Lauren Smith Fields ////// 556 | Forensic Files

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gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] I don't wanna let go
what do you want for me [Music] [Music] if you are listening for the first time thank you for joining us if you are a
long time listener of the program welcome back whether you are new to the show or an
old friend we're all here for the same reason now while there may be many different
reasons for each of us coming to the garage today there is one single reason that is the
same for all of us each one of us has a little detective in them I don't know where it is for each of us
maybe you have the mind of a detective maybe you're a detective at heart or the detective and you come straight
from the soul wherever old Sherlock comes from within you are a detective at least when you
are with us now why are you a detective well it's not for the reasons that you think
it's not because you recently purchased John Douglas's new book or that you have watched every Keith
Morrison Dateline or because you binge True Crime garage at work in your car and at the gym
no you are a detective for two simple reasons one you love a good mystery two you hate Mysteries
you love a good mystery because it draws you in and challenges you knowing everything and finding the
answers compels you to expend time energy and wit and you hate it because it eats at you
especially when the story is left unfinished without a solution without answers and
for some of you without punishment it's unresolved it is still a mystery like so many things in life your passion
for these true crime stories too become a love and hate relationship now that we have established that on some
level all of us here are detectives well then it would be easy for one to assume that many of you have even
pictured yourself in the shoes of a detective seeing the crime scene for the first
time looking for Clues better yet evidence well here is an opportunity for thousands of us little detectives to
daydream together close your eyes you are the detective you receive a call to respond to a
residence when you arrive you're somewhat greeted by a man he is panicking he takes you to a woman who is
unresponsive she is lying on her back with blood on her face there are no visible injuries to the
woman so you're not sure why she's unresponsive the man says that the woman lives there
are you her husband do you live here too you ask no he says what's her name you ask
he provides a first name he says he tried giving her chest compressions but it didn't work
sadly the woman is dead upon your arrival once she is removed from the scene the
corner will do their thing but this is a mysterious death a call you responded to and as it goes
in most jurisdictions that means you just caught a case This Woman's mysterious death is now
your investigation you're in charge and while you wait for lab tests to be run the coroner to provide additional
information and the cause and manner of her death you are left at the scene and there is work to be done
we have a scene to secure and search for Clues leads and evidence evidence collection and inventory
photographing the scene processing it according to police procedure we have a witness to interview plus
other possible witnesses to seek out who else was here what is our timeline of events
do you see anything that would indicate that a crime was committed or possible multiple crimes having been committed
you need to speak with her family and ask them the appropriate questions as well
and as for your quote Witness what do we do with him do we need to process this witness
request physical specimens photograph him and ask to search his person do we need to read him his rights and
remind him that maybe he should have a lawyer present there is so much to do but today we are going to tell you a
story that I think might make your temperature boil good little Detective because the true story we have for you
the real life detective did very little hardly anything once the woman's body was removed
this is true crime garage and this is the case of Lauren Smith fields [Music] this week we are going Seaside to
Bridgeport Connecticut and Captain I don't know do we call this the Bumble murder case or the bungled murder case I
say Bumble murder because some are saying a young woman and this is Lauren Smith Fields met with Foul Play after
meeting a man on the Bumble dating app and I say I'm confused because that's of two simple facts here one we have 23
year old Lauren smithfields dies under mysterious circumstances after a first date with a guy that she met using this
app but then there's no investigation into her death that's right the Bridgeport Connecticut police detective
and their office failed to investigate and failed to notify Lauren's family that she died so what's Bumble according
to their website the Bumble app is more than an app it's a movement I love all these companies these days we're we're
more than this we're more than that nope sorry you're an app True Crime garage is
more than a podcast we're more than a podcast it's a lifestyle that's right so according to Bumble it's more than an
app Captain it's a movement they say we encourage Integrity kindness equality confidence and respect during all stages
of a relationship whether online or offline Bumble is where people go to learn how to establish and maintain
healthier connections I I agree with that and I applaud the people over at Bumble they say when members of the
opposite sex match on Bumble women are required to make the first move shifting old-fashioned power dynamics and
encouraging equality from the start I think that's a good way to start things off now what happened to 23 year old
Lauren Smith Fields well we go back just less than two months ago to the morning
of December 12 2021 Emergency Services receive a 9-1-1 call about an unresponsive woman at a residence
Emergency Services arrive it sounds like a police officer was there shortly after
EMTs were on the scene because most of the Articles state that an officer found Lauren lying on her
back on the floor with dried blood in and around her right nostril this is according to the police
the officer says that they found a frantic man a quote frantic man who identified himself as someone who had
only known Lauren for about three days the man said he had been doing chest compressions after being instructed to
do so by the emergency operator on the phone the man was trembling and visibly shaken
answered now we should note here that the man's name is given in some news reports and and purposely not given in
most news reports so this man tells police that he arrived at Lauren's home the night before she invited him over to
her place for what was to be according to him a first date according to this man the two were
having a good time they were drinking shots of tequila for part of the night but at some point Lauren became ill and
went to the bathroom to get sick but then later Lauren decided to continue drinking so now she's feeling
better and they go back to having a good time the man says they drank more tequila
with mixers played some games ate some food and watched a movie Lauren lived in an apartment on Plymouth
Street in a busy part of Bridgeport at some point during the night Lauren's brother stopped by her home to collect
clothes from her now from my understanding captain he doesn't come to the door I the way it
sounds to me is he pulls up somewhere outside and Lauren kind of rushes out to meet him right it even sounds to me like
the man wasn't really certain who Lauren was meeting with but whatever happened she's outside of the apartment
for a brief period of time speaking with somebody the man says he doesn't see whoever Lauren is talking to and what
Lauren's brother says is that he's not even aware that she's on a date so the brother doesn't go inside he doesn't
even realize that there's somebody inside it sounds like right when Lauren comes back into the
apartment the man says that Lauren went to the bathroom and she was in there for
about 15 minutes a short time later Lauren fell asleep on the couch and the man was still at the
apartment at this time he says he carried her to bed and then fell asleep next to her now he says when he woke up
that morning he could see blood coming out of her nostril he then called 9-1-1 to request help
Medics arrived and pronounced her dead their report indicates that Lauren had been dead for maybe an hour or so and
not that it matters too much but I believe he stated at some point that he woke up around 3 30 and she was snoring
and then when he woke up again around six o'clock or so when he went to use the restroom or something that's when he
realized she wasn't breathing officers say that they collected several items as evidence and that they would take that
with them before leaving and securing the apartment and next for reasons unknown the police
failed and I say failed not by attempting and striking out no they failed to notify Lauren Smithfield's
family of her untimely death failing to do so because from where I sit it appears very little to no attempt at all
was made to contact her family so from statements from the family they're saying they they didn't find out that
she had passed away to a day and a half later when they went to visit her apartment yeah and the way that this
goes down here Captain is we have a family that at some point they try to reach out to Lauren they have no clue
that anything terrible has happened when they're trying to reach out to their daughter or their sister the family
eventually goes to her apartment and when they do so they find a note the note's not from the police it's from the
landlord Lauren's landlord who says that hey you need to contact police or contact the landlord because Lauren is
no longer with us she's she's now dead at this point this is not not the way a family should find out about their loved
one passing on here we have a really bizarre situation and I'm not just talking about
bizarre from the outside looking in there's all kinds of question marks when I see this thing right and I see that
this thing is blown up on Tick Tock and we get several people emailing us dozens
of people emailing us and saying hey do you know what's going on here in Connecticut and unfortunately I didn't
know at the time and I'm going to say I'm even more saddened to know about it now after looking into this incident
looking into the situation there in Bridgeport and we'll get into that more as we go through this case and this
story but here we have a situation that for whatever reason this family is not notified
and then of course they're going to have questions about their loved one's death
why is she dead you know what what happened to this woman was it investigated if you didn't
notify us we we have no reason to believe that you've done any other work on this case
and she's found in the company of a man that we've never met we do not know this
guy we don't know who he is and we don't know his involvement in her mysterious death like we said according to the male
and the situation they only were talking for the last few days so obviously she didn't bring this up to her family I
don't think it's that odd that she didn't tell her brother hey I have a guy over because sometimes that's the stuff
you just don't share with your siblings so I don't find that odd but she's in good health she's young she is
not a known drug user to the family so this just seems so out of left field she's attending college she has her own
apartment things seem to be on the up and up with our victim Lauren here now we do have the police report which could
offer some more detail as to the events of that night in the morning when she's found and I think we should pour over
those details here now captain so according to this the responding officer was dispatched to Plymouth
Street and this was on the report of a non-responsive female Medics and fire were dispatched there as well upon
arrival and this is directly from the report upon arrival a knock on the door was answered by a frantic man later
identified as blank now he his name has been redacted from the police report and
again some news outlets are reporting his name and some are purposely not I do not know what side of the fence to fall
on here so what we're going to do just so we quit saying the man will refer to this guy as Matt going forward so a
frantic man Matt answered the door he directed me again this is from the officer's point of view he directed me
to the rear of the apartment to a bedroom there I observed a young adult black male lying on her back on the
floor she had dried blood in and around her right nostril she did not appear to be
breathing he told me that the person on the phone instructed him to do chest compressions he picked up his phone and
asked if he should keep doing them he was trembling and visibly shaken the call taker told him to hang up and speak
with me the officer right I told him the Medics were on the way and the sirens could be heard in the distance I asked
what her name was and he replied Lauren when I asked for her last name he said he wasn't sure but her Instagram page
says it is Smith he stated that he has only known her for about three days and came here for the first time last night
they met on the dating site Bumble fire and Medics arrived on the scene and began life-saving efforts for Lauren
when asked Matt stated that after meeting on Bumble he found out that they had a mutual friend via Instagram and
they began to chat there she invited him over for a date asking him to give her forty dollars to get her nails done and
to bring a bottle of tequila he said he arrived at her home at approximately 9 30 p.m and tried to contact her via
Instagram twice but she did not answer he said that he does not have any direct contact information for her you know a
cell phone number Etc he only has this Instagram and Bumble information yeah a lot of times
when somebody meets online they'll continue to communicate with whatever method they originally met and they want
to exchange like cell phone numbers and stuff until maybe they know it's going to be more serious at first he says he
thought he was stood up and he left but then Lauren called him to come back a short time later saying that she didn't
answer his call because she was putting on her makeup he went on to say that they began drinking shots of tequila and
Lauren became ill she went to the bathroom to vomit and was apologetic when she returned they then decided to
drink the tequila and mixers they played some games ate some food and started to
watch a movie Lauren was texting with someone and then told him that her brother was going to
be dropping something off to her she went outside for a few minutes he says he never saw the brother when she came
back in she went straight to the bathroom and she stayed in there for approximately 10 to 15 minutes he
thought it was odd but didn't feel it was his place to say anything as he didn't know her that well
they continued to watch the movie and finish the bottle of tequila this is uh Casa casamigos Tequila big bottle Lauren
fell asleep on the couch so he carried her to her bedroom and laid her in her bed he then laid down next to her and
fell asleep he says he woke up at approximately 3 A.M to use the restroom and Lauren was snoring at that time he
woke up again at approximately 6 30 a.m and she was lying on her right side blood was coming out of her right
nostril onto the bed and she was not breathing that is when he called 9-1-1 a bunch of things to go over yes one he's
telling you we started our conversation through bumble okay well let me see the app let me see that communication okay
then we continued our conversation on Instagram okay let me see Instagram let me see that conversation let me see your
phone and then let me see her phone we know her phone's there but did they try to access it and maybe they couldn't
because of passwords or whatever but you could at least have him access those two things and you could take
screenshots of those and then send those to the officer's phone well there's all
kinds of missteps that are going to be taken here in my opinion here captain now this responding officer is not the
same as the detective so I think where we start messing things up is once this is handed off to the actual detective it
looks to me that this officer and again I'm not familiar with Bridgeport Connecticut Police Department procedures
but it appears to me that this responding officer is doing all the normal stuff right talking to the people
on the scene right securing the scene making observations taking a report now the report goes on to say what this
officer's actions were after this young woman unfortunately is pronounced dead so it would be at 6 49
a.m when the Maddox told the officer that Lauren had been dead for at least an hour maybe more Matt gave a written
field statement to his account of the events of that evening this officer the reporting officer notified a sergeant
and request the detective Bureau supervisor be notified via dispatch so this is just simply a responding officer
that's doing their job and now they're going to have to hand it off to the higher ups right we got to get a
sergeant involved I'm going to notify the detective Bureau that we got a mysterious death we have a death
investigation that needs to happen and there you're handing off the ball and hoping that they run with it and run
with it in the right direction goes on to say that this officer contacted the medical examiner and the
officer found a U.S passport identifying Lauren as Miss Lauren Smith Fields male
with the same name on it inside the apartment a MasterCard with that name on it and
1345 dollars in cash there was a cell phone on the couch that Matt identified as
Lauren Smithfield's phone there's also some mail to some other people here and I don't feel comfortable mentioning
their names because I don't know how they fit into this situation they could have been former roommates yep or she
could have been house sitting or collecting somebody's mail could have been any number of things right the um
the detective and Sergeant were notified and the sergeant Morales and detective Cronin arrived on scene at 8 12 a.m and
the medical examiner arrived on the scene shortly after it goes on to say that the officer made contact with a
Hector Torres he is the landlord and lives on the second floor he said that Lauren smithfields has lived there for
almost a year he knows that her mother stops by occasionally but does not know her and has no contact information for
her he was issued a complaint service form and asked to give it to Lauren Smithfield's mother the next time he
sees her detective Cronin gave Mr Torres his contact information before he and Sergeant Morales left the scene after
the body was removed I located a key that fit the front door I made sure all windows and doors were secure and all
lights were off and locked both locks on the front door and left Ms Smithfield's
money key passport MasterCard and cell phone were all turned into the property room for safe keeping slash further
investigation now it still seems like they could do some kind of background check on her
and and find maybe some phone numbers that they could try to call so they could try to reach out to our family yes
yes it certainly does seem like they could have done that but uh or even look up prior addresses that would be in the
system and and Drive by to see maybe that's her parents house and I'll read something directly from a CNN article
here and there are several good news outlets that we found in regard to this case this from CNN the police did not
notify Smithfield's family of her death instead the family found out a day later
after visiting her apartment and finding a note from the landlord on Smithfield's
apartment door quote the mom had been calling because Christmas dinner was supposed to be at Lauren's house that
year they drove over there found a note on the door from the landlord that said if anyone was looking for Lauren call me
the landlord the police never tried to reach out to the family they just took her body out of the home the family
describes the detectives assigned to the case as quote rude and one of them saying that the detective treated the
family badly when they called and met with police seeking answers about Smithfield's death during a meeting
earlier this month so this would be January police told them that they did not find anything suspicious at the
scene and a detective allegedly told them there was no blunt force trauma I believe also they were told to stop
calling the police yeah exactly and this again from that same article uh Miss Smithfield's mother Chantal Fields said
that she didn't find out about her daughter's death until a day and a half later on the evening of December 13th
and police did not notify her about it instead Miss Fields said it was her daughter's landlord who put her family
in touch with Detective Cronin who offered very few details over the phone and even hung up on them in a sub
subsequent call this is Miss Fields quote here my son I'm presuming that this is the the same
Sun that would have went over there that evening to meet with Lauren well in some
of the news reports when the family is speaking with reporters uh I believe there's two brothers that are been
interviewed perfect so she says my son talked to him meaning the detective detective Cronin and asked him what
happened and Cronin said that she met a white guy on Bumble but don't worry about that he's a really nice guy end
quote detective Cronin said he would meet with the mother of the decedent and her
son at Miss Fields apartment they say that they waited for an hour and a half or more than an hour and a half and when
they called him you know hey we're here waiting where are you are you on your way detective Cronin told them to stop
calling she later the mother later had to beg the police to collect evidence from the scene and that's according to
her lawyer this is absolutely unacceptable your job is to Serve and Protect and obviously you're not serving
foreign [Music] [Music] here for years cheers everybody cheers captain well this is an aggravating story huh
welcome to the garage just wait till I get started hey if you're at the gym this is a good story to be listening to
because you can put a few more plates on on that bar and just go to town let your anger rise all right Captain we
have a serious issue here we have a crime scene that I don't believe that was looked at to you have a situation
where you have a mysterious death and as far as you know as a detective until it's ruled other
you have to determine what actually occurred here and as you pointed out before we went to break you also have a
man that is here at This Woman's apartment when you find her body yes we read how this story and what went down
air quotes to Lauren Smith Fields the night before according to the news reports and then we even covered the
police report from Bridgeport themselves of what went down with Lauren Smithfield's but we need to remind
everybody that unfortunately a big problem with both the police report and how this story is reported is we don't
have Lauren's version of the events from that night we only have this person that
we're calling Matt we only have this Mac guy to tell us what happened the night before and in the morning when he woke
up and he says he finds her unresponsive and believed to be dead at that time when he wakes up at 6 30 in the morning
yeah if I'm the investigator I'm first wanting to know is this Matt guy telling me the truth okay so like I
said where our communication was on Instagram and on Bumble well let me see that communication is he willing to show
me that communication I think it's a red flag the fact that he moved her from the
couch into the bedroom why are you doing that if I just met somebody a couple days ago and I woke up
and they were carrying me to my bed I go what are you doing the normal reaction there would just put a blanket
on them if you go lay in their bed and fall asleep that's fine but you didn't have to move her the
other red flag is she's throwing up earlier from drinking and she goes back to drinking now if that's me
I'm going I don't know you that well and that's not the appropriate reaction to throwing up is let's go back to drinking
I go hey uh you're not feeling well I need to check myself out of this situation yes
if your date carried you to your bed I would I would have some questions about that as big biceps she had big biceps
you see the shoulders on that woman but what what we do know is that he also made the 9-1-1 call so if I'm an
investigator I want to listen to that 9-1-1 call we know that he was doing chess chest compressions based off of
the 911 operator telling him to do so he then hangs up the phone when they get there that's normal proper procedure but
I'm going to go hey Matt who else knew that you were here who knew that you were talking to Lauren I want to talk to
them I want to check your criminal record if he has one well I just want to yeah right I just want to check to see
if there is a record uh what's this guy's background what's his work history did anybody see you
come into the apartment are you willing to come down to the station and to do a proper interview there are you willing
to take a lie detector he claims that there was no sexual intercourse okay well why why isn't there any tests done
and the the big red flag is they find and what the reports are saying a used condom in the trash in a trash can I
Believe In Her Bedroom Let's test that DNA because if he lied to you about that if
if that DNA comes back to him well now he's he's fibbing on his story now the question becomes are you fibbing
on your story to just protect yourself or are you some actual criminal well if he lied about that if he lied about that
part of his story then his credibility has gone completely out the window and you cannot believe any of the rest of
his statement now while we sit here and defend Lauren saying unfortunately she's
not here to give her side of the version of events we should also defend our person that we're calling Matt as well
because unfortunately we just don't know if she were here she may tell us yes that's
exactly how the night went down and he's perfectly innocent in this whole thing what we need to put the microscope on
though is everything you just said Captain are all the right questions that the detective should be asking
themselves and looking at the scene and talking to this person that was there he's the only witness according to his
story as to how things went down you need to shake that tree see what falls out and see if you think that this guy
is is credible based off of evidence what we have here is a situation where the detective tells the family
uh that you know that guy that we found in in the apartment at your dead sister's apartment uh yeah he seems like
a nice guy don't jump to any conclusions with him I wouldn't jump to any conclusions with him he seems like a
nice guy no no no the statement should have been look we're looking into every aspect of
this we're looking to see if a crime was committed and if so who committed that crime well right now
again let's just assume that Matt had nothing to do with this he he shows up at a girl's house that he doesn't really
know too well she's getting sick she ends up falling asleep or passing out she stops breathing this is a
devastating event cops don't do their job now this becomes national news world news
now your name is in most of the reports and people are saying this is a suspicious death possibly a murder well
your number one suspect so not only did the cops not Serve and Protect Lauren and her family but they didn't Serve and
Protect Matt unfortunately we know that in many situations anybody that's watched Dateline listen to this show for
any long long period of time you know that when we have a case especially of a a woman who is is murdered often it is
the husband or the boyfriend and I'm here to tell you it sounds to me that if you were a husband or a boyfriend
looking to off your your loved one your spouse you should probably live in Bridgeport and and request detective
Cronin show up to the scene because apparently detective Cronin if you if you seem frantic and panicked and if you
said that you did chest compressions and you were the one that called 9-1-1 well
he's gonna deem you to be a nice guy and not want to jump to any conclusions yeah
you know who else seemed to be a nice guy Ted Bundy you know who else seemed to be
a nice guy when they're doing their sermons on Sunday BTK John Wayne Gacy was charismatic as hell yeah the medical
examiner ruled Lauren Smith's Field's death was accidental and caused by acute intoxication due to the combined effects
of fentanyl promethazine hydroxyzine and alcohol and if I mispronounce any of those I want you to know they have
revoked my medical license yes but he's still studying and doing research on computers now the family obviously is
upset about a number of things but specifically uncollected evidence or stuff that could be possible evidence if
in fact the crime was committed here and their attorney alleges that the family found a used condom as the captain
pointed out a sedative pill and blood-stained sheets and overturned plate of food in bottles of alcohol so
the bloodstain sheet I'd like to see this for myself because we do know that the victim was bleeding through the
nostril and if it's just a little bit of blood then that would explain you know to say Blood Stained sheet or sheets
makes it sound like it was a bloodbath and I can't believe that that would be the scene but yeah but but here's the
difference if if you tell me oh I found her and her her nose was bleeding but but that blood stains by her knee right
well now we have an issue right and the on top of that this family look and not all family members know what everybody
in their family is doing is it possible that she used drugs from time to time or
she has experimented she might have never experimented until that day so but when the when the family says
look she wasn't a known drug user to us how the hell does she have fentanyl in her system and that's what they don't
explain to you that they're not telling you that how that fentanyl got into her system was it ingested orally was it
ingested through the nasal was it what did she shoot up is there traffic patch yeah is there track marks and then these
prescription pills well let's let's look through the house and to see or let's contact her doctor
and were these prescribed medicines given to her right by a physician or were these
prescription medication that she was getting from somebody now now again that leads you to evidence
if you go well she she had all these prescription drugs in her system but there was nothing to show that she had a
prescription then you then go back to question Matt did he have a prescription for these how
did these get into her system I think is a big how did they get into her system was was she drugged how did these items
get into her apartment and the thing is look let me run a scenario by you that is a possible scenario in this situation
you have a family that says our loved one did not do drugs we we or at least to our knowledge did not do drugs right
and we have a man here who says that consensually he spent the night or was at her apartment at least leading up to
her falling asleep and then wakes up and finds her dead in the morning calls 9-1-1 don't worry detective Cronin says
he seems like a nice guy but now we run we run Matt's information into our computers and finding out this guy's got
a whole bunch of drug charges right stemming back years now don't you start to go okay well maybe we have a
situation here the thing is with these items that I just mentioned none of these items were collected originally as
evidence or even possible evidence or photographs taken of any of this stuff as well we have one thing that I can
point to again I'd like to see the sheet the bed sheet because it's it's left very vague the description of this bed
sheet but that aside we have this overturned plate of food this might indicate that something else was going
on differently that night than what we're being told by the only living person that is in the apartment when we
arrive there to try to save this young woman's life my big issues test the damn condom because if you test that condom
and it goes back to Matt and this guy's a lying piece of [ __ ] that fills the need that he has to drug somebody in
order to have sex with them and and then also during the autopsy why not run a rape kit I don't know that could have
been done that could have been conducted in all fairness right from my understanding I looked for the autopsy
report there are several news outlets that state that it has been sealed and it's not been released to the general
public well here's the thing if you're rolling an accidental overdose then it's case closed and guess who gets to see
those Case Files the family but you're not in communication with the family you're not being respectful for the
family so shame on you oddly enough though Captain this is not the only story that ends up this way coming out of the
same area strangely enough we have Brenda Lee Rawls who is found dead the same day and again her family is not
notified of her untimely death as well and this is this is all going on not just in the same City of Bridgeport but
the same neighborhood but we don't believe the same officers were connected to that case no I believe that it was a
different officer so a little background on this other story is that Ms Ross worked as a customer service
representative for most of her career her sister describes her as a family person who was extremely funny she loved
to laugh and make jokes uh even in bad times she would make a bad situation into a funny situation now
it's unclear to me and I've searched high and low and it doesn't seem like any new information has come out in
regard to Brenda Lee Rawls but it's unclear how she died there was no physical signs of Trauma from my
understanding or even Foul Play the medical examiner would be in charge obviously of determining the cause of
death on December 14th after realizing that Miss Ross had stopped responding to their text messages and phone calls her
sisters and some other relatives decided to go to her apartment she wasn't there
so they went a few doors down to one of their friends Apartments there at his apartment he
told them that Ms Ross died two days earlier in his home after he was unable to wake her up in the morning it's it's
Eerie how similar these stories are he calls 9-1-1 and her body was taken away he handed some of her clothing to her
family when he's telling them hey she she passed away but again they were not notified by the police and Miss Ross
lived just two miles away from Lauren Smith Fields who died on the morning of December 12th so this is all happening
within days of of one another and they're just sad I mean horribly despicable stories to learn of a loved
one the loss of a loved one and then learn that nobody even bothered to tell you right the the right precautions the
right precautions or the the right attempts were all there by the persons that were with the person when they did
when they were found East calling notifying 9-1-1 police on the scene Medics on the scene yet that's as far as
it goes that's as far as it goes in Bridgeport you know some are speculating that
that's as far as it goes if you're a black person in Bridgeport right there's been a lot of reports coming out that
other officers and other people in the community were trying to warn people about this is their lack of effort when
it comes to a black victim but it's absolutely pathetic police work and there's a lot of great cops out
there and there's a lot of great detectives trying to do the right thing doing their job serving and protecting
and these scumbags give everybody else a bad name but in this case like I said Lauren is a
victim but if if Matt is innocent then he's a victim as well and they should have done their due diligence to figure
out where he stands because look so and you can get more into detail they suspend both of the officers
and they go hey we're going to investigate the investigation and we're going to reinvestigate the death okay
now the at least the department is trying to do the right thing so kudos to them but now what happens if
Matt goes well this is national news now I better get a lawyer then people are going to
speculate that oh well he got a lawyer he lawyered up so now he's guilty which I mean
anybody look initial the initial investigation be open with police and if you think that they think you're
suspicious of something get a lawyer to navigate you through the questioning here's the other problem but at this
point he would have to be an absolute [ __ ] not to lawyer up here's the other problem too for everybody
for everybody is it the detective does not know [ __ ] at that time right on that day doesn't
even bother to notify the family now we have to sit and wait for the medical examiner to come to a conclusion on
cause and manner of death what if days later the the medical examiner comes back and says
rules of the homicide you let all this time go by you didn't collect evidence you didn't do any type of investigation
you didn't take any type of photographs where does your case sit if it does turn
to a homicide it's it's it sits as a pile of [ __ ] right in the trash can yeah since these terrible tragedies
Bridgeport mayor Joe ganim says he's working on this situation and issues a public apology we have that clip here
for you now once again want to express my condolences to the families of Lawrence smithfields and also the
family of Brenda Lee Rawls after reviewing these matters even more closely I've now directed Deputy Chief
baraha of the Bridgeport Police Department to immediately put on leave the two officers who are the subject of
the Bridgeport Internal Affairs investigation and disciplinary action for their lack of sensitivity to the
public and their failure to follow police procedure and the handling of these two matters
let me be clear effective immediately both detective Lanos detective Cronin are suspended from duties and put on
administrative leave from the Bridgeport Police Department until such time as the
oia investigation and disciplinary cases have been completed regarding Lauren Smithfield's
and Brenda Lee's Brenda Lee Rawls cases the Bridgeport Police Department has high standards for officer sensitivity
especially in matters involving the death of a family member it is an unaccepted failure if policies
were not followed to the families friends and all who care about human decency that that should be shown in these
situations in this case by members of the police department I'm very sorry in addition the officer was in charge of
always seeing these matters has retired from the Department as of this past Friday
to again make it clear both to members of the public and to the Department insensitivity
disrespect in action or deviation from policy will not be tolerated by me or others in
this Administration my disappointment and demand for accountability in these and all other
matters brought to my attention will remain until all the questions are answered
to the satisfaction of all it should also be noted that the untimely death of Lauren
Smithfield's and Brenda Lee Rawls are both still under active investigation and have been reassigned to members of
the Bridgeport Police Department to resolve I want to thank attorney Crossland and the family and the thousands of
others for reaching out and asking the questions that needed to be asked and that still need answers
I as mayor but also as a father cannot fully comprehend what must be going through
I can only pledge by continued support to try and ease your pain by getting answers and holding those responsible
accountable yeah again like I said it's absolutely pathetic just the lack of of care
again you can do an investigation but you lost precious time and you lost precious resources once you have access
to her house once you put her into an ambulance to have her go to the hospital you now have access to the full crime
scene and now they've lost that ability so again I think there's still going to be
question marks later and that doesn't do service to Lauren that doesn't do service to Matt that doesn't do service
to the community or her family and you have to applaud her mother when something like this happens and and you
and you have a sense that there's something wrong here her family should be applauded
for pointing out hey there's something not right here yes both families Brenda Lee Ross family and Lauren Smith's
family Smithfield's family should be applauded here because they are not just they're
not just trying to solve and create a solution to this problem the problem that affected their families
they are bringing a attention in my opinion to a problem that is city-wide right this is a huge problem an ongoing
problem in the city and I have to I have to read part of this article this was a
brilliant article gangbusters work by the good people over at buzzfeed.com this article was posted just last Friday
the articles by uh Tabitha Serana Caroline O'Donovan Stephanie bear and Andrea click and basically the article
is about racism within the police department itself and the article is titled black officers have tried to
sound the alarm on the police department overseeing Lauren Smithfield's case for
years BuzzFeed saying that the Lauren Smith Fields case is just the latest in a string of troubling incidents for the
department and I agree after reading this article listen to what they have uncovered BuzzFeed says in recent years
complaints from black officers have offered a window into the Department's internal culture and accusing top
leaders of racist conduct back in August of 2018 Captain strebel a top Aid to police
chief with more than two decades at the agency step down after complaints of racist text had surfaced in one text
later published in court documents this officer Captain Straubel he referred to a local Juneteenth event that he was
asked to attend as an n-word parade in another text he said he asked a black Captain
who was running to become police chief his name is Roderick Porter if seeing the film Planet of the Apes made him
homesick these are from court documents this he also called African Americans a cancer in text and said he hoped for a
race war well that's that's really intelligent of you there sir Straubel himself later argued in a suit in a
lawsuit that his comments were part of a widespread culture in the agency perpetuated by the former Chief who he
accused of regularly using racial slurs talking about genocidal fantasies in reference to members of the black race
and saying that the former Chief was even drunk at work okay so before I go back to the article let's
just address this this is horrible despicable Behavior by this this Captain he gets called out on it obviously he's
racist as hell and when he gets called out on it he he's admitting to doing it but says you
know I did it because the chief did stuff like that too oh yeah the old like that's like very second grade of you
there sir to go oh yeah I did it but it was only because these other guys were doing it too well not only should the
black officers be pissed off but the other white officers should should be equally pissed off if not more pissed
off because this is painting your whole department as a bunch of racist clowns well what it appears to me based off of
the statements of this captain who it admits to what he has done is Captain [ __ ] it's confirming that
yes the higher ups in this department at one time and likely still are behaving this way
are conducting themselves in this type of of manner they should be fired and they should not get a pension and this
is the reason why you your your salary your pension your retirement your your health coverage all that stuff is paid
for by the taxpayers that you swore you're going to Serve and Protect and you have not done so you've you have to
you have decided which citizens to Serve and Protect and which ones you want I would question if they're serving any of
the citizens at all if they're behaving this way correct um so the the chief that we just talked about this is uh
Armando Perez resigned in 2020 and went to prison for obtaining his position through an exam rigging scheme since
then about a dozen black officers have filed internal complaints about lack of training and opportunities for promotion
hostile work environment and retali creation for speaking up and this comes from a divon polite the president of the
Guardians which is an organization for officers who are people of color so good for them they have some kind of
representation here Devon polite who is half Italian and half black was granted probation in 2018 after facing
second-degree assault charges for allegedly dragging a man from his car and beating him after the man struck his
Mercedes again this goes back to and I know that he's on the side of the of the black officers but I don't understand
look Devon polite's probably trying to do some good work I don't know that I want a police force where we have guys
that are higher up in the force that have assault charges or assault convictions I don't want racist on my
police force either especially higher up in the police force or in any Organization for that matter I don't
even care if you're the janitor if you're races you're gone one day the janitor is going to run this garage you
watch your filthy mouth yeah it's there's no place in society for this ignorance and I don't understand why
again if you're a white officer and you've stepped by and let this stuff happen you're just as much of a part of
the problem you saw the burning building and you didn't call for help you didn't
pick up a bucket of water and try to do something it's it's pathetic is what it is the Department's only black captains
have both filed lawsuits against the agency they say their responsibilities were curtailed after speaking up against
leaders now one of them this is Roderick Porter was a finalist for chief in 2018
in lawsuits and complaints with the state he argues that the department passed him over in favor of Perez
because he had opposed straubel's racist comments he also accused the agency of a
racially hostile work environment and says Perez tried to hide straubel's racist messages after he learned of them
and failed to investigate then in 2019 a spokesperson for mayor ganum said he was outraged by the racist remarks of
Straubel but in court filings the city denied that Perez was aware of the contents of these text messages and said
Internal Affairs Affairs did investigate the matter at the time noting that Straubel was put on administrative leave
the city also denied that Porter was more qualified for the job of acting Chief saying that Perez quote was a
police officer longer and had more experience in command positions and was well liked in the community end quote
now the mayor denied participating in Perez's scheme for advocating for him to become Chief now I don't I don't
question that one bit but after Perez stepped down pleading guilty and went to prison Porter was the only remaining
candidate for the job of acting Chief from the previous list of finalists but the city chose Captain Rebecca Garcia
instead Garcia is the current captain from my understanding here Captain last November a judge found her promotion was
also part of Perez's exam rigging scheme so like most places you know this is this is fairly common from my
understanding and a lot of these law enforcement agencies they use these exams as the primary reason for why one
person would get a promotion over the other however we're seeing in this situation this has been ruled by a court
this is not the colonel here coming up to his own conclusions it's been ruled by the court that this was there was
some illegal rigging of this exam and of this of this process to put Perez in the
position of police chief and probably promoting others along the way as well so what you're seeing here is this
Police Department is screwed up from top to bottom after 300 community members marched to the mayor's office demanding
action in Lawrence with Fields case mayor ganum demanded that the department present him with three new finalists for
the police chief job within 150 days I would like to go back to that after We examined the rest of this
buzzfeed.com article in court filings the city said that the Undisputed facts demonstrate that Porter was not
subjected to hostile work environment and that the decision not to select him as the chief of Bridgeport Police
Department the acting Chief or the assistant deputy chief was not based on his race or color a representative for
the city this is Scott Appleby said that promotions within the police department
are conducted by a civil service exam process well we need to change that process because it's broken we've
already seen how it's screwed up the department so far the article goes on to say quote regarding any discrimination
complaints the City of Bridgeport and the police department take these matters seriously Appleby said in via email the
city immediately refers each complaint to an outside firm that specializes in employment matters for independent
investigations end quote okay so they give when we have these matters that come up when we have complaints that
come up we hand this off to an outside firm that's smart that's smart let's let somebody that doesn't have a dog in the
fight examine the situation and issue a ruling so we can figure out if there was
wrongdoing and if so who do we penalize that's great I applaud that that's smart
however according to this article these cases are still open and these are months and
months old maybe it's time to get a new outside firm to look into this situation
they're not doing their job either right so let's give it off to somebody that seems to be incapable of coming to a
conclusion as to what happened if there was wrongdoing or not bring me in for a weekend I'll tell you who's a [ __ ] bag
and who's not according to this article racial discrimination within within the Bridgeport Police Department is nothing
new quote it goes back to the 70s 80s and 90s end quote this is according to Captain Porter uh quote we were under
special Master Federal oversight for a number of years now the Bridgeport Police Department operated under this
Federal oversight from 1983 to 2010 for nearly 30 years the agency's issues with
race were so blatant in the 1980s that 33 black officers all but one patrolled the most dangerous
neighborhoods putting all of the black officers basically on the front line in in the in the danger zone if you will
while the white officers get to patrol the less dangerous neighborhoods yeah or sit behind a desk and do nothing but
tell horrible jokes so a federal judge had assigned a special Master to ensure equal opportunity with powers to
administer assign and discipline officers which the agency had to pay for but ever since the agreement dissolved
the agency has been in a downward spiral this according to the local NAACP president
black officers have been calling for federal oversight to be reinstated for months and they have
been joined by Advocates and city council members uh one in particular is Maria Pereira again Bridgeport city
councilwoman Maria Pereira says quote Bridgeport Police Department has by far the largest budget in the state of
Connecticut and what we get for it is a police department that is in shambles it's chaos end quote now in all fairness
to that statement all of that statement to me yes it's her opinion but it appears to be true to me
uh this department is in shambles and if she says that they have the largest budget then I believe it she's the city
councilwoman but in all fairness we should point out that Bridgeport is the largest city in Connecticut so they
should have the largest budget what we have here Captain though is a situation too where the one of the later lines in
this article really needs to be underlined and echoed until this problem is solved and
corrected it says this is by one of the officers one of the Bridgeport police officers
says quote we need Court oversight if we are being mistreated in this department
with our own people here you can imagine what is going on outside end quote and that's what we're seeing now what is
going on outside where we have the media responding to the mishandling of the brander Lee Ross case and the Lauren
Smith Fields case yeah they need to do a second investigation they need to do a second autopsy and they need to be in
close communication with her friends and family to make sure that they feel comfortable about the
investigation and that they feel that the investigation is as thorough as they wish well what needs to happen in these
suitcases especially in the Lauren Smithfield's case is uh because we have some more details in that case than we
do the Brenda Lee Ross case so it's a little clear to me what I believe should happen and I think that what needs to
happen here is an outside investigation needs to take place an outside agency needs to come in and conduct a proper
and as you said thorough investigation into both of these situations and it should include a civil rights probe by
the justice department by officials from the justice department uh into the Bridgeport Police Department itself I
think that it's slightly respectful that mayor ganum gave and issued an apology to the families we do have city
councilwoman Maria Pereira who says look both of the families reject the mayor's apology and she says that he
should have called them to his office and spoke with them in person I agree with that 100 percent I do want to point
out something here hold on that's what's so [ __ ] about people be a human reach out to them call them meet them
face to face don't just get in front of a camera it's almost like a show like oh well I'm just gonna go in and
I'm going to parade around and in front of the camera but why not reach out to them these are humans that lost their
their daughter that lost their sister like that that shows no class well and I do want to point out
something here too I I seem to I think I like this Maria Pereira she seems to be
a bit of a whistleblower she's calling things what they are and pointing out problems that they have I just hope
that she is offering Solutions at some point she is a city council woman and I hope that her and the rest of the city
council are a part of the solution and start creating Solutions rather than just pointing to things and saying hey
that's a problem and this is why it's a problem and the mayor really look you you got to get your [ __ ] together my
friend because here's the problem I understand that you're demanding that the department uh send you three
candidates for a new police chief within the next 150 days I believe it says no that's as lazy as what some of your
upper staff in the department is doing present me with three candidates in the next 150 days no man you need to get in
there and you need to get your hands dirty and do some damn work and get this straightened out because right now your
city is [ __ ] and you are the fat filthy pig that is sitting in it that is just
sitting in it your department is a disgrace and if you have these problems within your Police Department I cannot
imagine the problems that you have in your other departments that you oversee as mayor this needs to become your top
priority and look this agency as messed up as as it seems to be maybe they're not the
best ones to be to be presenting candidates to you again I also I don't understand why some of this stuff takes
so long you could sit down with everybody in the department and and speak with each one
of them individually you know for just a small period of time to to to ask them face to face
give me a couple names of who you think should be running these departments and you're going to see the same names kind
of popping up because these officers the respected officers and the ones that are
doing the right thing most of the other officers know about it so but it's this whole case is
absolutely pathetic and and it's and and I feel also bad for all the other like I said all the other law
enforcement officers that wake up every day and they put their life on the line and they try to do the right thing and
they protect people and they serve their communities no matter what race they are
and it's just uh I I hope that they can do a thorough investigation than an investigation that the family
feels confident in [Music] so many questions hopefully Lauren's family gets some answers for everything
True Crime Check out true crime garage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't litter
foreign [Music]

Lauren Smith Fields ////// 556

Part 1 of 1 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

On December 12th 2021, 23 year old Lauren Smith Fields dies under suspicious circumstances. The Bridgeport, Connecticut police fail to do any type of real investigation into her death. In fact her family is not notified until a day in a half later. And it wasn’t the police that broke the news to the Fields’ family, it was her landlord. How did this young woman die and why did the detective refuse to investigate? Join us in the Garage as we try to get to the bottom of this one. And as you will see the bottom is the best place to look because the Bridgeport Police Department is about as low down as it gets.

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Garage Grade - 3 and a half bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses Lauren Smith Fields' mysterious death, police negligence, and systemic issues in Bridgeport's law enforcement.

Key points

The Mysterious Death of Lauren Smith Fields. A young woman dies under suspicious circumstances after a date, raising serious questions about the investigation.
Family Discovers Death. Lauren Smith Fields' family learns of her death from the landlord, not police.
Detective's Rude Treatment. Family describes detectives as rude and unhelpful during their inquiries.
Police Response Criticized. Criticism of police for inadequate communication and investigation in Lauren's case.
Uncollected Evidence. Concerns raised about uncollected evidence at the scene of Lauren's death.
Similar Deaths in Bridgeport. Another woman, Brenda Lee Rawls, found dead without police notification to her family.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You hate it because it eats at you, especially when the story is left unfinished.

Explaining the frustration of unresolved mysteries.

4:36WatchOct 29, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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