The death of 23-year-old Lauren Smith-Fields has been ruled an accident by the medical examiner.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner released the cause and manner of death saying Lauren died of “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, promethazine, hydroxyzine, and alcohol.”
On the morning of December 12, police responded to a 911 call received from Lauren’s apartment from a white male identified as Matthew LaFountain.
LaFountain told investigators that he and Lauren met on the Bumble dating app.
He said when they met up in person, they drank tequila shots and Lauren became ill, but they later played some games, ate some food, and started to watch a movie.
Matthew LaFountain told police he carried Lauren Smith-Fields to her bedroom and laid her in her bed.
He laid down next to her and fell asleep. LaFountain claims that he woke up again around 6:30 a.m. and found Lauren laying on her right side, with blood coming out of her right nostril. She wasn’t breathing.
No one ever reached out to Lauren’s family.
When the family showed up at her apartment the next day after they were unable to contact her, they were referred to Detective Cronin.
Cronin told the family that Lauren “met somebody on Bumble and … he seemed like a nice guy, he sounds like a really good guy.”
Cronin told the family he would call them back and hung up in their faces.
He never showed up to Lauren’s apartment as promised to speak with the family.
As a matter of fact, they didn’t hear from the Connecticut police department again until December 29.
A new detective popped up as the family was cleaning out Lauren’s apartment and he told the family “(Cronin) effed up, he messed up, he didn’t know what he was doing, he messed up the case.”
While cleaning Lauren’s apartment, the family collected more evidence than the Connecticut police department including a sheet with a big pool of blood in the middle, a condom, lube, and other things.
Matthew LaFountain has made no contact with Lauren’s family since her death.
He has since scrubbed all of his social media profiles from the internet.
He’s lawyered up and is not cooperating with the police department’s request for DNA samples.
Lauren’s family is still seeking answers and they have filed a lawsuit against the Connecticut Police Department for their egregious mishandling of her case.
Source: NBC Connecticut
