Cardi B Is Demanding Justice for Lauren Smith-Fields

Last month, Smith-Fields — a 23-year-old Black woman — was found dead in her apartment after a Bumble date with a 37-year-old white man named Matthew LaFountain. Her cause of death was an overdose involving a mixture of fentanyl, promethazine, hydroxyzine and alcohol, which was ruled an accident by Connecticut's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. However, the coroner's assessment has still left her family with many questions involving the investigation, with Smith-Fields's loved ones accusing the police of not taking the case seriously. Currently, they are pursuing an independent autopsy and plan to sue the city of Bridgeport for its "racially insensitive" handling of the investigation.

According to Smith-Field family lawyer, Darnell Crosland, the college student's death highlights the vast discrepancies between cases involving Black women and white women such as Gabby Petito, whose disappearance and death led to widespread public concern and a thorough FBI investigation.

“When a white woman goes missing, the whole world drops everything," he said. "We are done with this valuation."

As such, Cardi is now using her massive platform to draw attention to the case, writing that the subsequent framing of Smith-Fields's death has "made it seem like she was wit a old ass man lookin to trick on her."

“I’m disgusted on how they spin the narrative specially because I see people saying online ‘that’s wat she gets,'” she recently tweeted, before following up with another post condemning the state of Connecticut for "failing" Smith-Fields and demanding "Justice for Lauren."

On the heels of Cardi's tweets, Crosland took to his own Twitter on Wednesday to thank the rapper for helping launch a criminal probe into Smith-Fields's death and LaFontain's alleged involvement. TMZ also reported that Smith-Fields's family is "overjoyed" by Cardi's support and has given her an open invitation to check in for updates on the investigation.

See Cardi's tweets for yourself below.

Naa this man don’t look old and it’s not old at all and yet the media made it seem like she was wit a old ass man lookin to trick on https://t.co/2btR6XvluQ disgusted on how they spin the narrative specially because I see people saying online “that’s wat she gets” pic.twitter.com/JeEwY6tYaY

— Cardi B (@iamcardib) January 23, 2022

This is sooo scary!!!A fictional murderer character but in real life!! Justice for Lauren.Connecticut you have failed that young lady!!! pic.twitter.com/hYce46KfYD

— Cardi B (@iamcardib) January 24, 2022

Photo via Getty / Kevin Mazur