Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - BEAUTY-QUEEN-CHEERLEADER'S CHILLING WORDS, BABY IN TRASH BAG DEAD IN CLOSET

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

A 21-year-old college student and cheerleader from the University of Kentucky is accused of hiding her newborn inside her college apartment closet. Laken Snelling, is arrested after her infant is found dead in a trash bag inside the closet. An Autopsy report only deepens the mystery surrounding the infant's death because the results are found to be inconclusive. Snelling posted baby bump pics before her infant was found dead.  Authorities allege Snelling gave birth in secret, wrapped her baby in a towel, placed him in a trash bag, and left him in her closet.  According to an arrest report, Lexington police were called to a home on Park Avenue for an unresponsive infant on Wednesday. Police said they found a baby's body in a closet, wrapped in a towel inside a black trash bag. The UK cheerleader is now charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant. Court records show Snelling was released on bond, must remain on house arrest and live with her parents.   Joining Nancy Grace today, Josh Kolsrud - Criminal Defense Attorney and Former Assistant U.S. Attorney, Founder of Kolsrud Law Offices, kolsrudlawoffices.com, Facebook and YouTube @KohlsrudLawOffices   Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, Author: "Deal Breaker: When to work on a relationship and when to walk away” Also featured in hit show: "Paris in Love" on Peacock, www.drbethanymarshall.com , Instagram & TikTok: drbethanymarshall, Twitter: @DrBethanyLive    Dr. Kendall Crowns - Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Host of NEW Podcast "Mayhem in the Morgue”, Lecturer: Burnett School of Medicine at TCU (Texas Christian University)    Chris Byers - Private investigator and owner of Byers Investigative Services, Former Police Chief Johns Creek Georgia, 25 years Police Officer, website: byersinvestigative.com  Germania Rodriguez - Chief US Reporter, DailyMail.com   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beauty queen cheerleader once crowned the fairest of the fair. Chilling words after her baby, her newborn, is found wrapped in a blanket, then a trash bag, dead. in her closet. In the last hours, she walks free. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

I want to thank you for being with us. Lake and Snelling, a radiant beauty pageant queen, excelling in her final year of college. But is something dark hiding behind the pageant smile? Something dark. There's a dead baby in her closet. Now, if you want to call that dark, that's certainly putting perfume on the pig.

joining me and all-star panel to make sense of what we are learning and I am stunned if 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. Evening Jefferson County Mayor, I am Lakinne Snelly. Thank you. Thank you. Lake in the TNcy University of Kentucky, and she's 20 years of age. Her parents are Terry and Michelle Snelling, of course. Making the Dean's list while also being a student athlete, Division I athlete on the Stum Team at the University.

at the University of Kentucky. 100 plus community service hours from the past year. Honored to be crowned Jefferson County Fair and being able to represent her county. That is from the Jefferson County Fairest of the Fair Beauty Pagent 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. Lake and 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 pageant gowns to match. Snelling has an entire her 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 this summer post professional photos with him. 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 10 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 Dr. 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. Bethanymartial.com. Dr. Bethany, I'm also intrigued what does it mean, if anything, that you are a self-proclaimed real-life Barbie Barbie. I'm talking 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. Okay, Dr. 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 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 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 to church? Is she kind? Bethany, Bethany, Bethleh, wait, wait, wait. Can I see that video again of her in The Fo? I guess that's, no. the faux that that was that's very similar to a Barbie outfit my sister had um 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, Dr. 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 be Barbie? Who wants to be Barbie as somebody who's more living in fantasy than reality? Hey, Nancy, that sound we 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 than the reality of changing diapers holding a baby babies have needs you know and i want to clear one thing up dr bethany marshall you can be anything and have played with barbies as a little girl my sister that had the barbies she's a braniac 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 going to help anybody at trial. I want to get to the facts and what we knows.

Take a listen to this. 10.30 a.m. Wednesday morning, Lexington PD, responds to a call about an unresponsive infant found in a student department. in one of the tenant's closets 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 baby. What I'm saying here to Josh Coltrude, he is high-profile criminal defense attorney,

former felony prosecutor, founder of Coles Rood law offices. Josh. Now, this is anecdotal. I don't have a statistic on this, but I noticed it over and 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 it's often pled down to volunteer involuntary manslaughter now i don't know if you're going to admit to that on the air but it's true when the the victim is a baby somehow it's treated as less important in our justice system well you know these cases are tough nancy

you know there's a very similar case that happened in 2017 uh skyler richard then 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 neonacide, which is the intentional killing of a baby within 24 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

i let you go on and on thinking you were going to come back circle back to the question which you did not while you stayed 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 Scott Free. What you did say that I find pertinent is that the forensics couldn't prove murder. Because very often, as you rightly pointed out Josh Coles Rood. It's very difficult to get a COD cause of death in a case like this. But isn't Skyler Richardson the one that buried the baby in the backyard after she tried to

burn the baby's body? Yes. And she also admitted that the baby 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 still going on. Yeah, Josh, do you even remember the question I asked you? What you just said may Skyl 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. But 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 John's Creek, 25 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 pled down to it voluntary or voluntary. You know, I don't get it. In my experience 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 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 U.S. reporter. Dailymail.com. Hermania, do we know if Snelling's had roommates? Because I'm trying to figure out who would call 911. Right. That's one 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 morning. Guys, you were seeing shots of Beauty Queen cheerleader, Lakin Snellings.

We already know that systematically cases involving victims that are infants or children, but especially infants, are typically pled down and treated as less important than adult victims. I don't get it. You know, I'm just thinking about. Who called 911? 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 dr bethany marshall denial it ain't just a river in egypt come on what what is this bethany help me out nancy not only is she in denial the whole team is denial 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 the plastic bag she threw the cleaning material on top of it. She threw trash on her baby. It's so disturbing. A member of the University of Kentucky stunt team, Lake and Snelling is driven, admired, and 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 Dealing Mail.

Hermania, there are two lines of inquiry right now as to who call 911. And this is important. Okay, you may think, who cares you call 911? They found a dead baby in the closet. But does the person that call 911 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 911. Do you know anything about either of those two reports, Hermania? Right. 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 911 and they still are not ready to release that information. Guys, you were seeing video of Lakin 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 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. Dr. Kendall Crowns 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 bludging dead or the 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 but that tells me that the COD was none of those things what's happening dr. Kendall crowns 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 22 weeks, they probably couldn't have survived being born. If they have this thing called maceration, which is an overall kind of reddish decoloration and 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 disrupted by decomposition. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know, Dr. Kendall Crowns, I appreciate

your vast knowledge. I also appreciate all of your episodes on Mayhem in the morgue. I do. I've listened to them. They're amazing. But 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 15 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 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 dr kendall crowns 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 Goldberger 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. 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, Dr. 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 on how old the baby is gestationally. If they are... Newborn. If they are a newborn, their lungs are about, well, a couple of maybe. Have you done 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 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 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. It's just, it is what it is. I have to figure out what happened to this child or happen to the adults and that's the purpose of my employment okay i understand that you have to remain detached while you're performing all of this but you know when you just rattle off 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 dr kendall crowns you're saying one of the first things you do to determine cody 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 and it's in basically a big cup. You know, we are talking on and on and on, Dr. Kendall Crowns, about Lake 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 Farest 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 Coles Rood would not answer earlier, former federal prosecutor.

I mean, okay, back to you, Dr. Kendall Crowns. So you do a lung test, and if the lungs float, that means they had, air in them, that means that baby was born alive. Is that where you're going with that? That's correct. I mean, if they've taken a breath, the lungs will float, but it could also mean they were given CPR, but 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 minute, wait a 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 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's air in them. So then you have to go to microscopic analysis.

Okay, so you compare the float test of the liver to the float 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 still born, then there's not going to be a murder prosecution, as Josh Coles Rood pointed out. A lot is riding on the cause of death.

What else will be done, Dr. Kendall Crowns? So what else 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 sacks or the alveoli and 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 Rodriguez Daily Mail.com thinking about and analyzing what Dr. Kendall Krause just said

regarding was the baby's shoulder broken or prolapsed when it gave when it was delivered um 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 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 given birth. So I think it's 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. Representative Jefferson County Mayor, I am Lake and Stine.

Like in the TNC University of Kentucky, and she's 20 years of age. Her parents are Terry of Jeff Selling, of course. Making the Dean's List while also being a student athlete, Division I athlete on the Stun Team at the University of Kentucky. 100 plus community service hours from the past year. Honored to be crowned Jefferson County Fair and being able to represent her. I want to be very clear at this juncture, Laken 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 Laken Snelling's closet.

Inside a black trash bag, the remains of a baby boy, along with the evidence used to hide the birth. Lake and 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 Laken 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 Laken Snellings. That is not what happened to this baby.

and also circled as her goal is a family with two children, engagement ring, money, and a house. What more have we learned? Being 20 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 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. Dr. 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 mate? if I only birth boys, which this was a baby boy, and I don't have a girl. I don't have a meaning me. That means something, Dr. 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 court 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 in convenient because the little baby didn't come around at the right time in her, whatever her plan was for her life. You know, Dr. 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 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 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 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. Lake and Snelling pleads not guilty to all three charges levied against her and posted her $100,000 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 26th. I understand that you've got some terms as far as your picture of release. Just make sure you're divided by those terms. That from our friends at WKYT. And you heard the judge there at the end, Judge John Tackett. Wait a minute, Hermania. She not only has walked free,

but she doesn't even have to wear an ankle monitor. That's right, Nancy. The judge order her to await trial at her parents' home in Tennessee and specified that she would not have to wear an ankle. ankle monitor while she awaits her trial. Why, Josh Coles Rude? You're the former federal prosecutor. Why?

Not even where an ankle monitor? Forget the ankle monitor to hay with that. Why is she out on 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 have any prior 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 went too pretty for jail because that worked with debor la fave does that what happens just too cute well well Well, in this 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. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Hey, it's Jim University PD.

I'm going to need you to send a deputy over here to 125 lakeside. We got a newborn baby that's been discarded. Looks like he's dead. Oh, shit. Okay. Discloths on the way too. Yep, thanks. Bye.

Ms. Gingham 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 bathroom of the Theta House. Okay, in that case, sorority sisters find a dead infant and a trash bag right outside their front door, and they immediately suspect Emil Weber, listen. The pathologist is going to be able to tell. Yeah.

if it was shoved or shrew. The cause of death on the child. Mm-hmm. And did you do anything physically to... 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 sleepy. My guy was going to attention to, like, look at it.

I feel like, I mean, I would have, like, not put its head up and just let it drop. You know what I mean? That's, it wasn't like I intentionally put her in pockets. You did. Did you try and keep her alive? I didn't do anything to keep her. 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's Alexei Chaviso.

We 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 when they looked in there, there was no trash in there, but it was underneath the clean bag. The baby's dead, okay? We haven't been in trauma, too, but she killed the kid. Yeah, how old was the hell was the baby? 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 don't know if she's going to lie. She wouldn't even tell us she's pregnant. She's been 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 out and he didn't know what to do Lexi I told you about this I just asked you baby to tell me the trickle who was scary

it was not crying and nothing was crying it came out with nothing do you guys have I'm the charge nurse or have you guys have any questions for me like how big is the baby's full term what nine months let's see have you watched the news of being the girls that what they do to their babies and what they go to jail was crying dr bethany marshall what's with that mom the mom seems more concerned about her daughter than her grand baby it's it's really concerning and you

No, 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 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 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 Dr. Kendall Crowns, soft kill my rear end, could this baby have died by asphyxiation simply by the baby putting, being wrapped in towels and put in a trash bag? Could that have asphyxiated, suffocated the baby? Yes, we see that occasionally with full-term infants or babies that are beyond the 23-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 suffocate you. And then to Chris Byers, private investigator at Buyer's investigative services, I want you to hear this case similar, and it's one brought up by Josh Colrude. It's Skyler Richardson. Is your bedroom upstairs or bathroom upstairs? Okay, so you had to walk downstairs? I had to clean myself a little. Are you carrying her? Yes. Did you go into the garage or do you have an outdoor shed like where you have a shovel? Okay. What did you find or what did you use?

I had stuff. I just put a little hole. on my backyard and put her in it. Okay, I understand. What did you do? Did you have, and you didn't have any help, right? Okay. What did you do with her while you were digging the hole? I set her down.

And Chris Byers, in that particular case, Skyler 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. baby, Chris. Yeah, that is absolutely mind-blowing. That level of evil, I just can't even imagine. Just all of these cases we see, just the level of selfishness and self-absorbedness

in these girls and just treating these babies just like garbage just absolutely blows my mind. Like garbage in every way, putting babies in trash, throwing them in dumpsters. I want you to hear it from the horse's mouth, Chris. Here's Kyler Richardson stating that she's. tried to cremate the baby just a little. I want to be very clear at this juncture. Lake and Snellings is not charged with a baby just a little. You tried to cremate the baby? Yeah, I'm going to be very clear at this juncture. Lake and Snellings is not charged with murder. We are waiting on a a full and complete autopsy report. Right now, we've only got a COD as undetermined. But as we

speak, microscopic tests are being conducted similar to the ones that you heard Dr. Kimmel Crowns discussing. Then we'll find out if there will be an upgrade to her charges. And remember, she is innocent tonight. Innocent until that presumption of innocence is pierced by facts, and by the state that prove her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Right now, we remember an American hero, Officer Caitlin Rittenauer, Texas Department criminal justice. Just 23 survived by a grieving fiancé, Zachariah, and her mother, Tara, American hero, Officer Caitlin Rittenauer. Nancy Grace, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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