Mackenzie Shirilla caught speaking in cryptic code language to mom during jail phone call
Topics: True Crime, Crime, US News, Netflix, Documentaries
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: Ohio Reformatory for Women
Topics: True Crime, Crime, US News, Netflix, Documentaries
Audio footage of an eerie telephone call between prison inmate Mackenzie Shirilla and her mother has been obtained, in which the double-murderer is heard speaking in code.
The recording has been shared this week by PEOPLE, after the 21-year-old's heinous crimes were unearthed following the release of Netflix's latest true-crime documentary, The Crash.
In the unnerving phone call, Mackenzie - who is three years into her two concurrent 15-to-life prison terms - is heard switching between a strange secret language and English while chatting to her mother, Natalie.
The transition began during a conversation about a man that Mackenzie had been contacting from within the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
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Mackenzie has been behind bars since 2023, when she was sentenced for the murders of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo and pal, Davion Flanagan, after a judge found that she'd crashed her car into the wall of a building at 100mph with the intention of killing the pair.
The killer suggests meeting the mystery man in question, after which Natalie warns her daughter not to.
It is then that Mackenzie switches to an indecipherable language, which she uses for around 30 seconds.
At several points, Natalie - who, in the documentary, stood by her daughter's innocence, believing the July 2022 deaths of Russo and Flanagan were wholly accidental - responds to Mackenzie's comments as if she understands the secret dialect.
"Oh, god," she says, after which her daughter replies: "Oh, god is right, yes."
Mackenzie continues speaking in gibberish again, seemingly changing the subject matter, after which Natalie interrupts again to ask: "Which one?"
Natalie also remarks, 'Oh, great', at another point during the conversation, before checking: "Don't forget you said - can I say a gibberish term just to make sure? I can talk. You're saying rape?"
After Mackenzie confirms, 'Yeah', Natalie adds: "Don't forget, that might not be what really happened. She's being accused of that.
"Don't forget, people say that all the time to get other people in trouble. You see, that's what's happening to you."
This is far from the first time Mackenzie has communicated with her mother using a secret language.
In 2023, prosecutors hired a team to decode one phone call between the duo, who found that she was adding 'eeza' or 'ezza' to the end of syllables.
During one conversation, which was used as evidence to convict her, she allegedly asked Natalie: "Can we tell the police I had a seizure?"
Investigators who assessed footage of the crash that killed Russo, 20, and Flanagan, 19, also proved that Mackenzie had driven her 2018 Toyota Camry directly into Strongsville, Ohio's Plidco Building without attempting to slow down after the trio attended a friend's party.
They argued that the path the vehicle had travelled remained straight and controlled until the moment it hit the wall.
A forensic mechanical expert also confirmed during the bench trial that the car's pedal had been pushed down to 100 per cent capacity for several seconds leading up to the crash, averaging at 98.7mph until the moment of impact.
Prosecutors also referenced a series of controversial TikToks uploaded by Mackenzie in the weeks after the crash, including a vlog of herself being rolled out of the hospital in a wheelchair, and another of her attempting to contact Dominic with a Ouija board.
Mackenzie insists, however, that she'd blacked out ahead of the fatal collision, claiming this was a side effect of her Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) diagnosis.
She recalled the crash in the documentary, explaining: "It was like 5:00am and we'd decided to head back to Dom's house. I remember turning on the street, and then I'm waking up in the hospital the next day, and my whole life is shattered.
"The whole morning is nothing - it sounds crazy, but I'm not going to lie just because people want to hear a story. I have no recollection of that morning.
"I'm not saying I'm innocent. I was the driver of a tragedy, but I'm not a murderer."
17 July 2022 - Mackenzie Shirilla and her boyfriend Dominic Russo get into an argument. A friend allegedly overhears Shirilla tell him: “I will crash this car right now.”
31 July 2022 - Shirilla is driving Russo, 20, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 19, from Russo’s home to a friend’s house. At around 5.30am, she crashes the car into a Plidco Building in Strongsville, Ohio, travelling at 100mph without braking. Police arrive on the scene 45 minutes later. Russo and Flanagan are pronounced dead and Shirilla is transported to MetroHealth Medical Center.
August 2022 - 200 people attend a vigil for Russo and Flanagan. Shirilla remains in critical condition. When a detective visits her in hospital, she is said to be speaking a ‘unique language’ similar to pig Latin.
October 2022 - Shirilla attends a Halloween party wearing fancy dress which resembles a corpse, which Davion’s father considers in very poor taste. He says in Netflix’s The Crash: “Dressing up as corpses three months after she killed two people, it just sickened us to the very core.”
4 November 2022 - Shirilla is arrested and faces 18 charges, including two counts of aggravated murder. She also faces charges for allegedly breaking into the Columbia Church of God in Columbia Station days before the crash, along with drug possession charges.
7 August 2023 - Shirilla’s trial begins. Her defence team argue she may have passed out at the time of the crash due to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), but no medical records or expert testimony confirms the diagnosis.
14 August 2023 - Shirilla is found guilty on all counts. Judge Nancy Margaret Russo calls her ‘hell on wheels’, and the court concludes she intentionally crashed the car in a premeditated act.
23 August 2023 - Shirilla is sentenced to two concurrent 15 years to life sentences. Her legal team later lose an appeal and relief petition. She remains incarcerated in the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
22 May 2025 - Shirilla’s parents insist that she’s innocent. Her father Steve tells WKYC: “Show me one piece of evidence - one - that says she did this on purpose. Show it to me, then she's right where she belongs and she's guilty of it. But there isn't any.” Her mother Natalie claims there are texts in which Shirilla says Russo was ‘trying to end her life’.
15 May 2026 - Netflix’s The Crash premieres. In it, Shirilla insists she is ‘not a murderer’ and has no memory of the crash, continuing to blame POTS.
18 May 2026 - Steve Shirilla is placed on administrative leave from his job as an art and digital media teacher at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland following allegations he had ‘demonstrated poor judgement’. Viewers of Netflix’s documentary objected to his attitude towards Shirilla’s marijuana use and his dismissal of claims she told a classmate to end their life.
September 2037 - This is when Shirilla will be eligible for parole