Kentucky cheerleader accused of hiding newborn's body in closet ordered to wear ankle monitor
Former University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling has been ordered to wear an ankle monitor as she awaits formal charges for allegedly hiding her newborn's body in an off-campus closet.
The 21-year-old had already been placed under house arrest and was seen in exclusive photos obtained by the Daily Mail makeup-free and wearing pajamas as she was shuttled between her divorced parents' homes earlier this month.
But on Wednesday, the judge in her case added a new restriction - electronic monitoring at her father's home in Jefferson County, Tennessee, Fox 56 reports.
Snelling is now required to contact pretrial services by next Wednesday to get fitted with the device, according to WTVQ.
The glamorous former cheerleader was arrested on August 30, after police found the body of a newborn baby boy wrapped in a trash bag and towel in her bedroom closet at her college home in Lexington, Kentucky.
Authorities believe she gave birth to the child in the early morning hours of August 27, and the infant was alive at the time of delivery.
Snelling is now facing charges of abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant.
She could also face a murder charge depending on the outcome of an autopsy report on her baby.
The Fayette County Coroner said in a statement that additional testing is needed to determine the cause of the infant's death after the results from the initial autopsy proved to be inconclusive.
Former University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling has been ordered to wear an ankle monitor as she awaits formal charges for allegedly hiding her newborn's body in an off-campus house
Laken Snelling, 21, allegedly gave birth to a baby boy on August 27 before she tried to conceal the infant's death
Prosecutors have alleged that Snelling gave birth at around 4am on August 27, when her roommates said they heard loud noises coming from her bedroom.
Speaking to cops days later, Snelling said she was awake for about half an hour following childbirth before she passed out and fell asleep 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 youngster 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.
Instead, it says, she left her apartment, skipped her 9.30am class, sat in her car, ordered food on the McDonald's app and picked it up.
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.
Snelling is now facing charges of abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant
The infant was found inside the closet of Snelling's off-campus home
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.
'Other items could have also been deleted in an attempt to hide any evidence of the pregnancy, birth and newborn baby,' Lexington police note, including information related to 'the birth of the full-term baby.'
Authorities also found that her phone contained 'images of her during labor,' which she allegedly 'deleted in an attempt to hide the birth.'
Photos from April shows Snelling performing with UK's STUNT team with what appears to be a pregnant bump on her stomach
She posted photos in June of her with her then-boyfriend, former college basketball star Connor Jordan, 24
Meanwhile, Snelling is said to have told staff at the University of Kentucky Labor and Delivery Unit that her baby had shown 'a little bit of fetal movement' and made a 'whimper,' and that she 'guessed' he was alive at birth.
When authorities finally found the infant's body inside her closet, they also noted he 'appeared to be full-term.'
It is unclear whether Snelling, who has since dropped out of school, had told anyone she was pregnant.
However, unearthed footage from April shows Snelling performing with UK's STUNT team with what appears to be a pregnancy bump.
Snelling also posted images in June where her then-boyfriend, former college basketball star Connor Jordan, 24, where she seemed to cover her front.
But Daily Mail has also revealed Snelling was previously in a relationship with college quarterback Izaiah Hall who underwent a DNA test to determine whether the baby was his.
Snelling was initially booked into jail upon her arrest, but was released on a $100,000 surety bond, before a judge ruled that she had to remain under house arrest at her parents' homes.
She has pleaded not guilty to the crimes.
