The Snapchat records of former University of Kentucky competitive cheerleader Laken Snelling provide disturbing details about the day she allegedly killed her newborn baby.
Around 4 a.m. on August 27, 2025, one of Snelling’s roommates sent a message via Snapchat saying she thought she heard a loud noise that sounded like something falling, according to court records obtained by WXYT.
The Snapchat history was obtained after Lexington police sought a search warrant as part of the investigation into the death of Snelling’s infant.
A second roommate of Snelling’s said she also heard the noise, which knocked a picture off the wall. One of the roommates said the noises lasted for about an hour.
Shortly after 9 a.m. that morning, Snelling, now 22, sent a message saying that the loud noises were the result of her passing out in her bedroom. Snelling said she wasn’t feeling well and hadn’t eaten, telling her roommates she was going to the doctor.
Snelling’s roommates were “curious” about her story, so they went into the cheerleader’s bedroom after she left.
In Snelling’s closet, the roommates found a “blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of childbirth” and called the police.
The loud noises are now believed to be the result of Snelling giving birth.
Snelling’s roommates told police they had suspected she might be pregnant but never asked her about it.
When she was questioned by authorities herself later that day, Snelling “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.”
After giving birth, Snelling told police she passed out on top of the infant’s body and woke up to find it “blue and purple.”
Snelling was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant on Tuesday, March 10, and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
The manslaughter indictment came after testing revealed Snelling’s baby was alive at the time it was born. The Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office determined the infant’s cause of death was “asphyxia by undetermined means.”
Snelling was booked into the Fayette County Detention Center on Thursday, March 12, where she took a mugshot wearing an orange jumpsuit. She was released on $10,000 bond, which was paid for by her father.
Snelling is due in court for an arraignment hearing on April 10.
