Pod Insights Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings and Mysteries 178. The Crash: The Mackenzie Shirilla Case (Going Beyond The Netflix Doc) About this episode In July 2022, 18-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla drove her car into a brick wall at nearly 100 miles per hour, killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo and his best friend Davion Flanagan. What looked like a drug-fueled accident unraveled fast, and the Netflix documentary only tells part of the story. This week, we go deeper: the details left on the cutting room floor, the recorded prison call that changed everything, and the question that still doesn't have a straight answer.
TW: Mentions of suicide
Show notes: https://www.heartstartspounding.com/episodes/thecrash
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0:44 Kaelyn Moore? built on a reputation for quality and reliability. So when it's time for your next Toyota, you could trade in for more. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details, or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places. Welcome to another episode of Heart Size Pounding. As always, I'm your host, Kaelyn Moore. Now, you guys know I love a good documentary. I get a lot of recommendations, actually, from you all. I constantly am checking my DMs and it's just things I should watch behind the scenes on cool documentaries I need to check out. I love it. But there was one recently that I noticed a lot of you sending me. Netflix just released a documentary called The Crash that looks at the case of Mackenzie Shirilla,
1:29 Kaelyn Moore? a girl that was behind the wheel of a car that crashed in 2022, where two people died. And the deeper that investigators got into the case, the more that the crash stopped looking like an accident and started looking like it was intentional. Now, I spent a lot of time deep diving into this case, and let me tell you, there is a lot more that the documentary doesn't even touch on. So what I wanted to do for you today was do a big overview on the case, but really highlight some of the pieces that the doc was missing. Because I think, like me, a lot of you were really interested in this case and were looking for more context on what was going on. We're going to look into all of that today, so let's get into it.
2:10 Kaelyn Moore? It was the summer of 2022 in Strongsville, Ohio. The morning of July 31st. A normally quiet part of town, no one was up and about yet. The sky was slowly turning the deep blue of predawn when someone noticed something strange near the intersection of Progress Drive and Alameda. A ground sign by the road had been completely destroyed. And past it, near the brick wall of a manufacturing facility, lay a 2018 Toyota Camry that looked like it had, to put it lightly, exploded. The brick wall in front of the Camry was damaged. The car had clearly careened off the road and smashed headfirst into it. Now, the car was in terrible shape. The entire front was badly mangled.
2:54 Kaelyn Moore? The windshield was folded in on itself and the body of the car was completely crumpled. The first person on the scene was Michael Galassi, a patrol officer with the Strongsville Police Department. To his eyes, the car almost looked like it had been cut in half. Beneath the crumpled hood, the nose of the car was a nearly unrecognizable tangle of metal and debris from the brick wall. All of the airbags inside the car had been deployed and that almost completely obscured the windows. Galassi ran to the driver's side to check for survivors. And through the broken glass, he saw what he thought were the legs and lower torso of a young woman. Her head was under the dashboard and she was still strapped into her seatbelt.
3:38 Kaelyn Moore? And through the passenger side window, he saw that the seat was fully reclined. There was a body sprawled across it, facing upward. It was a young man who had severe head trauma. He didn't seem to be breathing. And beneath him, there was a third body of another young man. The Strongsville Fire Department arrived shortly after and using hydraulic equipment, they freed all three occupants from the car. Officer Galassi had assumed that all of the people inside were dead. I mean, this crash really did not look like anything someone could survive. But that actually wasn't the case. One of the young men, 20-year-old Dominic Russo, was dead. And the other, a high school senior named Davion Flanagan,
4:19 Kaelyn Moore? Did show faint vital signs. Neither of those boys were wearing seat belts, however. The driver of the car was also miraculously alive, having sustained severe injuries to her legs and arms. That was 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla. Barely conscious, she spoke to the EMTs, asking, "How is Davion?" Now Davion was lying on top of Dom in the passenger seat. The accident appeared to have launched him from the backseat into the front of the car. A pair of ambulances were called to take the two survivors to the hospital. Mackenzie was airlifted safely and taken straight to Metro Health Medical Center. The other survivor, Davion, tragically passed away while waiting for the helicopters to arrive.
5:03 Kaelyn Moore? Once all three victims were removed from the Camry, police and other first responders went over to the wreck to check for evidence to see what could have possibly caused this incredibly violent crash. Inside, Galassi found eight grams of silicillin mushrooms, a digital scale, and a bag of marijuana inside of Mackenzie's purse. They took extensive photos of the wreck documenting the scene of the accident. Because that's what it was, they figured, an accident. A senseless tragedy caused by a teen driver who was clearly under the influence of either drugs, or alcohol, or something. However, what was contained inside of the wreck carried a different story.
5:48 Kaelyn Moore? Something that would turn this from a senseless accident into a murder. On August 2nd, 2022, Mackenzie Shirilla turned 18 in a hospital bed. She had been very badly banged up when they brought her in on the morning of July 31st. Everyone who talks about this case says it was essentially a miracle that she survived. She had a broken femur, three broken ribs, both her kidney and liver were lacerated, and one of her arms were broken. Both of her carotid arteries had been damaged when her neck snapped forward in the crash. The two victims of the crash had already been identified as Dominic Russo, her 20-year-old boyfriend, and Davion Flanagan, a classmate of Mackenzie's. And a good friend of Dominic's.
6:31 Kaelyn Moore? Davion had walked the stage at graduation with Mackenzie that May. The shock of losing these two boys was already rippling through the community. Classmates, family and friends were all sharing memorials to Dominic and Davion on their obituary pages. And a lot of these you can still see to this day. I cannot stress enough the outpouring of love and support that was flooding Mackenzie as she recovered in the Metro Health Medical Center. Now, Mackenzie, like a lot of people her age, was known to be very active on social media, particularly TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. In our research, we also found that she had a Facebook account as well. And though her social media accounts have now all gone dark, recordings of her posts are still all over the internet.
7:15 Kaelyn Moore? It's a little overwhelming, honestly. Through her Instagram, @kenzyschirilla, she posted alongside her friend Rosie Graham, who was another aspiring model. But Kenzie documented some of this journey to recovery while she was laying inside of the hospital. And some of those videos are still on social media to this day. Davion was a star football player. He recently had to rethink his career path because he tore his ACL. And according to his adoptive parents, he wanted to go to barber school and eventually open up his own shop. And by contrast, his friend Dominic didn't have as specific of a path that he wanted to go down. He was 20 years old and he had graduated a couple of years earlier. It seems like he was still trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. He had started a clothing line at one point.
7:59 Kaelyn Moore? He dabbled in producing music and investing in cryptocurrency. According to his siblings, though, he was an endlessly curious young man. Dominic and Mackenzie had been dating for four years at that point. They'd met when he was an upperclassman and she was a freshman. And they actually had moved in together in December of the previous year into a house that was owned by Dominic's mother, Christine. He was known to hamper Mackenzie with gifts like clothes and accessories. To quote Mackenzie's parents, he quote, "wasn't hurting for money."
8:32 Kaelyn Moore? The two of them were part of this inseparable group of five friends. Mackenzie, Dominic, Davion, Rosie, and Bubba, who was one of Davion's football teammates. They hung out almost every day, including the day of the accident. So, the night of July 30th began with a graduation party at the house of one of Mackenzie's friends, named Kelly. Kelly and Mackenzie had been friends since 2020. It was described as being a pretty low-key event. This is according to them. It was just a handful of friends hanging out around a fire pit, smoking weed. Mackenzie, Dominic, and Davion arrived at about 10:30 PM with a bottle of tequila and some weed. Now, Mackenzie was known to smoke a lot of weed.
9:14 Kaelyn Moore? She heavily documented herself on social media, smoking blunts and bongs, often while driving. In that Netflix documentary, her parents are very open about the fact that they never had a problem with this. They said at least weed was better than some of the other drugs that other teenagers were doing. I think a direct quote is something like, "She's not shooting up dope," something like that. While the group was hanging out that night, Mackenzie asked Kelly if she was into magic mushrooms. Kelly said that she wasn't, and the evening went on. According to Kelly, it sounded like Dominic and Mackenzie were debating between spending the night and doing mushrooms, or going to another friend's place. Around a half hour later, the three decided that they were just gonna go to the friend's house, and they left Kelly's party.
9:59 Kaelyn Moore? At 11:00 PM, Mackenzie, Dominic, and Davion arrived at the home of Paul Burlinghouse. He had been friends with Mackenzie since middle school. This was also described as another low-key hang, everyone just getting high, watching YouTube videos, and listening to some music. Paul went to sleep at around midnight, so he didn't see Mackenzie leave. According to her other friends, Mackenzie slept briefly at 3:00 AM, and then woke up at around 5:00 AM to go back home. Someone else had offered to give Davion a ride, but he chose instead to go with Mackenzie and Dominic. This is unfortunately a common story that I'm sure a lot of us have experienced. Kids out one night drinking. Doing drugs and then getting into a car wreck.
10:45 Kaelyn Moore? And maybe police thought that it was going to be easy to get to the bottom of this because they had seen that a lot. That exact thing that I described, kids getting into a wreck after doing drugs. But it very quickly became evident that that was not going to be the case here. When Mackenzie went in for surgery, doctors ran a blood test on her. And it revealed, contrary to what people might have been expecting, that she had not been drunk that night. She was also supposed to get a drug test, which ended up being canceled and not taken until a few days later. That revealed that she didn't have mushrooms in her system either. It seemed like the only thing in her blood was THC from marijuana. Now, there is some debate online about the mushrooms.
11:27 Kaelyn Moore? Because the test was taken days later, there might not have been anything left in her system. But regardless, police thought that the best thing to do at this point would be to just ask Mackenzie outright, what exactly happened that night? If you weren't high on shrooms or drunk, how did the car crash? The only thing, though, was that Mackenzie didn't remember. According to Mackenzie, she remembered being in the car on her way home and then waking up in the hospital. She didn't remember anything about the crash, nothing about swerving, nothing about not feeling well, nothing. This was going to be a much more complicated investigation than they had anticipated.
12:07 Kaelyn Moore? And it was going to come down to witness testimony and what they could find out about Mackenzie from her online presence to help fill in the gaps. So not long after the crash, Tyler Croy, one of Davion's best friends, visited Strongsville Police Department with a tip for investigative detective Zaki Hizzou. Croy showed the police an app on his phone called Life 360. It's a location monitoring app that shares cell phone tracking between friends and family. Croy had been out of town during the crash, but when he heard that Davion was involved, he immediately went and checked Davion's tracking data from the morning of the 31st. And according to the app, Davion had been traveling at 90 miles per hour right before the crash happened,
12:50 Kaelyn Moore? not slowing down at all before the car hit the brick building. Now, this app wasn't proof of anything, but it might indicate that there was some sort of technical glitch in the 2018 Toyota Camry. And this is where things start getting even more suspicious. The Camry had an event data recorder, which is essentially a black box. Now, that had been salvaged by the vehicle forensics team and sent to a specialist in Brooklyn to interpret the data. According to this expert, the EDR only stored the final 4.75 seconds before the crash. But that data seemed to back up what the Life360 app had shown. The car's accelerator was pressed all the way down
13:34 Kaelyn Moore? for at least 4.6 of those seconds, and the brake was not applied. The final speed of the car was estimated to be between 80 and 100 miles per hour. They were able to reconstruct enough to know that the car hit the curb, briefly went airborne, and then about a second before impact, there was a hard yank on the steering wheel, about 142 degrees. And also, they found that the car had been, quote, "shifted back and forth between drive, sequential, and neutral in the 4.7 seconds before the crash." Now, everyone had questions about this. Was that a sign of the driver maybe trying to regain control of the car? Or was it perhaps a passenger that was trying to wrestle control from a dangerous driver?
14:19 Kaelyn Moore? But investigators were now sure of one thing, at least. Nothing had gone wrong with the car to cause this. The driver, Mackenzie, had pressed her foot all the way down on the pedal until the car was accelerating to nearly 100 miles per hour, and she did not hit the brake once. And this whole investigation was about to get even stranger, honestly. Detective Hizzou managed to get ahold of nearby CCTV cameras that showed the street leading up to the crash site. A video feed from a nearby intersection showed Mackenzie's Camry traveling at a reasonable 35 miles per hour, signaling, and then turning onto Progress Drive. Nothing about this part of the video seems like reckless driving. But at some point in the half mile gap,
15:03 Kaelyn Moore? Mackenzie's car had accelerated from 35 to 100 miles per hour because a camera showed the car flying by at breakneck speed and crashing out of frame. And from these videos, they were able to estimate that the car had been accelerating, meaning the pedal was likely pushed all the way down for over 24 seconds. It was at this point that the Strongville Police Department realized that they had to treat this like a potential homicide. Detective Hizzou visited Mackenzie in the hospital to tell her and her mother, and he let them know that the police needed to take Mackenzie's phone for a little while. Mackenzie was shocked by this. She apparently didn't think this was a possibility at all. According to Detective Hizzou, the first thing she said in
15:47 Kaelyn Moore? response was, quote, "Can't you just take my license away for 10 years or something?" Now, I noticed that that wasn't mentioned in the documentary, but I could not believe that that was her response. Two people were dead, and she asked if her license could just be taken for a bit as punishment. Investigators also found that very strange. I was not the only one. And it was once the investigators got a hold of her phone that the image of who Mackenzie really was started becoming a bit more clear.
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17:04 Kaelyn Moore? but our listeners can now get an additional 20% off plus free shipping with code HSP at J I Y U skin dot com. That's J I Y U skin dot com and use code HSP for an additional 20% off. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. Investigators first noticed that in the days leading up to them taking her phone, Mackenzie was deeply invested in making amends for what happened. She texted Dominic's mother Christine Russo, trying her best to explain. She wrote, quote, "I don't remember the accident. All I remember is turning on the street and then my vision fading into black. I wish I could remember. It would make me feel a little bit better." On August 6th, she texted Dominic's brother Angelo.
17:47 Kaelyn Moore? Her message read, "Would you be able to go in Dom's room and grab some photos from his desk of me and him so I could put them in his casket so he can be with me forever?" She later sent a follow-up text to Angelo that read, quote, "I know you probably think that this is all my fault. I wish that he was here too. This should have never happened. I really do feel bad. It's killing me." Mackenzie's parents, Natalie and Stephen, were by her side from day one. If you've seen the documentary, you see how much they stand up for her. They had been through a rough patch recently. The couple actually had declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy that May, the same month that Mackenzie graduated.
18:29 Kaelyn Moore? Stephanie Jessup, who was Mackenzie's aunt, had started a GoFundMe page to support Mackenzie's recovery because that was going to be a big financial burden on the family. The family was bracing for a long and painful rehab. Now, during this time, Mackenzie also received a visit from Jamie Flanagan, Davion's adopted mother. Jamie encountered Natalie Shirilla in the hospital room, looking after her daughter. And the first thing that Natalie said to her, according to this woman, rather than, "I'm sorry for your loss," anything like that, no. She said, quote, "Don't believe what they're saying on Facebook." Now, Jamie found this extremely odd. What did Natalie mean?
19:13 Kaelyn Moore? People online, it seemed, were already turning against Mackenzie. They were saying that there was something suspicious about the crash and they blamed Mackenzie for what happened. Now, we all know that social media does love a scapegoat. And the more that the public was able to comb through her social media, the more that they were blamed. Raiming her for things based on posts she had made. And in this case, the internet mob might actually have been on to something. On TikTok, Kenzie and Dom posted like a ride or die power couple, going out together, smoking weed, partying together. They also showed themselves dancing in the club, going to the county fair, taking a party bus to prom, that kind of thing. In reality, the relationship was a pretty volatile one.
19:58 Kaelyn Moore? Dominic's mother Christine Russo said that the relationship between Dominic and Mackenzie soured starting in January of 2022. But according to their peers, tension was just a regular part of this relationship. Dominic's family said that Dom and Mackenzie had a relationship of high highs and really low lows. They would have these huge fights, they would break up, and then they would get back together. And this would happen on a regular basis. The four years that they spent together included several periods where they were fully broken up after huge fights. Friends would mention that Mackenzie stopped trusting Dominic after he cheated on her, and she regularly threatened to break up with him. Dominic's friends said that he could do much better, saying that she was a problem.
20:40 Kaelyn Moore? But no matter what side they were on, everyone pretty much agreed that the couple's arguments were dramatic and oftentimes dangerous. When Mackenzie didn't get her way, it seemed like she could be pretty intense. One of her fights with her parents was so bad that it was the subject of a police report. On March 23, 2020, Strongsville Police were called to the Shirilla household because Mackenzie, who was 15 years old at the time, was threatening to take her own life. The police report said that she was not going to be taken to the hospital for treatment because her parents did not believe that these threats were real. Now, in the Netflix documentary, Natalie and Stephen Shirilla said that they thought
21:22 Kaelyn Moore? their 17-year-old daughter Mackenzie was mature enough to be trusted to move in with her 20-year-old boyfriend. Even after she was having fights with them that were so bad the police were getting involved, even though everyone knew about how bad her fights with Dom were, even though she was a minor. It just to me seems like they had a really, really- Really hard time telling their daughter no, even for basic common sense things. Mackenzie lived with Dominic for over seven months and according to Dominic's family, she was accepted by them and treated just like a member of their family. But as anyone with in-laws can tell you, accepted doesn't necessarily mean liked. Dominic's friends didn't seem to trust Mackenzie and neither did Dom's siblings.
22:05 Kaelyn Moore? On July 17th, 2022, Christopher Martin, who was a friend of the Russo's, was with Christine when she received a phone call from her son. Dominic was on the highway with Mackenzie and he said that he did not feel safe. He sounded extremely distressed and Christine sent Martin to go get her son. Martin got on the road and called Dominic to get a location from him and he eventually found Mackenzie's car pulling over on the shoulder of Interstate 71. Neither the Russo family nor Christopher Martin reported this incident to the police, but it did ultimately end up in the police report on this case. And here is what the report said on this. Quote, "Martin was on the phone with Dominic at the time.
22:48 Kaelyn Moore? As both cars were pulling over, Martin heard Dominic and Shirilla arguing. During the course of this argument, Shirilla said, quote, 'I'm going to wreck this car right now.' Dominic moved to exit the vehicle when it came to a stop. Martin testified that he saw a tussle inside of the car with Shirilla swinging her hands at him." And the more stories that police heard about the couple, the worse things looked. One night, Mackenzie apparently showed up at Dominic's house. She was angry and she was demanding to be let in. Dom told her firmly that she broke up with him and they no longer lived together. He told her that she needed to calm down, but she did not.
23:31 Kaelyn Moore? She threatened to stay there all night and said that she would key his car if he didn't let her in. Now Dominic recorded this episode on his cell phone and it is really harrowing to listen to. They play a little bit of it in the documentary. It's hard to completely make sense of it, even with all of the context, but what it does show is a pretty vivid portrait of what their fights looked like. At times, it feels more like a hostage negotiation and
23:59 Kaelyn Moore? You know, that is one thing that I do feel like gets lost a little bit in this story. The documentary spends a lot of time painting this big, complicated picture of Mackenzie. But my heart was really breaking for Dom here. I know that we're only seeing one side of everything, but I imagine it was scary for him to be in a volatile relationship like this when he was so young and to spend the last few years of his life being threatened by his girlfriend. By the time the end of July rolled around, it's hard to say definitively where this relationship was at. They might have been on the verge of another cataclysmic breakup. They might have been in the process of patching things up. Their friends were pretty divided on this point. Dom's brother Angelo thinks that Dom wanted to end things for good. Rose
24:42 Kaelyn Moore? and Mackenzie's other friends said that the two of them were considering marriage. But I will say, anything that Rosie says was just featured in the Netflix documentary because she refused to talk to police at all after the crash and give them any context or information. But all of this is what led to the night of July 30th, where all we have to go on are the surveillance videos of the car passing the light at 35 miles per hour and then screaming up to 100 and crashing into the wall. By the fall of 2022, Mackenzie was well enough to regularly leave the hospital. In October, she was photographed at a concert, sitting in a wheelchair. Later that month, she was spotted on social media, attending a Halloween party with Rosie and some other
25:26 Kaelyn Moore? friends. She no longer needed the wheelchair at that point. Now, these friends were all dressed as the rapper Playboy Carti, a look that I would describe as kind of like zombie and clown-like. The parents of the victims didn't understand the reference, though. How could they? And they were very offended by the fact that she would dress up like a corpse so soon after killing her friends. Though, some of Mackenzie's friends do say that this was a nod to Dom, that they listened to a lot of Playboy Carti together. And even if you take Mackenzie's word for it and think that the group costume was innocent in its intent, a lot of people think that these posts are tasteless in context. If you didn't know any better, it would be possible to believe that this 18-year-old had never been in a car accident that killed two of her friends. Her TikToks just feel
26:10 Kaelyn Moore? reminiscent of her life before. Poppy and flirty, she comes off as this cool stoner girl, kind of like nothing had changed. But things were about to massively change for Mackenzie. On November 2nd, while her mother was driving her back from physical therapy, Mackenzie was arrested. At 2:23 PM, Detective Hizzou charged her with the murders of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan, and her bond was set at $500,000. And, you know, maybe she was in shock, but all she could do when she was being arrested was ask the arresting officer to not break her friendship bracelets when they were putting the handcuffs on. Mackenzie Shirilla was facing charges of murder, felonious assault, aggravated vehicular
26:52 Kaelyn Moore? homicide, drug possession, and possession of criminal tools. At the time of the crash, she was 17 years old, which would mean that she would be tried in juvenile court. A conviction as a juvenile meant that she would be facing probation, which for the state and parents of the victims was very, very lenient. The state prosecutors, though, Tim Troop and Allison McGrath, argued that there was enough probable cause to try her in a county criminal court. A grand jury reviewed this evidence, and though they found that probable cause did not exist for the murder charges, they did exist for the rest of the charges, including vehicular homicide and drug possession. So Mackenzie was now going to be given a full criminal trial. Rather than probation, she could now get multiple life sentences
27:36 Kaelyn Moore? for the deaths of Dominic and Davion. The Shirilla family hired a respected local attorney, James McDonald, to represent her. At a pretrial hearing on April 13th, Mackenzie pleaded "not guilty." She waived the right to a jury trial, requesting what's known as a "bench trial" before a judge who would decide the verdict and the sentencing. And I can speculate a little bit on why she did this. Mackenzie and her mom clearly felt that the world was starting to turn against her based on her social media activity. While she did, and still does to this day, have supporters online, many people across platforms were pointing out a seeming lack of remorse in Mackenzie's post-crash behavior. And this was showing up everywhere. I mean, while researching this case, we even found a Reddit thread written
28:20 Kaelyn Moore? by someone who was claiming that Mackenzie bullied them in high school. People had their knives out. They were sharing tons of stories about her. I mean, even now, there's a girl on TikTok who apparently was in prison with Mackenzie and has lots of stories about her. Her TikToks are really interesting. But Mackenzie maybe felt that she was safer turning the decision over to an impartial judge rather than a jury that could be biased by what they read online. In an ironic twist of fate, too, the judge in the case was Nancy M. Russo, but there was no relation to Dominic.
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29:52 Kaelyn Moore? On August 7th, 2023, the state of Ohio versus Mackenzie Shirilla officially began. The state prosecutors wanted to prove that Mackenzie Shirilla intended to kill Dominic Russo in July of 2022, and that Davion Flanagan was collateral damage in this attempt. They brought up how, according to investigators, Mackenzie's phone indicated that she had been on the same road out of the way of her home where she crashed on July 28th, which was two days before the incident. Now, cell phone location data can be fuzzy. It can also be imprecise. Without the precise addresses involved, it is hard to say for certain, but everyone does seem to agree that progress was not her usual way home.
30:36 Kaelyn Moore? Why would she have gone so far out of her way to drive on this road, both two days before the murder and the night of the murder? This made a lot of people feel like the crash was actually premeditated.
30:50 Kaelyn Moore? Now, the defense made the case that this was just reckless and irresponsible behavior, but does not constitute willful intent to murder. They say that she blacked out during the event and couldn't remember any of it, thanks to a combination of trauma and a medical condition that she's suffered for a number of years. Now, Mackenzie appeared in court with her right arm in a sling. A lot of critics interpreted this as a ploy for sympathy from the judge. Now, this trial was interesting because neither side had any way of proving what happened in the car before the crash. And it breaks my heart to think that Davion was alive at the time of the crash. There was a chance he could have survived long enough to explain what happened, but tragically, he died from his injuries too soon to be able to do that.
31:34 Kaelyn Moore? But the evidence introduced by the prosecution had mostly to do with Mackenzie's character and her relationship with Dominic Russo. Friends of Mackenzie Russo and Flanagan were brought in as witnesses, as were all of their parents. On day two of the trial, both Dominic's mother and older brother took the stand. Christine Russo confirmed that Dominic and Mackenzie had a very turbulent relationship, characterized by regular breakups. She described Mackenzie as possessive and said that she'd witnessed many fights between the two. Angelo Russo agreed with her characterization of the relationship, saying, quote, "I witnessed a lot of negative behavior from her to my brother, and that just kind of pushed me away as a big brother figure because she just wasn't fair to him."
32:18 Kaelyn Moore? He said Dominic had intended to break up with Mackenzie that summer for good. They played a phone video of Dominic and Mackenzie arguing outside of Dom's home, where she is heard threatening to key his car. But the defense emphasized that this fight was a mutual one, just between two passionate young people. Mackenzie's lawyer introduced a text message into evidence from Mackenzie to Christine Russo that read, quote, "It really kills me not being able to remember anything. I promised you I would tell you. I've been asking my therapist why I don't remember, and she said it's because of trauma, but I'm going to try to get hypnotized and make myself remember." That text, he said, indicated genuine grief. And a desire to stay close to the Russos,
33:01 Kaelyn Moore? who she thought of as extended family. And ever since that text message from Mackenzie to Christine, Mackenzie had maintained that she could not remember at all what had happened that night. And that brings me to day four of the trial, when Mackenzie's team made a last minute decision to bring Natalie Shirilla, Mackenzie's mother, to the stand. Now Natalie and Mackenzie's relationship had always been strange. One thing the documentary doesn't touch on is that it seems like the two of them spoke to each other in gibberish that was similar to Pig Latin. Some people have suggested that the language is known as Carney, which is literally the language that carnies at fairs would use to talk to each other. Now Natalie stated under oath
33:45 Kaelyn Moore? that her daughter had been diagnosed with a condition known as POTS. Maybe you've heard of this. It's a condition that can cause low blood pressure and increased heart rate. She said Mackenzie had been diagnosed with this in 2017 and had been taking salt tablets to help manage it. She claimed that Mackenzie had been fine for a while, hadn't shown any signs of passing out. But two weeks before the crash, her symptoms had begun to reappear. Now, maybe you can help me out in the comments, wherever you're listening. But when I read this, I couldn't help but think, if this is true, why was she allowed to have a driver's license at all? And the prosecution asked this very question to Natalie. And her response is a little bit baffling.
34:27 Kaelyn Moore? Natalie admitted that she did not disclose this condition when Mackenzie applied for her driver's license. Now, let's just try to process this together, because I think I'm still stuck on this point. If Mackenzie had passed out in the car, if that's true, from POTS, that meant that for almost 25 seconds, two boys that were much bigger than her were not able to get her foot off of the gas pedal. And it seems like the judge does agree with me on the fact that the gears shifting from neutral to back to drive in the last few seconds meant that someone in the car, likely the driver, was conscious enough to move the shifter in that time. You know, I am sympathetic if Mackenzie did have pats.
35:08 Kaelyn Moore? It's a horrible thing to have, but it's just not really believable, at least in my opinion, to think that she was passing out in the car from it. And also for Natalie to say that they just didn't disclose that when getting a license. I mean, that's just, how many people are you putting at risk if that's the case? This admission did not win Natalie much grace. She had already gotten a lot of criticism for seemingly relaxed parenting, to put it lightly. Her daughter regularly posted things on the internet, like smoking a ton of weed in the car, and Natalie followed her accounts and would like these posts and what I assume is support. And not to mention, during a recorded phone call between Mackenzie and Natalie while Mackenzie was in prison, this is not in the Netflix documentary, by the way, one of the
35:51 Kaelyn Moore? investigators alleged that their gibberish conversation they were having translated to something like, "Can't we just tell them I had a seizure?" or something, to which Natalie responds, "We can."
36:03 Speaker 01 Can I say something to her? He said he had a seizure. He said he had a seizure. He said he was a seizure. He said he was early. He said he just had a seizure. He said he was a seizure. He said he can't.
36:13 Kaelyn Moore? Now, another piece of evidence that came to light during the trial was an interaction on Mackenzie's Instagram from that August, where a modeling agency from LA commented on one of her pictures, offering to collaborate. Natalie had responded to this on her daughter's behalf, thanking them for the opportunity. I actually want to read that comment to you now. So the brand comments on one of Mackenzie's posts. "Can we use this post on our website and emails? We'll make sure you're credited. Reply to this comment with hashtag community if so." And Natalie writes back, "Thank you for this amazing opportunity. Hello, this is her mother. She would love if you would use that. She's actually been trying to contact you guys for PR email. It was a tragic accident, and she did not purposefully mean to end any of her close friend's life.
36:56 Kaelyn Moore? This is just as painful as it is for her, as it is for everyone else, or maybe even a little bit more painful." It just hurts me to read that out loud. Because what do you mean it's a little bit more painful for Mackenzie than for anyone else involved? I mean, siblings lost their brothers, parents lost their sons. It just comes off as tone deaf and it seems like everyone who read this comment agrees with that. Mackenzie ends up responding to this comment too as herself. She goes, "Thank you for the comment. I would love to work with you guys. I've been emailing you guys a lot. Such a great opportunity. Thank you." Now Natalie was asked about this on the stand and she said that she responded because Mackenzie's phone was in police custody.
37:41 Kaelyn Moore? But again, none of this is a good look at all. A lot of people felt like this made her seem like an opportunistic momager rather than a mother who wanted to protect her recently injured daughter. Natalie also denied that her daughter had ever expressed ideations or a feeling to self-harm to her. But this claim was struck immediately since the March 2020 incident, which was in a police report, was already on the record, which suggests too that Natalie was lying under oath. As part of their closing arguments, the prosecution introduced a pair of TikToks from Mackenzie's account. One of them showed her smirking as an audio clip plays saying, quote, "I'm not even cool. I'm just one of those girls who can do lots of drugs and not die."
38:25 Kaelyn Moore? And another one was a video clip cut to the song "Bubblegum Bitch" by Marina. The lyrics playing over the video are, "I've got a figure like a pinup, got a figure like a doll, don't care if you think I'm dumb, I don't care at all, candy bear, sweetie pie, wanna be adored, I'm the girl you die for." Tim Troop also introduced the images of her attending the concert and the Halloween party, indicating Mackenzie's shocking lack of remorse for what happened. Though I will say, everyone grieves differently and I do think that there's far more in this case that suggests that Mackenzie was guilty, more than just her social media posts. So while those did go on trial during this case, I don't think that's necessarily the thing that points to her guilt the most, but I am curious what other people think.
39:08 Kaelyn Moore? The question though, at the end of all this, seemed to boil down to a judgment over Mackenzie herself. Did she crash the car intentionally? Or did she blackout? Is this someone who planned to kill her boyfriend? Or someone who did not know what she was doing? On Friday, August 14th, Judge Russo gave her verdict. Mackenzie Shirilla was guilty on all counts. She noted that the obscure route they took and Mackenzie's previous visit to the route showed some sort of intent. She said that while it could not be proven that she didn't intend to also kill herself, a murder-suicide that fails to be a suicide is still a murder. A closing line that unintentionally went pretty hard.
39:52 Kaelyn Moore? The part of her judgment that became most memorable was the turn of phrase that she used to describe Mackenzie's driving. Quote, "literal hell on wheels." Mackenzie Shirilla received two sentences of 15 years to life. The families of the victims argued that these sentences should be served consecutively, but Judge Russo allowed them to be served concurrently, which means that she will be up for parole in September of 2037. But without a successful appeal, this is just where her story ends for now. Her mother continues to insist that they do have evidence that'll exonerate Mackenzie. And in the Netflix documentary, she outright claims that the story from July 17th, where Mackenzie threatened to crash the car with Dominic in it, was misrepresented by the
40:37 Kaelyn Moore? prosecution. She says that she actually has evidence that showed it was Dominic who threatened to crash the car, not Mackenzie. Meanwhile, while the documentary aired, Mackenzie's dad was placed on administrative leave from his job as an art school teacher. The parents of the victims have tried their best to heal, though you can tell from the Netflix stock that the pain is still very sharp. Davion's parents raised money for a scholarship fund that would support another kid who wants to go to barber school, just like Davion did. Throughout this research process, though, there actually is one point that I do go back and forth on, and that is whether or not Mackenzie planned this, or whether it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, maybe during a fight that had happened. If Angelo is to be believed, Dominic was planning on fully breaking up with Mackenzie,
41:21 Kaelyn Moore? and maybe she knew it too, and so maybe she planned this whole thing as, like the judge suggested, a murder-suicide. And some people do think that she's the type of person who would scare the people she loves into getting what she wants. During the investigation, police had interviewed an ex-boyfriend of hers named Tyler Proctor. He never testified, but his perspective on the case is interesting food for thought. He seemed to be of the opinion that Mackenzie would not have attempted a premeditated murder on Dominic, but he did think that she was unstable enough to try and cause a car accident during an argument. Take that for what you will. Some people don't take his opinion to heart because I think sometimes when exes complain about how toxic their ex-boyfriend or girlfriend was, they have to take it with a grain of
42:06 Kaelyn Moore? salt. But that's really all I have for you today. Now I'm turning it over to you guys. What do you think happened? You can leave a comment wherever you listen and other than that, I'm going to be back here next week with another story for you all. And, you know, until then, stay curious. Ooh. Heart Starts Pounding is written and produced by me, Kayla Moore. Heart Starts Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown. Our associate producer is Juneau Hobbs. Additional research and writing by Rob Teamstra. Sound design and mix by Red Rome Creative. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grayson Jordan again, and the team at WME. Have a heart pounding story or a case request? Check out heartstarts pounding.com.
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Previous 177. Backrooms Horror: The Creepiest Levels and Darkest Lore Next Introducing Family Lore Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated