Family of woman found dead after Bumble date sues over Connecticut police investigation
The family of a 23-year-old Connecticut woman who was found dead in her apartment is suing the Bridgeport Police Department, saying that authorities mishandled the investigation into her death.
Lauren Smith-Fields was found unresponsive on Dec. 12 after meeting up with a man she met through the dating app Bumble earlier that night, local media reported.
The man, Matthew LaFountain, found her body, Rolling Stone reported.
Bumble, Bridgeport police and Smith-Fields’ family’s attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment from McClatchy News.
According to an incident report obtained by Smith-Fields’ family’s attorney and reviewed by Rolling Stone, LaFountain told police that he and Smith-Fields had been drinking tequila together in her apartment that night. He said she began to feel ill, but then felt better, and that the two continued to spend time together.
LaFountain said that Smith-Fields received a text and went outside to get something from her brother. When she returned, she went to the bathroom for 10 to 15 minutes, according to the report.
LaFountain said he and Smith-Fields fell asleep at the apartment, and that he woke up to find her unresponsive and with blood coming out of her nose at around 6:30 a.m.
But the account of that night recorded in the incident report is disputed by some members of Smith-Fields’ family.
Smith-Fields’ brother, Lakeem Jetter, said he hadn’t texted his sister since Dec. 4, and that she didn’t look sick or drunk when he saw her that night, according to Rolling Stone.
The family told NBC Connecticut that they did not hear directly from police about Smith-Fields’ death, and that when they reached out for more information, they were met with “total disrespect.”
They were also told that police were not investigating LaFountain, the outlet reported. LaFountain had previously been described by members of Smith-Fields’ family as an “older white man,” Yahoo News reported.
Smith-Fields is Black.
“When I asked the officer about the guy, he said he was a very nice guy and they weren’t looking into him anymore,” Jetter told NBC Connecticut.
Shantell Fields, Smith-Fields’ mother, told Yahoo News that police have told her family to stop calling them.
“We haven’t had any answers since the day that we found out that she passed away,” Fields told the outlet.
Fields also told Yahoo News that police didn’t collect some evidence from her daughter’s apartment, including a used condom and a pill she believes could be a sedative.
“The [family] has a right to know that the police consider this case as serious as any other case, and they haven’t gotten that,” Darnell Crosland, Fields’ attorney, told Yahoo News.
Smith-Fields’ death has sparked outcry on various social media platforms. A TikTok video posted by user @safmalin on Jan. 6, calling for people to boycott Bumble and saying that the company hasn’t done enough to hold itself accountable, had over 200,000 likes as of Jan. 18.
“Bumble, the dating platform that literally profits and became a billion dollar company off of their promise to keep women safe, is now silent about the role they might have played in the death of Lauren Smith-Fields,” the user said in the video.
The hashtag #BoycottBumble has since been used by others to share videos supporting the boycott, calling for viewers to spread awareness of violence against Black women, and telling their stories about dangerous experiences they’ve had with the app.
Crosland said that the family wants an independent agency to investigate Smith-Fields’ death.
“We have seen the amount of resources that have gone to other cases involving missing white women like Gabby Petito and we know so many Black woman are missing so much in this country,” Crosland told NBC Connecticut.
Smith-Fields was a cosmetology student at Norwalk Community College and was a track star in high school, Westchester News 12 reported.
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