Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Former Teen Beauty Queen Accused of Dumping Deceased Newborn in Trash Bag | Crime Alert 6AM 09.03.25

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Former Teen Beauty Queen Accused of Dumping Deceased Newborn in Trash Bag | Crime Alert 6AM 09.03.25 · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: Crime Alart hourly update, breaking crime news Now. I'm Drew Nelson,
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  Speaker 1: a University of Kentucky cheerleader, is arrested after police find
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  Speaker 1: her newborn baby dead in a closet, wrapped in a
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  Speaker 1: towel stuffed inside a trash back Lake and Snelling, h
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  Speaker 1: twenty one, was taken into custody on Sunday, four days earlier.
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  Speaker 1: Officers had been called to her home on Park Avenue
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  Speaker 1: in Lexington. They arrived just after ten thirty that morning
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  Speaker 1: and found the baby in a closet. The infant was
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  Speaker 1: already dead, according to court records. Snelling admitted she had
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  Speaker 1: given birth and quote cleaned any evidence, placing all cleaning
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  Speaker 1: items used inside of a black bag with the infant.
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  Speaker 1: She now faces charges of abuse of a corpse, tampering
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  Speaker 1: with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant.
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  Speaker 1: The official cause of the baby's death has not been released.
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  Speaker 1: The Fayette County Coroner's Office is still reviewing the case.
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  Speaker 1: The university confirms Snelling is the baby's mother. Snelling is
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  Speaker 1: a senior at the University of Kentucky, and she's been
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  Speaker 1: a member of the school's stunt team for the last
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  Speaker 1: three seasons. Stunt is a competitive cheerleading sport focuses on
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  Speaker 1: skill based routines like stunts, jumps, pyramids, and tumbling. It
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  Speaker 1: is described by the university as one of the fastest
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  Speaker 1: growing female sports in the country. Snelling is originally from
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  Speaker 1: White Pine, Tennessee. She once held the title of Jefferson
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  Speaker 1: County's Fairest of the Fair. She was studying interdisciplinary disability
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  Speaker 1: studies and often posted about pageants and her dream of
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  Speaker 1: one day becoming a mother. In June, she shared a
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  Speaker 1: video listing quote unquote being a mom as one of
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  Speaker 1: her life goals. Snelling posted a one hundred thousand dollars
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  Speaker 1: bond and was released on home incarceration without an ankle monitor.
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  Speaker 1: She's required to live with her parents. The Lexington Police
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  Speaker 1: Department Special Victim Section is still investigating. Anyone with information
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  Speaker 1: is urged to call eight five nine two five eight
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  Speaker 1: thirty six hundred or submit an anonymous tip at Bluegrass
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  Speaker 1: Crimestoppers dot com. Kentucky's Safe Haven Law allows parents to
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  Speaker 1: surrender newborns up to thirty days old at hospitals, fire stations,
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  Speaker 1: police stations, or with emergency medical workers without fear of prosecution.
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  Speaker 1: The law also supports the use of safe Haven Baby boxes,
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  Speaker 1: secure temperature controlled drop off locations that allow for anonymous
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  Speaker 1: surrender of infants. These boxes are built into some fire
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  Speaker 1: stations and hospitals. They alert staff immediately once a baby
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  Speaker 1: is placed inside. As of this year, there are multiple
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  Speaker 1: safe Haven Baby boxes across the state of Kentucky, including
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  Speaker 1: one less than ten minutes from the University of Kentucky
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  Speaker 1: campus in Lexington. More crime and justice news after this,
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  Speaker 1: A man is found dead in a pool of blood
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  Speaker 1: during the annual Burning Man Festival in Nevada, and police
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  Speaker 1: are treating it as a homicide. The body was discovered
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  Speaker 1: nine fourteen pm Saturday, as the festival's signature wooden effigy
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  Speaker 1: aka the Man was set ablaze. A participant flagged down
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  Speaker 1: a deputy in black Rock City and reported the scene.
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  Speaker 1: The Persian County Sheriff's Office, along with the Bureau of
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  Speaker 1: Land Management, Range and black Rock Rangers, responded and found
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  Speaker 1: a white man on the ground, describing him as quote
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  Speaker 1: obviously deceased. Deputy said the man appeared to be between
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  Speaker 1: thirty five and forty, around six feet two hundred, with
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  Speaker 1: short brown hair and facial hair. His body was sent
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  Speaker 1: to the Washoe County Medical Examiner's Office. His name has
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  Speaker 1: not yet been released. No one has been arrested. As
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  Speaker 1: the investigation continues. Authorities say the area where the body
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  Speaker 1: was found will remain under police control until the scene
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  Speaker 1: is processed. Law enforcement also said they are interviewing witnesses
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  Speaker 1: and reviewing any available tips. Burning Man organizers said in
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  Speaker 1: a statement, quote the safety and well being of our
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  Speaker 1: community our paramount. Police called the investigation complicated because the
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  Speaker 1: scene is inside a temporary desert city that will vanish
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  Speaker 1: within days. They believe the killing was a quote singular crime.
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  Speaker 1: Burning Man typically draws over seventy thousand people each year
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  Speaker 1: to the Black Rock Desert, about one hundred and ten
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  Speaker 1: miles north of Reno. The festival is known for its
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  Speaker 1: mix of art, fire and survival camping in a remote setting.
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  Speaker 1: This year's gathering began August twenty fourth and ended Monday.
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  Speaker 1: A New York City doctor is sentenced to twenty four
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  Speaker 1: years in prison for drugging and raping unconscious women, including
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  Speaker 1: hospital patients he was meant to treat. J Alan Chang,
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  Speaker 1: aged thirty five, once worked as a gastro entrologist at
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  Speaker 1: New York Presbyterian Queens. He pleaded guilty in June to
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  Speaker 1: four counts of rape and three counts of sexual abuse.
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  Speaker 1: He also entered an alfred plea on a separate count,
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  Speaker 1: claiming any sense, but admitting the state had enough evidence
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  Speaker 1: to convict. A judge handed down the sentence twenty four years,
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  Speaker 1: ten years of post release supervision, and lifetime sex offender registration.
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  Speaker 1: The court heard that Chang abused at least eight women
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  Speaker 1: between twenty twenty and twenty twenty two. He filmed many
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  Speaker 1: of his crimes, some taking place in his apartment in
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  Speaker 1: a story of Queens, others happening in the hospital where
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  Speaker 1: the women were sedated for treatment. Many victims only learned
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  Speaker 1: what happened to them after prosecutors showed them videos. One
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  Speaker 1: woke up in the middle of the assault. A woman
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  Speaker 1: who found herself in one of Chang's videos first alerted
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  Speaker 1: the police. That led to a search of Cheng's home.
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  Speaker 1: Investigators found thousands of files, including more videos showing Chang
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  Speaker 1: groping and raping unconscious women, some of them patients, some
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  Speaker 1: of them women he met online. Some of them have
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  Speaker 1: not been identified. Authorities also found cocaine, fentanyl, ketamine, MDMA,
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  Speaker 1: LSD and surgical sedatives like propofal and sevofluorine. In court,
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  Speaker 1: Chang said quote, I want to apologize to the victims
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  Speaker 1: for my heinous crimes, and I will atone for my
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  Speaker 1: actions for the rest of my life. The judge said, quote,
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  Speaker 1: I don't believe that twenty four years is enough for
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  Speaker 1: the crimes you committed. Chang had faced over fifty charges
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  Speaker 1: at the start of the case. A trial could have
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  Speaker 1: resulted in a life sentence, but prosecutors said they accepted
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  Speaker 1: a plea to protect victims from having to relive the assaults.
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  Speaker 1: In court, one prosecutor said, quote, I saw the horror
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  Speaker 1: on their faces, the confusion, and saw their ability to
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  Speaker 1: trust shatter. New York Presbyterian said in a state the
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  Speaker 1: crimes committed by this individual are heinous, despicable, and a
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  Speaker 1: fundamental betrayal of our mission and the patient's trust. Victims
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  Speaker 1: lawyers said the hospital bear some blame. Civil lawsuits against
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  Speaker 1: both Chang and New York Presbyterian are ongoing. For the
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  Speaker 1: latest crime and justice news, follow Crime Alert hourly update
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  Speaker 1: on your favorite podcast app. But this Crime Alert, I'm
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  Speaker 1: Drew Nelson.