US3 min(s) read
Published 08:45 28 May 2026 GMT
Mackenzie Shirilla's former prison girlfriend has claimed she received threatening messages containing her mother's name and home address after their relationship ended.
Shirilla is currently serving two consecutive sentences of 15 years to life for the deaths of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and his friend Davion Flanagan in July 2022. The then 17-year-old drove her car into a building at 100mph, leaving herself seriously injured, while Russo and Flanagan were killed.
Questions surrounded the crash for months before Shirilla was charged with murder, felonious assault, aggravated vehicular homicide, drug possession, and criminal tools possession. She was found guilty of all charges in August 2023.
Shirilla's case has recently returned to the spotlight following the release of The Crash on Netflix, which examines the fatal accident and the now 21-year-old's conviction.
Before the documentary landed on the streaming platform, Shirilla's former prison girlfriend, Shyann Topping, spoke about their relationship on TikTok in August 2025.
Topping explained that she and Shirilla began speaking shortly before she was due to be released from prison. The pair dated for a couple of weeks while incarcerated and continued seeing each other after Topping left prison.
Now, Topping has opened up about the backlash she claims she faced after publicly discussing the relationship.
Speaking to People, she said: "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."
According to Topping, the messages included her mother's name along with her home address. She believes inmates who were incarcerated with Shirilla may have been responsible for sending them.
The former inmate said the messages left her fearful for her safety, which is why she stopped posting about the situation online for a period of time. Following the release of The Crash, however, she decided to speak publicly again.
Topping also revealed that she originally supported Shirilla and believed she may not have been guilty because of the limited information she had while in prison.
"When I was in [prison], I honestly believed maybe she's not guilty because of the limited information I had," Topping said.
She added: "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.'"
Topping said the relationship eventually faded after she learned more details about Shirilla's case and reviewed evidence connected to the fatal crash.
The renewed attention surrounding Shirilla has also sparked wider discussion online following the release of the Netflix documentary, with social media users revisiting the circumstances of the 2022 crash and the criminal case that followed.
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