Shyann Topping tells PEOPLE that she dated Mackenzie Shirilla after she was transferred to the Ohio Reformatory for Women following her murder conviction in 2023

Shyann Topping; Mackenzie Shirilla

Shyann Topping (left); Mackenzie Shirilla (right).Credit : Shyann Topping (2)

Shyann Topping had just started dating Mackenzie Shirilla — a new prisoner at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in 2023 — when she says she learned a fellow inmate had been sharing a false and particularly malicious rumor about why she herself was behind bars.

Topping tells PEOPLE that she decided to sit down with Shirilla and assure her new girlfriend that the rumor — which falsely claimed she was trafficking children — was not true by providing evidence that directly refuted the other inmate’s claim.

Shirilla did not need much convincing, however, according to Topping, who says that the relief she felt in that moment was soon overshadowed by Shirilla’s response to the incident.

“I gave her my ID card so she could look and see what [my real] charges were, and she was like, ‘Oh, it’s okay, don’t take it personally,'” she tells PEOPLE.

Topping says her new girlfriend then started to laugh as she told her: “They call me ‘Shirilla the Killa.'”

Shyann Topping
Shyann Topping.Shyann Topping

Topping says she did not think much of Shirilla’s comment at the time, as the two were enjoying a bit of a whirlwind romance shortly before her time in prison was coming to an end.

She says she noticed Shirilla walking outside one day, and soon managed to make her affection for the new inmate known by having her friend pass along a message to Shirilla’s friend.

Shirilla had landed at the prison after being convicted on four counts of murder following a crash that occurred around dawn on July 31, 2022, in Strongsville, a city located about 20 miles south of Cleveland.

Shirilla, who was 17 at the time, was driving a vehicle that crashed into a brick building at a speed of over 100 mph, killing both her boyfriend Dominic Russo, 21, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 20, both of whom were pronounced dead at the scene.

Topping says she quickly became one of Shirilla’s most fervent supporters after listening to the details of the case and hearing the horrific injustices her girlfriend had suffered both before and during her trial.

“She never really made light of what happened,” Topping says. “And she would talk about Dom and Davey a lot in a loving, regarding way.”

Topping also notes that because the fatal crash happened while she was incarcerated, the only details she knew about the case were the ones she was being told by Shirilla.

Mackenzie Shirilla
Mackenzie Shirilla.Shyann Topping

The relationship between the two was cut short though when Topping was released from prison, but she says that she remained in contact with Shirilla for months, believing that she would soon be released as well, given what she had been told about her case.

“When I was in [prison], I honestly believed maybe she’s not guilty because of the limited information I had,” explains Topping. “Then I began to think, ‘OK, maybe we can get her out.'”

Topping says she was ready to “advocate” for Shirilla and do everything in her power to help the cause — until she started to look into the facts of the case.

“Then, when I saw all the evidence, I was like ‘whoa,'” Topping says, adding that she quickly realized Shirilla was not who she pretended to be.

“When I left prison I did not view Mackenzie as the monster she [is now being] portrayed as,” Topping says. “When I first got out I was like, ‘Oh, they don’t know what this girl’s been through.'”

She then thought back to that day in prison when she watched her new girlfriend laugh as she told her about her “Shirilla the Killa” nickname.

“I just realized that maybe she is not a good person, that maybe she was just showing me what I wanted to see because she found me attractive,” Topping says.

Topping made the decision to start sharing her story on TikTok, months before the release of the new Netflix documentary The Crash, which details the events leading up to Shirilla’s incarceration.

She is now working two jobs and has had no communication with Shirilla.

Topping says she is not surprised she has not heard from her ex, telling PEOPLE: “She could be the sweetest girl ever, but if she doesn’t like you she’s the Devil.”