Mackenzie Shirilla, the subject of Netflix’s true crime documentary The Crash, described the residents of her hometown, Strongsville, Ohio, as “sad and depressing” in a prison phone call with her mom.
TMZ published audio of a call between Mackenzie, 21, and her mother, Natalie Shirilla, on Tuesday, June 2, in which Natalie complained to her daughter about rumors being spread about the convicted murderer in the Cleveland suburb.
Mackenzie is currently serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life over the July 2022 deaths of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and friend, Davion Flanagan, after prosecutors said she intentionally crashed a car into a brick wall in an act of premeditated murder.
“Somebody was online saying how there was no parental supervision with you and stuff,” Natalie told her daughter on the call. “This was the party house, and I just let people have all kinds of parties here and everything. And finally, the neighbor across the street, she was like, ‘You guys, you don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s a wonderful family. They’re very nice. I live right across the street. There were never parties over there. I don’t know what you guys are talking about. Don’t believe everything you hear.’”
“Everyone’s making s*** up. Then they were saying that you just got done breaking into a church and you spray-painted and broke everything … like, what?” Natalie continued. “The rumor mill is strong.”
“Damn, Strongsville people are so sad and depressing. Like, they really have nothing credible,” Mackenzie responded.
Dominic Russo and Mackenzie Shirilla Netflix
Natalie added, “This is the saddest f***ing town ever.”
Mackenzie is serving her concurrent sentences at the Ohio Reformatory for Women following her August 2023 conviction. She has maintained her innocence, though previous requests for an appeal have been denied. She will be eligible for parole in October 2037.
On Monday, June 1, TMZ published details of another phone call between mother and daughter in which Mackenzie expressed her boredom behind bars.
“How am I going to make this one book stretch?” Mackenzie said at one point, telling her mom that she did not want to read “the same book over and over again.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Mackenzie complained about time passing slowly. “Like it’s only 3:30, how is it only 3:30?” she said. “For real, I did not even know it was 3:30 I thought it was like 5. It’s 3:30.”
Mackenzie said she was “so irritated” and wanted access to another book or cards to occupy herself with.
Mackenzie Shirilla racked up numerous prison violations after being convicted in the “Hell on Wheels” fatal car crash that left her boyfriend and a close friend dead. Shirilla is the subject of Netflix’s 2026 documentary The Crash, in which she breaks her silence about the July 2022 car crash that killed her boyfriend Dominic Russo […]
“Like literally there is nothing for me to do in my room, nothing,” she told her mom.
Mackenzie’s conviction and incarceration recently gained worldwide attention following the May 15 release of Netflix’s hit true crime documentary The Crash. Mackenzie appears in the film, giving an interview from prison.
