No Foul Play Found In Death Of Lauren Smith-Fields; Family Dissatisfied With Investigation
Answers are still being sought by the family of Lauren Smith-Fields, the 23-year-old Black Tik Tok influencer who was found dead in her Bridgeport, Conn. home after going out on a date with a white man from the dating app Bumble. But officials have released the cause of her death and left them with more questions.
PEOPLE reported Tuesday (Jan. 25) that the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found that Smith-Fields died of "acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, promethazine, hydroxyzine, and alcohol." However that has only led to frustration and her family believes that foul play could have taken place.
“Now to find out that all of these substances are in their daughter’s body that basically took her life, they’re so angry right now,” Darnell Crosland, Smith-Fields’ family lawyer, told Bridgeport, Conn., station WTNH. “This looks further like a manslaughter. It looks more like a murder, and if the police don’t start acting fast, we’re going to have a real big problem on our hands.”
Smith-Fields' mother, Shantell Fields, told WNBC that the police are not taking her daughter’s death seriously, "They wanted us to forget about our daughter, their sister, our loved one. They thought they were just going to throw her away like she was garbage, like she wasn't important, like she didn't have family members who loved her. We're fighting for her."
Smith-Fields' brother, Lakeem Jetter, called the police department's response "careless."
According to an incident report obtained by PEOPLE, authorities claim there was no foul play involved and have not released the name of the man’s name she met on the dating app. The unidentified man, who was the last person to see Smith-Fields alive, reportedly called 911 “after realizing her nose was bleeding and she had stopped breathing, according to the incident report.”
Jetter alleges authorities didn’t even contact them after finding Lauren’s body and did not collect certain evidence, including a sedative pill and used condom from her apartment.
"I feel like because he's a white guy and she's a Black girl, they're just throwing it under the rug," he said, while alleging police told his family they wouldn't be investigating the white man, saying "he seemed like a nice guy."
Crosland has since filed a notice of claim with Bridgeport, informing them of his intent to sue the city.
"The Police Department has been racially insensitive to this family, and has treated this family with no respect and has violated their civil rights," the notice reads, adding that the city's police have "failed to investigate this matter, and they refuse to view the last person with Lauren Smith-Fields before she died as a person of interest. This behavior is unacceptable."
Since news of Smith-Fields’ death has been made public, a GoFundMe campaign is now live in order to help the family with legal fees in hopes of finding out exactly what happened.
