Name supression lapses for Elizabeth Smith, accused of murdering Dean Fifield in West Auckland

Suppression has now lapsed for an accountant from West Auckland who was charged with murder last month after a man was hit and killed by a car.

Massey resident Elizabeth Lynn Smith, 40, abandoned her interim suppression request today as she appeared for the first time in the dock in the High Court at Auckland.

Justice Mathew Downs set a trial date for September next year.

She had previously pleaded not guilty to murder in Waitakere District Court last month before the case was transferred, as are all murder and manslaughter allegations, to the High Court.

Police were called to the scene of Moire Rd in Massey about 11.20pm on June 13, where they found the body of father-of-three Dean Fifield.

Auckland resident Dean Fifield was fatally struck by a car in Massey in June 2024. Elizabeth Lynn Smith has been charged with murder. Photo / Supplied

“Despite efforts from first responders, the man sadly died at the scene,” Detective Senior Sergeant Nick Poland said at the time, adding that Smith and Fifield were known to each other. “As such, police are not seeking anyone else in relation to this matter.”

Fifield described himself online as an avid amateur athlete with a background and passion for nutrition and food science.

“I believe you are what you eat, which reflects on happiness and wellbeing in our communities, providing the well-being to be and perform to everyone’s best,” he wrote on his LinkedInprofile. “Developing tasty consumer demanding healthy products which bump off the junk food products is one of my next big goals.”

Auckland accountant Elizabeth Lynn Smith appears in the High Court at Auckland, charged with the June 2024 murder of Dean Fifield in Massey. Photo / Michael Craig

In online tributes after his death, friends described him has “a lovely chap” and “a force to be reckoned with”.

“A big heart, you couldn´t help but want to help anyone that you passed paths with,” one person wrote.

Smith’s case will be called again in September.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.