A teenager floored a Toyota Camry into a brick wall at 100 mph and survived. Her boyfriend and his friend, in the seats next to her, didn’t.
The data recorder showed full throttle, no braking, no swerving. A court called it murder.
Netflix’s “The Crash” is her first time talking on camera, and it’s #2 in the U.S.
Netflix released “The Crash” on May 15, 2026, and within days it was the #2 title in the U.S. and #4 worldwide, per FlixPatrol. Directed by Gareth Johnson, the documentary outpaced Trap and Gladiator II globally and beat Remarkably Bright Creatures and Swapped domestically. Its centerpiece is Mackenzie Shirilla’s first on-camera interview since the crash, recorded from prison with her attorney present.
On camera, Shirilla says she’s “not saying I’m innocent,” calls herself “the driver of a tragedy,” and denies being a murderer. She claims no memory of that morning and suggests it may be linked to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS. At one point she turns to her attorney mid-answer and says, “I don’t want to force anything and just say too much or sound crazy.” She didn’t speak to police before her trial and didn’t take the stand.
The case: around 5:30 a.m. on July 31, 2022, Shirilla, then 17, was driving her boyfriend Dominic “Dom” Russo, 20, and his friend Davion Flanagan, 19, home from a graduation party in Strongsville, Ohio. She turned onto Progress Drive, hit roughly 100 mph, clipped a business sign, and drove straight into the brick wall of the Plidco Building. The Camry split in two. Both passengers died at the scene. Shirilla survived with a broken femur, three broken ribs, and a lacerated liver. First responders found her unconscious with her foot still on the gas.
Investigators initially treated it as a tragic accident. The event data recorder reversed that. The throttle was held wide open through impact. There was no braking, no swerving, no attempt to correct. The car was mechanically sound. CCTV footage showed a deliberate, straight-line path angled to maximize impact on the passenger side. Police also found psilocybin mushrooms and a digital scale inside the wreckage. GPS data showed Shirilla had driven to the same location in the days leading up to the crash. Witnesses described her relationship with Russo as volatile, with multiple breakups and a prior incident in which she reportedly screamed about wrecking the car.
She was arrested on November 4, 2022, waived her right to a jury, and went to a bench trial. On August 14, 2023, she was convicted on 12 felony counts, including four counts of murder. A week later she was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 15 years to life. Her driver’s license was permanently revoked. She’s incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville with parole eligibility around 2038. Multiple appeals have been denied, including one in the last year that was thrown out because it was filed a single day late.
The film also digs into the relationship dynamic, the conduct of her parents Steve and Natalie Shirilla through the trial, and a final text Dom sent his father.
The court already weighed her account against the data recorder, the camera footage, and the GPS history. It convicted her on four counts of murder. Dom Russo and Davion Flanagan are still gone.
