As we discussed on Friday, the recent release of the Netflix documentary The Crash has drummed up a lot of renewed interest in the case of Mackenzie Shirilla. Just after graduating high school in 2022, Mackenzie crashed her car into a brick wall, killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo (20) and their friend Davion Flanagan (19). The evidence supported that Mackenzie willfully and intentionally sped up the car to 99 mph, not once stepping on the brake. Mackenzie was convicted in 2023 and is currently serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life in an Ohio prison. Outlets like TMZ and People Mag have been busy getting their hands on Mackenzie’s recorded phone calls from prison, most of them with her mother Natalie. In one such call, Natalie encourages her daughter to think of using her personal experiences for good at some point in the future. Mackenzie piggy backs onto that suggestion with a declaration of what she’s gonna do if/when she gets out of prison: become a life coach. A LIFE COACH.
Mackenzie Shirilla is planning her future, should she be released from jail.
The 21-year-old is currently serving two concurrent terms of 15 years to life in prison at an Ohio women’s prison in Marysville for killing her boyfriend and a friend in a high-speed crash in 2022.
While speaking with her mom, Natalie Shirilla, during a phone call from jail, Mackenzie expressed a desire to use her experiences to become a “life coach,” according to audio of the call obtained by TMZ. (It is unclear when the call took place.)
“All the things you have been experiencing. It’s so much. So many highs and lows, ups and downs. A pillar of strength, my love,” Natalie told her daughter, who has been pushed back into the spotlight following the May 15 release of The Crash, a Netflix documentary about Mackenzie’s case.
“Yes, like, man. Like, I just wanna come home and just like … I don’t even know,” Mackenzie then said to her mom, per TMZ.
As Natalie suggested that her daughter — who is eligible for parole in 2037, per the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction — use her “experiences” to “help” others, she continued, “You’re going to be able to help so many more people than you already were, you know what I mean? Just because of your experiences.”
In response, Mackenzie replied, “I’ma be a life coach and stuff. … I’m just going to be everything. I’ma do everything.”
…With the release of The Crash, interest in the case has soared, and several recorded phone conversations between Mackenzie and her family have since surfaced.
In one other call with her mother, Mackenzie spoke in coded language resembling pig latin, stating that her family should tell prosecutors she had suffered “a seizure” that caused the crash.
In another, she insisted she doesn’t “need to be rehabilitated” in prison, and she said she is the “third victim” of the 2022 accident.
I thought I was speechless when we learned that Mackenzie spoke to her mother in a pig latin-like language in front of cops to suggest an alibi, but this? This has me questioning my sanity. A life coach?? You guys, it hurts so much inside my head these days! All right, one step at a time, Kismet. So call me crazy, call me a syntax snob, but I don’t find this sentence to be a ringing endorsement for a wannabe life coach: “Like, I just wanna come home and just like … I don’t even know.” Ditto for, “I’ma be a life coach and stuff.” Also, let’s look at what her mother Natalie says. “You’re going to be able to help so many more people than you already were…” What is this “than you already were” business?! What “help” was Mackenzie bringing into the world in her former, spoiled life? The thing is, Mackenzie could actually be using this time in prison to better herself. She has the time and resources to grow into a person who could one day use her experiences as a force for good, for empathy, for improvement. But that would require actually doing the work of self-reflection and, most critically, taking responsibility. Mackenzie has done neither, and if she never gets to that point, a parole board will see right through her.
In our previous coverage, a lot of you mentioned Scott Flanagan, Davion’s father, in the comments. He comes across as such a heartbreakingly good soul in The Crash, and one of the things that’s stayed with me was something he said about Mackenzie and her family and accountability. In essence, Scott noted that Mackenzie’s parents coddling her was not helping her to become an adult. It struck me that of everyone we heard from in the film, Scott Flanagan seemed to care the most about Mackenzie Shirilla, his son’s killer, growing into an upstanding person. Scott is who you want for a life coach.
Photos courtesy of Netflix and via Instagram
I don’t know. I think they just daydream about her getting out one day, with it being in the very very distant future (even if they are delusional enough to think it will happen in 2037). That is how her mum tries to keep her spirits up and she responds to that. Her mother is unhinged with this “helped so many…” talk. She is like the opposite of a life coach, actively keeping her from maturing into taking responsibility.
I agree. She could possibly do some work on herself and learn something, and maybe even work with women who are released from prison.
And then I realized that it’s the Pig Latin chick. So I don’t have very high hopes.
You never know! She might do something!
Her mum is definitely not helping at this point, and she can’t swoop in and rescue her daughter. So maybe she will stop helicoptering and her daughter will have an opportunity for growth.
I’m pretty cynical, I know, and I still am. I’m coming from a place of having met former inmates and some of them do transform. It’s possible. They have to do the work themselves tho.
Smart&Messy has a good point. The mom here is trying to help her daughter survive prison. Keep her positive, focus on the future. And I hate that they leaked these. How can we expect her to become a better person when she’s being humiliated and bullied by millions of people? Not at all defending what she did, just pointing out the hypocrisy.
The mom is just continuing the narrative that everything will be okay and NOTHING is her fault. Her parents are the reason she is the horribly, spoiled, entitled murderer that she is. She has shown not one moment of genuine remorse. They have tried to lie and scheme her way out of responsibility with the “POTs excuse. She’s not being bullied like she bullied other people; she’s getting consequences for once in her life and it STILL doesn’t hit.
100% agree. She needs to be told to face reality, as unfortunate as it is for her (and then we have others who innocently lost their sons or family member here). She could do some self-reflection and grow from this in a positive way. But this only shows me that she is focused on one thing: having a following and being famous. And in a way she has it, careful what you wish for.
Bullying unrepentant murderers is good, actually Sympathy can become a moral weakness
Without knowing more about this case than what’s been posted on this site, I wonder if she’s expecting to be the next Gypsy Rose—getting out of jail to fame, acclaim, and moneymaking opportunities. It was weird and inappropriate the way GR was celebrated upon release and this is weird and inappropriate, too.
There is a whole universe of differences between these two cases. While I felt uncomfortable with the post-release obsession too, Gypsy Rose was beyond “bullied” for her entire life — her childhood was deliberately taken from her — and didn’t commit the violent act herself. She has even stated it was the wrong choice. This girl has never accepted any responsibility, and has a long history of bullying and entitlement even before the intentional crash. There was definitely a path to sympathy here — consider their age differences, the fact that she was also trying to commit suicide, and parents who never properly parented her — but just to reassure you, she has light-years to go before public sympathy matches what Gyspy Rose got.
I have no idea who that is, but at first blush thought it was Nicole Richie’s daughter!😯
This parenting is exactly why she turned into a murderer. They enabled her all the time and never held her accountable. Ask any teacher, we see kids with these kind of parents and this is the result. Not all are murderers but they never accept responsibility, have no perseverance, creativity, initiative, empathy, or goals. Nothing is their fault and they are perpetual victims.
I know only old people like me will get this, but every time I see her name, the first thing that pops into my mind is Magilla Gorilla. He was a cartoon character of an ape in the 60’s.
I thought she looked like Olive Oil, Popeye’s GF
Magilla Gorilla, now that’s a name I haven’t seen in a very long time.
One of my sons is dating a girl who went to high school with this nut job. According to son’s gf this girl has always been seriously problematic. She has shared behavior she witnessed herself as well as rumors about other things and they should not let this girl out until she has served every day of the full sentence.
I’m from there (moved away like 25 years ago) and it’s just flipping embarrassing. Ugh.
given her age, I don’t think it’s pig Latin, I think it’s Ubbi Dubbi. there was a kids show called ZOOM that taught how to speak it and I hear it when I read her words now.
this sort of convo is really gonna tank her parole hearing, if she gets one when her 15 years are up. the first thing they look for is REMORSE and it’s clear she doesn’t have a shred of it. and her mother’s an enabler.
Attorneys from Ohio have posted that it is almost unheard of on this kind of sentence to receive parole the first time. It’s just not done, even with remorse. I believe I read it would be another five years before a parole hearing would come up again. So her true first shot at parole would be after 20 years of incarceration.
They also look at behaviour while in prison and hers has been…well, unsurprisingly, terrible. She’s had more than 35 misconduct reports already (which is insane, people who spent time in that same prison have said they went years without a misconduct report, and left after 10 years getting less than 5 reports.)
She needs to disappear from public spheres. She is responsible for the horrific deaths of two people. This should not be an opportunity for her to promote her “brand” or contemplate on social media her future endeavors. I wonder if she realizes how disgusted people are with her breezy lack of self-awareness she displays. Her mother certainly should and may want to guide her daughter differently.
Her mother is so in denial still. She doesn’t feel her daughter should do anytime at all. Even the father said she should do sometime for what happened just not for murder but the mom was firm that if it was “medical” she should be free. They keep giving interviews look at them. This girl had no chance of being normal the parents of both Dominic’s and Mackenzie did not even try to stop this train wreck until it was to late.
I watched the documentary in horror. But, narcissists litter the life coaching industry. “I, me, the enlightened one, will help other peons in a pyramid scheme of wellness, so I, me, will be glorified and rich.”
Unbelievable. This reminds me of the judge who gave a man who killed his wife (can’t remember the exact case) a “penalty” of coaching other husbands in their marriages. Such bullshit.
Why was she 13 dating a 16yr old???? Why was she living with him? Her idiot parents “Oh they were about to get married and she’s so mature, we thought it was okay?” REALLY????!!!! The Dad , since she was crying when the school called him, she OBVIOUSLY wasn’t guilty of what the school said. They couldn’t afford designer crap and turned her loose on a TWENTY year old without a job to supply her with a life. WTF!!!
I hope she rots in prison.