Mackenzie Shirilla’s former girlfriend from prison says she was sent threatening texts that referenced her mother’s name and quoted her family home address after the pair split.
Shirilla is serving two back-to-back sentences of 15 years to life for the July 2022 deaths of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and his friend Davion Flanagan.
At the time of the crash, Shirilla was 17. Prosecutors said she drove into a building at around 100mph, leaving herself badly hurt while Russo and Flanagan died at the scene.
For months, questions swirled over what caused the collision. Shirilla was ultimately charged with murder, felonious assault, aggravated vehicular homicide, drug possession and possession of criminal tools, and she was found guilty in August 2023.
Nearly three years after the trial, the case has drawn fresh attention following the Netflix documentary The Crash, which explores the incident and the now 21-year-old’s conviction.
Before The Crash arrived on the platform, Shyann Topping — who says she dated Shirilla while incarcerated — spoke about the short-lived relationship on TikTok.
In a video posted in August 2025, Topping said they began speaking seriously when she was only a couple of weeks away from release.
The pair were together for a few weeks while Topping was still behind bars, and she said they continued talking after she got out.
Now, Topping has described the backlash she says she faced after discussing the relationship publicly, and explained what led to their contact ending.
“It was crazy because after I found out [the details] of her case and we stopped talking to each other and it fizzled out, people started texting me and saying crazy stuff to me.”
She said the messages included her mother’s name as well as her address, and she believes they may have come from people who were incarcerated with Shirilla at the time.
Because of the messages, Topping said she stopped posting online for a while, citing safety concerns. After the documentary’s release, she said she decided to speak publicly again.
Topping also said that when she first left prison, she felt prepared to advocate for Shirilla — but that changed after she reviewed more details of the case.
“When I was in [prison], I honestly believed maybe she’s not guilty because of the limited information I had,” Topping said.
“When I first got out [of prison] I was like, ‘Oh, they don’t know what this girl’s been through, and then I started going through everything and seeing the evidence and I started thinking about her and I realized, ‘Oh my God, maybe she’s not a good person.'”