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This is an iheart podcast guaranteed human.
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Did you know tide has been upgraded to provide an even better clean in cold water tide is specifically designed to fight any stain you throw at it even in cold butter yep chocolate ice cream sure thing barbecue sauce tide's got you covered you don't need to use warm water additionally tide pods let you confidently fight tough stains with new coldzyme technology just remember if it's gotta be clean it's gotta be tied crime stories.
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With nancy grace beauty queen cheerleader laken snelling's chilling words as a baby in a trash bag found dead in her closet as we go to air a grand jury date is set in the case of the former beauty queen accused of hiding a a dead baby her dead baby in the closet before going out for fast food i'm nancy grace this is crime stories i want to thank you for being with us that's right a grand jury date has been set in the case of a former beauty queen now charged with hiding a dead baby boy her dead baby boy in her own closet before going out for fast food also as we go to air medical records have been subpoenaed in the lake and snelling case prosecutors requesting medical records that could be related to the case of the university of kentucky medical center according to new court records a subpoena was delivered to the uk medical center requesting all records on snelling created since august twenty twenty twenty four to january twenty twenty six hmm prosecutors will look at those records and find out every single person lake and snelling spoke to what she said what tests she received everything that happened on that visit this as a grand jury looms in the case of the beauty.
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Queen lake and snelling's case is on its way to a grand jury the anonymous panel is expected to hear evidence in late january since snelling waived her right to a preliminary hearing during a september twenty sixth court appearance the grand jury will likely be asked to indict snelling on three charges she initially pleaded not guilty to there's the possibility also of a count of murder or manslaughter depending on the newborn's autopsy results if.
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Another person an adult was found dead wrapped in a blanket body in a trash bag hidden away the alleged perp would not be walking free right now with a bedazzled ankle monitor but that is what has just happened but let's start at the beginning listen to this.
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Good evening representing jefferson county fair i.
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Am laken snelling logan attends the university of kentucky as she's twenty years of age her parents are terry and michelle snelling of morrison making the needs list while also being a student athlete division one athlete on the stunt team at the university of kentucky one hundred plus community service hours in the past year honored to be crowned the jefferson county barry student fair and being able to.
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Represent her county that is from the jefferson county fairest of the fair beauty pageant that she won but can we get to right now and what leads up to the discovery of a dead infant baby boy in her closet listen.
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Laken snelling is entering her senior year on the cheer stunt team at the university of kentucky snelling grew up in the small town of white pine tennessee where she was the jefferson county high school varsity cheerleader and crowned jefferson county's fairest of the fair snelling is a self proclaimed real life barbie with an all pink apartment barbie jeep and fabulous clothes and paget gowns to match snelling has an entire instagram profile dedicated to selling her old wardrobe snelling reveals that she is dating another student athlete with an impressive basketball career snelling brings her bow home for easter and over the summer the post professional photos with him.
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Why do i care about the boyfriend i'm trying to figure out who is the biological father of this dead infant and i'm completely intrigued curious about why so many dead babies are first wrapped in a blanket a baby blanket very often remember top mom casey anthony wrapped according to the state baby kelly in her favorite blanket before putting her in a trash bag and throwing into a trashy litter ridden swamp area about ten houses down from the anthony home gee i wonder who did that and i see it over and over and over the infant is wrapped in a baby blanket and left to die or killed and put in a trash bag there's got to be some sort of psychopathy to that but you know i'm also very curious straight out to doctor bethany marshall joining us high profile psychoanalyst author of deal breaker on amazon you can see her now on peacock and find her at dr bethanymarshall dot com doctor bethany i'm also intrigued what does it mean if anything that you are a self proclaimed real life barbie i'm talking.
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About the barbie doll this woman's life this young woman's life is wrapped in fantasy not reality the fantasy of having a baby seems a lot more compelling to her than the reality of a baby the fantasy of being barbie is a lot more compelling to her than the reality of who she is as a mother and out in the world.
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Okay doctor bethany you got me drinking from the fire hydrant here you gave me so much i've got to parse it number one can we stick with barbie you said i was writing as fast as i could the fantasy of being barbie to her was being better was better than being lake and snellings okay now wait a minute what does it mean to be barbie it's a plastic doll with fake breasts why do.
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You want to be that because barbie is beautiful barbie is desirable barbie is sexually attractive in the world and the idea that she would be that person it's like she's wrapping herself in an image an external image rather than really focusing on who she is does she attend a church.
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Wait wait wait can i see that video again of her in the fo i guess that's no the foe that that that was that's very similar to a barbie outfit my sister had that's right okay i was trying to dissect the barbie dolls and i dissected all well dismembered all of my sister's barbie dolls that was a dark day that said i remember that outfit barbie had an outfit like that with you know faux leopard spots okay just wanted to point that out doctor bethany i don't know what your barbie lore is but i distinctly recall an outfit like that with the matching stilettos and this is when i was a little girl the stilettos were in then as well at least for barbie now i'm sorry back to who wants to.
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Be barbie who wants to be barbie as somebody who's more living in fantasy than reality hey nancy you that sound you just played the inside of her apartment was pink she lived in a barbie place this is a woman who lives in a fantasy world not a reality world okay barbie is just that it's a doll it's not a real person she does not live her life like a real person she's living she's like it's like cosplay of being barbie i'm wondering would she go to a church does she have friends is she kind to people does she like children in real life or was the fantasy of being pregnant and the fantasy of being a mom much more compelling and then the reality of changing diapers holding a baby babies have needs you know.
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And i want to clear one thing up doctor bethany marshall you can be anything and have played with barbies as a little girl my sister that had the barbies she's a brainiac you know i tried to read something she published it was just a bunch of formulas with you know like elements and i'm like okay that was great so i'm not saying there's anything wrong with playing with barbies when you're a child i mean it can be fun but this is a grown woman that says she's a real life barbie okay you know what i've gone down the barbie trail way too long okay that's not gonna help anybody at trial i want to get to the facts and what we know take a listen to this ten.
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Thirty am wednesday morning lexington pd responds to a call about an unresponsive infant found in a student apartment in one of the tenants closets in inside a trash bag wrapped in towels the baby was deceased at the time officers received the report snelling returns to her apartment to find police swarming the unit snelling says she cleaned up after delivering the baby to conceal that she had given birth and put all of the cleaning materials in the trash bag with the.
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Baby what i'm saying here to josh colesrude he is a high profile criminal defense attorney former felony prosecutor founder of colesrud law offices josh now this is anecdotal i don't have a statistic on this but i noticed it over and over and over in the over a decade that i prosecuted felonies when the victim is a baby very often you see that case pled down like oh you know they were tired of the baby screaming and they bashed its head on the dresser or they got tired of taking care of the baby or they forgot to feed the baby and it died and and it's often played down to voluntary or involuntary manslaughter now i don't know if you're going to admit to that on the air but it's true when the victim is a baby somehow it's treated as less important in our justice system well you know.
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These cases are tough nancy you know there's a very similar case that happened in twenty seventeen skyler richardson high profile case in ohio it was a cheerleader and in that case she was charged with murder with second degree murder and they went to trial and the prosecution lost they lost because neonanticide which is the intentional killing of a baby within twenty four hours is extremely difficult to prove because the scientific tests generally cannot say with any certainty that murder was the result and so here we just don't have enough information yet the coroner has stated that you know that it's inconclusive right now they are doing additional tests but i looked into this and the additional tests are all going to have innocent explanations number one i think that the prosecution you go on and.
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On thinking you were going to come back circle back to the question which you did not while you stay that brooks skyler richardson was found not guilty isn't it true that she was convicted of abuse of a corpse she was not let go she was actually found guilty isn't that correct yes it is okay you know i'm sorry i had to put your feet to the fire on that but you were suggesting that she walked away scot free what you did say that i find pertinent is that the forensics couldn't prove that murder because very often as you rightly pointed out josh colesrude it's very difficult to get a cod cause of death in a case like this but isn't skylar richardson the one that buried the baby in the backyard after she tried to.
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Burn the baby's body yes and she also admitted that he was alive she told the police that she heard a gurgle and that it was briefly alive she said this to actually her parents who were in the interrogation room when they didn't believe that the recording was.
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Still going on josh do you even remember the question i asked you what you just said may skylar look even worse kyle richardson because the baby was alive she said it was gurgling and alive when she gave birth now it's up to a jury to determine how the baby was born alive and ended up burned and buried in the backyard that said my question was to you you know what i'm going to go to chris byers chris byers private investigator owner of byers investigative services for my purposes he is the former police chief of johns creek twenty five years in la law enforcement byers isn't it true that you guys work the case of the dead baby but when it gets to court somehow when the victim is a baby an infant it gets played down to involuntary or voluntary you know i don't get it in my experience.
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With any of the cases that i've had like that they have been pled down and yeah i can't explain it from the law enforcement side that's for.
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Sure guys how did the baby end up wrapped in a blanket in her closet do you think it wrapped itself up and went in the closet and died joining me now hermania rodriguez chief us reporter dailymail dot com hermania do we know if snellings had roommates because i'm trying to figure out who would call nine hundred eleven right that's one.
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Of the questions that remains unanswered in this case police have refused to say whether snelling had any roommates and who called the police that morning so that remains open ended however there's a lot of online speculation that says it was a roommate that called the police that.
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Morning guys you are seeing shots of beauty queen cheerleader laken snellings we already know that systematically cases involving victims that are infants or children but especially infants are typically pledged down and treated as less important than adult victims i don't get it you know i'm just thinking about who called nine one one how did she keep the baby a secret isn't it true hermania rodriguez that she was you know a fantastic athlete she was a stunt person on the college cheerleading team and you can see that she's pregnant during her stunts let's take a look at video of lake and snellings there you go that is a baby right there the bait the baby is in there i'm not a medical doctor but i can see that much she was still performing stunts as a cheerleader while pregnant what you know what doctor bethany marshall denial it ain't just a river in egypt come on what is this bethany help me out nancy.
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Not only is she in denial the whole team is in denial i mean who's going to pull a stunt like that when you have a baby in your tummy nancy what this tells me is she was already disconnecting from the baby as she was pregnant a mother who wants a baby or who has a wanted baby in her tummy is not going to pull a stunt like that because the maternal instinct is to protect your child nancy did you hear what the reporter just said when she put that baby in the plastic bag she threw the cleaning material on top of it she threw trash on her baby it's it's so disturbing a member.
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Of the university of kentucky stunt team.
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Lake and snelling is driven admired and.
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Hiding a secret that will crack her dreams and right now she is accused of a major felony after her dead infant baby boy is found wrapped in towels and a trash bag in her closet straight out to hermania rodriguez joining us from daily mail hermionia there are two lines of inquiry right now as to who called nine hundred eleven and this is important okay you may think who cares who called nine hundred and eleven they found a dead baby in the closet but does the person that called nine one one have other facts and evidence that would be probative so these are the two lines of inquiry one report is that roommates became suspicious after lake and snelling came back to school at the end of the summer she didn't look the same as she did when spring semester ended she looked pregnant then on that wednesday morning the pregnancy bump was gone so when she went to class that day they the roommates decided to go into her room and take a look there are also reports that one of the roommates had a dog that was going berserk outside lake and snelling's room and outside of her closet and because of that they looked in the closet both reports indicate one of the roommates called nine hundred and eleven do you know anything about either of those two reports hermonia right.
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I have seen those reports one is from a local and the other one really comes from this facebook page that is about the case however we have gone to police to ask about the circumstances of who called nine hundred eleven and they still are not ready to.
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Release that information guys you're seeing video of laken snellings and it's kind of amazing how someone that seemingly has the world at their feet you know there's no question she's beautiful she's vivacious she's healthy she's smart and now she's charged with a felony i think a lot will ride on the cause of death but right now that cod remains undetermined joining me right now renowned medical examiner the chief medical examiner of tarrant county that's fort worth texas esteemed lecturer at the burnett school of medicine at tcu and star of a hit new podcast mayhem in the morgue doctor kendall crown's joining us what does that tell me they don't have a cod yet cause of death let me read between the lines that tells me there was no visible cod like you could just look at the baby and say oh the baby was bludgeoned dead or the baby was shot or the baby was stabbed or ligature strangulation or manual strangulation maybe even you might need a microscopic exam to determine if there were particular hemorrhage to the eyes that but that tells me that the cod was none of those things what's happening doctor kendall crowns.
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So typically with the babies that are found in trash bags you first have to determine if they were born alive there are certain things that you can look for one of them is gestational age if they're under twenty two weeks they probably couldn't have survived being born if they have this thing called maceration which is a overall kind of reddish decoloration sloughing of the skin of the baby you know they died in utero and then finally do they have any major birth defects like they have no brain or something of that nature then you go from there and you have to figure out if they if you determine that they could have been born alive then you have to determine if they actually took a breath and that can be a number of tests that are actually not all that accurate there's the float test with the lung but that can be displayed disrupted by decomposition.
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After the holidays your brain wants one thing less less noise less clutter less doing pura helps you reset your space with premium smart home fragrance no complicated routine required right now you can get a free pura four home diffuser when you subscribe for twelve months set schedules adjust intensity and come home to calm on your terms this offer won't last get your free diffuser at pura dot com.
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Crime stories with nancy grace as we go to air we learn a grand jury in fayette county kentucky we'll hear evidence in the laken snelling case snelling twenty two accused of giving birth in her off campus apartment bedroom then putting the baby in a trash bag in her closet she's been on house arrest in tennessee ever since she had her very first court appearance september second she has pled not guilty to abuse of a corpse she has pled not guilty to concealing a birth and tampering with evidence what do we know at.
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This juncture a new subpoena filed last month in december ordering the university of kentucky medical center to provide snelling's medical records from august twenty twenty four to present the hospital has until january twentieth to comply that is the facility which treated snelling hours after she allegedly gave birth to a baby which she says fell onto the floor of her bedroom that statement about the birth was allegedly made at the school's medical facility during one of snelling's interviews with members of the lexington police department back to the.
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Case doctor kendall crown's joining us could you please dummy down man you said oh unless they did a flotation test what not everybody works in the morgue not everybody knows what you're talking about you just rattled off about fifteen medical phrases i'm surprised you didn't throw latin at me could you just start over and speak regular people talk please if not for the listener for me please start over if you don't mind so.
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The main thing like i was talking about is they're going to be looking for any signs that the child was living when it was born so did it take a breath and if it took a breath the lungs will fill up with air and they could potentially float if you put them in water so you could say oh that they breathe if the lungs float in water the problem with the flotation test doctor.
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Kendall crown's right there right there you have to explain what that means because that reminds me of when we were first told the idaho four students that were murdered by brian kohberger died in their sleep it's almost like they drifted off to a lullaby and they woke up in heaven that's not what happened they fought for their lives it was horrible horrible you're saying the lungs are tested what i believe you mean is this infant is cut open its lungs are removed and they're put in water to see if they float is that what that means that's correct you just rattle it off the tip of your tongue like it's nothing this is a baby doctor kendall crowns that now has to be cut open and its lungs removed from its little body how big are baby lungs how big are they and then dunked in water how big is an infant's lungs well it depends.
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On how old the baby is gestationally if they are newborn if they are a newborn their lungs are about well a couple inches maybe have you done.
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A water test on a baby yes i mean what went through your mind when you're cutting out a baby's lungs that are this big about the size of a a good cup a kitchen measuring cup i mean do you look at it in your hands and think my stars what happened so when i'm.
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Doing an autopsy on a baby it's no different than doing an autopsy in adults i have to determine the cause and manner of death and it's just it is what it is i have to figure out what happened to this child or happened to the adult and that's the purpose of my employment okay.
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I understand that you have to remain detached while you're performing all of this but you know when you just rattle off and i'm not saying you're wrong i know for a fact that you're right but when you say it so methodically i mean i got to think this through doctor kendall crowns you're saying one of the first things you do to determine cod if it's not immediately visible with the naked eye is you do a float test on the lungs what that means is the baby is sliced open its lungs are removed and they're dunked in water what what kind of water what is that in a pan a sink what it's tap water.
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And it's in a basically a big.
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Cup you know we are talking on and on and on doctor kendall crowns about blake and snellings and she's a real life barbie and she's a stunt person and she's a cheerleader and she's gorgeous and she's miss fairest of the fair nobody is talking about the baby boy that's lying on a morgue table getting its chest sliced open its lungs removed and put in water why does it have to be all about her that's why cases in josh colesrood would not answer earlier former federal prosecutor i mean okay back to you doctor kendall crowns so you do a lung test and if the lungs float that means they had air in them that means the baby was born alive is that where you're going with that that's correct.
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I mean if they've taken a breath the lungs will float but it could also mean they were given cpr and it could also mean there's decompositional gas formation so one of the other things you'll do with the flotation test is take the liver take a section of the liver and place it in the water as well to see if it will float to show that there is or is not decomposition okay wait a.
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Minute wait a minute wait a minute i've never heard this before a float test on the baby's liver so now the abdomen is cut out as well okay why would you do a float test on a liver why would there be air in the liver there would.
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Be no air in the liver so if the liver doesn't float you know that there is no decomposition but if it does float then it puts into question of whether the lungs are floating because of decomposition or because there is air in them so then you have to go to microscopic analysis okay so.
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You compare the float test of the liver to the flow test of the lungs and if the liver goes down and the lungs go up that indicates the lungs are floating because the baby breathed not because of decompositional gases is that right correct yes okay so that's what's happening to the baby what else will be examined to determine the cod of this baby because this all hinges on the cod if the baby was dead when it was born was stillborn if the then there's not going to be a murder prosecution as josh colesride pointed out a lot is riding on the cause of death what else will be done doctor kendallkrans so what else.
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Will be done is microscopic analysis or looking at sections of the tissue under a microscope looking for any disease processes also you'll be looking at the lungs there as well looking to see if the air sacs or the alveoli in the lungs have filled up with air the other thing you'll be looking at is the placenta if it's available looking at the placenta looking for any evidence of hemorrhage or loss of oxygen or infarction or infection of the membranes you'll be looking at the umbilical cord to see if it's normally formed if it was wrapped around the child's neck or if it has inflammation as well and then you'll also be looking for any evidence of trauma birth trauma where like the shoulder got stuck and they had to pull the child very hard fracturing the shoulder or separating the neck you'll also be looking for inflicted trauma like crushing of the ribs breaking of the extremities or the long bones of the extremities or crushing of the skull hermania.
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Rodriguez dailymail dot com thinking about and analyzing what doctor kendall krause just said regarding was the baby's shoulder broken or prolapsed when it gave when it was delivered other injuries to the baby during delivery it's my understanding that she had the pregnancy bump one day and the next day wednesday it was gone and she went to class so obviously she did not have any injuries that's right.
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And while we have not been able to confirm that she told anyone about this pregnancy as we saw the images show that she has a visible bump that she then did not have after giving birth so i think it's safe safe to say she was probably not injured and the autopsy report did say that the baby did not have any obvious injuries either good evening representing jefferson.
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County fair i am laken stunley.
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Laken.
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Is hansa university of kentucky and she's twelve twenty years of age her parents are terry and michelle snelling of morrison making the needs list while also being a student athlete division one athlete on the stunt team at the university of kentucky one hundred plus community service hours in the past year honored to be crowned the jefferson county fairy student fair and being able to represent a i.
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Want to be very clear at this juncture lake and snellings is not charged with murder we are waiting on a full and complete autopsy report a roommate's dog leads to a horrific discovery inside.
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Lake and snelling's closet inside a black.
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Trash bag the remains of a baby.
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Boy along with the evidence used to.
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Hide the birth laken snellings caught on video stating how grateful she is for quote family i don't know if that includes the baby boy found wrapped in towels in a trash bag in her closet but i want you to see some texts that we've uncovered here is lakin snellings and if you see her goals let's see a close up of her goals motherhood well then that baby is getting fed a bottle by a loving mom with blonde hair like lake and snellings that is not what happened to this baby and also circ as her goal is a family with two children an engagement ring money and a house what more have we learned being twenty is so weird like i'm an adult but i still can't really do anything but people my age have kids well i think she knows the answer to that i actually start tweaking at the fact i may only birth boys and never get a girl that would be a little small miniature me my parents had a whole child at my age and i don't even know how to drive onto the tracks of a car wash okay this and watching the kids play in the yard she seems like she'd be a great mom how i sleep at night knowing i'm dating the person i'm going to to marry marriage is scary what if he doesn't want to put our daughter in cheer the second she can walk okay i need a shrink and i need a shrink right now doctor bethany marshall the well they all are significant okay yes none of this will likely ever come before a jury because they will be deemed not probative in other words they're incendiary and they don't really prove anything right but what about the part about i want to have a mini me what if i only birth boys which this was a baby boy and i don't have a girl i don't have a mini me that means something doctor.
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Bethany what it tells me that she's preoccupied with having an idealized life with a little girl who's just like her that she's very self centered nancy she's wrapped up in her own little world these texts are not to another person these texts are to herself she is preoccupied with herself now women who commit infanticide usually are not attached to the baby when they are pregnant the baby is like an it a thing it does not have a personality nancy when you were first pregnant i remember you told me we're on the set of port tv you were so excited you were attached to your babies it's called maternal preoccupation when you're attached she likely was not attached to the baby she was attached to herself and she was attached to the idea of an idealized life there's the ring then there's the baby then there's the cash then there's the house oh there's the family so this baby probably was getting in the way of some scheme or plan that she already had maybe she was getting ready for a prom maybe she wanted to wear a wedding dress maybe she wanted to find a really rich guy or she wanted the the perfect wedding and this baby was just inconvenient because the little baby didn't come around at the right time in her whatever her plan was for her life you know.
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Doctor bethany here's something i don't understand and i'm not saying pro or con abortion i'm not arguing about abortion tonight that's a whole other can of worms but if you don't want the baby why wait nine months and give birth and then murder the baby why do that as opposed to terminating the pregnancy in the first three months nancy in.
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Order to plan for an abortion you have to be tethered to reality reality is that there is a baby inside of you that baby is growing that baby will be a person in the real world with real needs a need for food a need for love a need for care i would doubt that she would even be attached enough to this baby to plan any kind of medical procedure i doubt she even went to a doctor and got her vitamins or her her prenatal care or anything like that that's one of the more fascinating parts of this story was did anybody recognize she was pregnant did her own mother recognize what about the other people on the cheer team or was this sort of a pipe dream about having a baby at some point in her life but at that point she didn't imagine herself to be pregnant she was just dissociated from the reality of.
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It all and again i'm not going down the pro life or pro abortion rabbit hole but i want to get back to the facts listen to this.
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Lake and snelling pleads not guilty to all three charges levied against her and posted her one hundred thousand dollars bond snelling has been placed on house arrest at her parents jefferson city home she will not be required to wear an ankle monitor her next scheduled appearance in a fayette county court is september twenty.
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Sixth i understand you've got terms as.
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Far as your picture releases make sure.
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You divide by those terms that from our friends at wkyt and you heard the judge there at the end judge john tackett wait a minute hermionia she not only has walked free but she doesn't even have to wear an ankle.
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Monitor that's right nancy the judge ordered her to await trial at her parents home in tennessee and specified that she would not have to wear an ankle monitor while she awaits her trial why.
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Josh cole's rude you're the former federal prosecutor why not even wear an ankle monitor forget the ankle monitor to hay with that why is she out on.
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Bond well typically judges have to look at two different prongs when evaluating whether or not to give somebody a bond and if so how much the first is is the person a substantial danger to the community and the second is are they a substantial flight risk and here you're dealing with somebody who doesn't.
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Have any problem that she's young and pretty and rich and white what about that does that factor into that bond decision because i think it does is she pretty for jail because that worked with deborah lefebvre is that what happens she's just too cute well in this.
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Case respectfully she has not been accused of murdering anybody yet the only charges in this case so far are abuse of a corpse and some lower and some lesser included charges as well so until the time that the state actually accuses her of murdering an infant child she's going to be treated as a low level offender.
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Crime stories with nancy grace a date has been set for a grand jury to hear evidence in the laken snelling case and determine whether they will indict the former beauty queen university of kentucky cheerleader stunt girl big question will be was the baby dead when she put him in the trash bag or did she leave him there to die we have also learned that the facility that treated snelling just a few hours after she allegedly gave birth quote this is from the medical records to a baby which fell onto the floor of her bedroom now that's according to a search warrant interesting that statement about the birth was made at the school's medical facility during one of lake and snelling's hospital bed interviews with officers from the lexington pd she allegedly admits to giving birth falling asleep on the newborn wrapping the baby in a towel and putting him in a trash bag along with the placenta she cleaned up the room and headed out to attend class hmm instead of class she chose to go to mcdonald's when she got back to her apartment there were local police her roommates contacted law enforcement after they heard noises coming from in the room in the middle of the night and then discovered blood in her room when cops got there they found the dead baby what more do we know surrounding the death of the infant i'm.
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Going to need you to send a deputy over here to one hundred twenty five lakeside we got a newborn baby's been discarded looks like it's dead okay this call's on the way too yep.
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Thanks bye muskingum university delta gamma theta sisters find a suspicious trash bag just outside the front door tearing it open they make a gruesome discovery next to an instant mac and cheese box lies a dead baby girl emily weaver admits she birthed the baby in the downstairs.
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Bathroom of the theta house okay in that case sorority sisters find a dead infant in a trash bag right outside their front door and they immediately suspect emil weaver listen the pathologist is going.
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To be able to tell yeah the cause of death on the child and did you do anything physically no i didn't do anything physically i really obviously didn't do much at all i was more concerned about me than i'm if i was my intention like look at.
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It but i mean i would have like not put its head up and just let it drop you know what i mean but it wasn't like i intentionally inflicted harm with pumpkins you did.
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Did you try and keep her alive i didn't do anything to keep her.
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In and then you add on emily weaver's texts that she had been arguing with the bf boyfriend for about a month about the quote situation and then after just a few hours after giving birth sends a text no more baby taken care of the baby was asphyxiated suffocated dead prosecutors argued she intentionally killed the baby by putting the baby in the trash where it suffocated and she was sentenced to life that's what happened there so i'm just thinking through the having the baby and doing nothing to keep the baby alive not just that putting the baby in a trash bag wrapped in a towel as in this case could that have been the cause of asphyxiation in the case in chief now that case was about emily weaver but then there is alexei chavizo we.
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Had the lady come to clean the bathroom she put the baby in the trash can and then she put another clean liner over the top of it so they look when they looked in there it looked there was no trash in there but it was underneath the clean bag the baby's dead okay we have him in trauma too but she killed the kid yeah how old was the how old was the beat i don't know it's full time she just had it she had it in the bathroom was what happened and then she whatever she did i know don't know if she's going to lie she wouldn't even tell us she's pregnant she's been.
A
Lying the whole time so she goes in the bathroom pregnant and then suddenly the baby's gone and it's underneath the clean bag near the trash can there's more we discovered a dead baby in the bathroom oh my gosh i'm sorry he came up and me and i didn't know what to do lexi i.
C
Told you about this i you told.
A
Just asked you baby to tell me.
C
The truth.
A
It was not crying or.
C
Nothing and nothing was crying it came.
E
Out nothing do you guys have i'm the charge nurse here do you guys have any questions for me like how.
A
Big is the baby it's full term what nine months nothing was crying let's see have you watched the news of the girls that what they do to their babies and when they go to jail i was crying doctor bethany marshall.
C
What'S with that mom the mom seems more concerned about her daughter than her grandbaby it's it's really concerning and you know this is what we call nancy a soft kill when women kill their babies usually it's suffocating them poisoning them whereas with men it tends to be some more of overt physical violence so then this is just a soft kill and the mother never says oh my god my grandbaby those words do not come out of the mother's mouth i.
A
Don'T like anything you just said soft kill those words don't go together imagine how awful it would be to be murdered by let's just say asphyxiation then imagine if you're a baby you can't speak you can't move you can't run away you can't fight back you have to just lay there and die with something held down over your nose and mouth and to doctor kendall crown's soft kill my rear end could this baby have died by asphyxiation simply by the baby being wrapped in towels and put in a trash bag could that have asphyxiated suffocated the baby yes we see.
E
That occasionally with full term infants or babies that are beyond the twenty three week gestation the mother places it in the trash bag and seals the trash bag throwing it in the trash there's not enough oxygen in there for the child to survive and so they eventually will suffocate by being in a plastic bag just as if you put a plastic bag over your head it would.
A
Suffocate you and then to chris byers private investigator at byers investigative services i want you to hear this case similar and it's one brought up by josh colrud it's skyler richardson is your bedroom.
E
Upstairs or bathroom upstairs okay so you had to walk downstairs i had to.
C
Clean myself up a little are you.
E
Carrying her yes did you go into.
A
The garage or do you have an outdoor shed like where you have a.
E
Shovel oh my gosh okay and what did you find her what did you.
A
Use i found a shovel i just.
C
Put a little hole in my backyard.
A
And put her in it okay i.
E
Understand what did you do did you.
A
Have and you didn't have any help.
E
Right okay what did you do with her while you were digging the hole.
A
And chris byers in that particular case skylar richardson dad asked tell us what's going on and she says i tried to cremate the baby just a little she tried to burn the baby chris.
E
Yeah that is absolutely mind blowing that level of evil i just can't even imagine just just all of these cases we see just the level of stuff selfishness and self absorbedness in these in these girls and just treating these babies just like garbage just absolutely blows my.
A
Mind like garbage in every way putting it putting babies in trash throwing them in dumpsters i want you to hear it from the horse's mouth chris here's skylar richardson stating that she tried to cremate the baby just a little he said you have to tell us you're eighteen you can't tell i tried to cremate the baby just a little you tried to cremate the baby yeah i want to be very clear at this juncture laken snelling is not charged with murder we are also learning that her roommates could hear her giving birth and then snuck in when she left to go to mcdonald's to find the baby stuffed in her closet hours later snelling reportedly tells the roommates the noise they heard was when she fell over passing out from a routine illness when the roommates find the baby in the closet they tell the dispatcher at nine hundred eleven the infant was quote cold to the touch after her arrest snelling withdraws from school and is no longer a member of the stunt team hey she's got bigger problems than that what will the grand jury be deciding likely they will be asked to indict lake and snelling on multiple charges for instance the charges to which he has already pled not guilty but possibly a count of murder or manslaughter depending on what we learn about the baby's autopsy results we wait as justice unfolds nancy grace signing off goodbye.
B
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Podcast: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
Episode: BEAUTY-QUEEN-CHEERLEADER'S BABY DEAD IN CLOSET, GRAND JURY SET: LAKEN SNELLING
Date: January 11, 2026
Host: Nancy Grace
Guests: Dr. Bethany Marshall (Psychoanalyst), Dr. Kendall Crowns (Chief Medical Examiner), Josh Colesrude (Defense Attorney, former prosecutor), Herminia Rodriguez (DailyMail.com), Chris Byers (Private Investigator, former police chief)
The episode centers on the disturbing case of Laken Snelling, a 22-year-old University of Kentucky cheerleader and former beauty queen, who is accused of concealing the birth and death of her newborn baby. The infant was found dead, wrapped in towels and placed in a trash bag in Snelling's closet. As prosecutors prepare for a grand jury hearing, Nancy Grace and her expert panel dissect the timeline, forensic challenges, legal process, and psychological factors surrounding the tragedy.
On the enduring focus on the accused, not the victim (A, 26:34):
“Nobody is talking about the baby boy that’s lying on a morgue table getting its chest sliced open, its lungs removed and put in water. Why does it have to be all about her?”
Dr. Bethany Marshall on psychological dissociation (C, 36:03):
“In order to plan for an abortion you have to be tethered to reality… I doubt she even went to a doctor… was this sort of a pipe dream about having a baby at some point in her life but at that point she didn’t imagine herself to be pregnant…”
Nancy Grace (A, 25:57):
“You have to remain detached… but… you do a float test on the lungs. That means the baby is sliced open, its lungs are removed and dunked in water… This is a baby…”
Legal Inequity (A, 38:31):
“Is she pretty for jail? …She’s just too cute?”
On the psychological profile (C, 34:11):
“…attached to herself and… the idea of an idealized life… this baby probably was getting in the way of some scheme or plan that she already had…”
On systemic leniency (A, 10:14):
“When the victim is a baby… it’s often pled down to voluntary or involuntary manslaughter…”
| Timestamp | Segment | |------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:34 | Opening: Summary of charges, grand jury, and medical subpoenas | | 04:08 | Background on Laken Snelling, her public image, and social media | | 06:13 | Dr. Bethany Marshall: Fantasy vs. reality, the "Barbie" persona | | 09:44 | Discovery of the infant; police and Snelling’s alleged statements | | 10:14 | Discussion of legal disparities in justice for infant victims | | 12:07 | Skylar Richardson case comparison | | 14:47 | Who discovered the body — roommate/dog/911 call speculation | | 16:29 | Denial of pregnancy from Snelling and cheer team, analysis of maternal detachment | | 20:46 | Dr. Kendall Crowns: Forensics, autopsy procedures explained | | 24:02 | "Float test" explained in layperson’s terms | | 26:34 | Emphasis on the baby's plight, not just the accused | | 30:34 | No injuries confirmed for mother or baby | | 34:11 | Analysis of Snelling’s texts; psychological factors influencing decision-making | | 37:44 | Bond, house arrest, and public perceptions of leniency for Snelling | | 39:25 | Snelling’s account: birth, clean-up, trip to McDonald’s, roommates’ suspicions, police response | | 41:13–45:01| Weaver and Trevizo cases; discussion of asphyxiation and "soft kill" methods | | 46:32 | Dr. Crowns: Explanation of asphyxiation risk from being sealed in a bag | | 47:06–47:55| Skylar Richardson: Parental reactions, daughter's admission, legal perspective | | 48:12 | Chris Byers: Commentary on self-absorption and disregard for infant victims | | 50:11 | Conclusion: Pending grand jury, cause of death still unknown, Snelling’s legal status |
For listeners or readers seeking more detail, the episode is a sobering examination of legal accountability, psychological denial, and the grim realities of concealed neonaticide.