Baby in the Closet

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Well, hello. Hello.

We are joining you via the internet via the zoom via the zoom. We're back on zoom. None of us are sick. None of us are sick.

I don't know. Yeah. Not that I'm aware of. My mom did just have go.

But like so. Well, that stinks. Yeah. Well, if you hear something like it's a cat Edgar is screaming.

Oh, Edgar just wants to be close to you. Yeah, I can't. I feel sorry for him. Yeah.

I'm sure he has grown greatly. Oh, he's huge and he's a demon and a menace to society. Well, as most cats are. But, you know, we love him.

We do. We can't help it. Well, we just have some scheduling conflicts. So, that's why we're here with you via zoom.

But, you know, we hope in the next couple of episodes to be back in person and, you know, bringing you these harrowing and terrifying tales. Yeah. So, this is actually my turn to tell the story. And this is a recent one.

Yeah. Well, you texted me what you were going to do. And I was like, I just saw this like come out. It was funny because in my head, I was thinking, I've got to get this one before Haley.

Well, see, I always like discount. They're really like recent ones because I'm like, oh, there's not going to be enough like stuff for me to research yet. And like, so I just usually discount them. So, yeah, all yours.

Thank you. Well, also want to throw out that we apologize for not having an episode last week and not even posting like we kind of didn't exist. Yeah, we were in I was my first week of teaching full time, which was great. I mean, I was on a class.

Wonderful. But yeah, I just completely like. My kiddos back in school. He just started elementary school kindergarten.

So there's going on. So I think that's why we are back to bring it to you. So, this is the story of Lagan Snelling. So her name is Lagan and her last name is Snelling S-N-E-L-L-I-N-G.

So our story takes place in Lexington, Kentucky. And like I said, it is a recent one. Yeah. So I talked about this this morning.

Oh, how funny. Yeah. I was like, oh, so I like scrolled past her. I was like, I don't want to spoil the details.

Well, any information. Yes. Well, it's unfolding. So do know that, you know, anything in this case is really alleged and it's unfolding.

So that we'll learn more and more about it as we go along. So I'll keep you posted on any kind of update. But we're going to start here. Like I said, Lexington, Lexington, Kentucky, and it is August 27, 2025.

So very recently. Yeah, like a few days ago. Yes. And so we're on the campus, slightly off the campus of the University of Kentucky.

So several girls have been suspicious that something's going on with their roommate, Lagan Snelling. Now, Lagan, by all accounts, is a happy all-American pageant queen. She's even a competitive cheerleader for the university. And she's part of a division called Stunt, where they do, just as it says, like a bunch of different stunts.

And she's being brought in me and all of those crazy things that I could never do. She's popular. She's attractive. And she comes from a really good home and family.

So she actually hailed from White Town, Tennessee, but enrolled as a freshman at the University of Kentucky where she's been the last couple years, because right now she's a senior. Very active on social media. Until around this April, when she kind of went silent for a little bit, which, you know, sometimes people do, you need to break a little bit from social media. I definitely know I do.

Her last talk, though, was in June. And it featured a photo of herself along with info, like, my birth month. You know, cute things with little emojis. So it's like info about her birth month, and then like her likes and dislikes her goals for the future.

And those goals also included having a home and being a mother. This will come in as very important as we go along. So Lagan, like I said, is your typical college seat. So lately, however, Lagan's been acting a little weird.

She's always maintained a very slim and athletic figure, but a little bit less than a month. She's noticeably gang weight. And I will say that college is stressful. And, you know, now that her body's maturing, she's 21, not uncommon to gain a little bit of weight.

Like, you know, I mean, we've heard like the freshman 15, maybe it's like the senior 15. And maybe she's not as active. I mean, there's just always reasons why people lean weight. Sometimes she takes medication that makes you gain weight.

So close one thing, it's explainable. So her friends don't think that she's just gained weight. Her friends think she's pregnant. Now, she's never stated that she's with a child, but her friends have continuously grown curious of her condition.

Like, that's just weird. Like she's super tiny and athletic and all of a sudden she just gains a lot of weight. That's strange. And it kind of seems like she's hiding in her clothes, like purposely wearing like baggy or clothes.

So, but also again, not uncommon with people who are like a gang weight to show kind of thing. So when Lagan goes off to class, her friends decide to look for her things. Perhaps they can gain more insight as to whether or not she's pregnant. You know, like, I don't know even what they thought they were gonna find like maybe a pregnancy cause there was on a grant or baby booties.

I mean, I don't know. But I guess they were just hoping to dig a little deeper and find out more than what she was telling. I mean, I don't know if this is a young girl thing, but as an older woman, like I'm like 112. But as an older woman, I would just like go to her directly and be like, girlfriend, you pregnant?

Yeah, I asked that of people all the time. They love it too. I'm sure. They do.

They love it. People who doesn't? But while I don't can do them going through other people's things, in this case, it turns out to have been a good thing. Because when girls open Lagan's closet, they saw a black trash bag.

And when they opened the bag, they found paper towels and other items that appeared to be used for cleaning. In addition to the cleaning items, they found wrapped in a bath towel. They found they wrapped bath towels, excuse me. And when they opened the bath towel, they found what appeared to be a newborn infant.

So they immediately call 911 reporting an unresponsive infant. So it's around 1030 when EMS arrived at the 400 block of Park Avenue. Unfortunately, the baby is pronounced dead on the scene. And now we don't know how old the baby was.

We don't know gender. Like those aren't in the details because again, this is very, very fresh. And we also don't know was the baby born alive. Right.

So born, how long did it live? Or was the baby killed? You know, all of these things. Like we have no idea.

So currently in autopsies being performed to determine the cause of death, along with date of birth, what exactly happened, you know, date of death, all that fun information. So and all of that is going to be released in the coming days and weeks. So I'll keep everybody posted on that. But let's go back to Lake and shall we?

So the child was found in Lake and's closet in a house that she shared with her college roommates. So when Lake and arrives back at the apartment, Lexington PD are there to ask her some questions. So obviously, they take her aside and they're like, so we found a baby in her closet. And she admits that, yet she has recently given birth and that she is the mother of the child found in the closet.

Rather than arresting her on the scene, the police want to have her examine to ensure that her postpartum needs are cared for, because it's likely she delivered this baby on her own. And you know, there could be some residual issues going on with her physically. Did she deliver the placenta? Well, you know, all those things that you need to do.

And so they decided, okay, we're going to send her to a local hospital to be examined first. So they want to ensure she's good to go. They also are ensuring that she did recently give birth. I mean, why would you lie about that?

But they want to just make sure they're also doing things like getting blood tests, DNA, all that, just to be on the safe side. So four days later, on August 31, Laken is given a clean bill of health by the hospital and discharged. She's released into the custody of Lexington PD. And this is where she's formally arrested and charged with the following abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant.

So if you notice here, she's not being charged with any kind of homicides since we're really unclear of the infant death, the cause of death. So more charges might be brought against her. They just don't have the right now. So I can say that in Kentucky, crimes that have been charged, excuse me, let me go back, sorry, in Kentucky, crimes that are considered to be a class D, which are those exact ones that you charge with, could give you a jail sentence of one to three years.

So on September 2nd, Laken goes in front of the judge and get this, she pleads not guilty to the charges. I saw that. Yeah, which is bizarre. It is.

And I don't understand, you know, obviously she's got some rationale behind it, but you know, unless, unless there are others involved that we're not aware of right now, right? And maybe, you know, as time goes on, we'll learn more. Yeah. So her family posts $100,000 bail for her.

And she has ordered to live in her parents home in Tennessee, pending her next court date. And I assume the results will be obviously, you know, if there's more charges. So she's not technically under house arrest, like she doesn't have an ankle monitor or anything like that. But the judge did make it clear that she had to stay with her parents.

So she cannot return to school. She cannot return to her. So that means that we're gonna have to wait for more information because it's still pretty fresh, but it also makes you wonder like, why do young women do this? Because like, we heard these stories before, you know, like, oh, it was the problem and she had a baby in the bathroom and, you know, put it in the toilet or put it in the trash or, you know, like we've heard these things.

So is it, fear of having a child out of wedlock, which I'm hopeful that like that stigma over the years has decreased, but I think it's still present, especially in some families, worried about their life, reputation, wasn't that she wanted to keep a baby, but there was something going on with like a boyfriend, did he break up with her with her, you know, like, you just, you don't know, right? No, won't be these things happen. So well, and I'm assuming that Kentucky's abortion laws are pretty, like, I'm sure it's not easy to access. Correct, correct.

And again, there's a stigma that comes with that as well. So maybe she grew up in a house that was very anti-abortion, so she felt like she couldn't have an abortion, even if it was an easier option, you know, readily available. So, but you would also think that, like, couldn't she just, okay, so she decides I'm going to have the baby, what about, like, doing kind of adoption? I mean, she's over 18, so she doesn't require her parents to sign on anything.

Or, like, say, Pavan law, it's like, hey, if you didn't want anybody to know, like, you can drop out a fire department or a church or a hospital, they're all, like, your options. Exactly. So that is really strange. Like, what happened?

So I was thinking about it, and I was thinking about, you know, the hormones, impregnancy, and post-birth. So, you know, there are high levels of oxytocin when you're getting birth, which, you know, create, like, emotional over sensitivity, you have some heightened aggression. Actually, you know, think about how many women are getting birth, and they want to just beat the shit out of people. I just want to, like, don't tell me to breathe.

I'm going to slap you, you know? And then kind of misinterpreting other people's cues, and like, social cues, like, that's a common being with these high levels of oxytocin. And it can also cause physical issues, like ruptured uterus, mood disruptions, all that fun stuff. So, that was one thing that I thought about.

I was like, okay, what if there's like this surge of oxytocin? And then I thought, okay, well, what about like a postpartum psychosis? Because we don't know exactly how long ago this baby was delivered. I mean, it could have been a week ago, we don't know.

So, the onset of postpartum psychosis starts about two to three days of post-birth. So that's when you start to see things. So you can have hallucinations, both visual and auditory. So maybe, you know, she's having hallucinations that don't hurt her to kill the baby, if she killed the baby, allegedly, or, you know, something happened.

And, you know, maybe there's some postpartum depression that manifested in the early days, you know. I don't know, but there's also something called prenatal depression that can show up during pregnancy. And usually there's a cognitive pace to this where women get that like pregnancy brain, they're forgetful, and they can't really make decisions. Like, they can't focus enough to make a really big decision.

There's also the physical aspect of it where they're overly tired, like more than normal in a pregnancy. They don't have the energy that you would find in women who maybe are in the second trimester or who are, like, you know, yes, dean and doing all this stuff. And then there's that emotional piece to it, where they're crying all the time. They feel overwhelmed.

And as it goes on, they can feel like they want to harm themselves or even suicidal ideation. So these are some things that can happen with prenatal depression. And I think that that's something that prenatal depression we don't talk about a lot. You hear more postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, but you don't hear a lot about that prenatal.

So I'm just going to throw out, I'm not trying to offer any kind of rationalizations to this behavior. But what happened was very wrong. This poor child is dead. But I also, you know, needs more context.

So we know they saw the charges that allegedly Lake and Gaeber to the child and cleaned up the scene. So I guess she delivered the baby possibly by herself. We don't know. And as of right now, you know, like I said, nobody else is being charged as an accessory or anything.

But so she gives birth, I guess, delivers the placenta, cleans up everything, puts everything in this trash bag, including the baby wrapped in the towel. And then I guess she assumed if I like, hide it away in my closet, like nobody will know. Maybe I can dispose of it later. Like, I've got to go to class and act like everything's normal, which also, I don't even know how physically she was able to like, good class.

You know, you need some like time, like post birth, even if you had like the best labor ever, like you just got to be able to like, like all of these are, you're lactating, like all the things are happening. Like you got that gloss from happening. Like, there's just a lot of moving parts. And like a lot of things, like there's still a ton of bleeding.

That's happening. So I just don't know how she was able to like disguise all of that with probably four girls sharing. You know, like, I don't know. So we know that based on the charges, like I said, she had already given birth, cleaned it up, did all that fun stuff.

But we don't know like, who's the baby's dad or who's the father of this baby? Right. We have no idea. So there's pictures on like, in social media that are showing her with a young man proposing, but there's no indication like, is this the boyfriend?

Is there a baby daddy? Was there somebody that, you know, she just hooked up with? And something that did cross my mind with this was a rape. Right.

Yeah. No, like there's that kind of added component of it too, which also brings about feelings of shame and all these things. So time will tell, but she's so curious. Like her last social media post, she put that she wanted to be like a housewife and a mom.

So there's actually a little emoji, but like the mother pulling the baby. It is to the dream. And that wasn't June. So it makes me think, like, was she excited about having the baby?

Like did she plan to have the baby? And then like, something happened with a boyfriend was the baby still born and she freaked out and she didn't know what to do. But I guess in this case, I would say like don't judge a book by his cover because she did plead innocent to the charges. And we don't know what happened.

There's a baby who's passed away. But yeah, it's weird though that like, like if she was excited about it, why hide it until right. So I wonder if she was just like either, I mean, there's always a possibility she didn't know she was pregnant. Could be.

I mean, there's a whole television show about that. Yeah, like, and then she just has, you know, like this just happens and she something just snaps. I mean, like that's a that's got to be a pretty major shock. I mean, absolutely, you're probably thinking, oh my god, my insides are coming out.

And then you realize it's a baby. But here's the thing. If if you were like in that much pain, which I will say not all women experience severe pain and labor, I actually had a neighbor recently who gave birth to her son. And I was asking how she's doing and she's like, I didn't know you're paying at all.

And I mean, I instantly thought I hate you. I didn't say that. I just thought that she's like, I didn't take any drugs and I'm fine. And I was like, are you like lying or I don't know?

But I do think there's some women who just don't have that much pain with it. So it could have been that she doesn't have that much pain. She's like, oh, this is kind of weird. And then felt the need to push and oh my god, baby.

I wonder too, like, they're calling it an infant, but was it like full term? See that's the thing I don't know. You know, like it could have been like could have been not even Bible. You know what I mean, right?

And if you're not in a like, even like super pre-me babies that are able to, you know, be, you know, in the NICU, like if you're not there to like immediately start like, you know, oxygen therapy and everything else that they need, like they're not going to make it. And like, I've seen babies are like literally like the link of your hand. Like they're tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny. So I also wonder like, if maybe it was a situation like that, and she just panicked and didn't know what to do.

And that situation, because like, honestly, like if that happened to me, like, I didn't know I was pregnant and I, you know, passed this, you know, like gave birth to this very, very tiny thing, you know, that maybe kind of looked like a baby, I wouldn't know what to do. I mean, who am I calling in this situation? Am I, like, taking everything, like to what you are? Right.

Am I calling like the paramedics or am I calling my, like, I wouldn't know, I wouldn't know what to do. So in something else I thought about is even with abortion, I mean, there are rules about like how far along you can be in the pregnancy to terminate. So what if she took matters into her own hands, right? What if she was like 25 weeks and she attempted to like induce an abortion and you know, obviously gave birth.

And obviously, maybe it wasn't like, I don't know, like there are just so many things that are swirling through my mind. Yeah, it's just because it could be, I think we'll hear the term infant, and it very well could be that it was a full term, baby. But I think we hear the term infant, that's kind of where our mind goes. It's just like full term healthy looking baby, but it could have been.

Like that's kind of what I'm imagining is probably like, what happened. Yeah, there are also those later miscarriages. I mean, the baby could have had some kind of deformity where the fetus sort of, you know, the body has a way of pushing the child that, you know what I mean? So like, I don't know, I it's very strange.

But ultimately, like, I feel really sorry for her. I know that that sounds very controversial. But her life is over, in a sense that like, even if she just gets a year in prison, I mean, her life's gone. Now she's a former inmate, like, I don't know.

And especially if it was a situation like that, like where it was, you know, she didn't know. And this just happened. I mean, I'm still like, I'm gonna have to like do some googling of like, what would you do? Like, if that happens, and like, I know like my, you know, family members who have had, you know, miscarriages, and like, it's just one of those things that you don't really talk about.

Like, I don't know, like, I know they've experienced them, but I don't know like how late in the pregnancy it was. Like, if there was anything like to pass, you know, because a lot of times we've got to have miscarriages just a lot of bleeding. Right. It's like that sort of, you know, because nothing's really fully developed yet.

So you're not having anything that even resembles, you know, a human being. But I mean, sometimes you do. It's true. I mean, it happens.

And yeah, I don't know. Yeah, like, who do you call in that situation? Exactly. If you're feeling like, Oh my gosh, they're gonna judge me.

I don't want anybody to know, like, there's just so many feelings that are connected with it, especially when you are popular. And everybody's like, well, I want to be just like you, you know, like, there's a lot of pressure, I think that comes with that. I could totally see like, I mean, I can't imagine myself in that situation, but I could see like myself at, you know, 17, 16, 17 years old, like, if I didn't have the parents that I had, that would have been, you know, probably not thrilled with me, but, you know, supportive and, you know, I would have had the right to be now with your friends with. I mean, no, but like, like, I had a supportive family that would have been there for me and would have supported me and, you know, done what, you know, I needed.

But if I hadn't have had that and something like that had happened and I was like, Oh, you can't tell your parents, you can't tell your friends, you can't, like, I could see, especially if, you know, the infant was already deceased, like totally panicking and like, okay, my only option is just to hide it. So yeah, I don't know. Yeah, again, you know, she probably just wasn't making stellar decisions in the moment when she's like freaking out thinking, oh my gosh, my roommates are going to come back and everybody's going to know and I'm going to fall from grace and especially, and I'm not saying this because I don't know for family, but sometimes if you come from a family that puts a lot of pressure to kind of, you know, look good and be a certain way. I mean, having a baby like that, that doesn't look really good.

And so maybe she got, you know, maybe no one will ever be the wiser. I don't know. Yeah, even if she had like the most supportive family in the world, like, you're still like, I like my family is like, my parents are wonderful people and would again, not be thrilled with me. But like, I'd be terrified to tell them.

Yeah. Like, even though I know that I'm not going to be like kicked out or disowned or anything like that. But like, I would still be terrified to tell them. Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. So it's a scary thing. But like I said, I will bring you more information as it goes along. And so yeah, this was today's story.

I don't know if we could get all this week. Exactly. So yes, we're finally getting you an episode this week. So gay for us.

We finally get our crap together. Maybe we can't promise anything. Okay, so Haley, can you let them know how to reach us? Sure thing.

If you would like to email us at mountain mysteries dot Appalachian at gmail.com finds on our Facebook, mountain mysteries, tales from Appalachia, find us on Instagram, mountain mysteries dot Appalachia and our patreon at patreon.com slash mountain mysteries. Okay, and I'm going to get a shout out to Mount Kisco, New York. I hope I pronounced that right. Please go.

All right. Well, until next time. Bye.