The Crash: What If Everyone in the Mackenzie Shirilla Case Is Telling Their Own Version of the Truth?

**Tony Brueski** (0:01)
This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Drake.

**Tony Brueski** (0:08)
Let's go into another chapter of this story. Mackenzie Shirilla says she has no memory of the crash, set it at the hospital, set it at trial, set it now from prison in Netflix's The Crash. The families don't believe her. Dominic's father says he just wants the truth so he can grieve. Two young men are dead and everyone touched by this case is carrying something that they can't put down. Shavaun Scott, Psychotherapist and Author, is with us to help break all of this down.
I want to talk about that, about the idea that Mackenzie has no memory of what happened. And the version of reality, the version of the truth, I put that in air quotes, that everybody wants. Let's start with, is it a very real possibility that she does not remember what happened in those final moments?

**Shavaun Scott** (1:06)
Sure, it's possible. People who have gone through a traumatic event, particularly when they've been severely injured, can have a sense of, I don't remember exactly what happened. Usually they have fragments, bits and pieces, it may be non-linear, but they have flashes of something. But the other thing that popped into my head was head injury. Definitely, if she had a concussion, people lose memory after that often and don't remember what led up to it. So that was my guess.
I don't think we got enough about all her medical data, what was all happening to her after that. But it certainly could have been something that after the impact, that the brain injury, just her brain wasn't working at that point.

**Tony Brueski** (2:02)
Is it reasonable to think that she was trying to murder them based on everything that we know, based on her track record of impulsive, volatile reactions to any sort of information that comes her way that she doesn't like?
And then this happening. Is it reasonable to think that she was attempting a murder here? Or is it really just something else?

**Shavaun Scott** (2:35)
I would not have voted for murder.
I just think in a person like this, it's rage-induced tantrum impulsive, and there's not a sense of sitting back even for five minutes and saying, gee, I think I'm going to kill my boyfriend tonight. And our friend in the back who has done nothing to me. I don't think that, I mean, for me, that would not fit murder. It's horrible. It's abhorrent. But I would not have voted for murder.

**Tony Brueski** (3:11)
It's more of an inability to empathize with anything outside of oneself, isn't it?

**Shavaun Scott** (3:19)
That's a really good way to put it. To understand that I've got to be careful with how I express my anger here because I have concern that nobody else is damaged or injured, no matter how angry I am. You know, that would be the healthy, normal way to respond. Sometimes people are so upset, they'll say, I don't feel safe to drive my car, you know, because they realize I'm too upset right now. Good. Good. Don't get in the car when you're agitated. Yeah.

**Tony Brueski** (3:49)
If you ever have that feeling, yeah, go with it. Don't get in the car.

**Shavaun Scott** (3:52)
Don't get in the car.

**Tony Brueski** (3:53)
If you have the red flag, you're a healthier person than this. So please, please do that. Let's talk for a minute. Something else that we brought up in the intro there, one of the parents, and my heart breaks for them. Number one, I cannot imagine what it would be like going through that. I actually had to turn this thing off about 15 minutes in because I was just getting too depressed. I was like, being a father of a 13-year-old, I'm getting into the age of teenager-ness and narcissism and all that shit.
It can be overwhelming sometimes as a parent.
I was watching it on Sunday morning. I'm like, I don't want to ruin the rest of my day because it was too much. But watching it and seeing the finishing it, and I watched it another time too, and seeing the heartbreak of these parents, I can't contemplate what the hell that must feel like to lose your child to the hand of some mutant like this.
But one of the things that I thought was interesting that was said, and I'm not criticizing this, my only thought in bringing this up is, this should be reframed to try and get on a path of healing. That's it, it's my opinion. It was said, if she would just basically tell the truth, if she would tell us what she remembers. Shirley told you she doesn't remember anything. And I don't know that you're gonna get to anything that she remembers. Even if she did, that's not gonna change anything.