Going West: True Crime - Lauren Smith-Fields // 164

Episode Date: January 8, 2022

In December of 2021, a 23-year-old woman headed off to meet an older man for a Bumble date, but by nights end, she would be dead. With an unclear cause of death and lack of cooperation from law enforcement, the family is desperate for answers. This is the story of Lauren Smith-Fields. LAUREN'S GOFUNDME Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans, I'm your host Teeth and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Thank you everybody for tuning in today to going west. Hope everyone's doing well. I just want to start off by saying that there's not a whole lot of information on this case, but just like Gabby Batito, Daniel Robinson, Mia Marcano, Jason Landry, and other very recent young person's cases that we've covered these past few months, it's super important to share and discuss because there are families out there desperate for exposure and answers. And the family of Lauren Smith Fields really believes that she was met with foul play. And they've received very little responses and cooperation from law enforcement these past few weeks.

So we really are just here to help spread Lauren's story and hope her loving family received some much needed answers very soon. Especially since Lauren is a black woman, we all need to give this story that extra push that it needs to get to mainstream media, because it's really not out there. Absolutely, and her family is also trying to hire a private investigator right now, and their goal is to reach $20,000 on their GoFundMe page. So, click the link in the description of this episode if you'd like to help. We donated, we hope you guys will too, and thank you guys so much for tuning in. on their GoFundMe page. So click the link in the description of this episode if you'd like to help.

We donated, we hope you guys will too, and thank you guys so much for tuning in. Please share this case so we can all help get justice for Lauren. All right guys, this is episode 164 of Going West, so let's get into it. It's lunch. Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. I'm back with Lauren and do you guys like my rent here? I'm vlogging on my phone because I have my camera so like I'm gonna

subscribe and bye guys have a good one. It's killing me inside, I miss my baby. The mother of 23-year-old Lauren Smith Fields of Bridgeport says her family's world came crashing down 10 days ago when her daughter was found dead inside her apartment on Plymouth Street, under what the family describes as mysterious circumstances. The medical examiner has not yet released the cause of death and investigators aren't commenting. Without a doubt, we know that my daughter was not a drug user and I had a second autopsy

myself to pay it out of pocket because we felt so uncomfortable with the way it was handled. Lauren was a familiar face to YouTube audiences, a sweet child they say, who had blossomed into a beautiful young woman who had the whole world at her feet. They say Lauren had met quote, an older white man on the dating app Bumble and it was he who alerted police to Lauren's death. The family says they are not satisfied

with answers they got from an investigator. I asked him about the guy. He just made it seem like the guy was a nice guy. It was nothing to investigate. The only contact that we have had was from a very insensitive condescending and arrogant detective. Lauren Quenique Smithfield was born on January 23, 1998 in Bridgeport, Connecticut to parent Chantal Fields and Everett Smith. She had three brothers, Kyle, LeQuim and Tevar, and to tell you a bit more about Bridgeport,

it's a historic seaside city with a population of around 150,000 people, making it the largest city in Connecticut. Lauren was known for her absolutely gorgeous smile as well as her very bubbly personality, and let me just say, Lauren was absolutely stunning. Yeah, so of course, you know, we urge you guys to go look at her photos on socials and just share her picture in her story. So Lauren attended Stanford High School in the city of Stanford, which is just about 30 minutes from Bridgeport, where she was an accomplished track runner.

And after graduating, Lauren started taking Cosmetology classes at Norwalk Community College in Norwalk, Connecticut, which is in the same area where she grew up. Loren loved fashion, makeup, and hair, and she even had her own business to help pay for school. And she actually also has a few YouTube videos up and their hair tutorials, so she was trying to do that as well. But another life dream of hers was to become a physical therapist, so she was also working towards that, like she was such a go-getter. And as far as general passions went,

Lauren loved to travel, like to the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Hawaii, Europe, just to name some of the trips she went on, and she absolutely adored her family. Having this success of her business and being as driven and as hardworking as Lauren was, she was described to someone who just had the world at her feet with a lot of exciting things on the horizon. So in December of 2021, Lauren was 23 years old and still going to school to achieve her goals while running her own side business,

which by the way, we looked everywhere and we couldn't figure out what this side business was. And she was also using the app Bumble. I think most of us know what Bumble is, but for those who aren't familiar, it's a dating app just like Tinder that allows you to meet people in your area, but it's kind of different in the way that Bumble requires women to make the first move. Which I think is so weird when I was looking this up, I'm like, they still require that. It's so weird. Yeah, it's an interesting thing.

Maybe it just sets them apart from Tinder in some way, but anyway, this means that Lauren would have had to message every guy that she matched with first, and she had about 24 hours to do that until the match would expire. Yeah, that's how Bumble works for those who don't know. Like, the girl has 24 hours to talk to the guy and if you don't, then the match just goes away. So with Bumble, you can also select your age range, how many miles you want to expand your search,

what genders you're interested in, and you write a profile about yourself with your photos to try and find a good match. You can also meet friends on this app using the Bumble BFF option, but Lauren was just on the dating option. Sunday, December 12, 2021 was just days away from the start of winter, and in Bridgeport, Connecticut, it got to be around 40 degrees Fahrenheit that night. At this time, Lauren was still living in Bridgeport in a very small apartment building that kind

of looked like it maybe used to be a house or something. On Plymouth Street in North East Bridgeport, right by the Lakeview Cemetery, alongside many other homes and apartments, and she had been living there for over a year at this point. According to her family, 23-year-old Lauren, who by the way was just a little over a month away from her 24th birthday, had matched with an older white man on Bumble. We don't know the intentions here, but we know that they did go out. It's not been released if they went on a date or if they

went to one of their homes, but by the end of the night, the man called 911 to make a distress call regarding Lauren. And when police arrived, she was unconscious and she later died. Now, we don't know when she died, but we know it was in a day and a half of this date because that's when her friends started posting about her death on social media. And the reason I also don't know is because many articles said she was unconscious and unresponsive and then she quote later died. So I don't know what later died means, but it was in the next day. So I hate to report this, but at this time, we do not know who this man is.

But we know that police know who this man is. So we don't know how old he is. We don't know where he lived. We don't know what his name is, we don't know where he lived, we don't know what his name is, or what he wanted from Lauren. This information just has not been released anywhere since there are no suspects until Lauren's cause of death is determined because it hasn't been yet. It's not yet been released either what the Bumble date said regarding Lauren in the phone called 9-1-1, or why she was, quote, unconscious.

So according to our social media searching, it appeared that she did occasionally vape and you know, smoke huka here and there, but we're not sure how often it was or if this could even be a factor in this discussion. But other than this, Lauren wasn't known to abuse alcohol or do any drugs. And she was a very healthy and active young woman who, you know, wasn't known to have any underlying health conditions or illnesses. Right. And, you know, she was trying to become a physical therapist. So I would assume, and, you know, just looking at photos from her, she does look like she's very healthy and

in shape. So, you know, to me, that's not a huge sign of abusing alcohol or something like that. Obviously, we don't know anything about the drug details, but her family says that she did not abuse drugs. Right, which we'll get into here in a little bit, but yeah, obviously we can't just by looking at a photo say, oh, yeah, she's super healthy because I don't know what her daily life is like, but this is just going off of what her family is saying. On December 23rd at 6 p.m., so just before Christmas of 2021, Lawrence's family put together a service in honor of Lawrence at the Wilson Memorial Church of God in Christ, located in Stamford, Connecticut. Directly following this service at the same location was Lawrence's celebration of life,

where various friends and family got together to say their goodbyes and to remember the wonderful and beautiful person that Lauren was. The families made it very clear that the police have not handled this investigation correctly at all. Lauren's father Everett stated that local police were insensitive, stating, quote, the only contact that we've had was from a very insensitive, condescending, and arrogant detective.

And one of Lauren's brothers told News 12 Westchester that the police actually told them to stop calling, asking for more information on Lauren's death. Like that is just so messed up. And it's so sad, like, watching them and hearing them just sit down talking about this, and they just like, they want to know what's going on with their daughter's investigation, their sister's investigation, and there really is no investigation at all. And to be told to stop calling when your loved one has died and you have no idea what happened, you're not questioning the guy that was last seen with her, it's like what the f?

Yeah, and to me it just gets even weirder. So at this point, police haven't even looked at this case as suspicious, nor have they looked into the man that she was with the night that she died, because he, quote, seemed like a nice guy, and quote, there was nothing to investigate. And these are the words of Lauren's brothers, but obviously they have no reason to lie, so if this is what the brother is saying that police told him directly that, oh he was a nice guy so he doesn't seem like he did anything like, what? Yeah, that's not how you investigate crimes.

Well, of course, we don't know that a crime occurred, but that's not how you investigate a death. Right, and once all this was made public, the Bridgeport Police released the following statement. The Bridgeport Police Department take these concerns very seriously. The command staff of the Detective Bureau is reviewing the handling of this case to ensure that best practices were and are being followed." And Chantelle Fields, Laurence Mom, wrote a quote, well-written and lengthy email to

police, and Bridgeport Connecticut Councilwoman Maria Pereira said that she was very surprised to learn that Shantelle didn't receive a response. And she thinks that the Bridgeport police owe Shantelle an apology. I think it's such bullshit though that they released this statement saying that, you know, they want to make sure that the best practices were and are being followed after a kind of fuss is made about this. But I want to point out, I haven't really seen anything at all from the Bridgeport Police Department on this. They didn't post about it on their Twitter, even though they post every few days about different things happening in Bridgeport.

They didn't post this statement on their Twitter. It's like they really seem to be sweeping this under the rug. And even with a lot of more recent cases that we've discussed, I feel like we always see the police department at least talking about it, but they're not saying anything about this. Yeah, it doesn't seem like they're overly concerned about investigating Lauren's death. And which by the way, you know, up until recently, they didn't even believe that there was anything to investigate. Well, I do want to say that, of course, I understand that there's no obvious situation

of a crime occurring. Like, it wasn't obvious that she was murdered. I fully respect and understand that. But when the family is calling you constantly asking, what happened? When you don't know what happened, and there's a man who last saw her and the family is saying, this is suspicious, she didn't just die like something had to have happened. Like how can you ignore that and tell them to stop calling and act like, you know, nothing's going on? I think in their heads they're probably like, well wait for the autopsy and see how she died and then we'll take action.

But it's like, the least you could do is like, you know, give a little peace of mind to the family and do a little bit of due diligence here, at least take this guy in for questioning and see what the hell happened that night. Yeah, and that's the frustrating part is we really don't know if they did question this guy extensively or if they just said, talk to him briefly and he said,

yeah, I don't know what happened and then they let it go. From my research, it seemed like they arrived at the scene, they got some information from this man. And then that was it. They didn't bring him to the station, they didn't question him intensely, they didn't interrogate him. Nothing like that. It was so who knows what he said. I wish we knew what the guy said, what he said on the 911 call, but we just don't know right now. Yeah, and the biggest problem here is that Bridgeport Police are not releasing any of these details to the public. So even if there was an investigation and they're asking people to help, like they're not

doing that. No, they're not, they're not asking the public for any information. So again, that's what's, that's what's really weird about this. So the police, like we've been saying, they never detained this bumble date for questioning. But as of just a few days ago, according to Lawrence Family, the Bridgeport Police Department are now looking to begin an investigation. So again, I did not see them publicly state this. This is just what Lawrence Family is saying, so I'm assuming they had a private conversation. But this is also weeks after Lauren died.

But it is so weird to me that they're not stating this publicly. Like oh yeah, we're looking into this. If anybody has any information, please come forward. Like they're just doing this behind the scenes. It's really weird to me. But you know, due to the lack of trust in this situation, of course, Lauren's family is looking to hire a private investigator to help figure out exactly what happened to Lauren. But in the meantime, I want to talk about something regarding the autopsy.

So Lauren's father, Everett, told News 12 Westchester on December 27 that they know, quote, without a doubt that Lauren did not use drugs. And I thought it was interesting that he said this because I'm wondering, you know, the relevance of this statement So as we know an autopsy was Conducted and it hasn't been released but the family found everything very suspicious and didn't trust the autopsy Well, in Everett's words quote, we felt uncomfortable with how the investigation was handled So they paid for a second autopsy out of pocket

Which is sad that they had to do that that they can't just, you know, trust that the autopsy is going to be handled correctly. But of course they can't. How could they? So now they have to take their own money to figure out how their daughter died. Yeah, and just the fact that they're doing this makes everything more suspicious to me. Like, if they're, you know're paying for this second autopsy to be done, that means that there's something that leads them to believe that the first one was incorrect. Exactly. So by the way, the results of this second autopsy have not become public either.

And maybe they haven't even gotten the results back yet since this was just a week ago that ever said this. But I just wonder if her initial autopsy or at least, you know, how she was unconscious. You know, I'm saying like the situation of her death revealed something regarding drugs or maybe her dad said this because he's thinking that the Bumble Guy drugged her. Like I really have no basis for this, but his statement kind of makes me question some things. But I also want to add that the medical examiner's office stated last week as well that the results

of Lauren's autopsy are still pending and that they can take up to eight weeks to conclude. You know, eight weeks since she died, so meaning that it could be another month until they find out how she died. Meaning it wasn't immediately obvious how Lauren died when police arrived at the scene, which is potentially why her dad brought up the drug thing because her cause of death was not immediately obvious. But I also wonder if he knows something that he's not allowed to say. And another thing that I think is interesting, so obviously we know the bumble date called 911. And I just wonder why

he would call 911 if he killed her. And I'm not saying he did, I'm not saying he didn't, because we really have no idea what happened to Lauren. But considering he was an older white man and she was a young black woman, you know, I wonder if he did kill her if he poisoned her or drugged her, you know, for whatever reason, because we can pretty concretely say that we know she wasn't stabbed or shot or strangled or beaten because her cause of death was seemingly not at all obvious. And if any of these were the case, you know, we could guess that an investigation would have started right away, which just makes you wonder what the hell could have happened. 100% I think, yeah, like when cases like this happen or when somebody gets murdered

if they're stabbed or strangled, usually it's pretty clear, you know, to medical examiners and they can put out the results of the autopsy fairly quickly, but this is taking so long and now there's two autopsy's being done. And so to me that means that it, you know, it wasn't initially super obvious how she died. So does that mean that this is more complicated? Right. And just from the information that is available, it does seem like the police got to the scene before she was dead. So if that's the case, you know, her body is right there.

It's not like her body was found months after she died and now Her remains are skeletal and it's a lot harder to find the cause of death that way like they had her Essentially possibly before she was even dead. So that's why even more so it's like how the hell did she die? And why is it taking so long to figure it out? Also one really big thing that's on my mind is Was this bumble guy there at the house when police arrived or when medical professionals arrived? Like, was this person still there or did this person flee the scene? Because that would give us a clue into this

case even more. Well, this is what I want to know too. Like, because she was found at her apartment, does that mean he came over to her apartment? And he was chilling there until the police got there. I'm assuming that he was there when the police arrived just from the information that's available, but I really don't know. And I also just want to add, of course, I know that, you know, toxicology reports take time. It's not always immediately obvious how somebody dies.

So I do understand that it takes time anyway, but I'm just so curious as to how she died because, you know, this situation just seems really bizarre. Yeah, it seems bizarre to me as well. And, you know, we've seen the power that social media has to bring cases like this into the light. And so that's why it's so important for everyone to share this episode and to share Lauren's story. Because at that point, you know,

things may circulate around the internet. Police might feel pressured to release more information to the public. You know, there's just a multitude of different things that could help in this case. And that's what we're trying to do here because obviously it adds it's very clear there is really no information on this story, but a lot of you guys have message us about it. Heath brought it up to me last week and we're kind of like, we should just talk about it. Heath brought it up to me last week, and we're kind of like, we should just talk about it so that it can help get to more people's ears and you guys can help share it.

Because if something really did happen here and if she was met with foul play, she and her family deserve justice for that. So, it's important to talk about. Yeah, absolutely. And we obviously apologize for all the speculation, but at this point, that's all there really is on this case. So we're just doing our best to get you know, we obviously apologize for all the speculation, but at this point, that's all there really is on this case, so we're just doing our best to get you guys the information

that we have. Indeed. Now, let's go back to the Bumble date regarding this older white man. So some people on the internet speculate that Lauren was possibly a sugar baby, which could make sense as to why she was going out with an older white man at the age of 23. Even though Lauren and every other woman in person of age is allowed to date whoever they want. And we're not claiming this at all, not that, you know, it would be bad if she were, but this could potentially give us a little insight on the intentions of this date if it's true.

So that being said, Bumble is not known as a sugar daddy slash sugar baby dating app at all. And they apparently don't allow obvious profiles that fall into this category like they try to avoid people making these type of profiles. And I'm sure if you were looking to use the app for that purpose though, you probably could and you could just adjust your age accordingly and try to bring it up in conversation, but I don't think a lot of people use this app in that way. But back to Lauren. So there are some forums out there where locals have said that Lauren was, quote, an escort,

and that she used Bumbled help find new clientele, and that the quote, local word is that he drugged her. And that the fear is that he'll claim that she just took drugs herself and that she accidentally OD'd. But obviously at this point, there isn't any evidence of any of this. And this is just what some people are saying on the internet. Yeah. And I think it is interesting to kind of listen to what local people are saying because, you know, maybe these people know Lauren's friends or they know her family. So I always do think

it's really interesting to hear what the people of that area are saying. But obviously, again, this whole, like, drug thing keeps coming up. And so it does make sense that people are pondering this, but there is no evidence behind it at this point. Right, and we have no idea if any of these people have any sort of connection to Lauren, whatsoever. Some people also back up these claims with Lauren's expensive clothes and various international trips that she went on and friends that she hung out with,

some who apparently are only fans users, etc. Because they're obviously thinking, how is she acquiring all these expensive things? Which of course, she could be getting these things from her side business, which again, we don't know what that is, unless her side business is sugaring, we just don't know. So obviously she can have expensive things and go on nice trips and not be a sugar baby absolutely. But this is just what people are saying. And obviously none of this is being said to like shame this lifestyle or accused Lauren of being something that she wasn't.

You know, it's just simply put out there by different people on different social media platforms. And it could be relevant in regards to who she went out with the night that she died, you know, if this man is responsible for her death. Right, and that's why we're bringing it up because obviously the intentions of this date could be relevant to what happened to her, because if he did do something to her, we want to know was this a romantic date was she looking for just an older man because that's what she was into or was this for work, you know, it's just good to know. Right. And, you know, was this the first date with this guy or was, you know, that's the second date or had they been dating prior to this? And also, you know, how does her family know that she was on a date with an older white

guy like did she tell them did they find out through the investigation or did, you know, how does her family know that she was on a date with an older white guy? Like, did she tell them? Did they find out through the investigation? Or did, you know, the friends tell the parents? Because maybe, you know, a lot of girls do this. I did this when I met you, Heath, because Heath and I met on Tinder. You know, a lot of women have to do that just for safety purposes and people, you know, say, hey, friend, I'm going here on a date with this person. This is what they look like. This is their name.

Just you know where I'm at. And if I go missing, this is who I was last seen with. So I'm assuming that maybe, you know, Lauren did do that. She told a friend. She told her mom. She told somebody. And either way, you know, it's absolutely possible that whoever Lauren met up with was just bad news or had the wrong intentions. Or he tried to do something that Lauren wasn't

comfortable with and things went south and it ended up in Lauren's tragic passing. No matter how Lauren died, her untimely death has affected countless people, and it will continue to make an impact on the lives of her family and her friends. If her manner of death is homicide, we'll do an update episode on this case, but until then, let's all do our best to spread the word on Lauren's story and help her family get the justice that they deserve for what happened to her. We donated to the family's GoFundMe and we advise anyone out there who has anything at all to throw at this to do so as well.

Her family really needs help. You can help out by clicking the link in the description of this episode or simply Google Lauren Smith Fields Go Fund Me. Here's what the Go Fund Me states. On December 12, 2021, our family lost a loving daughter, sister, niece, cousin, and friend, Lauren Smith Fields. As many of you may know, the circumstances surrounding Lauren's death have proven to be suspicious, and we, her family, need your help to bring the answers

we're looking for to light. In the beginning of this nightmare, our family was extremely mistreated by the Bridgeport Police Department, who as we stated, initially declined to investigate Lauren's untimely death. Although BPD has now decided to begin to conduct an investigation, our family would like to conduct one of our own. We are extremely grateful for the outpouring of love shown to our family from all over

the world during this time, and ask that you continue to show that love by assisting us in hiring a private investigator. We're hoping an investigator of our own can shed light on this tragic event and give us answers we need to move forward and heal as a family. We realize this road and fight will not be an easy one, but we're willing to do whatever it takes to get justice for Lauren. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Tuesday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into.

We know this was a shorter one, we tried so hard to dig up every little piece of information that we could about Lauren's death and her story. So this is what's available right now, but we still felt that it was really important to share with you guys because as we've said a million times, our family is desperate for answers. Yeah, and the cases like this that don't receive as much attention, they deserve to have that attention.

They deserve to be in the spotlight. They deserve to have justice. We're right, and I mean, why does an episode have to be 50 minutes long? Or why does a case have to have as much information to be shared, you know? So here we are. Right, and so that was our thought going into this episode.

As we know, it's a shorter episode. We know that there's a lot of speculation, but it's just as important as any other case. Right, so please check out our socials. Our Twitter is at Going West Pod, Instagram at Going West Podcast, and we have a discussion group and a regular page on Facebook. The regular page is going west true crime and our discussion group, which is where we love to talk with you guys and about different cases that's going west discussion group. So go join, go follow us and share this case.

Yeah, please go look at photos of Lauren. She was absolutely beautiful. And please help us get this case out there in the spotlight so it can get solved. All right guys so for everybody out there in the world don't be a stranger. 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh

1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh Thank you. you