Former UK athlete indicted for manslaughter, testing reveals baby was born alive
A former University of Kentucky athlete arrested after an infant was found dead in her closet was indicted Tuesday in the baby’s death.
Laken Snelling was indicted by a Fayette County grand jury on charges of first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant.
Snelling was arrested in August after police found an infant’s remains wrapped in a trash bag inside a closet at her home near downtown Lexington.
The Kentucky medical examiner’s office determined the baby was born alive and died of asphyxia, Lexington police said Tuesday.
Snelling, 21, was originally arrested and charged with concealing the birth of an infant, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. The manslaughter charge was added in the indictment.
She was a student at the university — she has since withdrawn — and was a member of the school’s STUNT team.
Since her arrest, Snelling has been out on bond at her parents’ homes in Tennessee. It is unclear when she will be brought back to Kentucky.
What happened in the case
Officers were dispatched to Snelling’s Lexington home at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 27 for a report of a “deceased infant,” 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.”
Snelling was a senior at UK at the time and studied interdisciplinary disability. She is originally from White Pine, Tennessee.
Snelling was a member of the university’s STUNT team, a new 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 told police she gave birth in her bedroom around 4 a.m. and the baby fell on the floor, according to her arrest citation.
“She didn’t think the baby was breathing or was alive,” police said wrote in the citation.
The citation shows her address is in the 400 block of Park Avenue, a single-home residence near downtown Lexington.
About 30 minutes later after giving birth, 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 evidence, placing cleaning items and the infant’s body, wrapped in a towel, inside a trash bag.
She 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” around 4 a.m. the day the baby was born. 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 found the baby placed in bags. Police wrote that it appeared to be a “full-term baby.”
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,” according to her arrest citation.
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 was required to determine those factors, Fayette Coroner Gary Ginn said.
Ginn said “extensive microscopic analysis” was required to determine how the baby died. His report confirmed the baby was a boy.
This story was originally published March 10, 2026 at 4:00 PM.
