Former University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling has been arrested after being indicted for manslaughter in the death of her newborn baby.
Snelling, 22, was booked into the Fayette County Detention Center on Thursday, March 12. The cheerleader posed for a mugshot while wearing an orange jumpsuit, with her blonde hair in a braid draped down her left side.
She was released after her father posted a $10,000 bond, per court records.
Snelling was indicted 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.
The manslaughter charge was issued after it was determined Snelling’s baby was alive when she gave birth in August 2025, before allegedly hiding the body in a closet in her Lexington, Kentucky, home.
The Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office determined the infant’s cause of death was “asphyxia by undetermined means.”
Snelling was arrested in August 2025 after her roommates found a “blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of childbirth.”
Laken Snelling Fayette County Detention Center
When questioned by authorities, 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.”
Snelling was released on $100,000 bond in September 2025 and ordered to live on house arrest.
She initially split time between her parents’ homes under a joint custody provision. Snelling spent her days at her mother’s home in Morristown, Tennessee, and her nights at her father’s home in Jefferson City, Tennessee, about 15 minutes away.
Laken Snelling Courtesy of Laken Snelling/Facebook
In October 2025, a judge ordered Snelling to home confinement at her father’s home. He also demanded Snelling wear a GPS tracking device.
Snelling waived her right to a preliminary trial in September 2025, instead opting for her case to be heard by a grand jury.
Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney Kimberly Baird explained the grand jury’s manslaughter indictment after the hearing on Tuesday.
The steps of former University of Kentucky competitive cheerleader Laken Snelling have been traced after she allegedly gave birth and hid the infant’s body in her closet. Snelling, 21, gave birth in the early morning hours of August 27, according to police records obtained by LEX18. The former cheerleader told police she passed out after […]
“They were given the information about homicide, the four levels of homicide and then deliberated and decided that manslaughter first degree was the charge that should come out of the grand jury,” Baird told WKYT.
At the time of her initial arrest, Snelling was a student-athlete at the University of Kentucky where she was a three-year member of the STUNT competitive cheerleading team.
A university spokesperson told Us Weekly in September 2025 that Snelling was no longer enrolled at the university or a member of the STUNT squad.
Snelling’s next court date is scheduled for April 10.
