KY-Laken Snelling, 21, arrested after giving birth and infant was found in closet

[cattlekate]

Where did she live during the summer? Wouldn’t her parents (if she was home) or employer (if she remained near campus) or stunt squad (if she did summer practice) have asked “are you pregnant?” She clearly is at least 1st trimester pregnant in the published blue-shirt stunt squad (unknown date) and “couples” June photo shoot. How could anyone not have known?

I do not understand why she even registered for her senior year. I also want to know WHEN she dropped out of the stunt team. Did she do summer practice and show up for Fall on the team? Why didn’t anyone confront her and say “you are pregnant?”

Also, did she even have pregnancy care? Or was she and her bf in total denial? Or did her bf dump her after the June photo shoot and she just went into robot mode - registering for classes, showing up at UK, and in total denial? I do not get why she thought she could give birth in Fall 25 during classes unless she was in utter denial.

 

[LooksSusToMe]

BBM:

I find it impossible to believe that "at which point getting anywhere near phone was not an option", and had she called 911 her baby may have survived like the mother's baby you described.

imo

Oh it’s very possible! I had a precipitous labor. This is what could have happened to her! Everyone tells you to “wait until the contractions are 2 mins. apart” before going to the hospital. Don’t listen to that!

The labor with my second child was traumatic. I thought we both were going to die. It was only a little over 2 hours from the point I first felt a contraction to her birth.

When I got to the hospital, I couldn’t walk. My body literally would not let me. I was already fully dilated. I could see a very real scenario where someone in labor could be away from a phone and unable to move.

I didn’t have a doctor present, a nurse delivered her. This caused her to injure her neck and be born with TTN. She was in the NICU one day. I was unable to have any pain medications or epidural. I’m not one who wanted a natural childbirth. It was excruciating. Unreal.

We faced challenges after that I won’t get into, but skip forward 14 years, she’s perfectly healthy.

If a situation like this happened to Laken, I feel bad. She should get mental help. If she purposely didn’t call for help or hurt the baby, then that’s a lot darker.

 

[Izzylizzy]

Oh it’s very possible! I had a precipitous labor. This is what could have happened to her! Everyone tells you to “wait until the contractions are 2 mins. apart” before going to the hospital. Don’t listen to that!

The labor with my second child was traumatic. I thought we both were going to die. It was only a little over 2 hours from the point I first felt a contraction to her birth.

When I got to the hospital, I couldn’t walk. My body literally would not let me. I was already fully dilated. I could see a very real scenario where someone in labor could be away from a phone and unable to move.

I didn’t have a doctor present, a nurse delivered her. This caused her to injure her neck and be born with TTN. She was in the NICU one day. I was unable to have any pain medications or epidural. I’m not one who wanted a natural childbirth. It was excruciating. Unreal.

We faced challenges after that I won’t get into, but skip forward 14 years, she’s perfectly healthy.

If a situation like this happened to Laken, I feel bad. She should get mental help. If she purposely didn’t call for help or hurt the baby, then that’s a lot darker.

For starters thankfully your daughter is healthy and at 14 most likely keeps you on your toes.
That said:

I'm confused by your post and how it relates to me not believing that LS didn't have access to her cell phone to call 911 throughout her labor or after her son was born even if it was a "precipitous labor".

Let's say that you were home alone when you went into labor, waiting it out for the 2 min apart contractions but it sped up considerably would you not have called 911?
imo

 

[teeby]

I've also had a precipitous labor that ended in an accidental homebirth, and honestly no, by the time I realized I was out of early labor, I could not physically have gotten my phone to call 911. At 4am I started timing contractions. I decided to leave for the hospital at 4:35am. At this point I was walking around grabbing the hospital bag and stuff, and calling 911 didn't even cross my mind. At 4:40, my water broke, the contractions suddenly kicked up to a level where I literally couldn't move, and the baby was born at 5:02. My husband called 911, but if I had been home alone, I wouldn't have been able to go to the other room and get my phone until after the whole thing was over.

If something went wrong with the birth and she lost consciousness and woke up to find the baby dead, or didn't call 911 right away because she thought the baby was ok and then the baby died, or the baby was born dead and she thought she'd be blamed -- I can see the instinct to panic and hide it. Obviously not the correct choice. But I can think of lots of scenarios where it really wasn't negligent of her that the baby died.

 

[Ghostwheel]

BBM:

I find it impossible to believe that "at which point getting anywhere near phone was not an option", and had she called 911 her baby may have survived like the mother's baby you described.

imo

You don't have to believe. My sister lived it. No 911 call by her because she was not capable of doing so once she realized what was happening. She just got lucky. Our life experiences shape what we know can be possible.

 

[GeorgiaRai]

IMO, regardless of all the scenarios we can imagine as to how she got there, the charges seem correct: abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant.

Maybe her son was stillborn but she wanted people (or certain persons) to continue thinking she was pregnant.

 

[Izzylizzy]

I've also had a precipitous labor that ended in an accidental homebirth, and honestly no, by the time I realized I was out of early labor, I could not physically have gotten my phone to call 911. At 4am I started timing contractions. I decided to leave for the hospital at 4:35am. At this point I was walking around grabbing the hospital bag and stuff, and calling 911 didn't even cross my mind. At 4:40, my water broke, the contractions suddenly kicked up to a level where I literally couldn't move, and the baby was born at 5:02. My husband called 911, but if I had been home alone, I wouldn't have been able to go to the other room and get my phone until after the whole thing was over.

If something went wrong with the birth and she lost consciousness and woke up to find the baby dead, or didn't call 911 right away because she thought the baby was ok and then the baby died, or the baby was born dead and she thought she'd be blamed -- I can see the instinct to panic and hide it. Obviously not the correct choice. But I can think of lots of scenarios where it really wasn't negligent of her that the baby died.

I'm not being insensitive to your situation but since you were walking around grabbing things what would have stopped you from getting your phone in the other room if your husband wasn't home?
I would think that you wouldn't be getting your hospital bag together and would get to the other room and call 911.
Also you weren't alone at home and I gather was relying on your husband to get you to the hospital.

I still don't believe that a social media gal like herself would not have her cell phone close by, like real close by at all times.
imo

 

[Inthedetails]

I'm not being insensitive to your situation but since you were walking around grabbing things what would have stopped you from getting your phone in the other room if your husband wasn't home?
I would think that you wouldn't be getting your hospital bag together and would get to the other room and call 911.
Also you weren't alone at home and I gather was relying on your husband to get you to the hospital.

I still don't believe that a social media gal like herself would not have her cell phone close by, like real close by at all times.
imo

I suppose we could all provide examples all day long of emergency births. One friend of mine started labor and it went so fast that as her husband ran to call the midwife, she screamed, "Get in here now!" She delivered in the bathroom before a call could be made for help. They were experienced parents and still were caught off-guard and couldn't summons help during labor.

A co-worker went into labor and left for the hospital, but didn't make it past her apartment building lobby and had the baby there. Her husband called 911, true, but a fire truck didn't arrive until after the baby was delivered.

In those cases, the babies were full-term and healthy. I don't condone putting a baby in a bag in the closet, but what if those two examples were about pre-mature babies who couldn't survive or were stillborns? Would they be blamed for not calling help soon enough?

Keep in mind, someone did indeed call 911. We don't know how long that took or who placed the call, iirc.

We will know details eventually. There is so much we don't know yet.

jmopinion

 

[cattlekate]

Now that I see the April 24 UK blue-shirt stunt photo/video which the Daily Mail published today but took it down within hours (probably due to copyright infringement) as well as LS’s published on Tik Tok Jun 18 couples photo shoot with the 3 hearts, I’m thinking she was in her first trimester then. Doing the math, she’d be around 26/27 weeks on Aug 27. Doing more math, full term would be early December. So perhaps LS was thinking she’d complete her senior Fall semester before baby was full term?

Of course I could be wrong and these are just my old lady guesses about a gestational timeline.

But I absolutely believe it is possible birth happened so fast and a panicked LS put a stillborn into a closet until she regrouped.

 

[tlcya]

While it remains unclear who fathered the dead infant, Hall refused to confirm to the outlet, which first reported news of the paternity test, when his son’s relationship with Snelling ended.

“I don’t really want to go into any more detail at this stage,” he said.
Cheerleader Laken Snelling’s ex-boyfriend provides DNA sample to cops after her newborn found dead in trash bag

 

[tlcya]

I really wish I'd taken screenshots of LS's social media posts because the timeline of when the new boyfriend came into the picture is pretty clear and would illuminate the timeline in such a way as to reveal the likely gestational age of the infant if it was indeed that of the ex.

 

[killarney rose]

She’s definitely at minimum early second trimester in that stunt photo. I have a hard time understanding why the staff allowed her to participate in such an activity when obviously pregnant. I have no doubt this was a full term or near term infant.

 

[Inthedetails]

She’s definitely at minimum early second trimester in that stunt photo. I have a hard time understanding why the staff allowed her to participate in such an activity when obviously pregnant. I have no doubt this was a full term or near term infant.

I don't know how far along she was, but the shape of that bump definitely looks like a baby bump. I can't imagine any woman who has been through pregnancy not recognizing it. But, then again, I don't think she was hiding it, fwiw.

jmopinion

 

[cattlekate]

To me, that photoshoot on TikTok looks like publicly declaring they are a couple expecting a baby, this boyfriend is the father, and he is happy about the pregnancy. I think she was making a claim on him as the daddy (whether true or not)....and that's why the photos haven't been taken down. My opinion only, at this point.

jmopinion

Agreed. The Tik Tok photos also had 3 hearts.

 

[helenff]

Plenty of women have given birth without being able to ask for help; most women who've ever been to a baby group will have heard at least one anecdote about a sudden bathroom birth. That's not the unbelieveable part.

I think we just have to wait for more news to come out. Some women suffer severe depression during pregnancy, not just post-partum.

fwiw I think she is obviously visibly pregnant, but if you're only around other young people and they don't know what that looks like, and she said she wasn't pregnant... slight room for complete denial, but I do agree its unlikely.

 

[reasonableguess]

I was adjunct faculty at UK in the 1990s. We had pregnant students all the time. I find the repeated "why did she register for the semester" comments bizarre.

 

[tlcya]

I agree, pregnancy is certainly no reason not to continue your education. I think those wondering why she registered for this semester are doing so under the assumption that she knew she was pregnant and was actively hiding it or purposefully not acknowledging it. IF she knew and IF she was pretending she was not, it would seem to be easier to keep secret by not returning to school in a gravid state.

 

[Inthedetails]

I agree, pregnancy is certainly no reason not to continue your education. I think those wondering why she registered for this semester are doing so under the assumption that she knew she was pregnant and was actively hiding it or purposefully not acknowledging it. IF she knew and IF she was pretending she was not, it would seem to be easier to keep secret by not returning to school in a gravid state.

Also, if she delivered full term at the end of August, she would still likely be recovering and spending time with newborn just as school started. But, then again, perhaps she didn't deliver full-term and didn't expect to deliver until later.

I can see it either way - some expecting moms would want to stay in school near delivery time and others wouldn't.

jmopinion

 

[aurycore]

Also, if she delivered full term at the end of August, she would still likely be recovering and spending time with newborn just as school started. But, then again, perhaps she didn't deliver full-term and didn't expect to deliver until later.

I can see it either way - some expecting moms would want to stay in school near delivery time and others wouldn't.

jmopinion

Could be the case. Also, doesn't pregnancy cause some sort of weight gain too? how did she manage to burn all of the fat around her stomach so quickly?

 

[Inthedetails]

Could be the case. Also, doesn't pregnancy cause some sort of weight gain too? how did she manage to burn all of the fat around her stomach so quickly?

She's young and athletic. That helps.

jmopinion