This is my first official post about a topic.  I wanted to share my thoughts on a new documentary I watched on Netflix called The Crash.  This is about the case of Mackenzie Shirilla, a 17-year-old girl who was convicted of murdering her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and his friend, Davion Flanagan, by crashing her vehicle into a brick wall. 

I remember watching this case on Mean Girl Murders on HBO Max, thinking OMG, how could someone do that intentionally.  It was disturbing to think a 17-year-old girl could do such a thing with two people in her car.  It was heartbreaking that these two young men’s lives were taken away early.  Especially the way they died. 

It was interesting hearing from the victim’s family and friends, but what stood out was not only that Mackenzie Shirilla was interviewed, but her parents as well.  In my opinion, Mackenzie has no remorse for what she did.  When she was being interviewed at the end, after it was announced that her lawyer was right beside her and was asking how she did it, she did not come across as genuine.  Even when her parents were being interviewed, it came across that they just wanted to make excuses for her behavior. 

When Davion’s father was interviewed, he said he hopes for Mackenzie’s changes, because her parents’ coddling her is not going to help in life.  That stuck out to me because, as a viewer, I see exactly that.  Her parents continue to make excuses for her instead of holding her accountable.  Just the fact in the doc when her mother was making her statement about Mackenzie, and not acknowledging the victims, was horrifying.  And the fact that she has 15 years to life, and there is a possibility she can be out on parole after that time.  One would hope that someone would change for the better, but in her case, if her parents continue to coddle her the way that she is, she will never change, and she will still be the same person she was before being convicted.

One would hope she will eventually change, but after watching this documentary, I have doubts that it will ever happen.  It’s sad to think that there is a chance she could be out and have a whole new life, while Dominic and Davion were robbed of theirs. 

One would have hoped that, given the time she had been in jail, she would have thought about her actions that night and felt some remorse, but after seeing her and her parents in this documentary, it’s evident that she doesn’t. 

Overall, I believe that Mackenzie and her parents thought their appearance in this doc would help her case, but in the end, it did more harm, given what I believe is Mackenzie's lack of remorse.