Shirilla is currently serving two concurrent sentences of 15 to life after she was convicted on four counts of murder stemming from a 2022 car crash.

The Crash subject Mackenzie Shirilla heard speaking to mom in secret language during jail call

Shirilla is currently serving two concurrent sentences of 15 to life after she was convicted on four counts of murder stemming from a 2022 car crash.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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May 21, 2026 7:13 p.m. ET

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Mackenzie and Natalie Shirilla, as featured in Netflix's 'The Crash'. Credit:

- Strange new recordings from prison capture Mackenzie Shirilla and her mother speaking in coded language to evade detection. - The calls obtained by PEOPLE were eventually decoded and presented as evidence in Shirilla's 2023 murder trial. - Shirilla was convicted on charges connected with a 2022 car crash that killed two men, resulting in concurrent 15-to-life sentences.

Mackenzie Shirilla can be heard speaking in a secret language with her mother in newly obtained calls from the prison where she's serving two 15-to-life sentences for murder.

In the calls obtained by PEOPLE on Thursday, the 20 year old can be heard switching into a fast-paced, virtually indecipherable code language while speaking with her mother, Natalie. "Which one?" Natalie asks after her daughter fires off a string of words punctuated by extraneous vowels. Later, she asks Mackenzie, "Don't forget you said — can I say a gibberish term just to make sure? — don't forget that that might not be what really happened. She's being accused of that."

In other calls obtained and reviewed by the outlet, Mackenzie indicates that she's switching into the code language when her new cellmate is in the room with her or when she's in a public place and doesn't want to be overheard.

Mackenzie Shirilla in 'The Crash'.

Investigators in Mackenzie's 2023 trial were able to decode the language, which turned out to be a relatively simple form of gibberish in which a sound resembling "ezza" or "eeza" is inserted between each syllable of each word. The results of the decryption were presented as evidence against Mackenzie during trial, including one call in which Mackenzie allegedly asked her mother, "Can we tell the police I had a seizure?"

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Mackenzie Shirilla was convicted of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and one count each of drug possession and possessing criminal tools after a four-day trial on Aug. 14, 2023. A week later, she was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 15 years to life. She becomes eligible for parole in 2037.

The staggering list of convictions stems from a 2022 car crash that killed Dominic Russo, 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19, while Mackenzie was behind the wheel. Originally regarded as a tragic accident, prosecutors ultimately alleged that Mackenzie intentionally drove the car into a brick building at 97.8 mph in order to kill Russo, her boyfriend, and Flanagan, their friend.

Russo and Flanagan were declared dead at the scene, while Mackenzie survived with broken bones.

The Shirillas case is examined in the new Netflix documentary feature *The Crash*. Directed by prolific true crime filmmaker Gareth Johnson, *The Crash *features the first on-camera interview with Mackenzie since the incident.

Police never formally interviewed Mackenzie after the crash, and she did not testify on her own behalf during the trial. She maintains in the documentary that she has "no recollection of that morning, but I know nothing about it was intentional, because that's not in my character."

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