Netflix’s new documentary The Crash looks at the role social media played in the investigation into Mackenzie Shirilla’s deadly car crash — and it highlights one specific song lyric that was brought up in court after the night Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan were killed.
Shirilla received two life sentences following the deaths of Dom, her boyfriend, and Davion, his friend. The case centered on claims that the then-17-year-old deliberately drove into a brick wall at around 100mph, with no braking recorded.
The collision happened on July 31, 2022, as Shirilla was driving Dom and Davion home from a party. Although she has continued to say she did not intentionally cause the crash, prosecutors relied on evidence including vehicle “black box” data and material taken from her social media presence.
During the trial, prosecutors pointed to a TikTok video from Shirilla that used audio from ‘Bubblegum B*tch’ by Marina (formerly Marina and the Diamonds), focusing on one particular lyric.
The track has long been popular on social platforms, often used in a trend where someone walks up to their partner, kisses them, then pushes them away for comedic effect.
Lyrics in the song read: “Got a figure like a pin-up, got a figure like a doll / Don’t care if you think I’m dumb, I don’t care at all / Candy bear, sweetie pie, wanna be adored / I’m the girl you’d die for.”
Prosecutors highlighted that final line in connection to Shirilla’s TikTok, with the lyric taking on a far darker meaning given the deaths of the two passengers in her car.
After the trial, the song became closely associated online with discussion and coverage of the case.
In the documentary, director Gareth Johnson discussed how investigators and prosecutors used online posts as part of their broader narrative, telling Tudum it was a ‘fascinating attempt [at trying] to build up a sense of character’.
Producer Angharad Scott added: “The use of social media is what makes this film so prescient. So much of it is told and discussed and continues to be discussed on these online platforms. We portrayed her online presence throughout the whole film because it played so much into this case.”
Shirilla also addresses that idea directly in The Crash, pushing back on the suggestion that her posts accurately represented who she was offline.
“I feel like anybody’s social media isn’t really them,” she said in The Crash, speaking from behind bars.
“It’s how they want the world to see them. And at the time that’s how my 17-year-old brain was wanting to be seen.”
She goes on to say she has ‘excessive amounts of remorse for Dominic, Davion, both of their families’, adding: “This was not intentional and I will do everything I can to prove that to the world and the families. And that’s it.”
The Crash is available to stream on Netflix now.