PEOPLE are completely divided after this heartbreaking detail about Mackenzie Shirilla surfaced… 💔😳

PEOPLE are completely divided after this heartbreaking detail about Mackenzie Shirilla surfaced… 💔😳

Before everything changed, she allegedly made one request involving photos with her boyfriend’s casket — and now people online cannot stop arguing over what it really meant. Was it grief? Something deeper? Or was this one of the most unsettling details in a case people thought they already understood?

See the full story everyone is reacting to 👇🔥

Mackenzie Shirilla Wanted Her Photos in Slain Boyfriend’s Casket ‘So He Can Be with Me Forever’

Mackenzie Shirilla was convicted of intentionally crashing her car in July 2022, killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan

Dominic Russo and Mackenzie Shirilla; The crash scene.Credit : Courtesy of Netflix; Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office

NEED TO KNOW

Mackenzie Shirilla was convicted of intentionally crashing her car, killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan
Shortly after the tragedy, initially believed to be an accident, Shirilla texted Russo’s brother, asking if he could put photos of the couple in Russo’s grave “so he can be with me forever.”
A judge ultimately ruled the crash was premeditated, with prosecutors citing Shirilla’s troubled relationship with Russo and car data

Mackenzie Shirilla said she wanted her photos in her slain boyfriend’s casket after causing the high-speed crash that killed him and their friend in 2022, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.

Shirilla, then 17, intentionally crashed her sedan into a brick wall at nearly 100 mph in Strongsville, Ohio, killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, 19, on July 31, 2022. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene, while Shirilla was hospitalized with multiple injuries.

Shirilla said she could not remember what happened, but prosecutors later argued at her 2023 bench trial that the act was premeditated, claiming that she intended to kill Russo due to their strained relationship. Evidence also showed that she floored the gas pedal and did not press the brake pedal in the five seconds before impact.

In the time after the crash, initially believed to be an accident, Shirilla publicly mourned Russo online, writing that he was “the last person to deserve this” and sharing photos of the couple on his obituary page. She has also been seen crying at his grave in clips shared in the recent Netflix documentary, The Crash. In August 2023, Shirilla texted Russo’s brother, Angelo Russo, with a specific request. According to a 2024 Ohio Court of Appeals opinion upholding Shirilla’s conviction obtained by PEOPLE, she asked whether he could “go in Dom’s room and grab some photos from his desk of me and him” so she could place them in the casket “so he can be with me forever.”

Angelo told police at the time that his brother and Shirilla had “broken up many times” during their four-year relationship and that shortly before the fatal crash, Dominic was considering ending the relationship for good, the opinion states.

Dominic’s mother and friends of the couple also told police they believed the relationship had been troubled.

Shirilla, now 21, and her parents, Steve and Natalie, have maintained that the crash was not intentional. They say a medical emergency caused by postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) led her to black out while she was behind the wheel.

Shirilla is currently serving two concurrent life sentences, and will be eligible for parole in 2037 after being convicted of all 12 felony charges against her, including murder and aggravated vehicular homicide.

At her sentencing, prosecutors referenced a TikTok video Shirilla posted months after the crash, arguing it showed a lack of remorse, as seen in The Crash. The clip showed Shirilla and two friends on Halloween of that year, dressed in costumes and horror-style makeup.

Shirilla’s multiple appeals have been denied.