True Crime with Kendall Rae - Two Strange Deaths on the Same Day in the Same Town? Lauren Smith-Fields & Brenda Lee Rawls

Episode Date: June 21, 2022

Lauren’s GoFundMe Brenda’s GoFundMe Bridgeport Police Department: Phone: [phone] Twitter Mayor Joseph P. Ganim: Phone: [phone] Twitter Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

Have you noticed that most ice cream is now common smaller cartons? Not blue bell. Blue bell takes pride in providing our customers with full half gallons and full points of our delicious ice cream. We would never want to deny any one of all the rich and creamy goodness found in every carton. Blue bell wouldn't have it any other way. Welcome. So today we are talking about a case that has been highly highly requested in my request form. If you did not know, I do have a request form and I do monitor it, especially for cases that are being requested over and over again, like this one. Today we're going to be talking about Lauren Smith Fields and not only

are we talking about Lauren, but we are also talking about a woman who died in the same town on the same day as Lauren, but really hasn't gotten any attention at all. I don't think there were actually any requests for Brenda's case. And that's not because people aren't interested. It's because people just don't know about her case. There's been very limited coverage on Lauren's, but also Brenda's. And I just wanted to take the time today to talk about both of them.

Now, when it comes to these two cases, it's been very difficult to pull together enough information for a full video because it's been extremely limited, just what's available. Like I said, there have been so many requests for me to talk about Lawrence Smith fields. And those requests really started coming in

after Cardi B had mentioned Lauren and gotten a lot more attention to the case. Her family said they think Cardi B is the reason that the police ended up getting enough pressure to actually launch an investigation in the case because at first they didn't. And the way that this case and Brenda's was handled is truly unbelievable.

I first heard of Lauren's case towards the end of December and there was literally no coverage on it at all at that point, maybe one article, maybe two. And since Cardi B kind of brought the spotlight on Lauren's case, there has been so much more coverage, still not as much as there should be, but enough that I feel like I can do a video at this point. But I didn't want to explain that to people. I did get a lot of rather aggressive messages. People who are very frustrated that Lauren's case isn't getting enough coverage frustrated

that I hadn't covered it yet. And I totally understand where they're coming from, but I do want to explain to people that I'm just a girl with Google. I can't do much at the end of to people that I'm just a girl with Google. I can't do much at the end of the day. I'm not an investigator. I am not a journalist, and I can only work with what's available to me online. And sometimes it's so minuscule, and that is incredibly frustrating.

I've had Lauren's case on my calendar for a while, and I kept pushing it out, hoping that there's going to be more coverage. There's going to be more information. And even at this point, when I'm recording today, I thought there's going to be more coverage, there's going to be more information. And even at this point when I'm recording today, I thought there was going to be more. And there's really not. So I might be covering this case again in the future, depending on what comes out and how everything plays out in the next couple of weeks to months. But I still wanted to talk about it today and also talk about Brenda's case as well,

even though the information is very limited. But I hope this starts a conversation and that maybe knowing the basic details around the case can draw in some more interest and, you know, the more people are interested, the more the media seems to put out. And that's the unfortunate truth about it. It is truly disappointing how every missing person's case is treated differently, depending on public interest, media coverage, mainly local media coverage, and how seriously the police are taking it, whether or not they're doing press conferences,

are they making an effort to get that public interest? Oftentimes, they just don't. But one thing I have noticed is the more public interest there is in a case, the more coverage it's going to get. So hopefully we can keep the conversation going about Lauren really started up for Brenda, you know, the more can actually be done. And maybe there will be closure and possibly justice in these cases. So let's start with Lauren Smith Fields. So Lauren was born on January 23rd, 1998, in Bridgeport, Connecticut,

to her parents' Chantal Fields and Everett Smith. Lauren has three brothers, Kyle, Lukeem, and Tevar. And Lauren was always a dreamer from a young age. She had big plans for her future. And after graduating Stanford High School, Lauren attended Norwalk Community College, where she was studying to become a physical therapist. Lauren really loved all things fitness, and that really started with running track in high school, but even after graduating, she maintained a steady gem routine. She was also very into nutrition and ate a plant-based diet to supplement her lifestyle.

Lauren was one of those extremely goal-oriented people, and she was incredibly focused. She was known for putting up post-it notes all around her bathroom with her current goals written on them. And some of her big goals were finishing college and also eventually becoming a physical therapist. And from what I found online, Lauren seemed to be incredibly close with her family, especially her mother, Chantal. The two of them went off to get their nails done together, and Chantal said that Lauren would always like to get acrylics with some type of intricate design on them. And getting her nails done was just one of the many beauty-related things that Lauren Lauren loved to do and it was kind of self-care for her

Lauren was very active on Instagram I see your back with Lauren and we're gonna die on two like today one's gonna be a perinco ice blue like a pastel blue and then there was gonna be a bright orange. She's just finished looking. Thanks for watching and please like, comment, subscribe

if you want to see different looks on this. Bye. She only had a few videos posted to her YouTube channel unless some of them were private, but she did have a couple hundred subscribers and she was definitely on her way to building a great channel. And as you can see, Lauren was without a doubt just beautiful

but she was also beautiful on the inside. Her brother, Tavar, said that Lauren was just that kind of person who could always make you smile, always make you laugh. She was really fun to be around and had just had a good energy about her. And he said that she could always make someone feel better if they happen to be around and he just had a good energy about her. And he said that she could always make someone feel better if they happen to be feeling down. Leukeem said that she was the best sister

that he ever could have imagined having. And he loved her so much. Lauren was a busy person. She was always working hard in school, working hard in the gym, traveling, but she would always make time for the people who mattered most to her and her family. My daughter was funny.

She was like when she walks into a room, she lit up the whole room. She loves doing makeup. She loves hanging around her friends. She loves family. She was she was very family orientated. And just always. Always being there for me like going out and having mother and daughter um dates, getting our nails done. Um, and just, and just also just spending time together with each other, cooking for me are because I work so late at night. Sometimes you just

come over and be like, Mom, let me describe your laundry. And so for you. Oh, that's hard to do. So on the afternoon of December 13th, 2021, super recently, Chantelle had trouble getting a hold of her daughter. It's been reported that her family was trying to have some type of Christmas dinner at Lauren's apartment. And you know, that was coming up. It was December 13th at this point.

So her mom was trying to get in touch with her to kind of solidify some of their plans. But when she contacted her, she didn't hear back from her daughter. And this was unusual for Lauren. So she texted her saying, are you okay? And then said, please let me know. And after she sent her those messages,

there was no response from Lauren. And her mom started to get really freaked out. Lauren was just not the type of person to ignore a text especially from her mother. So that evening around 9 p.m. they decided to go over there. Chantal and Leukeem actually went to her apartment to see if she was there. And when they got there there was a note on the door that said if you're looking for Lauren call this number. And when Chantal called that number, Lauren's landlord answered. The landlord said that they would be right

down to talk to them in person. They quickly came down. And what she told them was absolutely shocking. You wouldn't think you would get this information from a landlord, but the landlord told them that Lauren had died. And not just that, Lauren had died the morning before December 12th. Lauren Smithfields was pronounced dead at 6.49 a.m. on December 12th, 2021. So they are getting this news from the landlord, 36 hours after Lauren had passed. Shantel said when they started telling her the news, she just absolutely froze. She didn't even know how to process what was going on.

She said that she was just trying to hold back the tears and make sense of what was going on so that she could take action, but she could not believe that this was the way she was finding out that her daughter was gone. And I truly cannot imagine being in that position. There was not even caution tape around Lauren's apartment or on the door, nothing to signify that someone had just died there. And that made it even harder for her family to believe that

this had really happened and to process it. Lauren's landlord gave them the contact information of Detective Kevin Cornyn from the Bridgeport Police Department, and they were hoping that he would be able to provide her and her family with some more answers. But sadly, this phone call did not give them any answers. It only made them more angry and confused. On the phone, the detective told them that Lauren had been on a bumble date the night of December 11th. He told them that Lauren had been on a bumble date the night of December 11th.

He told them that Lauren had been on this date with a 37 year old white male, and that he woke up to find Lauren unresponsive, and he had called the police. And he also told them not to worry about this guy because he was a really nice guy. Now obviously when your child is found dead, you don't really care if the person they were found with was a nice person. You are going to want to know more information about them and want them to be thoroughly investigated no matter who they are.

They asked Detective Corne to come and meet the Matt Lawrence apartment so they could kind of get some more clarification and figure out where to go from there. And he agreed. However, 30 minutes went by then 45 minutes went by, then an hour went by. And this dude never showed up. After an hour and 30 minutes, they decided to give him another call and ask where he was. Chantal said that he picked up the phone said, stop calling me and then hung

up. And you guys, this is not the only time in this case that he hung up on her family. So Detective Cornon never gave them the time of day. He never showed up. And because they had been told so little about Lauren's death and they still had so many questions, they called over and over again for 16 days, trying to get a hold of Detective Cornon or someone that could help them. It wasn't until December 29th when they went to

Lauren's apartment to get some of her belongings and clear it out that they were informed that detective Cornyn was removed from the case after messing up and claim a new detective came by to say he'd taken over the case from detective Cronin.

He said he asked up. He messed up. He f Cronin. He messed up. He like he didn't know he was doing. He messed up the case. And at this point when they went to the apartment, it had been two weeks since Lauren died and there was no sign at all that the police

were planning to collect evidence or you know, process the scene as a crime scene. So her family started trying to investigate as much as they could. And inside the apartment, her family found a used condom, a loose pill, and blood on her bed. The incident report also noted that there was a plate of food tipped upside t on the living room floor. up crime scene investigators beg them to come process t did on December 29th that day

arrived. They informed them DNA swabs from Lawrence fam forward and that they would forward with the case or those investigation without those swabs. That's the most unnerving. If you're going to tell us we the apartment that you're going to do this home forensic and at the same time you want to ask the family to give them swabs because we're in the apartment moving but at the same time where's the swabs from that night?

They want to take our DNA, but they don't want to act for that person's DNA or anything. And I find that absolutely rude and they said to us that we did not get them our DNA. They would not move forward with the investigation.

And this was one of the most frustrating moments to her family. I mean, obviously they're willing to comply, but they felt like they were being treated as suspects. When the one man who was with her, the night she died, and the last person to see her alive, was not being considered a suspect because he was a nice guy.

So it wasn't until more than two weeks after Lauren's death that they started kind of piecing together some of what had happened on that date. And this was coming from the guy himself. So like I explained earlier, Lauren was using the app Bumble. And I've never used a dating app myself, so I'm not super familiar with all of the different apps,

but from what I do know, I'm pretty sure that Bumble is one of the apps where women have to be the one to initiate the conversation. So Lauren must have been somewhat interested in this person and she was matched with a 37 year old white male, like I said, and I'm not able to use his name in this video because he is not even named a person of interest at the point where I'm recording this. And so for legal reasons to protect myself and my channel, I cannot say his name however. It is not hard to find you guys. If you do a quick Google search, you'll be able to figure out this guy's name, but I'm going to be referring to him as Michael.

So it's hard to tell if Lauren was using this app to try to find a boyfriend or if she was just casually dating, but regardless of her intentions, the two of them set up their first date for the night of Saturday, December 11th, 2021. Now according to Michael, Lauren and him had been chatting on the app for about three days prior to the date. And according to him, she was the one who invited him over to her place to finally meet up. He said that the first few hours of the night were spent playing games, eating, and drinking tequila. Michael said eventually, they decided to start watching a movie, and during the movie,

Lauren had stepped out of the apartment to say hello to her brother who had stopped by to drop something off. Now obviously I don't know what exactly he was dropping off, but after he dropped off whatever he did, Lauren went into the bathroom for, according to Michael, about 10 to 15 minutes. And after she was done in the bathroom, Lauren came back and finished the movie with him on the couch. And he said that he didn't ask her why she was in the bathroom that long. Then he said, Lauren fell asleep on the couch and he said that he didn't ask her why she was in the bathroom that long. Then he said Lauren fell asleep on the couch and after the movie he decided to pick her up

and take her to bed and he also went to bed with her. And Michael also claims that he and Lauren did not have sex that night and that he never even took his clothes off. He slept in them. He says that he woke up at 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom. And when he did, he heard Lauren snoring in bed, so he thought all was good. And then just a few hours later, at 6.30 a.m.,

he woke up to see Lauren on her side with blood coming out of her nostril. And he said that he could tell she was not breathing. Michael said that he immediately freaked out and called 911 and that he was met by officer Carla Remelli at the apartment. Carla said that when she arrived, Lauren was not in the bed. She was on her back on the floor. She said there was no sign of life and that she confirmed that there was blood around her right nostril. Now the incident report says

that Michael was asked by 911 to start giving Lauren chest compressions, which is why she was moved off the bed onto the floor. We do not have access to that 911 call at this point. It might be released in the future. Who knows? Michael also stated in the instant report that Lauren had asked him for $40 that week to get her nails done. However, her mother shantel says that this is not true that Lauren never asked for money. So this is one of those details that has been hard to get an answer on.

I was hoping that with the lack of information that's available to the public that I could get in touch with Lauren's family and have them be part of this video, but I'm obviously not a priority to them right now. They're extremely busy. I haven't heard back, but it's also possible they haven't even seen my messages. I tried to reach out in a couple different ways. I just wanted to let them know that if they do want to tell their story on one of my platforms, whether it's this channel or my podcast, I'm always open to that.

And I will have my victim's advocate form linked below and will be keeping an eye out for a form from them. But as of right now, I just have to go off the articles and all I know is Michael says that she asked for money and they say that she didn't. So obviously, if any of us had lost a loved one, this suddenly and had no answers as to what happened to them, but we knew that they were with a person that was pretty much a stranger to them in the hours leading up to their death. And at the time of their death, that would be suspicious to us.

So obviously, Lauren's family is very suspicious of Michael at this point. But from the start, the Bridgeport Police Department has not even considered that Michael could have anything to do with Lauren's death. It's something that they just have discounted completely. Anyone that genuinely cared and they were there to last person there and they know that nothing bad happened,

you would at least even reach out to the family yourself. Like listen, I know I'm sorry for your loss of your daughter or your sister. They have treated the information that she was on this bumble date as a relevant to her case, which really doesn't make any sense. And aside from Michael telling the police his version of events and you know what they did that night, the police have let him go about his life

as normal. And again, when Bridgeport police were asked why they were not treating Michael as a person of interest at least, they said because he's a really nice man. Now of course, I am not saying that Michael, whose name is not actually Michael, but I'm not saying that this man killed Lauren. We don't know at this point, but you'd think that he would be automatically a person of interest since he was the one who was with her when she died. Obviously this guy is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Of course, but I do think he's not worthy in this case. I would assume most of you guys agree.

The Smithfields family has hired an attorney named Darnell Crossland. And mainly that's because it's become increasingly clear that the police are not abiding by the law when it comes to handling Lauren's case. I mean, foul player not, the police should have afforded her the same respect that they would any other victim. The fact that Lauren's family was not even contacted when they found her body is mind-blowing to me. Can you imagine how pissed you would be if that was your daughter or your loved one, your

wife, your sister, whoever? What the hell? And members of the family have claimed that they were told by police that the reason they didn't contact them was because they already identified Lauren, they didn't need their help to identify her because they already saw her passport. What? That doesn't mean the family doesn't still need to know

that their child has died. And it's not like she was a Jane Doe. They knew exactly who she was and how to contact her family. They literally had her information and all of her belongings she was found in her apartment. In fact, they had her cell phone. They also found $1345 in cash and they never made any effort to contact anyone she knew. It's unbelievable.

Now, obviously, the state of Connecticut does have rules and procedures in place for how to handle finding a deceased person and how to alert their family that they are gunned, and all of that was just ignored for whatever reason. And this just set the pace for the rest of the investigation. I mean, they never even collected evidence. The police just assumed from the beginning that this wasn't accidental death. And so they treated it that way. They never collected evidence. They never followed any of the proper procedures they were supposed to, which to me is scary. As a citizen of this country, what the fuck?

The police are not there to make an assumption like that that someone has died accidentally without proof, without solid evidence for that. There should have been investigators involved from the start. Investigators should have been brought in to make that assumption on their own. There should have actually been an investigation at all. I mean, just by hearing the details of this case, I'm sure you guys can tell that there is absolutely a possibility that foul play was involved. We don't know yet because there's not enough information collected. And just a reminder, her family found blood on her sheets. They found a used condom, even though this guy had

claim they didn't have sex. I mean, it's possible this was someone else's condom, of course, but why not check into that more? Because that's an inconsistency in his story. And a loose pill. Hmm, their attorney, Darnel, has contacted the state forensic lab to ensure that those items were processed. But the woman that he spoke with said that the Bridgeport police never made any submissions of evidence up until that point. The 12 and 13,

the family and the police came to the scene. As of the 29th, we forced them to collect matters of import, such as a condom was semen in it, a pill that we found in the counter, a bloody sheet, and some lube. And they picked it up on the 7th of the 29th. As of today's date, those items have still not been turned into the forensic laboratory in Narrodin, or analysis.

And so there's something terribly wrong here. So they have bigger refrigerations at this lab. It's the only lab we have in a whole state of Connecticut. And as of today, these items still have not been turned in. So we're like, what's going on with this? Where are these items? Why have they been analyzed? This condom, which was never taken into evidence until a few

weeks after her death when the family really started pushing back, is a major red flag, especially when Michael said that they did not have sex that night. Now, obviously his statement can either be easily disproven or proven with a simple DNA test, but the police just decided to believe him at his word, because he's a really nice guy. And they just dismissed the condom completely. It was never process and evidence until thankfully recently it was. This gentleman said that they had no sex and he never took his clothes off. Yet still, the police failed to see if in fact his statement comports with what was found

on the scene. Now, Michael's lawyer said that he is not being considered a suspect as we know. And even though he's not, he has been cooperative with the police every step of the way. However, the Smith Fields family feels very strange about this cooperation, because he has never even reached out to their family, not even with condolences, or to maybe answer any questions they have. And it doesn't necessarily mean he did anything, but I would say that that is that is kind of odd. Their family has been very vocal that they believe that if the night had played out the way that he said it did, that it would have made sense for him to contact them. If you were on a first date with someone and they died while you were there, while you were with them,

you would think that would be so traumatizing that you would want to reach out to her family. And it makes sure that they at least know. And so it is Lauren's family's belief that he is hiding details from that night. Again, this is just their family's opinion at this point. The Smithfields and their lawyer are also extremely skeptical about Michael and the BPD, because it's suspected that they might actually have a prior connection.

This has not been confirmed, and of course I do not intend to spread any misinformation, but their attorney Darnell has publicly said that there could be a connection, and I believe that it's important to at least include that. It hasn't been clarified what this connection could be, and obviously I don't know if it's true, if there's anything to really back that up, but I believe that since their attorney has publicly said this, it's important that I mention it, and they actually plan on filing a $30 million lawsuit

against the city soon. But I believe is that the police failed to collect and preserve that environment from the first day. The attorney has now filed a notice of claim to sue bridgeport for negligence, claiming key evidence was not initially submitted to the state lab. And two Connecticut detectives have been accused of mishandling the investigation into the deaths of Lauren and also Brenda, which I will get into next.

And two of them have been suspended. One of them being Kevin Cronin, who literally hung up on their family and told them to stop calling him, which obviously he should lose his job completely. But at this point, he's only being suspended, hopefully that goes a step further in the future. Shantel says that every time they went to the police department,

they were treated like suspects, and they would just refuse to answer any questions that they had about the case, which is terrible. I truly can't imagine being in that position and then being treated that way. It was careless, it was no concern, there was no care for the family about how we felt our grief, our pain, none of that.

And like I said, from the beginning, there was a major lack of media coverage. It really wasn't until Cardi B spoke up that the coverage started picking up. And with this lack of media coverage on top of the continued misconduct, there was a march held to the mayor's office, led by Lawrence family that took place on January 23rd,

2022, which would have been Lawrence 24th birthday. This march demanded that further action would be taken on her case and that the mayor, who has been silent thus far, speak out about the unjust actions taken, or in this case, really not taken by police. So the same weekend as the march was held, the medical examiner released their report.

Lauren's cause of death was ruled an accident as a result of acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, promethazine, hydroxazine, and alcohol. Now, her family says that none of these drugs, excluding the alcohol, would have been something that Lauren would have taken knowingly. They are adamant that she was not a drug user, and it doesn't make sense with her lifestyle

either. I mean, Lauren was super-health-conscious. She was a driven person, and involving herself with drugs would have been the complete opposite of everything that she stood for. Forensic expert Joseph Morgan, who was an expert correspondent during the George Floyd trial, said that he doesn't believe Lauren would have had the time as a 23 year old to develop the type of dependency on these drugs that would cause her to take so much that it would kill her. And of course, Michael's story from that night make Lauren look suspicious, you know, getting something dropped off to her house by her brother, then being in the bathroom for 10 to 15 minutes. And obviously, it could have been drugs. We don't know what Lauren was doing in the bathroom. But the police should not just be assuming that that's what happened that night.

They should do a full investigation and make sure that she wasn't drugged by someone else that night. But her brother, Luquim, has clarified that he wasn't dropping anything off. In fact, he was picking something up, some laundry. He said that when he saw her, she seemed completely fine. She didn't seem intoxicated really at all, and that if she was, he would have stayed around and made sure she was okay. So we don't know if Lauren took these drugs or if she was slipped them, because an investigation is now finally underway. So it's important that we hold off on any assumptions

either way until that investigation is completed. Attorney Darnell Crossland has said he has never seen a medical examiner rule a mix of drugs and accident without first knowing how the individual obtained the drugs and how they ingested it. And in Laurence case, they never even looked into how she got this cocktail of drugs and how or why she consumed them that night. So the public outcry for Lauren has really only just started because the majority of people just did not know due to lack of coverage. Like I said, her case really started getting traction after Cardi B made a tweet about

her case, and in the end of her tweet, she says, justice for Lauren. Connecticut, you have failed that young lady. Marriage Joseph Gannum didn't make his first comments on the case until shortly after the family and community marched for justice. In his final address, he expressed condolences and stated that he is extremely disappointed with the leadership of the Bridgeport Police Department. He went on to talk about how he recognizes the pain

that they are in and that sensitivity and care is of the utmost importance when working with the family of a victim. He also added that he will work with the chief of police to make the necessary changes that the department needs in their policies and practices when it comes to notifying family members of a death. The Bridgeport Police Department has high standards for officers sensitivity, especially in matters involving the death of a family member. It is an unacceptable failure if policies were not followed, to the families, friends, and all who care

about human decency. That should be shown in these situations, in this case, by members of the police department. I'm very sorry. To again, make it clear, both to members of the public and to the department, insensitivity, disrespected 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. He also said that he has contacted the state medical

examiner to request assistance in expediting this matter so the family can have the answers that they need. He also states that the handling of Lauren's case has been sent to the police department's office of internal affairs for

investigation. The narcotics and vice division of the bridge port police department have now been brought into the investigation and the DEA has announced that they will be investigating if any crime was committed, and if anyone should be charged with her death. That is all the verifiable information I could find at this point. Of course, there are a lot of rumors on Reddit and social media and stuff, but I want to keep it about the facts in this case and what we know so far. I am recording this on February 13th, 2022. My videos take about a week to go through editing.

So if there is more information by the time that this video uploads, I will leave that below in a pinned comment or in the description box, but that's all we know as of right now. So now let's talk about Brenda. Brenda Lee Rawls is a 53 year old black woman who died just two miles from Lauren on the exact same day. Now, her case has gone almost no coverage and no public outcry whatsoever. And I don't think that's the fault of the people. I think it's the fault of the police and the media for not bringing it to people's attention.

Brenda was born on December 2, 1968 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she spent the majority of her 53 years of life. Brenda's a very funny person, a very lively person. She was an avid member of her church and would frequently volunteer in her spare time helping the homeless people in her community. She is three sisters, Angela, Dorothy, and D-Dra.

And her family says that she was an extremely hard worker. She had a full-time job working as a customer service representative and also lived a very healthy lifestyle. Not a lot of information besides that has been released to the public at this point. But considering the devastation that has been expressed by her family, I'm assuming Brenda was a lovely person who was adored by the people in her life. Now, just like in Lauren's case, Brenda's sisters noticed that she wasn't responding to their phone calls on December 12th. And Brenda was in pretty much constant contact with her sisters. They spoke like every day. So this was unusual for her.

And when they didn't hear back from her, they started to get concerned. So on December 14th, two of Brenda's sisters, two of her nieces, and one of her nieces, boyfriends, went to her place to check on her. They went and knocked on her door. They kept on knocking, but there was no answer. And that's when they started to get really worried. And they started calling around to local hospitals. They called the police department. They even tried some funeral homes. And no one had any information about Brenda. Then they remembered that on the 11th, Brenda said that she was going down the street to a man's house, a friend of hers. Or I guess I'm not sure like how close they were.

It was someone that she knew and she said she was going down to his house. So they ended up walking down to this guy's house to see if he knew anything about where Brenda was. And when they got there, this man told them that Brenda actually had died in his home two days prior. And this is the first that her family was hearing about it. The police never contacted them. He told them that when he woke up that morning, Brenda was in his bed unresponsive and that he had no other information

about where she was now. He gave them Brenda's clothes and shoes, which he still had. The police didn't even take them in. And at that point, they're just trying to find her body. So they call a local funeral home and they tell them that they should call the medical examiner's office and that they probably have an idea about where she is. And sure enough, when they called the medical examiner, she was there. But they had not been

notified at all that she had passed. Right now, it is not believed that these two cases are linked in any way and it doesn't seem like they are. However, there are definitely some similarities here and the biggest similarity is how they were handled by the police and the straight-up just misconduct. You want to know why our sister was treated like a Jane Doe, nobody notified us, no, it's almost like they wanted to disappear and for us to disappear. We had to figure out everything on our own. No one took the courtesy to inform a relative. And we're not going to stop until we get some type of answers. Please look into sensitivity training for all your officers.

That's all I want to say. The Rawls family didn't even learn the name of the detective assigned to the case until a few days after. Turns out it was detective angel Janos with the bridge port police department who was assigned to the case to investigate, but he made no attempt to contact her family even though they left four messages for him. And once again, there was absolutely no investigation into her death. It appears that detective Janos didn't even file an incident report, and at this point, the family is not even sure if a 911 call was even made.

The police likely know if there was a call made. I mean, we would hope so, but at this point, that information is being kept under wraps. And the man that Brenda was last seen with was apparently with her when she died, was not even brought in for questioning initially, and was not considered a suspect. And although the medical examiner, under pressure,

has finally now released a cause of death for Lauren, nothing has been released as far as a cause of death for Brenda. In fact, the medical examiner's office said it's gonna take six to eight weeks before they have that information. I'm hoping that maybe by the time this video goes live, there will be an update about her cause of death. Luckily, the Rawls family is also working with Attorney Darnell Crossland to look into

the misconduct from the Bridgeport Police Department because they feel that because Brenda was black and a female living in a low-income area, that police believed nobody would come looking for her if they just brushed her death under the rug. They feel that they have been completely ignored and that Brenda wasn't taken seriously even though she was a loved member of the community and they also plan to sue the bridge port police department. And in the mayor's response to the public, he also has noted Brenda's death and sent his condolences to the family. Of course, after all, the pressure came in. And like I said, as of the last week of January, it was announced that both Detective Kevin Cornyn and Detective

Angel Janos have been suspended and an internal investigation into their conduct is currently taking place. What we were disappointed about the most was that the world can hear us crying for justice and equality, but the City of Bridgeport and its administration had done nothing until this week when they finally put the two offices and charges of disinvestigation on administrative leave. So it's an animal sunshine, but we've been in a dark for so long that we'll have to accept that for now as we continue to strive for justice.

And people are not satisfied with the decision to suspend them because even though they are removed from their jobs temporarily, they are still being paid. The Rawls family has been outspoken that they believe the

entire department needs to be broken down and reconstructed from the bottom up. And when I tweeted about the Bridgeport Police Department, so many of you were responding saying that you're not surprised by this misconduct

that they are a total mess. And I'm not sure the Bridgeport Police Department, so many of you were responding, saying that you're not surprised by this misconduct, that they are a total mess, and that they mistreat people all the time. The president of the Bridgeport NWACP chapter has also spoken out about how the Bridgeport Police Department handled these cases. And he has stated that he recommends a variety of new training

and hiring practices, so this can be avoided in the future. He also thinks that there should be more community input and oversight so that the police department can address the insensitivity and prejudicial treatment towards black citizens and improve these relations moving forward, especially considering that 35% of Bridgeport's population is black. The Bridgeport chapter of the NAACP has also demanded that the Department of Justice investigate the actions of the Bridgeport Police Department and their handling of Lauren and Brenda's cases. So right now, this is all we know when it comes to Brenda and Lauren's cases. Obviously, it could be proven that there was no foul play in one of these cases or both of them.

We just don't know at this point, but with or without foul play, the way that these families were treated is just disgusting. It's absolute garbage in today's day and age that these families with all the way you can contact people. The fact that these families were not even alerted, that their loved ones had died,

is irreprehensible. These families deserved way more respect, care, sensitivity, urgency, reporting. I mean, this community deserves that. I'm hoping that with all the increase in public demand for information in these cases and public outcry and outrage that there will be more information coming in the future. And hopefully this video can be a small part of that in some way. There are GoFundMe's setup for both of these cases. Luckily, Lawrence has gotten quite a bit of support. They have raised a large amount of money so far. Brenda's family has not gotten the same.

And again, I think that's because a lot of people just don't know about Brenda's case. I will be making personal donations to both of them and I encourage you guys to check out their page and anything helps. I mean, whatever you can offer these families really means a lot. I will also leave ways that you can contact

the Bridgeport Police Department and let them know how you feel about this case and the mayor I'll leave his information below Even something as simple as a tweet. It makes a difference that pressure really goes a long way I wish I had more information for you guys. Let's all hope that more will come out and we will have some Answers when it comes to these two women who were loved by their family friends and communities. I send my condolences to these families. I want them to know that my victim's advocate form is open and I'm here to support them in any way possible. That is going

to be it for me today guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, are being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift. Whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway.

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