A former University of Kentucky cheerleader, Laken Snelling, finds herself at the center of a grim legal battle, as authorities have issued an arrest warrant in the wake of her newborn son’s tragic death. The young mother, aged 22, was formally indicted on charges of first-degree manslaughter for the August 2025 incident, where she is accused of wrapping her newborn in a towel and placing him in a trash bag after childbirth.
Snelling’s legal troubles began in September when she was placed under house arrest. Initially, she faced charges of corpse abuse, evidence tampering, and concealing the birth of her infant. Though she entered a plea of not guilty to these accusations, the recent manslaughter charge has intensified the legal proceedings against her.
The indictment, which could result in a 20-year prison sentence if Snelling is convicted, emerged after the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office released a report. The findings were harrowing, stating that the infant was born alive and later died due to asphyxia.
With the new charges, Snelling also faces an additional potential 11-year sentence for the original counts. As the case progresses, it continues to captivate attention, raising somber questions about the circumstances surrounding the infant’s death.
She now faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted and an additional 11 years for the remaining counts.
Her indictment this week followed a report by the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office that found her baby was born alive but died from asphyxia.
Snelling made headlines last year when the body of her newborn son was discovered hidden in a closet in her off-campus apartment by her horrified roommates.
An arrest warrant has been issued for a former Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling, 22, whose newborn son was found dead in her closet in August 2025
Snelling was believed by her friends to have been hiding her pregnancy before allegedly disposing of the newborn when she gave birth in August, police said. Photos from last April shows Snelling performing with UK’s STUNT team with what appears to be a pregnant bump on her stomach
The cheerleader was first charged on August 30, 2025, three days after she gave birth.
Her roommates told police that they believed she was concealing a pregnancy for some time, and said they heard strange noises coming from her room during labor.
After giving birth, Snelling allegedly cleaned up the scene and left her home to go to McDonald’s.
Her roommates said they then discovered the newborn baby dead in a blood-soaked towel on the floor of her closet, wrapped in a plastic bag.
One friend said she reported to police that the infant was ‘cold to the touch’ when they found him.
Snelling was arrested when she returned to the apartment, and in her first police interview she claimed the newborn was stillborn.
She initially said she didn’t believe the baby was ‘breathing or alive’, and then claimed to have passed out ‘on top of the baby’, and woke up to find him ‘turning blue and purple.’
In exclusive Daily Mail images, the former cheerleader was spotted in October walking the streets for the first time since she was placed under house arrest
Snelling, 22, was charged on Tuesday by a Fayette County grand jury following a bombshell report by the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office that found her baby was born alive and the cause of death was asphyxia
Snelling is now facing charges of first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant
Snelling told cops she was conscious for 30 minutes after giving birth, before ‘falling asleep on top of the baby and going back to sleep,’ her arrest affidavit states
Court documents said Snelling told investigators she wrapped her newborn up ‘like a burrito’ and ‘laid next to it’, explaining that she was panicking and it ‘gave her a little comfort in the moment.’
Police later alleged that Snelling told a medical worker that her newborn had shown ‘a little bit of fetal movement’, and made a ‘whimper’ when he was born.
As officers continued to investigate in the days that followed, they executed a search warrant on Snelling’s phone and requested access to her Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and a shared iCloud account with her mother.
The probe revealed that Snelling had made a number of Internet searches ‘including different things pertaining to pregnancy’, the search also uncovered ‘images of her during labor, photos of her doing things ordinary pregnant woman should not be doing and a concealed or hidden pregnancy,’ the affidavit said.
‘Other items could have also been deleted in an attempt to hide any evidence of the pregnancy, birth and newborn baby,’ Lexington police note, including information related to ‘the birth of the full-term baby.’
Authorities also found that her phone contained ‘images of her during labor,’ which she allegedly ‘deleted in an attempt to hide the birth.’
She posted photos in June of her with her then-boyfriend, former college basketball star Connor Jordan, 24
The former cheerleader has been on house arrest since October
It is unclear whether Snelling, who has since dropped out of school, had told anyone she was pregnant.
However, unearthed footage from April shows Snelling performing with UK’s STUNT team with what appears to be a pregnancy bump.
Snelling also posted images in June where her then-boyfriend, former college basketball star Connor Jordan, 24, where she seemed to cover her front.
She has not publicly disclosed who the father is.
But the Daily Mail previously revealed Snelling was previously in a relationship with college quarterback Izaiah Hall who underwent a DNA test to determine whether the baby was his back in September.
