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

when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special
financing options available you can snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of
better sleep to children in need and US Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today
and make every snooze count financing is subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for d details Rosetta Stone
is the language learning program with a lasting impact I've been using the rap to learn French and it's not just about
memorizing words but actually having real conversations and it's not just French they offer 25 languages right now
Rosetta Stone has an awesome holiday deal 50% off their lifetime membership every language unlimited access forever
for anyone keen on diving deep into a new language check out rosettastone.com it's a
GameChanger [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me is always is a man who describes himself as cool cocky and bad here is
the captain yeah The Honky Tonk man's going to get you it's good to be seene and good to see you thanks for listening
thanks for telling a friend today we are very happy to be featuring Cony Tonk logger by the good folks over
at New England Brewing Company Cony Tonk is an experimental pilsner made with hops from New Zealand called Hort
999 this experimental hop adds some lemon and lime notes with a little bit of hay character 5.4% ABV garage grade 3
and a half bottle caps out of five and let's give some thanks and praise to our good friends that helped us fill up the
beer fridge in the garage this week first up a cheers to herck and missina New York and a big we like your jib to
Stephanie in Dublin Ireland and here's a cheers to bernardet in Vallejo California a big shout out to John in
Tampa Florida here's a double fisted cheers to Josh and Nadia Hernandez in Arizona and a big big cheers and a Ron
Swanson please and thank you goes out to Courtney s from the city so nice that they named it twice New York New York
thank you to everyone that contributed to this week's beer fund yeah BW are you in beer run so much love to you people
that are supporting our store Page we have some new items so go check those out today I know some people are sad cuz
they missed the long sleeve te's we'll try to bring those back but that's why you have to be in the no so sign up on
the maining list at true Crim garage.com and that is enough of the beard M all right everybody gather around grab a
chair grab a beer let's let's talk some true [Music] crime I don't want to let go what do
you want from [Music] me I don't want let [Music] go if you are listening for the first
time thank you for joining us if you are a longtime 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 in you comes 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 date line 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 and 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
WID 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 establish 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 coroner 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 in 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 smithfields I don't [Music] want 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 Lawrence 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 trueb 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 oldfashioned 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 2 months ago to the morning of
December 12th 2021 Emergency Services receive a 911 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 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 3 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 anded
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 teila 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 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 911 to request help medic 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 6:00 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 till 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 she's she's now
dead at this point this is 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 Tik Tok 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 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 uh 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 ones 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 mail and this 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 cuz 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 tale 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 d 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 3 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 $40 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 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 Kasa 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 3:00 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 911 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 can 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 madx 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 they're 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 US 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 1,34 $45 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
form her roommates yep or she could have been house sitting or 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
Laurence 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 Lawrence
Miss Field'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 Miz smithfields
money key passport MasterCard and cell phone were all turned into the property room for safekeeping slf 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 her 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 aign 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 smithfields mother Chantel 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 subsequent
call uh this is Miss Field's quote here my son I'm presuming that this is the the same son 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 talk 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 deed and her son at Miss Field's 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 [Music] serving
this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays maybe you struggle with seasonal Blues this
time of year can be a lot and it's natural to feel some sadness or even anxiety about it but adding something
new and positive to your life can counteract some of those feelings therapy can be a bright spot something
to look forward to to make you feel grounded and to give you the tools to manage everything going on if you're
thinking of starting therapy give better help a try it's entirely online designed
to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a
licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with
better help visit betterhelp.com garaget toay to get 10% off your first month that that's betterhelp
hp.com Rosetta Stone is the language learning program with a lasting impact I've been using the rap to learn French
and it's not just about memorizing words but actually having real conversations and it's not just French they offer 25
languages right now Rosetta Stone has an awesome holiday deal 50% off their lifetime membership every language
unlimited access forever for anyone keen on diving deep into a new language check
out rosettastone.com it's a GameChanger at Consumer Cellular you get the same exact coverage as the largest
carriers but for up to half the cost same thing up to half the cost up to half the cost for the same thing 50% the
money for 100% the same thing I hope I'm making myself clear Consumer Cellular when Freedom calls we here to answer
call us at 1888 Freedom half the cost savings based on cost of consumer cellular single line 5 GB data plan with
unlimited talk and text compared to lowest cost single line postpaid unlimited talk text and data plan
offered by T-Mobile in Verizon May [Music] 2023 don't call her a come back I've been 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 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 deter 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 Lawrence smithfields
the night before according to the news reports and then we even covered the police report from Bridgeport themselves
of what went down with Lawrence smithfields 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 Laurence
version of the events from that night we only have this person that we're calling
Matt we only have this Matt 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 at 6:30 :30 in the morning yeah if I'm the investigator I'm first wanting to know
is this matte 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'd 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 I don't know you that well and that's not the appropriate reaction to throwing up is let's let's
go back to drinking I'd 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 well
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
911 call so if I'm in the investigator I want to listen to that 911 call we know
that he was doing chest chest compressions based off of the 9911 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 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 test 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 Knight 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 detectives 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 you're 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 D line listen to 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 911 well he's going to 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 seem to be a nice guy when they're doing their
sermons on Sunday BTK John Wayne gasey was charismatic as hell yeah the medical examiner ruled Lawrence 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 um 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 a crime was committed here and their alleges that the family found a used condom as the
captain pointed out a sedative pill and bloodstained sheets and overturned plate
of food and bottles of alcohol so the blood stain 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 stain sheet or sheets makes it sound like it was a blood bath and I can't believe that that would be the
scene 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 then 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 where 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 fit and all
in her system and that's what they don't explain to you that they're not telling
you that how that fit and all got into her system was it ingested orally was it ingested through the nasal was it what
did she shoot up is there track patch yeah is there track marks and then these prescription
pills well let's let's look 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 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 the 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 911 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 find 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 were
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 issue is 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 feels 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 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 ruling a
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 Ross 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 uh
different officers so a little background on this other story is that M 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' I've searched high and low and it it doesn't seem like any new information has come out in regard to
Brenda Lee Ross 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 Miss ra died 2 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 911 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 Ros lived just 2 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 like 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 when they were found deceased calling notifying 911 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 mhm 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 me 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 too
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 that 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 a 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 sits it sits as a pile of [ __ ] right in the trash can since these terrible
tragedies Bridgeport mayor Joe ganam says he's working on the situation and issues a public apology we have that
clip here for you now I once again want to express my condolences to the families of Lawrence smithfields and
also the family of Brenda Lee RWS 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 in the handling of these two
matters let me be cleare effective immediately both detective Lanos detective Cronin are suspended from
duties and put on administrative leave from the bridport police department Department until such time as the oia
investigation and disciplinary cases have been completed regarding Lauren smithfields and Brenda Lee's Brenda Lee
RS 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 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 who 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 Lawrence smithfields
and Brenda Lee rolls are both still under active inv investigation and have been re assigned to members of the
bridport 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 canot fully comprehend what must be going through I can only pledgee my
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 R's family and lawen Smith family smithfields 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 Citywide right this is a
huge problem and ongoing problem in the city and I have to I have to read part of this article this was a brilliant AR
article gangbusters work by the good people over buzzfeed.com this article was posted just last Friday the article
is by uh citha Saran Caroline odonovan 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 Smith Fields case for years BuzzFeed saying that the lawren 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 struble a top Aid to police chief with more than two decades at the
agency stepped down after complaints of racist text had surfaced in one text later published in court
documents this officer Captain strable he referred to a local juneth 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 rodri Porter if seeing the film Planet of the Apes made him homick these are from court documents this is
unacceptable 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 strable himself later argued in a suit in a lawsuit that his comments were
part of a widespread culture in 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 of 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 dep as a bunch of racist
clowns well what it appears to me based off of the statements of this Captain who admits to what he has done 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 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 have you
have 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 our o 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 retaliation for speaking up and this comes from a Devon 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
deegree 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 Polly's probably trying to do some 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 M I don't even care if you're the janitor if
you're racist you're gone one day the janitor is going to run this garage you watch your filthy mouth yeah it's there
there's no place in society for this ignorance and and I don't understand why again I if you're a white officer and
you've set by and let this stuff happen you're just as much of a part of the problem you 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 rodri Porter was a finalist for Chief in
2018 in lawsuits and complaints with the state he argues that the department passed him over and favor of Perez
because he had opposed strable racist comments he also accused the agency of a racially hostile work environment and
says Perez tried to hide strable racist messages after he learned of them and failed to investigate then in
2019 a spokesperson for mayor gam said he was outraged by the racist remarks of strael 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 strable was put on administrative leave the city also denied that Porter was
more qualified for the job of acting Chief saying that Perez qu 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 finalist 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
in 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 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 Lauren Smith Field's case mayor ganam 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 examine 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 applebe 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 Police Department take these matters seriously applebe 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 and 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 a 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 oversite 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 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 council woman 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 two 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 raw's 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 two cases especially in the Lauren Smith Fields 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 clearer to me what
I believe should happen and I think that what needs to happen here is that 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 gam gave and issued an apology to the families uh we do have city council woman 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% I do want to point out something here I 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 going to go and I'm going
to parade around in 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 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 um I I hope that they can do a thorough investigation and and an investigation
that the family feels confident [Music] in so many questions hopefully Lauren's family gets some answers for everything
in True Crime Check out true Crim garage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't
[Music] litter you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on
Angie to tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skilled professionals to get all your home
project s done well inside to outside repairs to Renovations get started on the Angie app
or visit angie.com today you can do this when you Angie that

Lauren Smith Fields ////// 556

Part 1 of 1

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://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.

Beer of the Week - Conky Tonk Lager by New England Brewing Company

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

Our show - True Crime Garage “Off the Record” is available only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com (https://pcm.adswizz.com) for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brief Summary

Lauren Smith Fields' mysterious death raises serious concerns about police negligence and systemic racism in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Key points

The Case of Lauren Smithfields. A young woman dies under mysterious circumstances after a date, raising questions about the investigation.
Police Fail to Notify Family. Lauren Smith Fields' family discovered her death through a landlord's note, not police.
Detective's Unprofessionalism. Detective Cronin's behavior during the family's inquiry raises serious concerns.
Evidence Ignored. Family claims crucial evidence was overlooked, raising questions about the investigation.
Tragic Similarities in Deaths. Brenda Lee Ross and Lauren Smith Fields both died under similar circumstances, raising concerns.
Police Department Under Fire. Bridgeport's police department faces scrutiny for its handling of recent deaths.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You love a good mystery and you hate mysteries.

Discussing the dual nature of detective work.

5:30WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.