Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Gorgeous YouTuber, 23, Dead in Bloody Bed, Cops say "ACCIDENT"

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Gorgeous YouTuber, 23, Dead in Bloody Bed, Cops say "ACCIDENT" · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. As many of you may
0:14
Speaker 1: already know, I have fourteen year old twins boy girl,
0:18
Speaker 1: Lucy and John David. They're about to turn fifteen. I
0:22
Speaker 1: had to even start the program like that because very upsetting.
0:27
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about finding answers for
0:31
Speaker 1: a twenty three year old young girl and it's sixteen
0:36
Speaker 1: year old little girl, both dead, both beautiful on the
0:45
Speaker 1: inside and out. I'm talking about Lauren smith Fields and
0:52
Speaker 1: Tianni This and I want to start with Lauren in
0:57
Speaker 1: the prime of her life. Can you even remember what
1:01
Speaker 1: you were doing when you were twenty three? I want
1:05
Speaker 1: you to take a listen now to our cut three.
1:08
Speaker 1: This is our friend Frank Arechia, LATV Reporter News twelve, Connecticut. Listen.
1:15
Speaker 1: It's killing me as I missed my baby. The mother
1:19
Speaker 1: of twenty three year old Laurence smith Fields of Bridgeport
1:21
Speaker 1: says her family's world came crashing down ten days ago
1:25
Speaker 1: when her daughter was found dead inside her apartment on
1:28
Speaker 1: Plymouth Street, under what the family describes as mysterious circumstances.
1:33
Speaker 1: Without a doubt, we know that my daughter was not
1:37
Speaker 1: a drug user, and I had a second autopsy myself
1:42
Speaker 1: paid out of pocket because we felt so uncomfortable with
1:46
Speaker 1: the way it was handled. Councilwoman Maria Pereira says police
1:50
Speaker 1: old Lauren's mom an apology. She sent a really well
1:54
Speaker 1: written email, and I was shocked when just yesterday she
1:58
Speaker 1: told me she had not even received the bog A
2:00
Speaker 1: mom who's left to plan her daughter's funeral just days
2:03
Speaker 1: before Christmas says she's struggling to find a path forward.
2:07
Speaker 1: Wife is not the same. Oh no, who I'm gonna
2:10
Speaker 1: be after this? You know? I find that really interesting.
2:14
Speaker 1: I don't know who I'm gonna be after this. I
2:18
Speaker 1: don't know who I'm gonna be after this. This is
2:21
Speaker 1: a mother and you can hear her choking back the tears.
2:25
Speaker 1: You know, when you pour all your love, all your heart,
2:29
Speaker 1: all your soul, all your street, all your money, your hopes,
2:33
Speaker 1: and your dreams into your children. Is that wrong? I
2:35
Speaker 1: don't know. That's what I do, And that is what
2:38
Speaker 1: Lauren's parents have done to find out their twenty three
2:44
Speaker 1: year old girl is dead. And this girl, as far
2:49
Speaker 1: as we know pure, is a driven snow. And I
2:52
Speaker 1: don't like what the medical examiner said. And you can
2:56
Speaker 1: take that and put it in your pipe and smoke it.
3:00
Speaker 1: To William Moroney joining me, Chief Medical and samra Bay County, Michigan.
3:05
Speaker 1: I don't like what they said, and I don't necessarily
3:08
Speaker 1: believe what they said, but hold on, let me get
3:11
Speaker 1: you to it. Take a listen to our cut four
3:13
Speaker 1: Dominic Moody, w v NBC Connecticut. Her and anger the
3:19
Speaker 1: best way to describe the emotions from Lawrence Smithfields family.
3:23
Speaker 1: You can see right here there is still a growing
3:25
Speaker 1: memorial for her, and we know that the family is
3:28
Speaker 1: still calling for justice and they are still asking police
3:31
Speaker 1: for answers after they continue to deal with the loss
3:35
Speaker 1: of their loved one. I see her and everything I do,
3:39
Speaker 1: everything I do, I see her. Shontell Fields and her
3:42
Speaker 1: family are still overcome with emotion a month after their
3:45
Speaker 1: daughter and sister, Lawrence smith Fields, was found inside her
3:49
Speaker 1: bridgeboard apartment. Joining me an all star panel to make
3:52
Speaker 1: sense of what we know right now. First of all,
3:55
Speaker 1: this is Crime Stories. I Nancy Grace, and I want
3:58
Speaker 1: to thank you for being with us here at Fox
4:01
Speaker 1: Nation in series XM one eleven. And I got to
4:05
Speaker 1: tell you many times when I would look at a
4:07
Speaker 1: jury when I prosecuted in Inner City, Atlanta. The words
4:10
Speaker 1: tasted like dirt in my mouth. I'd have to screw
4:15
Speaker 1: myself up to stand up and say what I had
4:18
Speaker 1: to tell the jury, because sometimes it was awful. But
4:22
Speaker 1: we cannot turn away from the truth or else we'll
4:26
Speaker 1: never fix anything with me. Doctor Carolyn West, Professor Clinical Psychology,
4:32
Speaker 1: University Washington, Tacoma, Award winning author of multiple books. You
4:38
Speaker 1: can find her at doctor Carolyn West dot com. Carolyn
4:41
Speaker 1: with a C. Paul Zeke, former police commander Albuquerque PD,
4:47
Speaker 1: Domestic violence Stalking Unit author Stop him from killing Them.
4:53
Speaker 1: Doctor William Maroney, my longtime friend and colleague, Chief medical Examiner,
4:59
Speaker 1: Bay County, Michigan, author of America Narken. This guy has
5:05
Speaker 1: taken it upon himself. You know a lot of doctors
5:07
Speaker 1: go into high rise buildings with beautiful carpet and paintings
5:12
Speaker 1: up on the wall. This doctor started a mobile unit
5:17
Speaker 1: all on his own to try to stop overdose desk
5:24
Speaker 1: regarding opioids like Centinel, high profile reporter Frank Rerechia LEATV
5:32
Speaker 1: Reporter News twelve, Connecticut and very special guest joining us.
5:38
Speaker 1: Excuse me, I left out James shell Nut, not that
5:40
Speaker 1: you're not special twenty seven years metro major case now
5:44
Speaker 1: lawyer at the shell Nut Firm dot com. Special guest.
5:49
Speaker 1: I was telling you about Darnell Crossland. He is the
5:53
Speaker 1: family lawyer for Lauren Smill Smithfielle's family and he is
5:59
Speaker 1: at Crosland Law dot com for Frank Richia. What happened
6:05
Speaker 1: to this little girl? Yes, I know she's twenty three,
6:08
Speaker 1: but she just looks like a little girl to me.
6:11
Speaker 1: What happened? Well, Nancy, you know that's the big question.
6:15
Speaker 1: I will never forget getting a call from a member
6:18
Speaker 1: of our city council a week before. I don't like
6:22
Speaker 1: the send of that. You get politics in it and
6:24
Speaker 1: everything goes sideways. But go ahead, Well, city councilwoman Maria Pereira,
6:30
Speaker 1: who called me a couple of times. She said there's
6:32
Speaker 1: a case that is not being covered that needs to
6:35
Speaker 1: be covered, and apparently the family had reached out to
6:40
Speaker 1: a lot of people, media, police, and nobody had responded.
6:44
Speaker 1: So I took that que. We went over, We met
6:48
Speaker 1: with the family and when I walked into the room,
6:53
Speaker 1: I could just feel the atmosphere in there. And as
6:56
Speaker 1: people in Connecticut note, I had a special needs other
7:00
Speaker 1: who went missing and whose body was found tragically in
7:04
Speaker 1: pieces a year and a half ago, and so I
7:08
Speaker 1: know what it's like after meant decades as a television reporter,
7:12
Speaker 1: I know what it's like to go to somebody's door
7:14
Speaker 1: on the worst day of their life. But now I
7:17
Speaker 1: know what it's like to have somebody come to my door,
7:19
Speaker 1: having gone through it. So ever since losing my brother
7:23
Speaker 1: in that locally high profile case has changed my perspective.
7:26
Speaker 1: When I went in, I applied the sensitivity of somebody
7:31
Speaker 1: who's been through this, and I sat down and I
7:33
Speaker 1: just listened and I let them talk. And I think
7:37
Speaker 1: they were searching for those answers because there's this dramatic
7:42
Speaker 1: disconnect between the Lawrence Smithfield. They know the track star
7:47
Speaker 1: and the star student, young woman with the business, highly articulate,
7:52
Speaker 1: young woman directed, self possessed, and then this image that
7:57
Speaker 1: seemed to be depicted by a course of a that
8:00
Speaker 1: they still don't understand. And to see things in their
8:03
Speaker 1: proper perspective, you really have to delve into the facts
8:07
Speaker 1: of the case. And I know Attorney Crossland, who I've
8:10
Speaker 1: been speaking to about this case since day one after
8:15
Speaker 1: Connecticut broke the store. Yes, I'm trying to get my
8:18
Speaker 1: mind around the facts of what happened to this girl,
8:21
Speaker 1: because I am not buying what people are selling me.
8:25
Speaker 1: I am not I don't believe what I'm being told.
8:27
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our cut one our friends at
8:30
Speaker 1: News twelve Westchester. It's hi, guys, welcome back to my channel.
8:36
Speaker 1: Lauren was a familiar face to YouTube audiences. Her family
8:39
Speaker 1: says she had been a track star at Stanford High
8:42
Speaker 1: School and was now studying physical therapy at Norwalk Community College.
8:47
Speaker 1: A sweet child, they say, who had blossomed into a
8:50
Speaker 1: beautiful young woman who had the whole world at her feet.
8:53
Speaker 1: They say Lauren had met quote an older white man
8:57
Speaker 1: on the dating nap bumble, and it was he who
8:59
Speaker 1: alerted police to Lauren's death. The family says they are
9:03
Speaker 1: not satisfied with answers they got from an investigator. I
9:06
Speaker 1: asked him about the guy. He just made it seem
9:08
Speaker 1: like the God's a nice guy. It was nothing to investigate.
9:11
Speaker 1: The only contact that we have had was from a
9:14
Speaker 1: very insensitive, condescending an arrogant detective. Lauren's dad reading a
9:19
Speaker 1: scathing statement saying police failed to extend the most basic
9:22
Speaker 1: courtesies and told his family to stop calling crime stories
9:40
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace straight out to Darnell Crosland, the family
9:46
Speaker 1: lawyer for Lauren's family. Now the banner the headline everywhere
9:52
Speaker 1: says that I had been reading is influencer Dad a
9:59
Speaker 1: fit to knowl Od. But I don't think that's what happened,
10:05
Speaker 1: because from what I have learned, this beautiful young woman
10:11
Speaker 1: was not on drugs at all. All the facts that
10:15
Speaker 1: we have before us show us that there was no
10:18
Speaker 1: history of drug use. This woman woke up every single
10:22
Speaker 1: morning and went to the gym. She was a health nut.
10:25
Speaker 1: She was into all of good food eating. Her and
10:29
Speaker 1: her mother talked about traveling the world. They often traveled
10:33
Speaker 1: the world. Her her mom, her grandmother, and everything about
10:36
Speaker 1: her said that she wanted to live a long and
10:39
Speaker 1: healthy and prosperous life. Now she meets this strange man
10:44
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, what we described the experts
10:47
Speaker 1: described as a cocktail of drugs are found in her system.
10:51
Speaker 1: And everyone who I've spoken to said that there's no
10:54
Speaker 1: way that an individual will take a dose of fennel
11:00
Speaker 1: hydrochlorine some other anhistamines and then wash it down with alcohol.
11:06
Speaker 1: That just doesn't make sense. The only way you get
11:09
Speaker 1: that amount of a mixture in your body is if
11:12
Speaker 1: someone introduced it to you unbeknownst to you. So I
11:15
Speaker 1: think that's what we're finding, because otherwise this twenty three
11:18
Speaker 1: year old, vibrant young lady would not just ingest all
11:22
Speaker 1: these different types of drugs and then wash it down
11:25
Speaker 1: with alcohol. That doesn't happen. Right now, police are launching
11:29
Speaker 1: a criminal investigation into Laurence accidental fentanyl death during a
11:37
Speaker 1: bumble date, a woman who was devoted to clean living,
11:41
Speaker 1: organic food, a gem rat, constantly working out planning travel
11:47
Speaker 1: trips with her mother. I find it really hard to
11:51
Speaker 1: believe that this is the same young woman found with promethazine, hydroxyzine, fentonel,
12:01
Speaker 1: and a whole lot more in her system. She is
12:06
Speaker 1: found around six thirty am, lying on her side in
12:11
Speaker 1: bed with blood coming out of her right nostril, not breathing,
12:16
Speaker 1: and coincidentally, she had what I believe to be her
12:19
Speaker 1: first date from a dating app the night before, and
12:23
Speaker 1: then suddenly she's dead and cold and stiff in the
12:27
Speaker 1: bed with blood coming out of her nose. No, No,
12:31
Speaker 1: that's not right. Okay, doctor William Moroney, you're the chief
12:35
Speaker 1: medical Examiner Bay County, Michigan, helped me understand what was
12:40
Speaker 1: in Lauren's body, and please dummy down for me. Please
12:45
Speaker 1: do not throw around a lot of medical terms. Nobody understands.
12:49
Speaker 1: I'm a j D, not an MD. So help me out,
12:51
Speaker 1: doctor Moroney, go. I think the keywords here. Our attorney,
12:57
Speaker 1: mister Crossland used the word tail and people are very
13:03
Speaker 1: casual in relationships and sharing drugs. This could be a
13:09
Speaker 1: sexual assault that begins with an ad drug administration, and
13:16
Speaker 1: that is moroni. Did you say you believe this could
13:19
Speaker 1: be a sex assault that started with inadvertant? Is that
13:22
Speaker 1: what you said, drug administration? Like someone slipped this too
13:26
Speaker 1: or in a drink. That's exactly what I'm saying. Why
13:29
Speaker 1: don't you say it like that? But okay, you know
13:32
Speaker 1: what this is for you. Go ahead. Here's what we have.
13:39
Speaker 1: Some of what we have from the from the federal government.
13:43
Speaker 1: We know that fentonel overdose death in America are all
13:47
Speaker 1: classified as unintentional and they're all classified as accident. So
13:54
Speaker 1: the medical examiner's hands are really tied. But the investigation
13:59
Speaker 1: should focus on some kind of drug facilitated relationship because
14:05
Speaker 1: fentanyl is so deadly. Somebody not exposed the fentanyl, and
14:10
Speaker 1: then not opioid dependent being exposed to promethazine, hydroxyzine, fentanyl
14:16
Speaker 1: and alcohol for the first time that I don't have.
14:19
Speaker 1: What is what is pain? Promethazine makes you drowsy, but
14:25
Speaker 1: its purpose is to reduce nausea. But it makes you drowsy. Cough.
14:30
Speaker 1: What's the straight name? It's called fergan on the street again? Okay?
14:37
Speaker 1: What is? Hold on? Hold on? What's d hydroxyzane. Hydroxyzine
14:42
Speaker 1: is approved for the use of anxiety, so it helps
14:46
Speaker 1: reduce anxiety and it makes you relax. But it's also
14:50
Speaker 1: a super antihistamine. It's used for really bad skin reactions
14:55
Speaker 1: and itching, but we call it vistrial. This straw for
15:01
Speaker 1: anxiety and itching. Yes, but it makes you sleepy. Everything
15:05
Speaker 1: here's designed to make you sleepy. That's not good because
15:09
Speaker 1: it inhibits your whole body. You explain it in doctor terms.
15:13
Speaker 1: Why that's so not good. It's not good because it
15:16
Speaker 1: makes you not do things that you would ordinarily be
15:20
Speaker 1: inhibited to do. It makes your brain relax and your
15:24
Speaker 1: body relax, and then somebody you may like, have sex
15:27
Speaker 1: on a first date something like that. Always, Yes, that's
15:31
Speaker 1: the whole purpose of giving these drugs is to do
15:34
Speaker 1: things to other people. That is a very bad thing,
15:38
Speaker 1: but that is what this cock. You know, mane, I
15:41
Speaker 1: just want to cry. I just want to cry because
15:44
Speaker 1: this girl, twenty three year old young woman, was doing
15:48
Speaker 1: everything right. She was living a wonderful life, very close
15:54
Speaker 1: to her mom, planning trips, you know, Lucy and John David.
15:58
Speaker 1: Now we're planning a springbright trip just last night, and
16:03
Speaker 1: I'll devoted to organic living. Hey, let me ask you
16:07
Speaker 1: a more question before I go to doctor Caroline West,
16:09
Speaker 1: doctor Moroney. What's a straight name of fentanyl? What is that? Well,
16:14
Speaker 1: we're calling it fentyl. Everybody calls it fentyl, and fentyl
16:17
Speaker 1: has replaced heroin. Fentyl has replaced cocaine, and fentnyl pills
16:23
Speaker 1: fake pills are out there, So there's all sorts of
16:26
Speaker 1: different ways. He may have thought he was giving her
16:29
Speaker 1: cocaine and it wasn't And he can't tell because when
16:32
Speaker 1: he buys the stuff from a drug dealer, the drug
16:34
Speaker 1: dealer us and tell you what you're getting. If he
16:37
Speaker 1: told you what you're getting, you'd say, damn, I'm gonna die.
16:39
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna buy that stuff as the crisis, fentinyl crisis.
16:44
Speaker 1: And I mean, right now, I think I hear Darnel. Yes,
16:47
Speaker 1: Nancy's Darnell. How can he determine as an accident with
16:50
Speaker 1: nothing else before him? And so I'm protesting and objecting
16:54
Speaker 1: to that in writing today. And so I just want
16:57
Speaker 1: to listeners to know when you have one segment of
16:59
Speaker 1: the population is very innocuous death by toxicity. Another one, Oh,
17:04
Speaker 1: it's an accident. Let's just forget about this. Nothing to
17:06
Speaker 1: see hit people. Fancy m Paul just want to chimp
17:12
Speaker 1: in right now A Paul Yuh former police commander, got
17:17
Speaker 1: hit Paul. You know, the Emmys only can go off
17:20
Speaker 1: of what they have, right they have a body of
17:21
Speaker 1: the you know, the toxicology report, but the investigation at
17:25
Speaker 1: the scene is also something that they need to take
17:29
Speaker 1: into consideration as a totality of what may have happened.
17:32
Speaker 1: And if the law enforcement agency did not investigate the
17:37
Speaker 1: scene as a homicide and simply looked at it as
17:41
Speaker 1: a suicide, there's a about ten times less investigating that
17:47
Speaker 1: is done. The investigation simply the inconsistency of the individual
17:52
Speaker 1: saying that, yeah, we didn't have sex. I slept with
17:55
Speaker 1: my clothes on, but yet they found a condom with
17:57
Speaker 1: seamen in the fuck about that? I want to talk
18:00
Speaker 1: about the saying you're absolutely right, Paul Zake, take a
18:03
Speaker 1: listen to our cut two. This is Sarah Wallace NBC four.
18:06
Speaker 1: The IT team obtained this police report of the response
18:09
Speaker 1: to a nine one one call from Lauren's apartment on
18:12
Speaker 1: the morning of December twelfth from a white male identified
18:15
Speaker 1: as Matthew la Fountain. The investigator notes he was trembling
18:19
Speaker 1: and visibly shaken. La Fountain said they met on the
18:22
Speaker 1: dating side, Bumble began drinking shots of tequila, and Lauren
18:26
Speaker 1: became ill. That later, they played some games, ate some food,
18:30
Speaker 1: and started to watch a movie. He says he carried
18:32
Speaker 1: her to her bedroom and laid her in her bed.
18:35
Speaker 1: He then laid down next to her and fell asleep.
18:38
Speaker 1: He woke up again at approximately zero six thirty hours,
18:41
Speaker 1: and she was laying on her right side, Blood was
18:44
Speaker 1: coming out of her right nostril onto the bed, and
18:47
Speaker 1: she was not breathing. The guy's name is Matthew la Fountain,
18:51
Speaker 1: age thirty seven, and we do not have any hard
18:54
Speaker 1: evidence at all that he fed this young girl Laurence
18:57
Speaker 1: smith Fields, aged twenty three, any drugs? So who is Lefountain?
19:05
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our cut seventeen. There has been
19:07
Speaker 1: so much anger directed at your client and he has
19:11
Speaker 1: become a point of focus in a contentious national debate.
19:15
Speaker 1: How do you respond to them? Well, I think it's
19:17
Speaker 1: the media that's made him the main focus of the investigation.
19:20
Speaker 1: Although Bridgeport Police didn't investigate the matter, he did fully
19:23
Speaker 1: cooperate and he's not the main focus of their investigation
19:26
Speaker 1: anymore as we know that DA is involved now and
19:29
Speaker 1: they won't help local authorities investigate the matter and get
19:32
Speaker 1: to the bottom of what happened to Lauren. It is
19:35
Speaker 1: not that, but supporters, led by the family's attorney, Darnell Crossland,
19:39
Speaker 1: say evidence from bloody bedsheets to a seamen filled condom
19:43
Speaker 1: was compromised due to an inadequate response by the Bridgeport
19:46
Speaker 1: Police Department. And in adequate response, I think that's certainly
19:51
Speaker 1: putting perfume on the pig. That is certainly a euphemism.
20:07
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Let me understand something to you,
20:16
Speaker 1: Darnielle Crossland, you're the family lawyer. There were bloody bad
20:20
Speaker 1: sheets and a semen filled condom. Again, we don't have
20:24
Speaker 1: any direct evidence Matthew little Fountain fed this young girl drugs,
20:29
Speaker 1: But in his statement to police, I don't see anything
20:33
Speaker 1: about drugs. He said they had some tequila and they
20:36
Speaker 1: were playing board games. Eight watch a movie. She fell
20:39
Speaker 1: asleep and dies. Wow, death by tequila. That sounds hard
20:43
Speaker 1: to believe. What about it, Darnielle Crosson explained to me
20:46
Speaker 1: about the bloody sheets and the semen filled condom. Well,
20:51
Speaker 1: we have to start with the fact that Matthew la
20:53
Speaker 1: Fontaine leaves us to believe that he slept in his snorkel,
20:57
Speaker 1: in his key suit and there was no sex involved.
21:01
Speaker 1: But yet still there's a condom filled with seamen in
21:05
Speaker 1: the bathroom. When the police come. Instead of roping off
21:08
Speaker 1: the scene and telling people do not step here, sir,
21:11
Speaker 1: no one enters. We have to do our work. They
21:13
Speaker 1: don't do that. They let the nice guy leave and
21:15
Speaker 1: they never ask themselves about things like the bloody sheet.
21:19
Speaker 1: He said that she fell asleep on her right side,
21:21
Speaker 1: but then blood was coming out of her left nostrils.
21:24
Speaker 1: Now that doesn't even make sense. If you're on your
21:26
Speaker 1: right side, the blood will be coming out of your
21:28
Speaker 1: right right nostril onto the sheet. When you look at
21:31
Speaker 1: the sheet, it's in the center and the blood is
21:33
Speaker 1: in the middle. So his lawyers thinks that they did
21:36
Speaker 1: an adequate jobet Again, so when you look at the
21:40
Speaker 1: bed sheet, and we provided the pictures to the media,
21:43
Speaker 1: the blood is in the center of the bed in
21:45
Speaker 1: the sheet. So that would mean that she was on
21:49
Speaker 1: her left side, because then that's how the blood will
21:51
Speaker 1: get in the middle, because he was sleeping on the
21:53
Speaker 1: right side of the bed. If she was on her
21:55
Speaker 1: right side, the blood would beat sort of to the
21:58
Speaker 1: edge of the left side of the bed. Wait, wait
22:00
Speaker 1: what he's saying, James shell Nutt, thirty seven years mato.
22:03
Speaker 1: A major case now, lawyer, is that the scene was
22:06
Speaker 1: staged that after whatever happened to her. And I've also
22:10
Speaker 1: got to find out is that her blood and is
22:13
Speaker 1: that his seamen? Which, of course the answer to both
22:16
Speaker 1: of those are probably going to be yes. But James
22:20
Speaker 1: shell Nutt and quickly, Dr Maroney, think about this. If
22:24
Speaker 1: a lubricated condom was used, could there be trace evidence
22:29
Speaker 1: in her body of that lubricant to tie her to
22:33
Speaker 1: the condom? And shell Nutt to you, sounds like staging
22:37
Speaker 1: of the scene. Explain, Yeah, it does sound like staging
22:39
Speaker 1: of the scene, but it additionally sounds like just in
22:42
Speaker 1: confidence coming up front. Oh yeah, who are these guys?
22:45
Speaker 1: Who are these guys that came up there and investigated this?
22:47
Speaker 1: Leave us the new guys that got a signed to this.
22:49
Speaker 1: You know, the first thing I would have done in
22:51
Speaker 1: this situation is looked at the totality of the circumstances.
22:54
Speaker 1: You've got a young girl who is who is at
22:57
Speaker 1: a house that she has spent very little time at.
22:59
Speaker 1: She has known health problems, there's no known disease. This
23:02
Speaker 1: isn't a case where hospice is out. You know, she
23:05
Speaker 1: is in a foreign place. Now magically she dies without explanation,
23:10
Speaker 1: without explanation because of the point that they came out,
23:12
Speaker 1: They didn't know what she had taken. They didn't automatically
23:15
Speaker 1: have this toxicology, and they failed to lock the scene down.
23:18
Speaker 1: They fail to get a search for it, They failed
23:20
Speaker 1: to come out and take a look at this. This
23:22
Speaker 1: was fumbled from the very beginning. And I'm hoping that
23:26
Speaker 1: we haven't lost too much evidence to take a look
23:28
Speaker 1: at the prosecution. Well, and another thing, James shell Nutt
23:31
Speaker 1: is when you've got a Sieman Field condom, you got
23:34
Speaker 1: to have a condom rapper somewhere. And on that condom rapper,
23:37
Speaker 1: I guarantee you whoever used it was not wearing rubber
23:41
Speaker 1: gloves at the time or LATEXS cloves. There's got to
23:43
Speaker 1: be prints on it. So those are just a few things.
23:45
Speaker 1: And moroney, can you get Tracey lubricut say, out of
23:49
Speaker 1: her vagina that would match up to the condom. Almost
23:53
Speaker 1: all those condoms come with something called nine oxen all
23:56
Speaker 1: nine as the lubricant. But I don't if they didn't
24:00
Speaker 1: swab for it, they're not going to get it unless
24:03
Speaker 1: they went in there and they're swabbing the vagina to
24:06
Speaker 1: get trace done oxen all nine. Okay, what about that
24:09
Speaker 1: to you, Darnielle Crosson? Was a rape kid done? Did
24:12
Speaker 1: they do a vaginal swabbing? No? And so Lord and
24:16
Speaker 1: Evan we tympicly do a start which is called sa RT,
24:19
Speaker 1: which is a sexual assault rape test, and so that
24:22
Speaker 1: would tell you whether there was any vaginal tears and
24:26
Speaker 1: things of that nature. You're saying they did not do that.
24:29
Speaker 1: Do that? So they just listened to the guy and went, hey,
24:33
Speaker 1: she has some tequila and went to sleep. Now she
24:36
Speaker 1: did They just listen to that and that's why they
24:39
Speaker 1: run on the police report. Yep, just one statement. They
24:41
Speaker 1: took no statements some of the families at all. Doctor
24:45
Speaker 1: Carolin West, Professor clinical psychology at University Washington to come
24:49
Speaker 1: award winning author, Boy do we need a shrink? Helped
24:53
Speaker 1: me out. Doctor Carolin West, Well, there are numerous concerns
24:57
Speaker 1: that I have about this case because as I read everything,
25:01
Speaker 1: I'm understanding that more adults between the ages of eighteen
25:06
Speaker 1: and forty five have died of fenton al overdoses in
25:09
Speaker 1: two thousand, more than COVID, more than car accidents, more
25:13
Speaker 1: than cancer, more than suicide. So we're talking about eighty
25:16
Speaker 1: thousand people between the ages of eighteen and forty five.
25:20
Speaker 1: It's a national emergency. But it seemed to be really
25:23
Speaker 1: premature to me to assume that this was a case
25:27
Speaker 1: of just a fentanyl overdose. I kept going back to
25:31
Speaker 1: asking myself how how was that drug administered? Because if
25:39
Speaker 1: the drug was intentionally administered to the victim, that would
25:42
Speaker 1: be a drug facilitated sexual assault. Okay, whoa wait, wait
25:47
Speaker 1: waite dodger, Carolin West, you got me drinking from the
25:50
Speaker 1: fire hydrant. I'm trying to take in every single syllable
25:54
Speaker 1: you're saying. What did you just say the last sentence
25:58
Speaker 1: you said spent in all overdoses or a national emergency. Yes,
26:04
Speaker 1: we know that that's happening, But to assume that this
26:07
Speaker 1: was a Fenton all that may not be the most
26:12
Speaker 1: appropriate thing to assume. I thought as I read through
26:17
Speaker 1: the case that this sounded almost like a drug facilitated
26:22
Speaker 1: sexual assault. Is a question that I kept wondering about.
26:27
Speaker 1: So if that perpetrator intentionally administers drugs to a victim
26:32
Speaker 1: and then uses that as an opportunity to commit a
26:35
Speaker 1: sexual assault, jug facilitated sex assault? Yes, yes, so nine percent.
26:42
Speaker 1: According to the National Intimate Partner in Sexual Violence Survey,
26:47
Speaker 1: nine percent of US women have experienced a rape when
26:52
Speaker 1: they were drunk, high, drugged, passed out, or unable to
26:56
Speaker 1: give consent. We're thinking the best sens we have. About
27:02
Speaker 1: nine hundred thousand women in the past year have experienced
27:07
Speaker 1: a drug facilitated sexual assault. Maronie, I can hear you
27:11
Speaker 1: in the background, and I don't want to miss a
27:13
Speaker 1: word that any of you say. Jump in. That's nine
27:16
Speaker 1: percent that admits there's a higher number that are embarrassed
27:22
Speaker 1: and don't want to come forward because of the stigma.
27:25
Speaker 1: And if somebody was facilitated by having drugs and alcohol mixed,
27:31
Speaker 1: there's even more stigma and that passes on from the investigation.
27:38
Speaker 1: You need stomach contents to see if that cocktail was
27:41
Speaker 1: in her stomach. You need a year in drug screen
27:44
Speaker 1: to see if it was a long term exposure over hours.
27:47
Speaker 1: Right screen would show me what It would show you
27:52
Speaker 1: that the fennel was in her for a couple hours
27:55
Speaker 1: or the day as opposed that. If there's nothing in
27:58
Speaker 1: her yearn but it's in her blood, then family, it
28:02
Speaker 1: was administered. She got it. She died instantly, So if
28:06
Speaker 1: it was in her blood, it was administered in the
28:10
Speaker 1: last what hours. If it was in her yearine, then
28:13
Speaker 1: it would have been there all days. That what you're
28:14
Speaker 1: saying something like that, Yeah, okay, so I'm sure that
28:19
Speaker 1: test wasn't done. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Frank Rekia
28:38
Speaker 1: help Me News twelve, Connecticut. It just I mean, what
28:42
Speaker 1: can you tell me about a brother showing up on
28:45
Speaker 1: the scene. Well, I spoke with her whole family the
28:48
Speaker 1: day we broke the story. We spoke with the whole
28:51
Speaker 1: family and her brother, and Darnell will bear me out
28:55
Speaker 1: on this, has spoken in detail about having Yes, he
28:58
Speaker 1: showed up on the scene. He says that he had
29:01
Speaker 1: some dirty laundry. He spoke with his sister. He hadn't
29:04
Speaker 1: seen her in a few days, but he spoke with
29:06
Speaker 1: her and they had what they described as a normal conversation.
29:10
Speaker 1: And the brother said he did not see any evidence
29:13
Speaker 1: of intoxication. He said, I know my sister is strong,
29:17
Speaker 1: she's articulate, she's a great athlete, and he didn't see
29:21
Speaker 1: any evidence of intoxication when he stopped over. And that
29:23
Speaker 1: is the afternoon before she died that night. No, No,
29:27
Speaker 1: that was around almost twelve o'clock midnight. And in fact,
29:30
Speaker 1: I just want to clarify. They had went Christmas shopping
29:33
Speaker 1: early that day, and as you could tell by Lauren,
29:36
Speaker 1: Lauren is a fascionista and so was her brother. So
29:38
Speaker 1: she had some of the things that they purchased in
29:41
Speaker 1: her stuff because they got just mixed up when they
29:43
Speaker 1: went shopping. So he pulled up around almost midnight to
29:46
Speaker 1: pick up the stuff that she had of his. He
29:48
Speaker 1: ran out, cheerful, happy, gave him his stuff, and he
29:51
Speaker 1: knows her like the back of his hand. She didn't
29:53
Speaker 1: seem drugs, he didn't seem drunk or anything. And you're
29:57
Speaker 1: hearing the voice of Darnielle Crossland, a victim family the
30:00
Speaker 1: lawyer at caused Land Law dot Com. Let me understand something,
30:04
Speaker 1: Darnell say, I have at best eyecords, and I'm glad
30:08
Speaker 1: you and Frank Richie are correcting me. So her, I
30:12
Speaker 1: assume little brother came four big brother came to drop
30:19
Speaker 1: off or pick up dirty laundry or laundry at her place.
30:23
Speaker 1: That's at midnight, and she's fine, and she bounces out
30:27
Speaker 1: to go on this day. Is that correct? Yes? No, Darnell, No,
30:30
Speaker 1: that's that's not correct. Told it. He came to pick
30:33
Speaker 1: up the Christmas clothes that they had one shopping for
30:35
Speaker 1: early that day. So they had a bunch of bags
30:38
Speaker 1: and as you know, if you go to Old Navy,
30:39
Speaker 1: they give you a ton of bags. Throw everything in
30:41
Speaker 1: one bag. So he said, hey, Lauren, you have some
30:43
Speaker 1: of my stuff. Let him get it, and he went
30:46
Speaker 1: to pick it up. So that's why he was there
30:48
Speaker 1: forget the dirty laundry. Is it about midnight? Correct? And
30:52
Speaker 1: he saw her leave for her day. No, he didn't
30:54
Speaker 1: know she was on a date. He knew no one
30:56
Speaker 1: was in the house. Okay, I thought you said that
31:00
Speaker 1: she left. No, she was in her house, and he
31:03
Speaker 1: came around almost been nice to pick up some of
31:05
Speaker 1: the clothes that they had bought when they went shopping earlier.
31:08
Speaker 1: I got it. And she was perfectly fine at midnight.
31:11
Speaker 1: Is that right? That's correct? Okay, he stepped at Frank
31:14
Speaker 1: rank Ye helped me understand the timeline. Yes, she stepped out.
31:17
Speaker 1: And if you listen to the narrative. Speaking yesterday with
31:20
Speaker 1: Peter Karranis, who is the gentleman's attorney, the bumblday's attorney,
31:25
Speaker 1: he said that this gentleman described in the police report
31:32
Speaker 1: her stepping out, and he said it was He thought
31:34
Speaker 1: it was unusual that she took such a long period
31:37
Speaker 1: of time, and there seems to be kind of the
31:40
Speaker 1: veiled implication that what else was going on during that period.
31:45
Speaker 1: You know, I dealt with the family there very forthright,
31:47
Speaker 1: and I got the impression that they were genuinely shocked.
31:50
Speaker 1: There was no talk of any illicit drugs or anything
31:53
Speaker 1: like that. It was simple exchange, innocent exchange, as they
31:57
Speaker 1: described it, of those items. So midnight that night, she's fine.
32:04
Speaker 1: Six thirty the next morning she's dead. Do I have
32:08
Speaker 1: that much right? Everybody? You do? Yes? And did the
32:11
Speaker 1: brother know that there was the date there at the house? No?
32:15
Speaker 1: He did not? Got it? All right? What about that timeline,
32:20
Speaker 1: doctor Moroney? Well, that's why you would think that there's
32:24
Speaker 1: some kind of drug facilitated sexual relationship from this new
32:30
Speaker 1: other person. And she's so vulnerable. You've never done drugs before.
32:36
Speaker 1: And Fentinel's what we used to put you asleep, to
32:40
Speaker 1: take your gold ladder out or to have sex with you.
32:43
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I mean TU came into it. Can
32:48
Speaker 1: I tell you something else? I learned the blood and
32:51
Speaker 1: the center of the bed. I think either Darnell or
32:54
Speaker 1: Frank Rekia we're telling me about that. The blood and
32:57
Speaker 1: the center of her bed had shrieks going to the
33:02
Speaker 1: right side of the bed, which tells me body was moved,
33:08
Speaker 1: she was a bond over or removed. Yes, that is staging.
33:12
Speaker 1: Why is there staging? Again? Let me say for the
33:16
Speaker 1: unteenth time, Matthew la Fountain, the day the design engineer
33:21
Speaker 1: has not been connected to any evidence that he gave
33:27
Speaker 1: her an od R. Let me just keep saying that
33:31
Speaker 1: doctor Carolin West, you want, I mean, professor Clinical Psychology,
33:34
Speaker 1: University Washington, Tacoma. What are your thoughts, doctor West. Again,
33:39
Speaker 1: we don't know what his role in this was, but
33:44
Speaker 1: I teach a course on family violence. I teach a
33:47
Speaker 1: course on sexual assault, and I think we have to
33:51
Speaker 1: think about the angle of the dating apps in this.
33:56
Speaker 1: Perpetrators who commit types of times like this, they're very
34:02
Speaker 1: strategic about who they target, and they're going those stating
34:08
Speaker 1: apps are just a great way of targeting people, sadly,
34:12
Speaker 1: and so what kinds of vulnerabilities did he pick up
34:15
Speaker 1: on her? She was much younger, she didn't know him
34:21
Speaker 1: very well coming to her house, and that's a great way, unfortunately,
34:27
Speaker 1: to isolate victims so that they can commit sexual assault.
34:32
Speaker 1: So we have to understand the whole grooming process that
34:37
Speaker 1: perpetrators potentially could use. So I'm really concerned about the
34:40
Speaker 1: vulnerability that he may have taken advantage of. And Nancy,
34:45
Speaker 1: can I jump in there on this? John L. Cross
34:47
Speaker 1: and again speaking you know, the guest makes a good
34:52
Speaker 1: point here. Bumble has made it clear that they tried
34:56
Speaker 1: to vet their members the best they can, and Bumble
34:59
Speaker 1: has reached out to my office and made a public
35:01
Speaker 1: statement that as of yesterday, the police department still has
35:05
Speaker 1: not called them to ask for anything, and Bumble has
35:08
Speaker 1: said that they try their best to cooperate with law enforcement.
35:12
Speaker 1: So we should not be sitting here guessing at every
35:14
Speaker 1: single angle. Come on, police officers do some work. They
35:19
Speaker 1: did even call Bumble and said can we can we
35:21
Speaker 1: have the transcript of the communications between the two, So
35:24
Speaker 1: as your guests just stated, we can see what this
35:26
Speaker 1: communication was like with this young lady, they didactly. I
35:31
Speaker 1: was seeing the exact same thing. Those phone records something
35:34
Speaker 1: to show what kind of communication happened here. One thing
35:38
Speaker 1: that's happening also, guys is done Crossland and Frank Rakia
35:42
Speaker 1: explain to me this. There are people saying that the brother,
35:48
Speaker 1: her brother, came over, she went outside for a few moments,
35:52
Speaker 1: met with him, and went back to the back for
35:54
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. Are they trying to suggest at the brother
35:59
Speaker 1: O dater resolutely? And and that was all derived from
36:03
Speaker 1: the self serving statement that the same Matthew la Fountain
36:07
Speaker 1: who changed his Facebook, who changed his name immediately after
36:10
Speaker 1: she died, provided and he could provide whatever he wants.
36:13
Speaker 1: Do you mean change Facebook? And change name. Explain, I
36:17
Speaker 1: mean right after um Lauren died, his Facebook used to
36:20
Speaker 1: say Matthew la Fontaine. Then he changes to Matt Thomas,
36:24
Speaker 1: but the Facebook was the same. He just changed his name.
36:26
Speaker 1: So all the experts are saying that kind of behavior
36:29
Speaker 1: is indicative. Um, yet still his lawyers saying he's cooperating.
36:33
Speaker 1: We don't. We reject that notion. But again he creates
36:37
Speaker 1: a timeline that she went out to see her brother
36:39
Speaker 1: and then she came back in. He said that she
36:42
Speaker 1: looked sick, but then they kept on drinking. So he
36:46
Speaker 1: has a duty to render assistance to somebody who may
36:49
Speaker 1: be sick, and he didn't know she was sick. Where
36:51
Speaker 1: does the year's condumn come in? Um? Frank reki a question,
36:55
Speaker 1: do you uh is mister la Fountain still co operriting? Well,
37:01
Speaker 1: we spoke exclusively with his attorney yesterday. You played a
37:04
Speaker 1: clip with that Peter Crianas, and Peter Corrianis continues to
37:07
Speaker 1: assert that his client has cooperated fully and will continue
37:12
Speaker 1: to cooperate. However, when we did ask directly if he
37:16
Speaker 1: would be willing to submit a DNA sample, he didn't comment,
37:21
Speaker 1: but he said that his client is willing to continue cooperated,
37:25
Speaker 1: also pointing out that his client has no criminal record. Well,
37:29
Speaker 1: did Laurence Smith have a criminal record? No? Did her brother?
37:34
Speaker 1: Her brother? One of her brothers a firefighter, I know,
37:37
Speaker 1: and I know you have to go betted through that.
37:39
Speaker 1: And the other brother, I'm not sure if he has
37:41
Speaker 1: a public criminal record or maybe a juvenile record. What
37:44
Speaker 1: about the one that came over that night, That's what
37:46
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So I only know one is a firefighter
37:50
Speaker 1: and they go to a service betting in the city
37:52
Speaker 1: of Bridgeport, and the other brother works with his father
37:55
Speaker 1: a Jim. I haven't pulled his criminal record. Question which
37:57
Speaker 1: one came over that night? Came over that night? Is
38:01
Speaker 1: that the firefighter or the one that works at the
38:03
Speaker 1: gems the one that works at the gym? Right? Rick? Here?
38:06
Speaker 1: Where does the case stand? Right now? Right now? The
38:08
Speaker 1: DA has been called in the mayor of Bridgeport following
38:12
Speaker 1: a big march that took place on Sunday, which came
38:16
Speaker 1: days after our reporting getting the word out in the
38:21
Speaker 1: mayor brought in the Federal Drug enforce and Administration. Okay,
38:25
Speaker 1: so they brought in the FEDS. They brought into bed
38:28
Speaker 1: and final thought to you Paul's like, well, the feds
38:30
Speaker 1: are going to be looking at the Fetenall angle. I
38:32
Speaker 1: mean obviously that's you know, that's what they do with
38:36
Speaker 1: the DA. They're going to look at that angle. But
38:38
Speaker 1: the bottom line is so many of the questions that
38:42
Speaker 1: everyone has brought up and the family's bringing up comes
38:45
Speaker 1: down to one foundational element. That is, this was not
38:48
Speaker 1: investigated as a homicide. Therefore all these you know, different
38:53
Speaker 1: things weren't done. I mean, you wake up next to
38:55
Speaker 1: a dead woman in your bed and you're able to
38:59
Speaker 1: leave even you're not you know, you're not investigated. Is
39:02
Speaker 1: if you may have something to do with that. The
39:05
Speaker 1: unfortunate truth is most law enforcement agencies and even homicide
39:10
Speaker 1: units are not equipped or ready to detect deception or
39:16
Speaker 1: scenes that have been set up. If somebody's really good
39:19
Speaker 1: at deception, when they when it comes to positioning bodies,
39:22
Speaker 1: changing you know, details around, they're going to believe the
39:25
Speaker 1: first thing that they can get their their mind around.
39:29
Speaker 1: We wait as just as unfolds. Tipline two zero three
39:32
Speaker 1: five seven six tips repeat two zero three five seven
39:37
Speaker 1: six eight four seven seven Nancy Grace Crum's story signing
39:41
Speaker 1: off Goodbye Friend,