Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 516 - Murder at 100 MPH: The Mackenzie Shirilla Case

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

A quiet Ohio suburb is shattered when a 17-year-old girl, Mackenzie Shirilla, drives nearly 100 miles per hour into a brick wall, killing her boyfriend and a close friend while somehow surviving herself. Was it a tragic accident, a medical emergency, or a carefully calculated act of murder? This week, we examine the evidence, the trial, the toxic relationship at the center of it all, and the questions that continue to divide people over the case. Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com  Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious PrivateFacebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :) For all merch-related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste) Please rate and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast. Sign up through Patreon, and for $5 a month, you get access to the entire Secret Suck catalog (295 episodes) PLUS the entire catalog of Timesuck, AD FREE. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the pre-dawn hours of July 31st, 2022, a black Toyota Camry turned on to a road leading to an industrial district in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville, Ohio. Behind the wheel was 17-year-old McKenzie Sherilla. In the passenger seat was her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and in the backseat, their friend, but really more of Dominic's friend, Davy on Flanagan. Seconds after McKenzie made that turn calmly and in perfect control, the car surged forward, accelerated up to 100 miles per hour, and then, did not slow down as it hurled off of the road, jumped up and over the sidewalk, shot across the grass, obliterated a sign,

and kept speeding straight into a solid brick wall of a big manufacturing facility. McKenzie, pinned under the dashboard, badly broken, will somehow survive. Dominic and Davion will not. In the immediate aftermath to friends and family, this was devastating and confusing, but ultimately an accident.

To the first responders, it looked like reckless driving. Mackenzie herself seemed to rationalize it as a freak medical accident. But soon to the investigators who pulled the car apart and started to analyze the data, they started to think this was something else entirely. When they looked into who McKenzie was, pouring over her TikTok and Instagram posts and talking to friends and acquaintances of not just her, but of the young men who died in that car, they started to think that maybe this was murder.

Today, we're diving into the disturbing and deeply tragic case of McKenzie Shirazette. on this week's true crime, if you decide to drive your car into a wall, maybe you're not just a bad driver, but a murderer edition of TimeSuck. This is Michael McDonald, and you're listening to TimeSuck. You're listening to TimeSuck. Well, happy Monday, and welcome or welcome back to the cult of the curious. I'm Dan Cummins, the Suckmaster, status quo questioner. A guy who sometimes thinks life would be so much easier if I wasn't so curious, and you are listening to

time suck. Hail Nimrod, Hail Lucifina, praise me to Good Boy, Bojangles, and Glory B to Triple M. A final reminder that tickets are still on sale until August 1st for Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp 26, Ho-Down Showdown, the final camp. This camp will be held Thursday, September 10th, 2026, 2 p.m. as a start time through Sunday, September 13th, and that will be in Equinoct, Pennsylvania, kind of by upstate New York there, not too far from Woodstock. All kinds of extra detail. at bad magic productions.com, very excited to head back to Equinoc and see a bunch of familiar faces and some new ones as well.

Good weather, bad weather, a lot of fun is going to be had regardless. A lot of memories are going to be made and a lot of bacon will be eaten. Okay, let us dig into this story that shocked first a suburb of Cleveland and then grabbed the attention of the rest of the nation and beyond. Before the fatal car wreck, Mackenzie Shurilla seemed to many of the time. like a typical, you know, I'll be it angsty, social media obsessed 17-year-old. Fresh out of Strongsville High, living in a comfortable suburb south of Cleveland, she appeared to have it all, popularity, designer clothes, a tight-knit friend group, a long-term boyfriend she had been with since she was barely a teenager.

That boyfriend was Dominic Russo, or Dom for short. They'd been together for about four years, and to those who knew them, they weren't just dating, they were inseparable, even living together. most people assumed they would end up getting married. On July 30th, 2020, Mackenzie Dom and their friend Davion rolled up to a low-key graduation party at a friend's place around 10-15 at night. McKenzie, Dom, and Davian mainly kept to themselves chatting in the corner

before they left the party to hang out at another friend's house. Friends would later insist that everybody was in good spirits, that there were no arguments, not a single perceived moment of tension, nothing that anyone noticed. then sometime around 5.30 in the following morning, the three of them piled into McKenzie's car, drove off into the dark, minutes later, two of them were dead. They had died after being involved in a very, very confusing car accident. What threw many of the first responders to arrive at the scene was that this wasn't a car that had drifted

or swerved or slid off some winding road in the dark. It had gone pretty much dead straight through a T intersection, over the curb, across the grass, and into a wall. And it was still clearly going real fast when it hit that wall. There was no sign anywhere that the brakes had ever been used. Clearly based on how obliterated the car was, right? The car had been hurling towards that wall. One of the first responding officers talked about how the car initially looked like it had been torn in half.

Some drugs were found in the car, so they thought initially that might have something to do with it. But those drugs were weed and psilocybin mushrooms. Not the kind of thing that would generally help explain this particular. type of accident. People high on shrooms, we tend to drive slower, maybe, you know, erratically sure, but they don't suddenly become NASCAR drivers, you know, most of the time, locked in, trying to set some fucking time trial record. And what were these kids even doing out in an industrial cut-through at 5.30 in the morning?

Perhaps McKenzie had gotten lost, tired from a big night of partying. But this is also where she had, you know, grown up, lived her whole life, was she drunk and or high had just randomly taken a wrong turn, couple wrong turns. But that still didn't explain the obviously extremely high rate of speed. Trying to figure out just exactly what the hell really happened, investigators soon started pulling data from the car's black box, technically called it's an event data recorder. And also they gathered GPS data.

They had a specialist analyzed the condition of the vehicle, did the car malfunction, was McKenzie just as much of a victim as the two dead young men? The more investigators looked, the less like a victim, McKenzie appeared to be. McKenzie herself was no help to the investigation. She claimed over and over that she could not remember anything from the moments that led up to the crash. She also appeared devastated while she didn't know Davy on that well. She seemed to think Godham as her soulmate.

She had just lost a love of her life. But was their relationship actually that dreamy? McKenzie investigators would quickly learn had quite the temper. She could be wildly jealous, insecure, very possessive, downright abusive. She had a long history of making violent threats to Dom. But also, she was 17, so her behavior, to many, largely influenced, I think, by her small size and gender, read less as abusive and controlling, and more like the behavior of a brat. And a lot of people struggle with this. Would a bratty teen, a mean girl, princess, really try to kill the boyfriend she had wrapped most of her existence around?

and even if prosecutors could point to McKenzie and Dom's toxic relationship with some sort of motive, what about Davion? Why crashed the car while he was in it? What the fuck did he do to anybody? He had nothing to do with whatever was or was not going on inside of McKenzie and Dom's relationship. And then the most confusing question of all, one, the county medical examiner and the judge of McKenzie's trial would each have to sit with, why would McKenzie try and kill Dom in a way that would almost certainly also kill herself? If McKenzie was trying to kill Dom, had she also come to believe that she wouldn't be able to live without him?

Was this a crazed lover's attempt at a murder suicide? Mackenzie's defense team would argue that nothing about the fatal car crash was intentional, that instead it was medical, that McKenzie had a real diagnosed condition. Potts, aka, pedal to the metal on and on, time after time syndrome. And that acronym works, by the way,

thanks to a lot of hyphens that turn big word combos into single words. Pedal to the metal, one word, okay? On and on, another. Time after time, yes. When you have pots, her team would argue, you can't just drive. You can only race. You only have one need in this world, a need for speed.

Did you know that Sammy Hagar has actually suffered with pots for decades? Yeah. He wrote a song about it a long time ago when I was just a little kid to try and raise awareness for this condition. It's a fucking sad song. I can't hear it without tearing up. It's just, it's so tragic, right? That he literally could not.

Cannot drive 55 miles an hour. And of course, I'm being silly. I assume all of you know that, but it would make me happy to hear that at least one of you heard all that and actually did tear up. Oh my God, man.

The fucking poor Sammy Hagar. Jesus Christ. I just sang along all these years and I had no idea. No, Pot is a postural, orthostatic, tachycardious. It's a disorder of the autoatomic nervous system that causes an exaggerated increase in heart rate and symptoms like dizziness or fainting.

Mostly when you stand up, you know, quickly after sitting or lying back down or lying down and then it improves typically when you do sit or lie back down. It can give you brain fog, lightheadedness or fatigue. It can make you faint. But when people faint while driving and it potentially doesn't affect you as severely while you are sitting down, would you grip the steering wheel tightly enough to keep driving? straight over various obstacles that would otherwise tilt the steering wheel? Would you push the gas pedal to the fucking floor and keep it there? That doesn't really make sense to me.

It didn't make sense to investigators, right? That you would pass out and that your body would go limp, but your hands would stay death-gripped on the wheel. And also, your arms rigid enough to not turn it. And your right calf would just flex and stay flexed and keep the pedal on the floor. Wouldn't you be much, much more likely to let go? go of the steering wheel and stop pressing the gas pedal if he passed out. McKenzie would let a judge decide if that defense explained the crash. In the summer of 2023, she waived her right to a jury trial, let a single judge decide

what really happened. And before we get to that judge's decision, let's rewind all the way back to the beginning. Let's get to know McKenzie Shurilla a little bit. Look at what was really happening inside her four-year relationship with Dom Russo, examine the crash itself, the trial, the documentary, and where McKinsey's, Seatsy sits today and how things have been going for her since the trial in today's time suck timeline. Shrap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a time suck timeline. McKenzie Ford Sherilla, born August 2nd, 2004 to parents Natalie and Stephen Sherilla.

McKenzie and her older sister, Danielle, who we don't know a lot about since Danielle has clearly made a decision to do her best to keep her life as private as possible in the wake of all. the media focus around her sister. They were raised in Strongsville, Ohio, which is a middle class suburb, southwest to downtown Cleveland in Cuyahoga County, with a population of 46,491 as of the 2020 census.

Although not incorporated until 1961, the township was founded back in 1818. I've been through it many times. My wife grew up in Cleveland. My father-in-law, Ed, he lives right down the road in Brunswick, while a lot of Cleveland is pretty Polish, like my wife,

Germans, which my wife is also partly German, Germans more than Poles become the primary or became the primary residence of Strongsville, and today at least 30% of residents there claim German heritage. The famous Rockefeller family lived in Strongsville at one time, including a young future industrialist, John D. Rockefeller, when he was a teenager. Strongville's nice. In my opinion, it's very, very American suburban, right? It's got a big indoor mall, South Park Mall, a place with all the usual suspects,

bath and body works, Abercrombie and Fitch, right? Auntie Ann's, Applebee's, Buckle, Clare's and Cinebond, Dix and Dillards, Hot Topic, H&M, Foot Locker, all that shit. Strongsville has Costco and Walmart Supercenter. It's got Target's, got Jimmy Johns, Taco Bell, Wendy's, McDonald's, plenty of bars and parks. Got pizza places that fill up with people after softball, football, basketball, baseball games, et cetera. It's very vanilla. And I'm not trying to be insulting.

When it comes to picking a place to live, a lot of people prefer vanilla. They love it. It's generally a great place to raise a family, right? has a ton of green space, big, beautiful wildlife areas, very low crime rate, consistently ranks as one of the safest cities of its size in the entire U.S. It also has an exceptionally low violent crime rate, 35 to 42 incidents per 100,000 residents, which is about 60 to 65 percent below the national average. And that's part of why McKenzie's story became as big as it did, in my opinion.

Maybe not a huge part, but part. This isn't the kind of town or city where big criminal cases, you know, like this almost ever happen. A lot of families live in Strongsville for the safety and the stability. Generally, the biggest complaints about Strongsville seems to be the traffic lights. Too fucking many. In some areas, according to Redditors, there are roughly 50 traffic lights packed into just four square miles, which a lot of people understandably just find them bearable. According to these Redditors, they do not sink up at all either. What the fuck? Also, according to these Redditors, street after street and in cul-de-sacs, there's not enough cut-throughs.

East traffic flow, it's fucking bullshit. And when you're mostly complaining about something like that, I think a party knows that you've got it pretty good. By most outward measures, the Shirilla home looked like a typical household. Steve and a trained graphic designer and Ohio University graduate, go Buckeyes, OH. I have never encountered alumni. So fanatically devoted to their alma mater in my fucking life as the Buckeyes. Had worked as an art director in television in both Cleveland and Columbus before layoffs,

led him to pivot and to teach in art and digital media. at Mary Queen of Peace School, a private Catholic middle school, in the old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland, not far from the zoo. Right across the street, basically, from Gus's old Brooklyn family restaurant, home of the only homemade hash. The only homemade hash in Old Brooklyn, God damn it. Might not be as good as slime, probably not, but it might be fucking close. Just ask Gus, even though it's actually Nico's recipe.

I don't know how Nico relates to guts. I would call them an ass, but I don't care that much. Anyway, much less is known about Stephen's wife, Natalie, Shurilla's upbringing. despite her current notoriety. A lot of people online love to hate Natalie Shurilla right now. And I don't know that they're wrong. She would go on to be her daughter's most vocal, unwavering. And again, in the opinion of so many people online,

most fucking annoying, enabling, tone-deaf public defender. According to Natalie, she grew up in a traveling show family, a quote, show family filled with theater performers and musicians. Hmm. She would later describe her upbringing as having a Stevie Nick's gypsy vibe. where relatives spoke to one another in a coded language known as carney, which she learned as a child and passed on to McKenzie, who grew up speaking it as well.

So, she's a carny. I love that she describes her child as being part of a show family. It's like you were with a traveling carnival. So what did you and your family do growing up? Show bits. You know, theater stuff. Music, Hollywood type stuff. Cut to a clip of her, just help him set up the fucking tilt-a-world.

in a dead mall's parking lot outside of Peoria, looking sickly, thanks to getting over 30% of her daily calories from funnel cakes, cotton candy, and elephant ears. So you guys were musical, huh? Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. No, we all played music. What instrument did you play?

Calliope. Same to everybody else. Some you knew that was coming. Any excuse to play that I do. And speaking Carney, I had to look that up. I expect a little bit more. than what it is. Basically, it's just a, it's like a variant of pig Latin. As in Piazze. There's a meazar.

Hey, there's a mark. Weas oops, the Fiazerus weazel just expleazote. Whoops, the Ferris wheel just exploded. I'm just translating his pig latin there. That's just some random dude. Jailhouse phone call recordings have captured McKenzie and Natalie speaking in Carney to one another to try and hide what they're saying from authorities. here is a little bit of the two of them speaking

she's a easy she's a fide whizzie mehesee I'm skeezer me then uh oh midam Izaeem skidded is fiza she's a kiddo kitty to like

Kiza meeting he's up chida meaddy with like she speaks it fast She's a fight for it? Yeez that Yem I'm Eza We just eat up really we don't Rida and E'd out She's fluent and Carney

And that's That's odd right That's strange Maybe not the best example for mom to set, help and hide her conversations from authorities. I mean, even if you're not saying anything, shady, it appears as if you are when you do that. The charillas were not the kind of parents to enforce strict discipline. That much is clear from watching those carnies on the Netflix doc and in other videos, by their own admission, very permissive, even if they don't use that

exact word. In my opinion, way, way too permissive. Typical carnies, not enough oversight with parenting, just like there's not enough oversight with the games. The robinous blind on the fucking milk bottle toss. Oh, for real, though. They didn't seem to have a problem with her daughter at all, living with Dom when she was 17, did not seem to have a problem with the two starting to date when he was 16 and she was 13. Didn't seem to care that she posted TikToks and Instagram videos of her smoking all the fucking weed all the time, smoking it while she was driving, smoking at every situation. It seemed like she lived in a permanent cloud of wheat. And I'm not anti-weed, but I am anti, you know, straight up endorsing your kids continual smoking of it while they're still

in high school. Not some authoritarian hard-ass parent either. Studies show that that doesn't work out well in the long run, but you're supposed to set some boundaries to try and keep your kids safe and on the path to becoming at least a somewhat productive member of society. And, you know, being a decent citizen that others do not want to continually punch in the fucking mouth. Teaching your kid, you know, how to function and succeed in the world, setting boundaries for them, loving them, teaching them about consequences and trying to keep them safe pretty much sums up the job of a parent, and they missed a lot of that. Mackenzie's parents, seem to have treated their child as more of a friend, like a peer than a kid.

They put her on her pedestal in a negative way for her development, I think. Treat her like a princess who could do no wrong, constantly trying to explain away or write off what I consider concerning behavior. You know, they taught her, I think, that the rules just didn't really apply to her. She was above it. That's a fucking terrible lesson. You being too spineless to give your kid consequences doesn't protect them from consequences. It just kicks it down the road and sets them up for a bigger drop, right? sets them up to take a huge fall when they fuck up in a way that gets a boss involved or the cops

away you can't control anymore. You can't protect them anymore. It creates people who think that their shit doesn't stink or that they're the center of the universe and that tends to not work out well in the long run despite some fucking sociopathic narcissist doing very well. But that's not a good example. From early on, McKenzie seemed to be drawn less to achievement in the academic sense but achievement in the sense of just, you know, somehow becoming rich and famous and adored. My daughter, Monroe is 18 right now, and I see this mentality so much with kids her age,

and kids a little older than her. You know, they post all the time on social media, you know, whatever. But they hope, but they truly hope with these posts that their account will just, like, magically blow up and they'll just, and they'll just somehow be rich and famous from it. But they have, like, no distinctive voice or plan. They're not like, you know, like creating really cool paintings

and developing that and posting picks of those to show their journey. as they improve and experiment. They're not posing well-thought-out comedic sketches or, you know, recording original songs that they've worked hard to compose and hope will go viral so they can catch the attention of a label execre, you know, become an independent artist who doesn't need a label and make money streaming.

They're not designing clothes to try and establish their own brand. They're basically just taking the same duck-lipped selfies using the same filters, lip-syncing to the same songs, trending as literally millions of other young girls. And when they do that and say that it's their dream to become famous, it always reads to me as a pipe dream more than an actual dream, right? It just comes across as a delusional narcissism, more than artistic passion, right? And for most kids, I think it's ultimately harmless.

I think it's just part of a phase, right? We all tend to be a little more self-absorbed, you know, growing up. It's kind of part of how your brain develops. I had all kinds of dreams myself at that age that I put zero fucking thought of work into. Dreaming random dreams that you don't really work at, you know, part of the fun of being young. But underneath those dreams, hopefully there's some practicality. You know, I also had college plans a regular job of some kind to try and paint my way through life, so my dreams didn't end up costing anybody else around me anything.

Does not seem McKenzie held or holds currently a similar pragmatic view. She really loved, still loves fashion, especially a Y2K-inspired look before the crash, often dressed head-to-to-toe and designer brands, big on status, you know, brands that far exceeded what she or her parents could realistically afford. Not sure how she got all of that other than her dad. said that Dom had a lot of money and spent a lot of it on her. How did Dom get his money so young? It's never explicitly said in reliable sources that I can find. But the rumor is, in addition to maybe doing all right with some crypto and stock trading, he sold wheat. Maybe Shrooms as well.

He allegedly wanted to open up a dispensary later and, you know, and probably would have. Not a bad business plan. Marijuana would become legal in Cuyahoga County just a year and a half after he died. So, you know, if he wouldn't have been in that car, he maybe could have opened up his own store. Maybe you had a dispensary right now. Image seemed to be everything to McKenzie based on her frequent, frequent posts on Instagram and TikTok. Her IG account is still active. I think a lot of old posts have been deleted. But her TikTok account has been deleted entirely. Most of her remaining IG posts seem to be her in swimsuits or swimsuit adjacent outfits, you know, posing to look cute or hot. Also, I would say, you know, this is fairly typical of a teenage girl, you know, who has some

kind of aspirations, realistic or not, of, you know, becoming a model. When Lindsay and I watched a Netflix documentary together and the prosecution showed certain photos and videos that tried to paint her in a very unflattering light, you know, sometimes we would shake our heads and think the same thing. It's like, yeah, okay, she gives off self-absorbed mean girl vibes or I think, you know, super hot girl vibes. But is that that unusual for a high school girl? We referenced several acquaintances in Rose and said, yeah, that could be so-and-so. And for some, honestly, of what they showed, we were like, like, yeah, that could be Monroe.

To talk about her home life again briefly, it seemed like she could do no wrong. To Natalie and Stephen, McKenzie was the golden child, and it feels like her approval of them often seemed to matter more than her actual behavior. Which, again, I just don't have any respect for that. Sympathy, okay, sure,

we all want our kids to like us, well, most of us, but not at the cost of their emotional, moral, and intellectual development is what you're supposed to do. even McKenzie's friends noticed this dynamic describing Natalie and Steve and his parents who cared much more about being liked by their daughter than they cared about doing the hard work of discipline and boundary setting. And over time, of course, that dynamic, as it tends to do, it gave McKenzie a lot of control. She set the tone. She called the shots. And she ran the Shirilla household as a teenager. That's fucking ridiculous.

Outside of the Shrilla home, of course, not everybody was under her spell, which is part of why that parenting style is so fucking damaging. Right? Fucks with kids' expectations. Man, coming out of high school, I expected the world to not give a fuck about me. And it didn't. I also remember having so many problematic people at stand-up shows thrown out over the years. When that person happened to be a young, attractive woman, more often than not, they would cry. They would have this reaction of, wait, what?

I can't just act however I want, wherever I want. I can't loudly talk at my table throughout the entire show and ruin it for everyone around me. but I wanted to do that. Why are you kicking me out for doing what I wanted to do? Why are you being mean? That was like the feedback. Why are you being so mean? Some version of that seriously happened so many fucking times in the early years especially.

Entitlement is so real. Such a problem for many, and at least in her documentary, in pretty much every video and post I've seen of her, McKenzie reeks of entitlement. And I blame her mom and dad. There's a difference between making sure your kid, you know, knows that they're special

and then letting your kid think that they're so fucking special that the world should just bow down to them. As McKenzie moved through Center Middle School in Strongsville, an entitled monster was born. A monster of sorts noticed not by her parents, but seemingly by pretty much everybody else around her, by teachers, administrators, kids not part of her clique, and eventually the police. According to her case as prosecutor, Tim Troop, love this dude, by the way. Seems like a very smart, no-bullshit kind of guy who sees through people trying to hide shit from him. According to him, McKenzie's school records contain a steady stream of incidents involving disrespect towards teachers and other students,

which in troops' opinion pointing to a lack of meaningful oversight in her home life. Again, to bad parenting, right? Why change your behavior at school if you're not, you know, going to do something that's going to get you kicked out and your parents are never going to punish you? People who knew McKenzie in school, you know, they had mixed memories. One said she could get aggressive, that she bullied people. Another remember McKenzie just wanted to be at the top. Several classmates said McKenzie.

was a huge fan, specifically of the character Regina George from mean girls, right? The head mean girl and wanted to imitate her. Well, there's others who were close to McKenzie insisted to know that she was a great friend, not mean, kind, loyal, and ambitious. Pretty typical of high school in some ways, right? I mean, if she truly was a mean girl, and I think she definitely was, that doesn't mean her circle of friends, kids that she thought was cool and worthy of her, were going to feel that way about her, because they're not on the receiving end of the cruelty.

and also they might be mean as well and a judgment against her would be a judgment against themselves sometime during 2017 McKenzie collapsed on the kitchen floor when she was out of 12 or 13 her mom Natalie rushed her to the nearby Cleveland Clinic

excellent medical care in Cleveland truly, fucking great clinic where the doctor diagnosed McKenzie with pots which stands for again pedal to the metal on and on time after time syndrome uh no again it stands for

I fucking love that course again it stands for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome a condition as I mentioned with the body struggles to adjust to moving to an upright position that can cause the heart

to beat faster than normal when you go from sitting or lying down to standing up causing low blood pressure a higher heart rate and even fainting the doctor wasn't worried though

generally is not that serious it's about one and a hundred people and they prescribe salt tabs which McKenzie would take or replace with salty food as needed. I have low blood pressure. I fucking love salty food. Sometimes, yeah, I need it. And if I don't get enough salt,

yeah, same thing, like at the gym, whatever, doing squats, I will get, like, super lighthead. Some degree of this, I think, pretty common. Yeah, Monroe has it too. In 2018, McKenzie would be introduced to the police for the first time. The introduction occurred in February that year at the end of an ordinary school day at center middle school,

where school kids began spilling out of the classrooms and making their way towards the buses. one of them was McKenzie mother was an on again off again friend maybe a little bit of a frenemy Kenzie or McKenzie was just She goes by Kenzie with her friends Was just 13 at this time

She and this other girl Had started bickering at lunch And by the time the last bell rang The argument had not cool Just outside of the school grounds Words turned into shoving shoving turned into punches being thrown And somebody called the police

You know it was just a schoolyard fight Kind of thing that would usually be forgotten By next month But this one Maybe it was a bit more violent than some because a report was created and the police now had a record of the name Mackenzie Shurilla as one of the girls involved. On its own, is this that concerning? I don't think so as an isolated incident, but it wasn't an isolated incident. That October when McKenzie was now

14 and a freshman in high school, the phone rang again at the local police station. This time a mother was calling to report that her daughter was being threatened with violence by a group of fellow students buy some mean girls. One of them was McKenzie Shirilla. Not sure if the cops ended up talking to McKenzie or her parents about this or not, but now we're getting a bit more evidence to back up

all the mean girl rumors. Next year, when she was a sophomore in high school, McKenzie's police file grew again. This time was not a fight or a threat, but theft. A coal shoplifting complaint was logged after she walked out with a pair of earrings. She didn't pay for. She was never charged. A report was created, but she wasn't charged.

The incident ended up on her record. Backing up a bit now, while in high school, at Strongsville High School, McKenzie met Rosie Graham, an aspiring model and fitness influencer, it seems, already working towards that in high school. McKenzie was telling people that she was an inspiring model and influencer of some sort as well. Again, common for that age. As a freshman, McKenzie met Dominic Russo, who she, again, would call Dom. McKenzie was 13 years old. When they started to date, Dom was three years older, aged 16. One of Kenzie's friends, the documentary, said that she and some others in McKenzie's circle

found this age difference concerning at the time. But it doesn't appear that McKenzie's parents did. I fucking would. I would find this very concerning. Three years isn't a big gap a little later in life, you know, like 19 to 22. But 13 to 16? That's a rough spread, I think. I am aware that a lot of opinions are out there that don't agree with mine, but I would not like that.

all. And now before we learn more about Dominic Russo, time for today's first to two mid-show sponsor breaks. If you don't want to hear these ads again, please sign up to be a space lizard on Patreon. Help us make monthly charitable contributions, get the catalog ad-free, episodes three days early and more. Thanks for listening to our sponsors. Now let's get to know more about Dominic.

Born in the fall of 2001 and raised in Strongsville, Dom Rousseau came from a big family, one of six siblings, and he was close to all of them, especially. she's parents, Frank and Christine, his brother Angelo, and his sister also named Christine. As a kid, Dom apparently never sat still, a lot of energy, love music and basketball. By his teens, he had developed what his father called a go-getter's itch. He traded stocks and cryptocurrency, planned on launching his own clothing line, was filing the paperwork on an LLC to sell vape products. I got to say, I love that level of entrepreneurial spirit at that age. I find that very impressive. As a kid, you know, I work. I work. I work. I work. I

but like regular jobs I didn't have to think much about. You know, like mowing lawns, uh, grocery store, you know, stock and shelves. I don't, I don't think I had the balls to invest anything back then either. McKenzie and Dom seemed to run on the same fuel, ambition, image, a taste for the finer things in life. They wore designer everything. All of it posted across her TikTok and Instagram feeds. But it seems again like Dom was the one paying for it all. McKenzie modeled supposedly tried on clothes in exchange for a product and money sometimes,

which surprised me because she never really had a big follower. count, but she really wanted to become an influencer. Numerous sources say that before the notoriety of the fatal car crash and subsequent trial, she only had a few thousand followers on each platform. That's not enough to attract much sponsorship, but I guess people thought there was potential or something. Anyway, she worked toward becoming, as she worked towards becoming an influencer, Dom was always chasing the next hustle day to day. They were nearly inseparable, cooking organic, vegetarian meals together. You know, they were very, very fit. shopping for clothes, moving between their two houses, file accounts that were addicted to one another. To everybody around them, friends, followers, even McKenzie's parents, you know, they're the kind of couple that, you know, people were sure we're going to get married one day and someday soon probably. But not everything was as it's seen with McKenzie and Dom.

So often when it comes to people's, you know, romantic relationships, you don't actually know what's going on behind closed doors. In March of 2020, police and firefighters were called to the shrillah home for a 15-year-old girl with a documented history of anxiety who had threatened to take her own life. A psychiatric evaluation was requested when McKenzie wasn't taken to the hospital. According to the report, her parents did not believe the threat was real and didn't think she would actually hurt herself. Worth noting, due to what happens later, though, that, you know, she was apparently, you know, experiencing suicidal ideation around this time. By December 2021 or January of 2022, now 17-year-old McKenzie had essentially moved it.

with Dom during her senior year of high school, settling into the house his mother owned, which was right next door to her own, which is cool that they were able to do that as far as own a house next to their house. McKenzie's parents signed off on this, reasoning that she was responsible enough for this arrangement.

Right, of course they did. I wouldn't like it, but okay. Through the first months of 2022, she and Dom kept slipping in and out of fights and makeups, but never quite breaking up for good. Somewhere around this time, Dom allegedly cheated on her,

which friends said left a permanent crack. in the relationship. But the two of them stayed tied together anyway, moving as a unit, sharing the same friends, including a kid named Davion Flanagan, towards the time of the crash. Davion was born in March of 2003, the oldest of three. He'd had a brutal start to life, pulled from a home where his biological parents were lost to addiction and shuffled through numerous foster home placements alongside his two younger sisters, Divine and Dahlia, until 2011, when a Christian married couple, Scott and Jamie Flanagan adopted all three siblings when Davion was eight years old. And that is so beautiful.

That is so wildly impressive. That they adopted not just one kid or two kids. They adopted all three kids to keep them from being separated and raised them. In every video I've seen of them, Scott and Jamie come across like absolutely amazing people and parents. Davian loves sports. He was good at them. He was a starting running back at Strongsville High School, worked part. time as a youth swim coach for a while.

It looked like football was going to be his path forward. But near the end of high school, he tore his ACL and UCL. And with that, felt like the dream of college and maybe even an NFL future that he'd been working towards was over, rightly or wrongly. After the injury, Davion felt lost. Started running with a different friend group, which happens a lot in high school, started smoking a lot of weed. That led to him starting to clash with his mom a lot.

And for a couple months, he would actually sleep on a friend's couch, Landon Turner, nickname of Bubba, while detention at home kept building. Friends that he and his mom really butted heads on some stuff. Davion, to me, did not seem like a troubled kid. You know, he wanted a party. Of course he did. He's a teenager. He didn't want to follow the, from what I can infer, you know, fairly rigid rules of his adopted conservative parents' household.

In the documentary, his dad referred to marijuana as a gateway drug with complete conviction, like he was, you know, doing a PSA in the 90s. Probably, you know, we're very worried about him having him having a drug. premarital sex as well, you know, good people, I think very, very good people, but, you know, they come across as, you know, very, very strict. And their son, you know, the first kid they have entering the teenage years rebelled, which is not uncommon at all. Not a sign of his life going off the rails. Dave on actually was put more thought into his future than a lot of kids' age. When he died shortly after graduating from Strongsville High in 2022, he planned to go on to

barber school and hope to eventually open up his own barbershop, excuse me, apparently had a real talent for that, genuine love for cutting people's hair. Like to style his own, was known for giving himself, his friends and teammates, fresh cuts and fades. He worked full time after graduating,

was actually saving up money for and applying to the Allstate hairstylie and barber college in Cleveland, hoping to start the fall 2023 Barber program there. Like Davion, McKenzie also graduated from Strongsville High in 2022, a couple years before Dom. That same spring,

the spring of 2022, McKenzie's parents, Natalie and Steve, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, despite listing $398,000 in assets compared to $173,000 liabilities. I'm guessing most of their assets was home equity. And they were trying to keep from losing their house while being unable to pay all their bills. I would guess probably had a lot of high-interest credit card debt, it's usually the way that goes, but I am just guessing. Among the assets was a 2018 Toyota Camry, the same McKenzie regularly drove, which

reportedly had about 32,000 miles on it, valued it at $18,000. McKenzie didn't seem worried about her parents' money troubles or letting that slower down. Totally normal for a teen. She spent the beginning of her summer after graduation. Mostly, it seems, smoking so much fucking wheat, like Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hill, Willie Nelson, levels of wheat. She made no secret of it. She posted videos to social media constantly of herself driving stones smoking weed while showing off designer clothes, bragging that she was, quote, one of those girls who could do it.

a lot of drugs and not die. At the same time, she was spending most of her time with Dom, Davion, Rosie, and their Titanate group of friends. As friend Landon, Bubba Turner later said in the crash documentary, this was the best friend group that I've ever had in my life. We didn't have any worries in the world. Shortly after graduating high school, they probably all felt like they were going to live forever, right? That they're golden gods,

immortals. In a perfect world, that's how everybody gets to feel when they've just turned 18 and they have their entire adult life in front of them, when society no longer sees them as kids, or Most of them are just starting to get a true taste of autonomy, but don't have a lot of responsibility yet. It's an amazing time or should be. On July 30th, 2020, McKenzie, Dom, and Davyon were out doing what they usually did that summer, drifting from one hangout to the next, looking for the best house party with no real responsibilities and nowhere else they needed to be.

Man, it's such a fun time in one's life. I didn't really get to experience partying like that right out of high school, just mostly due to geography. But once I got away from my stepmom, well, it was also a lot to do with her, and I was in college, And it was the fucking best. No curfew, no one to check in with. The start of each night felt like the beginning of some new adventure. They could, you know, turn out to be fantastic in so many different ways. Earlier that week, they'd heard about a graduation party at the home of McKenzie's friend, Kelly Raja,

someone she knew from the local suburbs party circuit, which is how most kids in their social circle had met. Davian texted Kelly to ask if he could come, telling her he was coming with Kenzie and Dom. She said that was fine. She had no issue with any of them. Davy, Dom, and Mackenzie pulled up at Kelly's house party at around 10, 15 p.m., but it was less of a party, just more of a laid-back evening with a fire going, small group of people playing games. Nothing wild like they were kind of hoping for. McKenzie, Dom, and Davion had brought a little bit of tequila, some weed to share,

but they ended up mostly keeping to themselves hanging off to the side for about 25 minutes. At one point, McKenzie asked Kelly whether anyone else there was tripping, which Kelly, of course, took as McKenzie checking whether psychedelics were on the table or not, but they weren't. Kelly's mom was at home. Kelly told her that that really wasn't her thing. According to Kelly, McKenzie seemed happy, asked her about, I guess, some tomatoes she had, and was acting totally normal. After about 30 minutes, Davy on Don McKenzie bounced and left Kelly's gathering, headed to their friend Paul Bullyinghouse's house, arriving there just after 11 p.m. They listened to some music, smoke some weed, watched a bunch of videos on YouTube.

Totally normal teen shit. Rosie Graham was there too, that influenced her friend to McKenzie's, working in a coloring book she'd brought along. Rosie was a legit influencer on TikTok and YouTube already by this point. She'd had a number of videos on fitness, makeup, skin care, etc., go viral on those platforms, getting a million or more views each, sometimes several millions again, gaining hundreds of thousands of followers. She was doing a version of what McKenzie really hoped to be doing soon. At one point, somebody brought up the idea of taking some psychedelic mushrooms and quite a bit of

shrooms would be found in the wreckage of McKenzie's car hours later. but the group decided it was too late for that. A little late to start that long of a trip, so they stuck to the weed. Later, when questioned, most friends told police that they didn't know if McKenzie was smoking weed or not. According to Bubba, McKenzie was taking a smoke break or a tea break because she'd been coughing up

some sort of black mucus and wanted to look after her lungs in addition to resetting her tolerance. Later, Paul Bullenhouse would testify that he did not see McKenzie or Dom fighting that evening, that everything between them seemed totally fine. At around midnight, Paul went up upstairs to go to sleep in his room. He woke, came downstairs again around 2 a.m.

Where he found McKenzie asleep, but Dom and Davy on awake and watch an episode South Park. It's getting stone, watched episode South Park, right? So fun. Rosie Graham later recalled Dom stroking McKenzie's hair as she drifted off on the couch. She said there was no argument between them that night. Quote, there was not one moment of tension. There was not one bad vibe towards anybody is what she would later tell the documentary makers of the crash. Around 253 a.m., Dom picked up his phone and texted his dad. I love you, Dad.

Right, very sweet. A couple hours later, McKenzie woke up from her nap, decided she wanted to go home. Davion had planned to ride home with Bubba, who had offered to run back before the two of them worked on a truck later that morning,

run him back. But at the last second, Davion changed his mind, said, no, I'll just catch a ride with Dom and McKenzie instead. And with that, they said their goodbyes, left around 5.30 a.m.

Davion climbed into the back seat of McKenzie's Black 2018, Toyota Camry. Dom took the front passenger seat, and McKenzie slid behind the wheel. All three friends had either smoked some weed or taking a marijuana edible that night, but McKenzie felt confident

to drive, you know, considering driving while Stone was certainly nothing new to her, she is not going to, you know, pause at that. Minutes later, city surveillance captured McKenzie's Toyota Camry, turning the turn signal on and then making a slow, very controlled looking turn

off of Pearl Road and onto progress drive. And this is where shit gets confusing. This turn did not lead to Dom's house. It didn't lead to where Davion was crashed that night either, and then seconds later, the car began to rapidly accelerate. Almost 45 minutes later, just before 6.15 p.m. that morning, a man named Tom, driving by in his motorcycle, noticed a wreckage of a black car folded into the side of the massive,

248,000 square foot brick, Plydco building, a manufacturing plant, set back off the road behind a strip of grass. Tom, who was heading back from an early breakfast, didn't stop to go check on whether anybody inside was still alive. I bet he assumed they were not. Two minutes later, he called 911 to report a single car crash at the dead end where progress meets Alameda. The sun was barely up when the first responders arrived at what some would later describe as the worst wreckage they'd ever seen. The black car looked like it had been cut in half, totally obliterated. The nose of the car was a mangled mess of metal.

The windshield had caved in, the roof was folded in half, and every airbag had been deployed. Turning the windows white. Looking in photos of it, it is fucking mind-boggling that anyone survived this crash. totaled doesn't even come close to describing it. Officer Michael Glassy first approached the car, assuming anybody inside was dead. He made his way to the driver's door first, heard some mumbling.

Through the broken glass, he could make out of a young woman's legs and lower body, still belted into the seat. Her upper half was pinned beneath the passenger dashboard where the cabin had folded on top of her. He could see her stomach moving. She was unconscious, but still alive. He couldn't get into the car from that side,

so he moved to the passenger side, where the passenger seat was reclined all the way back, There he found a young man who would later be identified as Davy on, lying with his back on top of the passenger seat, and his head facing the top of the car. Fuck! Line underneath was a third body who would later be identified as Dominic. Both had devastating head injuries.

Both appeared dead. Both were also, and this is very much worth mentioning, not wearing seatbelts. But McKenzie, again, did have hers on. This will, of course, later at McKenzie's trial, not look good. As officers arrived on the scene, they smashed a window, began cutting away the deployed airbags. Minutes later, the Strongsville Fire Department arrived

with the jaws of life, extraction tools, and they worked to free the bodies from the mangled metal. As they worked to remove McKenzie, she slipped in and out of consciousness, she mumbled the name Jacob, and then according to, first responders, asked, how was Davion? Two air ambulances, and that's kind of interesting, too.

Like, how was Davian, not how was, how is Dong? How was the love of my life? Two air ambulances were requested, one for McKenzie, one for Davon, who was somehow still barely alive, again at the time of the crash Dominic was dead I should add though

it is not thought that the first you know that the had first responders arrived closer to the time of the crash that Davian would have lived he sustained what were described as quote fatal injuries instantly upon impact so even if they got there faster it is strongly strongly assumed

due to the nature of his injuries that he would have died those poor kids Davian would die moments later before he could be airlifter to the hospital, Davian and Dom would both be pronounced dead at the scene, and the county medical examiner's office took custody of both deceased male's bodies. On the way to the hospital, paramedics began to stabilize and assess McKenzie, who was

partially responsive when she briefly came to. They asked her questions. She gave delayed answers, confused but alert, not fully oriented to where she was or what had happened. A big thank you, by the way, to all the first responders out there listening. When people need you, man, they really need you. so continually amazed by your poise and just what you do. First responder, Brett Stannislaw, would later testify that McKenzie's pulse, motor function,

and sensation were normal across all four limbs, findings, which he said ruled out a stroke, a seizure, or any other significant neurological emergency, right, that she did not just, like, faint or something. She had several broken bones. Her blood pressure was elevated at the scene. McKenzie's blood auction level was 82, an extremely low reading that could have indicated that she had gone into or come out of cardiac arrest. to some. Later, it would be determined that she had a broken femur, three broken ribs,

a lacerated liver, and kidney, broken arm with a detached tricep, and damage to both carotid arteries from the way her neck was bent. Back at the crash site, officers combed through the wreckage. They found a bag with 8.1 grams of psilocybin mushrooms. I had a nice amount for three people to have a strong but not life-altering disassociative trip. A digital scale. Two phones, a bongs, a marijuana, a purse, and a Cadillac key fob. A separate baggie of mushrooms have been found tucked into McKenzie's own shirt and jammed under the accelerator with a pink fluffy prod a slipper. Drugs were likely a factor, they presumed, which is kind of funny to me. But like I asked earlier, are shrooms and or weed really factors in many high-speed crashes?

Alcohol is correlated strongly with aggressive driving. But weed, shrooms? Associated with crashes, yes. But from the data I've been able to find, not associated with high-speed crashes. The geometry of the crash is what unsettled the investigators most. This was not a car that had drifted off a curve into a tree. To end up where it did, the Camry had to have blown straight through the stop sign at the end of progress drive, ignored both arms of the T-section, jumped the curb, driven off the road entirely, plowed over a stretch of grass,

obliterated the Plitco Company's monument sign, and then driven into the wall of the building, set 130 feet back from the street at still going almost 100 miles an hour. The crash teen struck the officers estranged from the start And they talked it over amongst themselves Because the dead end Where the crash occurred was so obvious They suspected the driver

Must have either been Unfamiliar with the area Or impaired enough to not realize The road ended there The trouble was that these were Not strangers passing through They were locals So what were three local teens

Doing at dawn In industrial park full of offices And manufacturing plants Miles from any of their homes? How were they crashed into a building At the end of a street that went fucking nowhere? Across town at Metro Health Hospital Stephen and Natalie Shirilla, along with their other older daughter, Danielle, waited for word of McKenzie.

They still didn't know exactly what had happened, or if McKenzie was alive. They waited anxiously, pacing around the room, then an officer finally met with them, and he had good news to share first. McKenzie was alive. She was breathing, conscious, and actually talking. She's going to be okay. But then when Natalie asked whether her daughter had been alone in the car or not, that feeling of relief drained out of the room, the officer hesitated. You might want to sit down, he said. Natalie and Stephen sat down in the edge of their seat.

How do I say this? The officer began before reading directly from the police report. Progress in Alameda, car into a building, two are deceased in the vehicle. Your daughter was driving. Natalie and Stephen began to panic. Is it Dom? Is it Dom? They asked the officer over and over.

The officer wouldn't say for sure. Davion had been identified, but the other man in the car had not been yet. Natalie and Stephen pressed the officer, again, desperate to know of Dom, who they considered part of their family, was one of the deceased passengers. Officer went to check with his colleagues, then came back. with more information, one of the deceased passengers might have been called Jacob? He asked the Shirillas, did they know what Jacob? They didn't. Wasn't until later that morning that officers correctly identified the third passenger as Dominic

Russo. Officers went to the home of Frank Russo and Christine Russo, alerted Davion's parents as well who were out of town. Back at the hospital, the officers tell Natalie and Stephen that drugs were found in the car and that their daughter was also likely speeding. Therefore, all of her medical tests would likely be subpoenaed. Meanwhile, McKenzie is sedated on ketamine and undergoing surgery on her shattered right arm in lake. Soon, her alcohol screen came back clean.

McKenzie had not been driving drunk. She had not been drinking alcohol that night. However, the blood draw showed she had been under the influence of marijuana. Not surprisingly, how much not exactly made clear the report, or at least what was publicly released of it, just says traces. In the hospital, once her sedation thin, McKenzie is eventually, of course, told that both Dom and Davion are dead. According to the medical record, Mackenzie was now riddled with grief, depression, and shame.

Upon hearing that news, she told the nurse that she wanted to die, that it was her fault, that she had killed her boyfriend. She was also adamant that she did not remember the crash, and she reported pain, quote, everywhere. Only two days after the crash now,

August 2nd, 2022, McKenzie Shirilla turned 18. Spend her birthday in a hospital bed at Metro Health, with friends and family checking in on her. Among them were Frank Russo, Dom's dad, and Christine Russo,

Dom's sister who had reached out to Natalie Shirilla because McKenzie's phone had been confiscated. In the darkest days of their grief, the Rousseau's were still worried about McKenzie. A girl they had assumed would very likely be their daughter-in-law one day, a girl that had gotten very close to over the past four years. They hoped that she was going to be okay. At that point, they had no reason to believe anything other than this had been a terrible, tragic accident. When Frank and Christine had originally asked Natalie for an update, Christine the mom now, on how McKenzie was doing, this is interesting. told them that she still hadn't woken up. For three days, the Rousseauz understood that she was lying unconscious in a hospital bed.

Why? Because none of that was true. McKenzie had been very much awake and conscious. Christine would later allege that McKenzie and her mom had told her that she was unconscious to give them time to come up with the story of what they wanted to say led to the crash. As news of the crash spread, McKenzie's social media following swelled, and some modeling agencies and clothing brands slid into her DMs asking about collaborations. it was kind of fucking crazy to me

they would do that so fast also crazy to me based on her follower account that they're doing this I mean her IG is active now and after the documentary and everything still has you know about

only about 60,000 followers which is a lot for like a random person but not a lot for like an influencer I'm fucking terrible in Instagram I haven't posted much at all since I stopped touring even when I was touring I wasn't great at it I hardly ever have talked about it here

and I have like over 150,000 followers I haven't posted on TikTok for fucking years still have over 300,000 followers there, and I don't even know how to fucking use the app, really. But I know that no one was hitting me up for a bunch of collabs, a bunch of endorsements. These people must have assumed that she was just going to blow up so much further than she did or something. Or, you know, I guess, to be fair, I don't have model looks, you know, that many things she does.

That's probably it. That's probably the difference. McKenzie's phone had been seized by police. So Natalie answered on her behalf, thanking, excuse me, one brand for the opportunity, saying her daughter had been trying to reach them. it's fucking kind of weird to be working business deals right now when mackenzie got her phone back she picked up the thread herself gushed into a brand that she would love to work with him so excited that's you know again just so close after the uh accident that's a little ick investigators would later also discover that mackenzie and her mom had been teeing up a los angeles modeling the agency opportunity while mackenzie was still in her hospital bed

davian's father scott flanagan would later have one word for this behavior tone down I know it's two words, but there's a hyphen, so now it's one. No one in the right mind, he said, we'll be chatting about being thrilled about an opportunity like this in the immediate days after they just killed two people in a crash. One of them supposedly the love of their life. Some sources say that McKenzie actually was posting directly from her hospital bed. If so, those posts have been taken down.

That same tone deafness was noticed by others. When Strongsville detective, Zaki Hazoo, came to an interview at the hospital, McKenzie reportedly said either to him or two of her, her mother, can they just take away my license for 10 years? By this point, a lot of people in town has started to talk. The record sent a shockwave through Strongsville, and in its wake, a single question began to circulate, was it an accident? Or had she done this on purpose? Everybody had an opinion. Police at this point were still investigating the crash as what it first presented as, as an accident, possibly due to a vehicle malfunction of some sort. On August 4th, four days after the crash,

Mackenzie wrote to Dom's mother. Hi, Mama Russo. She said, I'm not expecting any sort of response. I just wanted to say, I love you guys so much, and I'm so sorry for all of this. Christine replied, this is the absolute worst. McKenzie would also text, Christine, I remember turning on to the street,

and then my vision fades to black. It really kills me, not to be able to remember anything. I promise you, I would tell you. I've been asking my therapist, why I don't remember, and she said it's because of trauma. I'm going to try to get myself hypnotized and make myself remember. I know this can and does happen,

blacking out because of trauma, but it's weird to me that she would claim to remember everything up to just a few seconds before accelerating. And I know that's not impossible, but, you know, suspicious in light of all the evidence that will come out. Soon Dominic's mom will stop speaking to McKenzie when she learned things that would later come out at trial

that others didn't. Yeah, she started to pull away a lot sooner than Dom's dad, Frank, did. he will eventually turn on McKenzie as well though for the moment he felt sorry for McKenzie in his eyes she had lost love of her life best friend and this you know another friend

she would have to live with being the one driving the accident that took their lives McKenzie would join Frank for things like Ouija board sessions trying to speak to Dom at the side of his grave even claiming to speak with his spirit there you know just so much grief in mid-August less than two weeks after the crash

the investigation turned for the first time in a different direction two of Davyon's friends Tyler Croy and Husni Ahmed came to police with information they couldn't ignore these are good kids, good young men

Davion had been in their Life 360 group this location sharing app teens and parents used to keep tabs on one another which I think is so cool love people doing this Lindsay and I do something similar

with Fine Mai she keeps track of so many people on Fine Mai so many friends and family thanks to this app they had tracked the entire final drive of Davion's death, and they had access to data, which included more than just location data, but speed, acceleration, braking, and phone use. When Croy heard about the crash,

he screenshoted Davion's data, and later, feeling suspicious about all this, the two friends went to the police station to explain how it all worked to detectives. According to the friends, Davion was using his phone, texting them at around 5.30 a.m. The crash happened at around 5.36, and Davion's phone was still active at 535. The live 360 data also showed the car surging to over 90 miles per hour just before impact. The friends told detectives that in their view, it seemed like the three of them had been fighting and the drugs may have been involved. But if psychedelics were part of it, they said that did not fit with the claim that McKenzie had taken a nap earlier since those drugs can keep a person up for hours. The officers asked Tyler and Hustney to send everything they had, screenshots, routes, time stamps.

It was important, they told him. The detective would want all of this. And again, what a good couple of friends. On August 16th, McKenzie texted Dom's mom. When I get out of here, I want to give you my bracelet that I made for you. It's okay if you don't want to see me, I understand. Again, Dom's mom is like the one person being the coldest her right now. Christine replied, why would you say that?

McKenzie texted, I just feel like you guys all hate me. Christine replied, we don't understand. McKenzie texted, that's been the hardest part for me. None of this feels real. when I get out of here, can I go to Dom's house? I just want to lay in his bed or on his floor so I can just smell him. Maybe take some hoodies home. I also want to see you and give you a hug.

I love you guys so much. Christine asked, when do you think you'll be released? Mackenzie replied, I'm not sure yet. I love you so much. Thank you for answering me. I'm just so glad you don't hate me. I'm sorry. And all of that, you know, could be just normal grief and sadness and, you know, all these

emotions. Or it could be a guilty conscience. Could be a guilty conscience due to just happening to be the person driving that night. or could be a guilty conscience for, you know, other much more nefarious reasons. The next big development in this case, maybe the biggest was the surveillance footage. And I will tell you all about it

after our second of two mid-show sponsor breaks. Thanks for listening to those sponsors, truly. I hope you heard some deals you liked. Not be not authentic about that. I don't fucking care. No, I care a lot. I do, please. I do care.

I hope you use our landing pages and codes so that you save money and they know we send you. And now let's learn about the surveillance footage. Investigators obtained CCTV from two vantage points along the fatal route. The first showed McKenzie's Camry driving incredibly normally, perfectly staying in its lane, signaling a turn onto an empty street in the early hours of the morning, even though no other cars were around. But then the second clip captured less than a minute later,

showed that same car just tearing down this dead-end stretch of progress drive, terrifyingly fast at up to 100 miles an hour, and then mounting the curve followed by clipping and destroying the Plitco building sign and then you hear this massive bang and deafening crash. The footage is intense.

I've watched it many times. Pretty damning. It looks like she was absolutely in total control of the vehicle when she made that turn. And then still very much in control when she drove that fucking fast. I have driven 100 miles an hour

before on a bunch of different occasions and you have to pay a lot more attention to keeping the car straight than you do at a lot lower speed. slightly steering to the left or right at 100 miles an hour creates way more movement than it would at 20 or 30 miles per hour. You have to be fucking locked in with a tight grip on the wheel to not risk, you know, fish tailing or even rolling the car,

missing the wall. You know, the car's greatly increased momentum drastically magnifies the effects of steering. But investigators still had to rule out any possible innocent explanations first. Could McKenzie have blacked out, seized up, suffered some drug-induced episode that somehow sent her car flying into the wall? Very unlikely, they thought, but maybe not impossible.

Could the camera itself have failed? Was there a mechanical issue with the car that caused it to accelerate uncontrollably? If so, you know, then there was no murder. Also, unlikely, though, for a car to suddenly have the steering mechanism, seconds after it worked very well, completely lock up, and then at the same exact time, begin accelerating as if you'd put the pedal to the floor and also have both your brake and emergency brake both not work. I mean, that combination is technically theoretically possible in some models of vehicle due to combos that are frankly way too tedious and full of obscure terms.

Most non-mechanics mechanics you know aren't going to know to explain, but it is highly unlikely. But it had to be investigated. The remains of the car would have to be inspected piece by piece. Investigators brought in Sergeant Adam McQuaid, an expert in crash reconstruction from the nearby Brooklyn Police Department, another nearby suburb. The Strongville police asked him to review the... Camry's event data recorder, which again is the car's black box. According to McQuaid, the accelerator was fully pressed four point seconds before the crash. The throttle stayed wide open until 1.6 seconds before impact, and that's because the car went

airborne after hitting the curb. Then the car made a very small right turn, then a small left to correct, and then a hard right turned so sharp that the recorder logged a rollover event, turning the wheel 142 degrees 1.1 seconds later, the car hit the wall. Someone inside the vehicle had also man. manually shifted the gear shift into neutral, but then it was forced back in the drive as the vehicle continued hurtling forward in his final seconds.

So had Dom or Davion grab the gear shift, grabbed the wheel, right? Were they struggling to stop the car right before they died? Had they been screaming for McKenzie to stop, asking her, what the fuck are you doing? Why are you doing this? Had they then tried to take control right of the car

when it became clear she wasn't just trying to scare them or be dramatic, but had jumped the curb, was actually trying to ram them while their seatbelts are off into a wall, investigators also explored a recent Toyota recall to rule some things out. Plus, there was a possibility that the pink brought a slipper. Wedged below the accelerator might have caused a car to accelerate, they thought. Strongsville Police now brought in Mark Sargent,

a certified forensic mechanical expert from fire and explosion consultants. I thought we just had this sergeant guy. No, Adam McQuade. Oh, sorry, I think it's just because there's been sergeants involved. I was like, wait a minute, didn't this, didn't we just see this guy? No, we did not. Strongville Police brought him Mark Sargent, a certified forensic mechanical mechanical mechanical expert from fire and explosion consultants who conducts mechanical defect analysis on automobiles to look into one open recall on the Camry, a problem involving power brake assist. It had been flagged on this car, but Toyota had already adequately repaired that issue on this car, so that's not in play. It wouldn't explain so much of the accident. Sargent examined the accelerator pedal, throttle mechanics, and brakes, and found, quote, no indication of any pre-crash-machshrash or electrical failure that may have caused a loss of accelerator control, a loss of braking, or a loss in the ability to steer the vehicle.

The brakes appeared functional, right? They worked just fine. As for the fuzzy prod of slipper, Sergeant also ruled that out. Based on where the slipper was wedged, it could not have pinned the pedal down and cause the acceleration, but rather, according to Sergeant, the slipper placement was further proof that McKenzie's foot had been on the accelerator at the moment of impact when the car hit the wall. Very damning. So rather than pointing detectives elsewhere, this pointed more closely at McKenzie as being responsible. When investigators realized the car had not failed, they had to look elsewhere.

One by one, they brought in people who knew McKenzie, Dominic and Davion, trying to piece together what had happened in the weeks, days, and hours leading up to the crash. Many of their friends were privy to the complicated dynamic between McKenzie and Dom. They were willing to share their own theories about what might have happened. One of Dom's friends figured the two had been fighting again. He pointed to pictures of track marks on the grass, consistent with McQuaid's findings, which suggested the car had veered hard just before hitting the wall. The friend read this as a struggle.

Perhaps somebody, like I speculated, grabbed for control at the last second. Maybe he thought McKenzie had been trying to scare Dominic by Flore and it, and then somebody lunged for the wheel to last moment to try and, you know, avoid a collision. Another friend described McKenzie to police as, quote, crazy and not mentally all there. Then there was Dom's own family. As time went on, they became increasingly divided over, you know, what they believed had caused the crash. the question of McKenzie's guilt had split the family down the middle.

Dom's older brother, Angelo, told police that whenever Dominic talked about ending the relationship, McKenzie would threaten to kill herself. Looking back on the crash through the lens, this lens, Angelo said Dom had tried to break up with McKenzie several times, and he believed they were probably arguing that night, but likely only a light argument because, had it been a full-on fight, according to Angelo, Dom would have grabbed the wheel earlier before she started to speed up.

Angel said Dom was likely trying to calm her down, talk her down that morning in his final moments, and that the hard swerving may have been his last attempt to grab the wheel while McKenzie with death-gripping or bear-hugging it. Damn. Still investigators, not quite ready to arrest McKenzie. As lead prosecutor Tim Troop put it, every road led back to the same black hole.

No one knew for certain what had happened in those last unwitness seconds inside the car and the only person who'd lived through them said she could not remember. And on paper, that meant the case was still officially an accident. The county medical examiner had autopsyed both young men had ruled Davion's death accidental on September 12th with Dominic's ruling following later that same day that October McKenzie applied for a new driver's license On the form she said she had no condition

That caused her to lose consciousness or control of her muscles She also signed off that she had no physical or mental condition preventing her from exercising reasonable and ordinary control of a motor vehicle Less than a year later this form will come back to haunt her On October 13th, McKenzie texted Christine, Dom's mother, I didn't lose just Dom. I lost my whole other family, and that's you guys. Christine wrote back,

My family will never be the same. Lost a part of my heart. I'm sorry that people aren't receptive to you, but those boys died in your hands. You have to understand that. You think I want things this way? My life is hell. I'm broken.

McKenzie responded, I did not do this on purpose. If I knew any of this would have happened, I would have made sure it was me that died. I would think that you would understand, but it's good to know you think this is all my fault. I do understand that nothing is ever going to be the same. We're in the same boat.

We both lost extremely important people to us. And I see Angelo and somebody else in his studio, so I know that it has been more than you and Angelo in hell. Everybody's life is hell. Everybody is so broken over this. It's not just you and Angelo. I wish I could take that pain away from you guys and just make it only for me.

I try to tell you guys, I would never do this on purpose, and I thought you would know that. She really is so fucking. tone deaf. I mean, partially due to age, but what the fuck? You're talking to his fucking mom. Don't act like it's the same fucking situation for you too. You didn't have the same relationship with him. You weren't even engaged to him. She gave fucking birth to him and raised him. That is so wildly disrespectful. But again, you know, fucking some, I don't know, some people

can act like this and then not become piece of shit. They can grow out of it. But maybe not in this case. At the end of the same month came Halloween, three months the day after the crash. Mackenzie went out with her friends, trick-or-treating, dressed in a black corset, ripped black leggings, and corpse makeup posing in photos and TikTok videos. The prosecution would later feast on these images as clear-cut evidence of her total lack of remorse. But McKenzie's friend, influencer Rosie Graham, would insist she was not a corpse referencing the crash in any way, but rather that she and McKenzie and someone else, they were dressed up as a playboy cardy stage look.

McCenzie and Dom had both loved. And I do believe Rosie on this one, watching the documentary, Lindsay and I kept saying the same thing. McKenzie comes across as not just tone deaf in a lot of moments, but like legitimately fucking dumb. Like, she comes across to me as somebody who just wouldn't even think of how bad the optics of dressing up like a dead person might be in light of what fucking happened three months earlier. Because she was so wildly self-absorbed and just not very bright. a friend might have brought up the idea to do that and she would probably just been like, oh yeah, cool.

And then that's probably as far as it went in her brain. There's no contemplation of, you know, what others might read into that decision. Regardless, her costume choice doesn't fucking sit well with Dom's or Davyons' families. Understandably. Meanwhile, Detective Hizu

continued combing through McKenzie's social media history documenting more than 100 instances of what he considered distracted or reckless driving. That's a lot of instances. and again, I know she's a teen, but over 100, and that's just what she's fucking posting. That's fucking crazy.

Guessing there were thousands of once, you know, just constant that she didn't. And then Christine Russo found something, a piece of evidence on a phone left in her son's room that changed everything. In criminal cases, it is what, it is called prior calculation, the kind of evidence that's called prior calculation.

And with it, they would have enough to move forward and make an arrest. I'll reveal what this is later. On the afternoon of November 4th, 2020, Natalie Shurillo was driving McKenzie to physical therapy when the car was pulled over. McKenzie held her phone up, filming the planes closed officers as they approached the car until one of them reached for it and she snapped, don't touch my phone.

Oh, nope, shit was way past that. You don't get to document your own arrest, as it turns out. Step out of the car, they told her, you're under arrest. Arrest? What? She said, for murder. For murder? Natalie shrieked from the front seat, but then there were several police, by then, there

were several police cruisers now surrounding them. An officer came to arrest McKenzie, and as they cuffed her, she asked them to be careful not to break the bracelets on her wrists. She didn't want them taken off. They put her in the back of the police car, drove her to the station while she cried in the back seat. Body cam footage would show her sniffling and sobbing the entire way, which somebody innocent or guilty would probably do in the situation. At the station, she was told to remove her bracelets.

She broke down again when officers said that she couldn't wear them in jail. A moment that would draw further backlash online with people saying she appeared more concerned with vanity than the lives of two people. However, Mackenzie's friend Rosie would later explain why it upset her so much. The bracelets had belonged to Dom. They were one of the last things she still had from him. Okay, so fair. By the time McKenzie reached the station, her father, Stephen Shurilla, had arrived, furious and combative, of course.

What do you do to my princess? She could never be arrested. He confronted officers in the lobby demanding to see her, insisting they had no right to even question her. He told him they needed to warn her not to say anything and to ask for a lawyer. When one officer calmly reminded him that McKenzie was 18 and legally able to speak for herself, he did not back down. Yeah, he snapped, but she's a dumb 18. year old. I mean, not wrong, Dad. Not wrong. Would have been a lot smarter, though. Had you raised her better? Had you treated her like a

fucking child? Not some friend. You were desperate to impress. Because McKenzie was 17 when the crash occurred just barely by two days, her case started in juvenile court. Prosecutors filed a complaint accusing her of six offenses. Aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, aggravated vehicular homicide, drug possession, and possessing criminal tools. Also wanted to try her as an adult. But a 17-year-old, to be tried as an adult if a juvenile judge signs off. So the court held a hearing to decide whether the case should be moved up to adult court. Prosecution laid out its evidence.

Judge ruled that there was enough to move forward on almost everything. But not the most serious charge aggravated murder, so that count was dropped, but now it goes to adult court. Everything else is transferred there, where she will be tried as an adult. Four months later, in March of 2023, prosecutors submitted more evidence to the medical examiner and asked for the cause of death to be reviewed. that evidence included phone transcripts, still photos, video, and witness interviews after reviewing it, Dr. Joseph Filo, the Cuyahoga County Chief Deputy Medical Examiner

and forensic pathologists changed the autopsy reports from accident to homicide. The report said that their investigation revealed, quote, the driver's intention of inflicting self-harm and harm under the passengers in her vehicle. On cross-examination, Dr. Fillo admitted that the manner of death was changed to each of the victims based in part on evidence that Shurilla had previously. claimed that she had intended to kill herself. By the time the trial opened in August of 2023, almost exactly a year after the crash,

both sides understood just how bizarre, unique, and complex this case was. There was no dispute about what the car did. Everybody knew what happened there. The only question was, what had been going on in McKenzie Shurilla's mind in the minute before the crash? But again, the only person who could answer that

kept saying over and over, she couldn't remember a thing, and that it was a total accident. Mackenzie's attorney James McDonnell told her there was no evidence of intent or told the court there was no evidence of intent that anybody could see that this was an accident. The prosecution led by Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecutor Tim Troop had to prove a state of mind with no confession, no surviving witness, no memory to work from. Not an easy task. Mackenzie waved a jury and chose a bench trial, meaning the decision about her guilt or innocence, would rest with one person, judge Nancy. Margaret Russo, bold choice,

Dominic Russo's grandma. I told you she wasn't very bright. All right, young lady, good fucking luck. Unless you figure out how to reincarnate my grandson, you're getting the chair, bitch. We're bringing out old Sparky to roast your trifling carnie ass. No, she's of no relation to Don Russo. There was some logic behind this decision.

Ben's trials tend to move along faster, to rely more on legal reasoning than a motion, and defense lawyers often prefer them when a case depends on technical evidence. They also sometimes prefer them when they fear a jury will not like their defendant. And McKenzie comes across to a lot of people when you poke around online as wildly unlikable,

very self-absorbed and tone deaf. Defense attorneys can also want this when they think a judge will be especially fair, but the choice was a gamble. With a jury, the prosecution has to convince a dozen people that the defendant is guilty, get them all to agree. The defense only needs one juror out of those 12 to not buy it to stop a conviction,

but with the judge, the defense has to be one for one. So very different odds. Sergeant Adam McQuaid and Mark Sargent took the stand to testify to what the black box and the record showed a Florida accelerator, no breaking, and a forceful last second yank of the wheel that the data could not attribute to anybody. Mark Sargent admitted that a hard right turn could be consistent with a driver trying to maintain or regain control of the vehicle, but it could also be consistent with a passenger pulling the wheel to avoid a crash,

or even a physical reaction caused by the car hitting the ground after becoming airborne when it left the road and mounted the grass. Be admitted it was possible that a driver trying to break may accidentally hit the accelerator, but sergeant said that in that situation, he would normally expect the data recorder to show the accelerator dropping from 100% to zero at some point, any point. But it didn't, not even close. still sergeant was clear about one thing

the data could not prove whose hands were actually on the steering wheel or the gear shift in those final moments I mean probably the fucking driver but you can't prove next to testify was Esther Sang a trauma surgeon at Metro Health Medical Center who testified that

Natalie Sherilla told medical staff that McKenzie had a history of as we have went over pots which can cause one to pass out but again usually when you're standing up from a sitting or prone position not when you're driving It is possible while sitting, but usually after you've sat for a long time. Like, you know, you've been on a long drive and your blood has really had a chance to pool.

But still even then, not very common. On cross-examination, doctors saying acknowledged that because medical staff examined Shurilla about two hours after the crash, there was a chance that someone who had suffered a seizure or many stroke could potentially have recovered by then and not show any signs. Natalie then testified that McKenzie had experienced a Potts episode a week or two before the crash and said it was, quote, really bad. worse than it had been a long time. That left prosecutors with the question. If McKenzie's Pots was so serious, why hadn't anyone said so before

or listed it on her driving paperwork? When McKenzie later applied for a temporary driver's license, she said she did not have any condition that caused episodes of impaired consciousness or loss of muscle control. Why not? Assistant prosecutor Tim Troop would also, of course, play some footage in the courtroom, the surveillance video alongside the car's data recorder

to show that the Camry stayed at full acceleration throughout the final seconds. No one disputed that. A troop then turned the footage against the defense's own theory. Seconds before that violent acceleration, that same video showed McKenzie signaling and making a calm, controlled turn onto the street. The kind of precise maneuver, he said,

no one in the midst of a fucking blackout could pull off. You can't lose consciousness and still execute a clean signal turn and then also, moments later, put the pedal to the floor, all the way into a wall. But then the defense was like, yeah, but what about Sammy Hagar? What about sometimes people with potches having to drive? Really, really fucking fast. Then they put Sammy Hager on the stand and went pretty well until he was cross-examined by the prosecution.

When you said, I can't drive 55, you were not saying I can't drive any slower. Wait, what? You were saying I can't get down to that. What? Yes, sir. Yeah, you know, when they change the speed limit, I was in. Africa on vacation with my family on a safari, you know, for six weeks. I was gone. I came home two o'clock in the morning. I'm in Albany, New York. I flew into Albany and was driving to Lake

Plac. And two o'clock in the morning. I'm going 62 miles an hour and a cop pulls me over. And I'm going, what's the deal? He's going, we give tickets for 62 around here. I'm going, wait a minute, speed limit's 65. He goes, no, it's 55. And I didn't even know they changed it. And I wrote the song, I swear right on the spot. This is, wow. fuck so he can drive oh less than 55 it was a misunderstanding he didn't have pots well that cross-examination pretty much destroyed the defense's case and i think i'm done with that sammy hagar's silliness now so far the case have been about physics and medical terms next to term to dom and mackenzie's relationship alison grolo uh who ran an organic produce market in strongsville and mackenzie and dom

shopped at two or three times a week and their final months describe them as a very loving towards one another holding hands, constantly having their arms around each other. McKenzie's aunt, Candace Shipley, said the two had spent hours at her home two days before the crash, talking about their future with no signs of trouble, and appeared, quote, very much in love. Other friends, including Paul and Kelly, also gave statements stating that they hadn't noticed anything unusual between McKenzie and Dom in the hours leading up to the crash. Next, Detective Zaki Hizu walked the court through McKenzie's own social media and found, as I mentioned earlier,

more than 100 instances he characterized as distracted a reckless driving, filming herself smoking and high behind the wheel, driving with no hands, steering the wheel with her foot, music always blaring. Then came the text in the videos. This seemed to mark a turning point in the trial.

Prosecutors reviewed hundreds of messages between McKenzie and Dom, stretching back to early 2020, a years-long record of relationships swinging between hatred and obsession. One video recorded by Dom and found on a spare phone showed McKenzie threatening him,

saying she would break into his house, bang on his door, demanding to be let in. Dom, calmly told McKenzie he could not let her into the house while she's behaving like that. After all, she had broken up with him earlier that day, so why would he?

McKenzie counted down multiple times. She called him a pussy, a bitch, threatened to key his car, break the handle, the door. Dominic finally stopped recording and called his mom for help. I have a little bit of that. I can play here.

Like before, you lied. You lied and said you would never lock me out of the house again. That is why we got back together last time we broke up. But I forgot. You can never eat your word. Because you are a little fucking weak bitch. You broke up with me earlier. You really broke up with me earlier. This is your last chance to open the door or you are not coming out of this house all night because I will not leave. You literally broke. You literally broke up with me earlier. Like what is the point you're trying to, like you broke up with me like early. You're like, really. You're like, you broke up with me like early. You're like, what is the point you're like, you're like, No, no, I didn't. I didn't.

I didn't. I did it. You said, we're not together. You really said that shit. Like, you really broke on the ready. Like, what are you trying to make? Like, why would I just let you in my hands? If you break up with me, you're not needing to break my shit.

Like, if I need to key my car. I need to break the door. I will keep your car if you do not let me in the house. You're going to key my car. If you don't let me in the house, yes. What the fuck? Yeah, I know. So just let me in the house.

No. Like, why can't you just be, like, like, calm and, at least for a second. I'm not going to feel calm. I am calm. I don't think you get to decide that with your fucking weird ass trauma problems. You really threatening to fucking key my car and shit. What was he threatening? Don, I'm going to give you one last chance to open the door. I'm going to leave and do what I said I was going to do. What are you going to do? I'm going to give you one last shit. It's pretty telling that he's recording this. Kenzie, look, look, let me go to dinner. No, no. No. You can let me go to dinner.

I can let you come over later. No, you're not, because I'm coming to dinner, too. I'm coming to dinner, too. Why? You should have told me you wanted to come. You fucking retard here. You already put me on the reservation. So fucking open the door, you dumbass.

Like, open the car. Let's just go next door then. No, we're not going next door. No, we're not letting you hit the house. We need to talk first, no, because you just, like, betrayed me. All right, we can talk outside. Here, go out. Uh, if that didn't sound that bad to you,

now imagine some big guy with a deep voice saying all of those words to a small woman who sounds scared. It's different, right? But it's the exact same behavior. I mean, that's just straight up abusive. Dom's mother Christine testified that in the six months before the crash, the relationship had turned strained with fighting, arguments, breakups, threats, and the McKenzie had grown increasingly possessive. One day on July 17th, 2022, just two weeks before the crash, Christine had been sitting with Christopher Hensch Martin, a friend of the Russo family, when her phone rang.

It was Dom. He was upset. McKenzie, he told his mom was driving erratically and threatening to crashed the car. Christine grew worried in turn because she knew exactly

what the two of them were like. Hensch offered to go find them. He set off toward the highway calling Dom back on the way to pin down a location and eventually found the car pulled onto the shoulder of Interstate 71.

According to Hensch, still on the phone with Dom. He heard McKenzie say in the background, I'm going to wreck this car right now. That doesn't fucking look good. When he arrived at the scene, he testified he saw the pair get into a tussle inside the car

and saw McKenzie, quote, swinging her hands at him. So, you know, domestic violence. After that, there was no real question left in the courtroom about who McKenzie's Sherilla was or what kind of relationship she had. But there was one more piece of evidence the prosecution was sitting on that would seal McKenzie's fate.

The final piece of the puzzle that had made her arrest possible. GPS data showed McKenzie's phone near Progress Drive in Alamina the side of the crash on July 28th, 2022, three days before she wrecked the car. This location is about a 10-minute drive from where McKenzie lived. Detective Zakhi-Huz testified that the location data was limited since a cell ping only shows

a general area, not an exact spot, but combined with her earlier threat to crash the car, prosecutors argued that it pointed to one thing premeditation. There was no reason for her to have been in that general area. There was no fast food over there that she might have been picking up, no grocery store to get her organic food, no shopping to be done, no friends who are. lived there or near there wasn't in route to any of those things. I highly doubt she was swinging by to put it in order for any Plidco specialized pipeline leak repair products or maintenance fittings. Prosecutors argued that this was supposed to have been a murder suicide. It had been planned for days.

Dominic was the primary target. Davion Flanagan was simply, quote, cargo. Someone in the wrong car at the wrong time. McKenzie's mom, Natalie, pushed back on this, insisting that her daughter had never been suicidal, but that claim didn't survive long. Prosecutors produced a police report from that time in 2020 when officers had been called to the Shrilla home after a 15-year-old McKenzie threatened to kill herself. I personally, just my two cents, am not as convinced it was a murder-suicide attempt, though, just because McKenzie had her seatbelt on, well, the other two passengers didn't. I think that she probably kind of hoped to survive, but I guess doesn't matter.

As several users on Reddit and elsewhere observed, it has been documented that she wore her seatbelt on the day of the crash, but then in video, she took for social media for smoke and weed in the car every single video according to some she never had her seatbelt on so that's telling right again i think i think she crashed the car probably hoping that she would kill them but thanks to her seatbelt and airbags that she would live i do wonder if the prosecution thought that as well but didn't chase it because it would be harder to prove and at the end of the day you know the important thing was just proving that she wanted to kill dominic didn't matter uh that she might also want to kill herself or not on the

afternoon of Monday, August 14, 2023, just a year and two weeks after the crash, Judge Nancy Margaret Russo was ready to hand down her verdict. But first, after thanking the spectators and media personnel for respecting the trial process and the attorneys, and giving her acknowledgement to the families involved, Russo delivered a scathing review of the case. She told the courtroom, I have carefully and deliberately considered all the evidence in this case, including testimony, scientific and expert opinions, medical evidence, physical evidence, photographs, and video evidence. There is nothing I can do or say today that will return these two young men to their families. There is nothing I can say or do to restore McKenzie Shirilla to the life she had

before July 31st, 2022. And there is nothing I can say or do to restore the lives of these three families before the fateful moments of that day. This trial is a culmination of decisions made by one person, the defendant. Those decisions have forever altered the futures of three families. Your decisions forever robbed Dominic and Davion of the futures they had. If there is one thing to take away from this case, as painful as it is, it is this. Every decision we make is important. Every action we take is important. Whether the decision is good or bad, whether the action is good or not, the result is the same.

The consequences ripple through time and affect more people than one might think. Judge Russo then took an opportunity to call out specifically the crash video and how both chilling and tragic it is, knowing that you're watching the oncoming deaths of two people. She said, the video clearly shows the purpose and intent of the defendant. She chose a course of death and destruction that day. Exhibit 802 crystallizes the defendant's decision making. She morphs from a responsible driver to literal hell on wheels as she makes her way down that street. At this point, McKenzie gasps, puts her hands over her mouth, shaking, and starts to sob. I mean, pretty clear what the judge's decision is going to be at this point.

I mean, you don't say all that and then follow it with something like, but you know what I like it you got real moxie kid too many of these young men out there they think what they get to be with a young lady as fine as you

and not be expected to come to heal not be expected to have to deal with a little bit of drama you deserve better he should have never locked you out of that house he was if I may be Frank being a little bitch a pussy

innocent on all charges go get him girl the world is yours take no prisoners uh no uh no judge russo says she made the decisions knowing, as any reasonable person would, that death can involve others, not just those in the car, but other people, other cars, pedestrians. She had a mission,

and she executed it with precision. The mission was death. Mackenzie alone decided to push the pedal to the floor and reach speeds of 90 to 100 miles per hour. She alone decided what was to be. She decided death was the ultimate goal that day, and she made that decision for Dominic and Davion. Whether or not she intended to kill herself is speculation and not relevant to the weighing of the evidence. The totality of the evidence clearly demonstrates that McKenzie Shirilla acted purposely and intentionally in the early morning hours of July 31st, 2022. Her purpose was to kill Dominic Rousseau and Davion Flanagan. No reasonable fact finder could come to any other conclusion. Her actions were controlled, methodical, deliberate, intentional, and purposeful. This was not reckless

driving. This was murder. Judge Rousseau ruled that McKenzie Shurilla was guilty on all counts. From the the county prosecutor's office, those counts were, four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, one count of drug possession, and one count of possessing criminal tools. In the gallery, McKenzie's parents looked stunned, their hands over their mouths as they gasped. The sentencing was scheduled for a week later, Monday, August 21st, 2023. Man, non-jury trials moved so much faster. In the days before McKenzie's sentencing, Dom's father, Frank Russo told NBC News, why can't they just let her go? Right? the judge already scolded her.

She'd been in jail for practically a year, right? No, no. He said, she's just a little kid. She fucked up. She did a damn stupid thing, but now her parents are destroyed. Her family's destroyed, too. I wish there was a way she could get some kind of help, some kind of treatment.

Man. He seems like such a cool dude, actually. Frank, I mean, he just seems like a really nice, gentle guy, really empathetic. Man, that'd be so hard to do in this situation to talk about your fucking son's killer like that. Before McKenzie's Cheryl, heard how long she would remain in jail for.

The families of Davion and Dominic had an opportunity to read their victim impact statements. Davion Flanagan's little sister, Divine, spoke about a brother who had been a role model to her, a person who made her feel safe. The one person she could most consistently count on, she said it was unfair that McKenzie might one day walk out in parole while her brother is gone forever.

She asked Judge Russo for the longest possible sentence and said that in the three years she had known McKenzie, she had always taken the easy way out. Davion's adoptive mother, Jamie, used her time, to talk about her son, his soul, his heart of gold. She said Davion was the kind of person who would rescue a friend in the middle of the night, who showed love to the people society had cast aside. She told the court that Davion was more than just cargo.

The word prosecutor Tim Troop would use to describe how he ended up in that car. My son, Davion, Jamie said, is and always will be so much more than cargo. Jamie spoke too of her heartbreak for her daughters, Davion's biological sisters who had already endured far more than their share of loss. Jamie said she prayed that one day McKenzie would find true remorse and repentance in her heart. In his victim statement, Dominic's older brother, Angelo called Dom the most selfless person he knew and McKenzie the most selfish. Dom, he said, had been everyone's best friend, a young man whose goal was always to be better. He read from a different author every day, planned to join a branch of the military, started two companies, never stopped trying to become the best version of himself.

Then Angelo pointed to what McKenzie had said in the hospital in the days after she had killed his brother. Couldn't they just take her license away for 10 years? That Angelo told the court is who McKenzie Shurilla really is. She killed Dom, he said, over the fact that she didn't want to risk losing him. Then Dominic's mother, Christine, delivered her statement. She began by saying that no one had wanted the outcome to be a murder. No one wanted to punish McKenzie Shurilla for an accident.

But this, Christine said, was not an accident. The evidence and the science had proven it. McKenzie had murdered her son and Davy on too. Christine thanked the Strongestville Police Department for chasing the truth. Because of them, she said the family finally knew what had happened that morning. What they would never know is why. Christine described the morning of July 31st, 2022. When she called McKenzie's mother, she said Natalie Sherilla's first response was a plea

not to pay attention to what people were saying online. Christine told the court she could not understand how anybody in that moment would be thinking about Facebook and social media and saying as much, to somebody who had just lost her son. Then she turned to McKenzie directly. You're going to prison because you did this, Christine said. Be thankful you're still alive and have a future, whatever that may be because Dom and Davion were robbed of theirs,

of their hopes and their dreams. When it came to the defense's turn, the case for leniency came largely from Natalie Shurilla. I was going to play a bunch of what she said for you, but without video, without being able to see her facial expressions and body language, I think it's better to summarize most of it. And then I'll share some comments from what, people watching online thought about it after just playing a tiny bit.

She began by asking Judge Russo whether she was even allowed to address the families or not, given permission, she turned to them, read from some notes. She'd written that she was broken, sad and lost, that her hurt was for everybody. Her heart hurt for everybody. Davyans, she said, had been her daughter's new friend. Dom had been the love of McKenzie's life and a part of the family. She was so sorry this had happened. Natalie's message and her delivery of it didn't land well.

So many sentences ended with, okay? this verbal tick that in the context of addressing two families who had just lost her sons felt disrespectful to a lot of people. I will say to me, it just sounded like a normal woman from Cleveland talking.

She has the exact same accent as my mother-in-law and father-in-law and other people in Lindsay's family. Most of them, and maybe just coincidence, but most of them also end a lot of sentences with, okay? Just like Natalie.

I felt bad watching some of this heavy emotional stuff in this video and I had to fight off laughter that had nothing to do with what's being talked about, what's being said. I just could not stop picturing various family members up there. I'll play you a little bit so you can just hear what I'm talking about.

I just want to say to the families that I'm broken, sad, and lost, and my heart hurts for everyone. Okay? Davian was her new friend, and Dom was the love of her life and who is part of our family. Okay? I'm just so sorry that this happened and we're heartbroken. Okay? And then, Your Honor, this was a terrible, tragic nightmare accident to have happened that she has no memory. of. And she will never emotionally or physically recover of it, recover from it. She almost died to. Her okay, I know, it can make it sound flippant. But again, like my mother-in-law, one of the best human beings I've literally ever met, truly an incredible, kind, empathetic, loving, protective, open-minded, on and on, all the best adjectives person. She might have sounded exactly like this,

talking about like this or something else, you know, similarly tragic. Your Honor, okay, I am so sorry. lit those firecrackers and I started that fire that burned all those kids to death, okay? All the screaming and the wailing, okay? What was it? Those two dozen children, they were burned alive, okay? It's heartbreaking, okay? It's like Cher said so well. If I could turn back time, okay?

I would have never lit those, okay? Your Honor, okay? Natalie turned to Judge Rousseau after addressing the families. She said, as you heard the beginning of, that it had been a terrible. terrible tragic nightmare accident, one her daughter had no memory of, please, she pleaded, do not run the sentences consecutively, okay? Just please, don't do it, okay? From there, Natalie told the story of the morning of the crash from her side that when she heard there was an accident, she called Dom's number over and over, okay? And Prady would pick up. She said that they all love

Dom's so much, okay, and insisted she didn't talk to Christine Russo about social media, okay? she told the judge that she was the one commenting on social media defending McKenzie from people who were calling her a murder because she didn't want her daughter to wake up and see people saying those things, okay? Quick note. She did this because Natalie quickly got a lot of backlash from the public who were wondering why she cared about social media, was even on it, posting on McKenzie's account in the days following the crash.

So she created this problem. Natalie told the judge that McKenzie had spent three months post-crash, barely able to walk, crying, listening to nothing but Dom's music. He also messed around with production. had some original music or we just listened to songs that he liked until her friends

finally invited her to go out for one night Halloween Natalie told her baby please go okay it's Halloween you've been lying

for three months crying only listen to his music okay please go ahead okay just have a moment of fun okay

she begged Judge Russo not to blame McKenzie for that that it was herself and her husband who pushed her grieving daughter okay out the door to go

partying on Halloween okay it was at this point the judge Russo interrupted telling Natalie Shurilla I'm hearing a great deal about your daughter and not very much about the two dead people. Natalie, not prepared for a rebuke like that, tried to not make it all about McKenzie for about two seconds, okay? Then almost immediately

returned to speaking about her daughter, begging for leniency. She said that Dom was part of the family, okay, and then she stumbled over Davion, calling him a new friend, okay? Judge Russo replied, what does that mean? His life is worthless? To which Natalie answered in a rush of, no, no, no, God, God, no. No, no, they all loved each other, okay? The judge reminded Natalie that that was the problem, that all of them had trusted one another, and now two of them were dead. Natalie said once again, it was a tragic accident.

Her daughter would never do anything like that on purpose, to which Judge Russo said, well, we're going to have to disagree. Before moving on, some of those comments from beneath the video of Natalie taking in court, I'll read some, she said sorry to the family like she bumped into them at the grocery store.

That was the worst courtroom apology display I've ever seen. This isn't an apology. This is an enabler trying to get her. her daughter out of trouble. She apologized to that family as though she checked it off a list. Wow. Unfucking believable. I'm sorry. Okay. Worst apology ever. No wonder the daughter is like that. And those were just the first five comments, the first five top comments listed underneath the video. More top comments for stuff like, now I see why her daughter is the way she is. This girl inherited her mother's ability to cry without tears. I wouldn't have the audacity to say my daughter will

never physically and mentally be the same after addressing the families of those who will never walk this earth again. The way the mom speaks about how Dom's mother responded tells you, the way, yeah, the way the mom speaks about how Dom's mother responded tells you everything you need to know about her. What a shallow, clueless, and self-centered woman. And then this mother has zero insight, zero accountability, zero empathy, it is disgusting. I scroll down so many pages and did not see a single comment supporting the mom or McKenzie. Not one. That's rare for YouTube. Next of a time for Mackenzie Sherilla to speak. She was crying before she began,

and then she addressed the courtroom. She does just like diesel. Even he's here. Sheeese, Lee, like, easel, Dezer, she's a, like, Liza, He's, like, Liza, He's, Aides, D's like, Lezap. Issa, Eezer, Dizze, Jesus, Cheez-Ochee, he did say, excuse. Sorry, that was more of her prison, Carney speak. No, she would speak normally. That was her speaking, but she would speak normally here. To the families of Dom and Davy-on, McKenzie said she was deeply sorry. Okay? No, she didn't say okay much.

She said she would never have let this happen, never have done it on purpose, and that she wish she could remember what had happened. She said she was heartbroken, that she had loved both of them, that they'd all been friends, and that Dominic had been her soulmate. When it was finally her turn to talk. Actually, before sharing that, it is really sinking in like how bad that okay sounds. Like, again, I was just thinking of it constantly as like my mother-in-law's tick as well. But that is a fucking terrible word to throw after addressing a tragedy. I am so, I am so sorry. that I was driving when your sons died, okay?

It does make it sound kind of flippant right there at the end. Like, you're saying something heavy. I don't know why I would do that. I didn't mean to cheat on you, okay? I, you know, oh my God, yeah, okay, I punch you in the face, okay? But like, I'll never do it again, okay? Like, it just makes it sound like, it's not a big deal. Okay.

Judge Russo acknowledged the grief that packed in the room when she said, $3 a race, $3 a chase. Step on up, step on in, pick up a gun, give it a world, give it a twirl. First one to the top automatically wins. Win your sweetie, a honey, a bunny. How about that teddy bear for that love affair? That was just a random carny. That was not Judge.

I've listened to that clip so many times. I love it so much. No, Judge Rousseau said, the defendant controlled all the events. She chose the day, specifically a day just before her 18th birthday. She chose to drive the car and the time to drive it. She chose an obscure, previously scouted route through an industrial parkway. She chose the target to hit and the victims.

She chose the means and the method to follow through. She planned and purposely executed the events of July 31st, 2020. And I'm just catching this now if you're going over this a bunch of times. That thing about right before her birthday, that also makes me think that she might have actually wanted to survive this. And then, you know, as a fail safe, if somehow it came back on her, she'd be charged as a juvenile. It might have been a thing of like, well, if I'm going to do this, I better do it before I turn 18. Anyway, this decision Judge Russo told the court was not whether Chirilla was guilty. That was settled, but whether to run the two life sentences consecutively or concurrently,

she did choose concurrently, which surprised me. She did not believe she said that stacking them was necessary because she thought there was a very good likelihood that Chirilla would still spend the rest of her life in prison. Eh, people get paroled really all the time, but okay. McKenzie's Chirilla was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 15 years to life, and her driver's license was suspended for life. With credit for time already served, her first chance to ask a parole board for release will come October 29, 29th, 2037 when she is 33. So she still be very young. 10 days after the hearing on August 31st, 2023, she was admitted to the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, where she remains today. The crash documentary premiered on Netflix on May 15th of this year, its director, Gareth Johnson, was drawn to the story for personal reasons.

As a teen, he'd been in a car crash that had killed someone and left him badly injured. and he wanted to flip that experience around and understand a tragedy like it from the outside to the lens of the families left behind. He and producer, Angharred Scott, spent months earning the trust of the people closest to McKenzie, Dom, and Davion,

and found the families more willing to talk than expected. Nearly everyone, whatever their stance, felt, quote, their voices haven't been heard so far, or that they still had more to say, said Scott. One of McKenzie's strongest defenders, besides her parents, was her friend Rosie Graham, that influencer who spoke up for both McKenzie, and her relationship with Dom.

McKenzie and Dom's fights, according to Rosie, were the ordinary ups and downs of young love. She'd be with them nearly every day, she said, it was never constant conflict. McKenzie loved her life and loved what she had with Dom.

But then, but I will say, you know, with this, it's like, you know, it's like, yes, you can be with them all the time, but when you're not with them, it can just always be so different in a romantic relationship. There are definitely, you know,

a lot of, you know, situations where somebody, they will wait until no one else is around, which just makes sense, to then let out their anger or fury or whatever. The crash would reignite public interest in the evidence, and after it aired, Strongsville Police released roughly 32,000 text messages, spanning years of the relationship which media outlets around the world seized upon,

messages that left a lot of people, the overwhelming majority of people in my observance, not agreeing with Rosie and jumping on Team McKenzie. For example, on the morning of January 14, 2020, Shirley became more than a little upset after Russo said that he couldn't give her a ride. five minutes after Russo told her he couldn't pick her up she texted him i'm so fucking mad i'm so mad she texted again and added in two separate messages i'm gonna kill someone i'm mad as fuck right now later that same day mackenzie texted dumb in all caps i fucking hate myself i'm ugly and you just

add on to it and make me feel even uglier a lot of misspellings followed by you make me feel like i'm worthless i do so much shit for you when Russo replied that she would uh not have to do anything for me and i'd probably be happy she texted back now i'm at your fucking house break down on your floor. Like, you cause pain to me for no reason. And then you wonder why I'm so stressed. I'm trying so hard to please you, but it's never enough. McKenzie later texted, I just want to bang my head on the wall until I'm dead.

She also threatened Dom a lot over the next two years. On the morning of August 31st, 2021, she got mad at Russo for interrupting her and saying a joke she didn't like. That's my bad, but you did threaten to stab me in the eye, Dom wrote back. To which McKenzie responded, yeah, I don't care. He doubled down and texted the McKenzie had threatened to stab my eye. And then she wrote back, maybe if you just had my back, you wouldn't be threatened. Dom responded. Kenzie, I made a joke and you threatened to stab me.

In March of 22, 2022, Dom texted to McKenzie, you didn't let me out of the car and then hit me and pulled the shit out of my hair and then tried to throw a rock at me and threatened to call the cops on me and key my car. McKenzie wrote back that she only threw the rock his way because he was taking videos of her freaking out. Man, that's some fucking classic abuser shit, right? It's always the victim's fault. She texted, If you didn't take a video or a photo of me freaking out, I would have not thrown the rock or anything. I pulled your hair because you were trying to open my mother's car door

and make it hit a fucking stop sign. On March 11th, 2022, Dom texted McKenzie. If I'm being totally honest, it's your temper. That's the main problem. You can't act on me hot-headed and then expect me not to react like if you controlled your temper. We wouldn't be in any of this.

Sherlock replied, obviously I have anger issues. I've been working on it in my whole life. I need somebody that's going to be there for me and de-escalate my situations when I'm going through a manic episode, and you never do that. You choose to escalate the situation all the time. Consistently, McKenzie never takes responsibility for her behavior. Even when she admits to do something crazy, right? She's not sorry.

She's mad at other people for not doing a good job of calming her down, of not being, you know, there for her when she's lost control. It's fucking wild. Her parents, Natalie and Stephen Shurilla, have never accepted the verdict. Of course not, right? nothing is ever baby girl's fault. Their little princess still perfect. If only the rest of the world accepted that with no evidence like they do. They claim they provided their daughter's original defense attorney with crucial evidence that was never presented in court, including medical records documenting McKenzie's diagnosis of pots.

Shut the fuck up about pots. Oh my God, it's so fucking desperate. And text messages that they're fucking idiots too. They're fucking idiots. I've seen a bunch of videos of her parents. They're fucking dumb as shit, both of them. Text messages, they say contradict the prosecution's narrative and access to automatic. motive experts who could have challenged the state's interpretation of the crash data.

In the crash documentary, Steve and Natalie Shurilla announced they were launching an appeal after discovering what they described as ironclad new evidence. Material they claimed was never presented at trial. They brought a new counsel attorney Eric Nemisek in a renewed effort to challenge their daughter's conviction. Their appeal centered on two key arguments. One, she is fucking pretty and young. Let her go.

No. First, a medical claim. The family hired neurologist, Dr. Kamal Shemali to review McKenzie's post-crash records, he concluded the data was consistent with loss of consciousness at the time of the crash. Supporting the defense's position

that she blacked out rather than acting intentionally, pointing to elevated lactate levels, abnormally low blood oxygen, and complete amnesia following the incident, which Dr. Shemali says are markers of a seizure or similar oh my gosh, similar autotomic event. I always want to say automatic when I see that word.

The second pillar was the text messages, and the Shurillas argued they told a completely different story about who the aggressor really was. They pointed particular to text messages from July 17, 2022. After Dom called his mother, Christine, McKenzie texted her, asking her to come pick him up. But in those messages, she claimed Dom grabbed the steering wheel and tried to spin out the car. McKenzie, can you come get Dom? He just grabbed my steering wheel on the highway trying to spin out my car and hurt me. Christine, Hentges on his way.

Calm down for now, please. McKenzie, TBH, I can't calm down when he just tried to end my life. To the Shirillas, this exchange supported their claim that McKenzie was not the aggressor. Attorney Eric Nemasek said of those text messages, there were text messages and communications about the argument that took place demonstrating that it wasn't necessarily as testified to, and that she may not have been responsible and, in fact, was not responsible for starting the argument or threatening to crash the car. Critics, however, I have interpreted these messages as just McKenzie lying and shifting blame and responsibility. Additional messages from that same day show McKenzie continued to accuse Dominic of trying to harm her.

The fact that my boyfriend of four years just tried to end my life by steering me off the highway. That's how I know you're not in love and you never were. Somebody who loves me would never do this to me. Dom texted back that he really didn't do that. The only reason it went this far

is because you tried to end my life. McKenzie texted again and Dom responded, Kenzie, I didn't. So it's a he said, she said, and I will just add that I've come across sources claiming that numerous people have witnessed McKenzie putting her hands on Dom, verbally abusing Dom.

I mean, we heard her do that. could not find any sources with witnesses claiming that they saw Dom put his hands on McKenzie or ever verbally abuse her like that. The documentary didn't just end up retrying McKenzie in the court of public opinion. Put her parents on trial too. Their on-camera defensiveness shrugging off teenage daughters we'd use claiming McKenzie is just a good kid, not to mention their decision to let her move in with an older boyfriend before she turned 18, lit up the internet. Most or many took to Reddit forums and YouTube comments to debate.

Was McKenzie a bad seed or the product of bad? parenting. Seems most people come to the conclusion that it's a product of bad parenting. Within days of fallout reached Stevens Day job, the Cleveland Catholic school where he taught art placed him on administrative leave over allegations of poor judgment. They no longer felt, apparently, that he was the kind of person who should be supervising middle schoolers in any capacity. Not sure if the doc led them to taking a closer look at him and maybe finding direct evidence of that at their school or not. In May of 2026, Dom's sister, Christine Russo publicly criticized the Chirillis for what she saw as a lack of remorse, accusing them of

prioritizing defense over accountability. There was a fine line between defending your kids, Christine said, and they created a monster, their monsters themselves. Well, well put. And of McKenzie, Christine said she always, she's always appealing her conviction. She can't take accountability or responsibility. Among the information released after the documentary were hours of jailhouse calls between McKenzie and Natalie, during which they kept again slipping into that fucking.

can Carney speak, breaking words into syllables, placing Iza or ease right before the first vowel of each syllable, rendering the whole thing, fairly unintelligible, something gibberish to people who don't know how to speak Carney, especially when you're speaking it quickly. A detective had recorded McKenzie and Natalie speaking Carney in the hospital, too. Prosecutors decoded those calls or presented them at trial, and what they heard was McKenzie from her hospital bed asking her mother, can we tell the police I had a seizure? To prosecutors, this is not a scared teenager grasping for answers. It is brainstorming. her story. Then some women who had been jailed alongside McKenzie spoke out to the media,

revealing what she was like behind bars from their perspective. Mary Catherine Kat Crowder, who spent six months at the Ohio Reformatory for Women with McKenzie, spoke out to the media saying she never once saw McKenzie show any remorse whatsoever. By her account, McKenzie moved through prison as though she was still in high school, with a full face of makeup every day, bright accessories, clothes pulled tight around her body, trying to look sexy. Shirilla to her seemed very healthy and active, always walking with no signs of depression, never got her blood pressure checked for any debilitating pot. It was never like, you know, feeling faint and passing out. She said most days even during heat waves, she would see McKenzie out, line tanning with baby oil in the sun,

reveal as much skin as she was allowed to or, you know, maybe more trying not to get caught. She passed time making jewelry, customizing shoes for fellow inmates. Cat stopped short of outright calling her a mean girl, but said it was obvious McKenzie wanted to carry herself like Regina George. from Mean Girls. She added that McKenzie still seems stuck in a high school mindset, not somebody grappling with reality of having killed two people, and also had what looked like hickies on her neck from multiple prison girlfriends. Also prison records obtained by Us Weekly show that Shirilla has faced multiple disciplinary actions behind bars, including a not safe for work video call made in September of 2025,

during which Shurilla allegedly showed her breasts to a visitor who in turn flash, quote, a dildo sticking out of her pants twice. I mean, because she has a lot of free time, you know, she's horny. She was restricted from video for that for 60 days, video visits. She was also written up for possession of altered clothing and for nude magazine pictures. In October of 2024, prison officials restricted her commissary access for 30 days as punishment for those offenses. Another infraction in December of 2024 saw Shirilla put on a 30-day recreation restriction after she was caught dancing outside the gym instead of exercising.

January of 2025, prison guards wrote up Shurrilla for how. having a packet of unknown medication and a personal photo of herself containing drug use. She was cited for misuse of authorized medication and possession of any other contraband article knowingly possessed, which has been altered or which permission has not been given for the photo, restricted to herself for 30 days. In April of 2025, Shrilla had access to electronics restricted for a month after being caught having more than 100 video visits with somebody she was not supposed to be visiting. This unapproved visitor was an ex-inmate that was released. Also that April, Shurilla was charged with sexual harassment,

for intentionally coming to another unit inappropriately dressed and potentially exposing herself to staff. The infraction board ultimately ruled that there was insufficient evidence of intent to penalize her. August of 2025, she faced seven days of restrictions after being found guilty for being caught, making sexual contact with another prisoner. All in all records from the Ohio Department of Rebilitation and Corrections detailed that McKenzie Chirilla has accumulated 36 disciplinary conduct reports with 32 guilty findings since entering the Ohio Reformatory for Women in August of

2023. Sure seems like she doesn't take rules much more seriously now than she did while she was in high school. Seems just as entitled. McKenzie and her family have also never accepted the verdict, never have stopped trying to overturn it. Their first attempt was a direct appeal of the conviction itself in

September of 2024, the 8th District Court of Appeals upheld Shrilla's conviction, rejecting her claim that the evidence was insufficient to prove intent and finding that her trial had been fairly conducted. this appeal, you know, yeah, just denied. The second attempt based on the argument that McKenzie's original trial lawyer had failed her and that he never brought in a medical expert to support a defense.

Now, they had one, that neurologist I mentioned, Dr. Kamal Shemali, who reviewed her records and concluded she may have blacked out behind the wheel. That appeal rejected due to a missed filing deadline. Under Ohio law, convicted defendants generally have 365 days after their trial transcripts are filed, excuse me, to challenge their conviction. because 2024 was a leap year, the deadline fell on October 23rd. Her new lawyers filed on October 24th. That's fucking ridiculous.

That's a big fuck-up. Judge Nancy Russo, the same judge who convicted her, originally dismissed it for being late. Then in March of 2026, an appeals court agreed with the dismissal. Then, with her lower court appeal options exhausted, McKenzie took her case to the Ohio Supreme Court. And in late June of 2026, just a few weeks ago, they declined to even hear her appeal. So it wasn't like leap year was the reason that she'll stay in prison after all. In an order signed by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy on June 23rd, the Ohio Supreme Court stated that it declines to accept jurisdiction of the appeal.

Denied again, that is likely the end of the road for her appeals. And so McKenzie Shurillo continues to be incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, serving two 15 years-to-life sentences that run at the same time. In recorded phone calls with her mom from jail, she has continued to insist she does not need to be, rehabilitated. There's nothing wrong with her. She is the third victim of the crash. While McKenzie fights to get out, her victims are fighting to make sure she never profits from what she did. Dominic's older sister, Christine, has launched a petition for Dom and Davion's law,

urging Ohio lawmakers to update the state's son-of-sam laws for the digital age amid concerns about McKenzie potentially profiting from social media. Based on her follower account, I don't think they have anything to worry about, but I like that they're trying to ensure that legally. Just a few days before I recorded this, a post was made on McKinsey. McKenzie's Instagram account, which currently has 57,400 followers. The post was made by her team. I'm guessing her team is her mom or her. The post said, McKenzie is trying to do better every day and holding on to hope. Her post-conviction relief was denied due to a deadline technicality.

The decision has nothing to do with the contents of it. It was unable to even be reviewed. Her appellate lawyer missed a deadline by filing it one day late due to a leap year, which also makes him ineffective assistance of counsel. Mackenzie and her family, along with everyone's help, will respectfully continue to do everything they can so that the merits of the brief can be heard, just as anyone else would do in their position.

Keep sharing everything you can, and please sign and share this petition for a fair retrial. We all deserve fair representation, and once you review her case, you'll agree she did not get that. Please, click sign and share the petition in her bio. Thank you to everyone who is and has become her voice, McKenzie Shurilla's support team. Hashtag, free McKenzie, hashtag, Mackenzie Shirella,

hashtag wrongfully convicted hashtag the crash but then get this her bio doesn't have a fucking link in it not to anything these people are fucking idiots they also post this after the supreme court rejected another appeal not on a technicality i don't know what the fuck's going on these people i cannot find any sort of petition for her by the way anywhere online uh that same day as reported by local cleveland news stations mackenzie shirilla asked ohio supreme court the ohio supreme court to reconsider its rejection of her appeal. Shrilis counsel filed a motion asking the Supreme Court

to reconsider its decision not to hear her appeal. They hadn't provided a specific reasoning for this rejection. As of this recording, the Supreme Court has not commented on whether or not they would essentially change their mind

on the recent ruling. I'm going to say they're probably not going to do that, okay? Right? Responsibility has to be taken, okay? Presidents have to be considered, okay?

This wasn't some misdemeanor, okay? And McKenzie needs to stop puts them around with dildos and nudie picks and stop getting infractions before she ends up staying a lot longer than 15 years, okay?

Okay? Now let's hop out of this timeline, okay? Good job, soldier. You've made it back. Barely. Okay, real quick before my final thoughts, we have another sponsor. Today's episode was actually brought to you

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That's how that thing should. just showed up. Now you're probably more confused if you didn't know why I was talking about necrophilia recently. The unusual double murder case of Dominic Russo and Davian Flanagan. McKenzie Shirilla, a 17-year-old

recent high school grad who loves smoking pot, getting likes on Instagram and TikTok for wearing swimsuits and modeling, other outfits, doesn't resemble most of the other killers that we have talked about previously here. Do I think she's some predator? Like a lot of these guys? Excuse me. Most of the guys that we've covered?

No, no, she's very different. Right? She didn't kill, obviously, because of some sadistic sexual compulsion. She wasn't trying to satiate the appetite of some dark passenger. She didn't have some long history of cruelty towards animals of being sexually abused or of sexually abusing others didn't slowly graduate from horrific fantasies to peeping on unsuspected objects of her desire to rape, to murder, to torture and murder. She wasn't an opportunistic killer like we've seen here before either. She was not offing anybody for their life insurance money or killing a partner to avoid dealing with the costly separation.

or divorce. She wasn't some angel of death type, thinking she was doing the right thing by quietly snuffing people out in their hospital or nursing home bed. In my opinion, she's in a way scary than a lot of those people because she could present

so much more normally than, you know, even most of those compartmentalizing pieces of shit. Right? Take away how ugly her personality is and she's a fit, normal looking, attractive young woman. She looks like someone more or less who could blend into my daughter's friend group,

somebody my son could date. She has pretty normal interest She could be popular She likes a lot of things The people her age like She could probably hang Especially in a bar or party setting Or at a game

Or at a barbecue or at the beach With most other people her own age You know people just anywhere in their 20s And she's not gonna stand out I could have seen some friend of mine When I was her age dating her I could have dated somebody like her When I was that old, right

I dated some mean girls She looks and acts on the surface Like hundreds of thousands Of other young women I imagine from all over the country, you know, she could be your daughter, your daughter's friend, your son's girlfriend, you know, just for a lot of people. She's not anyone who's going to present as scary. Self-absorbed, yes. Shallow? Probably, yeah. But all of that is kind of normal for that age. When your brain, again,

is more predisposed to want you to think that you're the most important person, uh, when you're still forming your own identity, when your biology is pushing you to go out and get a mate, right? You got that main character energy. Go out and make your mark on the world. Go, go, go, go conquer, it's all about you. But under the surface, she is somebody who might not just tell you that they hope you get hit by a bus, if you've wronged them, or

secretly wish that and just kind of some angry passing moment. No, she's someone who might truly, genuinely want you to get hit by a bus rather than embarrass or hurt them by, say, dumping them and leaving them. And if she's driving that bus, and if she thinks she can get away with running your ass over, she's the kind of person who will fucking run you

over and then not feel fucking bad about it. She'll rationalize it. I mean, she might cry because she misses you in moments later, you know, what you could have been for her. You know, she's not crying for you. She's going to make it all about her. And how did she become that person? Well, she didn't become a monster by being abused, neglected, and or abandoned like so many of the other monsters we've talked about here.

She was turned into a monster through constant enabling, in my opinion, by having parents who, instead of neglecting her, indulged her, overly indulged her, parents who didn't want to enforce any rules or discipline, who constantly sided with her whenever she got into trouble, from what I understand. You know, teacher yells at her. Well, what a fucking asshole that teacher is. You know, she didn't do anything wrong, so the teacher must be flying off the handle. Oh, she stole something?

Well, come on, she's a kid. Who doesn't steal something when they're a kid? Right? She feels bad. That's enough. There's no need to punish her. She's punishing herself. Oh, she hit Dominic?

Well, he must have done something to provoke that. She's just spirited. Kids need boundaries. They need parents who are more interested in being parents than they are and being their kids' friends. Had she had those kind of parents, I think Dominic and Davion are still alive today. Not that she doesn't Not that it's like all the parents I mean at some point

You gotta take responsibility For your own actions So she's also a fucking shitty person But had she had better parents You know then she's She's probably not in prison Okay Not getting in trouble over and over

We're still not taking rule seriously Okay We're still trying to do whatever the fuck she wants to do Okay Whenever she wants to do it okay She's not an entitled little monster Okay Finally being forced to swallow

A real hard consequence pill Okay Okay okay Okay Time for the takeaways Okay Time for the takeaways okay Time suck

Top five takeaways Number one McKenzie Shurilla was a 17-year-old who had just graduated from Strongsville High just outside of Cleveland She'd been with her boyfriend

Dominic Dom Rousseau for about four years since she was barely a teenager From the outside Things seemed to be going pretty well Dom had big plans for the future He's making good money She had recently moved in with him

The Rousseau and Shurilla families were incredibly close and tight-knit and as far as they knew, Dom and McKenzie were deeply in love and probably on the path to marriage. But behind the scenes, there were constant, sometimes abusive fights, many breakups, threats. Dom may have almost had enough. Maybe he was about ready to move on. But his wildly insecure and possessive girlfriend was not going to stand for that. Number two, on July 31st, 2022, at around 5.30 in the morning, McKenzie drove her toy to Camry

down an industrial cut-through road in Strongsville and straight into the brick wall of a manufacturing plant at roughly 100 miles an hour. killing Dom, their friend Davion, barely surviving herself, thanks to being the only one of the three wearing a seatbelt. For a hot minute, looked like nothing more than a tragic accident. After night out partying, a group of teens must have taken a wrong turn, ended up along a dark, dead-in road. Early in the morning, driver was probably high. But then investigators pulled the car's black box,

and the accident theory quickly fell apart. The accelerator had been pushed to the floor for nearly five straight seconds. The brakes were never once touched, and GPS coordinates from McKenzie's own phone put her on that exact obscure dead-end road three days prior, a route she normally never drove. They look like murder, premeditated murder. Number three, with all the talk about McKenzie, it's easy to lose track of the lives of the two people, the center of this, right? The people who died.

Dominic Russo, you know, 20 years old, close with his big family, an entrepreneurial kid with a big heart, big plans for the future. Davion Flanagan, also Big Heart, had been adopted by a local couple along with his two sisters when he was a child. he's now a 19 year old young man, former Strongsville running back, part-time youth swim coach, young guy just accepted to Barber College with a start date that fall, about ready to move on

to the next phase of his life. Davion was a new friend to Donald McKenzie, hadn't known them for long, he had nothing to do with whatever was rotting inside of that relationship. He was someone just along

for the ride that night, tragic collateral damage, if only he would have taken a ride with another friend who had offered to give him that ride that same night. Number four, McKenzie waved her right

to a jury, put her fate in the hands of a single judge called a bench trial. A strategy defense lawyer is often used when they fear a jury won't like the defendant. Because of the extreme notoriety of McKenzie's case, a judge would hopefully be better equipped than a jury to focus strictly on the technical evidence and legal arguments rather than a motion. The state's case for intent did not rest on the crash alone. A family friend testified that two weeks before, during a roadside blowup, he heard McKenzie say, I'm going to wreck this car right now. Videos pulled off a phone in Dom's house, played over the defense's

objection showed McKenzie repeatedly threatening him and threatening to break into his home. A detective testified he compiled over 100 social media clips of her driving recklessly. The defense's counter was that McKenzie has a real condition. Potts. Always the pots. They can cause a blackout. But notably, they never put a single medical expert on to back that up. Judge Nancy Margaret Russo wasn't buying any of it.

She found McKinsey guilty on all 12 counts and delivered a verdict that became the case's signature. This was not reckless driving. This was murder. She called McKenzie literal hell on wheels and said she had a mission and she executed it with precision. The mission was death. And number five, new info. Four weeks following the release, the McKenzie's jailhouse calls with her mother, the internet treated McKenzie and Natalie's coded language like a hidden confession waiting to be revealed. Like she was possibly saying what had happened in those final moments before the faithful crashed.

Then in a June 2026 episode of the podcast, serial, serial, usly, it's like seriously, but the word serial in it. serulously. With Annie Elise, a fluent carney speaker finally translated the most discussed calls. Turns out most of it was not a code of confession at all, just mundane complaints about prison life and gossip about fellow inmates. No final moments revealed. Okay? Okay? Okay? Damn. Time suck. Top five takeaways. Murder at 100 miles per hour, the McKenzie Shurilla case has been sucked, okay? I'm not going to keep doing that. So annoying. Thank you to the bad magic productions team.

I love my mother-in-law, but it is, we all have annoying things. Thank you to the bad magic productions team for help making time suck. Thanks to Queen of Bad Magic, Lindsay Cummins. Thanks to Logan Keith, helping to publish this episode and designing merch for the store at bad magic productions.com. Thank you to Laura Wood for her initial research. It is so hard for me to not start saying okay all the time now. Also, thanks to the all-seen eyes moderating the cult of the curious private Facebook page, the mod squad, making sure Discord keeps running smooth, and everybody over in the time suck and bad magic subredits.

And now, still try not to say it, let's head on over to this week's Time Sucker updates. Get your Time Sucker updates. I wanted to share some silliness this week because so much of it came in. The first email sent in to Bojangles at Timesug Podcast.com

comes from thoughtful future corpse, Becca Lemons, who would like to give her meat sack back to Earth someday, not soon. She wrote the following message with the subject line of Corpse Disposal Options. Revereered curious cult leader, I'm writing to express my interest in your corpse catapult idea.

Should you wish to develop said technology as a valid funerary option, I would be happy to invest. Seriously, though, I've long been a proponent of natural burial options. The idea of a body being stuck in a concrete vault was just so ridiculous to me. The law of conservation of energy says that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. Everything we have in our bodies is energy that can be used for something else. We should be allowed and encouraged to give that energy back to our ecosystem.

In a modern burial, all of that energy is just stuck in a box and completely wasted. Even cremation is a huge waste as our caloric energy is converted into heat, which is ultimately detrimental to the ecosystem. Let me rot in the woods where I can feed nature and give back to the earth I came from. If someone finds me out there and wants to have sex with my corpse, I guess that's okay. I'm not using it anymore. On another note, I don't know if you came across the book Stiff by Mary Roach in your research, but it is a great examination of what happens to cadavers that are donated to science. great information with a dark sense of humor

bodies do get launched thank you for all you do your loyal spazer, Becca Lemons oh man Becca I've not read that book but I love the title and it sounds awesome yeah we are a strange species why do we need to leave our rotting bodies or bones around for loved ones? I mean it's not like

many are going to want to dig them back up take them home like Carl Tanzer did at least I hope not what if there was like a nature preserve slash landfill type option for our corpses like a death park a corpse park I mean most pathogens

generally die pretty fast when the body dies so there's not much risk for disease you know with that it's not a big public health risk we could normalize death

a little more that way see dead bodies in various states decomposition right hello field trips probably shocking

it first but maybe over time it would be cathartic somehow I don't know imagine eating a bunch of shrooms and then go into the death park

what fucking ride that would be there could even be like some you know walls full of plaques to commemorate commemorate who's been disposed of there so you could still go to the bog or the meadow or whatever you know where grandpa was left to turn back into the soil and remember him if any creeps need to come in

after hours and fuck a corpse or two so they don't feel like they have to kill somebody to fuck him well added benefit they should just have to agree that they must raise any zombie babies they create i think this should be on the table good brainstorm becca uh next up more corpse talk from an anonymous and funny sack who sent it another great idea this is so good actually with a subject line of my deepest fear and my death plans. Hello, Mr. Suckmaster. I've been listening to TimeSuck since I moved away from my hometown a couple years ago. Your podcast has covered a lot of things I've always been interested in,

and it's helped me adjust to my new surroundings. Yay. With your recent episode on Carl Tansler, I knew now was the time I needed to say something. Carl Tanzler was my boogeyman growing up. I wasn't afraid of the dark or bugs or anything normal as a child, but I was terrified of this man. I was a kindergarten when I saw my parents watching a documentary on him, and I'll be turning 35 next month. I am still scared of him to this very day.

I also wanted to ride in because, ironically, I studied death sciences and greatly appreciated your coverage on it in this episode. I had to sadly give up my pursuit of pathology as I developed a neurodegenerative disease and could no longer keep my body steady enough to work. Unfortunately, I will eventually pass away from this, but I have learned to deal with it and enjoy the time I have left, which I greatly do. I only bring this up because I need to tell you about my death plan and the longest standing argument between my husband and I the longest standing argument I want to be a Muppet When I die I want to be donated to a body farm

In Vincennes, Indiana is that as my home state I still want a funeral but instead of my body I want a Muppet version of myself in an open casket I think this is hilarious My friends think this is hilarious My husband does not He also doesn't want me to go to a body farm As he is scared I'll be sold illegally or something

I will be dead so obviously I don't care but if this happens, but this man is my soulmate and he's very scared that I will pass away earlier than him. As a compromise, we've decided I will be cremated but I want my earn stored in the Muppet. He refuses my Muppet based dream still.

I don't know why this man will not let me be a potential haunted Muppet. He is crushing my plans for the afterlife and honestly I don't know what the big deal is. All joking aside, we've been together for 10 years. I'm not actually upset at him but the Muppet will be involved in my death plan somehow. Thank you for all you do. Praise be to Bojangos and the rest.

You're a great comfort to me and have been for the past four years. You're appreciated to keep up the amazing work. A future haunted felt puppet. He slash him. Well, anonymous, he, him. I fucking love your Muppet idea. I do understand how it could upset your husband, but also, so fucking funny. Your funeral will be so, it'd be full of so many people crying and weeping, but then occasionally just bursting out laughing. At the complete utter absurdity of a Muppet version of you in the casket. A Muppet with your ashes inside, no less. I like this. Let's brainstorm again. What if you combined your Muppet idea with my animatronic exoskeleton idea and catapult idea? And at some point in the funeral, your Muppet does a dance number. And then to close out your

funeral, the Muppet gets launched via that catapult towards some target. That's a fucking show. That's showbiz. That's how I do it in Indiana. And good on you for choosing to live life to the fullest despite adversity. Hail Nymrod to that. Very impressive. And last up, just a bit more death talk. practical sack Spencer Box Once his corpse fucked Or at least he's not opposed to it Wants is a strong word He wrote up with the subject line of future consenting dead body

Hey Danny boy long time listener Albert Fish be my favorite sucks subject Showbies That's how I do it in Hollywood So much necrophilia talk in the last two weeks I began to ponder my own death I've always thought of donating my body to science Because I'm dead and I don't care what happens to my corpse

However what if I could donate my body to a necrophile so that someone with a serious mental illness might have a safe outlet instead of becoming the world's next serial killer. Sorry for my fucked up brain thoughts, always been a bit of an outside thinker. Just wanted to give a huge shout out to my best friend, Zachary Bolin.

I've seen you in Columbia, Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, and most recently took him to Nashville to see you for your final show. Without him, I would have killed myself a long time ago, and I had never gotten so enthralled with a suck in your stand-up.

Nine out of 11 stars. Nice. Wouldn't change a thing. I forgot to do the math, exactly, I'm 90% sure that is even higher than three out of five, right? Or even more than four out of six. Thanks for all the laughs and giving me something to talk about with my long distance best friend, Spencer Box. Spencer Box, Spencer Box.

It kind of sounds like a porn star's name, right? Have you ever gotten that Spencer? Maybe just me. Wow, so glad you have such an amazing friend in Zachary Boland. Thanks, Zachary. Don't put too much pressure on him. Live regardless. But for real, love your powerful friendship.

That is beautiful. I get what you're hinting at Yeah I've thought about it And I'll do it Okay I'll do it I'll fuck your corpse

I'll try my best to finish But no promises I'll make a zombie baby With your fucking dead body Okay You don't have to be You didn't have to be so coy about it But for real

Thanks for enjoying all this silliness I too don't really care If somebody fucks my corpse You know Outside of a small list of people I don't want to give that satisfaction to But in general I give my consent

You know once I'm dead I guess you know you can fuck my corpse I guess I could donate it to a necophile. Just make sure I'm dead first. That donated to a necophile made me think like, yeah, but eventually they're probably going to get tired. They're going to fresher corpse. I just picture the same kind of weird dude,

just go into the funeral home, just like every month, be like, do you got anything? Is there anything fresh for me? Okay. That was probably unnecessary. Hell Nimrod weirdos. Let's get out of here.

Next time, suckers, I needed that. We all did. Well, thank you for listening to another bad magic production. podcast. Be sure and rate and review time suck if you haven't already. Don't do anything really, really stupid to the people you claim to love this week. You know, like try and kill them because they might leave you or kill them and yourself. Okay? Okay. Like Sting once said, if you love somebody, set them free and keep on sucking.

Okay? Can we hear a bit more carnies speak before we go? Not that carnispeak gibberish coded language, but actual carnival workers. On the job speaking. Real carney interactions. We can. We shall. One of the big things is we're together seven days a week, 24 hours a day, most of the people.

So it's like a family. Get this stuff put away and out of sight and make it look like a present. Well, Joy, I'm going to put this size 10 and a half foot up your little fucking ass. This show has never been really the greatest show on earth. Put it in, put your arm's hand, and then tighten the turn buckle as tight as you can get it. Common sense. Okay. I just slid that out of the top.

They keep popping out of there and he's got that turned all the way down. Do what I said and I guarantee you to work. I'm telling you, nobody's listening to me. Put that fucking bar in that turnbuckle. Put that turnbuckle in that hole and pin that fucking hole and then tighten that turnbuckle up. Jesus Christ, it's stupid. I've got a list of rules I go over when I hire a guy.

What's the interview process like? Hi, how you doing? You know how to push a button you're hired. Okay. You're hired. Okay. The tilted whirl, no one's going to die probably. Okay.