This week in Hidden Killers' Week in Review, the Laken Snelling case gets the examination it demands. The University of Kentucky cheerleader has been indicted on first-degree manslaughter after her newborn son was found dead — wrapped in a towel inside a black trash bag in her closet — hours after she gave birth alone at 4 a.m. on August 27, 2025. The Kentucky Medical Examiner confirmed the baby was born alive. Cause of death: asphyxia by undetermined means.

What separates this case from most neonaticide prosecutions is what investigators found on her phone: deleted labor photos, week-by-week pregnancy tracking, and months of documented concealment running alongside a public life that included competing at the April 2025 national cheerleading championship and posting a TikTok listing "be a mom" as a life goal. Tony Brueski walks through the full record — the roommates kept in the dark, the 4 a.m. group chat, the whimper she admitted she heard, and the former White Pine, Tennessee classmates whose accounts form a consistent portrait of who she was before any of this.

Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer and behavioral analyst Robin Dreeke then break down where this case is strong and where it's exposed. Coffindaffer examines whether the evidence sustains a first-degree manslaughter charge through trial, what the single word "guessed" is going to mean for the prosecution, and how the roommates' acceptance of "I fainted" factors into the evidentiary picture. Dreeke treats the phone record as a behavioral document — months of active parallel concealment versus simple denial — and what that distinction means for a case built on conscious disregard. Laken Snelling has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

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