Mackenzie Shirilla sent a message to her boyfriend’s mother that appeared to show that she could not remember the deadly 100‑mph crash that killed Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan. The text, included in a 2024 Ohio Court of Appeals opinion, says she “fades to black” after turning onto a street and that she is considering hypnosis to recover her memory.
Shirilla, who is now 21, is serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life. She was convicted of murder, aggravated vehicular homicide, and other charges related to the July 2022 crash in Ohio. A judge convicted her in a bench trial in August 2023, and she was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 15 years, in 2037.
Prosecutors had argued that the crash was not an accident but a deliberate act, citing car data and a toxic relationship between Shirilla and Russo. Shirilla and her parents claim a medical condition called POTS caused her to black out. She has kept to the story that she does not remember the crash and has said trauma is the reason for her memory loss.
What Shirilla wrote in the text
In the Ohio Court of Appeals opinion obtained by PEOPLE, Shirilla wrote in a 2024 text to Christine Russo, Dominic’s mother, “I remember turning onto 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 gonna try to get myself hypnotized and make myself remember.”
{{/usCountry}}In the Ohio Court of Appeals opinion obtained by PEOPLE, Shirilla wrote in a 2024 text to Christine Russo, Dominic’s mother, “I remember turning onto 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 gonna try to get myself hypnotized and make myself remember.”
{{/usCountry}}The opinion states that the message was sent after the crash, when Shirilla was 17. In it, she repeatedly tells those close to her that she has no recollection of what happened before the impact.
Fan reaction to the message
Fans of the Netflix documentary The Crash have reacted to the text since it surfaced in PEOPLE coverage. On Reddit’s r/TrueCrimeDiscussion, one user wrote, “If she really blacked out, why did she text her boyfriend’s mom saying she’s going to get hypnotized to remember?” Another user on X posted, “The text is chilling no matter which side you’re on. It’s either trauma or a very calculated performance.”
Currently, the message remains in focus in the public narrative, showing how Shirilla described her memory loss to the mother of one of the people she is now convicted of killing.
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