At 5:30 on a July morning in Strongsville, Ohio, a silver Camry accelerated down an empty suburban road to nearly 100 miles an hour, held a dead-straight line for three-quarters of a mile, and drove head-on into a brick wall. Two young mendied. The seventeen-year-old girl behind the wheel survived — and what investigators pulled from the car's black box turned a tragedy into a homicide case.

The accelerator was floored. The brake was never touched. And two weeks earlier, Mackenzie Shirilla had allegedly threatened to crash the car with her boyfriendinside it.

This week, we walk the whole length of that road: the silent testimony of the event data recorder, the security footage a judge said she could never un-see, the toxic relationship the state built its motive on, and the medical defense thatcouldn't find its expert. A court called it murder — "the mission was death." But behind the verdict sits a locked room none of us can enter: what a teenage girl truly meant in the last few seconds before impact.

A story where we know almost everything that happened, and still can't be certain why.

Content warning: this episode discusses a fatal crash, intimate partner violence, and suicide. Crisis resources are shared at the end. In the US, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233, and the Suicide & CrisisLifeline is 988.

#DeadlyIntent #TrueCrime #MackenzieShirilla #TrueCrimePodcast #TrueCrimeCommunity#Strongsville #OhioCrime #CrimePodcast #TrueCrimeAddict #Murder #ForensicPsychology #CriminalIntent #TrueCrimeFans #PodcastCommunity #Justice

EXPLORE MORE SPINE-CHILLING CONTENT:

Freaky Folklore: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/freaky-folklore

Carman's Crypt (Original Horror): https://www.carman-carrion.com/

Deadly Intent (True Crime): https://www.carman-carrion.com/

Destination Terror: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/destination-terror

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Rex Heuermann didn't just kill eight women. He wrote down how to do it — and then revised the document between murders.

For seventeen years, the Long Island Serial Killer left women along Ocean Parkway, fifteen minutes from his house in Massapequa Park. For thirteen more yearsafter their bodies were found, Suffolk County didn't catch him — despite a burner phone he bought with his own credit card. In April 2026, Heuermann pleaded guilty to seven murders and admitted to an eighth. In June, he was sentenced to life.

This episode is about the piece of evidence that makes this case unlike almost any other: a deleted Word file recovered from a hard drive in his basement, written in all capitals, containing checklists, a disposal procedure, and a section of lessons learned for next time. On this show we usually have to infer intent. Here, he typed it.

We cover the 911 call from Shannan Gilbert that cracked the case open, the discovery of the Gilgo Four, the taunting phone calls made to a fifteen-year-old girl, the police chief who kept the FBI out of the investigation and went to federalprison, and the eight women whose names deserve to be said: Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, Sandra Costilla, and Karen Vergata.

Intent doesn't lie. People do.

Content warning: serial murder, strangulation, sexual violence, and discussion of theexploitation of sex workers.

#RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #TrueCrime #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #LongIslandSerialKiller #LISK #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #TrueCrimeCommunity #SerialKiller#CriminalPsychology #ColdCase #ShannanGilbert #DeadlyIntent #CarmanCarrion #TrueCrimeTikTok #Massapequa

EXPLORE MORE SPINE-CHILLING CONTENT:

Freaky Folklore: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/freaky-folklore

Carman's Crypt (Original Horror): https://www.carman-carrion.com/

Deadly Intent (True Crime): https://www.carman-carrion.com/

Destination Terror: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/destination-terror

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SUPPORT THE SHOW:

Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/carmancarrion

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SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW:

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Your support helps bring you more terrifying tales.

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On the night of February 16, 2022, Jared Bridegan stopped his car on a quiet road in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, to move a tire out of the lane. His two-year-old daughter was in the back seat. He never got back in. Four shots were fired — two into Jared, two into the SUV where his toddler sat.

Prosecutors say it wasn't a robbery or a road-rage killing. They say it was a planned, rehearsed ambush — and that the people behind it were Jared's ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and her second husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana. Both have pleaded not guilty. As of this recording, their trials haven't begun.

This episode is different. Instead of telling you what someone wanted and why, I lay out the two competing stories about what was inside a human mind — the state's and thedefense's — and I don't choose for you. Years of text messages. A nickname. "Funeral potatoes." A confessed triggerman who took the trigger back. A case that either proves premeditation or proves only that a woman was cruelto her best friend in the dark.

The tire proves someone planned this. It does not prove whose. And in a Duval County courtroom this fall, twelve people are going to have to decide the hardestquestion in criminal law: did wanting become doing?

I made this episode before the verdict, on purpose. Come sit in the gap with me.

⚠️ Content note: discusses gun violence, the killing of a parent in front of a child, and a contested legalprocess. Every charged individual is presumed innocent. Please take care of yourself while listening.

🎙️ Written, researched, and produced by Carman Carrion.

#JaredBridegan #ShannaGardner #DeadlyIntent #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #TrueCrimeCommunity #JacksonvilleBeach #MarioFernandezSaldana #HenryTenon #CrimeJunkie #MurderMystery #TrueCrimeYouTube #ColdCase #CriminalPsychology #Florida#TrueCrimeAddict #Podcast #CaseAnalysis #Justice #Courtroom

EXPLORE MORE SPINE-CHILLING CONTENT:

Freaky Folklore: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/freaky-folklore

Carman's Crypt (Original Horror): https://www.carman-carrion.com/

Deadly Intent (True Crime): https://www.carman-carrion.com/

Destination Terror: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/destination-terror

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SUPPORT THE SHOW:

Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/carmancarrion

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CONNECT WITH CARMAN:

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SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0uiX155WEJnN7QVRfo3aQY

iTunes:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/freaky-folklore/id1550361184

Your support helps bring you more terrifying tales.

________________________________________

DISCOVER MORE HORROR:

http://eeriecast.com/

https://www.carman-carrion.com/

________________________________________

MUSIC CREDITS:

Music and sound effects provided by: ElevenLabs