Newly surfaced text messages show Dominic Russo trying to end his relationship with Mackenzie Shirilla less than a month before he died in a crash that prosecutors say was intentional. In messages dated July 2, 2022, Russo told Shirilla that they should not be together anymore and said there was “very much time on earth,” a stark line from a relationship that had already run through years of fighting and threats.
Russo’s texts, later read in court records from Strongsville, Ohio, show a breakup attempt that was both gentle and resigned. He wrote, “Kenzie u know i love u but i dont think we should be together at this point there isnt very much time on earth,” and added that “it’s a breakup fight everyweek [sic] neither of us deserve that.” He told Shirilla they needed some time apart, then said, “i dont want u to think im abandoning u i wish it could work but i dont think its going to at this point especially with the threats,” before concluding, “we should just breakup so we can both fimd [sic] happiness somewhere else.”
The messages matter because they sit near the center of a case that ended with Russo’s death on July 31, 2022, when Shirilla, then 19, drove her car at 100 mph into a brick wall, killing him and the couple’s friend Davion Flanagan. Prosecutors concluded the crash was an intentional act. The text trail, though, suggests the end of the relationship had been coming for a long time.
That history goes back at least to January 2020, when Shirilla allegedly told Russo she was “gonna kill someone” after he did not give her a ride. In that same stretch, she texted that she was “mad as f--k rn [right now],” wrote “I F--KING HATE MYSELF IM UGLY AND YOU J[UST] ADD ON TO IT AND MAKE ME FEEL EVEN UGLYER,” and said, “YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE IM WORTHLESS I DO SO MUCH S--T FOR YOU.” She later told him she was at his house “breaking down” on his floor, and added, “I j[ust] want to bang my head on the wall till I'm dead,” along with a plea that he “treat the girl who would die for you a little better.”
The friction did not stop there. On Aug. 13, 2021, Russo said Shirilla threatened to stab him in the eye after he made a joke she did not like. She answered, “Maybe if u just had my back,” and “u wouldn't be threatened.” On March 11, 2022, Russo accused her of getting physically violent, writing, “[You] didnt let me out the car,” and saying she “hit me and pulled the s--t out of my hair then tried to throw a rock at me and threaten to call the cops on me and key my car.”
The case has drawn wider attention because the relationship lasted four years and because Shirilla is now the subject of Netflix’s The Crash. But the texts make the central point plain: this was not a sudden breakup or a one-day blowup. It was a relationship marked by threats, rage and repeated accusations of violence, ending with a crash that prosecutors say was deliberate and that left two people dead.
