Episode 274
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Listener discretion is advised. Radio, we got at least two occupants in here. No one's moving. Oh my God. Hello and welcome to Season 11, Episode 274 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. ♪♪

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Euphoria is a show about a bunch of American high schoolers and all the drama in their lives, which, you know, is always a lot. So plenty of material. The show dives into each teen's dirty laundry, let's say, connecting them together along the way to create a shocking representation of American teenage life in the 2020s.

It's a show that seems to almost rely on shock value. In an age where it's difficult to shock most people, even if they're sitting on an electric chair, it's meant to be an over-dramatization. And viewers know that. What some people may not realize is that though it's shocking and hyperbolic, it seems to accurately represent many American teens these days. Just maybe...

The shockingly adult content in Euphoria is depicting reality. Art imitating life. And vice versa. But forget about the cast of Euphoria for a sec. Because we're going to replace them with some real-life examples. Real-life people. This case is much more shocking and much more horrible than any story HBO could come up with. And it takes place...

in a little place called Strongsville, Ohio. It was the summer of 2022. The feeling of freedom and newfound maturity was still fresh in the minds of all the new graduates of Strongsville High School. Ohio tends to only have a few good months of really nice warm weather out of the year, otherwise it's just a miserable place. You know the feeling of those hot muggy summer nights?

Yeah, Ohio doesn't get too many of those. Not like Texas. During the very last weekend of July, the new graduates continued to take advantage of all the quote-unquote grad parties their friends had invited them to. In other words, they were going to your average house party. The kind where no parents are around. The kind of risky business type shenanigans occur. I don't know why that movie stuck out with me so much as a kid. Probably because it was about dirty adult things.

I don't know. For Paul, a new graduate, this weekend was the perfect time to host a party of his own. His parents were out of town and though he says it wasn't a party per se, there were seven rowdy teens in the house all night with no supervision. That kind of sounds like a party to me. So it was already pretty late. I was pretty tired. Most of us were pretty tired. Kind of didn't really want to hang out that night, but my parents weren't home so we were going to anyway.

And I had six people over, so in my opinion, that was not a party. There was no party activities going on because I don't have enough friends to throw a binger, I'm going to be honest. So around 11, Rosie, Nina, and Landon show up together. They show up first because Rosie lives nearby, so she picked them up. So they showed up. And then...

Here's Landon, one of the kids who arrived earlier in the night. He's talking about 19-year-old Davion Flanagan.

A boy who arrived closer to midnight alongside the other two kids, 20-year-old Dominic Russo and 17-year-old Mackenzie Shrilla. We weren't like the closest back in elementary. Yeah, we weren't the closest.

I'd say about middle school. That's when we got really close in middle school. And then high school year, he decided to join football. So that brought us even closer. I think what made us the closest was COVID. COVID made us really close. We would stay up all night, me, him. We would all stay up playing Modern Warfare all the time and just talk about school, talk about football, all that stuff. I guess that's where we got really, really close at. And that's when we started hanging out every day.

I started treating him like a brother to me. He was one of my best friends. Landon was closer friends with Davion than the host of the party, Paul. Paul knew 17-year-old Kenzie the best. She was the one that he had invited. But of course, she knew she was welcome to bring along her boyfriend, Dominic, and their friend, Davion, who lived with them at the time. So I started being actual friends with Kenzie

a skinnier year because we both did homecoming court together and I thought if I was gonna win homecoming king, she'll win queen with me. - Okay. - We didn't win, so don't worry. - Oh, hey. - But yeah, she made me actually confident in myself that year, so.

19-year-old Davion Flanagan was popular and well-liked. At home though,

he was starting to have some issues. He and his sisters were adopted by the Flanagan family when they were young kids and as teenagers tend to do when they reach a certain age, Davion started to butt heads with his parents.

He was asking me, he was like, hey, could I stay at your house for a week? And I was like, yeah, no problem. I got a whole extra room for you. Don't worry about it. And when he came, he stayed there. Ended up saying he ended up deciding it was going to be a lot more long term. I knew he got kicked out.

We would always be out. We'd always go out. I mean, sometimes we'd take my mom's car. I got caught for doing that one time, but we would take my mom's car. I would take my car, my dad's car. We'd go out and we'd just drive and just talk, talk about life, talk about his struggles, talk about my struggles. He was, he was a very, very, very mentally, mentally down person. He was down mentally bad. Like he, everything in his life, he thought it was going against him. He,

He just, he felt like that nobody was there for him. Like, no one had his back a lot of the time. So then he knew that I had his back forever. Like, he knew that I would always have his back, man. But he just felt like, I can't remember what he would say about it, but the adopt, him being adopted, yeah, it was a big factor in that he felt like he just didn't belong in the house. I know that Dom knows Davion. They know each other through parties like that. Kenzie and Davion have always been close. Like, they know each other. I know they've known each other since, like, middle school.

I knew before, right before I found out they were living together, I knew that they were kind of hanging out. They were kind of talking together because another reason why they were cool is Dom had a studio in his house. Dom liked to make music and Davey and I loved freestyle. Davey and I loved making music. I was just dreaming to be a rapper.

And so Davion would always go over to Dom's house to record in the studio. I know Proctor has a studio. So they had all, not like a studio, like Proctor doesn't have a full studio. He just has like a little mic on a computer and stuff. But Dom actually has a whole room with a microphone and like stuff on the walls to keep the sound in. How's all like the special programming and stuff?

And so I knew they got really close off of that, like trying to make music together and stuff like that. So I think I think ultimately that's how Davion ended up staying at Don's because Davion knew he would go over there and be able to use the studio whenever he wanted to and just be cool with Don. 20 year old Dominic Russo was a quote unquote businessman and rapper. I don't know what the fuck that means, but that's what he was.

While his girlfriend, 17-year-old Mackenzie Shrilla, worked long, hard hours as a stay-at-home girlfriend when she wasn't posting content to further her Instagram modeling career. So really, just a solid pair of entrepreneurs here. We got at my house at around midnight. We chilled there for a while and then...

Around like 1 a.m. I kind of was calling. I wanted to call it a night because my car broke down. Wasn't having much of a good night, obviously. And right before I went to sleep, Kenzie said, you should go to sleep because I'm probably going to go to sleep too. So I was like, okay, that's not that bad. So then I go upstairs at around 1. They're still up and they're still watching. I remember hearing South Park playing really loudly. And then...

I went downstairs again at 2, 3 a.m. to pee, sometime like that. And I saw Kenzie sleep on my couch in my front room.

I remember walking in and that man was cuddling her. She was sleeping. Her head was on his lap. She was wrapped up in this big fuzzy gray band blanket on the front couch in the front room. It's a big L-shaped couch because I was sitting in the corner and Dave was sitting down by my legs. Kenzie was sitting here and then Dom was sitting at the end here. And so she ended up sprawling out and he was sitting there cuddling her head, petting her head, making sure she was sleeping good. Like me and her laughing all night. We, I know, um,

He wasn't around all night. He was upstairs. He wasn't even around all night. Me and Davion were in the front room watching. It was a great white documentary about green-white sharks in the front room. I know back in the back, all the girls were back there. I think they were watching a high school musical or something like that because they were all screaming and laughing. But me and Davion were up there. I remember Kenzie got mad at me because I ate all of her popcorn. She walked away and I ate all of her popcorn.

The teens smoked weed and apparently discussed doing shrooms that night, but decided against it. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Eventually, people started to fall asleep, and when Kenzie, Dominic, and Davion awoke early in the morning, they gathered their things and left. Kenzie and Dom walked out together. Dom grabbed all of her bags for her, and, um,

Why should they leave so early?

They usually do that. That's like a common thing with everyone. Like, I mean, how many times have we had people over our house? It's just a common thing with us younger teenagers. As soon as you get up, it's like you're gone. Like, we're just leaving. Like 5:30 in the morning? Yeah, I get up and go to work at 5 o'clock in the morning. Really? The couch is clear. I'm like, man, they got a lot of stuff. It's like, we'll end up a little asleep, and then as soon as you wake up in that early morning, it's, I want to go back to my bed. So that is common.

One thing struck Landon as odd. As the trio left, Davion said something not quite out of character for him, but something he didn't say very often. It didn't seem like there was anything wrong with him. Nothing crazy. The only thing that really got me was when he left. He left, he was like, I love you. And I was like, I love you too. And that was the first time he said that to me since he lived with me. So that's what kind of threw me off. I was like...

"Alright, I love you too. You know what I mean? Like, come here, give him a hug." And he walked out the door. They got into McKenzie's black Toyota Camry and headed home. It wasn't ten minutes after the trio left Paul's house that tragedy struck. And it hit them with a swift vengeance. It was just after 5:30 in the morning. They drove for only a few minutes and found themselves on Progress Drive.

And at the end of that road was a building called Plidco. P-L-I-D-C-O. It's a piping company. Instead of turning either right or left onto the road that paralleled the Plidco building, the Camry went straight, barreling through the company's large sign and into the corner of the massive brick structure. Davion was on his phone, responding to a Snapchat just moments before impact.

The three kids sat there in the mangled car until the sun came up. With the help of the morning light, someone noticed the partially hidden wreck.

Yes, are you familiar where Progress coincides with Albion Road there in Strongsville? Yep. Yeah, just across the street from Progress, the building, there's a car that smashed up against the building. I didn't go up to it because I was on my motorcycle.

Radio. This car is splitting in two.

Radio, there's an occupant inside. Send us a squad now. We've got to bust the window out. Send us some more units. Any more units to try to rescue Alameda? No. What are they doing? 31, squad up. 60 on Westwood. I'm doing a three on Alameda.

This is not a fresh accident either. She's been here for a while. Radio, we got at least two occupants in here. No one's moving. Oh my God. Oh my God. Times three, guys. Radio, three occupants. No one's conscious. No one's breathing. No one's breathing.

Oh my god, dude. Who can hear my voice? What is in here? Drivers and condoms. Radio, the driver is breathing unconscious. Radio, they're going to need full extraction on all three. Come here. Hold the plate.

Let him call it in. Holy shit, man. Not getting that good. Let me see your knife. Cut this thing out.

This is bad, guys. She's alive. We got to get her out somehow. Oh my god. Oh my god, Kevin. Oh my god. Sarge, we're good to try to get her out?

Oh, dude, I don't know if we can. She's breathing. She's breathing. Her head's wedged. Let's see if we can get some IDs, guys. I don't feel anything. I don't feel anything. She's breathing. I saw her stomach. Her stomach's moving. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We got two that are gone. Oh, yeah.

Should we, uh... What about some more of a reconstructionist? Yeah, we're gonna have to... Holy smokes. The last thing you expect to see. How do we find a track, guys, that comes through here? Left the roadway behind your car? I have a 17-year-old female Mackenzie.

I'm through this nine. Okay, that might be the driver. Is she talking? Yeah. She's by some radio. She's talking a little bit. Advise fire to step it up.

Driver, 17-year-old female, still breathing, wedged in there. Two are going to be DLA. They're all young, possibly teenagers. Oh, Jesus Christ. Life Flight? Life Flight has to come. We'll help set up a perimeter for her, right? They'll guide us. Hold it open. We want to drive her out. She's still breathing, fellas.

Mackenzie was barely conscious, slumped over to her right because of the extensive damage to the car. The dashboard was crunched up and was trapping her. They didn't have identification for the other two just yet, but they did know that they'd need the help of the fire department and the "Jaws of Life" to remove all three

from the crumpled hunk of metal. Did you try to pack it to them? No, I didn't. All right. Okay. I mean, he's dead. Jesus Christ. That's the worst I've ever seen. There's nothing we can do right now, guys. I hope fire is up. I don't think the... No, they're gone. They've been breathing out of the ears. That's right. We're out of the trees.

In case you couldn't understand that, the officer whose body cam footage we're listening to said they're bleeding out of the ears before another officer replied, the driver has a chance. Just a few minutes later, fire trucks arrived with their hydraulic rescue equipment and they got to work right away. I just emailed a class of Colorado. Rambling, not making sense.

What's your name, dear? Mackenzie. That's our driver. She said one of her friends. His name, Tom. I don't know which one it was. Don't tell her. I need to get IDs. We need to get IDs on all of these people. I can find...

Any wallet on him, fellas? I'm going to grab it. Unless you guys want to grab it. This is Davian Flanagan, I'm assuming. This is him. Put his ID on top of him. Dominic, who had been in the front passenger seat, passed away on impact.

The right side of the car took most of the damage. Davion, who was originally sitting in the back seat, was found partially on the lap of Dominic. The Camry sat in a grassy area right next to the building they had sideswiped. - How'd he get this split in half from hitting the building here? It looks like this is where it split.

It was still early in the morning, just after 6. As Alameda Drive descended into organized chaos, Paul and his friends were still sleeping off the party.

Mackenzie, Dominic, and Davion's parents were all asleep in their beds too, blissfully unaware of the terrible news they were about to receive. I am really looking forward to the colder weathers of fall. It's a good time to take a gander into the old closet and see what I have to wear for the upcoming season. I gotta admit, it's ugly in there.

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Absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus now at Chumbacasino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Early in the morning of July 31st, 2022, 17-year-old Mackenzie Shrilla, her boyfriend, 20-year-old Dominic Russo, and their friend, 19-year-old Davion Flanagan headed home from a party.

It was a short drive and they didn't make it very far before Plydco Piping Company's surveillance cameras caught footage of their vehicle barreling into their company sign and into the building itself. While paramedics waited with McKenzie and the ambulance for a life flight helicopter to land, another deputy called the coroner. After making a call and reporting the two fatalities,

The officer told the paramedics not to say anything to Mackenzie about the status of her friends. We got a call about a car into a building when we got here. The car was split in half and three people were trapped inside. Put this back in his wallet. Sorry, guys. Two are gone. One is being light flighted as we speak. This is going to be just a nightmare of a day for this whole department.

mckenzie was transported to the hospital and the families of all three kids were notified about the accident soon the news spread to the rest of the town including all of mckenzie's classmates several things then happened in relatively quick succession the crash scene and the car itself were both investigated police found evidence on dominic's cell phone

And some students came forward with evidence of their own from an app called Life360. For those of you who have not heard of it, it's a family location sharing app. It's kind of like the Find My Phone app on your iPhone, but it's actually much more precise. It sends out a notification to your inner circle in case you need help or if your phone detects you've been in a car crash. Davion had this app on his phone

and the friends in his circle sent photos of the data to police. I don't know if you got like good screenshots of the Life 360. Yeah, we have those. I sent them all of them. But if you zoom in, like they were driving perfectly fine from Paul's house to the scene. So if you zoom in, zoom in, and like I can put this on like satellite auto, you can see them.

So they're on the road, right? They're just driving casually. And then it's like normal. Like you're just driving normal. And then you will start to see them swerving this way onto the grass. And then now they're on the wrong side of the road. So if you're on the wrong side of the road, your first instinct is let's get on the right side of the road. They're not though. They stay on the wrong side of the road. So it kind of looks like road rage to me.

And if you go down this road, it's bumpy. Like, it's not. Like, you're going 25. It's still bumpy. They go over this curb, and they're on the curb. They get off the curb. They start to straighten up. They're going better. And now they get on the grass. They go over this whole overpass on the grass even deeper, get off the grass on the curb, still driving on the curb.

So what, um...

And it doesn't say she heartbroke once. It was 90 miles per hour down that whole road. The only time she heartbroke off of Life 360 is when the collision happened into the wall.

What? I mean, what do you guys think happened? I think that, I don't know if they're arguing or if it was just carelessness. It might have just been she was going fast. She could have tried. She was probably just being careless. I mean, I know she had some like big, I don't know if it was on her car, but I've seen like on her Snapchat source, like big ass, like fuzzy steering wheel cover. And who knows if she just tried to like whip it around the turn going super fast and it just didn't turn. But it probably like, I assume it was just a careless mistake and it was just a preventable thing.

I mean, I think that obviously the drug reports didn't come back positive because they all smoke weed. So she was just known for being that kind of girl in high school and as well out of high school. And your issues? Yeah, they called her baby Kush. Yeah, what's that? Just because she smokes so much weed? She smokes weed. And there's pictures on her Instagram, but I'm sure she took it down now. Yeah, we've seen cars smoking weed.

So if you're thinking from an SDM point, I also think that if they were on psychedelics and they took a nap, that can also still be a factor because psychedelics is abruptly six to 12 hours. And I also think because of Kenzie's and Dominic's history that they were fighting because if Davion was on his phone at 535 before he died, not even like 30 seconds, why would he be responding about a view and not helping the car get back on track? Because if you knew something was up,

I think Davion went on his phone to distract himself from the fighting. Although they were on drugs, they can also still be fighting with being on drugs. I don't know if they're, like, fighting. Like, no one will probably ever know if they're fighting or not. But, like, it could have just been, like, Carol's mistake. Like, I don't think Kenzie, even if she was, like, at rogue rage, if she was arguing, I don't think her intention was to kill two people no matter what. So, I mean, I don't know. No, I don't think she tried to kill her boyfriend or Davion, but I think she was rogue raging down the road 100%.

Mm-hmm.

Police officers recovered weed, a scale, and some shrooms in the car.

And there were rumors swirling that kids planned to take acid on the night of Paul's house party, but no mention of shrooms. The other partygoers had confirmed that they'd be smoking weed, as per usual. They even sent texts to Dominic and Mackenzie about the amounts each person wanted. These two had quite the reputation for being, as Paul later put it,

Evil Cosmo and Wanda. The eve of the crash at 10.28 p.m., she says she receives a text from one of the people at the party saying, so we want $40 worth of bud and Baba wants three and I want two and a half. Nina wants one and a half. Paul wants two and a half. We're talking about marijuana here. Okay. But if we go back earlier, okay,

She talks about grams. Bring enough shrooms for all of us. He's going to take under a gram. A gram of what? Yeah, we discussed that if we were going to do shrooms, but we did not end up doing them. Do you know if after you went to bed, they did shrooms?

Acid, shrooms, coke. I don't know in that case. Okay. And like I said, my concern, it's not accusing you of anything. It's just, well, did they do something and then they got on the road? I understand. Because as you've already heard, you're on social media, right? Yeah. Okay. On the app that Tyler and some of Davion's friends have shared with the families and with the public, we have her going 90. She might tell you stuff about her...

Maybe her relationship with Dom, maybe some of her struggles. And we're not trying to expose her secrets, but in that car that day there were three people. Two are dead who can't tell us. And so we... And she's not talking to us, right? Her lawyer's not going to let her talk to the police. Fifth Amendment, that's your constitutional right. You don't have to talk to the police. So she's not breaking the law by not talking. She's actually protecting herself. And so we have to piece everything together based on what the friends are saying.

How many times have you talked to Kenzie since the accident? I only got to see her once. You got to see her once? Yeah. What was she like? Not happy. In the hospital bed. I mean, my takeaway from having visited her twice was she didn't seem to care too much that she killed her boyfriend and another guy.

Except it didn't make sense.

Once police had enough pieces of the puzzle to see the bigger picture, they were beginning to think that they were dealing with an out-of-control teen who had no sense of accountability or remorse and not someone whose vehicle innocently malfunctioned. The officers talked about their own experience with McKenzie and how it conflicted so much with Paul's experience. And we can only assume this is one of the occasions those officers are talking about.

So, by law, I have to give you... This is your phone. So, here's back to you. Thank you so much. Okay? Now, this is a search warrant.

The judge, Cuyahoga County Judge Russo signed it. Can we pause for a minute? You had search activity and you downloaded the data. Everything now, nobody's looking at? Nobody's looking, but we mirrored the phone. We're going to look through the phone. Right, but everything she does now? Now, she's on her own. Okay. All we care about is free. Right now, I'm not concerned what she does. She's free to do whatever she wants, but by law...

This is the receipt of what we did, which is a download of the data. And this is the search warrant. Now, the search warrant lists the crime we're investigating as an aggravated vehicular homicide times two. Because two people were killed in a car crash. It does not mean, I'm going to make this very clear, we're not charging you with aggravated vehicular homicide.

So right now, I'm not going to interview her. She's obviously not in a good place to be interviewed. She has an attorney. Once she's released, I give you my contact info. Have your lawyer give me a call or give me your lawyer's contact info. And then I'll call him. And if he wants her to cooperate, that's his decision. If he doesn't want her to cooperate, that's his decision. I do want you to know that a lot of people are coming to us and reporting things. And so usually... Yes, I was told.

Usually the most accurate information we're going to get is from her. So whether or not she chooses to cooperate on advice of counsel, that's up to her. I'm not going to coerce her. What are people coming in and saying? I cannot tell you that. That's the investigation. This doesn't matter if it has nothing to do with the crash. Well, we don't know. We have to put everything together. But this is a copy of the search warrant with the affidavit and everything that the judge looked at. Okay. I'm going to take...

My paperwork back. Do you have any questions for me at this point? I have one. Were they able to pull video? I know you off the building across the street. Well...

I, I, again, I cannot comment on the investigation, but we're, we have some evidence that we're... I'm sorry, but were people going through my snapshots too, like opening stuff? We did not. We just mirrored your phone. Because I see like two or like three of them open. We, we did not. But either way, even if we did, we have a search warrant. So, uh, we're going to look at the car tomorrow. We're going to download the black box from the car. So we know if there was any type of error. We're going to have OSP. They're sending a reconstruction, uh,

trooper to look at it and download the material. We also got a search warrant for that as well. This is a very difficult situation and you can put this on the record. I am not here to try to interview your daughter and get some incriminating info. I'm not. At this point, we are investigating. I am. I want to protect her constitutional rights.

So it's very, very important that your lawyer gets in contact with me or I get in contact with him so we can say, hey, sir, are you going to let her cooperate? If he says we're not saying anything, then we have to build our case based on everything else. Or we know if anybody's pressing charges. If anybody presses charges, it's the county. It's not the families.

Can I say something to her? Yes. Can I just take my whole license away for 10 years or something like that? If you have a lawyer, talk to your lawyer. My daughter was living with Dom.

If you were really confused just now,

and not sure if you're hearing English at the end there. That's because Mackenzie turned to her mother to speak some variation of pig Latin before asking the officer if she could just, you know, have her license revoked for 10 years or something. But just wait, it gets worse. We got sent to this call. Here's what we find out. Here's, you know, the evidence we have. Whether it's for her or against her, we just give them everything.

Everything that I have, every piece of paper that I write on, he will get all of it. He'll see my notes, my reports, all the other officers' reports, body cams, everything. Okay. Wait, there's videos, there's the bad body cameras on when they... Oh, every single officer's wearing a body cam. Oh my God, can I please see it?

Yes. Lying in the hospital bed, she really asked the police officers investigating the crash if she could see the body cam footage.

Her father responded, no, because it's not going to be pretty. How cold does your soul have to be to act this way? You've just accidentally, or maybe not accidentally, killed your boyfriend and your friend. And you want to see the body cam footage of these poor police officers discovering the whole mess? Why? So you can cover your ass?

This isn't the only instance of McKenzie's odd behavior after the deaths of Davion and Dominic. Dominic's family had been having strange interactions with McKenzie since the crash. Here's Dominic's mother, who happens to be a defense attorney herself. She did say something that was pretty damning the other day, um...

Have you seen her in person or just over the phone? I've just seen her twice at the cemetery. Twice at the cemetery. How does she get there? Can she drive? Her mother takes her in the... Is she in a wheelchair still? Yeah, she can only put weight on her left leg. Okay. And then she's supposed to start some physical therapy.

And then I'd also come to touch, because she's dangling photos, she's dangling videos, you know, but she just pieces one or two out instead of saying, I think you'd enjoyed it. Like, we were at the cemetery, and we had this bee problem between the two of us. I still have the bee problem that a few people are coming today. But Dom had called me about the bees, and I don't know what she was recording, but it's all his voice, at least, you know, because it has his voice. And so she finally sends me that one. But it's like...

Every single time we try to get a picture, she's all over my son, so I can't even get one without her in it. He catered to her. She claimed she had a gluten-free problem or something. And I would make dinner, and I would be questioned on...

was the stuff okay for her diet because her stomach. And if I didn't have everything that would have complied with her stomach diet, whatever it was, I never believed it. He would cook for her supper, always. She's a slob. She never cleaned her mother's house as a slob. My house isn't the greatest either, but I'm just saying it's just, you know, if Dom's going to cook for you, do the dishes. Clean up after yourself. Do you know what I mean?

that sort of a thing. But everything was always about her. I mean, like I said, even with her parents. So while Kenzie was in the hospital, they were already making up stories. Right, right. Okay, as to what happened. But the deer, the epilepsy, the seizure. And the point of all of that is the fact that the mom never said, at the kid's home, she never checked in with me ever. The only time they would ever come over would be once on a blue moon to drive me home.

drop something off or to take pictures for some event. Do you know what I'm saying? But Kenzie, I mean, Dom took her to Polaris. Dom made sure she made it to school. Mom didn't do any of that. Okay. So it was all Dom. But the girl had no problem sitting with me, looked me in the eye. A lot of these girls can't look me in the eye. And that right there bothers me. You can't look at me and you can't talk to me. I feel that there's something more.

Kathy was always okay with that, you know, came in wet, had no problems walking to my house. And it was, you know what I mean? And I just... That made it easier to like her. And she was always right. And she came over for holidays and they'd include me and things like that, you know. And I just figured maybe she just needs to grow up. She's young. I mean, do you know what I'm saying? You don't.

think that it's gonna come to this. I do. I mean, I feel bad. I've known the girl forever. I mean, I can't imagine what she's feeling like, whether she did it on purpose or she claims she knows nothing. She remembers nothing. And you can say that all Dom's problems were because of her and being upset. And I needed to realize that she wasn't as sweet and innocent as I thought she was.

It's heartbreaking to me because like the day before I went to Florida, which is the last time I seen him face to face, he was really just talking to me about, yeah, about like how he can't keep letting Kenzie like run his life, but not even an aspect like that. Like he said like, all right, for example, you know how I was saying how he can't go to like, he can't go out with even me occasionally because she's upset about it and this and that. He said that she holds him back.

Like, I think he was really honestly finally getting to the point to where, like, even if she was, like, saying, oh, I'm going to hurt you, he would have, like, maybe even taken that chance. Because he was getting, it was more than, like, two years. He'll be, like, dude, he would be so nice and as accommodating as possible to stop the fight. And she'd be one of those people that is just petty, petty, petty, petty.

He's just, like, I remember times him, like, expressing to me how frustrated that he was, saying, I do every single thing I can for this girl. I ask her, what's upsetting you? I'll make it better, this and that, blah, blah, blah. And she finds, like, any single thing to just be mad at me about. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's like I witnessed it a lot, too. Like, I don't know. Did you ever see her hit him? Put her hands on him? Her hit him. Like, just go, you know, or throw stuff at him? Oh.

Actually, now that you say that, I remember several times now, because my memory is getting jogged, that he would say, Mom, can you get Kenzie out of here? She's refusing to leave. She's out of control. She's hit me. I do remember that. And I would get on the phone and say, just leave and go home. There's times, there's multiple times, even pretty recently before all this, that Kenzie

Don would have to call Kenzie's parents, call her mom and stuff and say, hey, you need to come get Kenzie out of here. She's refusing to leave my house. She's being crazy. And it'd be a situation where they'd be in a fight. Keep in mind something stupid that she started. And he's like, listen, he's like, just go home. He's like, well, we'll hang out tomorrow.

It'll be like a whole new thing. He finally had to get her out. She was the type to show back up at his house, pound on his window. No, I'm coming in, blah, blah, blah. We're talking this shit out right now. Like before, you lied. You lied and said you would never lock me out of the house again. That is why we got back together the last time we broke up.

But I forgot. You can never leave your word. Because you are a little fucking weak bitch. This is your last chance to open the door or you are not coming out of this house all night because I will not leave. Kenzie, look, let me go to dinner. You can let me go to dinner and then I can let you come over later. No, you're not because I'm coming to dinner too. I'm coming to dinner too. Why? You should have told me you wanted to come.

You fucking retard, she already put me on the reservation so fucking open the door you dumbass. Alright, let's just go next door then. No, we're not going next door. No, we're not letting you in the house. We need to talk first, no? Cause you just like betrayed me. Alright, we can talk outside. Here, go to the door. Don't try to come in. Dom, it's you two not open- like you think I'm joking. You think I'm joking. You think I'm joking. Like I'm deadass. What? What are you deadass about?

You know exactly what I mean. You don't even know exactly what I mean. You're gonna come open this door right now or there's gonna be a serious fucking problem. Kenzie, I really don't think I can. Like, why can't we just do this shit? Like, why can't we just do this later? We're not doing it later because I'm coming to dinner. You have five seconds to open the door. What, you want to come to dinner with us? You want to come to dinner with us? Is that what you're saying? Open the door right now. You can come to dinner with us if you want. Open the door. Kenzie, if you want, you can come to dinner with us. If you don't open the door, I'm keying your car.

Alright, is the door unlocked? I'm about to test it. No Kenji, it's not unlocked. Why are you acting like this? Tom, I'm going to give you one last second or I'm going to have to key your car.

Why why why would you bother that ever be like an option? I'm breaking I will break up with you. I'm going to break up with you. You know, open this fucking door You look so far you're sitting like I thought like you didn't want to be here What the actual fun What key thing

Come here, my house. I will break shit. I will break shit. Do I have to, like, call the police? Why? Why would you call the police? Do I have to call the police? Are you not going to let me into my house? This is not your house. All right, I'm calling my mom. I'm calling my mom. No, you're not. No, you're not. That's how I am. I'm calling my mom. You're not doing this. And we're going to break up. This is my house. We are done. If you do not let me in the house that I sleep in every night, we are done.

Just listen to this narcissistic, entitled, childlike brat that has apparently never been told no in her entire fucking life. She's just hearing that word for the first time just now. The verbal kicking. The stomping. The crying. The wahhhhhh.

Like a toddler, angrily making noises and stomping their feet because their pacifier fell to the ground. And screaming is the only way to combat the force of gravity. She's literally threatening to call the police whilst committing a crime. What a fucking moron. She'd make threats. He'd definitely say that she's the kind of person to follow through with those threats. He believed she would follow through? Yeah, not like...

I mean, obviously everybody makes false threats and empty threats and stuff like that. But some of the stuff he would or she would say, I do remember him telling me, yeah, Kenzie's crazy. She would actually probably do that shit. I mean, that's the problem. You know, she threatened him constantly. I told you it was one week before we had to pick him up on the highway when she threatened to crash the car done.

Okay, it's not I was on with Dom. Dom, she sat there and texted me. Dom was out of control. Dom was very calm. Said, "Mom, you need to come get me." And she's threatening to crash the car. - We did see those-- - Yeah, that's one of the things we wanted to bring up was that-- - Right, they were on the side of the road. And she said, "I'm calling the police if you don't get him." And I said, "You can." I'm on the phone saying, "She can call the police all she wants, but we are on our way. What are the police gonna do?"

If she had called the police the numerous times she apparently threatened to, maybe these kids would have been forced to break up a long time ago. Maybe Mackenzie would be in juvie and Dominic and Davion would still be alive. Mackenzie was known for making threats though, most of them empty. The police from the forensic vehicle inspection came back and showed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car. It worked fine. Well, not after the crash, but you know what I mean.

Images of McKenzie trapped in the car that day with her fuzzy Prada slipper pressing the accelerator to the floor suddenly looked even more suspicious. We don't have details about this, but it's on record that McKenzie drove that exact route a few days prior. She was casing the joint. Investigators also knew that McKenzie had threatened to crash the car with Dominic in it just a few weeks before.

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Listen to Amazing Wildlife on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search Amazing Wildlife and start listening. In the months following the tragic car wreck that claimed the lives of 20-year-old Dominic Russo and 19-year-old Davion Flanagan, detectives in Strongville, Ohio, diligently conducted interviews, reviewed evidence, and methodically built their case. As they pieced together the puzzle,

The evidence increasingly pointed towards the driver, 17-year-old Mackenzie Shrilla, leaving little room for doubt. So, since the crash and the passing of Dominic, has she been in contact with you?

that she reached out to? - She texted me multiple times. I could read you the text word for word. She never once, never once said, "I'm sorry for your loss." She never once said, "I'm so sorry for what happened." She never once took any responsibility, not even having to take any responsibility, just saying, "I'm sorry Dom's gone."

like anything, but she asked me for forgiveness about 10 times saying, "I hope that you forgive me. I still wanna be a part of your family." Listen, I'll just show you the text and make it easy. She texted me on August 6th, okay? Before that, the last time she texted me was May 7th. - Okay, I'm gonna go with that. - So May 7th? - Was the last time she texted me and it was just to say Dom's phone died. The last time she texted me before that was she was asking me if I could do homework for her because she was too lazy to do her math work. - Wow.

I mean, honestly, like... So May 7th, and then when was the next time after May 7th? What was the date? August 6th, after the crash. I think that was the day she got her phone back. And you could read it. This is what she said word for word. August. Hey, Angelo. I don't know if you hate me, but tomorrow for the funeral, would you be able to go in Dom's room and grab some photos from his desk for me?

Doesn't say sorry, doesn't say nothing, doesn't say anything. It says, Honestly, how psychotic does that sound? That sounds fucking twisted. She texts me again after that, all just to say, please let me know. And she texts me again.

August 23rd. Actually, she did say sorry one time. First time that she ever said this. She said, here, we can read it if you want. It says, hi, Angelo. I just wanted to say I'm so sorry. I know you probably think this is all my fault and I'm not asking you to feel bad for me, but I just wanted to say I'm so sorry and I know you miss him so much. I wish he was here too. This should have never happened.

He loves you so much. And IK, you, I know. Yeah, I know. You know that. I don't even know what to say to you or just feel so bad. I hope you guys can forgive me because I always look at you guys as family. You don't even need to respond to me. I just wanted you to know. I'm so sorry. Okay. But see, even these texts...

that she sent me even in this one okay it would it maybe would have been something if it's like hey if it was just i'm so sorry i'm so sorry you know but then she has to go just one line it's one sentence of i'm so sorry and then it goes i know you probably think this is all my fault and i'm asking you to feel bad for me why would i feel bad for you in this situation how to take you one sentence of saying sorry and then just to go to that it should literally be like i'm so sorry i bought the

It should all be about who you're texting. She's worried about what you think of her. So she's using the I'm sorry as a buffer. The whole entire consistency of her is just self-absorbed and self-centered. Everything that she texts me, even if she's finally saying I'm sorry, it's about her. It's not even about me. So I know since we gave her the phone, she's been...

active on social media and all that. Any of your friends screenshot you anything? Have you, you know, we've received some photos of her in the wheelchair out and about. I could definitely get some screenshots. I'm not on social media much at all. Okay. But the first thing I did hear of at the time, we didn't even know if this was her mom or her or what because we didn't even know if she was even awake to use a phone. We didn't know if it was her injury or anything, you know. And, uh,

The first thing I seen from her, she didn't text my mom, she didn't text me, she didn't text my dad, she didn't text anybody in my family. The first thing I seen from her contacting anybody was she texted a modeling agency that reached out to her and said something. And she went on Instagram. Here's what the company commented on one of Mackenzie's photos. We love this look, Kenzie Shirilla. Can we use this post on our website and emails? Yes.

Most of us have probably gotten comments like this in our own Instagram accounts. And we all know it's spam we should ignore. But Mackenzie's mother, Natalie, jumped at the opportunity and replied to the comment with her own account, typos and all.

She said, Thank you for this amazing opportunity. Hello, this is her mother. She would love if you would use that. She's actually been trying to contact you guys for PR email. It was a tragic accident and she did not purposely mean put an end to any of her close friend's life. This is just as painful as it is for her as it is for everybody else. Or maybe even a little bit more painful. Heart emoji.

Ben McKenzie chimed in from her hospital bed and commented, Thank you for the comment. I would love to work with you guys. I've been emailing you guys a lot. Such a great opportunity. Thank you. But that was before even, like, you're going to go and reach out to a model you see on Instagram, like, I want to use your picture, before texting several people in Minnesota. Many, many people in between that should have gotten that text beforehand. You know what I mean? And then...

Like her mom, her dad, his dad still never even texted me once. I already had, I already previous to this had somewhat of a relationship with her mom talking about her daughter's issues or whatever and what I think or whatever. And, you know, and it wasn't like we never talked before. You know what I mean? I'd come say hi to her in the driveway when she was driving off. And before she was driving, it was a while ago. But she definitely has your number. She's never said not even a word, not a peep, neither from her dad or nothing.

some people not very many but a few still wanted to defend mckenzie and her lack of remorse they're called the enablers and uh a lot of bad people have a lot of those people in their life one of those people was her friend paul the host of the party this is all speculation but at this point you know yeah kenzie

If you're on social media, did you see Kenzie talking with this modeling company after the crash, after we gave her her phone back? I saw people talking about that. Yeah? What did you see? Just people really enraged. Enraged about what? That she was talking to the modeling company.

Did you see how happy her mom was that the modeling company is trying to help her plan her future? She just killed her boyfriend and another kid with a very bright future. She killed two people. And the reaction is, I'm worried about my modeling career. That's what I'm saying. Weigh all that as, you know...

As the time comes, people can put on a really good show about how devastated they are, but then you look at their social media and you're back talking about your career and your future plans. If I kill my friends or if I'm responsible for the death of somebody, it's devastating. And I hope you never ever have to experience that. But the reaction that you saw and that we saw is something that is intriguing.

All this evidence was certainly intriguing enough for the county prosecutor to pursue charges against Mackenzie. And after a very slow and secretive investigation, she was officially charged in November of 2022. Mackenzie would face four counts of murder and felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, and one count of drug possession. Oh, and also one count of possessing criminal tools.

Where is she? Right back there, pal. Hi, Mackenzie. Step out for me. I'm Detective Hizou. I'm the one who's been investigating the crash. You're under arrest for aggravated murder times two, okay? Nobody's going to ask you any questions. Nobody's going to bother you. May I have your key, please? Could you please be careful taking this one off so it doesn't break the bracelet, please? You got it. You got it. Mackenzie and her defense attorneys decided a bench trial would be the best route.

This meant that she would skip the whole jury trial and the judge alone would hear her case and decide her fate. It's quite a gamble. You've got to get a good judge in there that you think you can get on their side somehow. This is just a hunch, but perhaps her defense attorneys knew that she'd be perceived pretty badly by a jury. A jury that's probably had plenty of experience with bratty children and have maybe taught them better.

Anyway, they probably hoped they would get lucky if they only had to convince one person. If that was their plan, it turned out to be a bad one. In a bench trial, the judge sits as the jury and the finder of fact, as well as the rule of law. And it is a reminder of just how difficult a job it is to serve as the finder of fact. Whether it's a bench trial or a jury trial, the rules of law are the same. I have done what I am sworn to do.

I have carefully and deliberately considered all the evidence in this case, including the testimony of the witnesses, the science, the expert opinions offered, the medical evidence, the physical evidence, the photographs, and the video evidence. This trial is a combination of decisions made by one person. Those decisions have forever altered the futures of three families, and of you also, my kids.

and your decisions forever rob Dominic and Davion of the futures that they had before them. If there is one thing that can be taken away from this case, as painful as it is, it is this: Every decision we make is important. Every action we make is important. Regardless of whether the decision is a good one or a bad one, or the actions are good or not, the result is the same. The consequences ripple through time.

and affect many more people than one might think at the time of the decision. And at this point, I would like to comment specifically on exhibit 802, the crash video. This is the type of evidence you can never unsee. You can never forget the visual or audio of this exhibit. It was chilling and tragic. As you review that exhibit, you know that you are watching the oncoming deaths of two people, and there is nothing that will stop it.

The video clearly shows the purpose and intent of the defendant. She chose a course of death and destruction that day. Exhibit 802 crystallizes the deadly decision-making of the defendant. She morphs from a responsible driver to literal hell on wheels as she makes her way down the street. Mackenzie alone made the decision to drive her car, to drive an obscure route, a route she visited a few days before

and a rapid opportunity taken by mackenzie alone chose the time to make the drive early in the morning when any reasonable person would expect a few people who would be nearby to witness it or offer life-saving assistance she made these decisions despite knowing as any reasonable person would that her mission of death could have involved others not even in the car with her other people and cars pedestrians she had a mission and she executed it with precision

The difference between this and a jury trial is that when the verdict is read in a jury trial, it happens all at once. Mackenzie had to listen to this judge's speech and slowly piece together where she was going with it. Kind of like Alec Baldwin, if you saw that happen. Boy, what a clusterfuck, huh? Anyway, before she even got to the verdict, Mackenzie knew what it would be.

She sobbed and listened as this judge read out guilty verdicts for every single count. Her parents sat behind her looking, shocked, apparently, that there was going to be some accountability, a word that they had apparently never heard of before. When it came to her sentencing hearing in August of 2023, just like any other defendant, McKenzie's friends and family were permitted to speak on her behalf.

My name is Natalie Sherilla. I just want to say, am I allowed to address them at all? I just want to say to the families that I'm broken, sad, and lost, and my heart hurts for everyone, okay? Davian was my new friend, and Don was the love of her life, and he was part of our family, okay? I'm just so sorry that this happened, and we're heartbroken.

Okay. And then, Your Honor, this was a terrible, tragic nightmare accident to have happened that she has no memory of, and she will never emotionally or physically recover of it, recover from it. She almost died too. And we're asking that you please not run the sentence as consecutive. He was family, and we all loved each other.

In the hospital, that Vitality post, I commented on that because somebody had called her a murderer. Okay. And she's not a murderer. So she didn't even have her phone at that point because the police had still had it. Okay. So I jumped on and I was like, you know, she's not a murderer. She's more sad than her than most of these people commenting. Okay.

I had called them asking if they could shut down social media because people were calling her a murderer and making death threats and organizing groups to, you know, take her out when she got out of the hospital and stuff. So I didn't even want her phone. I don't care about her phone. I don't care about social media. I just wanted them to stop calling her a murderer so that when she did come to and she did come out of

multiple surgeries that she wouldn't see all these people calling her a murderer because she would never, ever, ever murder the love of her life. Okay? Everything she did after the accident was either in honor of him, to be close to him, or just to be by him any way that she can.

She's like devastated and tragic. He was the air that she breathes. Okay. And they went with his cousin. We spent all kinds of time with them after the accident. What was the other thing? I'm hearing an awful lot about your daughter. I'm not hearing very much about the two of them. Dominic. Okay. I'm asking you for a leniency because this was a tragic accident that she does not remember. And Davion, we don't,

he's a new friend. I'm so sorry. Does that mean his life is worthless? No, no, no, no. No. God, no. Not at all. They all loved each other. They all spent every day together. You know what I mean? I don't know too much for him. Isn't that part of the problem, Mr. Schroeder? Sorry? Isn't that part of the problem, that they all trusted each other? Isn't that part of the problem? It's not a problem at all. It was wonderful. It's a problem of how they all ended up in the car together and she's already ripped to pieces.

I understand. I understand what it looks like. I'm saying that it was a tragic accident. She would never... We're going to have to disagree. I understand. And I respect the decision. I understand. But anyway, that's it. I just wanted to address those. We told her to go to those things, and then she did go with Dom's family. So look at that. Don't look at it with the...

Look on that with different eyes if you can, please. Those things are not relevant. Not at all. Not at all. Not at all. But she's a good... If you would have a moment, all you would need is five minutes of a conversation to have with her to learn who she is. You would just need five minutes to learn who she is and what she's capable of not doing and doing, and you would see for yourself. That's all. I'm so sorry, guys. I'm sorry. I love you. The Apple...

does not fall far from the tree. Mackenzie spoke after her mother. I'm so deeply sorry. I hope one day you can see I would never let this happen or do it on purpose. I wish I could remember what happened. I'm just so sorry. I'm heartbroken. I love to have a baby. We're all friends and done with my soulmate. I wish I could take all your pain away. I'm so sorry.

The victim impact statements from this case are a tragic juxtaposition to the empty excuses and late apologies offered by Mackenzie and her family. Here's Davion's little sister.

Hi Your Honor, my name is Devine Flanagan. Davion was my older brother. The passing of Davion Marcel Flanagan has been very difficult for me. We have gone through everything together since day one. Davion was a big brother to me and my mother, Sister Kalia. We all got adopted together in 2012. After Davion passed away, a lot of trauma and past pain have came into my life. He was the person I trusted the most because he made me feel safe.

I hate the fact that he has gone because someone decided to take his life. Now that David has gone, I feel stuck. I feel as if I can't move forward. I feel lost. He was the one who picked me up when I fell. He was my best friend and the only person that has stayed with me since I was born. - Respect Christine Russo, Dominic's mother. No one wanted this to be a murder. We want to punish McKenzie Shiroa for this accident.

This was not a car accident. Evidence and signs proved that Mackenzie Shiroa murdered my son, Dominic, as well as Davion. There's no fix put in in this case. This is Shiroa's like, her plan.

I want to thank Strongfield Police Department and the state of Ohio for seeking the truth behind this crash. Thanks to them, we all know what happened in that car that day. What we don't know is why. I wish I could change this every day. I lost three children in that crash. And a minute goes by each day that I don't think about my son. The Lost Avian, my heart was forever broken. The cries.

heard from the Schroer family and friends after the verdict are nothing more than a lack of remorse. The Kentees' Yoruba had a choice. Dom and Davion did not. We were all left caring more. July 31st, 2022, I called the Kentees' mother, hysterical at the loss of her son and Davion. I knew the Kentees was in the hospital, and the first statement said to me was, "Oh, please don't listen to what everyone's saying on Facebook."

Yeah, his son's dead. His friend is dead, and I'm checking it with yours. Social media is important. Social media has made a gain out of the life of Mackenzie, and has made a deep gain out of this heart-wrenching tragedy. No one can imagine the pain of losing a child unless they've lost one themselves. The pain is forevermore. Time does not heal this wound. Mackenzie, go into prison because you did this.

Be thankful that you're still alive and in the future, whatever that may be. Dom and Davion were robbed of their futures, their hopes, and their dreams. Hansel showed no mercy on Dominic, nor did she on Davion. Only God at this time can have mercy on your soul. Thank you. If any reasonable person reviews Exhibit 802, there can be no doubt in your mind what happened this night. There can be no doubt of the absolute terror

of the two people in that car. The defendant controlled all the events. She chose the day. Specifically, she chose the day just before her 18th birthday. She chose to drive the car, the time to drive the car. She chose an obscure previously scouted route through an industrial parkway. She chose the target to hit and the victims. She chose the means and the method to follow through. And she planned and purposely executed the events of July 31st, 2022.

and the testimony of the BMV official who provided evidence that not only did the defendant deny any medical condition when applying for her license, which her mother co-signed and attested to, but also that just after the accident, Mackenzie renewed her driver's license and again denied any medical condition. In fact, the defendant was so concerned about driving that, as the state mentioned during the investigation, she asked if they could just suspend her license for 10 years. It is hard to fathom

All person could be concerned about their driving privileges, having just been responsible for the deaths of two people. It is also important to remember that even if McKenzie intended to also die in this crash, that is irrelevant. A failed suicide attempt is not a defense to murder. And even in a murder-suicide attempt, when the perpetrator executing the plan survives, the other death or deaths are still murder.

There's only one person who's responsible for the pain of everyone in this room, and that person is you, Mackenzie. Nobody else is responsible. This isn't the fault of Dominic's family or Davion's family or your family. There's a very good likelihood, Mackenzie, that you will spend the rest of your life in prison. That won't be up to me. That will be up to the parole board, and that will be up to you to a great extent. I understand that the pain in this room wants me to impose the harshest sentence.

But I don't believe that would be the appropriate sentence because I do believe that Mackenzie will not be out in 15 years. So she's sentenced on count two, the murder of Davion Flanagan, 15 years to life. She's sentenced on count one, the murder of Dominic Russo, 15 years to life, to be served concurrent to each other with credit for time served. As far as we're aware, Mackenzie and her family still claim her innocence to this day.

Some people just never learn. We have no doubt that she will exhaust her appeal efforts. 17-year-old Mackenzie Shrilla's mission was death, literally. As the judge said, she changed the course of history with one decision. And now, she'll have to pay.

Well, that does it for another one. If you like the show, head on over to the old website, swordandscale.com. There's a brand new episode of Sword and Scale Television there waiting for you. It's episode seven. You might like it if you're into this whole true crime shenanigans business nonsense. Check it out and stay safe.

I don't know if you've noticed, but we've recently revamped our whole website. And in doing so, we decided to switch over to Shopify. Now, I'd heard a lot of things about Shopify before, but I didn't really get it until I joined. You see, creating really great retail experiences is tough, especially with multiple stores, teams of staff, fulfillment centers, separate workflows. It's

a lot. But with Shopify Point of Sale, you can do it all without complexity. Shopify's Point of Sale system is a unified command center for your retail business. It brings together in-store and online operations even across a thousand locations. Imagine being able to guarantee that shopping is just always convenient. Endless aisle, ship to customer, buy online, pick up in store. It's all made simple so customers can shop anywhere

Thank you.

Ryan Seacrest here.

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