I’m always up for a Netflix documentary, but they debuted one two weeks ago that I was wholly unprepared for. The Crash follows a fatal car accident that happened in Ohio in July 2022, when then-17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla drove into a brick wall, killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo (20) and their friend Davion Flanagan (19). Dominic and Davion probably spent their last moments in terror: unbuckling their seat belts and trying to wrest control of the steering wheel and gear shift from Mackenzie as she hit 99 mph. The car’s “black box” later revealed that no system in the vehicle malfunctioned, and in the five seconds leading up to the crash, Mackenzie was at 100% acceleration with no activity on the brakes. At all.
Furthermore, while Mackenzie suffered severe injuries she had to recover from, a blood test proved that she was not intoxicated. (She tested positive for THC, but as her social media would show, Mackenzie was very, very well practiced at driving while smoking weed.) So with all that evidence, police and prosecutors arrested Mackenzie on 12 charges, including murder, felonious assault, and aggravated vehicular homicide, among others. Mackenzie was convicted in August 2023 and is currently serving two concurrent terms of 15 years to life. People Mag has had a slew of stories this week about the case, including yet more damning info that wasn’t included in the documentary:
Mackenzie used pig latin in front of the police to ask her mom to tell them she had a seizure during the crash: One piece of evidence that The Crash didn’t include was an audio recording between Mackenzie and her mother, Natalie Shirilla, taken by police when Mackenzie was being interviewed in the hospital. In the recording, Mackenzie and her mom speak a “unique language” that appeared to be a version of pig latin, according to Assistant Prosecutor Tim Troup. When Detective Zaki Hazou tells Mackenzie and her mother that they are investigating her for aggravated vehicular homicide, Mackenzie turns to her mom and speaks to her in the gibberish language. Police later said they determined what the phrases translated to. “Can we tell the police I had a seizure, can we tell the police something like that?” Mackenzie allegedly asked her mom. She then asked Hazou, “Can’t you just take my license away for like, 10 years?”
Was her POTS claim NUTS? The audio recording ultimately played a role in Mackenzie’s conviction, as her defense lawyers argued that she suffered a medical event at the time of the crash. They alleged that she passed out due to the chronic medical condition postural othrostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), though she didn’t have proof of a diagnosis. First responder Brett Stanislaw testified in court that Mackenzie’s “pulse, motor and sensation in her four extremities” were normal, “which he said ruled out a stroke, seizure or other significant neurological emergency,” according to court documents. Stanislaw later acknowledged that she could have suffered a seizure before he arrived, as his findings were limited to the time he had with her after the crash. Mackenzie continues to claim that she does not remember the crash.
Former friends believed Mackenzie was guilty: “Mackenzie gets what she wants, Mackenzie is never punished and now Mackenzie is punished, and there’s nothing Mackenzie or her family can do.” Meanwhile, her former friend Jaina Maynard claimed that Mackenzie was “terrible to people,” but she could have “been a lot more if she just chose a different route and got the help she needed.”
Speaking pig latin in front of the cops??? That’s just… I mean… WOW. Or should I say, “upidstay.” And the whole seizure/POTS argument only backed Mackenzie and her mother into a corner, anyway, which the prosecutor easily unraveled in court. He basically said, “If the POTS was a strong enough condition that Mackenzie could suffer a seizure quickly and without warning, then how did she get a driver’s license in the first place?” And Dominic’s sister further pointed out that wouldn’t her foot have let up on the gas pedal during a seizure? Also, this comment was spot on: “Mackenzie is never punished and now Mackenzie is punished, and there’s nothing Mackenzie or her family can do.” The Shirillas are interviewed in the doc, and I came away strongly feeling that they bore some responsibility, too. It was so apparent that they did not parent her. Mackenzie did have several friends speak positively of her in the film as well. The nicest way I can put this is, I truly think those friends have no idea how they sound. In negating the idea that Mackenzie was suicidal, one friend said: “She refused to eat a McChicken with me. I just don’t think someone who took such good care of themselves would be suicidal.” I’m paraphrasing — except for the McChicken.
The Crash is an infuriating watch. I recommend it, if you can stand it, but totally understand if it’s too awful to stomach.
Photos credit: Netflix
I have never heard of this case! She just decided to murder her boyfriend and his friend?!?! WTF???
Well, it’s not that simple. According to Reddit sleuthes, she and the BF got together when she was 13 and he 16. He was a drug dealer and supplied her too. She moved in with him at 17 and they were in a very toxic relationship. Whenever he tried to break up with her she would threaten to snitch about the drugs and whatnot. Based on their released texts the Netflix doc glossed over a lot to not spoil the narrative. But it’s obvious from every angle that she did this on purpose and feels like the victim still.
Oh and according to the texts with the BF, when they were on a break and he didn’t bankroll her, she would accept money from an older guy for letting him jerk off with her feet or something like that. He was grossed out and it was another point that they kept arguing about.
Wait, he was a dealer??? Everyone was acting like he was this big independent financial wiz. Day trading and whatever. I know they lived in a house on his Dad’s property, so every parent is an enabling mess.
@Mel, yes he was a dealer and even the Netflix doc mentions that. Supposedly, he dealt with weed and mushrooms only, they even found his scale and some drugs in the car wreck.
This is also an episode of Mean Girl murders and Killer Cases. She looked like she had a serious eating disorder and her parents … wow. They let her move in with her 20yr old boyfriend and acted like it was totally reasonable decision. She was extremely spoiled, nothing was ever her fault and she had no passing acquaintance with consequences. She was also abusing her boyfriend, notice that he tapes EVERY interaction with her after a while.
I saw those which is how I knew about this case initially. I think there were some incriminating things in those that weren’t in the netflix documentary. After seeing the netflix doc, I am extra horrified that her parents thought she was showing good judgment smoking pot *while* driving. And, frankly, even if the accident was just due to her driving under the influence of pot, she should have been charged based on that. The “well she is used to driving stoned so she shouldn’t be charged with DUI” is BS. Most alcoholics drive while drunk all the time and we wouldn’t say “well you seem fine and do it all the time so it wasn’t a DUI when you killed someone” if the test beyond the legal limit. I wish her parents could be charged with something, their attitudes go beyond being indulgent and spoiling their daughter, they appeared to actively encourage her to engage in behavior/activities that put others in harm’s way
@pottymouth – there are cameras showing the car very carefully stopping and making a right turn which implies she was relatively sober. The next camera a block or so down catches the car flying down the road at 90+ mph then you hear (but don’t see thank god) the crash just out of screen.
I personally thought that Mean Girls Murders did a better job at covering the story while netflix always tries to make Mackenzie look more innocent. The netflix doc is longer and somehow seems to not cover as much.
I watched this the other day. Mackenziie is an entitled spoilt brat. It’s obvious her parents never disciplined her, she was obsessed with social media, drugs, and being a mean girl. Her boyfriend was going to break up with her and she couldn’t handle that so killed him, his friend, by intentionally crashing the car into the wall.
The father was a school teacher at a nearby elementary/middle Catholic school. He has been placed on indefinite leave, courtesy of his glorification of marijuana and Co on Netflix.
Her parents had filed for bankruptcy, hence were quite happy to let her live with a man who bought her Prada, Gucci, Chanel, etc apparel.
In her tiny purse, after the crash was found, besides pot and mushroom, a scale and plenty of cash. It appears the young couple financed their lifestyle courtesy of drug dealing. He owned his home. At 17, she crashed a brand new $20,000 car…
I think that house was on his Dad’s property, and he was allowed to live there. That’s what I understood. His family had money.
Thank you Michelle, I thought the same thing! I could not believe how her parents replied to questions in the documentary. They are to blame for this as much as Mackenzie, they enabled her and are the catalyst for this tragedy. And I could NOT BELIEVE the idiot would social media post her use of bongs and while driving! No oversight WHAT SO EVER. I just read above that her boyfriend was a dealer, I wondered how he could afford to give her “the finer things” and her parents also excused this behavior. So as a parent, they found it OK for their daughter to date a dealer. As the only redeeming character in this mess (the dad of Davion) said: show me your friends and I will show you your future. Her parents have accountability here too.
“Show me your friends and I will show you your future.” Absolutely perfect quote from a wise man. Sadly, he was still faced with the ultimate grief. God bless him and his family.
I don’t understand when and why did they take the time to learn this gibberish talk. People say it’s not complicated to learn, but they must have both learnt it to be able to use it spontaneously in front of police in the hospital. I can’t immagine a conversation with my Mum or daughter that goes: hey let’s learn this secret language so ppl don’t understand what we talk about. Why?
Pig Latin (also known as igpay atinlay) is something children learn.
There’s a joke about “ashtray” meaning “trash” which I can’t quite remember but you get the gist.
It’s kinda gibberish but it’s also extremely easy to decipher.
I’ve never heard of these people and I avoid true crime type stuff but trying to fool the cops with pig latin is utsnay.
Thank you for the explanation. Then it is quite tupidsay (?) to even try fooling people this way. And if she was thinking about making up a seizure then she probably did remember what actually happened. My god..
Shouldn’t it be rashtay?
And yes, people learn in but she was very conversant in it. No pauses between the words. It was crazy
Kids don’t learn Pig Latin anymore? Of course not. Kids aren’t allowed to play together without an adult supervising anymore.
Anyway, it’s very silly. Its main use was to talk with your friends so that your younger siblings wouldn’t understand what you were saying. Which guaranteed they learned it as soon as someone would teach them.
We really need to take back the schools, so that teachers are in charge, not the parents. Too many of these parents are no good.
The parents speaking latin usually meant we were getting ice cream. Wonder if the cops had a Pavlovian response and started craving ice cream.
But seriously that says so much about her mentality that she thought she was outsmarting the cops. I don’t think I can watch this but this story is wild.
So this gibberish language is something that a lot of people understand actually? I’m sorry, I just don’t get it. English is my second language and in my native we don’t have a secret gibberish version 😆
Yep. We learn it as kids but when you’re really young parents use it to speak about you in your presence. It’s not actually gibberish. It has a simple code. Give it a Google.
When my husband and I were living and traveling overseas, w sometimes used it in public because English is widely understood globally but pig Latin gave as a tiny degree of secrecy.
So it’s a play on words that a lot of American (Canadian too?) kids learn in elementary school through friends or siblings.
You take the first letter, put it at the end of the word, and add -ay at the end.
Stupid = tupidsay
Pig = igpay
Latin = atinlay
There’s a variation of this with “idig” added to the middle of the word but I never got the hang of it.
The sentence was so light. Two 15 years sentences to be served concurrent, not consecutive. She will be out in 10 or less most likely.
I hope someone knowledgeable will chime in on this. What I understood from the doc is that she can’t apply for parole sooner than 2037, which is 15 years minimum. Even then she would have to show genuine remorse and ackowledge what she did. If her Mom keeps this up that won’t happen.
I believe that she got two sentences, 15yrs to life to run concurrently, which essentially gives her one sentence cand she can apply for parole after 15yrs. Something tells me that she won’t get it because girly looks like she took to prison…..
@Mel, I agree. And I do not like how she answered at the end and the question she asked who ever was the side off camera. Something about how she did or how it looked (her responses) just showed lack of remorse. I mean, THAT is what was on her mind how she performed because she hopes to show this clip at parole.
The sentence is 15 years to life. She is only eligible for parole in 15 years. The judge made it pretty clear that she didn’t think parole would be granted and that she could find herself in prison for life.
Others have said she probably won’t ever get parole because to do so you have to be well-behaved in prison (she isn’t) and show true contrition (she can’t because she is so self-absorbed).
the judge said that, in imposing the sentence, she didn’t think Shirilla had any shot of getting out in 15 years
We watched it last night. Not a fan of her parents, but really impressed with Davion’s younger sister and their dad.
Curious about why she chose a bench trial and not a jury. If any of you lawyers out there have some insight, thanks in advance.
Not a lawyer and I know nothing beyond what’s on this thread, but it seems like she considered herself good at manipulating people, especially male people, so maybe she felt she’d be able to sway a judge, banking on getting a male judge.
She chose bench trial because they knew she would be unlikeable to a jury.
@Amy T Her defense thought that a judge would stick to the facts more than a jury would. That a jury would be swayed by the emotions involved and not the laws and mechanics of what happened. They were right Opps!
I have POTS. What she describes is not how POTS works at all. What happens with POTS is that when you go from lying down or sitting down to standing your blood pressure immediately plunges and your heart rate spikes to compensate. It can cause dizziness and if you aren’t able to hold on to something you could possibly blackout /faint. For me, I faint one or two times a year. Usually it’s just dizziness. You would not get these symptoms from sitting in place. Again, it’s going from sitting to standing. And as the victim’s sister pointed out you cannot apply pressure to the gas pedal if you’re passed out.
Coming here to say that. The P in POTS stands for POSTURAL meaning your posture, or position. The O stands for ORTHOSTATIC from the medical term orthostasis which is the act of standing up. Medical terminology is almost another language but it does make sense! (In nursing school we had to take an entire separate class on medical terminology)
Also came here as someone with lifelong POTS… I’ve had many, many instances of almost fainting/starting to black out, but it has literally NEVER happened while sitting in a car for an extended period of time as a driver. If hers was that bad, as diagnosed by a professional, she wouldn’t have a license, and a longterm boyfriend would certainly know she wasn’t capable of driving. It’s insulting that POTS was the “grasping at straws” defense they came up with because truly having the medical condition sucks.
Yup, I remember when my dad had been napping on the couch then leapt up to answer the phone & promptly fainted. I just don’t see how POTS would come into play for someone who’s just sitting & not changing their position at all.
What struck me about this doc was how little Mackenzie showed real remorse. She was more focused on herself and she didn’t really seem to grasp the fact that she killed two people.
She came across very spoiled, entitled, and quite stupid.
Also, the fact that 2 weeks before the crash, Dom called someone for help while in the car with her because she was driving erratically and threatened to crash the car. The guy on the phone heard her say it. Sounds like she used that threat more than once when she wasn’t getting her way, and decided to go through with it in the end.
That crash video is haunting…
New couple suggestion: her and Wade Wilson (the Deadpool killer). I think they would suit each other
That maniac ( Mackenzie) actually went to to Dominic’s grave with the Russo family playing the role of the grieving girlfriend. She was posing as the tragic victim until the actual story inevitably emerged. The girl is clearly a sociopath.
The apple clearly didn’t fall far from the tree. Her parents who inexplicably took part in the documentary were so callous in their disregard for the two grieving families it was stomach churning to watch. Their overall demeanor was lighthearted for a good portion of the interview. They made it clear their sole focus was to help Mackenzie escape justice. I read yesterday that Mr Shirilla is now suggesting that Mackenzie is being unduly punished because the Russo family is very influential in the community ( the inference “mob-related was hard to miss). These people are simply vile. I hope she spends the rest of her unnatural life in prison.
I’m guessing it was Ubbi Dubbi, not pig Latin. my generation spoke pig Latin but my kids learned Ubbi Dubbi from watching akids TV show called Zoom. it’s actually hilarious to listen to someone speaking it if they’re good.
And POTS? Don’t get me started. I’m a doctor and POTS is a diagnosis in search of a victim. many of us are skeptical, there’s a lot of overlap with certain psychsomatic/ behavioral illnesses, and seems to be a condition found almost exclusively in young, affluent white females, almost never outside of that demographic.
Thanks — it wasn’t pig Latin
Doc here also, and I’m sure the many commenters here w POTS are thrilled to click your obvious disdain. Maybe remember Western Medicine is ALL based on male anatomy and physiology, NOT female. Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, POTS, HSD’s, all of these have and still do carry so much judgment and stigma. They’re not precise diagnoses because they largely occur in women. The internalized misogyny in your comment is WOW.
I watched half of it and fell asleep. I’ll finish it today.
From what I saw, all of the parents, except Davion’s, sucked and shouldn’t have had children if they were not going to parent them. One was a drug dealer, the other a spoilt princess, both high as kites every single day. Who films themselves smoking pot and driving? The audacity, the entitlement. Who allows their 13 year old daughter to date a Senior? To move in with him barely out of school? What were they thinking?
I have not watched this yet, but I sure intend to.
I would like to know why she thought crashing the car at 100 mph would only kill the boyfriend and not her. Did she release his seatbelt or something? Did he just never wear his seatbelt?
I haven’t watched the documentary. Its on the to do list for this weekend.
She did have serious injuries that required multiple surgeries and was airlifted to the hospital from the crash scene. What possibly happened (again I haven’t watched the doc) is that she could have made even the tiniest turn at the last minute, so the brunt of the impact was on the passenger side. So she may have tried to save herself at the last minute, which from what I’ve read of her, would be in character. The prosecutors (per Google) claimed this was originally a murder-suicide that she survived.
From the documentary, it def felt as though she had a temper tantrum and without taking a moment to think beyond “I’m not getting what I want so I’m gonna show you,” she crashed the car. That would be very much in keeping with her personality and behavior. It was a truly shocking documentary.
So his friend was collateral damage?
100% case of wrong place, wrong time, wrong people
Eet- sway!