Tiktokers are calling for justice for a Connecticut student who died in mysterious circumstances after meeting an “older white man” on a dating app.
Lauren Smith-Fields, 23, was found unresponsive in her Bridgeport apartment on 12 December after her date phoned police to say she wasn’t breathing, according to a police incident report.
Her distraught family are now suing the City of Bridgeport alleging police failed to investigate her death properly, showed no interest in pursuing her date as a suspect, and refused to speak to them.
Tiktokers have criticised the apparent police inaction and lack of coverage of her death, and videos with the hashtag #justiceforlaurensmithfields have received 6.7 million views.
Some are contrasting the case with the death of Gabby Petito, whose family have credited the widespread national coverage with finding her remains in a remote national park in Wyoming.
True crime Tiktoker Haley Toumaian posted a clip calling on her 800,000 followers to demand justice for Ms Smith-Fields’ family.
“This beautiful girl deserves her name to be everywhere,” Ms Toumaian said in a Tiktok which has since had 1.3 million views.
“She died under mysterious circumstances and the police department is not seeming to do a proper investigation.”
Other Tiktokers say it’s another example of Missing White Woman syndrome, where women of colour who disappear or are killed don’t receive as much attention.
According to a Bridgeport Police Department report obtained by Rolling Stone, Ms Smith-Fields had been drinking tequila with Matthew LaFountain at her apartment after the pair had met on Bumble.
Mr LaFountain told police at one point she became ill and vomitted, and then the pair continued drinking.
According to the police incident report, Ms Smith-Fields later received a text and went outside, saying she’d gone to get something from her brother, and went to the bathroom for several minutes after she returned.
Mr LaFountain would later tell police that “he thought it was odd, but didn’t feel it was his place to say anything as he didn’t know her that well,” the report says.
He told officers he woke up the next morning to discover Ms Smith-Fields wasn’t breathing and blood was coming from her right nostril, and called police.
Ms Smith-Fields’ family have set up a GoFundme page to raise money to hire their own private investigator, and are conducting an independent autopsy.
Ms Smith-Fields’ brother Lakeem Jetter said he was told by police that his sister’s date was a “very nice guy”.
Mr Jetter said he was told by a detective not to phone back and hung up on, NBC Connecticut reported.
Acting Bridgeport Police Department chief Rebecca Garcia did not immediately respond to questions from The Independent.
In a statement last month the department said it “takes these concerns very seriously”.
However five weeks the family are yet to be told a cause of death.
“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,” the family wrote on GoFundme.
“Although BDP has now decided to begin to conduct an investigation, our family would like to conduct one of our own!”
Ms Smith-Field had been a track star at Stamford High School and was studying cosmetology at Norwalk Community College, her family say.
She was a “hardworking young woman” and had started her own business to help fund her education.
Ms Smith-Fields’s mother, Shantell Fields, told NBC Connecticut the pain of her death had been compounded by the police mistreatment.
“I see her in everything that I do, everything that I do I see her,” she said.
“I never get to touch her again and it’s deplorable how they treated us, I don’t get my daughter back.”
