‘You Have 3 Seconds to Answer': The Toxic Countdown Texts Before Mackenzie's Deadly Crash

13:41Mackenzie Shirilla:And she says, baby girl, I need you to stop texting me. You're actually weirding me out. Like we aren't friends and haven't been friends since sophomore year. Now stop being worried about my life and go worry about your schedule for Subway next week. She's just, um, kind of a bitch. I don't really know how else to put it.

13:58Davion Flanagan:After this whole exchange, it appears Mackenzie goes to rant to another friend about it because she's DMing her friend about quote unquote the haters and the friend responds to her trying to comfort her. Ugly

14:08Mackenzie Shirilla:girls will never understand if you're pretty you're never broke so what if your boyfriend pays for you if i was her boyfriend i wouldn't pay for shit because damn what the fuck is that

14:17Davion Flanagan:talking about how the way the way that person looks mackenzie continues literally and she's trying to like talk shit on me like it's repulsive do you know how badly i wanted to say worry about your own weight instead of my pockets but i didn't want a body shame just in case i'm gonna be famous soon and I can't be cancelled.

14:35Dominic Russo:That's insane.

14:37Davion Flanagan:Yeah.

14:37Dominic Russo:Wait, do you know when this was sent?

14:40Davion Flanagan:Like a few months before the crash.

14:42Dominic Russo:She did become famous.

14:44Davion Flanagan:Mackenzie is also the type of girl that absolutely hates when people copy her or even when she thinks people are copying her and she needs Dom to comfort her for the very big emotions that come with

14:56Mackenzie Shirilla:people copying her. She says, Redacted got the same wheel cover as me. Like, you know, the fucking

15:01Dominic Russo:pink fuzzy wheel cover steering wheel yeah mckenzie texts him so fucking weird like what the

15:07Mackenzie Shirilla:fuck question mark question mark question mark dom is like do you think she knew she def knew how did you even find out even chloe told me i accidentally parked next to her lmao like what the fuck dom is like she's probably gonna be terrified because again that's how terrifying mckenzie is just the fact that she found out that you have the same steering wheel cover and she's going to be terrified that she found out at some point. I don't know if it's the same girl or another girl, but Mackenzie is telling Dom that she wants to beat her up to which he tells her not to get in trouble.

15:39Davion Flanagan:That's all he says. He's like, maybe not because you're going to get in trouble. Don't get in trouble. And she's upset. No, you were actually weird as fuck and do not talk to me. Dom's trying to explain. I just don't want you to get in trouble. He's like the voice of reason. But Mackenzie isn't having it. She feels like Dom worrying about her getting in trouble is,

15:56Mackenzie Shirilla:quote, let's not defend a fucking whore. You're actually weird as fuck. And you can go fuck her if you want to defend her because I don't need nobody. I'm not defending her. It's weird as fuck. I mean, sure, she stalks you. Why are you going overboard on me? I just don't want you to get in trouble. And I don't want you super worked up over that. Like she's obviously just super salty or jealous of you or something. Anyway, it seems like at this point, he's just trying to make her feel better. And she's like, and you obviously got something on your mind with them long pauses. We're just going to break up if I have to fight for you.

16:27Mackenzie Shirilla:What? Babe, I have no interest in her. I don't know why the bitch stalks you. Well, you low-key just offended her earlier, so are you sure about that? I didn't defend her. I just didn't think you needed to fight her.

16:38Davion Flanagan:A lot of conversations seem to end with Dom being the voice of reason and yet giving up near the end of the conversation because Mackenzie will not see anything from any perspective that is not her own. Mackenzie is, in my opinion, about as agreeable as a fucking nuclear weapon.

16:52Mackenzie Shirilla:she starts messaging Dom on Instagram in the midst of a fight. If I fucking call you, you have three goddamn seconds to answer unless you're actually busy, which most of the time you're not. She continues to go off on him. You are literally a fucking idiot. You're about to lose the best thing that ever happened to you and you're never going to find anything better than some other cracked out bitch who just likes taking dick in her ass. You have until the end of day to actually fucking fix this and I'm not telling you how. And if you don't fix it, then I'm moving on with my life and I don't need you to be happy.

17:21Mackenzie Shirilla:You have five seconds to say yes or no, or I'm blocking you and moving on. Five, four, three. She's like sending separate messages. Five, four. She loves her countdowns. Five, four, three, two. Dom finally responds. Let me type. Damn. Mackenzie responds in all caps. I don't care. I'm so done with you. Type. Are you slow? Like, goddamn. Question mark, question mark, question mark, question mark, question mark, question mark. So slow. It's going to be so hard to come back from this one, especially since you like to lie and fake apologize just to get your way. Literally a little boy. Like I thought you were a man.

17:53Mackenzie Shirilla:Clearly not. Dom is clearly confused because like he doesn't know what's happening.

17:58Davion Flanagan:He's like, because I didn't answer the phone. Like, I feel like you can't believe that I don't have any bad intentions.

18:04Mackenzie Shirilla:I fought for you so hard this past year. Are you for real? Like, I know you didn't type that in the five seconds I gave you. Like, that's what you say. Are you for real n-word you have two seconds to send that text it better be good slow ass n-word like holy fuck Dom finally responds you're flustering the shit out of me it's hard to read all your messages and

18:26Davion Flanagan:then send mine within five seconds like damn I don't care at all like you're crazy for thinking I have bad intentions Mackenzie responds in an almost unintentionally ironic way in caps you

18:40Mackenzie Shirilla:literally suck and just bring me down i don't know so she's blowing up just that he didn't answer his phone right away in three seconds yeah like she well she's blowing up for honestly like nothing ever it could be anything this is through instagram dms so this is he wasn't responding

18:58Davion Flanagan:through text in the way that she wanted so then now she's come to instagram dms and she's just like ranting and usually like it takes a minute because they don't really give context to the fight obviously because they're texting each other but then once you figure out what the fight is about it's like absolutely over nothing and so Dom is responding I do everything for you I ask for nothing you bring me down you don't let me chase any of my dreams you always say that you come first Mackenzie doesn't respond to any of the things that Dom is saying she says I'm gonna give you till the end of the day to apologize and figure out what you did if you don't actually make this up to me by the end of today and make it good and make me actually believe you then we you're done and I'm moving on with my life.

19:35Davion Flanagan:Kenzie, it's not me. I'm sorry, but it's not me anymore. You're doing this. You're making us break up.

19:42Mackenzie Shirilla:Yes, I know I'm doing this because I have standards unlike you. Now this is your last chance because I will move on. If you think you're going to be anything without me, you are a joke.

19:50Davion Flanagan:I would answer now. Kenzie, I'm not afraid of any of that anymore. Like I'm all or nothing. I love you, but I don't have to be with you if you're going to try to do this to me. Once again, she ignores him and writes back or else you're going to get

20:05Mackenzie Shirilla:blocked and I'm going to start texting people. Kenzie, you can be with me or go. Is that your answer? So you're just not going to make this up to me by the end of the night? I don't even know what I'm making up. This is ridiculous. Is that what you're saying? I have an answer. Is that what you're saying? You have until six o 'clock or you're blocked and we're done forever. I will literally burn that fucking scrapbook. Zero fucks given.

20:25Davion Flanagan:I love you, but I'm not doing this. This is crazy. I don't get it. Wow. Okay. We're done. Last chance. I've given you over three chances today. This is your last chance to make things right and make it up to me by six answer now, now, now, now. Dom is so genuinely confused by this. He asks her, did all my messages send? He literally,

20:46Mackenzie Shirilla:he's thinking maybe she's not getting his messages and that's why she's ignoring him and just freaking out unreasonably. Mackenzie confirms yes or no. I don't give a fuck about your messages. is.

20:56Davion Flanagan:Kenzie, I don't know what I'm making up. Probably don't mean shit anyway. I don't care because you're dumb as fuck. You have until six. I'm not telling you how to fix anything. You're saying I talked bad to you. Is that what I'm making up? Yes or no.

21:09Mackenzie Shirilla:Okay. You have until five now. Kenzie, yeah, I'll make up whatever, but I don't think any of this is really necessary. Are you serious? Like I know you didn't just say that. How fucking dumb can you be?

21:20Davion Flanagan:This is a very small argument and you're putting our relationship over it. I don't get it. she later quotes him and says because he said something along the lines of like I don't think she quotes I don't think and she says yeah this is not about what you think you're literally dumb as fuck I feel so bad how the fuck are you not getting that it's more than that and more than this you lie ignore gaslight dry reply I can keep going so she like throws out these words but I don't find evidence of any like gaslighting in the text messages and stuff if anything it's like miscommunication. I really don't.

21:54Davion Flanagan:I would watch your reply. I might dry reply sometimes. Four. So it went from six to five to four. She's like, you got to make it up to me by 4 p.m. now. If this isn't made up to me by four o 'clock, we're done. This is my last text message. He's like, I don't gaslight. I don't do any of that. I never intentionally ignore you. 4.30. Dom responds, this can't be every week, babe. Indicating that this happens every week and after reading all their text messages, it's like multiple times a week, actually. It's really bad. She responds, you're right. Next time you do this, we're done. No explanations.

22:28Davion Flanagan:He's trying to get it through to her. Like, I feel like you don't feel I love you. What the fuck are you talking about? Look, Kenzie, this shouldn't end our relationship. All I'm saying is like, I'll do whatever to make you happy,

22:40Mackenzie Shirilla:but I feel like you're being unreasonable today because of your stress over your toe and your nose and school. So like, I don't know what happened. this is me saying this like I don't know what happened but like these seem like non-problems your toe your nose like unless you broke your nose like why is she freaking out on it's so weird

22:58Davion Flanagan:if this isn't made up correctly by four o 'clock I'm blocking you and we are done forever your attitude will change your attitude needs to change babe we're broken up until you decide what you're gonna do to fix this if the timer hits four o 'clock and nothing has happened we are done

23:14Mackenzie Shirilla:Your attitude needs to change and I'll change whatever I know you didn't just say that This is about you, you You called me with a bad attitude first, babe Do you want me to break up with you for good right now? Because that could happen too

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25:36Mackenzie Shirilla:Literally nothing changed except for the fact that I was saving money each bill cycle. No need to mass text everyone in my contacts that I was getting a new phone number. No need to memorize 10 new digits. To get your new wireless plan for just$15 a month, go to mintmobile.com slash rotten. That's mintmobile.com slash rotten. Cut your wireless bill to$15 a month at mintmobile.com slash rotten. That's it. There's no catch. $45 upfront payment required equivalent to$15 a month. New customers on first three-month plan only. speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan additional taxes fees and restrictions apply see mint mobile for details and then mckenzie mass text him do you want me to break up with you for good right now do you want me to break up with you for good right now do you want me to break up with you for good right now do you want me to break up with you for good right now she sends that four times i'm not repeating it for emphasis she literally sends the exact same message four times and he tells her you're being childish i'm not entertaining it so we're done Is that what you're saying?

26:31Mackenzie Shirilla:You're not going to make this up to me by four o 'clock. We're just going to go through the cycle. If you do not answer the fucking question, you are blocked. And I'm going to start texting new people. Like I'm so serious. Clearly you don't even want a girlfriend. Five, four, three, two, one. Dom responds. Why are you doing this? Like, I don't get it. I mean, we can make it three. Like this isn't love. If this is made up to me by three o 'clock, if it's not, we're done. This isn't healthy. This isn't right. Like we can make it so much better than this. You're right. We can make it so much better after you make it up to me at three o 'clock and prove you're going to do better.

27:03Mackenzie Shirilla:Until then, we are broken up. I would

27:05Davion Flanagan:watch what you say from this point on because one thing that I said wrong will result in instant blocking and I will literally start talking to new people. Dom doesn't respond for an hour before Mackenzie DMs him again. I'm going to take this as you're not making this up to me. Answer right now. Answer right now.

27:20Mackenzie Shirilla:Kenzie, if you want to be in my life, you will be. If you want to leave, I'm not stopping you. So you're not going to change your attitude and make it up to me? So you're not going to make it up to me? Yes or no? Kenzie, you have a bad attitude too. It's a yes or no question.

27:33Davion Flanagan:It's a yes or no question. And this is about you, not me.

27:36Mackenzie Shirilla:Kenzie, no, this is about you and you're making it about me. You have a bad attitude, babe. You called me with a bad attitude first and I'm not doing this anymore. I love you, but I have to set boundaries for myself too.

27:47Davion Flanagan:This is February 20th, 2022. Five months later, Dom will be dead. Now, I'm not singling out this like one toxic fight that happened months in advance where Mackenzie is clearly suffocating Dom over and over again, not respecting his boundaries. But I'm emphasizing that this happens multiple times a week. Like it even, okay, when you go to part four, where we go through the text messages, it would be like a five day long video for me to recount in full every single fight that Mackenzie starts. April 2022, for example, it happens all over again.

28:23Mackenzie Shirilla:And this is just from their Instagram DMs, okay? Because the text messages are in part four. This is from their DMs.

28:28Davion Flanagan:April 2022, it starts all over. Dom resorts to DMing her because she blocked his text from coming in and he's confused. Which side note, all of this is happening because Dom did not jump at his feet, jump up, enthusiastic about wanting to take Mackenzie to the grocery store. She says, I want to go with you, but I want you to try without me

28:52Mackenzie Shirilla:telling you you have to try. You only try when it's too late. So now it's too late. He responds, when was I not trying? We've been doing this all day. I don't care. No, you have not. Why would I want to be around you after you just did all this bullshit all day? What have I done? I've only apologized over and over again all day while you called me names. You have two minutes to be at my house to take me to the grocery store. 60 seconds. 45 seconds. Okay,

29:18Davion Flanagan:I'll be on the way in a sec. Then he DMs again. On the way. Then he DMs when he shows up at her house. Here. Even just two months before Dom and Davian are killed, they're in another fight through Instagram. And side note, by this point, Mackenzie is essentially living with Dom. She's 17. Her parents have let her move in. But this fight, Dom tells her, Kenzie, I'm not going to talk to you till you acknowledge what you did wrong and side note I don't want anyone to be under the impression that I'm taking creative liberty in the tone of Dom's voice because there is a video fight of them and most people say that Dom was like a very chill speaker he never is yelling screaming Kenzie is always yelling screaming so it's not that like I'm trying to phrase Dom's voice to be more passive like there's a literal fight where she is outside banging on his door and this is how he talks this is his cadence he's always trying to diffuse he's never flipping out there's one part where he does raise his voice at mckenzie and mckenzie intentionally records it but it almost seems like the man is so frustrated like he's like he's like stop like don't stop don't talk like you're saying disrespectful shit like stop but this fight it appears that he does not want kenzie at his house because she's being rude and mean to him which is completely understandable and a healthy boundary to set.

30:38Davion Flanagan:But she argues that he's holding his house over her head and she's not going to let him do that. Which side note, she does not pay rent. This is not her house. She doesn't pay mortgage. She's not on the title of the deed. It's also not like he kicked her out out of nowhere. She could literally just go home to her parents where she should probably be living. Mackenzie escalates the fight.

30:56Mackenzie Shirilla:I'll come today and take all the shit I got right out of that house. So she's like, fine, I'm moving out for good. Kenzie, I'm not doing anything. Like you have been being mean to me and have not stopped since this morning. All you have to do is apologize to me about how you're saying hurtful things. I'm done listening to this bullshit and I'll talk to you when you're in a better state. And no, Kenzie, I'm not holding anything over your head. I don't want you here if you're acting like this. So you're saying that I'm not allowed to come to the place I sleep at every night? No, Kenzie, I told you that you can talk to me when you say sorry and coming here is part of it.

31:28Mackenzie Shirilla:So you're holding it over my head is what you're saying. If you can't apologize or realize what you did wrong, I don't want you around me. What we're not going to do is hold the place that you say I could stay at whenever I want over my head.

31:42Davion Flanagan:She starts a video chat. He does not pick up. Mackenzie goes off to which Dom says, Kenzie, I just don't want you to come here and have problems. I'm doing the mature thing and avoiding petty conflict. And if you cared, you would have stopped too. Kenzie does not listen. He's trying to deescalate. She says, we're not going to play this game. I'm not letting you hold a place that I live in over my head.

32:02Mackenzie Shirilla:You don't even care enough to be replying fast. No, Kenzie, I don't want you here because I don't want conflict and you never said sorry either. I'm not going to apologize for doing nothing and I want to come over to eat, not to talk to you. I'm just going to sit on the couch and ignore you, but there's you holding it over my head again. You can let me come over and eat or you can bring me all the stuff that I brought over to your house

32:22Davion Flanagan:and we can be over. Approximately three minutes go by. Dom hasn't responded, so Mackenzie writes, not sure why you're being dry and not responding Dom responds I mean you did call me the R word called me a pig said a lot of nasty things and now you want to come eat my food without apologizing let me know if you're going to keep holding it over my head or not because I will just get all the pots and pans and stuff I brought to your house right now I'm not trying to hold it over your head if you can't respect me how do I expect you to respect my house he says that there's still coffee on his door from her which seems like he's saying like she threw coffee and there's coffee on the door.

32:58Davion Flanagan:But she ignores that and says, like I said, I will come get everything that I brought over

33:03Mackenzie Shirilla:and holes in my wall. The holes in your wall are not from me. So are you not letting me come?

33:08Dominic Russo:What does holes in the wall mean? Punch?

33:11Mackenzie Shirilla:Yeah, or like throwing things, I would imagine. Yeah. And so Dom says, if you can't prove to me, you're going to respect me and my home, or at least the very least, apologize. I don't want you here. Like if you want me to leave your things outside, I will. to which Kenzie says you can put everything in a box then if you're not going to let me come to the place that you said I could always come then put everything that I brought in a box

33:33Davion Flanagan:and I'm coming to get it if you're not going to let me stay at this house then we are done I'm not going to be in a relationship with somebody that likes to lie and tell me things that are not true you are making this so much worse

33:41Dominic Russo:is this not what gaslighting is?

33:44Davion Flanagan:yes and like I do think sometimes

33:47Dominic Russo:how is that like how does she put it on him? like someone gave you a place to stay now she

33:51Davion Flanagan:yeah

33:52Dominic Russo:turn it around make it I don't know that's

33:54Davion Flanagan:holding it over her head that's gaslighting yeah it's very manipulative i think sometimes i do have the problem with a lot of these encounters between kenzie and dom being categorized as toxic in the sense that i do think that if the roles were reversed i don't know if we would be labeling these fights as toxic i think we would be much more easily labeling them as completely abusive like it's just really abusive i there's not really a lighter way to put it and so Dom responds Kenzie you are like all that was needed was a simple apology you're not making

34:28Mackenzie Shirilla:the right decisions or acting normal so what's it gonna be so are you not gonna let me come to the place that you said I could always come is that what you're saying you're treating me like shit stop asking you questions or treating you bad what the actual fuck like Dom is like what the actual fuck this is your last chance to let me come and eat or you can put all my stuff in a bin and I'll come get it right now. I would answer right now.

34:50Davion Flanagan:She starts a video chat that goes unanswered. She calls again and again and again and again and again and then she DMs Dom. You just fucked up. Another video chat goes unanswered. You have three seconds to answer or I'm coming. Of course you would rather me starve.

35:03Mackenzie Shirilla:He keeps telling her she's being toxic but she keeps calling, typing. I would answer right now. Dom seemingly begs her, quote, stop. You deadass have 20 seconds. This is why I'm not letting you come.

35:17Davion Flanagan:You're threatening and shit. Another video chat, then another, then another. She calls eight times back to back to back to back. He does not respond. And then she tells him, okay, I'm gonna come. He doesn't respond to more video chats. She says, I would answer right now. Like, I really don't want to end this relationship, but you are not a good person. You treat me like fucking shit. I need water and food and you're not letting me eat. You are starving me.

35:38Mackenzie Shirilla:You would rather me starve. I'm so serious when I say answer. Kenzie stop please I'll bring you food and water So she's at her parents house Now Mackenzie has somehow made this about starving

35:50Dominic Russo:What do you mean like you're at home You have fucking food and water What are you saying

35:54Davion Flanagan:Exactly So he's like I don't want to be around you Because we're going to get into a fight But I will bring you food and water Because you're accusing me of starving you

36:02Mackenzie Shirilla:Like I will drive to your house Even though you don't deserve it And you haven't even apologized I will bring you food and water And then I just need some alone time because this situation is only going to escalate. So he's like willing to do all of this and still de-escalate. I mean, again, if the roles were reversed, this is like, frankly, a terrifying relationship dynamic that is just abusive.

36:23Davion Flanagan:Dom offers to bring food, water. Kenzie just gets racist instead. She writes to him, you need to answer right now, N-word. I do not want to be here. So she's talking about she doesn't want to be home at her parents. What are you not getting? You know that. Which side note, a lot of people have interpreted that perhaps there was some sort of abuse going on in mackenzie's house i really um going through the whole foia file there's no way to definitively say that that's not what's happening but i don't think so she genuinely hates her parents for zero reasons like sometimes it'll be my dad woke me up because he was playing the tv so loud is he fucking r-worded like she'll literally be texting

37:00Dominic Russo:on that so where is the parents how did she become this way this is crazy yeah and again like when

37:07Davion Flanagan:she is saying in caps I don't want to be here I know that a lot of us maybe from a point of empathy or trying to give people benefit of the doubt or trying to protect people who are 17 it's like oh maybe something's going on in the house and she's expressing herself in this really aggressive manner because she just frantically needs to leave um it that does not appear to be the case like she genuinely hates her parents because they eat McDonald's she thinks they're slobs she doesn't like the fact that her dad plays the tv too loud he's so dense is he slow like she's just

37:39Mackenzie Shirilla:yeah there's a whole birthday debacle we're gonna go into later she is like so adamant that she wants

37:45Davion Flanagan:to go to florida for her birthday i'm just gonna give you a recap because it's so crazy she's so adamant that she's gonna go to florida for her birthday but there's a hurricane coming to florida because it's florida and she's like yeah i don't care i'm just pissed off she has her entire family and Dom scrambling to figure out where to go next to make Mackenzie happy. And she's like, you guys are going to fucking fix this vacay. And she's like, she's going off on them. And she's like, Dom, you're going to book me a ticket to Cali right now and fix my birthday vacay. And they're all just like trying to make her happy.

38:15Dominic Russo:The parents are too? Yeah. Why?

38:18Mackenzie Shirilla:Beats me. I mean, they're just straight enablers. They're so incompetent as parents. if I was the president if I ran this world I feel like they could even be criminally liable in my

38:32Davion Flanagan:fake universe because like how do you raise someone like this yeah it should be a crime

38:36Mackenzie Shirilla:to be this bad of a parent I think it's like worse it's like similar to neglect like you are neglecting their capabilities of growing up to be a good contributing member of society it's just so messed up so then she's just responding like what are you not getting you know that He responds, then stop being toxic. She does not think that these two things are connected. She writes in all caps, I do not want to be here. So you're going to starve me. Is that what you're saying? Stop being toxic and I'll let you come. He finally tells her, I'm done. So she goes off. Then please just break up with me then.

39:07Mackenzie Shirilla:If you're going to sit here and let me beg you for food and water, then break up with me because any good man would never do this to his girlfriend. I would answer right now. You're making this so bad for yourself. Kenzie, now you're being toxic. I said I'd bring you food and water, but instead you're trying to make it about bringing all your other stuff. I do not want to be here. Why are you not getting that? You didn't let me apologize on the phone and you didn't apologize sincerely to me. Tom is like, I just need 20 minutes. Just give me 20 minutes and stop being toxic. And we can talk again on the phone if you apologize and I can let you come over.

39:40Mackenzie Shirilla:But instead you just spam me for the last 20 minutes being toxic as fuck. She says, if you're not going to let me come over here, then I'm going to bring all the stuff

39:48Davion Flanagan:that I brought home. It's our house. You always say that. I'm not letting you hold it over my head when I put in the work to the house too. I'm allowed to go over there and eat when all the food that I like is over there. You're holding this over my head.

39:58Mackenzie Shirilla:You're still being toxic. I would literally let you come over right now if you would just stop saying all this toxic shit and just leave it alone for a second and let me brush my teeth and then just call you back and apologize. It's all you had to do. You still have to apologize also. I'm not being toxic. I'm telling you what you're doing. Why would I keep bringing pots and pans and stuff for your house over if you're going

40:17Davion Flanagan:to hold it over my head and not let me there. Stop. It just doesn't make sense. You expect all

40:23Mackenzie Shirilla:this good when you treat me like shit. You're still doing it. You won't stop. Like, what the fuck? And you're still not apologizing. Dom seems frustrated. He just tells her, let me just bring you food. I do not want to be here. Can you not read? And if you still want me to bring other shit, I'll bring it later. Like she responds, why are you not understanding that I do not want to be here. Then stop being toxic and arguing with me. I'm going to come over or this relationship is going to be over. I'm not letting you do this to me. Just let me cool down. Just let it cool down for 10 minutes and then apologize.

40:59Mackenzie Shirilla:You're not going to hold over a house that we built together over my head. What? Yeah, she's acting like she's fucking Martha stewarding this house. Like she's done nothing. She also like she never cleans. She lives like a slob. Everyone has not testified, but they have spoken up about how she's a slob. Dom tells her, like, I'm asking for the bare minimum. Mackenzie responds, and I'm asking for literally one peach and water, but you can't even let me come eat. Dom responds in all caps, stop. Why is this making you so mad? I can't ask for food now. So now she's acting like he's like this threatening, abusive person

41:37Davion Flanagan:who's like controlling what she eats. I'm about to be done texting you. I told you so many times I'll bring you a peach and water. And if you really want, I can bring the rest of the stuff later.

41:46Mackenzie Shirilla:But instead, you're trying to say I'm holding my house and food over your head when I'm really not. You just can't respect me and can't stop arguing and being toxic. That's why I'm not letting you over. This is when she finally apologizes a little bit. Not really.

42:01Davion Flanagan:She says, obviously, I'm sorry for calling you names. My life was literally going to shit and so many things were happening, which obviously you don't care about. I didn't mean anything that I called you because you didn't mean what you said. I'm not being toxic and I'm respecting you.

42:15Mackenzie Shirilla:I've done nothing disrespectful except ask you for food. You're still not understanding that I do not want to be here and you're still offering to bring me food somewhere where I don't want it when I could literally come there and eat. Why are you doing this? You are treating me like fucking shit right now. If this old pattern is going to keep happening, then I don't know if I can do this anymore. Dom tries to set boundaries, which like that was not even an apology by the way. Okay, Dom tries to set boundaries. for the trillionth time. You were being toxic by forcing me to do things. I wasn't forcing you to do anything.

42:44Mackenzie Shirilla:You could have just let me come over and all of this would have been chill. Like I need food and water so bad you don't even care.

42:51Davion Flanagan:Dom responds with what Mackenzie was forcing him to do. He says, you're not letting me get off the phone, not apologizing when I said that all you had to do to come over was just apologize or leave me alone for a little bit to cool down. But instead you said you can't apologize. And then you said that I have to bring you all your things when I said that I could bring you a peach and water, but I was only saying that because you were going to apologize.

43:11Mackenzie Shirilla:See, you're making it a loop because every single time I was telling you to apologize, you were saying no. And then I was saying, well, let me bring you food and water and a peach. And then you were saying, oh, I'm holding the house over your head. I'm holding food over your head when all I wanted was an apology so that, you know, for you to just come from you to keep saying, but then you keep saying, I don't care that you just need food and water, but I've been trying to bring it to you this whole time. And you just keep arguing with me. See how you're still being toxic so he's like finally like letting it out okay he's like we're just going in a loop and i think that's why the message is so confusing because he's like i'm living in a loop i don't even know what's going on like this is what you're forcing me to do and after all of that because he's like all i wanted was an apology like that's the crux of his feeling he's like i just want you

43:53Davion Flanagan:to apologize for being toxic which is completely reasonable mackenzie responds did you not read my apology? Like, what the fuck? Like, why are you acting like I didn't apologize when I literally just said? She sends a screenshot of her half-assed apology just two seconds ago and then sends it to

44:10Mackenzie Shirilla:him. You could have just read that and understood, but I guess not. Dom is so confused. He says, you didn't read anything I said. You apologized for calling me names and then continue to be toxic. So you're not going to let me come over now when I literally apologized?

44:23Davion Flanagan:Dom clearly doesn't feel heard and his boundaries are still being crossed. He writes, quote, you apologize and are still toxic. She flips out like, what is going on? Why aren't you letting me come and eat? She keeps doing this until finally he texts her. Fine, come eat. Are you sure? Yeah, just don't be toxic. I

44:43Mackenzie Shirilla:was never holding anything over your head. I said I'd bring you food and water. I said, leave me alone for a second, apologize, and you could come over too, but you didn't leave me alone. I do appreciate the apology you did make though.

44:54Davion Flanagan:It's not about who's right or wrong. It's about understanding and growth. This is what Dom says, and this is from May 23rd, 2022, just two months before Dom is killed.

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48:14Davion Flanagan:since davion is no longer 18 years old his parents felt that he was ready to be taken off their life 360 app which is the app like your parents can track the kids locations whether or not they're speeding or they're driving or if they're in the car right now or if they're walking but instead of just getting rid of the app altogether davion instead connects it to his friend group so he has a tight close-knit group of friends and they all share each other's life 360 apps i guess it's like you know find my friends you just want to make sure everybody's

48:40Mackenzie Shirilla:safe you want to track everybody's locations make sure that everybody is it's i think the idea is

48:45Davion Flanagan:very irresponsible now july 31st 2022 at 9 43 a.m davion's friends are on the life 360 app and they're confused because they see davion's location is heading towards the strongsville police station but they're like okay well maybe he's just heading in that general direction it doesn't necessarily I mean, he's going to the police station, right? Within a few minutes, Davion's location shows that he is inside the Strongsville police station, or at least his phone is. And they're like, this is really odd. Like, why would Davion be at the police station at 10 in the morning? Like, this is so weird.

49:17Davion Flanagan:They check his Life 360 history and they notice there is this weird incident that happened at 5.30 a.m. At 5.30 a.m., they get an alert and it shows Davion's phone location heading down Progress Drive. Progress Drive is technically officially called Progress Drive Business Park because it's basically a commercial road.

49:38Mackenzie Shirilla:I don't even know if commercial is the right word.

49:41Davion Flanagan:It's more so industrial. So you drive down Progress and it's just a ton of these light industrial warehouses. I feel like you've all seen those like business parks where you've got the flex office spaces and then you've got the warehouses. You see lots of big trucks driving through that road. It's not massive Amazon level warehouses, but it's also not corporate in the sense of like, oh, this is our corporate location where we invite clients over. Like you're going to see a lot of manufacturing companies, pipeline businesses, plumbing businesses have locations down here like ICI Metals, Rafter Equipment Corporation, Pipeline Development Company.

50:17Davion Flanagan:Like they all have buildings along Progress Drive. It's just warehouses and their parking lots. There's no residential homes, no shops that you can stop in and grab a coffee, no pedestrians. It's just an industrial road. Why would Davion be there at 535 in the morning with an alert on Life360 showing high speed alert with the top speed at 90 miles per hour? And the Life360 app shows that Davion's location is stopped for a point in time at one of the warehouse buildings, specifically the pipeline development company. It almost looks like he's gone into the building with his phone. Why would Davion be in this random warehouse building at 5 35 a.m.

50:55Davion Flanagan:And now a few hours later, he's just heading to the Strongsville police station. Davion's friends are really confused. They're trying to like in real time piece together what's going on because they're like, what's happening? 6 15 a.m. A 911 call is made. There's a car that's smashed up against the building. I didn't go up to it because I was on my motorcycle. I don't know if I'd get stuck, but they ran the curb. I can see they smashed the sign and hit the building. The car is trashed. That's the direct 911 call. When the first responding officer arrives at the end of progress drive. So this is kind of a dead end zone.

51:28Davion Flanagan:Progress drive, you make a right turn from the main road of Pearl and you make a right turn onto progress, or at least that's what Mackenzie did. And it's like this half mile drive. It's some people call it like a straight shot, but it's not really. There are gentle curves along this road and the road is pretty fucked up. I mean, it's an industrial road. First of all, it's actually one of the older roads in the city, but it's an industrial road. So you have lots of heavy trucks and machinery driving past it. So the concrete on the pavement is not very level. And I guess the city is thinking, well, we don't really have a lot of people driving through this.

52:01Davion Flanagan:This is like an industrial area and it's probably going to get messed up anyway. So they haven't

52:04Mackenzie Shirilla:really fixed it. So it's kind of a bumpy drive. It's not a drive where you can just kind of wing

52:09Davion Flanagan:it it's like you you'd want to have good control over your car yeah now at the very end of progress drive there is like a dead end so you keep driving down progress and then you're going to see grass a sign for the pipeline company and then the red brick building yeah when you get there on the road you can make a right or a left so it's a t intersection oh i see but you cannot keep going straight because that's where the red brick building is but that is what mckenzie's black Toyota has done. It has gone straight, essentially flying through the building sign, through the grass and jamming the car straight into the corner of this warehouse building.

52:47Davion Flanagan:The car looks obliterated. You can hear the officer, the first responding officer through the body cam, starting to freak out and he's going straight into work. He is booking it to the car as quickly as he can. He's panting. And as he's running through the grass, you see that there's just massive chunks of this car and debris scattered all around. The car accident looks, not accident, the car crash, looks less like a car crash. I say accident because he doesn't know what's going on. So to him, like he's responding to a car accident. It looks like a bomb went off. The car looks like it exploded.

53:21Davion Flanagan:The only way to convey the extent of the car's state through words is it looks like the front passenger side of the car had been run through a hydraulic press. It's just like smash, disintegrated. The officer radios in for backup. Radio, there's a car split in two. Radio, there's an occupant inside. So he notices the driver first because naturally that's the first place you look for an occupant. Send us some squad now. We got to bust the window out. Send us some more units. This is not a fresh accident either. She's been here for a while. He sees initially just one person in the car. Then he radios again.

53:53Davion Flanagan:We got at least two occupants in here. No one's moving. Oh my God. Oh my God. Times three.

53:57Mackenzie Shirilla:Radio, three occupants. No one's conscious, no one's breathing, and they start freaking out. They're like trying to bust the window. There's banging. He's banging. He's like screaming, who can hear my voice? Radio, we're going to need full extraction, all three. And he's saying like, holy shit, this is bad guys.

54:14Davion Flanagan:They're all pretty young. Now, upon first glance, the front passenger side where Dom was sitting has a lot of the impact. There's a video of the car, and the video is taken after the car is taken to a separate lot and the front of the car I was almost confused like am I being shown the wrong car like are they gonna move to show me the black Toyota because the front of the car looks white because it's not like it's a half paint job it's the front of the car had been disintegrated where all you can see is metal that's it the officer doesn't have anything hard to smash open the windows like multiple units arrive and they're just like trying they're even thinking like do we use our gun like we need to get in here they can't get the window open eventually they jam it open and once they get into the car they can quickly tell that two of them are not going to make it i know that there is um speculations theories online that davion was alive at the time of the unit's arrival it seems like that is not accurate by all accounts um dom and davion were confirmed DOA dead on arrival by the officers.

55:22Davion Flanagan:First responding officer later says in a less panicked and more somber tone, like we got two that are gone. Jesus Christ, like this is probably the worst I've ever seen. He's trying to explain to the new officers that are showing up, like it's like a nightmare. I ran up. I go, this is bad. I ran up. I saw one. I called her in. I looked in the back. There's two. I call it in. And then you see three and you're like, Jesus, and no one's fucking moving. At some point, the officers find an ID and realize that the individual in the back seat is Davion. And I don't know how this officer knows. Maybe he has a kid the same age, or maybe he's just very involved in high school sports, but he says he's a fucking Strongsville football player.

56:03Davion Flanagan:And so they mentioned that he's a running back and the officer walks to the back seat of the car and taps on the metal and says rest in peace buddy the first responders the they arrive and they inform the other officers at the scene contacted the coroner they're on their way out and just to add to the chaos you know there's wind and debris being thrown about because a life flight has landed to take the only person that has a pulse into this flying er to the hospital now the day after the crash police are knocking on the door to the hospital room with the only survivor and that is Mackenzie Schirrilla.

56:38Davion Flanagan:She has three broken ribs, a lacerated liver, kidney, damaged arteries, a broken femur above the knee. Her legs and arms are in casts. She has a neck brace on. She does objectively look messed up but she's alive. She's the only one from the car that is alive and by this point her parents have told her, they say that they told her that her boyfriend Dom and Davion had been killed. Mackenzie's parents say that after getting out of surgery in the

57:06Davion Flanagan:didn't really think that there was a way to calm her down so they tell her and she's just screaming it's not him it's not him then she asked about davian and they say that she learns that he didn't make it and she was just sobbing oh god oh god but the officers aren't really interested in any of that they want to know what the hell happened in that car because it doesn't make any sense they were able to pull cctv camera footage from a nearby warehouse that shows the black Toyota that Mackenzie is driving, there's sound to the CCTV and it sounds like a missile and you hear the crash. I will say that there are TikToks going around that they enhance the audio and you can hear one of the boys screaming Mackenzie no.

57:46Davion Flanagan:That does not appear to be true at all. It would have been in the police reports. It would have been talked about during the trial, but you can hear the car and it's going fast and you hear it crash it sounds it sounds bad there is no feasible reason that the officers can think of of what would cause McKenzie to drive in this manner like this is not a road that is easy to speed on it's an industrial road with

58:10Mackenzie Shirilla:a speed limit of 35 miles per hour not saying that you can't speed over the speed limit but it's like a pretty bumpy road so one of the officers actually got into his cruiser and he

58:18Davion Flanagan:went around 55 in his cruiser and he said like the wheel was shaking because like I said the road the concrete is kind of messed up it's an industrial road so he's like to be able to maneuver because it's not like they were going all over the place it's like a straight shot missile it's not like she's you know driving and swerving and hitting things and hitting the curb and then slamming into the building it's like it almost looks like you'd have to be pretty in control of the vehicle

58:44Mackenzie Shirilla:which also they think that means if someone blacked out or passed out or were so drunk this is not a road that you can maneuver before straight shotting it into the building

58:53Davion Flanagan:they're like if she was drunk on progress she would have hit something else first oh because it's like a there's like this gentle driving yes what they're saying they're like and and they pull another version of cctv camera so remember pearl is the main road of strongsville progress you turn right so you're on pearl then you make a right on to progress they pull cctv camera from that road and mckenzie when she does that right turn her blinkers on she slows down and she has a controlled right turn and then within the span of like half a mile suddenly she loses control loses control of the car and then speed shots it almost 100 miles per hour straight into the building so like none nothing makes sense i think initially when the police got there, they're thinking, okay, young kids, we found shrooms on McKenzie.

59:43Davion Flanagan:They found a quartz Ziploc bag of shrooms on McKenzie's person along with a digital scale. So they're thinking maybe this is impaired driving. But when they get all the CCTV camera, they're like, that doesn't make sense. How are you driving completely normally and completely safe? And then all of a sudden, you cannot drive with the argument essentially being, okay, so if McKenzie is impaired, she's somehow managing to drive with the skill of like an F1 driver straight into a building. So the police believe that rules out the fact that she could be impaired. Though they do do a toxicology report or test just to make sure.

1:00:18Davion Flanagan:And more on that in a second. But later, Mackenzie and her parents, as well as her defense attorney, will argue that Mackenzie was impaired. Just not by drugs. Not by anything that's going to show up in the toxicology. They argue that Mackenzie was diagnosed with POTS. which can cause someone to faint. I will note that not everyone diagnosed with POTS faints. It's actually like this is a very misrepresented diagnosis. In fact, that's a point of frustration with a lot of people who are diagnosed with POTS is that everyone assumes that they pass out when it's not even part of the diagnostic criteria.

1:00:57Davion Flanagan:Diagnostic criteria typically rest entirely on heart rate response, not fainting. Fainting, however, is a possible symptom, but not everyone with POTS faints. In fact, it's considered kind of like a rare event. It's been described as a disorder where it just feels like you're going to faint and you might faint. It is, you know, life altering, but it's not like, oh, everyone with POTS is fainting all the time and like they shouldn't be behind the wheel. Like it's not this like, oh my gosh, so scary. You're going to die. and like everyone, you can't be behind a car. The hallmark for POTS is more so a heart rate increase of at least 30 beats per minute in adults within the first 10 minutes of standing up or a head up tilt.

1:01:35Davion Flanagan:It's very much based on standing up. That's like a huge thing with POTS. It's okay. So a lot of it is centered around when someone without POTS, I guess like if you and I were not diagnosed with POTS, we stand up. Gravity pulls 10 to 15 % of blood into the stomach and the legs. the body will compensate by tightening the blood vessels and modestly adjusting the heart rate. For people with POTS, the blood vessels will not tighten. So blood, you know, pools below the heart and in an attempt to overcorrect because the body doesn't really like they're like, whoa, what's going on? Then the body will flood their system with norepinephrine and epinephrine.

1:02:14Davion Flanagan:So the heart is just getting epinephrine and norepinephrine and doesn't really know why. So naturally it causes the heart rate to shoot up abnormally. So, you know, that's like they might get lightheaded, dizziness, more so than just like, oh, I'm a little dizzy, right? POTS is a life-altering diagnosis. And I'm not trying to say like, oh, this is not serious. But it's not considered life-threatening. There are no deaths attributed directly to POTS. I think that's a huge thing that people in the POTS community feel like the stigma is a lot, especially with driving. and I was actually on the POTS subreddit and they really hate, really hate Mackenzie, it seems.

1:02:50Davion Flanagan:Because a lot of them, most of them have been diagnosed with POTS for decades. A lot of them say they've never fainted. And they actually, it was like very annoying because when people find out they have POTS, it's always like, how can you dare drive? Like it's, there's so many misconceptions about POTS and it's just not, they feel it's not true. So that's not to say that people with POTS don't faint, They absolutely can and do, and it can be life-altering when they faint because typically the biggest practical danger of POTS is injury from fainting. So like you faint, you fall, and you hit your head.

1:03:24Now, it does appear that the general public does just think it's a fainting disease,

1:03:29Davion Flanagan:which doesn't seem to be the case at all. But it's also a condition where you could have been diagnosed, gone years without fainting, and then you suddenly faint. It is entirely possible. Does that mean that that's what happened in this case? Most people don't think so. For a lot of reasons that we're going to dive deeper in a separate episode, but I'm just going to give you a little bit right now. So interestingly enough, a lot of people with POTS thinks that this whole thing is ridiculous. Okay. Even the way that Mackenzie's mom talks about POTS in court later during Mackenzie's trial, she calls POTS a blood pressure condition, which inherently is not true.

1:04:04Davion Flanagan:So when your blood pressure drops, that's when people faint. fainting can be a symptom for some people with POTS but the condition itself is not a blood pressure condition it's like more a heart rate condition so it's just like people are like how can you say that your daughter is diagnosed with POTS and that's what caused this fatal crash but you sound so uneducated about POTS like if this was truly a condition that was life altering enough for Mackenzie to get diagnosed with it and then later according to them get into a fatal car accident killing two people in the car because of POTS

1:04:36Mackenzie Shirilla:you would think her mother would know a bit about POTS but she calls it a blood pressure condition in court which is inherently not true blood pressure

1:04:43Davion Flanagan:again plays a role but it's not a blood pressure condition if you go on the pot subreddit you'll actually see a lot of people who argue that had this been a potts related episode it's more likely that her body would go limp rather than floor the pedal all the way straight into the wall so they're saying like when you faint it's more likely with pots that your body goes limp i see one person literally comments she's so fucking stupid if this were a pots episode the exact opposite would happen. There are also speculations that her diagnosis could have come from the fact that she was engaged in super heavy drug use and she does appear to be low on the BMI scale.

1:05:19Davion Flanagan:So feeling lightheaded upon standing is not always POTS. It could be because you're malnourished or your BMI is too low. It could be heavy drug usage. It could be low iron. It could be lots of things but again like with pot's diagnosis that's why a lot of people again are in the community upset there's a lot of specific criteria usually the gold standard is a tilt test they like strap you to this board and they put you in a direction which would simulate standing up and they keep you there for like 10 minutes while they're watching your heart rate and all of these things but she she gets diagnosed in 2017 because she apparently like fainted in the kitchen Her mom takes her to the Cleveland Clinic and she's prescribed salt tabs and is diagnosed with POTS.

1:06:11Davion Flanagan:And then it just seems like nothing ever happens. Like they don't get follow-ups. They don't do further diagnostic testing, at least that it's not revealed in court. I don't have her medical records, but I would assume that the defense would have used it. In fact, I also think it's weird that the defense, if they really were trying to argue this whole POTS thing,

1:06:26Mackenzie Shirilla:why don't you just strap her up to the tilt test board? Why don't you like definitively prove? because Natalie Shirela didn't even know the diagnosing physician. She's like, I don't even know what doctor it was. Like there was no upkeep in this POPs diagnosis. There was nothing. And then also it's the fact that people were saying,

1:06:43Davion Flanagan:okay, so she fainted once in the kitchen and this is not to comment on people's weights, but she does seem probably very low on the BMI scale to the point where some doctors may be alarmed. That could cause lightheadedness. That could cause fainting. She is engaging in heavy drug use. It could be a wide variety of reasons. And her mom gets her diagnosed with POTS, right? So it's just like, and if that were all true, if this is the case, Mackenzie faints in the

1:07:13Mackenzie Shirilla:kitchen, her mom gets her diagnosed with POTS and her mom still let her have a car while smoking weed with POTS is, I mean, that would be a huge problem because not because people with POTS cannot drive because they absolutely can.

1:07:26Davion Flanagan:And just as safely as any other law abiding citizen without POTS. But Mackenzie is 17. her mom says she's fainting in the kitchen her parents know she partakes in an ungodly amount of smoking weed and she's trying to like make the plant go extinct like that's how much she's trying to smoke weed and she likes to drive while high on weed I would imagine like that's a huge problem if you're letting your daughter do that and another thing is if the gibberish speak the carny speak in the hospital room is to be believed the fact that she was speaking and what her dad you know describes to be carny allegedly saying can we just tell them that I had a seizure Seizures and pots are not even the same thing.

1:08:04Mackenzie Shirilla:Like these are entirely different things. Seizures and fainting due to pots are not the same. We can't just fucking make pasta and see what sticks to the wall.

1:08:15Davion Flanagan:A lot of comments on the pot subreddit are along the lines of like, genuinely made me so mad. I feel like her claims are just adding to the misconceptions about pots. How in the world would a pots episode make you push harder on the gas? Such absolutely bullshit. And I'm glad she's in jail. Another one reads, amazing how fainting and losing consciousness can perfectly keep the car steered and accelerated. For sure. Another says, my jaw hit the floor when she said it was a medical event due to POTS. Only people with POTS would know that's not how it works. People have also noted that during the trial, during high stress situations with likely dehydration and other things playing into the mix, she never asked for a break because she felt like she was fainting, which is reasonable and expected for someone with POTS.

1:08:56Davion Flanagan:so because like your heart rate goes up when you're stressed and high cortisol and you know she's sitting in the courtroom on trial she's probably not drinking a ton of water dehydration and she never asked like the judge for a moment because she's feels like faint and lightheaded you know there's lots of moments where she's standing sitting judge walks in she stands like there's not like suddenly nothing matters you only had pots in that like two minutes in the car They also argue that medical records after she's life flighted don't match someone with POTS, that after being pulled out of that car with all the other factors, her blood pressure was qualitatively described as elevated when she's pulled from the crash.

1:09:36Davion Flanagan:Now, I will say they are pulled from the crash way later from the actual accident. But some people have argued like POTS would cause if you fainted, it would be low blood pressure, not high blood pressure. But she had elevated blood pressure. She also had a normal heart rate and ECG showing normal electrical heart function, which probably wouldn't happen, they think, in a POTS episode within like even an hour. Like POTS episode, all of that physical trauma, and then your heart rate is normal. Like they just don't think that makes sense. And also when they extract her from the car, it's like a posterior condition.

1:10:10Davion Flanagan:So she's being moved. so that would mean if she does have POTS her heart rate should go up because she's going from sitting to probably at least some form of like her she's moving now it's interesting to note that her defense did not bring an expert to testify about Mackenzie's POTS and how she could have fainted while operating the vehicle some people believe it was a genuine accident and people who believe it was not have mixed reasonings as to why the defense did not bring in an expert during the trial we're going to get into it in a second I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself but we're going to cover it thoroughly later.

1:10:41Davion Flanagan:So the first theory that police had was that Mackenzie was high and impaired while driving, but it just doesn't make sense with all the CCTV footage they're getting. Very early on, Mackenzie's mom is saying things like, oh, she has POTS. She has POTS, like in the hospital. So she's like, oh, maybe it was the POTS, right? And the police are like, well, that doesn't seem to be the case either.

1:11:01Mackenzie Shirilla:Like, we don't really think that's what happened either. So the police get the black box data from the vehicle. And according to the reports, it reads,

1:11:07Davion Flanagan:The Toyota averaged approximately 80.51 miles per hour in the final second leading up to the collision as it traveled off the roadway. So it struck the commercial sign and then the eastern side of the building. The black box shows that five seconds before hitting, before impact, the Toyota was 100 % acceleration, meaning the gas pedal was pressed all the way down. You could not press on the gas further. Fully depressed. You cannot press down further. Like, this is very pertinent. and at no point in the five seconds was the brake pedal ever pressed. This is the single most consequential data point in this case.

1:11:44Davion Flanagan:I will say there is a change in the engine throttle before impact. That is argued that the car was airborne. So when it hit the curb, I'm not saying it like flew, but it was off the ground and that will naturally impact the throttle engine readings. But the brake was never pressed. within the final seconds there is a small right turn of the steering wheel then a small left turn and then a significant right turn of 142 degrees of the steering wheel one second before the crash the shift the gear shift is moved to neutral and then moved back to drive now this is done manually this does not slip on its own there's nothing in the black box that would show that the car would initiate or engage some sort of protection mode or safety feature where it would go to neutral then back to drive.

1:12:34Davion Flanagan:So like something is happening with the gear shift physically, manually in the car. The car was also found to not have any malfunctions or mechanical errors that could have caused this. Now I say this with a lot of cases. If anyone truly believes that in a case, a car malfunction is the cause of death or deaths, I think a wrongful death suit demanding tens of millions of dollars will be knocking on the car manufacturer's door. Like that is my opinion, obviously, but I think that is a strong thing. So the black box data shows there's no malfunctioning of the vehicle. I will note there have been conversations online about whether or not Toyota had acceleration issues in the past.

1:13:09Davion Flanagan:So some people are like, oh yeah, Toyota had this thing where it would just freaking accelerate even if when you didn't want it to, which makes it sound like Toyotas would just go a hundred miles per hour out of the blue, leaving the driver and occupants trapped in a deadly rocket. That's okay. This was a whole thing back in 2009. Formal investigations were held into Toyota's what they called the acceleration problem. The Department of Transportation. So there were multiple calls coming in saying like, oh, the Toyota won't break. Like, I don't know what to do. I'm not stepping on. I'm stepping on the brake, but it's accelerating.

1:13:42Davion Flanagan:Like, help me, help me. Like people are freaking out. The Department of Transportation actually found that the acceleration from Toyotas, the unintentional accelerations from toyota's was mainly from floor mats getting stuck onto the gas pedal and more often than not drivers who inadvertently press the gas pedal thinking they were pressing the brakes and then panicking but it's a lot of it was user error toyota did a massive recall because they thought the financial loss was better than fighting public opinion there's a whole revisionist history episode on it that i would probably recommend nasa engineers also helped investigate and the fightings were, NASA found no evidence that a malfunction in electronics caused large unintended accelerations.

1:14:22Davion Flanagan:But this entire piece of Toyota history does not go without its own complications. Lots of people have their own opinions about what happened in the past. There were fatalities connected to what has been dubbed like the unintended acceleration crisis. But there are also conspiracies. A lot of people believe that this was propaganda by American car manufacturers

1:14:43Mackenzie Shirilla:to sow fear in foreign-made cars. Others believe that Toyota paid the fine, so they must have known something was messed up with the cars.

1:14:54Davion Flanagan:I do think there was some allegation of sticky gas pedals, but I'm just giving you a summary of the mixed feelings that people have. I will note that while diving into these conversations, though, even on Reddit, Toyota has at least anecdotally ranked as a very well-trusted car brand. and the argument goes on and on about is this real history because everyone it seems like most people they were like oh no Toyota did something bad and then everyone in the comments is like actually

1:15:23Mackenzie Shirilla:you're wrong so this is actually what happened and then the findings are here but then some people are saying well there's this 200 page court document where Toyota paid a fine and it's not

1:15:33Davion Flanagan:a rabbit hole that I felt was pertinent enough to go down but it's just there's no way that that's what happened in mackenzie's car especially because and the only reason i'm bringing this up is because her vehicle most likely had a brake override system which is bos toyota started installing these preemptively after 2009 because of this whole like unintended acceleration crisis so essentially if you feel like your car is accelerating unintendedly let's say your gas pedal is stuck if you hit the brakes it'll neutral out the acceleration it'll engage a safety feature

1:16:05Mackenzie Shirilla:yeah so you'll just be idle because you're hitting both technically right oh okay okay

1:16:10Davion Flanagan:but i mean that's that was never engaged because mckenzie never hit the brake but people are saying like if this was one of those unintended accelerations right she would have hit the brake and there's a safety feature that would have been triggered and it would have stopped the car it's pertinent to the case because there is a picture of a fuzzy prada slipper found stuck under the acceleration pedal in the crashed Toyota. A lot of people wonder, is this another unintended acceleration issue? Again, no, because the brakes were never hit. Toyotas have that safety feature that's been put in. And the prosecutor says, we got back the lab results.

1:16:46Davion Flanagan:And in his professional opinion,

1:16:48Mackenzie Shirilla:the expert stated, the slipper was stuck to the floorboard because of the impact. Like when the car was crushed, the floorboard had actually crumbled around the slipper. So it had no contribution to the crash. It was simply a result of the crash.

1:17:01Davion Flanagan:But let's say you don't trust the prosecutor or his opinions. Still, the BOS system, Prada Slipper gets stuck. If she hits the brakes, the BOS system would have been engaged and it would have stopped the car. So if it's not impaired driving, if it's not POTS, if it's not a car malfunction, if it's not an acceleration pedal that's stuck, what is it? And why did the car go to neutral, then go to drive? Why was the steering wheel yanked to the right? The prosecutor says it was chilling. if anybody was awake and alert inside that car what a horrific last few seconds they endured it is hard to comprehend that someone could just drive into a wall at that kind of speed it is widely believed that dom and davion were trying to save their lives in the last few moments and perhaps there was one of the boys had tried to put the car in neutral to slow it down it gets put back into drive maybe they're trying to take over the steering wheel Another thing to note is the two boys were not found with their seatbelts on.

1:18:07Davion Flanagan:And lots of people have reported that they always wear seatbelts. So they think they took it off to try and stop the car. And interestingly enough, Mackenzie, who I've watched so many of her videos of her driving under the influence, she almost never wears a seatbelt. But the day of the crash, she's wearing a seatbelt.

1:18:27Dominic Russo:She's the only one out of the three? Yeah.

1:18:29Davion Flanagan:So with that being said, that is part one of the Mackenzie Shurilla case. Stay tuned for the next few parts because we think that we've, this is just the surface. Let me know in the comments, what are your thoughts? And I'll see you in the next one. Bye.

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