Natalie Shirilla, the mother of convicted murderer MacKenzie Shirilla, has spoken about her daughter’s life in prison, saying she is finding it difficult to cope.
MacKenzie Shirilla was found guilty over the deaths of her boyfriend, 20-year-old Dominic Russo, and their friend, 19-year-old Davion Flanagan, after crashing her vehicle into a wall at 100mph when she was 17.
The case has since been revisited in the Netflix documentary The Crash, which premiered in 2026. Shirilla’s conviction and sentence have also remained in the headlines after Ohio courts rejected efforts to overturn her case, and the Ohio Supreme Court declined to take up another appeal on June 23, 2026.
Her mother discussed the case in an appearance on Chris Cuomo’s podcast Cuomo Crime Time, during the June 24 episode, where she again maintained that her daughter is innocent and described the impact prison has had on her.
“It’s almost like she’s trapped in a nightmare that she has no memory of,” she told the host, adding: “She’s never seen the evidence. She’s never seen the discovery. She’s never seen anything.”
Natalie said her daughter is ‘literally trapped in this nightmare’ and claimed she ‘struggles mentally’. She also said MacKenzie does not remember the crash itself.
“All she knows is that the boyfriend that she loved with her whole, whole heart is gone and Davion is gone and she was the driver in a car accident, and has no memory of it,” she said.
Natalie also spoke about how her daughter is spending her time in prison, saying she has turned to art. Prison disciplinary records reported in May 2026 also described a series of conduct violations at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, including contraband, unauthorized items, and rule-breaking involving video visits.
“It’s so sad, and one of these days I’ll share it. I’m not going to share it now for obvious reasons, but it’s really sad,” she said.
According to Natalie, many of the drawings reflect her daughter’s emotional state and include self-portraits.
“She does self-portraits of herself where she has a rose of thorns around her neck or her mouth is sewn shut, and she’s got all these question marks around her head like, ‘Why, why, why?’ And like, ‘Where’s Dom?’ Like, ‘What happened and [to] Davion?'” said Natalie.
Shirilla has argued that a medical episode while she was behind the wheel caused the fatal collision. That explanation was dismissed by a judge in 2023, who ruled that the crash had been ‘controlled, methodical, deliberate, intentional, and purposeful’.
She ultimately received two concurrent life sentences for the murders, and remains incarcerated while her family continues to push claims that the case was mishandled.