What we know — and don’t — about former UK student charged in baby’s death

Additional information has been released about the infant found dead in a Lexington home last month, including that the baby was believed to be delivered at full term, according to recent court documents.

Initially, Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn declined to answer any questions about “Infant Snelling,” who was found Aug. 27 wrapped in a trash bag inside the closet of a home on Park Avenue, near downtown Lexington.

Additional court documents were filed on Sept. 17 and first reported by the media on Sept. 26.

Officers were dispatched to the home after a call for a “deceased infant at 10:30 a.m.” on Aug. 27, according to the initial police citation.

The caller, who was unidentified in a heavily redacted dispatch record, said she found a “dead baby” in the closet, and it was “cold to the touch.” New court documents said one of Snelling’s roommates called the police to report finding the baby.

Laken Snelling, 21, was arrested and charged with concealing the birth of an infant, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. She was a student at the university — she has since withdrawn — and was a member of the STUNT team.

Snelling was not a UK cheerleader. STUNT is a women’s athletic program derived from cheerleading that focuses on technical and athletic skills like partner stunts, pyramids, tosses, jumps, tumbling and team routines.

Snelling was a senior at UK at the time of her arrest and studied interdisciplinary disability. She is originally from White Pine, Tennessee.

After she was arrested, given her rights and interviewed, Snelling “admitted to giving birth,” officers said in her arrest citation.

The incident has grabbed national attention. Since Snelling’s arrest, social and national media has erupted with claims — some of which are unsubstantiated or entirely false.

Speculation has run rampant as officials have remained mum on several key points of the investigation.

Here’s what we know — and don’t know — so far about the case.

Details of the coroner’s investigation

The police citation for the incident, posted Sept. 1 in online court records, said the infant was dead when police were called.

Snelling “admitted to giving birth” in an interview with police, according to the citation. Snelling told police she gave birth in her bedroom around 4 a.m., and the baby fell on the floor, according to a police account.

The citation shows the address in the 400 block Park Ave., near downtown Lexington. Several media reports have cited that the baby was found in a dorm, but the address is a single-home residence.

“She didn’t think the baby was breathing or was alive,” police said.

About 30 minutes later, Snelling said, she passed out and fell on top of the baby. When she woke up, Snelling said the baby was “turning blue and purple,” and she told police she wrapped him in a towel “like a burrito” and lay next to him on the floor “because it gave her a little comfort in the moment.”

Snelling “admitted to concealing the birth” by cleaning up any evidence, placing all the cleaning items used inside a trash bag, including the body of the infant who was wrapped in a towel.

Snelling then drove to school, but rather than going to class, police said, she sat in her vehicle in the parking lot and used an app to order food because she was not feeling well.

Snelling told police she then went to the University of Kentucky student health clinic, but she did not go inside.

Snelling’s roommates reported hearing noises “that sounded like something had fallen” for about an hour around 4 a.m. that day. Snelling told roommates in a Snapchat group message that the noises were from her passing out because she hadn’t eaten and wasn’t feeling well.

After Snelling left the house, roommates entered her room and found “a blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of child birth. They looked in Ms. Snelling’s closet and located the deceased newborn baby, placed in bags. The newborn appeared to be a full term baby,” police wrote.

Police said one of the roommates told them “all the occupants of the residence had suspicions that Ms. Snelling was pregnant but never confirmed it with her.”

Police arrived at the house around 10:30 a.m., and the baby was pronounced dead at the scene. Snelling was arrested later that day, and was taken to police headquarters for questioning and later transferred to UK Hospital for treatment.

“It should be noted that when speaking to medical staff at the University of Kentucky Labor and Delivery, she stated that the baby had a little bit of fetal movement, but passed out shortly after,” the documents state.

Police said Snelling “also told medical staff that the baby made a ‘whimper,’ and that she ‘guessed’ the baby was alive.”

The initial coroner’s report, released Sept. 3, was inconclusive for cause and manner of death. Further testing is required to determine those factors, Ginn said.

Ginn said “extensive microscopic analysis” was required to determine how the baby died. His report confirmed the baby was a boy.

Ginn declined to respond to questions, adding his office would not fulfill Kentucky Open Records Act requests from the Herald-Leader until the case was closed.

In a search of Snelling’s phone, police found “several searches including different things pertaining to pregnancy, images of her during labor, photos of her doing things ordinary pregnant women would not be doing, and a concealed or hidden pregnancy.

“Also, during the search of the phone, the photos that were taken while she was in labor were deleted in an attempt to hide the birth, which leads me to believe that other items could have also been deleted in an attempt to hide any evidence of the pregnancy, birth, and newborn baby.”

What Lexington police officials say about investigation

Police also have said the investigation is continuing, but they will not release further details.

“This is still an ongoing investigation, and we do not have any additional information to release at this time,” Hannah Sloan, spokesperson for the police department, said Sept. 9.

The Lexington Police Department is the agency that brings charges against a person accused of a crime. Officials would not say if they expected additional charges against Snelling.

Snelling’s ex-boyfriend, Izaiah Hall, recently gave a DNA sample to police, according to the New York Post. Public officials have not announced paternity results of the infant.

Snelling’s first court appearance was Sept. 2, where she entered a plea of not guilty. Under Kentucky law, defendants charged with felonies are required to plead not guilty at a district court hearing.

Snelling is now on home incarceration without an ankle monitor, residing with her parents in Tennessee.

Brandon Marshall, Snelling’s Lexington-based attorney, declined to comment and said he does not speak with reporters.

This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 12:07 PM.

Taylor Six

Lexington Herald-Leader

Taylor Six is the criminal justice reporter at the Herald-Leader. She was born and raised in Lexington attending Lafayette High School. She graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in 2018 with a degree in journalism. She previously worked as the government reporter for the Richmond Register.