By Anna Menta

Netflix’s latest true crime documentary, The Crash, has captured the morbid curiosity of viewers. The Crash shot to the top of Netflix’s top 10 trending title list when it premiered on Friday, and it’s remained at the No. 1 slot this week.

Directed by Gareth Johnson, The Crash walks viewers through a fatal car crash in 2022, in which the only survivor and driver, then 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, was convicted of two counts of murder. It’s a tragic story, and while you might wish it was all made up, it is, unfortunately, all true.

This isn’t the first time this case has been covered, either. If you want to learn more about it, you can watch a few other Mackenzie Shirilla documentaries, including Killer Cases Season 4, Episode 12, “Murder on Wheels” on Hulu; and Mean Girl Murders Season 2, Episode 7 “Under the Influence” which is both on Hulu and on HBO Max.

Is The Crash a true story?

Yes, The Crash is a documentary, and is therefore a true story. The Crash walks viewers through the criminal case of a 2022 car crash in Strongsville, Ohio. The driver, 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, was driving her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and his friend, Davion Flanagan,, home from a friends house in the early hours of the morning of July 31, 2022, when she crashed the car into a brick building, driving nearly 100 miles per hour. Dominic and Davion died in the crash. Mackenzie, though injured, survived.

After toxicology reports revealed Shirilla did not have a significant amount of alcohol in her system, police began to investigate the case as a murder. The investigation was led by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Tim Troup from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, who is featured heavily in the documentary. With access to Shirilla’s phone and social media—full of videos and photos of Shirilla modeling, preening, and smoking weed while driving—the narrative that Shirilla was self-centered, toxic, and, ultimately, capable of murder.

Shirilla was arrested and opted for a bench trial in August 2023, meaning she appeared before a judge without a jury. The prosecution argued that Shirilla decided to kill Russo because they’d argued, and presented video that Russo took of Shirilla banging on his door, demanding to be let in, threatening to hurt him or slash his tires. The prosecution also claimed Shirilla felt no remorse for her actions, presenting social media videos posted after the crash, of Shirilla and her friends dressed as zombies for Halloween.

The judge, Nancy Margaret Russo, ultimately concluded that the car crash was premeditated. Shirilla was found guilty of 12 felony charges, including two counts of murder. She is now serving a 15-to-life prison sentence at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.

While The Crash mostly rehashes what has already been said on this criminal case, the Netflix documentary is notable for the fact that, about an hour into the film, Shirilla gives her first-ever interview from prison, with her lawyer just off camera. Shirilla maintains she had “no intent” to kill her friends. She maintains that she has no memory of the crash, but speculates that perhaps the crash was caused by a medical emergency related to her health condition, POTS, which can cause unexpected fainting.

“I just want to make sure I’m big on the no intent,” Shirilla says at the end of her interview, after consulting her lawyer. “There was no intent whatsoever. I have excessive amounts of remorse for Dominic, Davion, both of their families. This was not intentional and I will do everything I can to prove that to the world and the families.”

In September 2023, shortly after she was sentenced, Shirilla’s legal team appealed her verdict, citing clerical errors and lack of evidence presented by the court. Cuyahoga County Judge Nancy Margaret Russo denied the appeal, stating it had come too late. That denial of the appeal was recently upheld in March 2026, after a review of the appeal, which stated the appeal came just one day too late after the 365-day deadline.

Shirilla’s lawyers also appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court, but their request for review was denied.