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Kentucky Student Charged After Newborn Found in Closet Pleads Not Guilty

Autopsy results remain pending ahead of her Sept. 26 hearing under home incarceration.

Overview

  • Police say officers responded Aug. 27 to a Lexington home on Park Avenue and found a deceased infant wrapped in a towel inside a black trash bag placed in a closet.
  • An arrest citation reports Laken Ashlee Snelling admitted to giving birth and to concealing the birth by cleaning evidence and placing items and the infant in the bag.
  • Snelling, 21, was arrested over the weekend and charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant, then pleaded not guilty at Tuesday’s arraignment.
  • Court records show she posted a $100,000 bond and was released to home incarceration at her parents’ residence in Tennessee without an ankle monitor, with a return date set for Sept. 26.
  • The Fayette County Coroner’s Office has not released a cause of death, the Lexington Police Special Victims Section continues to investigate, and the University of Kentucky confirmed she has been on its STUNT team.