Sometimes a headline hits the internet and everyone collectively stops scrolling for a second. This is one of those stories. It involves former University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling, and the details are about as grim as they come.
Snelling, 21, has been re-arrested in connection with the death of her newborn child. According to reports, a grand jury recently indicted her on a new charge related to the shocking case. Following the indictment, she was booked into the Fayette County Detention Center.
She was released Thursday when her dad posted her $10,000 bail, according to court records obtained by the outlet.
Snelling’s indictment and subsequent arrest this week — she was first cuffed in late August when the baby’s body was discovered — came after the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office determined the infant’s cause of death was “asphyxia by undetermined means,” police said.
Snelling gave birth to the boy in her off-campus house in Lexington at around 4 a.m. on Aug. 27, 2025.
Her horrified college roommates were the first to discover the dead newborn in a black plastic bag stuffed in Snelling’s closet.
They also found a “blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of childbirth” – as well as the infant, who was “cold to the touch,” they told a 911 operator.
The roommates — who had suspected the cheerleader was concealing a pregnancy — later told cops they’d heard loud, strange noises coming from Snelling’s room around the time she gave birth.
Snelling then allegedly tried to clean up the scene, showered and left the house – skipping morning classes and a visit to the school clinic – and went to McDonald’s.
As the case moves through the courts, more details will likely emerge. For now, the focus remains on the investigation and the legal proceedings ahead.
And if there’s one thing everyone seems to agree on, it’s this: some headlines aren’t shocking because they’re dramatic, they’re shocking because they’re heartbreaking.
