Episode 274

In the early morning hours of July 31st, 2022, many teens in Strongsville, Ohio were sleeping off the previous night’s rowdy graduation parties. 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, 20-year-old Dominic Russo, and 19-year-old Davion Flanagan were trapped in a mangled car wreck. When daylight finally illuminated the carnage, everyone assumed the crash had been the result of teenage drunk-driving. The more the police investigated, the more questions arose. What started off as a tragic accident quietly evolved into a murder investigation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Rady, we got at least two occupants in here. No
one's moving, Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hello, and welcome to season eleven, episode two hundred and
seventy four of Sword and Scale.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
A show that reveals that.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
The worst monsters are real. Have you ever been unfortunate

(01:24):
enough to have seen HBO's show Euphoria? No good on you. Well,
if you haven't, let.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Me break it down for you.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Unfortunately, it's relevant. It's relevant. Just just follow along, trust me.
Euphoria is a show about a bunch of American high
schoolers and all the drama in their lives, which you
know is always a lot, so plenty of material. The
show dives into each teen's dirty laudrey, let's say, connecting

(02:02):
them together along the way to create a shocking representation
of American teenage life in the twenty twenties. It's a
show that seems to almost rely on shock value in
an age where it's difficult to shock most people, even
if they're sitting on an electric chair. It's meant to

(02:22):
be an over dramatization and viewers know that. But some
people may not realize is that, though it's shocking and hyperbolic,
it seems to accurately represent many American teens these days.
Just maybe the shockingly adult content in Euphoria is depicting reality,

(02:48):
art imitating life, and vice versa. But forget about the
cast of Euphoria for a second, because we're going to
replace them with some real life examples, real life people.
This case is much more shocking and much more horrible

(03:08):
than any story HBO could come up with, and it
takes place in a little place called Strongsville, Ohio. It

(03:36):
was a summer of twenty twenty two. The feeling of
freedom and newfound maturity was still fresh in the minds
of all the new graduates of Strongsville High School. Ohio
tends to only have a few good months of really
nice warm weather out of the year. Otherwise it's just
a miserable place, you know, the feeling of those hot,

(03:58):
muggy summer nights. Yeah, Ohio doesn't get too many of those,
not like Texas. During the very last weekend of July,
the new graduates continued to take advantage of all the
quote unquote grad parties their friends had invited them to.
In other words, they were going to your average house party,

(04:19):
the kind where no parents are around, the kind of
risky business type shenanigans occur. I don't know why that
movie stuck out with me so much as a kid,
Probably because it was about dirty adult things.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
For Paul, a new graduate, this weekend was the perfect
time to host a party of his own. His parents
were out of town, and though he says it wasn't
a party per se, there were seven rowdy teens in
the house all night with no supervision. That kind of
sounds like a party to me.

Speaker 5 (04:56):
So Zory I was pretty tired, most of us pret
I kind of didn't really want to hang out that night,
but my parents weren't home, so we were going to anyway,
and I had six people over, So in my opinion,
that was not a party. There was no party activities
going on because I don't have enough friends to throw binger.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
I'm gonna be honest.

Speaker 5 (05:18):
So at around eleven, Rosie, Nina, and Landon show up together.
They show up first because Rosie lives nearby, so she
picked them up, so they showed up, and then Kenzie
Dom and Davion.

Speaker 4 (05:35):
They were late. They were late to come here. They
came at around.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
Midnight, maybe some around that time, because they were already
at a grab party. But they were already there. They
weren't there for long. I don't know what they did there,
but they weren't there for long.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Here's Landon, one of the kids who arrived earlier in
the night. He's talking about nineteen year old Daveyon Flan again,
who arrived closer to midnight, alongside the other two kids,
twenty year old Dominic Russo and seventeen year old Mackenzie Shrilla.

Speaker 6 (06:09):
We weren't like the closest back in the elementary I were. Yeah,
we weren't the closest. I'd say about middle school. That's
when we got really We got really close in middle
school and then high school year he decided to join football,
so that brought us even closer. I think what made
us the closest was COVID. COVID made us really close.
We would we would stay up all ninety and they

(06:31):
would all stay up, play my Warfare all the time
and just talk about school, talk about football all that stuff.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
That's where I guess that's where we're like.

Speaker 6 (06:39):
We got really really close at and that's when we
started hanging out every day.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
I started treating my brother to me. He was one
of my best friends.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Landon was closer friends with davey On than the host
of the party, Paul. Paul knew seventeen year old Kenzie
the best. She was the one that he had invited,
but of course she knew she was welcome to bring
along her boyfriend Dominic and their friend Davion, who lived
with them at the time.

Speaker 5 (07:08):
So I started being I started being's actual friends with
ten Zie senior beer because we both did homecoming courts
together and I thought, if I was gonna win Homecoming Kings,
she'll win Queen with me. We didn't win, so dying,
So yeah, she's made me. She like made me actually

(07:29):
confident in myself that year. So yeah, that's when we
kind of became friends. I was never really friends with
dom but like she could bring her boyfriend anywhere I
don't mind.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
And then Davion. You probably know this.

Speaker 5 (07:42):
Davion lived with them, so they could ring Daviyon and
everyone loves Daviyon.

Speaker 6 (07:48):
Like whenever he walked in the room, no matter if
he was down or not, he was making you smile.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
You love the kid to death.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Nineteen year old Davion Flanagain was popular and well liked
at home, though he was starting to have some issues.
He and his sisters were adopted by the Flanagan family
when they were young kids, and as teenagers tend to
do when they reach a certain age, Davion started to
butt heads with his parents.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
So he came to me one day and he was
asking me.

Speaker 6 (08:20):
He was like, hey, I could I stay at your
house for a week And I was like, yeah, like,
no problem.

Speaker 4 (08:24):
I got a whole extra room for you. Don't worry
about it.

Speaker 6 (08:27):
And when he came and he stayed there, ended up
saying he ended up signing it was gonna be a
lot more long term, and I.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
Knew he got kicked out. We would always be out.
We'd always go out.

Speaker 6 (08:39):
I mean, somebody would take my mom's car and I
got caught fort doing that one time, but we would
take my mom's car and he would take my car
and my dad's call. We go out when we just
drive and just talk talk about life, talk about his struggles,
talk about my struggles. He was He was a very,
very very mentally mentally down person. He was down mentally bad,
like he everything in his life. He thought he was

(09:00):
on against him. He he felt like that nobody was
there for me again, like no one had his back
a lot of the time. So and he knew that
I had his back forever, like he knew would always
have his back.

Speaker 4 (09:10):
Man, but he just felt like I.

Speaker 6 (09:12):
Can't remember what he would say about it, but the
adopt him being a dominent party, Yeah, it was a
big factor, and that he felt like he just didn't
belong in the house.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
And I know that Dom.

Speaker 6 (09:22):
Knows Davy and they know each other's pack parties like that.
Kenzie and Davan Row have always been close, like they
know each other. I know they've known each other since
like middle school. I knew before, right before I found
out they were living together, I knew that they were kind.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Of hanging out, they were kind of talking together.

Speaker 6 (09:38):
Because another reason why they were cool is Dom had
a studio in his house.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
Dom liked to make music and Daven love free. Laven
love making music.

Speaker 6 (09:45):
I was just dreamless to be a rapper, and so
Davan would always go over to Don's house to recording
the studio. I know Proctor has a studio, so they
would all not like a studio like Project doesn't have
a full studio.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
He just has like a little mic on a computer
and stuff.

Speaker 6 (09:58):
But Dom actually has like a whole room with a
microphone and might stuff on the walls to keep the sounding.
That was all like the special programming and stuff, and
so I knew they got really close off of that, like.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
Trying to make music together and stuff like that.

Speaker 6 (10:10):
So I think ultimately that's how Davianna ended up staying
at Don's because Davion knew he would go over there
and be able to use the studio whenever he wanted
to and just be cool with Donald.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Twenty year old Dominic Russo was a quote unquote businessman
and rapper. I don't know what the fuck that means,
but that's what he was, while his girlfriend's seventeen year
old Mackenzie Shrilla, worked long, hard hours as a stay
at home girlfriend when she wasn't posting content to further
her Instagram modeling career. So really just a solid pair

(10:47):
of entrepreneurs here.

Speaker 5 (10:49):
They got at my house at around midnight. We sived
there for a while and then around like one am
and it was called I wanted to call it a
night because my car broke down. Wasn't having much of
a good night obviously, And right before I went to sleep,

(11:09):
Kenzy said you should go to sleep, because I'm probably
going to go to sleep too.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
So I was like, Okay, that's not that bad.

Speaker 5 (11:14):
So then I go upstairs at around one they're still
out and they're still watching I remember hearing South Park
I'm playing really loudly.

Speaker 4 (11:24):
And then I.

Speaker 5 (11:25):
Went downstairs again at two three am to peek sometime
like that, and I saw that I saw Kenzie asleep
on my couch in my front room.

Speaker 6 (11:37):
I remember walking into that. Man was cuddling her, she
was sleeping, Her head was on his lap. She was
wrapped up in this big fuzzy green pan blanket on
the front couch in the front room.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
It's a big L shaped couch.

Speaker 6 (11:47):
Because I was sitting in the corner and Daby was
sitting down by my legs, Kensey was sitting here, and
then Don was soon at the end here, and so
she ended up sprawling out and he was sitting there cutting.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
On her head, panting her head, making sure she was sleeping.

Speaker 7 (11:58):
Good.

Speaker 6 (11:58):
Way were laughing all night, we I know, Paul, he
wasn't around all night.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
He was upstairs.

Speaker 6 (12:08):
He wasn't even around all night. He Me and Davy
were in the front room watching it was a great
white documentary about green white sharks. In the front room,
I know, back in the back all the girls were
back there. I think they were watching high school musical
or something like that, because they were all screaming, laughing.
But me and Dave were up there. I remember Kenzie

(12:28):
got mad at me because I ate over popcorn. She
walked away and ate over popcorn.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
The teens smoked weed and apparently discussed doing shrooms that night,
but decided against it. Everyone seemed to be having a
good time. Eventually people started to fall asleep, and when Kenzie, Dominic,
and Davian awoke early in the morning, they gathered their
things and left.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
Kenzie and dom walked out together. Dom grabbed olver bags
for her, and Don came to dabbed me up.

Speaker 6 (12:58):
Kenji was like, hey, say buy it everyone, because Rosie
and Nina and them were sleeping in the back room.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
I was up in the front room still and he was.
She was like, hey, say bye everyone for us.

Speaker 6 (13:06):
So we're like, okay, we will, And that's when Rosie
came walking up, gave Kenzie a hug, get down my
hug and was like bye, Like I know that.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
Why should they leave so early?

Speaker 6 (13:14):
They usually do that, Like that's like a common thing
with everyone, Like I mean how many times, like we
had people over our house, Like it's just a common
thing with us, younger.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
Teenagers like it. It's like as soon as you get up,
it's like you're gone, Like you were just leaving like
five thirty in the morning. Yeah, go to work at.

Speaker 8 (13:28):
Five o'clock in the morning. Really, couch is clear.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
I'm like yeah, it's like, well we'll end up, we'll
sleeping in.

Speaker 6 (13:37):
Like as soon as you wake up in that early morning,
it's I want to move back to my.

Speaker 8 (13:40):
Bed, So that that is common.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
One thing struck Landing as odd as the trio left,
Davey and said something not quite out of character for him,
but something he didn't say very often.

Speaker 6 (13:55):
It didn't seem like there was anything wrong with him,
nothing crazy. The only thing that really got me was
when he left. He left he was like I love you,
and I was like, I love you too, And that
was the first time he said that to me since
he lived with me.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
So that's like that's what kind of threw me off.

Speaker 6 (14:10):
I was like, all right, I love you too, you
know what I mean, come out and gave a give
him a Huggany walked out the door.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
They got into Mackenzie's black Toyota Camray and headed home.
It wasn't ten minutes after the trio left Paul's house
that tragedy struck, and it hit them with a swift vengeance.
It was just after five point thirty in the morning.
They drove for only a few minutes and found themselves

(14:39):
on Progress Drive and at the end of that road
was a building called Plidco p l I d COO.
It's a piping company. Instead of turning either right or
left onto the road that paralleled the Plidco building, the
camera went straight, barreling through the company's large sign and

(15:02):
into the corner of the massive brick structure. Davion was
on his phone responding to a snapchat just moments before impact.

(15:24):
The three kids sat there in the mangled car until
the sun came up. With the help of the morning light,
someone noticed the partially hidden wreck Cash.

Speaker 9 (15:36):
Yes, are you familiar where Progress coincides with Albion Road?

Speaker 4 (15:42):
There in strong though yep.

Speaker 10 (15:45):
Yeah, just across the street from from Progress building.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
There's a car that smashed up against the building.

Speaker 11 (15:53):
I didn't go up to it because I was on
my motorcycle.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (15:56):
I just sucked.

Speaker 12 (15:57):
But they ran the curb.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
I could see the They smashed the sign and hit
the buildings.

Speaker 13 (16:03):
Could you tell someone was in it?

Speaker 4 (16:06):
I didn't go up to it.

Speaker 14 (16:06):
I was on my motorcycle.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
How long ago?

Speaker 15 (16:10):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Two minutes? Radio? The car splitting two? Radio, there's an
occupying side. Send us a squad down. We gotta bust
the window out. Send us some more units.

Speaker 5 (16:32):
Any more units?

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Have none.

Speaker 8 (16:44):
On the west.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
This is not a fresh accident either. She's been here
for a while. Radio. We got at least two occupants
in here. No one's moving. Oh my god, Oh my god.

(17:14):
Time's three guys. Radio. Three occupants. No one's conscious, No
one's breathing. Oh my god, dude, who can hear my voice?

(17:39):
Drivers kind of radio? The driver is breathing, unconscious. Radio,
they're gonna be full extraction an all three come here.
Call on the plate. Let him call it him.

Speaker 4 (17:59):
Oh man, I'm getting that good.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Let's see.

Speaker 8 (18:08):
Uh we see your knife?

Speaker 3 (18:10):
I cut this thing out.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
This is bad, guys, she's alive. We gotta get her
out somehow.

Speaker 8 (18:18):
We stepping on shore.

Speaker 13 (18:20):
Oh my god, oh my god, oh.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
My god, storrs. We're good to try to get her out.
Oh dude, I don't almost we can. She's breathing. She's breathing.
Her head's wedge. Let's see what you get some IDs, guys,
I don't feel anything. She's breathing.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
I saw her something for some exchool.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
We got two that are gone. Should we uh.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Well, what about the about some more?

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, we're here at the howly small. The last thing
you expect to see came. Help me find a track, guys,
come through here the roll away by your car.

Speaker 16 (19:16):
I have a seventeen year old feam almost heavy.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Went through this time.

Speaker 17 (19:23):
Okay, that might be the matter.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
Is she talking? Yeah, yeah, by Sario, she's talking a
little bit. Advised fire to step it up. Driver. Seventeen
year old female still breathing, wedged in there too, are
gonna be deal way, but they're all young, possibly teenagers.

(19:51):
Oh Jesus Christ, Life flight.

Speaker 15 (19:56):
Life Flight asks to come, will help to set up
a pen floor right still, guide us.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Hold it open. We want to drive her out. She's
still bringing fellows, so last thing I thought would be
going up to him.

Speaker 4 (20:11):
Here's the worst crash I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
I've got a bunch of oppers.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Mackenzie was barely conscious, slumped over to her right because
of the extensive damage to the car.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
The dashboard was.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Crunched up and was trapping her. They didn't have identification
for the other two just yet, but they did know
that they need the help of the fire department and
the jaws of life to remove all three from the
crumpled hunk of metal.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Did you try to pocket to them?

Speaker 3 (20:51):
You know, Jesus, that's the worst I've ever seen. There's
nothing we can do right now.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
Guys'll fire hers up.

Speaker 8 (21:00):
I don't think it.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Now they're gone. They've breathing out of the ears routines.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
In case you couldn't understand that, the officer whose bodycam
footage were listening to said they're bleeding out of the ears,
before another officer replied, the driver has a chance. Just
a few minutes later, fire trucks arrived with their hydraulic
rescue equipment and they got to work right away.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
What's your name here?

Speaker 18 (21:41):
That's our driver.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
So one of her friends is naming Tom.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
I don't know which one was. Don't tell her.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
We need to get ideas in all of these people.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
Any walllet on him pos Yes, I'm gonna grab it
unless you guys want to grab it.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
And this is Davian Flannaga and I'm sewing there just
as him put his id on top of him.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Dominic, who had been in the front passenger seat, passed
away on impact. The right side of the car took
most of the damage. Daveyon, who was originally sitting in
the back seat, was found partially on the lap of Dominic.
The camera sat in a grassy area right next to
the building they had side swiped.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
How do you get is split in half from hitting
the building here? It looks like this is where it split.
And to be honest with you, when you're coming there,
you could barely see it from the sign. You can't
barely see it. And how the person just cauled and
ball and I'll never know, you know what I mean?

Speaker 15 (23:01):
Like, Oh, that.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Carlo's really bad life. Flight's here and thanks he's here
for her.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
It was still early in the morning, just after six
As Alameda Drive descended into organized chaos, Paul and his
friends were still sleeping off the party. Mackenzie, Dominic, and
Davion's parents were all asleep in their beds, too, blissfully
unaware of the terrible news they were about to receive.

(24:04):
Early in the morning of July thirty one, twenty twenty two,
seventeen year old Mackenzie Shrilla, her boyfriend twenty year old
Dominic Russo, and their friend, nineteen year old Davion Flynn
again headed home from a party. It was a short
drive and they didn't make it very far before Plidco
Piping Company's surveillance cameras caught footage of their vehicle barreling

(24:29):
into their company sign and into the building itself. While
paramedics waited with Mackenzie and the ambulance for a life
flight helicopter to land, another deputy called the coroner. After
making a call and reporting the two fatalities, the officer
told the paramedics not to say anything to McKenzie about

(24:52):
the status of her friends.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
And we got a call about a car into a building.

Speaker 18 (24:57):
When we got here, the car was split in half
and three people were trapped inside.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
He put us back as well. Sorry, guys, two are gone,
one and being life flighted. As we speak, this is
gonna be just a nightmare of a day for this
whole department.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
Mackenzie was transported to the hospital and the families of
all three kids were notified about the accident. Soon the
news spread to the rest of the town, including all
of Mackenzie's classmates. Several things then happened in relatively quick succession.
The crash scene and the car itself were both investigated.

(25:44):
Police found evidence on Dominic's cell phone, and some students
came forward with evidence of their own from an app
called Life three sixty. For those of you who have
not heard of it, it's a family location sharing app.
It's kind of like the find my Phone app on
your iPhone, but it's actually much more precise. It sends

(26:08):
out a notification to your inner circle in case you
need help or if your phone to text you've been
in a car crash. Daveon had this app on his phone,
and the friends in his circle sent photos of the
data to police.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
I don't know if you got.

Speaker 7 (26:24):
Like good screenshots of the Life three sixty. Yeah, we
have those if you, but if you zoom in like
they were driving perfectly fine from Paul's house to the scene.
So if you zoom in, zoom in, and like I
can put this on like satellite, you can see them

(26:46):
so that they're on their road right, they're just driving casually,
and then it's like normal, like you're just driving normal.
And then you will start to see them swerving this
way onto the grass, and then now they're on the
wrong side of the road. So if you're on the
wrong side of the road, your first thing is think
is let's get on the right side of the road.

Speaker 8 (27:08):
They're not though, They stay on the wrong side of
the road. So it kind of looks like road rage
to me.

Speaker 7 (27:13):
And if you go down this road, it's bumpy, like
it's not like you're going twenty five, it's still bumpy.
They go over this curb and they're on the curb.
They get off the curb, they get starts to straighten up.
They're going better, and now they get on the grass.
They go over this whole overpass on the grass even deeper,
get off the grass on the curb, still driving on

(27:36):
the curb, on the grass again on the grass. Stop
signs right there over here and to me right here.
If you like looked at the tracks that you guys
probably have pictures of them. It looks like the person
in the front seat tried to turn the wheel because
of the fact they were going to go straight into
a wall.

Speaker 8 (27:55):
So what And it doesn't say she heartbroke once. It
was ninety miles per hour down that whole road.

Speaker 7 (28:02):
The only time she heart broke off of Life three
sixty is when the collision happened.

Speaker 8 (28:07):
To the war what, I mean, what do you guys
think about it?

Speaker 19 (28:13):
I think that I don't know if they're arguing or
if it was just carelessness. It might have just been
she was going fast, she could have tried. She's probably
just been careless. I mean that I know she had
some like big I don't know if it was on
her car, but I've seen like on her Snapchat or
some big ass like a fuzzy steering wheel cover. And
who knows if she just tried to like whip it
around the turn going super fast and it just didn't turn.
But it probably, like I assume, it was just a

(28:35):
careless mistake and it was just a preventable thing.

Speaker 20 (28:38):
I mean, I think that obviously the drug reports then
to come back positive because they all smoked weed, so
she was she was just known for being that kinder
girl in high school and as well out of high school.

Speaker 7 (28:49):
And yeah, they called her baby cush.

Speaker 8 (28:53):
Yeah what's say just because she smokes someone?

Speaker 16 (28:54):
She smokes sweet and there's pictures on her Instagram. But
I'm sure she took it down now, Yeah, hurting cars,
smoking weed. So if you're thinking from nastyandpoint, I also
think that if they were on psychedelics and they took
a nap, that can also still be effective because psychedelics
is abruptly six to twelve hours. And I also think,
because if Kenzie's in Dominic's history, that they were fighting

(29:17):
because if Davion was on his phone man at five
thirty five before he died, I'm not even like thirty seconds,
why would he be responding about a view and.

Speaker 7 (29:26):
Not helping the car get back on track, because if
you knew something was up, I think Davion went on
his phone to district himself from the fighting.

Speaker 20 (29:35):
Although they were on drugs, they can also still be
fighting with being on drugs.

Speaker 19 (29:39):
I don't know if they're like fighting, like no one
will probably ever know if they're fighting, but like it
could have just been like careless sake. I don't think
Kenzie even if she was like at roag Grade or
she was working.

Speaker 4 (29:51):
I don't think her intention was to kill two people
no matter what. So I mean, I don't know she.

Speaker 7 (29:56):
Tried to kill her boyfriend or Davion, but I think
she was road grading down the road.

Speaker 4 (30:02):
They passed away.

Speaker 6 (30:03):
I called my friend EJ, freaking out, and I drove
sped up to EJ's house and I was talking to him,
and EJ's like, that's our football group, Like that's like
this football group, and so like all this football dudes
ended to mean that EJ's house are talking. So then
I went back to Paul's house because that's a rose
you know, all them were at and I was talking
to them. But then as I was I went to
do a drum my Mom's car back off there.

Speaker 8 (30:23):
I picked up my.

Speaker 4 (30:23):
Truck and then I stopped at the memorial where they
crashed at.

Speaker 6 (30:27):
And as soon as I got there, that's when Proctor
is saying, like Proctor, Joey, a bunch of these kids
are saying, oh, they're fighting. Kensie's crazy, Kendy puts foodoo
on him. They're fighting all the time. They're fighting.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
I'm like, they weren't fighting. I don't know what.

Speaker 6 (30:39):
Y'all just got this out of thin air, like they
were not fighting. I can promise you that they weren't fighting.

Speaker 14 (30:44):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Police officers recovered weed, a scale, and some shrooms in
the car, and there were rumors swirling that kids planned
to take acid on the night of Paul's house party,
but no mention of shrews. The other partygoers had confirmed
that they'd be smoking weed as per usual. They even

(31:07):
sent texts to Dominic and Mackenzie about the amounts each
person wanted. These two had quite the reputation for being,
as Paul later put it, evil Cosmo and Wanda.

Speaker 10 (31:20):
The eve off the crash, at ten twenty eight pm.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
She says.

Speaker 10 (31:28):
She receives a text from one of the people at
the party saying, so, we want forty dollars worth of butt,
and Bubba wants three and I want two and a half.
Nina once one and a half, Paul wants two and
a half. We're talking about marijuana, hear, okay, But if
we go back earlier, okay, she talks about grams, bring

(31:59):
enough shrooms for all us. He's going to take under
a gram a gram of what.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
Yeah, we discussed that if we were going to do shooms,
but we did not end up doing that.

Speaker 10 (32:10):
Do you know if after you went to bed they
did acid rooms? I don't know, okay, And like I said,
my concern it's not accusing you of anything, it's just well,
did they do something and then they got on the road.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
Because as you've you've already heard, it's you're on social media, right, okay?

Speaker 10 (32:30):
On the the app that Tyler and some of the
Devion's friends have.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
Shared with the families and with the public. We have
her going ninety.

Speaker 10 (32:39):
She might tell you stuff about her, maybe her relationship
with Dom, maybe her some of her struggles. And we're
not trying to expose her secrets. But in that car
that day, there were three people. Two are dad who
can't tell us. So we and she's not talking to
us right her lawyer is not going to let her
talk to the police.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
Meant that her constitutional writing don't have to talk to
the police.

Speaker 10 (33:02):
So she's not breaking the law by not talking, she's
actually protecting herself. And so we have to piece everything
together based on what the friends are saying.

Speaker 8 (33:13):
How many times have you talked to Kensas since the accident?

Speaker 4 (33:16):
I only got to speer ones. You got to see
her ones?

Speaker 8 (33:19):
Yeah, what was she like? Not happy?

Speaker 10 (33:28):
I mean, my my takeaway from having visited her twice
was she didn't seem to care too much that she.

Speaker 4 (33:35):
Killed her boyfriend. Another guy, she had the same feelings
when I walked in.

Speaker 8 (33:39):
She was broken.

Speaker 5 (33:41):
She was absolutely devastated, and she wouldn't shut up about that,
Like she would only talk about that.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
So that really concerns me that she would be very different.

Speaker 8 (33:54):
I think for even that we were law enforcement or
her friends, so she, you know, she would nervous to
talk to us or you know.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
So that makes sense, except it didn't make sense. Once
police had enough pieces of the puzzle to see the
bigger picture, they were beginning to think that they were
dealing with an out of control team who had no
sense of accountability or remorse, and not someone whose vehicle
innocently malfunctioned. The officers talked about their own experience with

(34:24):
Mackenzie and how it conflicted so much with Paul's experience,
and we can only assume this is one of the
occasions those officers are talking about.

Speaker 8 (34:36):
So by law, I.

Speaker 4 (34:37):
Have to give you.

Speaker 21 (34:38):
This is your phone, Okay, Now, this is a search form.
The judge tether County Judge Rusale signed it.

Speaker 4 (34:50):
You had, you had search activity and downloaded the data. Everything.

Speaker 17 (34:53):
Now nobody's looking at.

Speaker 18 (34:54):
Nobody's looking like we mirrord the phone.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
We're going to look through the phone.

Speaker 17 (34:58):
Right but everything she does now.

Speaker 18 (35:00):
Now now she's on her own, Okay, all we care
about is free.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
Right now, I'm not concerned what she does. She's free
to do whatever she wants.

Speaker 18 (35:09):
But by law, this is the receipt of what we did,
which is a download of the data, and this is
the search warrth. Now, the search warrth lists the crime
we're investigating as an aggravated particular homicide times two.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
Okay, it's because two people were killed in a car perence.

Speaker 18 (35:27):
It does not mean I'm going to make this very clear,
we're not charging you with aggravated the hicular homicide. So
right now, I'm not going to interview her. She's obviously
not in a good place to be interviewed. She has
an attorney. Once she's released. I gave you my contact info,
Have your lawyer give me a call or give me

(35:48):
your contact your lawyer's contact info, and then I'll call
him and if he wants her to cooperate, that's his decision.
If he doesn't want her to cooperate, that's his decision.
I do want you to know that a lot of
people are coming to us and reporting things, and so
usually usually the most accurate information we're gonna get is

(36:08):
from her. So whether or not she chooses to operate
on advice of counsel, that's up to her.

Speaker 4 (36:13):
I'm not gonna go with her. What are people coming
in and saying I cannot.

Speaker 18 (36:16):
Tell you that that's the investigation, that's why the crash.

Speaker 4 (36:21):
Well, because we don't. We have to put everything together.

Speaker 18 (36:25):
But this is a copy of the search warrant with
the affidavit and everything.

Speaker 4 (36:29):
That the judge looked at. Okay, I'm gonna.

Speaker 9 (36:31):
Take my cable work back. Do you have any questions
for me at this I have one. We're able to
pull video. I know you off the building across the street.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
Again.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
I cannot comment on the investigation, but we have.

Speaker 15 (36:51):
Through.

Speaker 4 (36:54):
We did not. We just neared your face.

Speaker 8 (36:56):
I see two three of them open.

Speaker 18 (36:58):
We did not, but their way even if we did,
we have a search on so uh, we're gonna look
at the car tomorrow. We're gonna download the black box
from the car, so we know if there was any
type of error, we're gonna have OSB. They're sending a
reconstruction UH trooper to look at it and download the material.
We also got a search one for that as well.

(37:19):
This is a very difficult situation, and you can put
this on the record. I am not here to try
to interview your daughter and get some incriminating in from
I'm not at this point. We are investigating. I am
I want to protect her constitutional rights. So it's very,
very important that your lawyer gets in contact with me
or I get in contact with him so we can say, hey, sir,

(37:39):
are you gonna let her cooperate? If he says we're
not saying anything, then we have to build our case
based on everything else.

Speaker 17 (37:49):
Charges.

Speaker 4 (37:50):
If anybody presses charges, it's the county. It's not the
families's on.

Speaker 22 (38:00):
He's Jesus taking you can't Yeah, like can I just
like like take my whole license away for like ten.

Speaker 17 (38:10):
Years or something like that.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
I do have a lawyer. Thought my daughter was living
with dom Well, I believe her purse is a ris.

Speaker 14 (38:24):
Her purse?

Speaker 8 (38:24):
Is it?

Speaker 4 (38:26):
What's your purse?

Speaker 17 (38:27):
Christian?

Speaker 4 (38:28):
Or Okay, not that Michael.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
Course, if you were really confused just now, I'm not
sure if you're hearing English at the end there. That's
because Mackenzie turned to her mother to speak some variation
of pig Latin before asking the officer if she could just,
you know, have her license revoked for ten years or something.

(38:49):
But just wait, it gets worse.

Speaker 18 (38:52):
We got sent to this call. Here's what we find out.
Here's you know, the evidence we have. Whether it's for
her or answer. We just give them everything, everything that
I have, every piece of paper that I write on.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
He will get all of it.

Speaker 18 (39:06):
I'll see my notes, my reports, all the other officers reports,
body camps, everything, every single right now, because this is
right now, this is allen that, everything's evidence.

Speaker 13 (39:25):
This is just.

Speaker 18 (39:27):
After, after the evidence, After this is all over, you'll
be able to see whatever you wants, all public record.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
You can come get a copy of everything we do.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yes, lying in the hospital bed, she really asked the
police officers investigating the crash if she could see the
body cam footage. Her father responded, no, because it's not
going to be pretty. How cold does your soul have

(39:56):
to be to act this way? You've just accidentally or
maybe not accidentally killed your boyfriend and your friend and
you want to see the body cam footage of these
poor police officers discovering the whole mess. Why so you
can cover your ass. This isn't the only instance of

(40:18):
Mackenzie's odd behavior. After the deaths of Davion and Dominic.
Dominic's family had been having strange interactions with Mackenzie since
the crash. Here's Dominic's mother, who happens to be a
defense attorney herself.

Speaker 8 (40:33):
She did say.

Speaker 13 (40:34):
Something that was pretty damning the other day.

Speaker 5 (40:44):
Have you seen her in person or just you've just
seen her tice of the summeter?

Speaker 8 (40:48):
How does she get there?

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Can she drive?

Speaker 8 (40:50):
How is she in a wheelchair?

Speaker 15 (40:54):
Still?

Speaker 13 (40:54):
Yeah, she can only put Wayne on her love leg
and then she's supposed to start some physical fare be
and then i'd also come to touch because she's dangling photos.
She's dangling videos, you know, but she just pieces one
or two out instead of saying, I think you'd enjoyed it.

Speaker 17 (41:11):
Like we read the cemetery and we had this bee.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
Problem between the two us. I still have the be
problem that.

Speaker 17 (41:16):
The people are coming today.

Speaker 13 (41:18):
But Tom had called me about the bees, and I
don't know what she was recording, but it's all his
voice at least, you know, because it has his voice.

Speaker 17 (41:25):
And so she finally sends.

Speaker 14 (41:26):
Me mam one.

Speaker 13 (41:27):
But it's like every single time we try to get
a picture, she's all over my son, so.

Speaker 17 (41:33):
I can't even get one without her.

Speaker 8 (41:36):
He catered her.

Speaker 13 (41:37):
She claimed she had a gluten free problem or something,
and I would make dinner. I would be questioned, was
the stuff okay for her diet because her stomach? And
if I didn't have everything that would have complied with
her stomach diet, whatever it was, I'd.

Speaker 17 (41:56):
Ever believed it.

Speaker 13 (41:57):
He would cook for her supper. Ad she's a slob.
She never cleaned her mother's houses a slot. My house
isn't the greatest either, But I'm just saying it's just,
you know, if Dom's going to cook for you, do
the dishes, clean up bath for yourself, do you know
what I mean?

Speaker 17 (42:16):
That sort of a thing.

Speaker 11 (42:17):
But everything was always about her, I mean, like I said,
even with her parents. So while Kensey was in the hospital,
they were already making up stories, okay as to what happened.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
But the deer of an apple.

Speaker 17 (42:30):
Umpsy the seizure and the point of all of that
is the fact that.

Speaker 13 (42:35):
The mom never said the kids home, She never checked.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
In with me.

Speaker 17 (42:39):
Ever, the only time they would ever come over would
be once.

Speaker 13 (42:43):
In a blue moon to drop some mom or to
take pictures for some of that.

Speaker 12 (42:48):
Do you know what I'm saying. But Kenzy, I mean
Dom took her to Polaris. Dom made sure she made
it to school. Mom didn't do any of that. Okay,
So it was all DMB. But the girl had no
problems sitting with me.

Speaker 17 (43:05):
Won't be in the eye.

Speaker 13 (43:06):
One of these girls can't look me in the eye,
and that right there bothers me. You can't look at
me and you can't talk to me. I feel that
there's something more. Kensie was always okay with that, you know,
okayvid what had no problems walk into my house and
it was you know what I mean?

Speaker 8 (43:22):
And I just that means you're gonna like her because she.

Speaker 13 (43:26):
Was always said right and she you know, she came
over for holidays and they'd you know, they'd include me
and things like that, you know, and and I just
maybe she just needs to grow up. She's young, I mean,
you know what I'm saying. You don't think that it's
going to click to this. I mean, I mean I

(43:50):
feel back to build the girl forever. I mean I
can't imagine, but she's feeling like whether she did on purposes,
she claims she does nothing, she remembers nothing, and even
saying that all Dumb's problems were because of her and
being upset and uh, I needed to realize that she

(44:11):
wasn't as sweet and innocent as I.

Speaker 4 (44:15):
Thought she was.

Speaker 23 (44:17):
It's heartbreaking to me because like the day before I
went to Florida, which is the last time I seen
him face to face, he was really just talking to
me about.

Speaker 4 (44:26):
Yeah, about like.

Speaker 23 (44:28):
How he can't keep letting Kenzie like run his life,
but not even an aspect like that, Like he said, like,
all right, for example, you know how I was saying
how he can't go to like he can't go out
with even me occasionally because she's upset about and this
and that he said that she holds him back. Well,
I think he was really honestly finally getting to the

(44:50):
point to where like even if she was like saying
I'm gonna hurt you, he would have like maybe even
taken that chance because he was getting it was it's
more than like two years he'll be like, dude, he
would be so nice and as a comedy as possible
to stop the fight, and she'd be one of those
people that is just.

Speaker 4 (45:07):
Petty, petty, petty patty.

Speaker 23 (45:10):
He's just like I remember times him like expressing to
me how frustrated that he was saying, I do every
singing with thing I can for this girl. I ask
her what's upsetting your lick invitter? This and that, blah
blah blah, and she finds, like any single thing to
just be mad at me about you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (45:25):
Like it's like I witness it a lot too, Like.

Speaker 10 (45:30):
I don't know, you drive her stuff with did you
ever see her hit him, put her hands on him,
her hit hand like just cool, you know, or throw
stuff at him.

Speaker 24 (45:39):
Or no, now that you say that, I remember several
times now because my memory is getting jogged, that he
would say, Mom, can you get Kenzie out of here?

Speaker 4 (45:50):
She's refusing to refusing to.

Speaker 17 (45:53):
Leave, she's out of control, She's hit me.

Speaker 25 (45:55):
I do remember that, And I never I would get
on the phone and say just leave and go home.

Speaker 23 (46:03):
There's times, there's multiple times, even pretty like recently before
all this, that Don would have to call Kenzie's parents,
call her, call her mom and stuff and say, hey,
you need to come get Kenzie out of here.

Speaker 4 (46:14):
She's refusing to leave my house.

Speaker 23 (46:15):
She's being crazy, and it'd be a situation where they'd
be in a fight. Keep in mind something stupid that
she started. And he's like listen, He's like, just go home.
He's like, well, we'll hang out tomorrow. It'll be like
a whole new thing. He finally get her out. She's
the type to show back up.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
At his house. Pou, I'm not his window. No, I'm
coming in. Blah blah blah. We're talking this shit out
right now.

Speaker 26 (46:37):
Like before you lied, You lied and said you would
never lock me out of the house again.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
That is why we got back together last time we
broke up, but.

Speaker 14 (46:47):
I forgot.

Speaker 15 (46:50):
Because you were a little fucking weak fish broke up
from here. It is your last chance to open the
door or you are not coming out of this house
all night, because I.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Will not leave.

Speaker 14 (47:04):
Let me go to dead No, no, let me go
to Denner and then I can let you come over later.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
No, you're not, because I'm coming to dinner too. I'm
coming to dinner too.

Speaker 14 (47:13):
By you want you should have told me you wanted
to come.

Speaker 17 (47:16):
You're fucking recharge. You already put me on the reservation,
So fucking open the door.

Speaker 14 (47:20):
You've done, Like, let's just go the next door that.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
No, we're not going next door? Oh yeah, not letting
you at the house. We need to talk at first
because you thought you just like betrayed me.

Speaker 14 (47:30):
You can talk outside.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
Cut it out, don't don't.

Speaker 14 (47:34):
Try to come out.

Speaker 4 (47:39):
Dom if you too not over like you think I'm joke?

Speaker 17 (47:42):
If you think I've joke?

Speaker 7 (47:43):
Do you think I like a dead ass?

Speaker 4 (47:47):
What about you doing?

Speaker 17 (47:50):
That's exactly what I mean.

Speaker 4 (47:51):
It doesn't You don't even know exactly what I mean.

Speaker 15 (47:53):
You're gonna come open this door right now or there's
gonna be a serious fucking.

Speaker 14 (47:56):
Problem, Kensey, I really don't think I can, Like, why
can't we just do this?

Speaker 4 (48:01):
Ship?

Speaker 14 (48:02):
Like, why can't we do it later?

Speaker 15 (48:03):
Because I'm coming to dinner? You have five seconds?

Speaker 14 (48:05):
Would you want to come to dinner with us? You
want to come to dinner with us? Is that what
you're saying?

Speaker 2 (48:11):
The door right now?

Speaker 14 (48:13):
You could come to dinner with us if you want
the door, Ken, if you want, you can come to
dinner with this.

Speaker 15 (48:19):
You don't open the door, I'm key in your car?

Speaker 4 (48:24):
All right?

Speaker 8 (48:24):
Is the door locked?

Speaker 15 (48:25):
I'm about to test it?

Speaker 8 (48:26):
Can't?

Speaker 14 (48:26):
Just why are you acting over this?

Speaker 15 (48:30):
I'm gonna give you one the last second.

Speaker 17 (48:32):
I'm gonna have to.

Speaker 8 (48:32):
Keep your car.

Speaker 14 (48:34):
Why why why would you? Why would that ever be
like an option?

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Your broken up?

Speaker 15 (48:38):
If you don't let me in the house, I'm breaking up.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
I will break up with you. I'm going to break
up with you.

Speaker 6 (48:43):
You're not open this door.

Speaker 14 (48:44):
You took all your shid least I thought like you
didn't want to be here.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
Okay, I'm gonna break into your house with the actual fun.

Speaker 8 (48:54):
Well I just broke your fucking key thing, so that sucks.

Speaker 14 (48:57):
Were key thing? Coming?

Speaker 8 (49:03):
Do?

Speaker 15 (49:03):
I feel like call the police?

Speaker 14 (49:05):
Why why would you call the police?

Speaker 15 (49:07):
Or you're not gonna let me into my house?

Speaker 1 (49:09):
This is not your house.

Speaker 14 (49:11):
I'm calling on You're not doing this and we're gonna
break up this house.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
So we are done.

Speaker 8 (49:20):
If you do not let me in the house that
I sleep in every night.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
We are done.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
Just listen to this narcissistic, entitled, childlike brat that has
apparently never been told no in her entire fucking life.
She's just hearing that word for the first time, just now,
the verbal kicking, the stomping, the crying the way like

(49:46):
a toddler, angrily making noises and stopping their feet because
their pacifier fell to the ground, and screaming is the
only way to combat the force of gravity. She's literally
threatening to call the police whilst committing a crime. What
a fucking moron.

Speaker 23 (50:07):
She'd make threats. He'd definitely say that she's the kind
of person to follow through with those threats.

Speaker 4 (50:13):
He believed she would follow through.

Speaker 23 (50:16):
Yeah, not like I mean, obviously everybody makes false threats
and empty threats and stuff like that. But some of
the stuff he would or she would say. I do
remember him telling me, yeah, Kinzie's crazy. She would actually
probably do that ship.

Speaker 4 (50:35):
I mean, that's the problem.

Speaker 8 (50:37):
You know.

Speaker 17 (50:38):
She threatened him constantly.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
I told you.

Speaker 12 (50:40):
It was one week before we had to pick him
up on the highway when she threatened to crash the
car down.

Speaker 17 (50:45):
Okay, it's not I was on with DOWND. She said them,
text me down was out of control.

Speaker 4 (50:50):
Down was very calm, So mom.

Speaker 8 (50:54):
We did see those Yeah, that's one of the things
we wanted to bring off.

Speaker 26 (50:57):
Was that right they were on the side of the route.
Said I'm calling the police if you don't get you
and I said you can. I on the phone saying
she can call the police all she wants, but we
are on our way.

Speaker 4 (51:11):
What are the police kind to do?

Speaker 1 (51:14):
If she had called the police the numerous times she
apparently threatened to, maybe these kids would have been forced
to break up a long time ago. Maybe Mackenzie would
be in juvie and Dominic and Davion would still be alive.
Mackenzie was known for making threats, though most of them empty.

(51:34):
The police from the forensic vehicle inspection came back and
showed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car.
It worked fine, well not after the crash, but you
know what I mean. Images of Mackenzie trapped in the
car that day with her fuzzy Prada slipper pressing the
accelerator to the floor suddenly looked even more suspicious. We

(52:00):
don't have details about this, but it's on record that
Mackenzie drove that exact route a few days prior she
was casing. The joint investigators also knew that Mackenzie had
threatened to crash the car with Dominic in it just
a few weeks before, and it seemed increasingly probable that

(52:20):
this was a threat she followed through with. In the

(52:55):
months following the tragic car wreck that claimed the lives
of twenty year old Manik Russo and nineteen year old
Davion Flanagain, detectives in Strong Below, Ohio diligently conducted interviews,
reviewed evidence, and methodically built their case. As they pieced
together the puzzle, the evidence increasingly pointed towards the driver,

(53:17):
seventeen year old Mackenzie Shrilla, leaving little room for doubt.

Speaker 10 (53:23):
So since the crash in the passing of Dominic has,
has she been in contact with you?

Speaker 23 (53:33):
As she reached out to She texted me multiple times
I could read you the text word for word. She
never once, never once said I'm sorry for your loss.
She never once said I'm so sorry for what happened.
She never once took responsibility, not even having to take
any responsibility, just saying I'm sorry Dom's gone like anything.
But she asked me for forgiveness about ten times, saying

(53:57):
I hope that you forgive me. I still want to
be a part of your family, and I'll just show
you the text and make it easy see this. She
text me on August sixth, okay, before that, the last
time she texted me was May seventh. Okay, so so
May seventh was the last time she texted me, and
it was just to say Dom's phone died. The last
time she texted me before that, well, she was asking
me if I could do homework for her because she

(54:18):
was too lazy.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
To do her math work. Wow, and I mean honestly,
like I May seventh? And then when was the next
time after May seventh, which was the date August sixth,
after the crash, And you could read it? This is
what she said, a word for word August.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Hey, Angelo, I don't know if you hate me, but
tomorrow for the funeral, would you be able to go
in Dom's room and grab some photos from his desk
for me and him so I could put them into
the casket so he can be with me forever.

Speaker 23 (54:51):
Doesn't say sorry, doesn't say nothing, doesn't say anything. This says,
Hey Angelo, I don't know if you hate me, but
can you go grab pictures of us and put them
in his so I could deal with him forever?

Speaker 4 (55:01):
How like?

Speaker 23 (55:02):
Honestly? How psychotic does that sound? That sounds fucking twisted.
She texted me again after that at all, just to
say please let me know, as she texted me again
August twenty third. Actually she did say sorry one time,
first time that she ever said this.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
She said, I'm here. What we agreed if you want it.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
Says Hi Angelo. I just wanted to say I'm so sorry.
I know you probably think this is all my fault,
and I'm not asking you to feel bad for me,
but I just wanted to say I'm so sorry, and
I know you miss him so much. I wish he
was here too. This should have never happened. He loves
you so much, and.

Speaker 8 (55:40):
I k you.

Speaker 4 (55:42):
I know, I know you know that.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
I don't even know what to say to you or
just feel so bad. I hope you guys can forgive
me because I always look at you guys as family.
You don't even need to respond to me. Just want
to do to know.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
I'm so sorry. Okay, but see even these texts.

Speaker 23 (56:05):
That she sent me, even in this one, okay, it
would it maybe would have been something if it's like hey,
if it was just I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry,
you know, But then she has to go just one line.
It's one sentence that I'm so sorry, and then it
goes I know you probably think this is all my
fault and I'm asking you to feel bad for me.
Why would I feel bad for you in this situation?
How did it take you one sentence of saying sorry

(56:26):
and then then just to go to that. It should
literally be like I'm so sorry I bought the paint.
It should all be about you're texting.

Speaker 4 (56:33):
She's worried about what you think of her, So she's
using that sorry.

Speaker 23 (56:37):
Like the whole, the whole, like the whole entire, like
the whole, entire consistency of her is just self.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
Is just She's just self, self absorbed and self.

Speaker 23 (56:46):
So everything that she texts me, even if she is
finally saying I'm sorry, there's it's it's about her.

Speaker 4 (56:51):
It's not even about me.

Speaker 10 (56:53):
So uh, I know, since we get herd of the phone,
she's been back active on social media and any of
your friend's screenshots you anything, have you? You know, we've
received some photos of her in the wheelchair out and about.

Speaker 23 (57:08):
I could definitely get some screenshots. I'm not on social
media much at all. Okay, but the first thing I
did hear of at the time. We didn't even know
if this was her mom or her or what, because
we didn't even know if she was even awake to
use a phone. We didn't know how severe injury was
or anything, you know. And the first thing I seen
from her, she didn't text my mom, She didn't text me,

(57:30):
she didn't text my dad, she didn't text anybody in
my family.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
The first thing I seen from.

Speaker 23 (57:34):
Her contacting anybody, well, she texted a modeling agency that
reached out to her and said something.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Here's what the company commented on one of Mackenzie's photos.

Speaker 27 (57:47):
We love this look, Kenzie Sharilla. Can we use this
post on our website and emails? We'll make sure you're credited,
replied to this comment with hashtag community if so.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
Most of us have probably gotten comments like this in
our own Instagram accounts, and we all know it's spam
we should ignore. But Mackenzie's mother, Natalie, jumped at the
opportunity and replied to the comment with her own account
typo's and all.

Speaker 28 (58:17):
She said, thank you for this amazing opportunity. Hello, this
is her mother. She would love if you would use that.
She's actually been trying to contact you guys for pr email.
It was a tragic accident and she did not purposely
mean put an end to any of her close friend's life.
This is just as painful as it is for her

(58:38):
as it is for everybody else, or maybe even a
little bit more painful.

Speaker 14 (58:42):
Hard emoji.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Ben Mackenzie chimed in from her hospital bed and commented, thank.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
You for the comment.

Speaker 3 (58:49):
I would love to work with you, guys. I've been
emailing you guys a lot.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
Such a great opportunity.

Speaker 13 (58:54):
Thank you.

Speaker 23 (58:56):
But that was before even like you're going to go
and reach out to Amaya aguring out the one to
use your picture before texting several people on this, Yeah,
many many people in between that should have gotten that
text beforehand, you know what I mean. And then like
her mom, her dad is someone never even texted me once.
I already had, I already previous to this, had somewhat

(59:16):
of a relationship with her mom, talking about her daughter's
issues or whatever and what I think or whatever, and
you know, and it wasn't like we never talked before,
you know what I mean. I say hi to her
in the driveway when she was driving her off, and
uh before she was driving this a while ago.

Speaker 8 (59:32):
But but she definitely has.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
She's never said not even a word, not a pee,
neither from her dad or nothing.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
Some people, not very many, but a few still wanted
to defend Mackenzie and her lack of remorse. They're called
the enablers, and uh, a lot of bad people have
a lot of those people in their life. One of
those people was her friend Paul, the host of the party.

Speaker 10 (01:00:00):
This solved speculation, but at this point, you know, yeah, Kenzie,
if you're on social media, did you see Kenzie talking
with this.

Speaker 4 (01:00:09):
Modeling company after the crash, after we gave her a
phone back, I saw people talking about that. Yeah, what
did you see?

Speaker 10 (01:00:19):
Just people really enraged, enraged about what that she was
talking to the modeling company. Yeah, to see how happy
her mom was that she's that the modeling company is
trying to help her plan her future. She just killed
her boyfriend and another kid with a very bright future,
actually killed two people. And the reaction is, I'm worried
about my modeling career instead of that's why I'm saying

(01:00:42):
way all that. As you know, as the time comes,
you know that people can put on a really good
show about how devastated they are, but then you look
at their social media.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
And you're back talking about your career and your future plans.

Speaker 10 (01:00:55):
If I kill my friends or if I'm responsible for
the death of somebody stavastating you know, and I hope
you never ever have to experience that. But the reaction
that you saw and that we saw is something that
is intrigued.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
All this evidence was certainly intriguing enough for the county
prosecutor to pursue charges against Mackenzie, and after a very
slow and secretive investigation, she was officially charged in November
of twenty twenty two. Mackenzie would face four counts of
murder and felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide,

(01:01:37):
and one count of drug possession. Oh and also one
count of possessing criminal tools.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
Where see, I'm back there, pal, I'm Kenzie.

Speaker 14 (01:01:52):
Step off for me.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
I'm Detective Azoo.

Speaker 3 (01:01:56):
I'm the one who's been investigating the crash. You're under
arrest for agris man of murder times too.

Speaker 10 (01:02:02):
Nobody's gonna ask her any questions, nobody's gonna bother you
have your pie, please, because you.

Speaker 15 (01:02:07):
Please be careful taking this where you are so it
doesn't eastlately you got.

Speaker 14 (01:02:10):
It, You got it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
Mackenzie and her defense attorneys decided a bench trial would
be the best route. This meant that she would skip
the whole jury trial and the judge alone would hear
her case and decide her fate. It's quite a gamble.
You got to get a good judge in there that
you think you can get on their side somehow. This
is just a hunch, but perhaps her defense attorneys knew

(01:02:35):
that she'd be perceived pretty badly by a jury, a
jury that's probably had plenty of experience with Braddy children
and have maybe taught them better. Anyway, they probably hoped
they would get lucky if they only had to convince
one person. If that was their plan, it turned out

(01:02:56):
to be a bad one.

Speaker 29 (01:02:59):
Judge is as the jury and the finder of fact
as well as the rule of law, and it is
a reminder of just how difficult a job it is
to serve as a finder of fact. Whether it's a
bench trial or a jury trial, the rules of law
are the same.

Speaker 8 (01:03:16):
I have done what I have sworn to do.

Speaker 29 (01:03:19):
I have carefully and deliberately considered all the evidence in
this case, including the testimony of the witnesses, the science,
the expert opinions offered, the medical evidence, physical evidence, the photographs,
and the video evidence. This trial is a combination of
decisions made by one person. Those decisions have forever altered

(01:03:44):
the futures of three families, and a view also begains
and your decisions forever rob Dominic and Tavian.

Speaker 17 (01:03:52):
Of the futures they add before none.

Speaker 29 (01:03:56):
If there is one thing that can be taken away
from this case, evil as it is, it is this.

Speaker 4 (01:04:02):
Every decision we.

Speaker 15 (01:04:03):
Make is important.

Speaker 29 (01:04:05):
Every action we make is important, regardless of whether the
decision is a good one or a bad one. Where
the actions are good or not, the result is the same.
The consequences rippled through time. It affects many more people
than one might think at the time of the decision.
And at this point I would like to comment specifically

(01:04:27):
on the exhibit vio to the crash video. This is
the type of evidence you can never unsee. You can
never forget the visual or audio of this ephibit.

Speaker 4 (01:04:38):
It is chilling and treasury.

Speaker 22 (01:04:41):
As you review that exhibit, you know.

Speaker 29 (01:04:44):
That you are watching the oncoming death of two people
and there is nothing that will stop it. The video
clearly shows the purpose and intent of the defendant.

Speaker 17 (01:04:55):
She shows a course of death and destruction of its.

Speaker 22 (01:05:00):
To crystallizes the.

Speaker 29 (01:05:02):
Denny decision making of the defendant. She norse from a
responsible driver to literal hell on wheels, and she makes
her way down the street. McKenzie alone made decision to
drive her car to drive an obscure route, the route
she visited a few days before, and a route not
opportunely taken by her keenzio Lam chose the time to

(01:05:25):
name the drive early in the morning, when any reasonable
person would expect a few people who would be nearby
to wesit or all of life saving assistance. She made
these decisions despite knowing, as any reasonable person would, that
her mission of death could have involved others. Not even
in the car with her are the people of the

(01:05:45):
car's pedestrians.

Speaker 4 (01:05:48):
She had a mission and she executed it with precision.

Speaker 17 (01:05:51):
The mission was death.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
The difference between this and a jury trial is that
when the verdict is read in a jury trial, it
happens at once. Mackenzie had to listen to this judge's
speech and slowly pieced together where she was going with it,
kind of like Alec Baldwin. If you saw that happen. Boy,
what a clusterfuck huh. Anyway, before she even got to

(01:06:17):
the verdict, Mackenzie knew what it would be. She sobbed
and listened as this judge read out guilty verdicts for
every single count. Her parents sat behind her, looking shocked,
apparently that there was going to be some accountability, a
word that they had apparently never heard of before. When

(01:06:41):
it came to her sentencing hearing in August of twenty
twenty three, just like any other defendant, Mackenzie's friends and
family were permitted to speak on her behalf Natalie, I
just want to say it.

Speaker 15 (01:06:57):
In my knowledge to address them at all. Just want
to say to the families that I'm broken, sad and
lost in my heart, hurts for everyone.

Speaker 14 (01:07:07):
Okay.

Speaker 15 (01:07:08):
Davian was her room friend, and Don was the love
of her life and he was part of our family. Okay,
I'm just so sorry that this happened.

Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
We're heartbroken.

Speaker 15 (01:07:17):
Okay. And then here, Honor, this was a terrible, tragic,
nightmare accident to have happened that she has no memory of,
and she will never emotionally or physically.

Speaker 14 (01:07:26):
Recover of it, recover from it.

Speaker 15 (01:07:29):
She almost died too, and we're asking that you please
not run the sentences consecutive. He was family and we
all loved each other. In the hospital, they have vitality post.
I commented on that because somebody had called her a murderer, okay,
and she wouldn't she's not a murderer. So she didn't
even have her phone at that point because the police

(01:07:51):
had still had it, Okay. So I jumped on and
I was like, you know, she's not a murderer. She's
more sad than her.

Speaker 3 (01:07:59):
Then these people.

Speaker 15 (01:08:00):
Commenting, I had called them asking him they could shut
down social media because people were calling her a murderer
and making death threats and organizing groups to you know,
take her out when she got out of the hospital
and stuff. So I don't even want her phone. I
don't care about her phone. I don't care about social media.
I just wanted them to stop calling her a murderer
so that when she did come to, and she did
come out of surgery, multiple surgeries, that she wouldn't see

(01:08:25):
all these people calling her a murder because she would
never ever ever murder the love of her life.

Speaker 14 (01:08:31):
Okay.

Speaker 15 (01:08:32):
Everything she did after the accident was either in honor
of him, to be close to him or just be
by him anyway that she can. She's like devastated and triged.
He was the air that she breathes. Okay, and they
went with his cousin. We spend all kinds of time
with them after the accident. What was the other thing,

(01:08:56):
marry an awful very much, Dominic, Okay, I'm asking you
for a leniency because this was a tragic action that
she does not remember. And Dot and Davian we don't.
She's a new friend, and I'm so sorry. No, no, no, no, no,

(01:09:17):
gotten no, not at all. They all they all loved
each other. They all spend every day together.

Speaker 4 (01:09:23):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 14 (01:09:23):
I don't.

Speaker 15 (01:09:24):
I don't know too much for him. Sorry that they
all trust each other. It's not a problem at all.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
It was wonderful.

Speaker 15 (01:09:37):
I understand. I understand what it looks like. I'm I'm
I'm saying that it was a tragic accident.

Speaker 14 (01:09:43):
She would never I understand, I.

Speaker 15 (01:09:49):
Understand. But anyway, that's it. I just want to address
those We told her to go to those things, and
then she did go with Dom's family.

Speaker 14 (01:09:56):
So look at that.

Speaker 15 (01:09:57):
Don't look at him with the look at that look
on that different eyes. If you can, please, this is
not at all, not at all, not at all, But
she's a good If you would if you have a moment,
all you would mean is five minutes of a conversation
to have with her to learn who she is. Just that,
you would just need five minutes to learn who she

(01:10:17):
is and what she's capable of not doing and doing,
and you would see for yourself. That's all. I'm so sorry, guys,
I'm sorry.

Speaker 14 (01:10:25):
I love you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
The apple does not fall far from the tree. McKenzie
spoke after her mother.

Speaker 17 (01:10:41):
So sorry, we're doing on purpose. I wish I could
remember what happened.

Speaker 4 (01:10:50):
I'm sorry, I'm hard. I love Happendavia. You were all right,
should done with. I wish I could take all your feway.

Speaker 16 (01:10:58):
I'm so sorry, and.

Speaker 17 (01:11:02):
Thank you for the support. Oh love you guys, Thank
you for twelve so much.

Speaker 1 (01:11:08):
The victim impact statements from this case are a tragic
juxtaposition to the empty excuses in late apologies offered by
mackenzie and her family. Here's Davion's little sister.

Speaker 22 (01:11:21):
Hi reminds Divi Frannigans.

Speaker 25 (01:11:24):
Javon was my older.

Speaker 29 (01:11:26):
Brothers and Davion fran Man has been very difficult for me.

Speaker 17 (01:11:31):
You have gone through everything together since stayed row Dagon
was a big brother to me and my anest Beulia.
We all got adopted together and two hat him twelve
after Jabon passed away.

Speaker 7 (01:11:43):
A lot of.

Speaker 4 (01:11:43):
Trauma and past.

Speaker 17 (01:11:44):
Jane have fews my wife.

Speaker 25 (01:11:47):
He was a person who trusted him off because even.

Speaker 17 (01:11:50):
Mean don't see. I hate the fact that he has
done because.

Speaker 13 (01:11:54):
Someone decided to take his wife.

Speaker 22 (01:11:57):
Now that David is done, I feel stubbed.

Speaker 17 (01:12:00):
I feel as if I can't move forward.

Speaker 15 (01:12:02):
I feel lost.

Speaker 17 (01:12:04):
He wants a lot of thinking young when I felled.

Speaker 4 (01:12:06):
He has my best friend and all my cos in
that had.

Speaker 8 (01:12:09):
Stay with me for.

Speaker 17 (01:12:14):
Prospect Rotilus Dominic's moller. No one wanted this to be
a murder. Want to push Mackezid Shrilla for this accident.
This is not a car accident evident. Some signs proved
that McKenzie Shiella murdered my son Dominic as well as Stadium.

(01:12:39):
There's more fix put it in this case. This is
Shiroa was like to proclay.

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
Well.

Speaker 25 (01:12:46):
The thank starts a police department in the state of
Ohio proceeding the truth behind this crash.

Speaker 4 (01:12:52):
Thanks to them.

Speaker 17 (01:12:54):
We don't know what happened to them the car that day.

Speaker 25 (01:12:57):
But we don't know is why I wish I could
change this every day I lost three children in that crash,
and then it goes by each day that I don't
think about my son well Sadia, my Hunt's brother, wrote.

Speaker 17 (01:13:16):
The prize heard from the strong family in the front
at the Verdant are nothing more than a lack of remorse.
And since you were in that choice, Domin davy Lon
did not, we were all left carry more. July thirty first,
twenty twenty two, called his mother hysterical with the loss

(01:13:41):
of my son davy On.

Speaker 25 (01:13:44):
I din't because he was in the hospital and the
first stadium said to me was, oh, please, don't listen
to what everyone's.

Speaker 17 (01:13:51):
Saying on Facebook. Yeah, my son's dead, his friend is dead.

Speaker 19 (01:14:00):
Checking out the.

Speaker 17 (01:14:01):
Most social media expensport.

Speaker 30 (01:14:05):
Social media is being game in spite of the life
of McKenzie, as a game out.

Speaker 17 (01:14:11):
Of discouraging tragedy. No one can imagine the pain of
using a child.

Speaker 30 (01:14:17):
Unless they must on themselves the big us for ever war.
I must not healing this road McKenzie prison because she didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:14:29):
You think holy.

Speaker 25 (01:14:30):
Adjuring is still alive and in the future, whatever they
may be. Domind Davion, we loved of their futures.

Speaker 30 (01:14:37):
Their hopes, and their dreams. Pansy showed no mercy on Dominic,
or did she on davy On. Only God of this
find anniversity on her soul.

Speaker 28 (01:14:49):
Thank you.

Speaker 31 (01:14:50):
If any reasonable person reviews exhibited at oh two, there
could be no doubt in your mind what happened was.
There can be no doubt of the absolute terror of
the two people in that car. The defendant controlled all
the events. She chose the day, specifically, she chose the

(01:15:15):
day just before her eighteenth birthday. She chose to drive
the car, the time to drive the car. She chose
an obscure, previously scouted route through an industrial parkway. She
chose the target to hit from the victims.

Speaker 4 (01:15:30):
She chose the means and.

Speaker 31 (01:15:31):
The method to follow through. And she planned and purposely
executed the events of July thiry first, twenty twenty two,
and the testimony the BMV official who provided evidence that
not only did the defendant deny any medical condition when
applying for her license, which her mother co signed in
the testeditu, but also that just after the accident, Mackenzie

(01:15:52):
renewed her driver's license and again denied any medical condition.
In fact, the defendant was so concerned about driving that,
as the state mentioned during the investigation, she asked if
they could just suspend her license for ten years. It
is hard to fathom all person could be concerned about
their driving privileges having just been responsible for the death

(01:16:15):
of two people. It is also important to remember that
even if Mackenzie intended to also die in this crash,
that is irrelevant. A failed suicide attempt is not a
defense to murder, and even in a murder suicide attempt,
when a perpetrator executing the plans survives, the other death

(01:16:36):
or deaths are still murder. There's only one person who's
responsible for the pain of everyone in this room, and
that person is you, Mackenzie. Nobody else is responsible. This
isn't the fault of Domini's family, or Daveyon's family, or
your family. There's a very good likelihood, Mackenzie, that you
will spend the rest of your life in prison.

Speaker 13 (01:16:58):
That won't be up to me.

Speaker 31 (01:17:00):
That will be up to the pearl board, and that
will be up to you.

Speaker 14 (01:17:03):
To a great extent.

Speaker 31 (01:17:06):
I understand that the pain in this room wants me
to impose the harshest sentence, but I don't believe that
would be the appropriate sentence because I do believe that
Mackenzie will not be out.

Speaker 4 (01:17:19):
In fifteen years.

Speaker 31 (01:17:21):
So she's sentenced on count two, the murder of Davion Flanagan,
fifteen years tolight. She's sentenced on count one, the murder
of Dominic Russo, fifteen years to life, to be concurring
to each other, with credit.

Speaker 15 (01:17:36):
For time served.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
As far as we're aware, Mackenzie and her family still
claim her innocence to this day. Some people just never learn.
We have no doubt that she will exhaust her appeal efforts.
Seventeen year old Mackenzie Shrilla's mission was death literally, as

(01:18:00):
the judge said, she changed the course of history with
one decision and now she'll have to pay. Well, that

(01:19:44):
doesn't for another one. If you like the show, head
on over to the old website Sword and Scale dot com.
There's a brand new episode of Sword and Scale Television.

Speaker 3 (01:19:56):
They're waiting for you.

Speaker 1 (01:19:57):
It's episode seven. You might like and if you're into
this whole true crime Shenanigan's business nonsense, check it out
and stay safe. M. M.

Speaker 15 (01:20:35):
M h.