“I just want you to be happy”: Dominic Russo’s heartbreaking breakup message to Mackenzie Shirilla has resurfaced weeks before the crash that 3nded his life

Dom Russo and Mackenzie Shirilla; Mackenzie Shirilla’s car after the crash.Credit : Courtesy of Netflix; Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office

Mackenzie Shirilla knew that her boyfriend of four years, Dominic Russo, was considering breaking up with her just weeks before she killed him and their friend, Davion Flanagan, according to texts obtained by PEOPLE.

“Kenzie u know i love u but i don’t think we should be together at this point there isnt very much time on earth yaknow,” Russo, 20, wrote on July 2, 2022, according to text messages obtained by PEOPLE in May 2026 from the Strongsville Police Department.

“id like to think we could stop fighting but its a breakup fight everyweek,” he continued.

He added, “neither of us deserve that i dont wanna fight all the time.” He then wrote that he believed she didn’t want to keep arguing either.

Expressing his concern for her, he wrote, “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 we should just breakup so we can both [find] happiness somewhere else.”

Then, in a continuation of the couple’s pattern of breakups, threats to break up, and reconciliations, Russo quickly retreated from his stance, writing, “i want the best for both of us baby im sorry we were fighting i love u.”

Shortly after, he wrote, “Look im sorry talk ltr.”

Shirilla started dating Russo when she was a freshman and moved in with him at 17 when she graduated from high school on June 24, 2022.

She had told friends and others that she planned on marrying Russo one day.

But the texts between them show how tumultuous their relationship was. Sent from January 2020 to July 30, 2022, the texts show how often the couple argued.

Arrested in November 2022 and charged with a slew of crimes including aggravated vehicular homicide, Shirilla — whose crimes are chronicled in the new Netflix documentary The Crash — was convicted of double murder on Aug. 14, 2023.

Now 21, Shirilla is currently serving two concurrent terms of 15 years to life in prison at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

When Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo (no relation to the victim) handed down two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life, she said, “This was not reckless driving. This was murder. . . . [Shirilla] morphs from a responsible driver to literal hell on wheels.”

Interviewed for the first time in the documentary, which began streaming on May 15, Shirilla says, “Nothing about [the crash] was intentional, because that’s not my character. I’m not saying I’m innocent. I was a driver of a tragedy, but I’m not a murderer.”

In the documentary, Russo’s brother, Angelo Russo, is heard telling police after the accident that “Dom tried to break up with her multiple times in July.”

But, he said, “They kept making back up.”

He told police Shirilla wanted Russo all to herself. “Kenzie’s like, she’s let us know she will never let go of Dom. And if she has to let go of Dom, she would not go on living herself.”