Dominic Russo’s sister, Christine Russo, reflected on her brother’s death on the fourth anniversary of Mackenzie Shirilla’s fatal car crash.
Christine took to Instagram on Friday, July 31, to share a video that featured several photos and clips of Dominic, who died at the age of 20, and their family throughout the years.
“Four years. I want to sleep through today. I f***ing hate today. Four years since my world shattered into pieces that will never fit back together,” Christine began in the caption. “On July 31, 2022, I lost my baby brother, Dominic. There isn’t a single day that has passed where I haven’t thought about you. Not one day where I haven’t wished with everything in me that I could go back, change something, or somehow bring you home.”
Christine went on to say that she’s found “grief doesn’t heal,” but it instead “becomes something you learn to carry.” She continued, “Some days it’s lighter. Other days it crushes me so completely that I can barely breathe. The pain of losing you is woven into every part of who I am.”
“I miss your laugh more than words can ever explain. I miss hearing your voice, your jokes, your smile, your presence,” Christine wrote. “I miss the little moments that seemed so ordinary then but would mean everything now.”
She added that his “nieces and nephews miss their uncle more than you could ever imagine” and “they still talk about you.”
“They still love you. They deserved to grow up with your guidance, your laughter, and your love. You should have been here to watch them grow, to cheer them on, to tease them, to make memories with them,” Christine wrote about Dominc’s younger family members. “They were robbed of an incredible uncle, and our family was robbed of so many years we should have had together.”
Christine added that there are “no winners in this story” and there “is no closure.”
“There is no moving on. There is only learning to live in a world that is missing one of the people we loved most,” she wrote.
“I hope you know how immensely you are loved. I hope somehow you know that I will spend the rest of my life speaking your name, protecting your memory, and making sure the world knows who you truly were,” Christine said. “Death may have taken your life, but it will never take your place in our family or in my heart.”
After noting that she loves Dominic “more than words could ever say” and “more than this lifetime could ever hold,” she promised to carry him with her “in every heartbeat.”
“Forever loved. Forever missed. Forever 20,” Christine concluded.
Dominic died on July 11, 2022, as a passenger in the car that Shirilla, 21, was driving when she crashed 100 mph into a brick wall. Their friend, Davion Flanagan, was also in the car at the time and died at the age of 19.
Shirilla, who was dating Dominic at the time, was found guilty of 12 felony charges in a 2023 bench trial, including murder. She was ordered to serve two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life in prison.
Despite being found guilty, Shirilla has always maintained her innocence and her attorneys have suggested the crash may have been caused by a medical episode.
Two days before the anniversary of the crash, Us confirmed that Shirilla formally requested that her 2023 murder convictions be overturned. Her legal team filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, in which they argued that her rights were violated during her original trial because key evidence in her defense was allegedly excluded.
