Former University of Kentucky cheerleader, 21, indicted for manslaughter of newborn son who was found dead in closet
Former University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling has been indicted on first-degree manslaughter charges after her newborn son was found dead in a closet.
Snelling, 21, was charged on Tuesday by a Fayette County grand jury following a report by the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office that found her baby was born alive in August 2025 and the cause of death was asphyxia.
Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney Kimberly Baird told WKYT that the medical examiner’s report was key to securing the grand jury indictment.
‘They were given the information about homicide, the four levels of homicide and then deliberated and decided that manslaughter first degree was the charge that should come out of the grand jury,’ Baird said.
Snelling made headlines last year when her newborn son was discovered hidden in a closet in her off-campus apartment, wrapped in a trash bag and a towel.
She was charged at the time with abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant, and she pleaded not guilty.
Snelling has been on house arrest at her family home in Tennessee since October, and following her arrest she withdrew from the University of Kentucky and left the school’s cheerleading team.
The 21-year-old now faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted on charges of first-degree manslaughter, and an additional 11 years for the remaining charges.
Former University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling has been indicted on first-degree manslaughter charges over the death of her newborn son in August
Snelling was believed by her friends to have been hiding her pregnancy before allegedly disposing of the newborn when she gave birth in August, police said. Photos from last April shows Snelling performing with UK’s STUNT team with what appears to be a pregnant bump on her stomach
Baird said Snelling is due back in court within the next three weeks, but did not give a date.
The cheerleader was first charged on August 30, 2025, three days after she gave birth to a baby boy in her off-campus bedroom.
Her roommates told police that they believed she was concealing a pregnancy for some time, and said they heard strange noises coming from her room when she gave birth.
After giving birth, Snelling allegedly cleaned up the scene and left her home to go to McDonald’s.
Her roommates said they then discovered the newborn baby dead in a blood-soaked towel on the floor of her closet, wrapped in a plastic bag.
When one of the roommates then made the gruesome discovery, she reported to police that the infant was ‘cold to the touch.’
Snelling was arrested when she returned to the apartment, and in her first police interview she claimed the newborn was already dead when she gave birth.
Snelling is now facing charges of first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant
Snelling, 21, was charged on Tuesday by a Fayette County grand jury following a bombshell report by the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office that found her baby was born alive and the cause of death was asphyxia
The former cheerleader has been on house arrest since October
She initially said she didn’t believe the baby was ‘breathing or alive’, and then claimed to have passed out ‘on top of the baby’, and woke up to find it ‘turning blue and purple’, reports the New York Post.
Court documents said Snelling told investigators she wrapped her newborn up ‘like a burrito’ and ‘laid next to it’, explaining that she was panicking and it ‘gave her a little comfort in the moment.’
Police later alleged that Snelling told a medical worker that her newborn had shown ‘a little bit of fetal movement’, and made a ‘whimper’ when he was born.
As officers continued to investigate in the days that followed, they executed a search warrant on Snelling’s phone and requested access to her Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and a shared iCloud account with her mother.
The probe revealed that Snelling had made a number of Internet searches ‘including different things pertaining to pregnancy, images of her during labor, photos of her doing things ordinary pregnant woman should not be doing and a concealed or hidden pregnancy,’ the affidavit said.
‘Other items could have also been deleted in an attempt to hide any evidence of the pregnancy, birth and newborn baby,’ Lexington police note, including information related to ‘the birth of the full-term baby.’
Authorities also found that her phone contained ‘images of her during labor,’ which she allegedly ‘deleted in an attempt to hide the birth.’
She posted photos in June of her with her then-boyfriend, former college basketball star Connor Jordan, 24
Snelling told cops she was conscious for 30 minutes after giving birth, before ‘falling asleep on top of the baby and going back to sleep,’ her arrest affidavit states
It is unclear whether Snelling, who has since dropped out of school, had told anyone she was pregnant.
However, unearthed footage from April shows Snelling performing with UK’s STUNT team with what appears to be a pregnancy bump.
Snelling also posted images in June where her then-boyfriend, former college basketball star Connor Jordan, 24, where she seemed to cover her front.
But Daily Mail also revealed Snelling was previously in a relationship with college quarterback Izaiah Hall who underwent a DNA test to determine whether the baby was his.
