Experts and talking heads have weighed in on a likely course of events following Kentucky Police’s discovery of a deceased “cold” newborn baby boy in cheerleader Laken Snelling’s closet on August 27.
Laken has since admitted to having given birth to the infant and cleaning up the evidence before, but pushed back against all other charges and is out on a $100,000 bond.
Highlights
- A newborn baby boy was found deceased in University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling’s closet on August 27.
- Snelling admitted to giving birth and cleaning up, but denies other charges; she is out on $100,000 bond.
- Police were alerted by a third-party tipster who reported the baby was “cold to the touch.”
It remains unclear who the father is, and thus the 21-year-old’s most recent boyfriend, Isaiah Hall, has surrendered a DNA sample.
The baby’s cold body was phoned in by “a third-party” tipster
Image credits: laken_snelling
An outlet that has seen the police filing claims says a tip was phoned in shortly after 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 27.
Emergency services arrived at the woman’s off-campus apartment a minute later, followed by the police, who appeared after another seven minutes.
The dispatcher’s account indicated that the “complainant (the tipster) just found a dead baby in a closet; it is cold to the touch.”
Image credits: laken_snelling
“One thing we know is that a third party called the police or called 911, saying that they had found this baby.”
The Fayette County Coroner is unclear on what caused the newborn’s demise
Another expert on the matter, Dr. Ryan Stanton, claimed all that was known about the infant was that it was cold to the touch and thus it had failed to meet the criteria for CPR.
Image credits: FloCheer
“It’s hard to tell on time, but likely, at least, more than a few hours,” he speculated.
The reason for the baby’s passing is just as opaque and appears to have flummoxed the attending medical examiner.
Tellingly, Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn is reported to have released an “inconclusive” report, following his autopsy.
Upon finding that Laken Snelling was not at her apartment, police started searching for her
Image credits: Laken Snelling/Facebook
Evans speculated further about the activities of the personnel in attendance when he said:
“The fire department’s going to dispatch what they need, and they send what they need and then send home what they don’t.”
“For police, it’s a little different. As the police have a crime scene, you need several officers to set that up; they may need to close a street.”
Image credits: Laken Snelling/Facebook
“They may just set up a perimeter; they may need to do a neighborhood investigation as well,” Evans observed of the likely ensuing processes.
It took local authorities less than an hour to find the would-be mother
But because Snelling was not at her apartment when law enforcement showed up, they instead started a search.
“They looked at the flock camera system, they had units go to locations that they thought she could be, and ultimately they located her at another location other than her home,” Evans said.
Image credits: laken_snelling
According to Fox 59, which claims to have seen the relevant police records, Snelling was located around 11:18, less than an hour after the tip was phoned in.
Correspondence from Dani Jaffe, the University of Kentucky’s communication associate director suggested these quick results were not due to campus police efforts.
“In this instance, UKPD, while asked to assist, did not locate or make contact with this individual on Aug. 27,” the institution’s rep said.
Police had Snelling examined by a medical professional before they officially placed her under arrest
Image credits: Fayette County Detention Center
The dispatcher's account indicated that by noon the same day, Snelling was at the Lexington police station undergoing a medical examination.
According to Evans, this procedure took place before she was formally arrested.
“Before you book somebody in, before you interview them, obviously, you’re going to give them what medical attention they need immediately,” he told the outlet.
By 4:58 p.m. that status had changed and she was “considered under arrest.”
Snelling is under house arrest while authorities try to figure out what caused her baby’s demise
Image credits: WBIR Channel 10
It would be another four days before Snelling was booked into detention, but this was downgraded on the same day (August 31) when police took her home and placed her in home detention.
She has since pleaded not guilty to the charges of “a**se of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant.”
Image credits: WBIR Channel 10
Snelling has since stepped away from her cheerleading responsibilities and disenrolled from the University of Kentucky.
She will be living with her parents in Tennessee while authorities continue their investigation into the cause of her baby’s demise.
Image credits: Laken Snelling/Facebook
Internet sleuths have since unearthed photos of the Kentuckian dressed up as a pregnant for Halloween 1o months before her baby was found.
According to TikToker AbbyBlabbly, they were shared by her learning institution's STUNT team but were deleted after she was arrested.
Some netizens feel Snelling is "obviously guilty" and "selfish" for putting her baby in a bag
