Former University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling has been charged with first-degree manslaughter after her newborn son was found dead in her closet in August.
Snelling, 21, was indicted Tuesday by a Fayette County grand jury after the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office determined the baby was born alive and his cause of death was asphyxia by undetermined means. WKYT reported.
“They were given the information about murder and the four levels of murder and then deliberated and decided that first-degree manslaughter was the charge that should go before the grand jury,” Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney Kimberly Baird told the newspaper.
Snelling was originally charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of a child.
She pleaded not guilty to these charges and has been under house arrest at her parents’ home in Tennessee.
Following her arrest, Snelling withdrew from the University of Kentucky and is no longer part of the STUNT team.
She faces up to 20 years in prison for the first-degree manslaughter charge, and an additional 11 years for the remaining charges if found guilty.
The 21-year-old gave birth to a baby boy around 4 a.m. on August 27 at her off-campus home in Lexington.
Her roommates – who suspected Snelling was hiding a pregnancy – told police they heard loud, strange noises coming from her room throughout the early morning.
After the birth, she allegedly cleaned up the blood from the scene, took a shower and left her house – skipping morning classes and a visit to the school clinic – to go to McDonald’s.
While she was gone, her roommates entered the room and found a “blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of the birth.”
They discovered the newborn in a black plastic bag in a closet and called 911, telling the operator that the child “felt cold to the touch.”
When Snelling returned home, she saw that the police were already waiting for her and she was arrested.
Snelling initially told police the baby fell to the ground after she gave birth, but she didn’t think he was “breathing or alive.”
The cheerleader then claimed he passed out “on top of the baby” and woke up to find “the baby turning blue and purple.”
Snelling admitted that she “wrapped the baby up like a burrito and placed it next to her” because it “gave her some comfort at the time,” according to court documents.
However, an investigation later revealed that she told medical staff that the newborn had shown “a little fetal movement” and made a “whimper” after being born.
She also allegedly took several photos while she was in labor but deleted them “in an attempt to conceal the birth,” police said.
Investigators believe other images were successfully destroyed before her arrest.
