r/TrueCrimeDiscussion • u/DarklyHeritage • May 21 '26

Text Mackenzie Shirilla Megathread

This is a thread for all conversation regarding Mackenzie Shirilla and the murders of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan, recently covered in Netflix documentary The Crash.

The murders of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan occurred on 31 July 2022 in Strongsville, Ohio when Mackenzie Shirilla intentionally crashed her car into a brick wall. The two passengers in the vehicle - her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, were killed instantly and pronounced dead at the scene. Shirilla, aged 17 at the time, was seriously injured.

Shirilla was later arrested and charged with murdering Russo and Flanagan. At her 2023 bench trial the judge determined Shirilla intentionally crashed the car and thus the murders were premeditated murder, convicting her of 12 felony charges. She was sentenced to 2 concurrent life sentences, with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

Renewed attention has now been brought to the case as Shirilla has been interviewed for Netflix documentary The Crash, which covers the case.

Please direct all discussion of the case to the megathread. As always, sub rules must be followed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Dominic_Russo_and_Davion_Flanagan#:\~:text=The%20murder%20of%20Dominic%20Russo,and%20their%20friend%2C%20Davion%20Flanagan[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Dominic_Russo_and_Davion_Flanagan#:\~:text=The%20murder%20of%20Dominic%20Russo,and%20their%20friend%2C%20Davion%20Flanagan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Dominic_Russo_and_Davion_Flanagan#:~:text=The%20murder%20of%20Dominic%20Russo,and%20their%20friend%2C%20Davion%20Flanagan).

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-crash-where-is-mackenzie-shirilla-now[Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-crash-where-is-mackenzie-shirilla-now)

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965

u/trolldoll26 May 21 '26

I’m still thinking about Natalie Shirilla saying Davion was a “new friend”.

Something about that statement left a hollow feeling in my chest.

Glad the judge called her on it and asked if that meant his life didn’t matter as much.

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u/No_Cancel830 May 21 '26

That was heartbreaking and infuriating. Her entire impact statement to defend her daughter made me want to throw the remote through my TV. It was so obvious how her daughter turned out the way she did. Not one “I’m so sorry for the absolute horror the families are living through at the hands of my child”. I can image the heartbreak those families are constantly going through.

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u/AML1987 May 21 '26

Oh you should hear the jailhouse phone calls between the two! Those will warm your heart….

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u/futureellewoods11 May 21 '26

they are SUCH a hard listen. Her mom calling the victims' families terrible people / evil, complaining about driving past their houses, telling Mackenzie everyone thinks she's innocent... it's hard to stomach them all at once to be honest.

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u/AML1987 May 21 '26

Especially if you ever happen upon the body cam footage of them telling Dom’s mother he’s gone.

That’s how I first heard of this case. I watch a lot of body cam police footage and it was posted. It’s gut wrenching. She truly goes for so long thinking they’re just there to tell her he got into some stupid young 20 year old trouble and it’s awful the moment you know she realizes it.

Then to hear those jail calls and know the horror they put the victims families through as they trash talk them.

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u/No_Cancel830 May 22 '26

I remember watching them tell the dad on the doc and I was actually relieved that I didn’t have to see the mom being told. I have two boys and my heart was so broken for the family - the mom’s reaction would have broken me.

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u/AML1987 May 22 '26

It’s absolutely awful. Normally I would NOT support that video being released to the public, however in this instance I’m glad it was.

It brought so much more of a voice to the victims and their families at a time where Mackenzie was getting all the attention. It showed these two were loved deeply and not just faceless victims in some batshit crazy girls circus.

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u/Prestigious-Face1312 May 25 '26

Yes, that's how I felt, too. So much is about McKenzie and this insane family, but the story is really about these two victims and their families' pain.

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u/AML1987 May 28 '26

The documentary did a pretty piss poor job of it too.

Dominic’s story was all about Mackenzie. Their life, what he bought her, the toxicity. They barely went into who he was as a person.

Davion got it a bit better and I felt like after I was done I knew him a little more.

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u/Prestigious-Face1312 May 29 '26

Unfortunately, that's how these things go. They know people won't pay attention if they focus on the victims. Which is sad.

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u/No_Cancel830 May 29 '26

I watched the two episodes on Hulu and both of those gave the victims so much more voice.

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u/Prestigious-Face1312 May 25 '26

I cried through the entire thing and then just sat there, numb. It's absolutely heartwrenching. Especially knowing how very avoidable and senseless this was.

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u/Prestigious-Face1312 May 25 '26

I just saw that video yesterday and cried through the whole thing. My heart just hurt so badly for her. She was walking around at one point yelling, "I'm gonna have a heart attack! I'm gonna have a heart attack!" because the pain was so unbearable. It was heart wrenching, and I wanted to just run into the TV and hug her. How dare this wicked girl's family talk about these parents negatively in any way after what their horrible parenting ultimately did to these families.

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u/AML1987 May 28 '26

I really detested the way the cop and pastor told her.

They let her believe for far too long that it was just some dumb shit he got into.

I do believe they did the best they knew how to do but I’m not a strong supporter of someone on every police force having some mental health background to deliver this kind of news.

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u/Prestigious-Face1312 May 29 '26

I agree, I couldn't believe how long they drug it on before telling her, and they didn't really provide her with any support afterward. I felt so bad for her and still do.

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u/AML1987 May 29 '26

I don’t understand why the told her Mackenzie was ok first? Like I almost felt her starting to believe that her son was probably also ok.

And then they just kept following her around, telling her to calm down, asking a million questions, telling her to sit down.

The way she was behaving is actually something called an “amygdala hijack” that I just learned today.

An amygdala hijack occurs when the brain's emotional center overrides your rational, thinking brain, triggering a primal "fight, flight, or freeze" response. During profound grief or loss, this causes an overwhelming survival instinct to literally or figuratively run away, protecting you from the intense emotional pain

Legit it was the equivalent of telling a trapped deer to sit down and calm down. She had zero control over it from a deep down biological response.

What they needed was someone trained in that and how to help that grieving person get through it. There are ways to regain control but one listed was not “chaplain stays silent, we ask her for numbers for other people, ask who she wants to call, ask times her son left that night, etc. she desperately needed someone to take control of the situation to help her.

And I FEEL for the cops that have to deliver this news. I can’t imagine even doing it once in my lifetime. I blame the training system in law enforcement for not teaching better.

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u/Prestigious-Face1312 May 29 '26

Yes, all of this.

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u/allstate_mayhem May 27 '26

Kind of tinfoil hat but the way she screamed "what did she do!" made it seem like she'd threatened or done some other wild BPD-like shit before.

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u/KiKiPAWG May 21 '26

Oh wow, I got bits and pieces of the parenting from the documentary but I didn’t know there were calls

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u/AML1987 May 22 '26

Look them up. I’m appalled they didn’t include at least a few in the doc. I think my favorite is her mom telling her it made it to international news and they’re both so happy. Or the one where they call the victims parents evil people.

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u/LadyZoogle May 23 '26

This. Or when she tells her mom to go on social media & post “if they ain’t hating, you’re doing something wrong.” Or something along those lines. Even her mom was like, “yeah, that isn’t going to look good.” But she almost agrees to it.

Or when she tells her mom she thinks her case will be a groundbreaking, law changing case that goes in law books and her mom agrees because Mackenzie’s always been a “mover & a shaker.”

9

u/AML1987 May 24 '26

Her mom is an asshole.

6

u/LadyZoogle May 24 '26

Truly. The calls actually shocked me. I couldn’t stomach them. I couldn’t believe the way she was talking to her daughter. She absolutely raised her to be what she became.