Mackenzie Shirilla is no longer the teenager in a hospital bed, the defendant in a courtroom, or the young woman seen in surveillance footage moments before a fatal crash.

She is now an inmate at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life for the deaths of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan.

But renewed attention around her case has raised a painful question for the victims’ families: what does remorse look like when the person convicted of murder still describes herself as a victim?

A viral claim circulating online alleges that Shirilla has a daily prison ritual involving photos of the two young men she killed and a repeated sentence that has haunted their families. Authorities have not confirmed that such a ritual exists. No prison official, court filing, or verified family statement has publicly established that detail.

What has been confirmed is still deeply unsettling.

In recently reported jail calls, Shirilla referred to herself as the “third victim” of the fatal crash, a phrase that quickly drew backlash because Russo and Flanagan died while she survived. PEOPLE reported that the calls resurfaced as Shirilla’s case returned to public attention following Netflix’s documentary The Crash.

The phrase has become one of the most controversial lines associated with the case.

To Shirilla’s supporters, it may reflect fear, trauma, or a young woman struggling to understand a life sentence. To the families of Russo and Flanagan, it sounds like something far different: a convicted killer centering herself in a tragedy that ended two other lives.

Shirilla was 17 when she drove a Toyota Camry into a brick wall in Strongsville, Ohio, on July 31, 2022. Dominic Russo, 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19, were killed. Prosecutors argued the crash was deliberate, pointing to vehicle data showing extreme speed and no braking before impact. She was later convicted of murder and other charges.

The case has returned to the national spotlight because of Netflix’s The Crash, released in May 2026, which features Shirilla speaking from prison. In the documentary, she says she is “not a monster” and continues to deny that she intended to kill Russo or Flanagan.

But the court reached the opposite conclusion.

At trial, prosecutors described the crash as an intentional act tied to Shirilla’s troubled relationship with Russo. The judge found that the evidence showed purposeful conduct, not an accident or a medical blackout. Shirilla is eligible for parole in 2037.

The resurfaced jail calls have complicated public reaction further. PEOPLE reported that Shirilla expressed fear about her future, including concerns about her ability to have children after prison, and discussed her case with family and friends while awaiting sentencing. Another report said she wanted Kim Kardashian to become involved in her legal defense.

Those details have fueled outrage because the families of Russo and Flanagan do not get to imagine future milestones.

No parole date.

No children.

No second chapter.

No chance to explain what happened from their side.

That is why the idea of Shirilla staring at photos of the victims, whether verified or not, resonates so strongly online. It captures the unresolved emotional center of the case: two young men are gone, while the person convicted of killing them continues to speak about memory loss, trauma, prison, and the future she says she lost.

There is no confirmed evidence of a prison ritual.

There is, however, a confirmed sentence that has haunted the public conversation:

She called herself the “third victim.”

For the families of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan, that may be the line that hurts most.

Because in the eyes of the court, there were two victims in that car.

And Mackenzie Shirilla was not one of them.