While it seemed like a normal Saturday morning in Lexington, Kentucky, police officers happened upon a murder scene out of a Nancy Drew mystery novel, but this was reality. According to a report by the Lexington Police Department, a University of Kentucky student and cheerleader who was only 21 years old, Laken Snelling, was arrested after her newborn baby’s body was discovered wrapped in a towel and put inside a black garbage bag in her closet.
The news came in approximately 10:30 a.m. on August 30, after police went to a home on Park Avenue in response to a report that an infant was unconscious. By then, it was too late. The infant was declared dead at the scene. The cause of death will be determined later this week by the Fayette County Coroner’s Office, but it was grim enough to put the entire campus community in shock.
From Pom Poms to Prison Bars
Snelling, a senior and a three-year STUNT cheerleading team member at the university, pleaded guilty to having given birth, police reports say. What follows is hiding the baby in a closet, which has now landed her in jail.
She stands accused of a shocking trio of crimes: abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and hindering the prosecution of the birth of an infant.
The university, in a frantic attempt to disassociate itself from the atrocity, verified her team affiliation but did not provide any further information beyond directing all inquiries to the police. A letter sent to The Independent bluntly stated:
“Absolutely, I can verify that she was part of our STUNT team in these past three seasons. All other inquiries can be made to the Lexington Police.”
A State without a Choice
This murder took place amidst Kentucky’s abortion prohibition, which has been the law since 2022. Almost all abortions are prohibited within the state, and so girls like Snelling have essentially nowhere legal or safe to turn. Whether or not desperation was a factor in this crime, we can’t say, but location and time can’t be discounted.
In a state where freedom to reproduce is limited, these stories generate discussion going beyond a given case, involving law, morality, and behind-the-scenes forces normally internalized by students.
The Body in the Bag
The warrant outlines the chilling discovery: the small body, wrapped snugly in a towel, concealed in a garbage bag, tucked in a dark corner of a closet. Officers have referred to what they found as a haunting, a concealed crime scene that bespeaks panic, terror, and secrecy.
WLWT obtained the police report, which confirmed every gruesome detail. What began as a call about an “unresponsive infant” unraveled into a story of concealment so chilling it rattled the entire campus.
A Picture-Perfect Life Shattered
On paper, Snelling was the kind of student universities love to parade around: Tennessee-raised, competitive cheerleader, member of an athletic program, and a senior approaching graduation. But behind that smiling team photo, something far darker was hiding.
She remains in the Fayette County Detention Center.
The Lingering Questions
Why did she keep it a secret? What else did others know about what was going on? Desperation? Denial? Something sinister? She was reportedly coy with police about having given birth, but not a single other detail regarding what came next and why a baby was left in a closet. Thanks to Kamala’s silence.
There’s commotion on the University of Kentucky campus, parents are disgusted, and students can’t help but be curious about how a story this sad could have unfolded right across from their school classrooms.
This is not only a crime, but it is a mystery. A perplexing enigma that has everyone speculating whether this cheerleading smile concealed a personal hell, or if it was a product of a lethal decision made behind closed doors. The coroner’s report will eventually come out to say how this baby died. But the bigger mystery that holds Lexington tonight is why.
