER_01 (37:20):
The culture of the last 10 years?
Why would you not be mean?
What do you think?
How do you even honestly, with astraight face, tell someone not
to be a bully in America?
What are they gonna say?
Why?
If I keep being a bully, I mightbecome the most powerful man in
the world.
Like there's no reason not tobe.
Just because you shouldn't, youjust shouldn't be mean.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (37:39):
Why?
You do kind of get what you wantby 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 (37:55):
Oh, yeah, I covered that too.
SPEAKER_00 (37:56):
Yep, you covered that.
The 15-year-old boy that shot uphis school, killed four
classmates.
This one stands out because thisis the one where the parents are
finally held accountable.
SPEAKER_03 (38:06):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (38:06):
So good on that, finally, because parents are
responsible for their children'sactions.
Period.
Anyway, Jill thought of Owen andLauren when this Oxford shooting
happened.
She thought that what if what ifthey're pushed to their limits
and one of them shows up toschool with a gun?
Good for her to see somethingand say, hey, that could happen
(38:28):
to me, instead of the classicAmerican way of, well, that
happened over there.
That happened in Detroit area.
That doesn't happen in smalltown.
Jill told Kendra that she wasgoing to go to the sheriff with
all of this.
Kendra agreed and went alongwith her.
Even though the Oxford shootingwas in November and Jill wanted
to talk to the sheriff, theydidn't actually talk to the
(38:50):
sheriff until January of 2022.
So November 30th was the Oxfordshooting 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 getthrough the holidays and then,
you know, get the sheriffinvolved.
When the parents met with thesheriff, the McKenneys were
(39:11):
struck by how little Sean knewabout 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 eighthgrade basketball, and Kendra
would bring up the text to othercoaches and warned that the
bullying could throw Lauren'sfocus off.
(39:33):
The coaches sympathized withher, but they also gave
suggestions like, why don't youtake Lauren's phone, hold it for
her for a little bit, give her abreak, or change her number.
SPEAKER_01 (39:44):
I don't understand the I mean I get like change
Lauren's number.
I shouldn't have to changebecause no, you shouldn't have
to, but it's affecting yourchild.
SPEAKER_00 (39:53):
Do something.
Just change the fucking number.
Yeah.
Like Kendra never took theiradvice, though.
She would instead come back thenext day saying she's drained,
but she was always really readyto discuss it, time and time
again.
Kendra would also messageLauren's friends when Lauren was
at school.
Lauren would like go to thebathroom because she'd be really
(40:14):
upset from the messages and shewould like let her mom know she
was in the bathroom crying.
So then Kendra would messageLauren's friends and say, Hey,
go check on Lauren in thebathroom.
She's upset.
Take care of her.
Students would see Kendra parkedin the school parking lot in the
middle of the school day.
SPEAKER_01 (40:32):
Not at work.
SPEAKER_00 (40:33):
Nope.
When Kendra was confronted aboutthis, she said that she's able
to work from home at Ferris.
SPEAKER_01 (40:40):
Then why aren't you at home?
SPEAKER_00 (40:42):
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 movedalong.
Meanwhile, Lauren is spendinghours trying to figure out what
to wear to school and fear thatwhatever she chooses, this
anonymous person will see andridicule her.
(41:03):
She's also getting increasinglyanxious for her games, knowing
that this too would become ataunting point for the texter.
When Lauren and Owen finallybroke up, the families did stay
close.
Dave McKenney sent a message toKendra saying, I don't think
this means we can't still gettogether.
Like we can still hang out, wecan still, you know, be friends.
(41:25):
And Kendra would still sit nextto Jill at games and they would
talk about the texts and how toget them to stop.
So, like I said, the texts werestill happening post-breakup.
Jill, however, did say that itseemed like Kendra wanted Lauren
and Owen to get back together.
SPEAKER_03 (41:41):
Weird.
SPEAKER_00 (41:41):
Yeah.
She would ask Jill if shethought they would ever get back
together again and if they onlybroke up because of the
bullying.
Like, I don't know, just beingdifferent.
SPEAKER_03 (41:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (41:53):
Jill and Kendra were thinking that classmate Chloe
was behind it all, just likeLauren was suspecting.
The texter would say bruh a lot,and that was something that
Chloe did.
The texter mentioned that sheknew cops and that the cops
could defend her, and her dadwas a local officer.
SPEAKER_03 (42:10):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (42:12):
Jill and Dave would take Owen's phone every night
and they would look at themessages that this unknown
number was sending.
Sometimes Jill would say stuffback as if she were Owen, but
for the most part, she just readthe messages.
One time though, Jill didmessage Chloe acting as Owen and
asked her to just be honest ifit is her.
(42:33):
And Chloe responded very mad andshe's she FaceTimed Owen right
away and was angry about it.
Owen got upset, didn't like thathis mom did that, and he ended
up not talking to his mom for afew days and was like, Mom, I'm
already struggling to keep myfriends after losing my
girlfriend.
Now I'm losing my friends.
Like, stop.
SPEAKER_03 (42:51):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (42:51):
Lauren would still sit at the same table or group
as Chloe, though, at lunch.
Again, small town, one group.
The other friend said thatLauren didn't really talk much
and that Lauren was kind ofreferred to as a ghost friend.
That's sad.
Lauren told her dad that becauseof the messages, she no longer
(43:12):
has any friends.
And in response to thisisolation, Lauren and Kendra
grew even closer.
SPEAKER_01 (43:18):
That makes sense.
SPEAKER_00 (43:20):
Yeah.
And if you haven't watched thedocumentary, you might be
wondering has the school reallyjust done nothing with all of
this?
Like they asked the school, andthe 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 pressingwhile all this was happening.
The parents were pressing theschool to do things.
So behind the scenes, this isalso happening with the school.
(43:44):
In 2021, Kendra and Jill firstmet with the high school
principal Dan Boyer.
He looked through the texts andhe noticed that the earlier ones
were complete sentences, propergrammar, and the principal knew
that this was not how kids text.
As time went on, the text becamelooser.
(44:05):
There were more acronyms andslang.
So Principal Boyer asked Laurento tell him whenever she got a
text at school.
Okay.
Said, let me know whenever youget a text message while you're
at school.
He then would ask the otherteachers if they noticed any
students on their phones aroundthe time of the text.
(44:31):
Other teachers, did you noticeany kids on their phones around
two o'clock at this time?
SPEAKER_01 (44:36):
Mm-hmm.
Well, they just not let the kidshave the cell phones.
SPEAKER_00 (44:40):
Right.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (44:41):
No one.
Just like you don't have themduring class during school
hours.
SPEAKER_00 (44:44):
Yeah.
They tried that as well.
So nothing came of them doingthis whole like teachers keep be
on the lookout of kids being ontheir phones.
They tried, the parents did askfor the kids just to leave the
phones in the locker.
Not allowed to have it on them.
Just put the phones in thelockers when you get to school,
take them out when you when yougo home.
Beale City High School felt likethat couldn't happen because
(45:05):
parents expected to havecommunication with their kids at
all times, direct communication.
SPEAKER_01 (45:11):
Why do they expect that?
SPEAKER_00 (45:12):
I'm assuming it's guns.
Well, without them saying it,they're not gonna know it.
But the fear that you have isguns.
Like, I'm sorry, I can't talkabout a public school without
talking about guns.
But that's stupid.
I think it's so dumb because Iwent to school without a cell
phone.
I went to when and like you, youparents, you parents, you
parents went to school without acell phone and you survived.
(45:35):
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 andJill wanted the principal to
start digging into thebasketball team as well, mainly
Chloe.
But there were other suspects onthe team as well.
Principal Boyer was notcomfortable with this.
(45:57):
He did not want parents to startaccusing students of things and
have this whole like back andforth.
He just saw that that was gonnabe a bad idea, which was smart.
He did allow for this stingoperation, though.
Kendra complained that Lauren'snecklace and jerse had gone
missing, kind of insinuatingthat they were stolen.
(46:17):
This was odd because Beale HighSchool is like a 1960s America,
according to Boyer.
No one locks their lockers ordoors, right?
SPEAKER_03 (46:28):
That's dumb.
SPEAKER_00 (46:28):
Yeah.
So to find this person who mighthave stolen her jersey and
necklace, they're thinking it'sthe same texture.
They set out Lauren's tennisshoes in the sports foyer under
some cameras.
Yes.
So Principal Boyer watches,hoping the shoes would get
stolen, leading them to theirfirst suspect.
But after hours of watching, noone came to take the shoes.
(46:52):
Eventually, the janitor took theshoes to the Lost and Found.
SPEAKER_03 (46:55):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (46:55):
That's it.
Yeah.
What Boyer did notice whilewatching the cameras, though,
was that Coach Kendra had herphone out a lot while she was
conducting practice.
He noted that.
He was like, that's weird.
Why is she always doing thiswhen she's coaching?
SPEAKER_03 (47:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (47:11):
Boyer also suggested changing their numbers, but we
know that the texter would findout anyway that the parents said
no to that.
However, like you've said,according to the cut article,
quite a few parents did wonderwhy the parents didn't just take
the phones away from the kids.
SPEAKER_03 (47:26):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (47:27):
Why didn't you just take them away?
Just have your kid not have aphone for a little bit and just
figure this out.
Stop.
Love their phones.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (47:34):
This doesn't sound like it.
Sounds like they hate theirphones.
SPEAKER_00 (47:37):
Jill argued that Owen needed his phone to
communicate with coaches, histravel teammates, and just to be
a normal kid.
And she went on to say that kidsdon't know how to function
without a phone today.
SPEAKER_01 (47:47):
Teach them.
SPEAKER_00 (47:48):
Teach them because you know how.
SPEAKER_01 (47:50):
Apply that same logic.
You know how.
Apply that logic to anythingelse.
SPEAKER_00 (47:53):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (47:54):
It's well, kids love their cocaine these days.
SPEAKER_00 (47:56):
Exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (47:56):
You're gonna let them not have cocaine.
Yeah.
They love it.
SPEAKER_00 (47:59):
So once the school realized that this was too big
for them, they brought inSheriff Michael Main, Sheriff of
Isabella County.
Sheriff Maine calls Craig Wilsonand says, Hey, just so you know,
your daughter Chloe is asuspect.
This is January of 2022.
When Craig and his wife Tammyconfronted their daughter Chloe
(48:21):
about this, she cried andinsisted she did nothing wrong.
Owen and Lauren were alreadyquestioning her.
She was so sick of it that evenone day before this, she gave
Owen her phone for the wholeday, said, Hold on to it, and
you'll know that I'm not the onetexting you.
And so again, she gives herphone up.
She gives it to her dad, his copfriends download the contents,
(48:42):
do whatever they do in a copway, and it comes up clean.
Not Chloe.
Tammy and Craig Wilson were in ameeting with Sheriff Main when
Sheriff Main showed the Wilsonstext that Kendra sent him.
Texts from the bully to Lauren.
So Kendra has them likescreenshots.
(49:04):
Within these texts, there werethere was a screenshot from
Snapchat.
Some of the messages exchangedthrough Snapchat, Chloe said
they weren't her and thatsomeone made a fake account.
Simple enough.
However, Chloe did recognizesome of her own words.
Some of her chats with Owen thatshe did screenshot and she sent
(49:26):
to Lauren as proof that she wasnot flirting with Owen.
So she had sent stuff to Laurenthat are now in these words are
being repeated in this fakeSnapchat account.
This caused quite a bit ofconfusion.
Like, how is this person gettingthis information?
Craig Wilson, being a cop, hehad a hunch.
He began to add it all up.
(49:46):
The weird texting in middleschool about Lauren not being
invited to the Wilson'sHalloween party, and then
Kendra's resentment that Chloemoved up to varsity basketball
and not Lauren.
And then there was this weirdincident at a basketball
tournament years earlier whenTammy and another mother were
cleaning up after thetournament.
(50:06):
They must have been hosting it.
So they're cleaning up andthey'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, theseparents were like, We need to
find this mat.
How do you just miss a mat?
Yeah.
And they're like, We're gonnalook at the we have to look at
the security cameras to seewhere it is, where'd it go?
All of a sudden, Kendra is like,Hey, oh, I moved it to the
(50:30):
equipment room.
Sorry, guys.
SPEAKER_03 (50:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (50:33):
Yeah.
That's it.
That's the incident.
But people noted that.
They were like, she was standingthere watching us look for it.
SPEAKER_03 (50:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (50:40):
Just weird.
People are starting to noticeher weirdness.
In early February of 2022, CraigWilson texted Sheriff Main
saying, honestly, Mike, I don'tknow if you know Kendra or not,
but you really need to becautious.
There is a pretty good part ofme that thinks she may very well
be doing this.
(51:01):
And instead of heeding Craig'swarning, Sheriff Main brought in
10 student suspects forquestioning.
He questioned them in the schooloffice one by one.
I mean, you have to ask.
Eventually, kids were going tobe questioned.
You've got to.
And at this point, the bully wasnow texting other girls that
Owen was talking to, even girlsfrom other schools.
(51:23):
Owen broke down one day and saidto his mother that it was her
job to make the bullying stopbecause she was his mother.
Yeah.
And this caused Jill to cry.
Like they're just, everyone'shitting breaking points.
And you know, softball seasonrolls around, and Lauren would
often be seen crying on the busto and from games from all these
text messages.
One of the messages said, all ofour lives would be better if
(51:44):
with you not here.
People were still thinking thatChloe was to blame, but she
wasn't.
So Chloe was starting to wiltaway, and she was crying every
day after school as well in herbedroom.
But people were starting to belike, this is really weird for
any teenager to keep a secretlike this for this long.
It's been years at this point,2019 to 2022.
(52:08):
Like, it's a long time.
And the town was growing moreand more suspicious of Kendra.
Parents noticed Kendra wasseeking a lot of attention with
this cyberbullying of herdaughter.
And others thought that the textcould only be from adults.
Sheriff Mayne asked Jill andDave if it could be Kendra, and
(52:28):
Jill was very quick to say,absolutely not.
There's no way it could beKendra.
And with all the confusion andwhat seemed to be a dead end,
Beale City was out of resources.
Now enter Bay City Zone, OfficerBrad Peter.
SPEAKER_01 (52:44):
Indeed.
SPEAKER_00 (52:45):
Mm-hmm.
Officer Brad Peter works on theMid-Michigan Computer Crimes
Task Force.
Or he did.
SPEAKER_01 (52:54):
He's retiring soon.
He might be retired by the timewe're speaking.
I don't know.
It's very close to an orange.
Sometime in October.
He's a Bay City policedepartment officer, but there's
like a local collaborative teamamongst different agencies.
FBI, Michigan State Police.
So he's kind of like on loanfrom his actual department to
(53:16):
this task force of differentjurisdictions.
SPEAKER_00 (53:19):
Yes.
So he gets called in to helpwith this in Beale City,
basically working under the FBIumbrella.
SPEAKER_03 (53:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (53:26):
Please from Bay City.
SPEAKER_03 (53:27):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (53:28):
Sheriff Main reached out to Officer Peter in April of
2022.
They knew they had to work fast.
There were these burner appsthat the anonymous texter was
using, an app called Pinger.
And this app, a lot like many ofthem, will wipe away their
records every two weeks.
So once you discover a newnumber that's created from this
(53:50):
app, you have to track it downvery quickly because then it
goes away.
SPEAKER_01 (53:54):
It's like Snapchat for phone numbers.
SPEAKER_00 (53:56):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (53:56):
Why these are legal, I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00 (53:58):
I don't know why they're legal because only bad
people use them.
I mean, the the non-bad peoplethat use them are probably
children that are trying toevade their parents.
But that's it.
SPEAKER_01 (54:07):
Like with Snapchat, I've said this.
It's for pedophiles andpreteens.
That's it.
If you're an adult who isn'tashamed of what you're sending,
why does it need to delete, youfreaking weirdo?
SPEAKER_00 (54:16):
You've written a lot about pedophiles on Snapchat.
Like predators on Snapchat andthese apps.
So like really it's bad.
Yeah.
It's bad.
SPEAKER_01 (54:25):
Rocket science.
SPEAKER_00 (54:27):
Officer Peter asked Jill to send him the texter's
latest phone numbers.
Anytime the phone number wouldchange, she would let Officer
Peter know.
Okay, new number, here you are.
Officer Peter also emailedKendra about the case.
He was aware of people'ssuspicions about her, but both
himself and Sheriff Main justfelt that this was way too
(54:49):
far-fetched.
They're like, there's no waythat Kendra is behind this.
Now, after not hearing back fromKendra for two days after
sending the email, Officer Petercalls 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 OfficerPeter during this time or was it
all after the fact?
SPEAKER_01 (55:10):
It was after the fact.
Okay.
Yeah.
So in mid-April, because we knewnone of this investigation was
even going on until a person wascharged.
And then like this person'scharged with doing this, so no
one really knew what washappening that there was this
pending investigation going onuntil the police gave like a
press release and like here itall is.
SPEAKER_00 (55:31):
That that makes sense, I guess.
Why would you know about it withnothing there yet?
Yeah.
In mid-April, Jill sent OfficerPeter for new numbers.
And at this time, the Pinger appwas under a search warranty or
warranty.
Search warrant.
Search warrant.
Yeah.
Is your car under warranty?
Anyway, uh the Pinger app wasnow under a search warrant that
(55:56):
was given by Officer Peter.
Officer Peter emailed theschool's IT director saying that
through this warrant, he nowknows that it is someone from
the school that is doing this.
He's tracking IP addresses andall that.
If you don't understand IPaddresses, look it up.
SPEAKER_01 (56:13):
I don't know how he does an IP address is basically
a fingerprint to your server.
SPEAKER_00 (56:18):
Yeah.
And there there was a lot ofdigging he did, and it gets a
little intricate, but throughthe IP addresses, he's able to
track phones.
Not just phone numbers, butyou're able to see the phone
that these apps are using.
So it's more in depth in thephone number.
SPEAKER_01 (56:34):
It's very convoluted, this forensic
digital analysis.
That's why he's like he's asingular kind of pro at this
locally.
Like it's so involved theyselect someone to train and he
handles it regionally.
SPEAKER_00 (56:47):
And he had to connect with Verizon because
these were Verizon Towers and Idon't know, all this stuff.
So he could tell that it wasfrom the school, but didn't know
who it was yet.
He had to wait for moreinformation to come to him.
As Officer Peter isinvestigating, Jill is beginning
to pick up some weirdness fromKendra.
It's been months since thebreakup, and Kendra just keeps
(57:11):
prying into Owen's love life.
And it got to the point whereJill was like, hey, we're only
going to talk about thecyberbullying from here on out.
Like, leave, like stop worryingabout Owen.
In May, after basketball seasonwas over, so Kendra was the
eighth-grade basketball coach,and she no longer has any reason
to be at the school because theseason's over.
(57:33):
Dave notices Kendra's car parkednear the Catholic church, half a
block from the school.
He saw that Kendra was lookingdown at her lap.
When she glanced up and sawDave, she waved.
And then later that day,unprompted, Kendra was talking
to Jill on the phone and shebrought it up.
She said, Oh, I'm sure Davethought it was funny seeing me
(57:54):
in the parking lot.
I drove to Beale to get gas andgot a coffee and I spilled it
all over me.
And so I pulled in there to wipeit off.
And Jill said that she couldtell that Kendra was lying, but
didn't know why.
Yeah.
Just like, what?
Okay.
Weird.
SPEAKER_01 (58:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (58:10):
And at this point, the bullying is getting worse.
For example, in mid-May, therewas a text that Lauren received,
and in all caps, it said, killyourself now, bitch.
And then the following week,Officer Peter got word from
Verizon about these IPaddresses.
(58:31):
And as he sifted through thesenumbers, only one showed up
repeatedly.
Two months later in August, I'massuming they had to do some
more work.
SPEAKER_01 (58:42):
Everything takes a while.
SPEAKER_00 (58:42):
Yeah.
Two months later in August,Sheriff Main pulls up to the
house that the family is livingin.
As the sheriff drives up, Kendrais taking out the trash.
Sheriff Main and a detective getout of the car and they said,
We're here to seize yourdevices, Kendra.
Now, this is from the sheriff'sinvestigative log, so it's a
(59:03):
little dry, but I just wanted toread it.
The sheriff handed Kendra asearch warrant saying she was
being investigated as acyberbully.
When she denied it, the sherifftold her to be honest.
Her number showed up each time atext was sent.
They're like, We see it.
Yeah.
We know it's you.
SPEAKER_01 (59:20):
Pulled the veil away and now it's just cut and dry.
SPEAKER_00 (59:23):
Yep.
The sheriff asks, Were youinfatuated with Owen?
And Kendra said, No, nothinglike that.
And then the sheriff demandedthat she explain.
And then the sheriff wrote thatsomething shifted, that Kendra
felt very uncomfortable.
And Kendra tells the sheriffthat the first text in 2019
(59:44):
saying you can't come to theHalloween party, that was not
from her, but that she fed offof that.
And that's why she began to sendher text messages to her
daughter and to Owen.
SPEAKER_01 (59:56):
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (59:56):
So Kendra's the one doing it, and that's her reason.
She said that a group of kidsreally was trying to come
between Lauren and Owen.
And then the sheriff was like,but why did you continue?
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:08):
So she's according to her own story, she's a
copycat of an anonymous teen.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:14):
Yes.
And the reason why.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:16):
Sadder than just being like, I did it.
Like you're copying a child.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:21):
And the reason she says is because of stress and
financial issues.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:24):
How is this supposed to relieve either of those?
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:27):
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 cortisollevels are supposed to go,
control it.
Lauren was at the house whenKendra was confronted by the
sheriff.
Sean was not.
He was at work.
Lauren called her dad.
(01:00:47):
Okay, you gotta get home.
This is happening.
And one of Sean's coworkers saidthat he remembers Sean saying,
as he's red in the face and inshock, they think it's Kendra.
Sean's fuming when he raceshome.
And this is a little, I'm notsure what's happening here
because in the documentary, it'sdifferent than the articles.
(01:01:08):
So the sheriff, according to thearticle, met Sean outside the
house first.
SPEAKER_01 (01:01:13):
Well the body cam footage, I'd go with, I mean,
the body cam footage is seen inthe documentary.
Yeah, he like walks outside andgreets him at he comes in, like
he drives in.
He sheriff like meets himoutside and gives him kind of
like a preface.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (01:01:26):
Like okay.
I don't I misremembered thatthen.
Okay, because I thought that wasinside 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 Seanabout it outside before he comes
into the house, and Sean tellsthe police about the other
phones that Kendra has.
(01:01:48):
She has three phones.
She only gave two.
And Sean was like, Oh, she's gota third.
Let's go find it.
And the third phone was found ina stack of wood outside where
Kendra had stashed it as she sawthe sheriff pull up.
And then this is where I thinkwe both, when we were watching
the documentary, felt likeKendra's dad, Sean, handled it.
SPEAKER_01 (01:02:11):
Husband.
SPEAKER_00 (01:02:11):
Or Kendra's husband, sorry, Lauren's dad.
Lauren's dad, Sean, handlesthis, I think Remarkably well.
Remarkably well.
You can see on the body camfootage that he is pacing back
and forth.
He's so angry, but he looksdirectly at the sheriff and he
said, and he points to his wifeand he says, She can't be here.
(01:02:32):
If you can't leave while she'shere.
SPEAKER_03 (01:02:34):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:02:34):
You have to stay, sheriff, while she's here.
Because he basically is saying,I'm gonna lose my shit.
SPEAKER_01 (01:02:39):
He's had like one or one of us is gonna go to jail
tonight if you leave.
SPEAKER_00 (01:02:43):
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He was very honest, and but henever, you know, ran at her or
got aggressive.
He was just, you could tell thathe was doing everything he could
to keep it together.
And he did.
And he called Kendra's parentsand said, You have to come get
your daughter.
She can't stay here.
Come get her.
And good, good for you, Sean.
(01:03:04):
Good on you.
You did the best, I think, giventhe shock you must have been in
and rage you must have felt.
The sheriff at this time alsoreveals to Sean and Lauren that
Kendra hasn't had a job for awhole year.
She hasn't been working.
Kendra has been lying abouttheir finances for years.
(01:03:24):
So remember back, all the wayback in 2019, when Kendra got
her new job at Ferris StateUniversity, and then they moved
into Sean's dream home, thatfour-bedroom cabin.
Well, even back then, thingswere seeming a bit off.
Sean would say things to hisfriends and coworkers, like, oh,
we missed a house paymentbecause someone in New Mexico
(01:03:48):
stole our identity or that hispickup truck was repossessed
because of a scammer in Saginaw.
And then one of Kendra's checksbounced when she was supposed to
pay for her portion of like aspring break group trip.
And then when Kendra switchedjobs from Central Michigan
University to Fair State, thisis when, remember, she tells her
(01:04:08):
family, Oh, I'm getting a payraise.
This is wonderful.
When in reality, she was firedfrom CMU, didn't have a job for
a hot minute, and then took apay cut to work for Fair State.
Now, how could they move intothis bigger home though when
she's already in financialtrouble?
SPEAKER_01 (01:04:27):
I mean, it seems like everyone in America lives
above their means.
SPEAKER_00 (01:04:29):
Yeah, basically, do it.
Yep.
I don't understand.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04:32):
I can't.
I don't understand how everybodyelse but me seemingly just lives
above their means.
SPEAKER_00 (01:04:36):
Credit.
You don't really have a lot ofcredit cards or anything, but
that's that's how credit.
So they got this four-bedroomlog cabin after they were no
longer able to live in theirother home that was smaller
because it was foreclosed upon.
She just told family and friendsthat they sold it, but it was
(01:04:57):
actually foreclosed.
And then they moved into thislog cabin under a land contract,
which is something for peoplewith bad credit.
And you basically rent to own,you pay monthly to the owner of
the home.
And then eventually you payenough and you pay off the home
and you own the home, is theidea.
(01:05:18):
In the spring of 2021, Kendrawas put on a performative
improvement plan at Ferris.
It was reported that she spentexcessive time on non-work texts
and calls.
Kendra told Ferris that she wasoverwhelmed and stressed out
from COVID and sports.
(01:05:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05:39):
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 (01:05:48):
Yeah.
Let it go.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05:49):
Yeah.
You don't have to catch ballsand kick them around.
SPEAKER_00 (01:05:52):
I'm sure Sean would take Lauren to games and let you
rest a little bit, Kendra.
All you do is communicate withyour husband.
It's not hard.
In August of Lauren's freshmanyear, Kendra ended up quitting
her job at Fair State Universitybecause she knew that she fell
short of her performanceimprovement plan.
And she quit rather than gettingfired.
And she didn't tell anyone.
(01:06:13):
So that was her last job.
And that year, in 2021, that'swhen the texts really started to
ramp up.
And Kendra claimed to be workingfrom home at this time.
She would pretend to be on callswhen Sean was home.
Whenever Sean would ask aboutanything financial, she would
quickly change the subject tocyberbullying.
And in the fall of 2021, theowner of the log cabin had
(01:06:36):
enough of Kendra's excuses as towhy she wasn't making the house
payments.
And he began the evictionprocess.
By the end of April of 2022,they were evicted.
Kendra told family and friendsthat the house's foundation was
cracked and they moved out whilerepairs were being done.
Kendra's confession spreadthrough Beale City like
(01:07:00):
wildfire.
When Owen's parents told him whoit was, he was quiet, shocked,
and angry.
When close friends of Lauren'sheard, they felt angry as well
and used by Kendra.
Because, like, remember, Kendrawould ask Lauren's friends to
check on Lauren while she was inthe bathroom crying and upset.
It's just there's some kind oflike psychosis there, like
(01:07:22):
control, you know?
And Chloe Wilson finally feltrelief when she heard the news.
Like her name is finallycleared.
Kendra was arrested in Decemberof 2022.
Charged with two counts ofstalking a minor, two counts of
communicating with another tocommit a crime.
(01:07:44):
Who was she communicating with?
SPEAKER_01 (01:07:46):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_00 (01:07:46):
I think that might have been Pink like using the
Pinger app as a secondarysource, maybe.
Like they don't have a word, aplace for it yet because it's so
new, but Yeah, she'scommunicating with an entity.
SPEAKER_01 (01:07:58):
I mean, not like an individual, but a corporation
kind of.
Yeah.
With a service provided by acorporate, you know, something
to that effect.
SPEAKER_00 (01:08:05):
That was the only one that I read a few times, and
I was like, what does this mean?
And then one count ofobstruction of justice.
Lauren would finish hersophomore year of high school
online.
In the spring of 2023, Kendraread a statement in court, and
you weren't at any of thesecourt proceedings, were you?
SPEAKER_01 (01:08:24):
I had to miss it for other things.
SPEAKER_00 (01:08:28):
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 toOwen McKenney and his family.
I'm sorry for my behavior toChloe Wilson and her family.
I'm sorry for my daughter,Lauren, and my husband, Sean.
(01:08:48):
Then she continues to go on andexplain 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 ofthose under her belt?
I'm not fucking like fuck you,Kendra.
Fuck off with all of that.
Just fuck off.
SPEAKER_01 (01:09:09):
All the every villain starts as a victim.
SPEAKER_00 (01:09:12):
No excuse.
So anyway, Kendra was looking at19 months to five years in
prison.
And this was only after Kendrapleaded guilty to the two
stalking counts in exchange forthis plea, the other charges
against her were dismissed.
So if those other charges werestill on the table, she could be
looking at up to 10 years.
(01:09:33):
But she cut that down.
SPEAKER_01 (01:09:34):
She should be the lesser ones.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (01:09:37):
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 (01:09:46):
I mean, I I've been in his courtroom for other
things.
I know he's like, I think he'sthe only circuit judge in
Isabella County.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:09:52):
Oh, okay.
Well, you're gonna have to meeta new one soon because this was
his statement upon sentencing.
I can't imagine any parentsaying such horrible things to
her own daughter.
It's the kind of case that makesme glad that at the end of my
term I'm retiring.
So she made him happy to like nolonger do his career job.
Yeah.
(01:10:12):
Again, fuck you, Kendra.
Sorry, the documentary pisses meoff so much because she acts
like she's just this, oh, I'mjust this little mid, this
Michigan girl.
No, you're a disgusting humanbeing and you ruin the lives of
many people.
Like you're not a victim, you'rethe predator.
Lauren Smiley, the author of thecut article, she wrote to Kendra
(01:10:36):
while she was still in prisonasking for an interview.
And Kendra said that upon herrelease, she'll give one.
But in the meantime, here's thisemail that she sends.
SPEAKER_01 (01:10:50):
Never once.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10:51):
Again, fuck you, Kendra.
Yeah, I know.
You're used to that.
SPEAKER_01 (01:10:55):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10:56):
So Kendra writes, I do ask that you truly think
about the kids, minor kids thatare involved in this situation,
including my daughter.
SPEAKER_01 (01:11:05):
Why didn't you?
Exactly.
It's weird.
I always hate when parents askstrangers to think more about
their kids than they do.
SPEAKER_00 (01:11:11):
I won't suddenly think of the children.
I won't.
SPEAKER_01 (01:11:13):
You first.
I didn't.
I won't.
SPEAKER_00 (01:11:14):
I won't think of her.
You have to.
That's your job.
I'm thinking of my cats that Iown.
Fuck off.
Sorry.
Kendra really pisses me offbecause again, watching the
documentary, she acts like she'sjust 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 Idon't care to read all of her
(01:11:35):
words.
So at the end, she's saying how,like, you know, this doesn't
need to have any more spotlighton it.
And she doesn't need Laurenhaving people thinking her mom
is a villain, as that is hardmentally and emotionally for
her.
SPEAKER_01 (01:11:49):
Why didn't she decline the Netflix interview?
SPEAKER_00 (01:11:51):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:11:52):
If she genuinely wanted this to just fade away,
why'd you do a Netflixinterview?
SPEAKER_00 (01:11:57):
Yeah.
And why are you agreeing to acut interview?
And why are you emailing thisperson who has more clout than
you do?
A local reporter.
She went for someone who is anationwide reporter.
Like she wants to be in thespotlight.
You want attention, Kendra.
That's all you want.
Be real.
So Kendra was released out onparole in August of 2024.
(01:12:19):
Kendra now currently lives inPontiac with her family.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12:23):
Per the terms of her parole.
SPEAKER_00 (01:12:24):
Yes.
Sean divorced and received fullcustody of Lauren during this
time.
Lauren is now 18, so no custodyanymore.
But for the last little bit, hehad full custody.
Kendra is not allowed muchcontact with Lauren, if any.
I read her parole provisions orconditions.
(01:12:46):
Conditions.
Provisions, conditions.
Um, and it said she's notallowed contact with Lauren, but
then according to some of thearticles I've read, she has had
contact, like minimally withLauren.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12:57):
They might give some.
SPEAKER_00 (01:12:58):
Maybe once Lauren turned 18, maybe she was allowed
a little more.
SPEAKER_01 (01:13:03):
Yeah, because I would like if she's still on
parole.
If the victim I'm just speakingin general here, not I don't
know the specifics of this case,but in general, no contact
orders between the criminal andthe victim are pretty standard.
But if the victim wants contact,then that's that usually the
(01:13:23):
courts can amend things if thethe victim is the one who
petitions like, no, I really dowant 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 (01:13:35):
Something there.
unknown (01:13:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:13:37):
The last thing that Lauren was really heard saying
in the documentary, um, that shedoes want a relationship with
her mom, but doesn't really knowhow to do that.
She's conflicted, she's, youknow, torn up by this and
doesn't know what to do.
Which, how could you know whatto do at any age, let alone your
teen years?
Lauren returned to Beale CityHigh School for her junior year
and then would end upgraduating.
(01:13:58):
I think they graduated this pastyear, May of 2025.
Okay.
I think.
Whatever.
They like just graduated.
It doesn't matter because we'renot following them.
They need to be left alone now,their story is done.
Let them live their lives ascollege students and have the
last bit of like 13 years leftin them.
I will say though, after thedocumentary came out, or right
(01:14:21):
before it came out, however itwas, the Wilsons had their
Halloween party like they doevery year.
And Tammy dressed a scarecrow upin like a prison jumpsuit and a
mask of Kendra, of Kendra'smugshot specifically.
SPEAKER_03 (01:14:36):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (01:14:36):
And uh put phones, like attached phones to the
scarecrow, scarecrow's hands.
Nice.
And that was like a part of herdecor.
And the cut article didn't seemto really like it too much.
Or like they they quoted peoplethat didn't like it.
I don't know.
She didn't really have much ofan opinion.
Um I kind of think it's funny.
I'm sorry.
(01:14:57):
I I wouldn't have thought to dothat, I don't think myself, but
I I wouldn't really care if Isaw 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 mysurgeries tomorrow.
Oh, or not tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15:17):
Yeah, it's tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00 (01:15:18):
Well, we started recording this yesterday.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15:20):
Oh, yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_00 (01:15:21):
Yeah, we have a we had a break.
There's been a lot going on thisweek.
So messy, messy, but here we aredoing it, and yeah, I'll have my
surgeries tomorrow.
So please engage and make myhealing fun.
Thank you guys.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15:37):
Yeah, until next time.
SPEAKER_00 (01:15:38):
Bye.
Bye.
Hello everyone.
SPEAKER_01 (00:02):
Hey.
SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
I'm Sarah.
SPEAKER_01 (00:04):
I'm Cole.
SPEAKER_00 (00:05):
And you're listening to Borrowed Bones.
Podcast about fucked up,interesting, and toxic families.
SPEAKER_01 (00:11):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (00:13):
Just wanted to say my name very badly there and
just wanted to cut you off.
SPEAKER_01 (00:16):
Apparently.
SPEAKER_00 (00:17):
I'm just excited to get into this.
SPEAKER_01 (00:19):
Yeah.
It's a weird one.
SPEAKER_00 (00:21):
Yeah.
And real quick before we getsuper into it, I do want to do
some announcements up top.
We normally do them at thebottom, but I just wanted to let
everyone know that we might begoing dark for like a week or
two.
Um, I am getting surgery onFriday.
SPEAKER_01 (00:38):
Two surgeries.
SPEAKER_00 (00:39):
In a couple weeks, in a couple few days.
I don't know.
I don't know what day it is whenI'm gonna throw this out because
I'm off schedule now.
SPEAKER_01 (00:44):
But of this recording.
SPEAKER_00 (00:46):
Yes.
So when this is heard, I willhave had surgery already.
Yeah.
And hopefully I'm alive.
SPEAKER_01 (00:53):
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 (01:01):
Yeah, it's really fun.
Yeah, nothing obviously likelife-threatening, but surgery is
always a little nerve-wrackingjust in general.
I have great feet due to mygenetics.
Thanks, Dad, and grandma, ifyou're listening.
I might be gone for a week ortwo, but then I will have
nothing better to do than thispodcast after I am off of the
(01:22):
pain medication.
I'll be out of work for a littlewhile.
Anyway, what will help me getthrough all of that healing
process is if everyone couldengage with the podcast, like
and follow us on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, YouTube, wherever you
listen.
(01:42):
The rating and reviews help alot.
Like I've said before, it helpsmove 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 (01:55):
Got an official website.
SPEAKER_00 (01:57):
Yep.
The website isborrowedbonespodcast.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 (02:07):
It's also shirts.
Yep.
All the typical swag things.
Everything.
SPEAKER_00 (02:13):
And you can see it in our Instagram as well, the
Borrowed Bones PodcastInstagram.
So, yes, that is all of theannouncements up front.
Because I wanted to make sureyou guys heard that I'm having
surgery.
Misery loves company, right?
So I want you all with me onthis.
SPEAKER_01 (02:28):
Getting her bones operated on.
SPEAKER_00 (02:31):
Anyway, let's get into it.
Today we are talking aboutsomething that has been pretty
popular.
The nation seems to be talkingabout it.
And this story, this familyevent, happened yet again near
Bay City, Michigan.
(02:52):
I feel like a lot happens aroundBay City.
At least recently I've beennoticing it.
SPEAKER_01 (02:56):
Well, you got it kind of a skewed perspective
because I'm the one who kind ofchronicles the Bay City crime
and that's true, I guess.
SPEAKER_00 (03:05):
Well, I mean like nationwide things that you
wouldn't understand are likeJonestown is connected to Bay
City.
SPEAKER_03 (03:11):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (03:12):
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 herethat you wouldn't think about
because 96 Tears was recorded inBay City.
Oh, I don't know what's that.
Question Mark the Mysterionsong?
Oh, yes, yeah, do, I do.
Sorry, sorry.
SPEAKER_01 (03:28):
You know if you're hurt, it's yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (03:30):
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 (03:40):
Isabella County.
SPEAKER_00 (03:42):
Mm-hmm.
Near Mount Pleasant.
SPEAKER_01 (03:44):
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (03:46):
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, itonly had 332 people.
That's have you been to Beale?
SPEAKER_01 (04:00):
I don't think I was.
I don't think I ever went outthere while I was covering this.
SPEAKER_00 (04:06):
I feel like I've played Beale in sports.
I played softball a lot and didtournaments and everything, and
I've I've seen Beale City likeshirts 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 (04:23):
I mean, if you've been to one small Michigan town,
you've been to them all kindsof.
SPEAKER_00 (04:27):
I know they all kind of seem the same.
But yes, it's a small city, andthere's only one public school,
just one entirely, it that takesover the elementary, middle, and
high school all in one.
And I've seen a lot of peoplethat aren't from the Midwest
really, or if they're not fromsmaller communities, they seem
(04:49):
confused by this.
Like, how does a sixth grader ora third grader interact with a
senior or junior?
SPEAKER_01 (04:55):
They don't.
They're on the same property,but it's not literally the same,
or like, you know, it's maybearchitecturally the same
building, but they're not asconnected.
There's different wings thatare, you know, there's the K
through five wing, maybe there'sthe six through eight, and then
high school.
So it's not like senior highschools walking down the same
hallway with a kindergartner andknocking them over.
(05:16):
I mean, it's yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:17):
Usually separated by gyms or maybe like cafeteria,
school offices.
It's yeah, there's it'sseparated in some way.
SPEAKER_01 (05:29):
Where every there's just a school mom teaching
everyone between five andeighteen.
SPEAKER_00 (05:34):
Like yes.
So I just I wanted to get a fewof those things out of the way
because these big city peoplethat talk about it don't seem to
quite get it.
It's not that weird, it'sdifferent than what the coastal
elites are used to, but it'sit's the Midwest.
It's fine, it's economical.
So if you haven't guessed bynow, we are talking about the
(05:58):
documentary on Netflix calledUnknown Number.
So we will talk about itentirely.
If you have not watched thatdocumentary and you want to, we
will we're gonna spoil it.
So choose what you want to dofirst.
Listen to us, then watch it orwatch that.
But I'm letting you know we'regoing through the whole process
here.
And Cole, were you one of thefirst ones to write about this?
(06:22):
Or did you break the story orwhat?
SPEAKER_01 (06:25):
I was one of the first.
I think I might have I I can'tswear to this with 100%, but I
think I was the first to get apolice report from the Isabella
County Sheriff's Office shortlyafter like they got details of
their investigation and how itwent, and I'm not gonna spoil it
right now, but um yeah, becauseI sent a shortly after a person
(06:50):
was charged with a crime, Isubmitted a good job not yes, a
crime does occur in this.
And that's yeah, leads tocriminal charges.
So shortly after this person wascharged, I sent a FOIA request
to the sheriff's office fortheir reports and copies of the
text messages that wereinvolved.
(07:11):
And they gave me quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00 (07:13):
Yeah, they did, I remember.
SPEAKER_01 (07:15):
Yeah, I had to drive out there and pick it up in
person because it was allprinted out.
Um but yeah.
So then I wrote an article kindof summarizing, detailing their
investigation that led to thisperson being charged.
And that kind of broke thelarger narrative out.
SPEAKER_00 (07:33):
Yes, yeah, it was it was pretty crazy as it was
happening, how you kept cominghome and telling me more and
more, and I just was like, wait,what?
And then I remember I would getconfused and say, This is the
same thing, right?
For how long it was.
I would forget about it, andthen you'd bring it up again,
and I was like, What?
What are you talking about?
Like this was such a longprocess.
SPEAKER_01 (07:53):
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 legalside.
That's just yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:01):
Right.
And then um, you were even askedto be a part of a podcast or
help with a podcast for it.
That kind of fizzled out, andthen we realized there's
documentary, and we're like, oh,this is getting really big.
So now you get to talk about iton our podcast.
Yeah, yay, yeah.
Oh, and are you sorry, are youfriends with Brad Peter?
SPEAKER_01 (08:21):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (08:22):
Oh, you are?
Oh, okay.
Well, hi, Officer Brad.
SPEAKER_01 (08:26):
Oh no, we've we've hung out.
SPEAKER_00 (08:28):
Oh, that's cool.
Have I met him?
SPEAKER_01 (08:30):
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 (08:36):
There are some people that I see sometimes out
and about that I know werecognize each other through
you.
I wonder if he's one of thosepeople that you've just said hi
to and I've been like, you know,near.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, well, hello, Officer BradPeter.
I have read about you.
SPEAKER_01 (08:50):
I will text him a link to this once it's published
and be like, we mentioned you onthis.
SPEAKER_00 (08:55):
Yeah.
Um Officer Brad Peter comes intothe story.
I say his full name because it'stwo first names, and it's weird
just to say Officer Peter, butuh whatever.
Officer Peter.
Um, he's from Bay City.
SPEAKER_01 (09:07):
He's a Bay City police officer.
SPEAKER_00 (09:08):
It's all connected, and he'll come into the story
later.
So anyway, let's get into it.
SPEAKER_01 (09:13):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (09:13):
Starting from the top, Kendra and Sean Lakari met
while Kendra was a student atCentral Michigan University,
living in Mount Pleasant,Michigan.
What is that, about 15 minutesaway from Beale?
If even.
SPEAKER_01 (09:30):
Yeah, if even.
SPEAKER_00 (09:31):
It's pretty close.
Okay, yeah.
Sean is born and raised BealeCity.
After Kendra and Sean met, theirrelationship grew and Kendra
would eventually move intoSean's house.
In 2007, their daughter, Lauren,was born.
And she would be their onlychild.
(09:53):
Kendra was the breadwinner forthe family.
She was a bank branchsupervisor, and then she ended
up working in the humanresources department at Central
Michigan University.
Sean worked at the local autobody shop.
SPEAKER_01 (10:08):
Oh, yeah.
You know more about this than Ido, even though I kind of
started knowing it because I wasonly focused really on my job
and the yeah, like I wasn'tworried about their anyone's
biographies.
I was just this is the crimethat happened.
You know, how did that lead tothere?
So you know more about theplayers involved, even the
(10:29):
minors to me.
Minors O R meaning children.
Oh, right now, yes.
SPEAKER_03 (10:34):
The pickaxe.
SPEAKER_01 (10:35):
Um, but like you know, obviously, I can't publish
names of minors, so I had nointerest in even really digging
into them too much becausethey're minors, they're you
know, anyway.
SPEAKER_00 (10:46):
Yes, Lauren is no longer a minor.
Yes, yes, this is uh no one is aminor anymore.
Yes, just for the record,they're not.
Um, and this is not slanderousto anyone who was a minor at the
time, anyway.
So I feel comfortable talkingabout it.
Um but yeah, you did more of thecriminal side of it after it
came to the police, but I foundthis really great article.
(11:06):
Uh it's the cut article, andit's written by Lauren Smiley.
She did a really great job.
She interviewed everyone andtalked to them and got these
more detailed stories versusyes.
So I use both of you inresearching this, and there's a
few other things I've looked atas well.
Obviously, I watched documentarytoo, so I have a lot of
(11:27):
different things, but a lot ofthis does come from the cut.
So I want to give that propershout out.
unknown (11:32):
Cool.
SPEAKER_00 (11:33):
Sean was the supportive father role, and
Kendra was the one that like ranthe house.
She oversaw the schedule,finances, and everything.
In the spring of 2019, Laurenwas in sixth grade and Kendra
got a new job at Fair StateUniversity.
(11:54):
She would work at the IT servicedesk as a specialist in cell
phones.
So she knows her gadgets, sheknows how to said the salary was
a huge increase from herprevious job at CMU.
So it was a good switch.
Yay.
And then the family was able toupgrade to a four-bedroom rustic
(12:17):
chic log cabin in the woods.
SPEAKER_01 (12:19):
Damn.
SPEAKER_00 (12:20):
Sean said that it was his dream home.
SPEAKER_01 (12:22):
Yeah.
Four-bedroom, that's prettynice.
SPEAKER_00 (12:24):
Yeah.
Co-workers of Sean's would jokethat Kendra was a sugar mama and
that Sean couldn't get dressedwithout Kendra's help.
Even though their friends wouldjoke about this with Sean, they
never really saw any red flagsor anything.
They just were like, hey, theyboth had their roles and they
both seemed very happy in them.
Now, Kendra was not from thearea.
(12:46):
She is from Pontiac, which is asuburb of Detroit, very close.
So people will say she's fromDetroit.
Yeah.
So she's from the big city,living in a very small town.
SPEAKER_01 (12:58):
And yeah, it'd be a culture shock.
SPEAKER_00 (13:00):
Culture shock for her, but also people always say,
you know, small towns take careof their own.
Well, they really only take careof their own, and no one else
outside of that.
And Kendra was not one of theirown.
SPEAKER_01 (13:13):
You're not born and raised.
SPEAKER_00 (13:14):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (13:15):
And so you married into it.
SPEAKER_00 (13:17):
You married into it.
And I that's how I put it.
I took me a while to adjustliving here.
Coming from Dallas to Bay Citywas a big switch for me.
And I was 17, and it took us agood year, year and a half for
people to start being like, ohyeah, like you're in our friend
group routinely.
I was just kind of me and mytwin for a long time.
SPEAKER_03 (13:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:38):
Hey, twin.
unknown (13:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:39):
So I can imagine Beal was a little bit harder to
like cut through.
It's just, I don't know what itis.
It's just hard to get in.
But once you're in, it is a warmembrace.
It's very nice, but it's hard toget in.
So it was difficult for Kendrato sort of make her own way as
she's trying to fit in better.
And not that she's being bulliedor anyone's being mean to her.
There's just this standoffnessthat happens in small towns.
(14:02):
So Kendra gets really involvedwith Lauren, her daughter.
SPEAKER_03 (14:08):
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:08):
Right.
Kendra ends up coaching Lauren'ssoftball team when Lauren was in
elementary school.
And then later, Lauren was inmiddle school and Kendra coached
Lauren's basketball team.
Everything was going well.
Kendra was fitting in.
She made friends with otherfamilies.
They had groups together.
Yeah, it all it all was workingout.
Like the longer you're there,you will be accepted.
(14:30):
It will happen.
It just is hard.
It's hard to move to smalltowns.
It really is.
The Lakaris and other familieswould go on these big group
spring break trips to Florida orAlabama.
They'd all pitch in their shareand like get a condo or
something.
SPEAKER_01 (14:45):
Nothing like vacationing in Alabama.
No offense to even in Alabama.
It's just not a place I would goon my vacation.
SPEAKER_00 (14:54):
It's coastal.
SPEAKER_01 (14:55):
Very little bit.
SPEAKER_00 (14:56):
It's pretty.
I mean, I've never really been,but no.
I know people that have.
It's normal.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:04):
Like 50 other places I'd rather go off the top.
SPEAKER_00 (15:07):
Like I know.
I don't think we have anyAlabama listeners.
Maybe we will now if we sayAlabama enough.
Oh no, they're gonna get mad.
Okay.
Anyway.
Daughter Lauren was on thequieter side, a little bit shy,
but a good student, gooddaughter.
Once you got to know her, shewas open and friendly.
(15:28):
She was involved in a lot ofsports.
She also did a lot of travelsports, so always on the go,
always busy.
Unlike Lauren, Kendra was alittle more outgoing, a little
more sociable.
Kendra would often go up toLauren's classmates and gossip
with them.
SPEAKER_03 (15:45):
Okay.
Aye.
SPEAKER_00 (15:48):
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 closemother-daughter bond.
unknown (15:57):
That's always weird.
SPEAKER_01 (15:58):
There's always I remember being a kid, and I
Yeah, you're an only child.
Yeah, and you can't be a littlebit of a child.
I'm an only child.
I grew up from kindergartenthrough eighth grade,
essentially, was the same 18 to20 people.
Yeah, you hated like like eightgirls, eight, nine guys, roughly
this that that's it.
So but there'd always be thatone kid's mom that like wouldn't
(16:23):
leave the parties and would liketry to cool mom.
Yeah, and like try to talk andjust like I don't want to got
yeah, just it was weird.
SPEAKER_00 (16:32):
Yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (16:34):
There's always that one mom that just hangs around,
doesn't know.
Like, all right, time to letyour kids be kids.
You can leave now.
SPEAKER_00 (16:40):
Oh yeah, it yeah, they were very close, like that.
Very, yeah.
By the time Lauren was in middleschool, other parents were
starting to get annoyed with howmuch Kendra was all about Lauren
constantly talking about her,bragging, just everything you
said.
SPEAKER_01 (16:56):
Do you know how overbearing you have to be as a
parent to the other?
Other parents, yeah.
I know it's like the Puritansgetting kicked out of England.
Like, do you know how prudishyou had to be as a Christian,
get kicked out of MiddleEastern, or not, excuse me,
Middle Eastern, but uhmiddle-aged, excuse me, not
middle age, middle ages,medieval?
Yeah, medieval Europe.
Like Jesus, literally, yeah,like you were that prudish.
SPEAKER_00 (17:21):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:22):
So if you're that annoying to parents talking
about your kid, yes.
SPEAKER_00 (17:26):
Other parents got annoyed with her talking about
Lauren so much.
In the fall of 2019, Lauren isnow in seventh grade.
Um, so she's like what, 12 or 13here, 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 herbirthday is exactly.
(17:46):
So she's 12 or 13.
unknown (17:48):
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (17:49):
A boy named Owen McKenny became interested in
Lauren romantically.
Okay.
It's kind of the first, youknow, middle school love.
In classic middle schoolfashion, Owen asked his friends
to tell Lauren that he likedher.
SPEAKER_01 (18:05):
You never say it yourself at that age.
SPEAKER_00 (18:07):
No, no.
SPEAKER_01 (18:08):
Tell a friend.
SPEAKER_00 (18:09):
Yeah, hey, go tell her I like her and see what she
says.
SPEAKER_01 (18:11):
Or you, yeah, you have your boy your male friend
ask her girlfriend to ask her.
SPEAKER_00 (18:17):
It sounds like they went straight to Lauren, which
is, you know, they're gettingmore direct these days.
These kids.
Later that day, Lauren went towatch Owen play in his football
game.
Cute.
And then after the game, Owentexted Lauren and asked her, Are
we dating?
And Lauren replied, Do you wantto be?
And Owen responded, sure.
(18:40):
And their love story begins.
SPEAKER_01 (18:42):
Must have been so much easier when I'm thinking
because there was no textingwhen I was a kid.
Like there was no lights orphone calls or face-to-face.
That was it.
There's so much more distancecable, and you can take more, I
don't know, it's just sodetached.
SPEAKER_00 (18:57):
All right.
A little bit about Owen's familynow.
Owen's parents, Jill and DaveMcKenny, began dating when they
were in seventh grade.
SPEAKER_03 (19:06):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (19:07):
Dave was a star outfielder for Beale City High's
baseball team, and Jill was oncea cheerleader for Beale City
High.
They're both born and raised.
Yep.
Dave coaches kids baseball andworks as an IT manager, and Jill
is very big into volunteering atthe Catholic Elementary School.
When Owen and Lauren starteddating, Kendra was all about it.
(19:30):
She was a very involved mom withher daughter's first boyfriend.
Jill, Owen's mom, said thatKendra would talk about them as
if they would be togetherforever.
SPEAKER_03 (19:42):
Oh.
SPEAKER_00 (19:42):
One time one of Lauren's friends saw Kendra take
Lauren's phone and read hertexts with Owen.
And then Kendra replied to Owenas if she were Lauren and said,
I love you to Owen in place ofLauren.
So just interesting boundariesthere.
SPEAKER_01 (20:04):
Yeah.
Or lack their own.
SPEAKER_00 (20:07):
In the spring of 2020, the world shut down due to
COVID.
SPEAKER_01 (20:13):
Isolationism sets in.
SPEAKER_00 (20:15):
Mm-hmm.
When the lockdown was in fullforce, the Lacaris and the
McKennies were in each other'ssmall social circles.
So they still saw each other alot.
They hung out throughout thesummer.
The families traveled togetherfor like Lauren and Owen's
sports games, teens.
They were still a part of allthat.
Because that's all outside, sothat makes sense.
(20:37):
I know I miss the lockdown.
The families would all staytogether on travel weekends and
they would go camping together.
They just spent a lot of timetogether this summer.
When Owen and Lauren enteredeighth grade, Kendra signed up
to be the coach for Owen's trackteam.
SPEAKER_03 (20:59):
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (21:00):
And Owen said that Kendra became like a second mom
to him.
Like this was all hunky dory.
SPEAKER_01 (21:06):
Yeah.
It's small, small.
SPEAKER_00 (21:08):
There's not a lot of people to sign up for things.
You know, that's 332 peopletotal.
That's not a lot.
SPEAKER_03 (21:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
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 tournamentor championship or something.
Then another time, Kendrasuggested that they have a
Lakari family vacation down inFlorida to watch Owen play a
tournament down there.
unknown (21:37):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (21:38):
These kids are in eighth grade.
SPEAKER_03 (21:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:40):
Still in middle school.
To this Florida adventure, Jillpolitely 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'treally see anything alarming.
She just thought that Lauren wasquirky.
Or that Kendra was one of thoseinvolved, you know, over
involved moms.
(22:00):
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 (22:07):
Yeah.
A bit much.
SPEAKER_00 (22:09):
Yeah, a bit much.
Now we're gonna go back a littlebit to the fall of 2019 when
Lauren and Owen first starteddating.
A few weeks after they starteddating, there was an anonymous
text message that was sent toLauren and Owen.
SPEAKER_01 (22:26):
Sent to both of them.
SPEAKER_00 (22:27):
Okay.
The text said that Lauren wasnot invited to the annual
Halloween party thrown by TammyWilson.
Tammy's daughter, Chloe, is aclassmate of theirs.
SPEAKER_03 (22:41):
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (22:42):
Tammy Wilson always throws a great Halloween party
that said to be the headliner ofthe year for Beale City.
It kind of sounds like usbecause we always throw a really
great Halloween party.
SPEAKER_01 (22:52):
I had someone messaged me today asking if we
were having our party, and Isaid 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 friendswith, but I don't know why I'm
friends with them.
SPEAKER_00 (23:04):
Oh, on Facebook, but you know them.
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
That's sure.
SPEAKER_01 (23:07):
Yeah, I they knew about the party.
Great.
Sure.
SPEAKER_00 (23:09):
Come on down.
SPEAKER_01 (23:11):
That person's not listening right now.
unknown (23:12):
That'd be weird.
SPEAKER_00 (23:13):
Well, you just didn't know you were friends
with them on Facebook.
SPEAKER_01 (23:15):
That's why I don't know who they are.
SPEAKER_00 (23:17):
Oh, you don't know who they are at all.
SPEAKER_01 (23:18):
Yeah, I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00 (23:20):
Do you want me to edit this out?
SPEAKER_01 (23:21):
Yeah.
unknown (23:22):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (23:23):
I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00 (23:26):
We do know this Facebook person.
The costume is always so goodevery year that we do not
recognize them every year.
And then when they have a normalface on, like the face that they
were born with, it's hard toremember who they were.
So, yes, if you are listening,we do know who you are.
We figured it out and umcontinue on.
(23:49):
Happy listening.
Bye.
Yeah, it sounds like ourHalloween party every year we
end up getting more and morepeople to come.
We have such a big, big, a bigblowout.
Ooh.
SPEAKER_01 (23:59):
We have a DJ.
SPEAKER_00 (24:01):
Yeah.
It's it's a lot of fun.
So I get it.
Like some a Halloween party isthe place you want to be.
So getting a text saying you'renot invited, rude.
Yeah.
No, thank you.
We would never do that tosomeone.
Rude.
SPEAKER_01 (24:12):
Have I done that to someone?
SPEAKER_00 (24:14):
No, you don't text and say you're not invited.
SPEAKER_01 (24:17):
That's right.
I would just tell them to theirface.
SPEAKER_00 (24:19):
If you saw them, but we would just do nothing if they
weren't invited.
SPEAKER_01 (24:22):
Like no, yeah, I wouldn't be not a good idea.
Or unless they messaged me.
Like, yeah, don't come.
SPEAKER_00 (24:27):
Exactly.
So preemptively.
Weird to get a text out of theblue that's like, hey, you're
not invited.
Yeah.
Okay.
So it was pretty upsetting tothis young couple when they got
this text.
Like, what the fuck?
Why?
Why?
What?
Owen showed the text to hisparents and they just shrugged
it off as someone who wasjealous of them.
Like someone just trying tobreak you guys up.
You know, you're you're 13,hormonal.
(24:49):
And Tammy, Chloe's mom, got windof this, and she the classmate
that did you introduce Chloe?
I did just like three secondsago.
So Tammy is the Tammy Wilson isthe one that throws the party.
Okay.
Chloe is her daughter, which isa classmate in the same grade as
Lauren and Owen.
So when Tammy got wind of this,Chloe's mom, Tammy called the
(25:14):
families and assured them thatshe nor Chloe sent the text and
they're both very much invitedto the party.
SPEAKER_01 (25:20):
Unless it's the host, because I would think like
what value is there with anumber you don't recognize.
SPEAKER_00 (25:24):
Well, Lauren at first thought maybe it was
Chloe.
Yeah, you're just like, youknow, being a little bitch, but
like they were like, no, it'snot us.
Yeah.
So they went to the Halloweenparty, no issue, everything was
fine.
And then there was no text oranything after that for one
year.
But in the fall of 2020, afterthe summer they all had together
and everything, Lauren and Owenstarted receiving more anonymous
(25:49):
text messages.
And these ones were like prettybad.
You saw them.
SPEAKER_01 (25:54):
Yeah, I'm not gonna feign ignorance.
I've yeah, I've read through alot of them.
I don't remember a lot, but Iremember the I remember you
telling me about them.
SPEAKER_00 (26:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (26:01):
I mean, they were they shocked me.
SPEAKER_00 (26:03):
And like I'm so frustrated, but we didn't know
back then that we'd be doing apodcast, but you threw you
FOIA'd for all of them and youhad all of the texts.
You had them all and they'regone.
You threw them away.
SPEAKER_01 (26:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:16):
I don't you don't keep stuff because you would you
would be nowhere to put all ofit.
You FOIA for like every day.
SPEAKER_01 (26:22):
Yeah, and it's just write the story.
SPEAKER_00 (26:23):
I'm just so I thought you had them, and I was
so excited to add.
I mean, I still have textmessages, but they're from the
cut article.
I'm not gonna even pretend herethey're from other articles, so
they're already out there.
I just wanted I remember yousaying some pretty graphic ones
sexually graphic that were likeridiculous, like like uber porn
(26:44):
level of brainage that was like,oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (26:47):
Yeah, like what the hell?
SPEAKER_00 (26:48):
Like, how'd you minor even yeah, like what knows
these high schooler, let alonemiddle schooler, knows this
stuff.
Like, I wouldn't speak thatanyway.
Let's get to it.
There are some texts that I amgonna read.
I just wish that you had yours.
Yeah, that's all.
So here are some examples fromthe cut article written by
Lauren smiley.
(27:09):
It's obvious he wants me.
His attention is constantly onme.
Not sure what he told you, buthe is coming to the Halloween
party and we are both DTF.
Down to fuck.
SPEAKER_03 (27:20):
Yeah.
That's fine.
SPEAKER_00 (27:22):
And then another one, another one.
He wants nothing to do with you.
He thinks you're annoying and anugly ass bitch and wishes you
would leave him the fuck alone.
Why do you think he's on hisphone all the time texting me?
You didn't get invited to sleepwith him.
I did.
I'm spending the night with him,I'm sharing a bed with him, not
you.
(27:42):
So that's a few.
But I feel like they were worse.
SPEAKER_01 (27:46):
Yeah, there was a lot of like graphic language and
graphic stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (27:51):
Yeah.
And I can't remember them.
SPEAKER_01 (27:52):
I remember the phrase, this is just weird, but
I remember the adjective creamywas used a lot.
Like graphics.
I was like, why do they keepdescribing things?
Like, oh you know what?
SPEAKER_00 (28:06):
Yeah, will you FOIA that again?
And I will do a Patreon readingthose text messages.
SPEAKER_01 (28:12):
You might get some creams.
SPEAKER_00 (28:14):
I don't give a shit.
SPEAKER_01 (28:15):
Uh money's money.
SPEAKER_00 (28:16):
Yeah, you gotta pay.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:18):
I don't care.
SPEAKER_00 (28:20):
I'm not gonna read them like sexily.
I'm just I just I'm someone whogets 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 toknow all of it to know all of
it.
I'm not gonna be weird about it.
Like, whatever.
If you get off on me justreading, then pay me.
Great.
So will you FOIA for them?
SPEAKER_01 (28:39):
Yeah, we can FOIA for them again.
SPEAKER_00 (28:41):
All right, look, look for it, guys.
My one Patreon member, Allison,look for it.
Hey, why not?
Yeah.
Anyway, these texts continuedthroughout the rest of the year,
these anonymous messages comingin to both Owen and Lauren's
phones.
Jill, Owen's mom, showed thetext to school officials and
(29:01):
they suggested blocking thenumber.
They're like, just block thenumber.
Well, whenever they did, thenumbers the number had their
numbers.
So the number would get a newnumber and then just text them
again.
So blocking the number didn't doanything.
It stopped for a little bit, butthat's it.
Lauren and Owen tried to ignorethe messages.
And for the most part, they theydid, but every so often they
(29:24):
they would fight back orrespond.
Lauren would say things like, Idon't care what you say, Owen
and I are solid, and you're notgonna break us.
But then other times Laurenwould be defeated by it and she
would give in and she would askOwen if he was seeing someone
else or if he wanted to breakup.
SPEAKER_01 (29:41):
Yeah, breeds paranoia.
SPEAKER_00 (29:44):
And by the time they were in ninth grade, they were
drifting apart.
And it was just becoming toodifficult.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (29:52):
Side note this is what I always recommend.
I don't can't attest to itsefficacy, but I've never been
harassed via tech.
But if I was harassed via Imean, well, I have been, but
through work shit and I just letit roll off.
But like if someone's sendingyou harassing text anonymously,
you gotta out harass them back.
Like I would just respond withlike the graphicest images that
(30:14):
they probably have no they'renot planning for at all.
Like it's in like one of thosebeheading videos or something.
Oh god.
Or you know, the ghosts out ofnowhere.
Just something that they'regonna go like, oh my god, and
they'll regret opening thatdoor.
But these 13 to 14 year oldsdon't know that.
For future anyone who might belistening.
SPEAKER_00 (30:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:32):
Just do that.
SPEAKER_00 (30:33):
For the future.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:34):
Someone's harassing you, outharass them back.
SPEAKER_00 (30:36):
It's kind of like your theory on conspiracy
theorists, how yo, you you thinkwe went to the moon?
Oh, you think there is a moon?
SPEAKER_01 (30:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:43):
Oh, this is a simulation, my guy.
Let's be real.
SPEAKER_01 (30:47):
Yeah.
You think only one person killedJFK?
You you think JFK was thepresident?
Yeah, just really make them takeanother step back in their
theory.
Just double down.
SPEAKER_00 (30:56):
Let's see how far we can go here.
Anyway, their relationship, ofcourse, became difficult.
They were drifting, and thisanonymous texter just continued
to harass them.
In September of their freshmanyear, this was time for
homecoming now.
And the unknown number messagedLauren and Owen saying, could
(31:18):
this be the end of the AKAgolden couple with the
relationship everyone idolizes?
SPEAKER_01 (31:27):
What teen or juvenile of this era knows that?
SPEAKER_00 (31:31):
Yeah, and it's capitalized.
SPEAKER_01 (31:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:33):
So like they're using pretty decent grammar
here.
I'm just saying, it's decent.
So yeah, this texter stilltaunting them, harassing them.
And in early November of 2021,Lauren and Owen broke up.
They were hoping that after thebreakup, the text would stop.
SPEAKER_03 (31:51):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:52):
Uh, that was not the case.
Once the texter heard of thenews, they texted the couple or
the ex-couple saying, He alreadychose us, not you.
He won't be with you thisweekend, so don't even ask.
Maybe you shouldn't have pickedcross country over him.
You proved he isn't important toyou.
We were there, though.
(32:13):
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 lessgrammatically good, good, less
grammatically good.
SPEAKER_01 (32:28):
She don't speak English no good.
She didn't type American nogood.
SPEAKER_00 (32:32):
There's just too much bad spelling and bad
grammar on my screen right now.
SPEAKER_01 (32:39):
Infect you.
SPEAKER_00 (32:40):
I can't handle it.
In the following weeks, themessages got more detailed, like
more aware of Lauren'sday-to-day life.
For example, one morning beforea Friday night football game,
they this texter called outLauren for wearing Owen's
jersey.
They broke up, right?
(33:00):
And the the text said, WTF, youneed to take that shit off.
You are embarrassing him.
SPEAKER_03 (33:08):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (33:08):
Lauren's like, who the fuck is watching me?
Now it's not even justanonymous.
It's like, who's watching me atthis point?
When the girls' basketballseason started in November, a
few of the freshman girls weremoved up from JV to varsity, but
Lauren was not one of the onesasked to move up.
So she stayed on JV.
Some people overheard Kendracomplaining, saying that these
(33:32):
girls that moved up only did sobecause their parents are
friends with the coach.
She was like, oh, it's allpolitics, bullshit, bullshit.
SPEAKER_01 (33:40):
It's so weird to me that people care about this.
SPEAKER_00 (33:42):
The thing is, is that coaches don't.
I've been a coach.
I've been a coach for middleschool for volleyball.
And I've had parents be like,um, you are only choosing to
play these people because you'refriends with da-da-da.
And I've looked, there was oneparent one time that was pissing
me off so much that I invitedthem to come to the practice.
And I said, come to the practiceand see what the other girls are
doing compared to your daughter.
(34:04):
And I said, I don't play her asmuch as the others because she's
not as good.
And the parent did come topractice, and then when the
practice was over, they shook myhand, thanked me, and left.
And never again did I have anissue because they fucking saw.
Sorry, you're not all that good.
A lot of you guys, includingmyself, are not gonna be
(34:24):
professional volleyball players,basketball players.
Like you're I didn't even get acollege scholarship for it.
I just have arthritis in mywrist now.
SPEAKER_01 (34:31):
Like, I just don't get like parents care, like it's
anything more than justsomething to occupy their time.
SPEAKER_00 (34:37):
And the coaches don't want to fight with the
parents, especially today'sparents.
Are you fucking kidding me?
No, thank you.
They don't get paid enough to bepolitical with 13-year-olds.
SPEAKER_01 (34:47):
Kids out to recess, they all play and no one gives a
shit.
But suddenly you put matchinglaundry on them, and the parents
care.
SPEAKER_00 (34:55):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:55):
Like who gives a shit?
Yeah.
Do you think it matters?
SPEAKER_00 (34:58):
As long as they're having fun, exercising.
SPEAKER_01 (35:01):
Who gives a shit?
SPEAKER_00 (35:02):
Why do we get so mad over?
He's not.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (35:05):
You think he's gonna be a pro?
SPEAKER_00 (35:06):
He's more likely to go to prison than be a
professional player.
SPEAKER_01 (35:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:10):
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 (35:17):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_00 (35:17):
Sorry, that just analogy.
It just pisses me off to thinkabout that kind of stuff.
Cause like we don't care thatmuch.
Anyway, sorry, that's a rant.
Moving on.
After the girls moved were toldthey're moving up to varsity
later that day.
Lauren received a text messagefrom the texter referring to
this basketball move.
(35:39):
And the text said, You suck atbasketball.
He ain't dating, no suck assanorexic, not good enough JV
girl.
Lauren thought that the texterin question was Chloe Wilson.
She was thinking it's gotta beChloe.
They weren't really friends.
They were in the same friendgroup, though, because there was
(36:00):
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 werefriends.
And Chloe and Owen did admit tohaving an on-again, off-again
like crush on each other, butnot a big deal.
Owen was also worried abouteveryone around him, wondering
who it was watching them,wondering what thing he was
(36:23):
going to say that would then beturned against him.
Owen didn't want his friendsknowing how much the
cyberbullying was bothering him.
His friends were not reallybeing nice, it sounds like they
called him names like PussyBitch.
SPEAKER_03 (36:38):
Sorry.
SPEAKER_00 (36:39):
Stop adding to it.
SPEAKER_01 (36:42):
Just funny.
SPEAKER_00 (36:43):
No, Jill thinks No, it's wrong.
Yeah, well, Jill thinks that,you know, they're calling him
these things because themessages are most likely from a
girl, right?
That's what it seems like.
And that that is worse for Owenbecause he can't defend himself.
Not even against a girl.
And so these boys in Beale arecalling a little pussy bitch.
Like, he's not doing anythingwrong.
(37:04):
And like, we don't know who itis that's texting him.
And it's terrifying to someonewatching you.
I've noticed there's a big issuein middle schools lately of
people being very, very mean.
Girls are being meaner, boys arebeing meaner, and I don't know
why.
SPEAKER_01 (37:20):
The culture of the last 10 years?
Why would you not be mean?
What do you think?
How do you even honestly, with astraight face, tell someone not
to be a bully in America?
What are they gonna say?
Why?
If I keep being a bully, I mightbecome the most powerful man in
the world.
Like there's no reason not tobe.
Just because you shouldn't, youjust shouldn't be mean.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (37:39):
Why?
You do kind of get what you wantby 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 (37:55):
Oh, yeah, I covered that too.
SPEAKER_00 (37:56):
Yep, you covered that.
The 15-year-old boy that shot uphis school, killed four
classmates.
This one stands out because thisis the one where the parents are
finally held accountable.
SPEAKER_03 (38:06):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (38:06):
So good on that, finally, because parents are
responsible for their children'sactions.
Period.
Anyway, Jill thought of Owen andLauren when this Oxford shooting
happened.
She thought that what if what ifthey're pushed to their limits
and one of them shows up toschool with a gun?
Good for her to see somethingand say, hey, that could happen
(38:28):
to me, instead of the classicAmerican way of, well, that
happened over there.
That happened in Detroit area.
That doesn't happen in smalltown.
Jill told Kendra that she wasgoing to go to the sheriff with
all of this.
Kendra agreed and went alongwith her.
Even though the Oxford shootingwas in November and Jill wanted
to talk to the sheriff, theydidn't actually talk to the
(38:50):
sheriff until January of 2022.
So November 30th was the Oxfordshooting 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 getthrough the holidays and then,
you know, get the sheriffinvolved.
When the parents met with thesheriff, the McKenneys were
(39:11):
struck by how little Sean knewabout 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 eighthgrade basketball, and Kendra
would bring up the text to othercoaches and warned that the
bullying could throw Lauren'sfocus off.
(39:33):
The coaches sympathized withher, but they also gave
suggestions like, why don't youtake Lauren's phone, hold it for
her for a little bit, give her abreak, or change her number.
SPEAKER_01 (39:44):
I don't understand the I mean I get like change
Lauren's number.
I shouldn't have to changebecause no, you shouldn't have
to, but it's affecting yourchild.
SPEAKER_00 (39:53):
Do something.
Just change the fucking number.
Yeah.
Like Kendra never took theiradvice, though.
She would instead come back thenext day saying she's drained,
but she was always really readyto discuss it, time and time
again.
Kendra would also messageLauren's friends when Lauren was
at school.
Lauren would like go to thebathroom because she'd be really
(40:14):
upset from the messages and shewould like let her mom know she
was in the bathroom crying.
So then Kendra would messageLauren's friends and say, Hey,
go check on Lauren in thebathroom.
She's upset.
Take care of her.
Students would see Kendra parkedin the school parking lot in the
middle of the school day.
SPEAKER_01 (40:32):
Not at work.
SPEAKER_00 (40:33):
Nope.
When Kendra was confronted aboutthis, she said that she's able
to work from home at Ferris.
SPEAKER_01 (40:40):
Then why aren't you at home?
SPEAKER_00 (40:42):
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 movedalong.
Meanwhile, Lauren is spendinghours trying to figure out what
to wear to school and fear thatwhatever she chooses, this
anonymous person will see andridicule her.
(41:03):
She's also getting increasinglyanxious for her games, knowing
that this too would become ataunting point for the texter.
When Lauren and Owen finallybroke up, the families did stay
close.
Dave McKenney sent a message toKendra saying, I don't think
this means we can't still gettogether.
Like we can still hang out, wecan still, you know, be friends.
(41:25):
And Kendra would still sit nextto Jill at games and they would
talk about the texts and how toget them to stop.
So, like I said, the texts werestill happening post-breakup.
Jill, however, did say that itseemed like Kendra wanted Lauren
and Owen to get back together.
SPEAKER_03 (41:41):
Weird.
SPEAKER_00 (41:41):
Yeah.
She would ask Jill if shethought they would ever get back
together again and if they onlybroke up because of the
bullying.
Like, I don't know, just beingdifferent.
SPEAKER_03 (41:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (41:53):
Jill and Kendra were thinking that classmate Chloe
was behind it all, just likeLauren was suspecting.
The texter would say bruh a lot,and that was something that
Chloe did.
The texter mentioned that sheknew cops and that the cops
could defend her, and her dadwas a local officer.
SPEAKER_03 (42:10):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (42:12):
Jill and Dave would take Owen's phone every night
and they would look at themessages that this unknown
number was sending.
Sometimes Jill would say stuffback as if she were Owen, but
for the most part, she just readthe messages.
One time though, Jill didmessage Chloe acting as Owen and
asked her to just be honest ifit is her.
(42:33):
And Chloe responded very mad andshe's she FaceTimed Owen right
away and was angry about it.
Owen got upset, didn't like thathis mom did that, and he ended
up not talking to his mom for afew days and was like, Mom, I'm
already struggling to keep myfriends after losing my
girlfriend.
Now I'm losing my friends.
Like, stop.
SPEAKER_03 (42:51):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (42:51):
Lauren would still sit at the same table or group
as Chloe, though, at lunch.
Again, small town, one group.
The other friend said thatLauren didn't really talk much
and that Lauren was kind ofreferred to as a ghost friend.
That's sad.
Lauren told her dad that becauseof the messages, she no longer
(43:12):
has any friends.
And in response to thisisolation, Lauren and Kendra
grew even closer.
SPEAKER_01 (43:18):
That makes sense.
SPEAKER_00 (43:20):
Yeah.
And if you haven't watched thedocumentary, you might be
wondering has the school reallyjust done nothing with all of
this?
Like they asked the school, andthe 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 pressingwhile all this was happening.
The parents were pressing theschool to do things.
So behind the scenes, this isalso happening with the school.
(43:44):
In 2021, Kendra and Jill firstmet with the high school
principal Dan Boyer.
He looked through the texts andhe noticed that the earlier ones
were complete sentences, propergrammar, and the principal knew
that this was not how kids text.
As time went on, the text becamelooser.
(44:05):
There were more acronyms andslang.
So Principal Boyer asked Laurento tell him whenever she got a
text at school.
Okay.
Said, let me know whenever youget a text message while you're
at school.
He then would ask the otherteachers if they noticed any
students on their phones aroundthe time of the text.
(44:31):
Other teachers, did you noticeany kids on their phones around
two o'clock at this time?
SPEAKER_01 (44:36):
Mm-hmm.
Well, they just not let the kidshave the cell phones.
SPEAKER_00 (44:40):
Right.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (44:41):
No one.
Just like you don't have themduring class during school
hours.
SPEAKER_00 (44:44):
Yeah.
They tried that as well.
So nothing came of them doingthis whole like teachers keep be
on the lookout of kids being ontheir phones.
They tried, the parents did askfor the kids just to leave the
phones in the locker.
Not allowed to have it on them.
Just put the phones in thelockers when you get to school,
take them out when you when yougo home.
Beale City High School felt likethat couldn't happen because
(45:05):
parents expected to havecommunication with their kids at
all times, direct communication.
SPEAKER_01 (45:11):
Why do they expect that?
SPEAKER_00 (45:12):
I'm assuming it's guns.
Well, without them saying it,they're not gonna know it.
But the fear that you have isguns.
Like, I'm sorry, I can't talkabout a public school without
talking about guns.
But that's stupid.
I think it's so dumb because Iwent to school without a cell
phone.
I went to when and like you, youparents, you parents, you
parents went to school without acell phone and you survived.
(45:35):
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 andJill wanted the principal to
start digging into thebasketball team as well, mainly
Chloe.
But there were other suspects onthe team as well.
Principal Boyer was notcomfortable with this.
(45:57):
He did not want parents to startaccusing students of things and
have this whole like back andforth.
He just saw that that was gonnabe a bad idea, which was smart.
He did allow for this stingoperation, though.
Kendra complained that Lauren'snecklace and jerse had gone
missing, kind of insinuatingthat they were stolen.
(46:17):
This was odd because Beale HighSchool is like a 1960s America,
according to Boyer.
No one locks their lockers ordoors, right?
SPEAKER_03 (46:28):
That's dumb.
SPEAKER_00 (46:28):
Yeah.
So to find this person who mighthave stolen her jersey and
necklace, they're thinking it'sthe same texture.
They set out Lauren's tennisshoes in the sports foyer under
some cameras.
Yes.
So Principal Boyer watches,hoping the shoes would get
stolen, leading them to theirfirst suspect.
But after hours of watching, noone came to take the shoes.
(46:52):
Eventually, the janitor took theshoes to the Lost and Found.
SPEAKER_03 (46:55):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (46:55):
That's it.
Yeah.
What Boyer did notice whilewatching the cameras, though,
was that Coach Kendra had herphone out a lot while she was
conducting practice.
He noted that.
He was like, that's weird.
Why is she always doing thiswhen she's coaching?
SPEAKER_03 (47:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (47:11):
Boyer also suggested changing their numbers, but we
know that the texter would findout anyway that the parents said
no to that.
However, like you've said,according to the cut article,
quite a few parents did wonderwhy the parents didn't just take
the phones away from the kids.
SPEAKER_03 (47:26):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (47:27):
Why didn't you just take them away?
Just have your kid not have aphone for a little bit and just
figure this out.
Stop.
Love their phones.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (47:34):
This doesn't sound like it.
Sounds like they hate theirphones.
SPEAKER_00 (47:37):
Jill argued that Owen needed his phone to
communicate with coaches, histravel teammates, and just to be
a normal kid.
And she went on to say that kidsdon't know how to function
without a phone today.
SPEAKER_01 (47:47):
Teach them.
SPEAKER_00 (47:48):
Teach them because you know how.
SPEAKER_01 (47:50):
Apply that same logic.
You know how.
Apply that logic to anythingelse.
SPEAKER_00 (47:53):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (47:54):
It's well, kids love their cocaine these days.
SPEAKER_00 (47:56):
Exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (47:56):
You're gonna let them not have cocaine.
Yeah.
They love it.
SPEAKER_00 (47:59):
So once the school realized that this was too big
for them, they brought inSheriff Michael Main, Sheriff of
Isabella County.
Sheriff Maine calls Craig Wilsonand says, Hey, just so you know,
your daughter Chloe is asuspect.
This is January of 2022.
When Craig and his wife Tammyconfronted their daughter Chloe
(48:21):
about this, she cried andinsisted she did nothing wrong.
Owen and Lauren were alreadyquestioning her.
She was so sick of it that evenone day before this, she gave
Owen her phone for the wholeday, said, Hold on to it, and
you'll know that I'm not the onetexting you.
And so again, she gives herphone up.
She gives it to her dad, his copfriends download the contents,
(48:42):
do whatever they do in a copway, and it comes up clean.
Not Chloe.
Tammy and Craig Wilson were in ameeting with Sheriff Main when
Sheriff Main showed the Wilsonstext that Kendra sent him.
Texts from the bully to Lauren.
So Kendra has them likescreenshots.
(49:04):
Within these texts, there werethere was a screenshot from
Snapchat.
Some of the messages exchangedthrough Snapchat, Chloe said
they weren't her and thatsomeone made a fake account.
Simple enough.
However, Chloe did recognizesome of her own words.
Some of her chats with Owen thatshe did screenshot and she sent
(49:26):
to Lauren as proof that she wasnot flirting with Owen.
So she had sent stuff to Laurenthat are now in these words are
being repeated in this fakeSnapchat account.
This caused quite a bit ofconfusion.
Like, how is this person gettingthis information?
Craig Wilson, being a cop, hehad a hunch.
He began to add it all up.
(49:46):
The weird texting in middleschool about Lauren not being
invited to the Wilson'sHalloween party, and then
Kendra's resentment that Chloemoved up to varsity basketball
and not Lauren.
And then there was this weirdincident at a basketball
tournament years earlier whenTammy and another mother were
cleaning up after thetournament.
(50:06):
They must have been hosting it.
So they're cleaning up andthey'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, theseparents were like, We need to
find this mat.
How do you just miss a mat?
Yeah.
And they're like, We're gonnalook at the we have to look at
the security cameras to seewhere it is, where'd it go?
All of a sudden, Kendra is like,Hey, oh, I moved it to the
(50:30):
equipment room.
Sorry, guys.
SPEAKER_03 (50:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (50:33):
Yeah.
That's it.
That's the incident.
But people noted that.
They were like, she was standingthere watching us look for it.
SPEAKER_03 (50:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (50:40):
Just weird.
People are starting to noticeher weirdness.
In early February of 2022, CraigWilson texted Sheriff Main
saying, honestly, Mike, I don'tknow if you know Kendra or not,
but you really need to becautious.
There is a pretty good part ofme that thinks she may very well
be doing this.
(51:01):
And instead of heeding Craig'swarning, Sheriff Main brought in
10 student suspects forquestioning.
He questioned them in the schooloffice one by one.
I mean, you have to ask.
Eventually, kids were going tobe questioned.
You've got to.
And at this point, the bully wasnow texting other girls that
Owen was talking to, even girlsfrom other schools.
(51:23):
Owen broke down one day and saidto his mother that it was her
job to make the bullying stopbecause she was his mother.
Yeah.
And this caused Jill to cry.
Like they're just, everyone'shitting breaking points.
And you know, softball seasonrolls around, and Lauren would
often be seen crying on the busto and from games from all these
text messages.
One of the messages said, all ofour lives would be better if
(51:44):
with you not here.
People were still thinking thatChloe was to blame, but she
wasn't.
So Chloe was starting to wiltaway, and she was crying every
day after school as well in herbedroom.
But people were starting to belike, this is really weird for
any teenager to keep a secretlike this for this long.
It's been years at this point,2019 to 2022.
(52:08):
Like, it's a long time.
And the town was growing moreand more suspicious of Kendra.
Parents noticed Kendra wasseeking a lot of attention with
this cyberbullying of herdaughter.
And others thought that the textcould only be from adults.
Sheriff Mayne asked Jill andDave if it could be Kendra, and
(52:28):
Jill was very quick to say,absolutely not.
There's no way it could beKendra.
And with all the confusion andwhat seemed to be a dead end,
Beale City was out of resources.
Now enter Bay City Zone, OfficerBrad Peter.
SPEAKER_01 (52:44):
Indeed.
SPEAKER_00 (52:45):
Mm-hmm.
Officer Brad Peter works on theMid-Michigan Computer Crimes
Task Force.
Or he did.
SPEAKER_01 (52:54):
He's retiring soon.
He might be retired by the timewe're speaking.
I don't know.
It's very close to an orange.
Sometime in October.
He's a Bay City policedepartment officer, but there's
like a local collaborative teamamongst different agencies.
FBI, Michigan State Police.
So he's kind of like on loanfrom his actual department to
(53:16):
this task force of differentjurisdictions.
SPEAKER_00 (53:19):
Yes.
So he gets called in to helpwith this in Beale City,
basically working under the FBIumbrella.
SPEAKER_03 (53:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (53:26):
Please from Bay City.
SPEAKER_03 (53:27):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (53:28):
Sheriff Main reached out to Officer Peter in April of
2022.
They knew they had to work fast.
There were these burner appsthat the anonymous texter was
using, an app called Pinger.
And this app, a lot like many ofthem, will wipe away their
records every two weeks.
So once you discover a newnumber that's created from this
(53:50):
app, you have to track it downvery quickly because then it
goes away.
SPEAKER_01 (53:54):
It's like Snapchat for phone numbers.
SPEAKER_00 (53:56):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (53:56):
Why these are legal, I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00 (53:58):
I don't know why they're legal because only bad
people use them.
I mean, the the non-bad peoplethat use them are probably
children that are trying toevade their parents.
But that's it.
SPEAKER_01 (54:07):
Like with Snapchat, I've said this.
It's for pedophiles andpreteens.
That's it.
If you're an adult who isn'tashamed of what you're sending,
why does it need to delete, youfreaking weirdo?
SPEAKER_00 (54:16):
You've written a lot about pedophiles on Snapchat.
Like predators on Snapchat andthese apps.
So like really it's bad.
Yeah.
It's bad.
SPEAKER_01 (54:25):
Rocket science.
SPEAKER_00 (54:27):
Officer Peter asked Jill to send him the texter's
latest phone numbers.
Anytime the phone number wouldchange, she would let Officer
Peter know.
Okay, new number, here you are.
Officer Peter also emailedKendra about the case.
He was aware of people'ssuspicions about her, but both
himself and Sheriff Main justfelt that this was way too
(54:49):
far-fetched.
They're like, there's no waythat Kendra is behind this.
Now, after not hearing back fromKendra for two days after
sending the email, Officer Petercalls 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 OfficerPeter during this time or was it
all after the fact?
SPEAKER_01 (55:10):
It was after the fact.
Okay.
Yeah.
So in mid-April, because we knewnone of this investigation was
even going on until a person wascharged.
And then like this person'scharged with doing this, so no
one really knew what washappening that there was this
pending investigation going onuntil the police gave like a
press release and like here itall is.
SPEAKER_00 (55:31):
That that makes sense, I guess.
Why would you know about it withnothing there yet?
Yeah.
In mid-April, Jill sent OfficerPeter for new numbers.
And at this time, the Pinger appwas under a search warranty or
warranty.
Search warrant.
Search warrant.
Yeah.
Is your car under warranty?
Anyway, uh the Pinger app wasnow under a search warrant that
(55:56):
was given by Officer Peter.
Officer Peter emailed theschool's IT director saying that
through this warrant, he nowknows that it is someone from
the school that is doing this.
He's tracking IP addresses andall that.
If you don't understand IPaddresses, look it up.
SPEAKER_01 (56:13):
I don't know how he does an IP address is basically
a fingerprint to your server.
SPEAKER_00 (56:18):
Yeah.
And there there was a lot ofdigging he did, and it gets a
little intricate, but throughthe IP addresses, he's able to
track phones.
Not just phone numbers, butyou're able to see the phone
that these apps are using.
So it's more in depth in thephone number.
SPEAKER_01 (56:34):
It's very convoluted, this forensic
digital analysis.
That's why he's like he's asingular kind of pro at this
locally.
Like it's so involved theyselect someone to train and he
handles it regionally.
SPEAKER_00 (56:47):
And he had to connect with Verizon because
these were Verizon Towers and Idon't know, all this stuff.
So he could tell that it wasfrom the school, but didn't know
who it was yet.
He had to wait for moreinformation to come to him.
As Officer Peter isinvestigating, Jill is beginning
to pick up some weirdness fromKendra.
It's been months since thebreakup, and Kendra just keeps
(57:11):
prying into Owen's love life.
And it got to the point whereJill was like, hey, we're only
going to talk about thecyberbullying from here on out.
Like, leave, like stop worryingabout Owen.
In May, after basketball seasonwas over, so Kendra was the
eighth-grade basketball coach,and she no longer has any reason
to be at the school because theseason's over.
(57:33):
Dave notices Kendra's car parkednear the Catholic church, half a
block from the school.
He saw that Kendra was lookingdown at her lap.
When she glanced up and sawDave, she waved.
And then later that day,unprompted, Kendra was talking
to Jill on the phone and shebrought it up.
She said, Oh, I'm sure Davethought it was funny seeing me
(57:54):
in the parking lot.
I drove to Beale to get gas andgot a coffee and I spilled it
all over me.
And so I pulled in there to wipeit off.
And Jill said that she couldtell that Kendra was lying, but
didn't know why.
Yeah.
Just like, what?
Okay.
Weird.
SPEAKER_01 (58:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (58:10):
And at this point, the bullying is getting worse.
For example, in mid-May, therewas a text that Lauren received,
and in all caps, it said, killyourself now, bitch.
And then the following week,Officer Peter got word from
Verizon about these IPaddresses.
(58:31):
And as he sifted through thesenumbers, only one showed up
repeatedly.
Two months later in August, I'massuming they had to do some
more work.
SPEAKER_01 (58:42):
Everything takes a while.
SPEAKER_00 (58:42):
Yeah.
Two months later in August,Sheriff Main pulls up to the
house that the family is livingin.
As the sheriff drives up, Kendrais taking out the trash.
Sheriff Main and a detective getout of the car and they said,
We're here to seize yourdevices, Kendra.
Now, this is from the sheriff'sinvestigative log, so it's a
(59:03):
little dry, but I just wanted toread it.
The sheriff handed Kendra asearch warrant saying she was
being investigated as acyberbully.
When she denied it, the sherifftold her to be honest.
Her number showed up each time atext was sent.
They're like, We see it.
Yeah.
We know it's you.
SPEAKER_01 (59:20):
Pulled the veil away and now it's just cut and dry.
SPEAKER_00 (59:23):
Yep.
The sheriff asks, Were youinfatuated with Owen?
And Kendra said, No, nothinglike that.
And then the sheriff demandedthat she explain.
And then the sheriff wrote thatsomething shifted, that Kendra
felt very uncomfortable.
And Kendra tells the sheriffthat the first text in 2019
(59:44):
saying you can't come to theHalloween party, that was not
from her, but that she fed offof that.
And that's why she began to sendher text messages to her
daughter and to Owen.
SPEAKER_01 (59:56):
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (59:56):
So Kendra's the one doing it, and that's her reason.
She said that a group of kidsreally was trying to come
between Lauren and Owen.
And then the sheriff was like,but why did you continue?
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:08):
So she's according to her own story, she's a
copycat of an anonymous teen.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:14):
Yes.
And the reason why.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:16):
Sadder than just being like, I did it.
Like you're copying a child.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:21):
And the reason she says is because of stress and
financial issues.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:24):
How is this supposed to relieve either of those?
SPEAKER_00 (01:00:27):
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 cortisollevels are supposed to go,
control it.
Lauren was at the house whenKendra was confronted by the
sheriff.
Sean was not.
He was at work.
Lauren called her dad.
(01:00:47):
Okay, you gotta get home.
This is happening.
And one of Sean's coworkers saidthat he remembers Sean saying,
as he's red in the face and inshock, they think it's Kendra.
Sean's fuming when he raceshome.
And this is a little, I'm notsure what's happening here
because in the documentary, it'sdifferent than the articles.
(01:01:08):
So the sheriff, according to thearticle, met Sean outside the
house first.
SPEAKER_01 (01:01:13):
Well the body cam footage, I'd go with, I mean,
the body cam footage is seen inthe documentary.
Yeah, he like walks outside andgreets him at he comes in, like
he drives in.
He sheriff like meets himoutside and gives him kind of
like a preface.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (01:01:26):
Like okay.
I don't I misremembered thatthen.
Okay, because I thought that wasinside 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 Seanabout it outside before he comes
into the house, and Sean tellsthe police about the other
phones that Kendra has.
(01:01:48):
She has three phones.
She only gave two.
And Sean was like, Oh, she's gota third.
Let's go find it.
And the third phone was found ina stack of wood outside where
Kendra had stashed it as she sawthe sheriff pull up.
And then this is where I thinkwe both, when we were watching
the documentary, felt likeKendra's dad, Sean, handled it.
SPEAKER_01 (01:02:11):
Husband.
SPEAKER_00 (01:02:11):
Or Kendra's husband, sorry, Lauren's dad.
Lauren's dad, Sean, handlesthis, I think Remarkably well.
Remarkably well.
You can see on the body camfootage that he is pacing back
and forth.
He's so angry, but he looksdirectly at the sheriff and he
said, and he points to his wifeand he says, She can't be here.
(01:02:32):
If you can't leave while she'shere.
SPEAKER_03 (01:02:34):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:02:34):
You have to stay, sheriff, while she's here.
Because he basically is saying,I'm gonna lose my shit.
SPEAKER_01 (01:02:39):
He's had like one or one of us is gonna go to jail
tonight if you leave.
SPEAKER_00 (01:02:43):
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He was very honest, and but henever, you know, ran at her or
got aggressive.
He was just, you could tell thathe was doing everything he could
to keep it together.
And he did.
And he called Kendra's parentsand said, You have to come get
your daughter.
She can't stay here.
Come get her.
And good, good for you, Sean.
(01:03:04):
Good on you.
You did the best, I think, giventhe shock you must have been in
and rage you must have felt.
The sheriff at this time alsoreveals to Sean and Lauren that
Kendra hasn't had a job for awhole year.
She hasn't been working.
Kendra has been lying abouttheir finances for years.
(01:03:24):
So remember back, all the wayback in 2019, when Kendra got
her new job at Ferris StateUniversity, and then they moved
into Sean's dream home, thatfour-bedroom cabin.
Well, even back then, thingswere seeming a bit off.
Sean would say things to hisfriends and coworkers, like, oh,
we missed a house paymentbecause someone in New Mexico
(01:03:48):
stole our identity or that hispickup truck was repossessed
because of a scammer in Saginaw.
And then one of Kendra's checksbounced when she was supposed to
pay for her portion of like aspring break group trip.
And then when Kendra switchedjobs from Central Michigan
University to Fair State, thisis when, remember, she tells her
(01:04:08):
family, Oh, I'm getting a payraise.
This is wonderful.
When in reality, she was firedfrom CMU, didn't have a job for
a hot minute, and then took apay cut to work for Fair State.
Now, how could they move intothis bigger home though when
she's already in financialtrouble?
SPEAKER_01 (01:04:27):
I mean, it seems like everyone in America lives
above their means.
SPEAKER_00 (01:04:29):
Yeah, basically, do it.
Yep.
I don't understand.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04:32):
I can't.
I don't understand how everybodyelse but me seemingly just lives
above their means.
SPEAKER_00 (01:04:36):
Credit.
You don't really have a lot ofcredit cards or anything, but
that's that's how credit.
So they got this four-bedroomlog cabin after they were no
longer able to live in theirother home that was smaller
because it was foreclosed upon.
She just told family and friendsthat they sold it, but it was
(01:04:57):
actually foreclosed.
And then they moved into thislog cabin under a land contract,
which is something for peoplewith bad credit.
And you basically rent to own,you pay monthly to the owner of
the home.
And then eventually you payenough and you pay off the home
and you own the home, is theidea.
(01:05:18):
In the spring of 2021, Kendrawas put on a performative
improvement plan at Ferris.
It was reported that she spentexcessive time on non-work texts
and calls.
Kendra told Ferris that she wasoverwhelmed and stressed out
from COVID and sports.
(01:05:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05:39):
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 (01:05:48):
Yeah.
Let it go.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05:49):
Yeah.
You don't have to catch ballsand kick them around.
SPEAKER_00 (01:05:52):
I'm sure Sean would take Lauren to games and let you
rest a little bit, Kendra.
All you do is communicate withyour husband.
It's not hard.
In August of Lauren's freshmanyear, Kendra ended up quitting
her job at Fair State Universitybecause she knew that she fell
short of her performanceimprovement plan.
And she quit rather than gettingfired.
And she didn't tell anyone.
(01:06:13):
So that was her last job.
And that year, in 2021, that'swhen the texts really started to
ramp up.
And Kendra claimed to be workingfrom home at this time.
She would pretend to be on callswhen Sean was home.
Whenever Sean would ask aboutanything financial, she would
quickly change the subject tocyberbullying.
And in the fall of 2021, theowner of the log cabin had
(01:06:36):
enough of Kendra's excuses as towhy she wasn't making the house
payments.
And he began the evictionprocess.
By the end of April of 2022,they were evicted.
Kendra told family and friendsthat the house's foundation was
cracked and they moved out whilerepairs were being done.
Kendra's confession spreadthrough Beale City like
(01:07:00):
wildfire.
When Owen's parents told him whoit was, he was quiet, shocked,
and angry.
When close friends of Lauren'sheard, they felt angry as well
and used by Kendra.
Because, like, remember, Kendrawould ask Lauren's friends to
check on Lauren while she was inthe bathroom crying and upset.
It's just there's some kind oflike psychosis there, like
(01:07:22):
control, you know?
And Chloe Wilson finally feltrelief when she heard the news.
Like her name is finallycleared.
Kendra was arrested in Decemberof 2022.
Charged with two counts ofstalking a minor, two counts of
communicating with another tocommit a crime.
(01:07:44):
Who was she communicating with?
SPEAKER_01 (01:07:46):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_00 (01:07:46):
I think that might have been Pink like using the
Pinger app as a secondarysource, maybe.
Like they don't have a word, aplace for it yet because it's so
new, but Yeah, she'scommunicating with an entity.
SPEAKER_01 (01:07:58):
I mean, not like an individual, but a corporation
kind of.
Yeah.
With a service provided by acorporate, you know, something
to that effect.
SPEAKER_00 (01:08:05):
That was the only one that I read a few times, and
I was like, what does this mean?
And then one count ofobstruction of justice.
Lauren would finish hersophomore year of high school
online.
In the spring of 2023, Kendraread a statement in court, and
you weren't at any of thesecourt proceedings, were you?
SPEAKER_01 (01:08:24):
I had to miss it for other things.
SPEAKER_00 (01:08:28):
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 toOwen McKenney and his family.
I'm sorry for my behavior toChloe Wilson and her family.
I'm sorry for my daughter,Lauren, and my husband, Sean.
(01:08:48):
Then she continues to go on andexplain 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 ofthose under her belt?
I'm not fucking like fuck you,Kendra.
Fuck off with all of that.
Just fuck off.
SPEAKER_01 (01:09:09):
All the every villain starts as a victim.
SPEAKER_00 (01:09:12):
No excuse.
So anyway, Kendra was looking at19 months to five years in
prison.
And this was only after Kendrapleaded guilty to the two
stalking counts in exchange forthis plea, the other charges
against her were dismissed.
So if those other charges werestill on the table, she could be
looking at up to 10 years.
(01:09:33):
But she cut that down.
SPEAKER_01 (01:09:34):
She should be the lesser ones.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (01:09:37):
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 (01:09:46):
I mean, I I've been in his courtroom for other
things.
I know he's like, I think he'sthe only circuit judge in
Isabella County.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:09:52):
Oh, okay.
Well, you're gonna have to meeta new one soon because this was
his statement upon sentencing.
I can't imagine any parentsaying such horrible things to
her own daughter.
It's the kind of case that makesme glad that at the end of my
term I'm retiring.
So she made him happy to like nolonger do his career job.
Yeah.
(01:10:12):
Again, fuck you, Kendra.
Sorry, the documentary pisses meoff so much because she acts
like she's just this, oh, I'mjust this little mid, this
Michigan girl.
No, you're a disgusting humanbeing and you ruin the lives of
many people.
Like you're not a victim, you'rethe predator.
Lauren Smiley, the author of thecut article, she wrote to Kendra
(01:10:36):
while she was still in prisonasking for an interview.
And Kendra said that upon herrelease, she'll give one.
But in the meantime, here's thisemail that she sends.
SPEAKER_01 (01:10:50):
Never once.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10:51):
Again, fuck you, Kendra.
Yeah, I know.
You're used to that.
SPEAKER_01 (01:10:55):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10:56):
So Kendra writes, I do ask that you truly think
about the kids, minor kids thatare involved in this situation,
including my daughter.
SPEAKER_01 (01:11:05):
Why didn't you?
Exactly.
It's weird.
I always hate when parents askstrangers to think more about
their kids than they do.
SPEAKER_00 (01:11:11):
I won't suddenly think of the children.
I won't.
SPEAKER_01 (01:11:13):
You first.
I didn't.
I won't.
SPEAKER_00 (01:11:14):
I won't think of her.
You have to.
That's your job.
I'm thinking of my cats that Iown.
Fuck off.
Sorry.
Kendra really pisses me offbecause again, watching the
documentary, she acts like she'sjust 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 Idon't care to read all of her
(01:11:35):
words.
So at the end, she's saying how,like, you know, this doesn't
need to have any more spotlighton it.
And she doesn't need Laurenhaving people thinking her mom
is a villain, as that is hardmentally and emotionally for
her.
SPEAKER_01 (01:11:49):
Why didn't she decline the Netflix interview?
SPEAKER_00 (01:11:51):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:11:52):
If she genuinely wanted this to just fade away,
why'd you do a Netflixinterview?
SPEAKER_00 (01:11:57):
Yeah.
And why are you agreeing to acut interview?
And why are you emailing thisperson who has more clout than
you do?
A local reporter.
She went for someone who is anationwide reporter.
Like she wants to be in thespotlight.
You want attention, Kendra.
That's all you want.
Be real.
So Kendra was released out onparole in August of 2024.
(01:12:19):
Kendra now currently lives inPontiac with her family.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12:23):
Per the terms of her parole.
SPEAKER_00 (01:12:24):
Yes.
Sean divorced and received fullcustody of Lauren during this
time.
Lauren is now 18, so no custodyanymore.
But for the last little bit, hehad full custody.
Kendra is not allowed muchcontact with Lauren, if any.
I read her parole provisions orconditions.
(01:12:46):
Conditions.
Provisions, conditions.
Um, and it said she's notallowed contact with Lauren, but
then according to some of thearticles I've read, she has had
contact, like minimally withLauren.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12:57):
They might give some.
SPEAKER_00 (01:12:58):
Maybe once Lauren turned 18, maybe she was allowed
a little more.
SPEAKER_01 (01:13:03):
Yeah, because I would like if she's still on
parole.
If the victim I'm just speakingin general here, not I don't
know the specifics of this case,but in general, no contact
orders between the criminal andthe victim are pretty standard.
But if the victim wants contact,then that's that usually the
(01:13:23):
courts can amend things if thethe victim is the one who
petitions like, no, I really dowant 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 (01:13:35):
Something there.
unknown (01:13:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:13:37):
The last thing that Lauren was really heard saying
in the documentary, um, that shedoes want a relationship with
her mom, but doesn't really knowhow to do that.
She's conflicted, she's, youknow, torn up by this and
doesn't know what to do.
Which, how could you know whatto do at any age, let alone your
teen years?
Lauren returned to Beale CityHigh School for her junior year
and then would end upgraduating.
(01:13:58):
I think they graduated this pastyear, May of 2025.
Okay.
I think.
Whatever.
They like just graduated.
It doesn't matter because we'renot following them.
They need to be left alone now,their story is done.
Let them live their lives ascollege students and have the
last bit of like 13 years leftin them.
I will say though, after thedocumentary came out, or right
(01:14:21):
before it came out, however itwas, the Wilsons had their
Halloween party like they doevery year.
And Tammy dressed a scarecrow upin like a prison jumpsuit and a
mask of Kendra, of Kendra'smugshot specifically.
SPEAKER_03 (01:14:36):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (01:14:36):
And uh put phones, like attached phones to the
scarecrow, scarecrow's hands.
Nice.
And that was like a part of herdecor.
And the cut article didn't seemto really like it too much.
Or like they they quoted peoplethat didn't like it.
I don't know.
She didn't really have much ofan opinion.
Um I kind of think it's funny.
I'm sorry.
(01:14:57):
I I wouldn't have thought to dothat, I don't think myself, but
I I wouldn't really care if Isaw 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 mysurgeries tomorrow.
Oh, or not tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15:17):
Yeah, it's tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00 (01:15:18):
Well, we started recording this yesterday.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15:20):
Oh, yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_00 (01:15:21):
Yeah, we have a we had a break.
There's been a lot going on thisweek.
So messy, messy, but here we aredoing it, and yeah, I'll have my
surgeries tomorrow.
So please engage and make myhealing fun.
Thank you guys.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15:37):
Yeah, until next time.
SPEAKER_00 (01:15:38):
Bye.
Bye.
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