Cheerleader indicted in infant death case after competing nationally
Just a few months prior to allegedly giving birth and concealing an infant's remains in a refuse bag, former University of Kentucky competitive cheerleader Laken Snelling was actively performing on the competition floor.
The 21-year-old Snelling is featured competing at the 2025 STUNT National Championship on April 25, as captured in a video accessible on the FloCheer YouTube channel.
On August 30, the cheer athlete was apprehended and subsequently indicted on charges including abuse of a corpse, obstruction of physical evidence, and concealing an infant's birth.
Following her release on a $100,000 bond, she is currently under “home incarceration without an ankle monitor,” residing with her parents in Tennessee.
In a Lexington courtroom appearance on Tuesday, September 2, Snelling entered a plea of not guilty to the entirety of the accusations.
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The footage depicts Snelling assisting in elevating a teammate during a routine performance.
Elsewhere in the same video, Snelling demonstrates her role as a supportive teammate, animatedly cheering on another athlete from the sidelines.
At the national championship, hosted at Nashville’s Lipscomb University, the University of Kentucky STUNT team was defeated by California Baptist University.
This victory marked Cal Baptist’s fifth consecutive national championship in STUNT.
USA Cheer describes STUNT as a discipline that “eliminates the traditional crowd-engagement aspect, concentrating instead on cheer’s technical and athletic dimensions, such as partner stunts, pyramids, basket tosses, group jumps, and tumbling. These components are combined into brief routines that both competing teams execute simultaneously on the performance floor.”
Prior to her apprehension last month, Snelling had been a member of the University of Kentucky STUNT team for three competitive seasons.
On Friday, September 5, a university representative informed Us Weekly that Snelling is no longer affiliated with the institution as a student or as a member of the STUNT team.
Snelling was taken into custody at her Lexington, Kentucky residence on August 30, subsequent to authorities having previously attended the location on August 27 following a report of an unresponsive infant.
An arrest citation states that the “infant was discovered enveloped in a towel within a black trash bag.”
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While being interviewed by law enforcement officials at the scene, Snelling “confessed to having given birth.”
Snelling further acknowledged “masking the birth by clearing all evidence and placing all utilized cleaning materials into a black trash bag, alongside the infant, who had been wrapped in a towel.”
On Monday, September 8, a spokesperson for the Lexington Police Department communicated to Us Weekly that the inquiry into the birth and the infant's demise is “still active.”
Snelling’s initial court proceeding is slated for September 26.
