“Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.” (Psalm 127:3)
“You created my innermost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb.” (Psalm 139:13-14)
These two Biblical quotations, each in their own distinct way, celebrate the bond between a child and its mother. Tragically, this will not be experienced between one newborn and its mother, 22 year-old Tennessee native Laken Snelling, who seven months ago was a senior at the University of Kentucky.
Snelling is now back in Tennessee and under house arrest for the second time, having been charged on March 10 with first-degree manslaughter.
Last August, Snelling gave birth to a male infant whose body was discovered by a roommate in a closet of their shared off-campus house. The baby was wrapped in a towel inside a trash bag. Thereafter, Snelling was charged with concealing a birth, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse.
Arrested by Lexington police, Snelling withdrew from the university and returned to her parents home near Knoxville until on March 13, when the new charge was brought against her.
Snelling’s experience of motherhood may have lasted just the length of her newborn’s single cry. She told police in an interview last summer that the child “whimpered once” after being born, but Snelling gave no further details. After a months-long investigation, the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that “the infant was born alive but died from asphyxia by undetermined means.”
Now, as Snelling’s case moves towards a to-be-determined trial date, I share some of my thoughts on this unspeakable tragedy, both as a lifelong Black Catholic and a journalist.
I previously made similar thoughts known locally in Lexington, and faced interesting results. Specifically, my desire that a murdered newborn infant not to be forgotten or dismissed didn’t rest well with some local Catholics. This was even after the circumstances of the child’s brief life became known.
As Catholics, we are taught to respect that life begins at conception, but we also live in a throw-away society. Just hearing this woman recall that one, single cry—and the silence that followed—should sicken us all and fill our hearts with shame.
Unfortunately, though, in the “don’t rock the boat” and “just let it be” atmosphere of both my diocese and the university, it likely won’t.
Snelling’s former residence borders the UK campus and an affluent neighborhood with businesses, student and non-student housing, and stately private homes. Alongside them, however, are homeless people sleeping in building corners in bitter cold, snow, and rain, or on bus shelter benches.
While not a direct cause of last year’s tragedy, these conditions—and what I see as the apathy which produces them—have led to a feeling over the past several months that the story of Snelling and her late child are yesterday’s news”. I can almost hear the city denizens saying to themselves, “Oh, how awful, but time to move on.”
And at the center of this story is an expectant mother old enough to know better, but who did nothing to produce a different, life-saving outcome to her pregnancy. And what about her father or her mother, or even the roommates who suspected that Snelling was pregnant but who likewise accepted her flimsy denials and continued living with her in blissful ignorance?
Either way, the “pro-life” people were apparently never part of the equation, and we will never know if anyone suggested or even considered an intervention. There are, of course, the inevitable excuses: She lived off campus, some will say, and this absolves the school of any responsibility, (God might beg to disagree.)
Furthermore, would the pursuit of justice for the unborn child have taken nearly seven months if Snelling had been a local or Black female? Possibly, but Fayette Commonwealth Attorney Kimberly Baird is an African American, and she defended the case’s slow-moving pace, which irritated many residents.
“[The grand jury was] given information about homicide, the four levels of homicide and then they deliberated and decided that manslaughter first-degree was the charge that should come out,” said Baird.
Speculation ran wild as time passed. Speculation that Snelling’s family were perhaps working on some type of plea deal, or on getting the charges dismissed due to possible mental health issues. Even worse, some alleged that money was a-talkin, and making the powers that be do some slow-walkin’.
“Baby Snelling was born alive and then died from asphyxia through unknown means, so that is what we had to make sure about,” said Baird.
Finally, the heart-rending truth is out and the second-guessing is over. That said, we must all still face the terrible fact that this young woman—who once carried a new life within her—has changed her own forever.
Snelling will almost certainly face prison, and need many years of counseling for what she did (and did not do). Her real punishment, however, will last much longer than any sentence a court of law can impose.
She did not call emergency services or use the baby boxes available at any city fire station for these very types of situations. She did not go to an emergency room, call her roommates for help, or apparently do anything to save the life of her child.
Tragically, the list goes on of what could have been done. When someone finally did act, it was only to open a bag of trash. It contained, as we now know, anything but garbage.
Robert Alan Glover is an alumnus of the University of Dayton where his studies included theology. He writes for The Catholic Miscellany in the Diocese of Charleston, among other media. He resides in Lexington, Kentucky.
