Former University of Kentucky competitive cheerleader Laken Snelling might soon be facing more serious charges in the death of her baby.
Snelling, 21, was arrested on August 30 and charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant. The cheerleader allegedly gave birth before hiding the baby in a trash bag in the closet at her Lexington, Kentucky home on August 27.
During an appearance on Court TV on Thursday, October 2, attorney Michael J. Brown, who is not affiliated with the case, said murder charges could “absolutely” be coming down against Snelling soon.
“I think they’re simply waiting for the medical examiner’s report, the finality of that, to see if they can get her on a homicide,” Brown said. “They absolutely want to go forward with a homicide.”
Snelling waived her right to a preliminary hearing during a court appearance on September 26. The case will now proceed to a grand jury.
During a September 2 court appearance, Snelling pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on $100,000 bond. She has been living on house arrest with her parents in Tennessee since.
The infant’s cause of death was ruled inconclusive, as “extensive microscopic analyses are essential to determine the cause and manner of death,” in a report by the Fayette County Coroner’s Office obtained by Us Weekly on September 4.
According to Lexington Police records obtained by LEX18, a search of Snelling’s phone found that she had searched for “different things pertaining to pregnancy, images of her during labor, photos of her doing things ordinary pregnant women should not be doing and a concealed or hidden pregnancy.”
“Some of the real important evidence that they have [is] the fact that these searches show she’s concealing the pregnancy, so she doesn’t want anybody to know,” Brown explained. “And then you have these apparent photographs after or during the childbirth, which have apparently been deleted. So she’s trying to hide that as well.”
Brown added, “Once they have the final autopsy report and they can establish the cause of death and then attribute that potentially to the defendant, I think absolutely you’ll see additional charges, including homicide, if not manslaughter. Potentially murder, as well.”
Lexington Police uncovered the deleted photos on Snelling’s phone, leading them to theorize “other items could have also been deleted in an attempt to hide any evidence of the pregnancy, birth and newborn baby.”
In the police report obtained by LEX18, Snelling alleges she passed out after giving birth and fell on top of the baby. When she woke up, she found the infant “turning blue and purple” and allegedly hid the baby in a trash bag in her closet.
Authorities received a call from a third party on August 27, reporting an infant that was “cold to the touch” and was found in a closet at their Lexington residence near the University of Kentucky’s campus.
When Snelling was later questioned by police, she “admitted to giving birth” and to “concealing the birth by cleaning any evidence, placing all cleaning items used inside of a black trash bag, including the infant, who was wrapped in a towel.”
At the time of her arrest, Snelling was a student at the University of Kentucky and a member of the school’s STUNT cheerleading team. A spokesperson for the school told Us Weekly on September 6 that Snelling is no longer enrolled at the university or part of the STUNT team.
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