In the early hours of July 31, 2022, Mackenzie Shirilla, along with her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan, departed from what witnesses in the courtroom described as an ordinary sleepover.
A mere six minutes after leaving, the vehicle Shirilla was piloting crashed into a brick wall at a staggering speed of 100 mph, resulting in the deaths of Russo and Flanagan.
Although Shirilla survived the crash, it didn’t take long for suspicions to arise regarding the nature of the incident. Was it a heartbreaking accident as she insisted, or a premeditated act of murder by the 17-year-old?
Shirilla was eventually found guilty on multiple charges, including four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide. Prosecutors from Cuyahoga County contended that she had slammed the accelerator to its maximum and failed to apply the brakes, as detailed in their official statement.
What exactly led to the tragic crash that claimed the lives of Russo and Flanagan?
Here’s a detailed account of the gatherings they attended that night and the atmosphere during their final moments together:
Mackenzie Shirilla, Dominic Russo Attended “Laid Back” Graduation Party Before Fatal Crash
After graduating from high school, Shirilla spent the summer of 2022 hanging out with Russo and her tight-knit group of friends, often documenting their adventures on social media.
The group’s final night together was July 30, 2022.
That night, Shirilla, Russo and Flanagan all went to a graduation party hosted by their friend Kellie Vraja, arriving around 10:15 p.m. with a bottle of tequila and a weed pen, according to court records.
Vraja testified that the party was “laid back” as attendees gathered around a fire and played games.
According to Vraja’s testimony, Shirilla asked her “if I trip,” but Vraja told her that she didn’t.
Shirilla, Russo and Flanagan “were debating on going to somebody’s house or they were debating on tripping that night” and left after 25 or 30 minutes, per the court records. Vraja testified she did not see any of the three using drugs or drinking alcohol during their brief time at the party.
Mackenzie Shirilla Was at Sleepover With Friends Before Fatal Crash
After leaving the graduation party, the three headed to the home of Shirilla’s friend Paul Burlinghaus. according to the court records.
Burlinghaus testified that they arrived around 11 p.m. to “hang out” and listen to music in what he described as “just a normal sleepover.”
“First of all, it wasn’t a party at all, because in my opinion and in everybody that was there, we call that a sleepover, and that was just a friend sleepover that we would normally do,” Shirilla’s friend Rosie Graham explained in the Netflix documentary The Crash. “I brought a coloring book and colored pencils. We were watching YouTube videos.”
While Burlinghaus described the tone of the night on the stand as “quite chill,” per the court records, Graham recalled in the doc having deep conversations “and just sitting around.”
Graham said the group had considered doing psilocybin mushrooms—which were later found in Shirilla’s car after the crash—but they decided it was “too late.”
While nobody drank at the party, some smoked marijuana. However, Burlinghaus didn’t believe that Shirilla participated in the activity.
Friend Bubba Turner claimed in the documentary that she had been “on a smoke break,” because she had been coughing up black mucus.
Graham recalled Russo stroking Shirilla’s hair as she fell asleep on the couch around 3 a.m.
“There was not one argument,” she said in The Crash. “There was not one moment of tension there was not one bad vibe towards anybody.”
Mackenzie Shirilla Crashes Car While Reaching Speeds of 100 MPH
Burlinghaus also testifed that he never saw the Shirilla and Russo fight that night and believed that “[e]verything seemed fine” between the couple of four years.
The next morning, Shirilla and Russo woke up and decided to leave around 5 a.m. Flanagan had been planning to get a ride from Turner, but changed his mind at the last minute and decided to go with Shirilla and Russo.
“For some reason that morning he gave me a hug and was like ‘I love you’ and I was like ‘I love you too, bro,’” Turner recalled. “Very weird. It was the first time that we said we love each other for a while.”
Life360 data, which tracked Flanagan’s final moments, showed the 19-year-old left the Strongsville home at 5:30 a.m., according to the court records. Just six minutes later, the trio crashed into the brick wall.
Video obtained by Court TV showed Shirilla’s black car racing down a Cuyahoga County street, reaching speeds of 100 miles per hour, before it slammed into the wall of a commercial building at the end of the street.
Was Mackenzie Shirilla on Drugs At the Time of the Crash?
Toxicology reports showed only THC, the active chemical in marijuana, in Shirilla’s system at the time of the crash, according to the documentary.
As assistant prosecutor Tim Troup explained, “This was not some sort of party gone wrong.”
Troup added there was no evidence to suggest that Shirilla pressed the brakes that morning, leading him to conclude that she had intentionally caused the crash.
“I think Dominic and Davion were yanking on the wheel, grabbing at the gear shift, and it was just too late,” Troup said in The Crash of their final moments. “One hundred percent gas pedal, no attempt at using the brake. The evidence all combines together to show this was not an accident.”
Prosecutors also pointed to the couple’s volatile relationship and a statement Shirilla allegedly made to Russo weeks earlier that she would “wreck this car right now” during a fight as possible motivation for the crash.
Where is Mackenzie Shirilla Now?
Shirilla claims that she has no memory of what happened that morning, but has insisted she would never have intentionally harmed Russo or Flanagan.
She added in an interview from prison that “the most logical” explanation for what happened that day was a “medical emergency.”
“I have no recollection of that morning. I’m not saying I’m innocent,” she said in the doc. “I was a driver of a tragedy, but I’m not a murderer.”
She was convicted in 2023 and is currently serving out a sentence of 15 years to life at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, according to jail records reviewed by .
