Key detail left out of The Crash explains how Mackenzie Shirilla survived 100mph wall collision
Mackenzie Shirilla is currently serving a sentence of between 15 years and life for the double murder of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan, and will not be eligible for parole until 2037.
Mackenzie crashed her car into a wall at 100mph in July 2022, leaving Dominic already dead by the time emergency services arrived. Attempts were made to save Davion’s life, but they were unsuccessful and he died on the scene.
Netflix’s The Crash has seen a renewed interest in the case, leading to her dad Steve Shirilla being suspended and many true crime aficionados to dig deep into the crash that killed her boyfriend Dominic and his friend Davion.
Mackenzie was herself very lucky to survive, having been left with multiple bone fractures and lacerated internal organs, being airlifted to a local hospital and undergoing multiple surgeries.
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In Netflix’s The Crash, there is a debate as to whether Mackenzie would have crashed intentionally since friends stated that she would ‘never’ kill herself.
What the documentary leaves out, however, is a major factor in how she survived and Dominic and Davion didn’t.
Hulu’s Mackenzie Shirilla doc has a lot of details left out of Netflix’s The Crash
Hulu’s Mean Girl Murders has an episode focused on Mackenzie, which has ‘a lot of detail’ that The Crash doesn’t.
This includes more details about the obscure route she took the morning of her crash, the fact that she had practised the route in the days leading up, and interviews with classmates of Mackenzie who compare her to Regina George from Mean Girls.
One minor but crucial detail, however, is that while Davion and Dominic were not wearing their seat belts during the crash, Mackenzie was.
Lead prosecutor on Mackenzie’s case, Tim Troup, said in the Mean Girl Murders episode: “She was wearing her seatbelt, she did have airbags, and the primary impact was on the passenger side of the car. She was incredibly lucky to be alive, anybody would be lucky to be alive from a crash of this magnitude.”
Troup confirmed that neither Davion nor Dominic were wearing their seatbelts, adding: “The destruction on especially the passenger side of the car was so bad that airbags would have been almost useless. They couldn’t have survived this.”
The Black Box from Mackenzie’s car showed what likely happened in Davion and Dominic’s final moments
Speaking in the Netflix documentary, Highway Patrol officer Sergeant Ryan Fox reveals that a forensic analysis of the car’s ‘electronic data recording system’ gives information on the car prior to a major incident such as a crash.
In Mackenzie’s car, it showed two clear things, that she had floored the accelerator and made no attempt to brake, and that there had been input on the steering wheel in the seconds before the 100mph crash.
This saw, three seconds before the crash, a right movement, a left movement, and a hard right movement. The car, an automatic, also shifted from drive into neutral into drive.
Tim Troup said: “I think the boys were trying to save their life. I think Dominic and Davion were grabbing at the wheel, yanking on the gear shift, and it was just too late.”
Mackenzie Shirilla timeline
17 July 2022
Mackenzie Shirilla and her boyfriend Dominic Russo get into an argument. A friend allegedly overhears Shirilla tell him: “I will crash this car right now.”
31 July 2022
Shirilla is driving Russo, 20, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 19, from Russo’s home to a friend’s house. At around 5.30am, she crashes the car into a Plidco Building in Strongsville, Ohio, travelling at 100mph without braking. Police arrive on the scene 45 minutes later. Russo and Flanagan are pronounced dead and Shirilla is transported to MetroHealth Medical Center.
August 2022
200 people attend a vigil for Russo and Flanagan. Shirilla remains in critical condition. When a detective visits her in hospital, she is said to be speaking a ‘unique language’ similar to pig Latin.
October 2022
Shirilla attends a Halloween party wearing fancy dress which resembles a corpse, which Davion’s father considers in very poor taste. He says in Netflix’s The Crash: “Dressing up as corpses three months after she killed two people, it just sickened us to the very core.”
4 November 2022
Shirilla is arrested and faces 18 charges, including two counts of aggravated murder. She also faces charges for allegedly breaking into the Columbia Church of God in Columbia Station days before the crash, along with drug possession charges.
7 August 2023
Shirilla’s trial begins. Her defence team argue she may have passed out at the time of the crash due to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), but no medical records or expert testimony confirm the diagnosis.
14 August 2023
Shirilla is found guilty on all counts. Judge Nancy Margaret Russo calls her ‘hell on wheels’, and the court concludes she intentionally crashed the car in a premeditated act.
23 August 2023
Shirilla is sentenced to two concurrent 15 years to life sentences. Her legal team later lose an appeal and relief petition. She remains incarcerated in the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
22 May 2025
Shirilla’s parents insist that she’s innocent. Her father Steve tells WKYC: “Show me one piece of evidence - one - that says she did this on purpose. Show it to me, then she's right where she belongs and she's guilty of it. But there isn't any.” Her mother Natalie claims there are texts in which Shirilla says Russo was ‘trying to end her life’.
15 May 2026
Netflix’s The Crash premieres. In it, Shirilla insists she is ‘not a murderer’ and has no memory of the crash, continuing to blame POTS.
18 May 2026
Steve Shirilla is placed on administrative leave from his job as an art and digital media teacher at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland following allegations he had ‘demonstrated poor judgement’. Viewers of Netflix’s documentary objected to his attitude towards Shirilla’s marijuana use and his dismissal of claims she told a classmate to end their life.
September 2037
This is when Shirilla will be eligible for parole.
The Crash is available to stream on Netflix, while Mean Girl Murders is available to stream on HBO Max in the UK.
Topics: Mackenzie Shirilla, Netflix, True Crime, TV and Film, Documentaries
Michael Slavin