Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - UK Beauty Queen Charged in Death of Newborn Drops out of School as Ex Takes a DNA Test | Crime Alert 6AM 09.08.25

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Former boyfriend of cheerleader Laken Snelling submits DNA to authorities following the discovery of her deceased newborn in a trash bag.   16 year-old accused in stabbing death of 14-year-old after an argument of a PlayStation.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace, breaking crime news now. Straight out to Nicole Parton for the latest. Nancy, an ex-boyfriend of Lakin Snelling, a cheerleader at the University of Kentucky, is undergoing DNA testing to establish whether he is the father of a newborn found dead in her closet last month. Isaiah Hall, 21, who previously dated Snelling, provided a DNA sample to authorities as part of the investigation into the baby boy that Snelling is accused of concealing in a towel and placing in a trash bag, then hiding in her closet at her off-campus home in Lexington. Lexington police asked him to come and provide a sample, said Justin Smith, the boy's father,

who declined to comment further, saying, I have no information on this matter, and we don't know if Isaiah is the father. Hall, a prominent quarterback at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, was in a relationship with Snelling before she began dating Connor Jordan, a former basketball player, as reported by the Daily Mail. The timeline of Hall's relationship with Snelling remains unclear, and he did not disclose when they broke up. The father said, I prefer not to discuss this in detail at this time. Snelling, who played basketball at King University in Tennessee, appeared in several of Snelling's social media posts leading up to her arrest on August 31. It is unknown when they started dating,

and he has since removed his social media profiles following the arrest. Snelling faces charges, including concealing the birth of a child, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse to which she has pleaded not guilty. The incoming senior who participated in the stunts, team was arrested after police received reports of an unresponsive infant at her home. She allegedly confessed to authorities that she attempted to hide the birth by cleaning up the scene and disposing of the related items in the same trash bag as the baby. An autopsy has been conducted, but the cause of death for the infant remains inconclusive. Snelling was released on

$100,000 bond and is now under house arrest in her parents' home in Tennessee, until her next court date on September 26. She has since withdrawn from school and is no longer a member of the stunt team, according to a report from the Lexington Herald. The university, which commenced the new semester on August 25, has not disclosed the date of her withdrawal. Nicole, thank you. More Crime and Justice News after this. And now let's head to Florida where a teenager is facing adult charges for allegedly stabbing a 14-year-old boy during a dispute over a PlayStation. This happened at their shared group home, according to police reports.

16-year-old Ruben Whitworth was arrested and charged with second-degree murder with a weapon for the fatal stabbing of Jordan Dowdy on August 25. Dowdy was discovered with fatal wounds that afternoon at a residence located on Northeast 3rd Avenue in Oakland Park. Jordan's mother, Tiffany Simpson, shared with Fox WSVN, that her son had previously encountered issues with Whitworth, saying he cried out for help and no one would listen. He told Jordan, no, shut the F up, or I'm going to stop you and kill you. Two weeks later, he ended up dead and stopped by him. Nobody helped him. No, they didn't take into consideration that he was stabbed, or not stabbed, that the kid kept threatening him. Disappointed in the system, disappointed in the state, disappointed in the brawl's office, disappointed in many ways.

A caregiver at the One Hope United Foster Home, where the boys were living, witnessed the altercation, and intervened just before the stabbing occurred. I need paramedics immediately, she reported to have said during an emergency 911 call, Whereas he stabbed, asked the dispatcher. The caregiver responded, I don't see the knife right now. I had to break up the fight. She can then be heard trying to keep Dowdy conscious during the call. Records from Broward County Court labeled Dowdy's murder as a dangerous, depraved, and lacking premeditation murder, as reported by ABC affiliate WPLG. A neighbor of the group home, Bobby Pecora, recalled meeting Dowdy earlier in the year where he expressed feeling frightened. He said, it's scary, Pecora remembered. She claimed that Dowdy was subjected to ongoing intimidation before his death and noted that police had visited that group home multiple times regarding incidents around the boy. Simpson also emphasized that Dowdy had been threatened repeatedly, telling WSVN that she had raised her concerns about others at the home.

Whitworth is set to appear in court later this month and is currently being held at the Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale without bail. Nine-year-old Alexis Patterson walks from her Milwaukee, Wisconsin home to school with her stepdad, Loran Bourgeois. Borgeois says he watched Alexis walk towards a playground before heading home. After school, Bourgeois and Alexis's mother, Ariana, learn Alexis is absent from school. Mom believes Alexis skipped class because she got in trouble for not completing homework

and could not bring cupcakes to school that day. Fellow classmates say they saw Alexis crying on the playground before, and after school. Alexis reported missing. Police suspect foul play as Alexis has no runaway history. Searches of the surrounding area turn up nothing. Alexis Biodad, Kenya Campbell, cooperates with police, as does Ariana and Laurent Bourgeois. But police say, Bourgeois fails a polygraph. Still, no arrest. Alexis Patterson, an African-American female child, brown hair, brown eyes, three feet, inches, 42 pounds at the time she disappeared, a scar below her right eye, and a bump on her left pinky. That was 22 years ago. If you have info on what happened to little girl

Alexis Patterson, please call Milwaukee PD 414-9357401. For the latest, crime and justice news, go to crime online.com, and please join us for our daily podcast, crime stories, where we do our best to find missing people, especially children, and help solve unsolved homicides. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. This is an I-Heart podcast.