She killed two people. Then she became a celebrity.

**Ana Garcia** (0:01)
Hello, and welcome to a new episode from the team of True Crime News. I'm Ana Garcia, and I'm here with my son Lorenzo talking about a case that everyone can't get enough of, Mackenzie Shirilla. What is going on with this woman? The judge calls her hell on wheels, and she tells her mother she's the prettiest girl in prison. Like, who is this one?

**Lorenzo Sampson** (0:25)
I know, she's a funny one.
In a weird way, I feel like I know her.
I feel like I've seen this girl in middle school and high school, and I don't think she's innocent, but I do have some sympathy for her. But she's also insane, which I love.

**Ana Garcia** (0:43)
You love?

**Lorenzo Sampson** (0:44)
There's something about the sensationality of her, that she's so crazy and so tone deaf in a way that I think is inherently playing on something that is attractive these days in pop culture, which I think is part of why she's getting so much attention.

**Ana Garcia** (1:00)
I feel like it's the old-fashioned trainwreck, right? That's a term that we would use. You can't help but watch this. And even as she's going off the tracks, she's still fascinating and engaging.
But she's a convicted killer.

**Lorenzo Sampson** (1:16)
Yeah.

**Ana Garcia** (1:17)
Twice over.
All right. Let's talk about the case. Let's, let's, let's catch up, jump into it. Let's jump into it and see what happened. Okay. So this would have been in 2022, outside Cleveland, in this really nice suburb. And Mackenzie is driving and she's got her boyfriend, Dominic, in the car. And his, one of his best friends, Davion.
It's like five in the morning. And all of a sudden, there is a horrific crash.

**Lorenzo Sampson** (1:50)
I don't even know how to freak out.

**Ana Garcia** (1:54)
She's alive. We gotta get her out of here. I don't feel cool from this guy. When you saw the video of that crash, what did you think?

**Lorenzo Sampson** (2:02)
For me, it was like the car being split open in the front. I was like, genuinely, how is that possible? Like they must have been going so fast. But yeah, it was just complete wreckage.

**Ana Garcia** (2:14)
So you would think everybody in that car was dead when the police pulled up.
And two of them were Dominic and Davion. But somehow Mackenzie survives this crash. She's the only one wearing her seatbelt, which I know there are a lot of questions about. A lot of questions about. But I want to talk about, did she intentionally ram that car into that building? Because according to all the data that was taken off the car, she's going 100 miles an hour, full on the gas pedal and never once tries to break. There are no skid marks.

**Lorenzo Sampson** (2:48)
Yeah. I did hear a screech in the video. That's why I asked you if it was like a real audio. But it could have been like, I know there was some turning left, right at the last moment, maybe potentially someone grabbing the wheel or something.
But yeah, definitely flying, no use of the brakes according to the black box, whatever it was called, insane crash. And going 100 miles an hour, crazy.

**Ana Garcia** (3:10)
Who goes 100 miles an hour? So, I think when everyone first dealt with this tragedy, it was a horrific tragedy not too long after graduation. This is like the summer before so many people begin the next phase of their lives. And to lose two wonderful young people, and then have Mackenzie behind the wheel, brought out a lot of feelings here for everybody.
You know what I find bizarre? So, I covered this case for True Crime News in real time.
And when we released our story, it was just like another crime story. I don't know how else to explain that. It didn't have the life or the legs that this does now. Netflix does The Crash, they released this documentary about the case. And all of a sudden, everyone's talking about it. That, to me, is mind-blowing.

**Lorenzo Sampson** (4:11)
Yeah, I mean, watching it, we watched it the other day.
Was there anything in there that you feel explains the sensationality of it? People going crazy? I don't think it was particularly eye-opening, right? The details conveyed there is probably the same ones that you covered. But I do think some of the video of her and some of the-

**Ana Garcia** (4:31)
Especially all the videos of her. Oh, come on. You know, she's smoking. She's smoking in the car.

**Lorenzo Sampson** (4:37)
The fattest blunt you've ever seen in your life, by the way, like-