We Asked Rosie & Bubba from "The Crash" EVERYTHING The Internet Wants To Know
66m 51s
Rosie and Bubba, two of the last people to see Dom and Davian alive at Paul’s gathering, have provided detailed accounts of their experiences following the crash that killed Mackenzie Shurello, Dominic Russo, and Davian Flanagan. They assert that they initially believed the police were pursuing a drug investigation—fueled by questions about guns, text messages between Rosie and Mackenzie about buying shrooms, and reports from Paul’s interview—rather than a homicide inquiry. Rosie claims she only spoke to prosecutors after a grand jury subpoena was issued following Mackenzie’s arrest, and she felt the police investigation was unfairly focused on drug activity. Bubba similarly delayed speaking to detectives, citing fear of being labeled part of a drug network, though he eventually cooperated in October after being assured it was not a drug trafficking case. Their statements are supported by police reports noting the detectives’ repeated outreach and Paul’s interview, which included intense questions about guns and drugs. While they do not claim to have witnessed any fight between Mackenzie and Dom, they emphasize that the night was calm, with the group watching TV and going on a snack run. They also dispute online claims that they saw the crash site or failed to call police, noting that such claims are inconsistent with available evidence—especially the police video of the car’s path—and originated from a single friend who reported Rosie’s emotional reaction. Despite the controversy, both maintain their cooperation with authorities was motivated by fear of being framed in a drug case, not by covering up the truth. Their accounts challenge the narrative that they were complicit or secretive, instead framing their actions as a response to perceived bias in the investigation. However, due to limitations in verifiable evidence—such as unconfirmed phone records or sealed grand jury materials—their claims remain subject to interpretation and scrutiny.
If you have not already, listen to the previous four parts of the series, I recommend doing that first. We went through the crash itself that was caused by 17-year-old Mackenzie Shurello, where she killed her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davian Flanagan in the backseat. We went through all of our actions after the crash that a lot of people were sideying. We went through the Netflix documentary. Mackenzie was interviewed. For the Netflix documentary, we went through all of the things she said. Her best friends, her close friends were also speaking out. Some of them were interviewed for the Netflix documentary, and a lot of them were hated. And two of the more controversial figures to come out of this Netflix talk, The Crash, are Rosie and Bubba. They were there the night at Paul's gathering that Mackenzie, Dom, and Davian were at all before they left. And when they leave Paul's place, that's when the crash happens. So these are the last people to see Dom and Davian alive. Rosie and Bubba are, you know, they did not have a, they were not widely liked after the Netflix documentary for a lot of good reasons on the internet. And we were able to get them on a two-hour phone call with our researchers and ask them all of the questions, and most importantly, ask them what really happened that night. Now, I will say that I was not on that phone call. There was a schedule overlap, but also we thought it would be best for me to remain as objective as possible, and I thought the easiest way would be to not be on that phone call. I gave my researchers a list of questions that I had. My researchers also had their own list of questions, and we were just rapid fire, making sure that everything got answered. And I will say that Rosie and Bubba do not seem to be at least evasive to any of the questions. I did of course try my best to verify their statements, but there are some that are for obvious reasons impossible to verify. And for those, I'm just going to point out there's no way to verify that. And at times where I do attempt to verify with the FOIA file, I'm just going to walk you through my steps and thought process of how I tried to verify information, just so we can be as transparent as possible. Rosie and Bubba first stated that they felt the Netflix documentary was extremely edited and twisted in a way that does not represent how they truly feel. Rosie told us that she was under the impression that the Netflix talk was talking to her and Bubba about the viewpoint of losing friends in such a tragic way at such a young age. She says, "I just feel like it really was twisted in a way that we never anticipated." Rosie states that it wasn't what she was expecting to represent her feelings about the whole situation, so they were describing that Rosie had an eight hour long interview with producers, Bubba had a 15 hour long interview, and it's just like rapid fire questions all day, and they said that they answered each and every single one of them. And when they saw the final documentary, they even thought the original documentary was going to be a three-part docuseries. But it got cut down to just one and a half hours. Rosie states she felt like they just took out a lot of things for simplicity's sake. They never got an early viewing of the documentary either, and when it did release, Rosie and Bubba stayed up to like three in the morning to watch it, and they state that they were taken aback by how much was cut out. For like eight hours, 15 hours, they say like it's only like 15 minutes, make it in, and they thought that it was not a good representation of their interviews is what they state to us. Rosie shares her grievances with the way the documentary cut her parts stating that she felt a lot of trust with the production team she says they did don't fuck with cats, which is honestly great. We think it's a great film. Everybody loves that. We just watched her a while ago. So they had a lot of reputable films. I thought they would take our story responsibly, and they were always super nice every time we communicated with them. And we really poured our hearts out, and they came into our house like multiple times. They felt it was just not accurate of how they feel. So how do they feel? The biggest question that we had for Rosie other than what happened that night was why would you not talk to the police, but you want to talk to Netflix? That also seemed to be the biggest point of contention on the internet when it comes to Rosie. I did see you through the police file throughout the police report. There are multiple mentions in the detectives incident report that he has reached out to Rosie, and she's declined to speak with him. He's like reaching out multiple days. This is a major, completely understandable point that's being made online. I, too, am of the belief of like, how can you really grieve the loss of two friends, but you did everything you could to avoid helping the investigators figure out the truth of what happened that night? It doesn't make sense. It does give cover-up vibes, understandably. So we asked, why did she not talk to the investigators? In the documentary, in the Netflix documentary, the prosecutors also interviewed, and he states, quote, "You have no idea how hard I try to get Rosie Graham to talk to me to cooperate with me, but it's good to hear that she talked to you guys. I'm fascinated to hear what she has to say." So we asked Rosie, and she states she did talk to the prosecutor. Really? Yeah, she says, quote, "I did speak with the prosecutor, and I don't really know what got lost in communication with them." She later mentions that she had two phone calls with the prosecutors. One was an hour long, the other one was 30 minutes long, and that she has the phone record to prove these calls happened. Now here's what I did to verify this statement. Like I said, there are multiple mentions in the detective report of trying to get Rosie to come in for an interview. There is no mention that she ever did. However, Rosie does state that she talked to the prosecutor, not the detective. So in the detective's report, he's like, "Rosie won't talk to me, Rosie won't talk to me. She won't talk to us. She talked to the prosecutor, two different people." She says this. So there's all this talk online that nobody cooperated, and I think it's the way that a documentary was edited, where I was explaining the initial police hesitation, and they cut it with the prosecutor, which he's not even the police. You know, the prosecutor didn't call us originally, and I explained it on the documentary in depth, and once Mackenzie was arrested, the prosecutor called me. It went to voicemail. I called him back, and I have phone records of two phone calls with him. One was half an hour, and the other one was an hour long. The guy who's saying that in the Netflix stock, that's the prosecutor. So the prosecutor, she's saying they did speak. Then why did he in the documentary saying, "She thinks it's the way the producers edited it." Oh. So she's saying the prosecutor could say, "Oh, you have no idea how much I've tried. I'm fascinated." Yeah. Wait. Well, I have my theories about that, too. Oh, okay. Okay. And so she says, and I remember he asked me, he said, "I'm going to ask you every question and I would ask you on the stand." And I answered every question. Then he went on the documentary, and it's cut with me saying, "I didn't initially want to talk to the police because I thought it was a drug investigation." And then the prosecutor saying, "Oh, I'm so fascinated with what she's going to say, insinuating that I never spoke with him, but I did." And I was under the impression that I would be testifying during the trial, and I was willing to, and he said, "Okay, I'm going to call you whenever to come in to testify." And I was like, "Great." And I never heard back. Now, I did find in the FLIA that there is a grand jury's subpoena for Rosie that was in fact issued after McKenzie's arrest. And there are no notes from any sort of conversation that Rosie had with the prosecutor. I think it could be possible that this conversation with the prosecutor was due to the grand jury's subpoena. So she's not, she's refusing to talk to the police. She gets a grand jury's subpoena, the prosecutor calls her, and she does have these two phone calls with the prosecutor from what I can, I guess I tend to believe that, right? Now, so far, all signs point to the fact that she probably did talk to the prosecutor because there is a subpoena, which means if she did not cooperate, they could have, like in the David case, with Neo arrested her. Now, does it mean that every time someone doesn't cooperate with the prosecutor after a grand jury's subpoena, they're automatically arrested? No. So there's no way to factually say this is correct. It doesn't happen all the time. It's just like you could get arrested if you don't cooperate. And she states that it was after Mackenzie's arrest and the grand jury's subpoena was issued after Mackenzie's arrest. I see. Okay. Okay. So the timeline adds up. Yes. So it seems like from end of July to November, she doesn't talk to any detective. And then after the grand jury's subpoena, it seems like that is when she talks to the prosecutor on these two phone calls. So if that's the case, that means Rosie did, in fact, talk to prosecutors, but it was after being subpoenaed and it was after Mackenzie's arrest. It was kind of what I feel like I can piece together through the FOIA, right? Now, the prosecutor states to Netflix, you have no idea how hard I tried to get Rosie Graham to talk to me, which I mean, it insinuates that Rosie Graham didn't talk, but also it doesn't, because he's just saying like, like I had to work on this a lot, right? I tried really hard. You have no idea how hard I tried. And then it cuts with him saying to cooperate with me. So you have no idea how hard I tried to get Rosie Graham to talk to me to cooperate with me, but it's good to hear that she talked to you guys. I'm fascinated to hear what she has to say. He says to talk to me, to cooperate with me. It could be possible that Rosie did talk to the prosecutor, but maybe he said that because she might not have cooperated in the way that he was anticipating. Okay. Okay. Like the fact that he's saying I'm fascinated to hear what she has to say, like it maybe there's an insinuation of we did grand jury subpoena her, but maybe they got nothing out of that phone call. Maybe those two phone calls, there was nothing that they felt was. So why didn't she talk to the police and them in the initial three, four months? Yeah. Oh, there's a whole thing. We asked them about that too. So I do want to note that if there was, I mean, these phone calls, it's really hard to verify if they did occur in the sense of, or like even the substance of the phone calls because if it were to have happened after a grand jury subpoena, a lot of things that are pertaining to grand juries are sealed typically. So it's just like a, yeah, but the wording there is very interesting. hardy try to get Rosie Graham to talk to him to cooperate with him. I'm fascinated to hear
and what she has to say. Another interesting point is Rosie mentioned to our researchers, quote, and he said, "Okay, I'm gonna call you whenever to come testifying." I was like, "Great, and I never heard back." Which could indicate that the prosecutor felt like she was unhelpful to the prosecution's case, and these are all me just like tinfoil at adding this and coming up with my own opinions. I still want to note, even if this were true in a hypothetical parallel universe, even if Rosie wasn't helpful to the prosecution's case, that doesn't mean anything. That doesn't mean that she was in cooperating to the best of her abilities. It just means-- - It wasn't useful. - Yeah. I just tried to verify whatever statement I could with whatever relevant information I could find that is verified through the FOIA, but I want to state conclusively, I can't really prove anything to anyone, like I'm just trying to verify people's statements, and this is how my thought process worked, this is how we ended up. As for why Rosie and Bubba were so hesitant to talk to the authorities, because Rosie never talked to the detective. Bubba took just like a long time, like almost, I think he talked to them near October, if I'm not mistaken. So it's just like weeks of the detectives hounding him to sit down for the investigators. They said that they had a very strong reason for why, and they state that it's not to help McKenzie. They state that there were seven people there at the night at the gathering of Paul's house. Paul, Nina, Rosie, Bubba, McKenzie, Dom and Davion. Dom and Davion obviously can't tell the police what happened that night. McKenzie's the one being investigated. Paul, Nina, Rosie, and Bubba. Paul actually spoke with the detectives. Bubba says they all had interviews lined up right after Paul. So Paul was the first one to go in for an interview, and then it was gonna be like, Nina, Rosie, Bubba, like they all had it lined up and scheduled, and I could actually see on the detectives report, like Rosie had an interview scheduled. But after Paul gets out of his interview, he communicates with the group, and according to Rosie and Bubba, obviously we didn't talk to Paul, but he communicates with them that the interview's not good. They were like, he was basically telling them, this is what they say, yeah, it's not good in there. And objectively, I didn't find anything necessarily alarming. Granted, I think being asked questions by the police for such a serious investigation, and asking about rooms and purchasing rooms and tripping, I can understand maybe it heightens someone's emotions and makes people overthink. I do believe that Paul's mom was in the interview room as well, which could heighten the feelings of stress and anxiety when talking about having friends over and smoking weed. When your mom is right there and there's investigators in front of you, and it is a very serious matter because two people are dead, so I can completely understand the height and emotions. However, there's nothing particularly stand out about Paul's interview, where objectively from a third party, I can say, oh my god, like abort mission, like this is bad, right? But I can see-- - So you saw his interview too? - Yes. - Okay. - Now Rosie, related to us, that Paul was kind of getting freaked out by the line of questioning. I could verify this. There were questions about guns. - Guns, like today own guns? - Yes, so they were specifically asking if they ever saw a DOM with a gun. If a gun came out that night at the gathering, asking if they'll just look in their backyard and see if they notice anything, which is like kind of like a crazy ask. That was a little-- - This is Sunday. - Yeah, they were like, well, if you see anything in your backyard. Like if you see guns, drug paraphernal-- Like they were just like, if you see anything. They were asking if DOM was jealous of Kenzie's friendship with Paul, which Paul is like, well, no, because he knows I'm gay. I mean, I don't think that part is necessarily frightening but I do think, at least the way it played out about saying, oh, well, no, DOM's not jealous because he knows I'm gay. But I do think the part about the guns, that probably did freak Paul out. It was like pretty extensive questioning about the guns and I could see how he communicated that probably to Rosie and Baba. So I think the whole gun thing happened because I think DOM owned guns or something of that sort. But there was just a lot of focus on the guns for a brief moment in time in that Paul interview. So I think it did freak Paul out. So I think there was just a lot of things happening. Like they're asking about guns. They're questioning him about drugs that night and two people are dead. And there's just, I think he could be very frightened after this interview. Now, one thing that I did take note of, but I didn't particularly know how to feel about it, was that I did take note that in the interview with Paul. And this is before our researchers spoke with Rosie and Baba. There was a DA agent from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Now, the DA officer mainly gave a whole little mini lecture at the end of the interview that he's just like, "Oh, well, you know, weed is not a gateway drug, drugs are bad, you're going to college, you look like a good kid, don't be doing drugs, like don't be hanging out with the wrong people." Just because there's talks of them trying to buy shrooms and trying to take shrooms. And so there was just like a whole drugs can ruin your future and your lives type of conversation. The DA agent, I don't know what he was there. Is he here just to talk? That's what I thought, right? But I guess maybe his presence alone, whether it was not important, 'cause sometimes DA agents will also just like support other investigations. I don't know, right? But it could also be the fact that there is a drug element to McKenzie's case. She was found with shrooms on her person and she was charged for drug possession and possessing criminal tools. So it does make sense that maybe a DA agent is involved, but I think all of these elements, Paul reiterates to Rosie and Baba. And they said that they were freaked out. They said that they thought those was a drug investigation. Rosie and Baba thought this is a drug investigation. Yes, so I think the way that they framed it or said to our researchers is what Paul told them about his interview. They started all feeling very freaked out that they're investigating not the accident, but drugs and like they, yeah. So like they said that they were feeling hesitant. Listen, I don't know, this is what they're saying. Now, Paul tells them that the cops had even printed out text messages between Rosie and McKenzie where Rosie that night is like asking to buy weed and shrooms. So I think that freaks Rosie out because she states, yeah, that freaked her out. Rosie says, so I told my dad, my dad's a cop, ex-retired chief or whatever, which they always feel the need to bring up. So she's like saying, people always bring this up as if like I'm part of a cover up. She says, but really it has no play in this besides me being like, well, they're asking about guns and drugs and I don't know anything about that. So she's saying that she, Paul tells her what happened. She goes to her dad and is like, I don't know. They're like asking about guns and drugs and I don't know anything about guns and drugs. She says her dad speaks with their attorney and the attorney tells them not to talk. Obviously, there's limits to what I can verify about any of the things anybody anywhere is saying, but one thing I could verify from this was that in the police document, it reads that Rosie's dad leaves a voicemail after Paul's interview, canceling his daughter's interview. He doesn't really state a reason. I think at some point they state like mental health, but it is after Paul's interview. So they did have, yes, but I don't know if that's why they canceled the interview, right? This is what they told me or told our researchers is why, but I can't verify, but the timeline does check out. Now, Paul notes something interesting in his interview that when he visited McKenzie at the hospital after the crash, Natalie Sherilla, McKenzie's mom told them not to talk to the cops. Natalie to Paul and everybody. Yeah, but he is relaying this to the police, right? So I think that's, you know, I don't know, right? So I guess you couldn't, people can interpret that in multiple different ways. But Paul states that he talked to Rosie about all of this. So he's like telling the police like, yeah, I've talked to Rosie about all of this. And he states that Rosie is his best friend and Paul states to the officers that Rosie does want to talk to them. So like in his interview, before he gets freaked out, like he's mentioning, oh yeah, like Rosie's my best friend. Yeah, she wants to talk to you guys because he knows that she has an interview lined up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see. So after Paul's interview, everything changed. Yes, so Rosie and Bubba state that they start hearing from others that this is a drug investigation that since McKenzie was technically going to bring them shrooms, whether it be through Dom or someone else, right? That there's like a sale of drugs that is going to happen, obviously, evidence by the text messages between Rosie and McKenzie. They state it seemed like they were trying to like crack down a whole network of people who were purchasing. So that's why they were hesitant to talk to the police is what they told our researchers. Rosie says in the Netflix documentary, she says. That's what she said about the drug. Investigation, yes. So our researchers were asking like, but that's like really weird because it was just like, you sounded really out of left field in the Netflix stock being like, they're not looking into the accident, they're looking into the next drug dealer. It was just like very strong of an opinion. Oh, so that's what she meant. Rosie says, yeah, basically, yeah. She says that there was a lot more context to that. She told our researchers, quote, "When we were filming, they sat me down and asked me in my eight hour long interview, one of the questions was, so what was Dom's job?" And I kind of looked at them kind of weird because they know what his job was. And I was like, I don't want to say that on camera for everybody, for the whole world. And they literally said to me, oh, the viewers are already going to know in the audience. Like they're going to know that he was sometimes, maybe, perhaps, allegedly, you know? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Like I don't even want to say drug dealer, I mean, I guess legally, I don't know, right? But it seems like you're like, it seems evidenced by lots of text messages. - Right, right, right, yeah, okay. - Okay, so she says that is what accounts for why my response got simplified down. It seems like they were trying to find the next big drug dealer. So she's saying she was under the impression the Netflix stock would include lots of this. So her, oh, it didn't look like they were trying to investigate the accident. It looked like they were trying to find the next big drug dealer. She thought there would be a lot of context. - Right, right, right. - But instead, there was kind of none. - It was out of context. I do want to clarify something. I think whatever Dom was doing is completely irrelevant to this entire case. It played no role in the crash. It played no role in the fact that his life was taken at 20 years old. And the only definitive part that really matters in the context of the crash and drugs is that drugs were found on McKenzie's person when she was pulled out of the vehicle. They found a whole bag of shrooms on her person. Now, Rosie and Bubba are saying that they were under the impression, like I said, that this is a drug dealer.
investigation. That's what they're telling us. The police document also notes that the detective did reach out to Bubba's college football coach to try to get Bubba to come in for questions after all of them canceled their interviews. So it does seem like the Nina. Nina's not really like they don't really care about Nina. She didn't do the interview. No. Yeah. Oh, what? That's weird. She was there. Um, she was, but I think she like barely knew. So I think Nina is Rosie's friend. Rosie and Mackenzie were the connection and then Davian and Bubba were the connection. Now Bubba says the Netflix documentary, I think that from their original idea, the documentary involved too much, I guess the drug talk in a sense and I could see it respectfully why the families wouldn't want that out there. But I guess that was their initial direction with this case or with this documentary. And then somewhere down the line, edit changes had to be made or whatnot and it went a completely different direction. So Bubba is saying like he agrees with Rosie that he was under the impression that this Netflix documentary was going to talk extensively about drugs, the drug investigation, the alleged drug investigation and all these things. Oh, so in the dark, it wasn't talked about. Barely. Just like they were going to maybe trip. So everything you just said was not discussed. Yeah. So they share other stories of why they thought it was a drug investigation and again, you either believe them or you don't. It's entirely up to you. I actually have no stance on this matter as I do think it's still kind of irrelevant to the crash itself. But because the internet has been wanting to know why they didn't talk to the police, I guess this is their reasoning. So they state Bubba says that the police were coming to his college to essentially ask about drugs. Again, furthering his belief, he states that the police were not interested about the night in question that they were not interested in the car crash that they were interested in figuring out some sort of nefarious drug network that he, you know, it doesn't really exist. So he says, quote, after practice, it's the seventh game of the season. They called me up to the coach's office, which is at the top of the Don Drum Stadium. I go up there and they're like, so we've been getting reports. The dean of the college is getting reports that you're involved in a drug trafficking case back at home. And that if you become a suspect and not a victim, we couldn't have that image on the team. Bubba says I was flabbergasted from that. I was like, drug trafficking. I'm like, what the hell is going on? Because even at this point, anytime the police reached out to me, they would come to my dorm and it was never about drugs. It was always about like, are you being intimidated not to talk to us? Is someone intimidating you not to talk to us about that night? Again, this is one of those things where I could not verify. If the school is telling him drug trafficking case involving you, they must have gotten that from someone from the police. Yes, but I can't verify that the school did say that to him. The only thing that I could verify is that the detective did reach out to his football coach. Let's say if that is true, then what does I mean then? That means potentially there could be investigating for something more. I think they it could have been a dual investigation. I think they could have been running a homicide investigation. And then the DA agent is in the line of questioning for a lot of these interviews because he could also be running his own investigation into maybe like a high school network of transfer of weed and illicit substances. So I could not verify that conversation, but like I said, I do know that there is mentioned in police reports that the detectives were reaching out to Bubba's football coach and it seems like they were repeatedly going to Bubba's college and that is kind of noted. It did seem like they were trying to apply pressure to get him to talk, which isn't necessarily always a bad thing on the police's part, but that's just what I could verify. And as for the two officers talking about how Bubba told them who's gonna intimidate me, I'm big dog, right? That wasn't one of our questions actually. That was not one of my questions. That was not one of our researchers questions, but it did come up naturally. And Bubba states, I simply told them I wasn't being intimidated. And he's like, I'm like, no bro, I'm like six foot two. I'm not going to be intimidated. No one's threatening me to not talk to the police. I think I said something along the lines of like, I'm big dog at home. He says it wasn't meant in any way. It was more of just like I'm the second biggest kid in our high school. The first one just went to the Detroit Lions this year in the draft. I was the second biggest in the school after him. So he was explaining to our researchers like when he said, I'm big dog, he wasn't trying to be like, I'm top dog. I'm the shit. Like no one messes with me. He was like, it seemed more like he was trying to say like, I'm just a big dude. Like I'm like a fucking big dude. Like I don't think. And he's trying to express to them. He's not being intimidated, but again, you know, again, this is not information I can verify. He says he eventually chose to talk to the police because he was reassured. It was not a drug trafficking in case. So at what point did he? Oh, you say it was October? Yeah, around October. I see. I see. So the line of questioning would be about the crash. So that's when he goes in and he sits with the interview or the police. Now, regardless, Rosie and Baba state that they both spoke with the authorities. Rosie with the prosecutor, Baba with the detective, and they state that their whole hesitancy came from the fact not because they were trying to help McKenzie, not because they were trying to cover up anything from that night, but because they state they believe that the police were investigating drug trafficking. Yeah. And Rosie states that she even received a phone call from a DEA agent after McKenzie's arrest, stating, I heard you're involved in a drug investigation from 2022. I couldn't verify that, obviously, but and since we had Rosie and Baba on the line, we just wanted to ask them all the questions I kept circulating on TikTok. I'm just going to tell you pretty much verbatim what they said. I'm going to try to take out as much of the rambling for clarity sake, which like our researchers did. They all agreed that there was some rambling on the call, right? But these were their responses. And of course, they are going to advocate for themselves. So we did try to fact check as much as we could through the police reports. But like I said, when it's unverifiable, I'm just going to state that out right about their friendship dynamic. They state that they have been hanging out with Davian for years since Baba and Davian played high school football together. As for McKenzie, Rosie just started hanging out with her and Dom. Quote, just a few months prior to the accident, we were just randomly started hanging out every day, back to back. Next day should call me, like, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? And what are we going to do? And so that's, you know, why I feel like I can speak from a point of like a lot of people want to say there's crazy internet speculation and a lot of people say, how could you not know their relationship was so toxic? But personally, we just didn't really see that side of them. I mean, as I said, we only started hanging out with them in the months prior. So I, she's saying, like, I'm not, like, I didn't know them for years. And that was another thing online. A lot of people were saying things along the lines of, well, I mean, we are all bashing Rosie, but at least she's a writer-die-best friend to McKenzie, and we would all probably want to write her-die-best friend. Rosie states that she actually is just like a recent friend with McKenzie. She states that while they did hang out every day for a few months because they had gotten to know each other a few months before the crash, she states it's not like their best friends. She states that she already has her best friends, she has her really close friend group, and McKenzie is new to the friend group. She states that she does not feel the need to cover up for her or anything. Rosie states that it just wouldn't make sense for her to lie and stand by McKenzie because they're not really best friends like that. Rosie states it seems like the internet is all accusing her of covering up for McKenzie, but she states that she doesn't have a reason to cover up for McKenzie because they're not even best friends. Now, in the FOI file, I mean, I tried my best to verify, there is a little over 600 pages of text messages between McKenzie and Rosie. We did read through all of it just to figure out what kind of friendship it was. It was kind of a bizarre friendship. So, for example, July 6, 2022, McKenzie texts Rosie, "Do you like matcha?" Rosie responds, "My mom's being really annoying and I have to go shopping with her to get food. I asked her for food money and she started arguing with me." McKenzie responds, "Oh damn, come next time and also like you post yourself in a bikini and like show your butt, but like if I did that, my whole TikTok would be getting fucking banned. I'm so jealous." Yeah, I need to get money, brah. I don't even know what I'm gonna do to get famous. Oh my god, I don't know why they do that to certain people. Dude, we're perfect duo to be famous. This is 25 days before the crash. Rosie tries to sympathize with McKenzie about her TikTok that keeps getting banned. They banned like three of your accounts, I feel like, and literally, like we're gonna be on our model shit. McKenzie sends Rosie a picture and says, "This is what got removed." Rosie explains that she tried to send McKenzie a TikTok, but they banned McKenzie, so it's too late. Your account is there, but no profile pic and I can't DM. McKenzie's freaking out. Like, "Oh my god, they took my profile pic. Should I go private?" I hope they don't be on my whole account. That happened to me the other day, and then it just went back to normal. McKenzie will then send Rosie, "I'm making a media kit. You gotta tell me if it's good." Side note, this is McKenzie's media kit, by the way. And she writes, "My name is Kenzie Shavella. I'm a petite model from Cleveland, Ohio. I love to express my personality through fashion and photography. One of my goals on social media is to help people be themselves and embrace the style they love. I'm extremely body-inclusive. I would love for brands to be more inclusive to the smaller sizes, as well as the larger sizes. I'm extremely big on healthy living, clean brands, organic food." And then McKenzie will just like suddenly text Rosie, "Do you know you can order animal shit anonymously to people's houses?" Like, when I say animal, I'm talking like elephant shit, like that or lion. Seven hours later, McKenzie is asking Rosie, "How much do you make from TikTok?" Rosie's like, "Uh, depends. If I have a good month, like good videos that month, the most was like 150. Sometimes it's like 40." McKenzie's like, "Dude, I'm jealous. I need to get in on that fund. I have $88 from going live. I want more." Oh my god. I've never made anything going live, only from the creator fund. So there's like just like rants about TikTok. Mainly McKenzie complaining. She complains that someone reported her account for being under 14. She has Rosie fill out something that's gonna help confirm that she's not under 14. Rosie writes, "Okay, I filled it out," and said hella about how you're an influencer, literally graduated high school and you're being mass reported for being 13 when you're not even in under your content, violates anything and it's your job, exclamation, exclamation, exclamation. McKenzie
rights I love you so much and bruh tomorrow is gonna be so fun yes they better give you your fucking account I'll fuck someone up they better I'm manifesting Mackenzie complains literally I don't even know how to get my followers back honestly just push out hell of good content because they love you and new account tend to blow up I'm so sad about this account fuck tick-tock Mackenzie is very nice to the people that she to the people that have the things she wants so for Rosie it seems like it's the followers Rosie had at that point like 200,000 followers on tick-tock in YouTube Mackenzie never really got more than a few thousand so her attitude towards Rosie seems vastly different from how she treats other people that she doesn't really want anything from I mean like you saw the way that she was texting people and DMing people and just being a brat she doesn't seem to show that side to Rosie so I was kind of surprised by that in the 600 pages I was just trying to figure out the depth of their friendship and it seems like they just like share weird ideas back and forth Mackenzie will text Rosie you should make a tick-tock vlog of you tripping okay this one I thought was a little weird what why because exactly Mackenzie has been complaining about how tick-tock has been banning her account on stop and then all of a sudden she's like you should make a tick-tock vlog of you tripping which is I'm like are you trying to sabotage like it was weird not that I'm like defining anyone but like it's just like a weird kind of suggestion yeah which feels sabotagey to me but I don't know and then she hits it with an lol to which Rosie responds LMFAO I want you so bad but my mom has tick-tock and I blocked her but her weird ass would make another account smh I wish I could post shit like that too my mom follows me too and just some like random text from Mackenzie that read yeah this fucking Thursday bitch where about to look bad as fuck and another one from Mackenzie I feel like you're gonna be scared at my driving where the exact opposite so this Mackenzie is picking up Rosie and Rosie is expressing how it's nice to be driven once because she's usually the one picking people up and Mackenzie tells her but like I love to drive to but I'm crazy though and Mackenzie is just kind of yapping another text says I think I'm gonna make a YouTube but I don't know what to record on or what to what videos to make later they joke about tripping on shrooms at the carnival which Mackenzie thinks is quote bro euphoria moment Rosie says no literally Mackenzie says I'm excited to summarize nearly all 600 pages felt like variations of yes you're so hot no I love you no you're the cutest fuck why is your mom being annoying your tiktok got banned I'm so pissed for you it felt like I will say not like a particularly deep friendship there was no personal conversation there was no like much relatability much of their friendship is based off of taking photos of each other Mackenzie texts Rosie that's what I'm saying the pictures are gonna be fire I don't care if people are staring if they're not talking about pictures they're talking about social media Rosie will text Mackenzie bro when you were banned yesterday your baby cushy account was all my FIP like three times every time I open tiktok Mackenzie responds no way same with you to be honest your videos are all over my FIP and then Rosie would respond oh my god work we're famous Mackenzie says I need to hit a hundred K yes you will you should try scripting with that like when I was popping on YouTube I was manifesting by writing every day I have however many followers or subscribers or this video got this many views and it works like a charm but keep manifesting I'm manifesting my account back right now Rosie's like yes I haven't scripted in so long I feel like it works the best Mackenzie's like I would usually write on paper then burn and then Mackenzie informs Rosie that she's gonna take on the nearly impossible task of cooking for herself she texts I'm gonna try to make myself an egg it's embarrassing but I don't know how to do it lol this is like kind of one of the more in-depth conversations they have Rosie responds ill not an egg to eat I hate eggs yes lol I like the gooey haha I'm done with eggs bro I used to love them true is that like vegan to you Rosie says I'm such a hater yes like I'm almost vegan if I didn't eat cheese I only eat eggs if they're grass fed free range no hormones Mackenzie says though I'm not gonna make them I don't want to smell I don't want you to smell when you come because I would hate that and Rosie's like ha ha ha no you're okay Mackenzie says I'm weird as fuck with smells I'm good with smells dude you can try CMOS oh my god yes do you want Chipotle I'll make Dom go get you some too I'm okay but so they never fought in the text like you know how Mackenzie will crash out and no and I think it's literally because well here's me speculating but I do think that Mackenzie is very kind to people who she thinks will help her get what she wants you know because she cares about herself yeah yeah yeah that's so interesting so she's very polite and just supportive yeah other than the only part where I was like weird was when Mackenzie was like you should make a vlog of yourself tripping it felt a little sabotage after all of her rant about getting banned on TikTok for doing nothing and then she's like hey violate community guidelines right now it was just kind of weird okay and you think that's why Rosie responds you know describes Mackenzie in that way is because of that's kind of the friendship she has with yes I think it would be understandable to see where Rosie is coming from and how she describes her relationship with Mackenzie and how she specifically felt about Mackenzie I think the part that people might have problems with for sure is the fact that you didn't know her that long and you had more of a surface level friendship and yet it does seem like she has a lot of hope and faith in Mackenzie's that this was an accident like they don't 100% think it's an accident at least from what they told our researchers in the sense of like their dead set like this was an accident they're not like Mackenzie Mackenzie's parents they are more so they stayed on the side of yeah I think it's completely understandable for Rosie to speak on her friendship with Mackenzie and it does seem like Mackenzie was a very nice friend to Rosie to some degree at least in the 600 page text message thread but I think where people have a problem is when she uses this shorter friendship to kind of like a character judgment yes exactly so I think you don't know Mackenzie well enough to and just because she was nice to for five six months doesn't mean that you can really wholeheartedly tentose down talk about her character I think is what people are feeling and say I think that's why you know there's like kind of the weird argument of people are saying like would it be better if they were best friends forever you know because then it's like you can kind of understand maybe you grew up together and you're like so this is your only friend I don't know but I wonder if it's like long long-term friend like then you can really see the pattern of someone you're like yeah I can I can see you are doing that yeah she's crazy but then if you just know someone for like a short period and they're so nice to you mate but yeah that's the argument that people have online which is like you can have those feelings but you can't really be a character witness also side note Rosie at one point is like complaining about TikTok banning her randomly and then like unbanning her or whatever and then she says I don't understand they're stupid asap okay this is Rosie Mackenzie responds oh that's so weird it's probably because it's run by Asians Mackenzie yeah they ran to about their boyfriends together Rosie will text Mackenzie about Baba her boyfriend we're fighting this motherfucker is so annoying like why am I even with him Mackenzie's like what do you do oh we're still coming but he's always fucking arguing like shut the fuck up stop bringing stuff up that you know is about to start an argument to which Mackenzie responds remember you're the top dog bitch tell him to shut the fuck up if he says anything when you're here yeah period so it doesn't seem like they talk in depth about their relationships like these are very like no you're the baddest bitch you don't need him like it's very okay thanks yeah yeah now they also contemplate why their boyfriends are so bad at taking pictures Mackenzie wonders why are they like this Rosie says I'm better off with a tripod Mackenzie also just rants about everyone generally speaking you know she even sends Rosie this audio message where she says quote I'm just going to send you this voice memo because it's easier the second party we went to on the fourth the fucking it was like strong spill popular people like I don't even know it was open invite like this big ass mansion that's why I was like you guys need to come because like somebody was asking about Baba and then I was like I invited Rosie and them but I don't know what they're gonna do fucking Haley you know de Pompey de Megan I don't know like she's saying something okay I can't really decipher and all of them were there Haley came up to me and was like she's like please don't hate me literally being like don't hate me don't hate me don't hate me don't hate me and I was like Haley you made a tick talk about me like I seen it and then she was like playing dumb and I'm like Haley I actually like have the tick talk I have the tick talk I literally showed her and she's like I'm gonna be real I made it I'm like Haley I know you made it that's fucking weird like only insecure people make fun of people and I was like we can set that beside us whatever you know whatever you're drunk it's like cool and she's like we need to hang out trying to like be all cool with me so even when she rants about people it's not as like intense as how she does with other friends so far from what I've seen like she's not saying like that stupid bitch needs to go back to subway like she's not really you know but it's just like weird Mackenzie rants about how quote this person is making me snow mad right now driving 27 and a 35 that's about it like there's really much substance to their friendship and you do with that information what you will Rosie tells Netflix I genuinely do not think that this could have been on purpose intentional or planned like it doesn't make sense to me we were all friends Rosie tells Netflix I was with them every single day and I wasn't you know there wasn't daily arguments it wasn't like anything crazy like that Rosie states to our researchers it's so weird because now I'm just seeing people online making fun of me for saying oh we had the best friend group but it It really was like a really chill vibe and up until even that night we. We were doing the stuff that we would normally do watching TV, watching movies, going outside, just talking, listening to music. It's like a lost art form, and nobody even does that anymore. And it was like we would do these wholesome things, and it just feels like a lot of the toxic relationship drama is kind of sweeping that up. Like we somehow were involved in any of that, or saw it, and genuinely never saw anything like that. And if we ever did hear anybody threaten anybody, or if they were arguing that night, or if they were arguing about anything, we would be the first people to say that. I would not sit here and defend something or just lie about what now is a double homicide or about my friends losing their lives in general. So she's saying that she actually doesn't know they have a toxic relationship. Okay. Her thing is more so, people are trying to break down why she's telling people that she did not witness a toxic relationship. But Rosie is saying, but I'm only speaking on what I witnessed when I was around them. But then she also acknowledges two things can be true though. She's saying like, obviously, I didn't see those text messages. She's saying like, obviously, I don't have their phones. Yeah. So all the, like all the videos we've seen of Rosie talking about is she didn't know. Yes. Basically what? But I don't know how she stands. I don't know if she's standing. I don't know how much of the text messages she's seen now. I don't know if she thinks that they had a toxic relationship, or if this is a normal toxic relationship for high schoolers in her mind. I don't know. She states that the only nice responses that she really receives now after the Netflix documentary is like, okay, well, I guess you're a good friend though for keeping her secrets and defending her because you love her so much. And Rosie states that she is not doing that. She says literally the whole online response is every single person just thinks I'm lying or covering up something for her and I would never ever cover up a murder. That is insane. So what, what made people think she's covering for McKenzie again? Is it the hesitancy to talk to the police? And it does seem that Rosie does not think that McKenzie did this intentionally. And I think that makes people question Rosie because a lot of people have seen the FOIA file. A lot of people have heard from Dom's family members. They just don't see why Rosie could say that having such a shorter friendship with McKenzie. And then I guess people are also confused because they're like, okay, well Rosie and Bubba were closer to Davion. I will say that there are like two points in the text messages where McKenzie complains about her relationship with Dom. But from judging by Rosie's responses, again, none of them are kind of taken seriously. Rosie does say that they had conversations in person, but I don't know. It's just like very, there's not a lot of depth. So I can see maybe why she's saying that she didn't see it at that time. I don't know. And it does sound like McKenzie takes everything twisted to her side and tells it like this is what happened versus what really happened. Of course. And McKenzie is also kind of fickle. So like, there will be one time where she's texting Rosie about how she got into a huge fight with Dom and she's like, "Ranting about Dom." But it's like very vague. It's like, oh, he's so dumb. Like, he's so blah, blah, blah. And then Rosie's like, oh no, and then McKenzie will text, "You want to come to Dom's if you want? We can take Dabs." Which like, why would anyone want to go there if they're fighting? So Rosie is like, "I love Mayo. It's okay. You don't want to come? Should I?" Yeah. You can come. Okay. He lied to me, so I'm going to smoke all his Dabs. So then Rosie is like, "Ha-ha. Period." So it's like very like, it doesn't, yeah. But again, the main reason we wanted to talk to Rosie and Baba is to ask them what happened that night. I mean, there's no way that you can definitively know the truth. But there were two people that were there, and this is what they've had to say about that night in question. They state that McKenzie and Dom were not fighting that night at Paul's, and they state it's frustrating that the documentary painted it as if Rosie and Baba were the only two others at the party or the gathering, but they're saying there's two other people, Paul and Nina. So I guess they're expressing to our researchers, like, what would all four of us gain out of like lying about them not fighting that night? They're like, it doesn't, like, make sense why people are like, no, they definitely thought that night, like, they're confused by nobody believes them when they say there was no fighting that night. Baba says he was awake with the guys most of the night, like, they were all on the couch. So it was Baba, Davion, Dom, and McKenzie, and they were just like watching TV. McKenzie was falling asleep. He says that, oh, there was one thing that he mentioned, which is like, right when McKenzie, Davion and Dom arrive to Paul's house, within a little bit, McKenzie and Dom leave briefly. So they go back to Dom's house. And Baba says they were gone for like 15, 30 minutes because quote, they all ate healthy, like they ate non GMO so they would always have like special snacks and they ended up having to go back home like 10 minutes after they got there to grab their snacks, to grab popcorn and to grab, I think it was like blueberries or some shit. That's what he says. But then they ended up going back to grab those separately. So they leave Davion. And they went in the car and when they came back, it was still perfectly fine. So he was like, yeah, they were gone for 15 minutes, but he doesn't think that they were fighting in that time because it didn't seem like they came back tense. It seemed like they were in a happy mood when they got back. But I guess his thing was if McKenzie had planned to kill Dom, why wouldn't she have done it on that drive? I guess is maybe the insinuation because he's like, you know, that's a whole thing that's completely left out about that night. But again, like I said, a lot of netizens don't think it was like pre-planned days in advance. It was more so like maybe an argument broke out in the car on the way home. Maybe an argument did not break out when they went to go grab snacks. So the next morning they wake up or well McKenzie wakes up a lot of the others hadn't gone to sleep. Bubba and Davion have plans. Bubba says Davion was going to help him quote, paint the bottom of my truck and paint it black and get all the rest off and everything and we were going to do that. And he was like, oh, I could just come back to your house so we could wake up and do it. And I was like, I mean, that's fine with me. And then at the last moment, so he's supposed to go home with Bubba, sleep at Bubba's and then do it. But then at the last minute, he's like, you know what? I'm just going to go home, aka Dom's, shower, sleep, like we'll hit each other up maybe around noon. McKenzie, Dom and Davion get into the car. The two don't make it. A huge conversation online since the release of the documentary and it's not necessarily what was said in the documentary, but people looking into the case. There have been conversations, like I said, from those police reports of other interviews of friends, just like hearsay, that Rosie stated to someone that she drove by the crash site that morning before the police were called. And whether she didn't see it or didn't call the police, like that's been like a huge conspiracy online, right? Our researchers asked Rosie and Bubba says, look, the police have video of McKenzie's car turning on to progress, okay? That turn. And if anybody else went that route, anybody, they knew anyone in the car, they would see it in camera. Like Bubba says, it's obvious from a logical standpoint that this is not true and somehow the media is running with it. So we kept pressing them on it because we're just like, well, we just want to know where this is coming from. And they state that there's a friend, a supposed friend who had gone to the police and said that Rosie was super emotional and had made a comment about how she drove past them that morning on her way home from Paul's. So she also left Paul's drove by the crash site. And like that's also making her even more emotional now that she knows they're dead. So they're explaining like, okay, basically, and this is verified through the police interview. There's someone who went to the police and was like, you know, Rosie was mentioning how she was so emotional because she also left Paul's that morning and drove by the crash site on her way home. So like it's kind of up in the air with that means, but a lot of people on the internet took it with she drove by the crash site, like she saw the car or could have seen the car. Maybe she didn't look out the window, but drove by that exact road where the car was crashed into the building. That's how everyone's taking it. And of course, a lot of people are spinning it in the more nefarious way and saying like, she drove by saw McKenzie's car and was like, holy shit, McKenzie actually went through with it. So she doesn't call the cops and she just keeps driving home. And then because maybe she feels guilt, maybe she feels all these emotions, she mentions it at like one of the vigils and it becomes a whole thing. It gets reported to the police. So we're like, we just need to know where were you? Like where was it? They pretty much like got a Google Maps explanation, gave it to the researchers. They're like, we live here. This is where Bubba lives. This is where Rosie lives. Like, they were giving the full breakdown of the entire town. Now if we deduce the main point, Rosie had gotten up. So Rosie had slept. So she gets up and she's like gathering herself. She had gotten up to use the restroom. She's gathering her coloring books and eventually her and Bubba are like, let's go. Like, we want to sleep in the bed. Like, let's go to Bubba's house. And they said that they were going to go to Bubba's and they were going to go both sleep and wake up later around noon. Because remember Davian was like, oh yeah, I'm going to come help you with your car around noon. So they both drove separately to Paul's. Bubba gets in his car and Rosie gets in her car. Her whole thinking was Bubba's parents are pretty strict, so they don't let her sleep over. But it's daytime. So like, technically she can take naps. So like, this is kind of like a nap. So then she drives to Bubba's house and she states that when she gets there, Bubba's mom has COVID. So she's like, you know what? Maybe not smart for me. So forget it. I'm just going to drive home. So she gets to Bubba's and then decides she's going to drive home. And the only way for her to drive home is using really the main road. Which is Pearl. Not progress. Pearl. Like, this is where all the restaurants are. This is where the Starbucks is. Apparently, there's so much traffic on Pearl, but Pearl. She passes the entrance of progress where Mackenzie had turned right. She passes the entrance. She does not go on to progress ever. Got it. That's what she says. Now she passes the entrance and she also like is saying, if I had, and I wasn't like talking to the police, she's like, I guess the argument is like, the police would have known and they would have. Yeah, yeah. They'll be crazy. Yeah. I don't mention of it anywhere, right? She thinks that this rumor could have started because everyone was gathered at--
the crash site like 50 or 100 people after the car was taken and and there was flowers it was like a vigil that was set up and a lot of the high schoolers would just kind of hang out there because it was a way to grieve together and not alone and she says maybe somebody there heard that I drove down Pearl and maybe it got mistranslated and everybody there is just obviously like trying I mean there was just a bunch of rumors going around to everybody trying to speculate on what had happened so she states that she never specifically spoke to the person that told the police this but she thinks maybe that's how this whole story got started because I can see that I could see Rosie being emotional and like mentioning like I was just driving down Pearl on the way home and I passed the engine and then it just kind of yeah that's crazy yeah and this is less pertinent information but I thought it was interesting okay but Rosie told us that on the drive home from Babas she's driving down the main road passing the entrance of progress not on progress but passing the entrance and she said that she was getting really emotional so the whole theme of the night at Paul's and technically all of this was it was a graduation party and they've been going all these grad parties she says we're going to college soon we were all locked in go to different colleges me and Nina we're going to college that was like two and a half hours away Baba was going to a college that was two hours away so it's just kind of a lot of stress and then Kenzie and Dom weren't going to college and neither was Davian and our friend Paul was going somewhere else so it's just like everybody was getting separated so the whole theme of that night for us was just like everybody was getting separated and you know we're going to college kind of scared we're gonna leave home and we're gonna have to make new friends so on my drive home I'm literally reflecting on the fact that the city that I'm driving through because as I said you know this is the main road I've so many memories in this city I'm passing by the carnival that we went to I'm passing by all this stuff and I'm literally like crying in the car Rosie's crying yeah that's what she says right I mean this is obviously like an anecdotal story that is not relevant to the case but she's just like was giving us a lot of context and she says like there was this beautiful sunrise and it felt like a warm summer morning which I does the only thing I could fact check which the sunrise and the time that she's driving home does check out and she says you know I have all my windows down and I'm not even playing any music and I'm just like wow the city isn't so bad and I have a nice rhyme group now but then also kind of sad because now we're all going to separate colleges and I have to try and find new friends in college and she says you know I feel like when I was growing up we're like I hate the city everybody sucks here like this place sucks and then I finally had a moment where I was like maybe it's not that bad like maybe I'm gonna miss it here and then I got home I went to sleep and I got woken up by a phone call from Baba and he was just like bawling his eyes out and I couldn't even understand what he was saying she mentions how she told this all to the Netflix documentary producers and they actually wanted to film a whole scene so they were like planning on doing a whole like a recreation of the sunrise moment where she's driving right but she says I don't know how it all just ended up getting cut out so I note it seems that Baba found out about the crash because Davie on was had been staying with Baba's for a little bit and the head football coach had called Baba's mom Baba was waiting for Davian so he was actually outside in the driveway prepping his truck for Davian to come and to help with the truck so he said that he was trying to make sure the lines were straight doing all the prep work under the truck and then quote that's when my mom came out and told me and yeah that's it's just a mess after that ultimately Baba states multiple times throughout this call McKenzie was not my friend and I know this might sound harsh or might come off as a bad way but if she would have lost her life in that accident or some like really excruciating evidence came out and she got booked for like 30 years to life and it was a harsher sentence than what she has now it would not affect me in any way I would not care McKenzie was not my friend she was more of Rosie's friend they always did their thing like when we always hung out I mean I've had a handful of conversations with her I was never her friend Davian was the closest thing to a brother for me since him living with me I own one of his football jerseys he got buried in the other one he was truly the closest thing to a blood brother to me so my whole stance on this is I just want to know the truth the reality of it at least for me I don't care how long she sits in jail I don't care about any of that what I care about is knowing the true story of knowing how they lost their lives Rosie has oh okay side note about there was a lot of people thought that Rosie was doing the Netflix documentary for social media attention and they do bring up her social media handles and there's like parts where Rosie is like oh yeah when I met McKenzie I had 200,000 followers on YouTube right Rosie says she wanted the producers to not include any of her social media she says that it was irrelevant to the case because it's not like they were doing videos together and she's mainly on YouTube doing her fitness stuff and that has nothing to do with McKenzie so she said that she didn't want any of it on there but then the producers during the eight hours were asking her what she does for work and then they would ask her like oh how many followers did you have when you first met McKenzie and she says we have to understand like I sat down and they asked me all these things and I just answered I wasn't being careful with the questions I was answering I was literally answering every question there wasn't one question that I didn't answer basically so she's stating that she did not do the Netflix doc for fame she said that she specifically requested it not be included and then they were like asking her so she was just answering Baba states that he has text messages with the documentary crew stating that Rosie's social media is not relevant so he's also confirming like okay we're not gonna use her social media right because they're dating still and so he's like just checking it like Rosie wants to make sure so it seems like he's saying that he has some sort of text messages with the documentary crew talking about how Rosie's social media isn't relevant I did not see that text message but that's what he told us now I do want to note that there are members of Dom and Davience family that do not seem to appreciate what Rosie and Baba have been saying what they said in the Netflix documentary and maybe things that have been said and done behind closed doors I could imagine that they probably didn't appreciate maybe Baba talking about the pendulum in the police interview like I could see how that could be highly offensive to Davience family as well Rosie and Baba state that they just want to know the truth of what happened they express wishes that the trial could have been what they believed to be fair they didn't necessarily think the trial was fair they thought that McKenzie's attorney was not that competent they didn't like the fact that they defenced and not calling an expert so there was no expert called in to testify that McKenzie's pots could have played or couldn't have played a role so they I mean the trial only lasted four days so they just felt like they don't definitively feel like they know what happened in the car that night is how they state they feel and while they do think that they would like a new trial they also express like they know it would just open so many wounds for the victim's families so like they it seems like they get it Rosie also says she feels like the families quote took us originally canceling those interviews as really suspect and she says recently I didn't even know this happened but they put it in the evidence file that Davience mom emailed the police and was like Rosie made this tick talk about somebody betraying her and I'm assuming it's about Baba because he's cooperating with the police remember and she says I had no idea they were just taking my random tick talks and I was following these tick talk trends I had no idea that they connected the random videos and matched it up with me intimidating people to not speak with the police I think she felt that way because she thought that I was in cooperating Rosie says we definitely thinking back now we should have just sat down and talked to the police the second everybody else did because everybody says that somehow suspects and we literally only canceled it because we really did not want to be involved in some big drug bust especially when we have no credible knowledge obviously Rosie being there for Halloween of 2022 and dressing up with McKenzie as Playboy Cardi doesn't necessarily make Dom and Davience family want to be receptive either you know more receptive to what they have to say either to which Rosie says so in the documentary Rosie you know there's this point where they show the Halloween picture and she's just like it's Playboy Cardi anyone my age knows it's Playboy Cardi so it's not really touched upon that that was fucked up so Rosie's just like it's not a corpse it's Playboy Cardi right and so Rosie was saying yeah I mean I think they immediately the family labeled me as like oh you're her crazy best friend and don't hold anybody accountable and you guys are going around dressing as corpses or whatever you know a few months after and the matter of fact about that is and they edited down in the documentary to just like oh we just dressed as Playboy Cardi but it was really like no like we no we really shouldn't have done that we shouldn't have done that I was irresponsible I don't know we were in college and there's so many things that I would have done differently in hindsight not knowing how this was all gonna play out but there is a part where she kind of tries to explain their thought process where she was like at this point McKenzie was trying to do a lot of things for Dom and Davian so she was explaining like how they had all planned to go visit Rosie at her college for Halloween because Ohio University is known for having the craziest Halloween and that Dom loves Playboy Cardi and there was like this explanation about it which I feel like I did try my best to keep a neutral presentation thus far and this is where I would have to voice my very strong disagreement I think it's good that Rosie realized that they definitely shouldn't have done that because it is like she said irresponsible and they've all said that they believed that Halloween was a way to celebrate Dom and Davian's lives and that even McKenzie going to the Kid Cutty concert was a way to celebrate Dom maybe that's truly how they felt in their hearts as it's happening but I think the core issue with the Halloween and Kid Cutty and all of that is it's just insensitive it doesn't it doesn't matter who you say you're doing it for she could have been bawling her eyes out the entire time at all of these events I don't think it's the morally correct thing to do I don't think many of us could ever be in McKenzie's shoes and do something like that they stayed off their personal observations they do not believe this was an incident where McKenzie pre-planned an intentional murder plot but they also state that even if it was some sort of freak accident
or reckless driving, they both believe that prison time is still warranted. Rosie says, "At the end of the day, the prison time is un-arguable, and people do get arrested for killing people in their car accidents all the time. I mean, it's not like anybody should just get away, Scott free with nothing." She states that she thinks everyone just took it the complete opposite way and went crazy with the theories, but she says she thinks that there should be prison time, but that they should maybe factor in that she was only 17 and lost her boyfriend and friend. Bubba states that the only thing that would make prison time questionable would be if they could absolutely prove that there was some medical incident. Which side note, I will say there were talks with our researchers, and I did see a lot of people bring this up, including Steve Sharilla brings this up later in a recent interview that Dom's family were powerful in the area. Dom's mom is a criminal defense attorney, Christine Russo, and she did work for the prosecutor's office. And so she might know a lot of people, the judge that was presiding over the case. Her last name is Russo. I don't think that there's any sort of, you know, neither do Rosie and Bubba. They don't think that there's any sort of familial relation, because that would be crazy, right? But I think that there are conversations of like how much sway did Christine Russo have in all of this. I don't know. A lot of people, including Rosie and Bubba, point out how Christine Russo was talking to the police in an interview, and she said something along the lines of like, "I know Mackenzie's defense attorney." Like, he, I don't need to worry about him. Like, he's not a concern. I know his brother, like, and she's just saying like, "He's not a problem. He's not a problem." And some people have kind of interpreted this as like, "He's not a problem because I know him." Like, "I know him. I'm gonna make sure he's not a problem." I actually did not interpret it like that. I actually interpret it as, she's clearly an analytical woman, she's a criminal defense attorney. I could see her trying to understand a lot of the, and there are defense attorneys who are problematic, who are problems. Because they will go there, and they will say some crazy shit. And they'll try to pull out all the craziest, they'll do motion after motion after motion. Like, just drowning the whole case in just unnecessary paperwork. Like, I think it was meant so more like that. Yeah, yeah. I don't think it was like, I don't think she would ever say that to the police when it's about her son's life and death. Yeah. I will note that Bubba has voiced out again multiple times he could care less what happens to Mackenzie. Rosie has stated that she does not think that Mackenzie is this evil monster and did not care about either of these boys or that she premeditated the whole thing or did it on purpose. Which, and this is what I've gathered from reading through every single page of the 30,000 page document of text messages between Mackenzie and Dom. And I only say this because there's really no better way for me to try to explain the feeling that I had reading those messages. Not that my feelings are important in this matter, but those messages felt more akin to a domestic violence situation. Where the relationship is so incredibly toxic and just the sheer oppressive nature of Mackenzie's text messages to specifically Dom and only Dom and how she speaks to him to me felt abusive. To me, if I was in that relationship or my friend was in that relationship with someone like Mackenzie, I would be scared for them. But Mackenzie could be very well sweet to Rosie and Bubba and portrayed herself differently because that's also very typical in domestic violence situations. Not saying this is one, but with domestic violence, I mean, again, it doesn't always mean that she's hitting him or physically abusing him. But in these types of dynamics from the text messages I saw, if I had to summarize the level of how it makes the reader feel suffocated, it feels reminiscent of an emotionally abusive relationship. And while the trial is another part that we're going to cover, I think the public opinion on this case, a lot of people from what I've seen, they don't necessarily believe that Mackenzie went out and plotted this whole thing days in advance. In fact, a lot of people think that Mackenzie is likely too narcissistic to want to harm herself just to harm Dom. But rather, there could have been a fight that broke out in the car and in the escalation of rage or whatever emotion that could have come out in that moment, the crash was deliberate. That is how a lot of people feel, that is what they're saying. And I bring up D.V. not because I'm saying Mackenzie is a domestic violence abuser, but because in relationships, people will behave in ways and do things that they will never do with their friends. It is very, very rare that you have someone on trial for abusing, punching their partner. And the abuser's friends come out and say, oh, they did that to me too, which we will be doing a full episode breaking down the entirety of the 30,000 pages of text messages so that you know what I'm talking about and you can come to your own conclusion. But I think that there could be a world where Rosie and Baba did not see that side of Mackenzie at all. And actually only saw a side to her that would make it hard for them to believe that she could be someone that could intentionally harm Dom. Just like how Rosie thinks that Natalie Sharilla is a really sweet woman. And I actually believe Rosie in that Natalie Sharilla is probably very, very kind to Rosie. But Natalie Sharilla, by all accounts of the massive FOIA, the investigation, the way she conducts herself after Mackenzie's arrest amongst a whole laundry list of other things, I think Natalie Sharilla is a completely incompetent parent who has to have, I think, in my opinion, has to some degree played a role in the upbringing of Mackenzie that has ultimately led to this. And on a real level has probably played a role in the crash itself, whether it be loosely and directly or directly, which side note, she's the one that later states that Mackenzie has a medical condition that could cause her to black out while driving. But she also got Mackenzie a license and a car, so it's a whole thing, which brings me to my next point. I think that after the release of the Netflix documentary, Rosie and Baba are easy to hate figures in this case. Their parts of the interview that made it to the final cut, you could argue, it's editing, you could argue, regardless, they're the ones that said it, it does make it easy to hate them from what's happened with the Netflix talk. I also don't think that they've made it easier for the families of Dom and Davian, whether it was intentional or not. I think a lot of the things that they could have said and done could have really re-traumatized or re-heard or reopened wounds for both of the victim's families. I think that they could have handled a lot of things differently. Whether we believe it or not, they state in their hearts that they were trying to do right by Dom and Davian. And in hindsight, they admit to doing some things that they could have done differently, but they tried. I think family members of Dom and Davian would rightfully disagree. But I also do think that instead of focusing on Baba and Rosie, if you really want to debate the intentions of someone in this case, other than Mackenzie, it's also her parents. Natalie and Steve Sherilla, who actually played a huge meaningful role in all of this. And that is who we are going to cover in the next part. Stay tuned, let me know your thoughts, and be safe, and I'll see you in the next one.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Rosie and Bubba were the last people to see Dom and Davian alive before the crash and initially believed the police were investigating drug trafficking, not the accident.
Both Rosie and Bubba stated they did not speak to detectives, with Rosie only speaking to prosecutors after a grand jury subpoena, and Bubba eventually cooperating in October after being pressured by police and fearing a drug investigation.
Rosie and Bubba claim their hesitancy to talk to authorities stemmed from the belief that the investigation was focused on drug activity, not the car crash, and they felt emotionally overwhelmed by the intense questioning, especially about guns and drug-related topics during Paul’s interview.
Summary:
Rosie and Bubba, two of the last people to see Dom and Davian alive at Paul’s gathering, have provided detailed accounts of their experiences following the crash that killed Mackenzie Shurello, Dominic Russo, and Davian Flanagan. They assert that they initially believed the police were pursuing a drug investigation—fueled by questions about guns, text messages between Rosie and Mackenzie about buying shrooms, and reports from Paul’s interview—rather than a homicide inquiry. Rosie claims she only spoke to prosecutors after a grand jury subpoena was issued following Mackenzie’s arrest, and she felt the police investigation was unfairly focused on drug activity.
Bubba similarly delayed speaking to detectives, citing fear of being labeled part of a drug network, though he eventually cooperated in October after being assured it was not a drug trafficking case. Their statements are supported by police reports noting the detectives’ repeated outreach and Paul’s interview, which included intense questions about guns and drugs. While they do not claim to have witnessed any fight between Mackenzie and Dom, they emphasize that the night was calm, with the group watching TV and going on a snack run.
They also dispute online claims that they saw the crash site or failed to call police, noting that such claims are inconsistent with available evidence—especially the police video of the car’s path—and originated from a single friend who reported Rosie’s emotional reaction. Despite the controversy, both maintain their cooperation with authorities was motivated by fear of being framed in a drug case, not by covering up the truth. Their accounts challenge the narrative that they were complicit or secretive, instead framing their actions as a response to perceived bias in the investigation.
However, due to limitations in verifiable evidence—such as unconfirmed phone records or sealed grand jury materials—their claims remain subject to interpretation and scrutiny.
FAQs
Rosie and Bubba believed the police were investigating a drug trafficking case, not the car crash. They felt the interviews were stressful and focused on drugs and guns, which made them hesitant to participate. Rosie also said she was told by Paul that the police were suspicious of drug activity involving her and McKenzie, which heightened her anxiety.
Rosie stated she did not talk to the detectives, but did speak to the prosecutor in two phone calls— one 30-minute and one one-hour—after a grand jury subpoena was issued following McKenzie’s arrest. She claims she has phone records to prove this.
They felt the documentary was heavily edited and misrepresented their experiences. They said it cut out significant content from their long interviews and that the final version did not reflect their true perspectives or the context of the night.
No, both Rosie and Bubba stated there was no fighting between McKenzie and Dom that night. They said McKenzie and Dom briefly left Paul’s to grab snacks and returned in a positive mood, indicating no tension.
A friend reported to police that Rosie drove by the crash site on her way home and was emotional about it. However, Rosie and Bubba dispute this, noting that police video shows the car turning into the building, and if anyone else had been on that route, they would have seen it.
Rosie stated they only recently started hanging out with McKenzie a few months before the crash and did not consider her a best friend. She said they had a surface-level, casual friendship and did not feel any need to cover up for her.
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