A former inmate has come forward with shocking claims about Mackenzie Shirilla, the convicted killer featured in Netflix's The Crash. According to Mary Katherine Crowder, who shared prison space with Shirilla, the documentary presents a very different story from what she witnessed firsthand.
Crowder, 27, spent over six months at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in 2024 alongside Shirilla and claims that the Netflix documentary portrays her as a remorseful and subdued inmate. However, Crowder says that Shirilla carried herself like a celebrity inside prison, keeping her hair and makeup done every day and even having her clothes altered to fit her better.
Far from grieving, Shirilla reportedly bounced around the prison yard with a close group of young inmates, earning her the nickname 'the Regina George of prison.'
Crowder also claimed that Shirilla was in multiple romantic relationships with other female inmates during her time there and had even been sent to solitary confinement for it. She also alleged that Shirilla's comfortable prison lifestyle was funded by her parents and strangers she connected with through an online 'prison sugar daddy' website.
Crowder challenged health claims raised in the documentary, saying that she never once saw Shirilla seek medical attention or show any signs of illness behind bars, despite her family's claims that a possible loss of consciousness before the crash was overlooked.
Perhaps most strikingly, Crowder said Shirilla's account of the crash itself was different inside prison from what was presented at trial. Shirilla's story, according to Crowder, was that she was high on shrooms when the accident occurred, a claim that contradicts blood test evidence from the night of the crash.
Crowder's TikTok videos about her time with Shirilla have gone massively viral, with her blasting the Netflix documentary for 'trying to portray her as this innocent, well-behaved suburban girl. That's not what she's ever been or who she's ever been.'
