Court calls for medical data of Kentucky cheerleader accused of hiding new child’s physique in closet

A new subpoena has demanded the medical records of a University of Kentucky cheerleader accused of hiding her newborn baby’s dead body in a closet.

Laken Snelling was arrested on August 30, 10 days after police found the body of a baby boy wrapped in a trash bag and towel in her bedroom closet at her college home in Lexington, Kentucky.

The 21-year-old is facing charges of abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant. 

On December 10, a subpoena was filed which orders the University of Kentucky Medical Center to hand over Snelling’s full medical records between August 2024 and now.

The information provided in the file could help investigators as they seek to piece together the tragic case.

The University of Kentucky Medical Center has until January 20 to comply and hand over the file. 

Snelling remains under house arrest and is subjected to electronic monitoring at her father’s home in Jefferson County as per the conditions of her bail.

Authorities believe the glamorous former cheerleader gave birth to the child in the early morning hours of August 27, and the infant was alive at the time of delivery.

Additional testing of the baby’s corpse was underway by the Fayette County Coroner’s office to determine his cause of death after an initial autopsy was determined to be inconclusive.

While that additional testing was requested back in October, the results have not yet been made public. 

Snelling has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Prosecutors alleged Snelling gave birth at 4am on August 27, when her roommates said they heard loud noises coming from her bedroom.

Snelling told police days later she was awake for about half an hour following childbirth before she passed out on top of the infant, according to an affidavit.

When she awoke, Snelling allegedly said she saw the baby was ‘turning blue and purple,’ leading her to believe the child was dead.

At that point, she said she wrapped the baby up ‘like a burrito and laid it on the floor next to her because it gave her a little comfort in the moment.’

She then apparently fell asleep again, and woke up to her alarm at 7.30am – at which point she allegedly placed the baby in a towel and the placenta in a black trash bag, which she placed in her closet.

When she then saw her roommates, Snelling told them the loud noises they heard were simply her passing out and falling.

She also told them she was going to a doctor because ‘she had not eaten and had not been feeling well,’ according to the affidavit.

Snelling did go to a student clinic in the aftermath, but did not go inside, the document claimed.

While she was gone, her roommates – who were said to have been suspicious of the pregnancy Snelling was hiding and the noises overnight – went into her room and found a ‘blood-soaked towel on the floor and a plastic bag containing evidence of childbirth,’ prosecutors allege.

When one of the roommates then made the gruesome discovery, she reported to police that the infant was ‘cold to the touch.’

By the time Snelling returned to her college home, she was detained by police.

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, 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 says.

Snelling was a senior at the University of Kentucky at the time of her arrest and a member of the cheerleading stunt team.

She has since withdrawn her position at the school.

It is unclear if she ever told anyone about her pregnancy.