That's my father.
We were a family with a lot of potential.
We could have done anything.
[Frank speaking]
SAM: There's little Ben!
We loved the fact that Ben and I were on the farm together.
We were so close, our families were so close.
Ben was an excellent snake breeder.
He genuinely cared about the animals far more than
the money.
He found a woman that enjoyed snakes.
[Lynlee speaking]
I really, truly thought that they were a perfect couple.
And then just out of nowhere, everything took a deep dive.
[Lynlee crying hysterically]
[operator speaking]
[Lynlee speaking]
[Lynlee gasps]
[operator speaking]
[Sam speaking]
[heavy theme music playing]
NARRATOR: It's fall 1987.
38-year-old Frank Renick and his wife, Kim, are
building a family home on 72 acres of farmland near
Florence, Missouri.
[Frank speaking]
NARRATOR: Frank videotapes the work in progress
to show his mother.
[Frank speaking]
Back in the 1980s,
my parents bought a big, beautiful piece of land
out in Montgomery County to build this home.
It was a big deal for them.
[Frank speaking]
NARRATOR: Frank and Kim intend for the new farmhouse to be
their forever home, where they will raise
their two infant sons -- Sam and Ben.
[Frank speaking]
They designed it and decorated it.
They were excited.
[Frank speaking]
Hello.
They loved this home more than anything.
They were very, very happy out there.
[Frank speaking]
NARRATOR: Frank is the owner of Renick Farm Pet Foods.
The animal feed business is in his blood.
He was a partner in his father's food
company before he set up on his own.
My family had just sold Bow Wow Pet Foods.
They were some of the first ones to sell
bagged dog food to Walmart back in the '60s.
They used the proceeds from that sale to purchase the land
and then build that first home and start a business in
Montgomery County.
My parents were a lot of fun.
They were very close.
They loved each other very much.
[laughs] Frank always made it clear that Kim came first,
we came second.
Um, my mother was everything to him.
NARRATOR: In 1988, the Renick family is living in
a rental home while the farmhouse is
under construction.
[Frank speaking]
[Kim speaking]
[Frank speaking]
SAM: My parents were always like big little kids,
you know, they are --
they were always having fun.
[Frank speaking] Oh...
[Sam speaking]
SAM: That's me having fun on a little spring horse.
[Frank speaking]
SAM: There's little Ben!
We were tiny.
[speaking indistinctly]
We were pretty similar when we were kids, you know.
I was older -- he was a smart, skinny version of me.
We were very close.
NARRATOR: In spring 1989,
the big house build is complete.
The family moves into their new home to enjoy life on the farm.
SAM: Ben and I spent our time outside, enjoying
the beautiful wildlife area that was out there.
[Frank speaking]
Lots of hiking.
I was looking for bugs.
Ben was looking for reptiles, that kind of thing.
[Frank speaking]
We were young and rambunctious little kids.
Ben and I were born exactly two years and two days apart.
So his birthday was August 4th,
and mine was August 6th.
NARRATOR: This year, Frank's mom,
Grandma Virginia, has come to join the celebrations in
the new home.
SAM: We had one big birthday bash every year,
the day between our two birthdays.
This is my grandmother giving us
a stuffed animal as a present.
We loved our grandmother very much.
We always had a good time celebrating together.
[all singing "Happy Birthday"]
We were a family with a lot of potential.
You know, we could have done anything.
It's nice seeing my baby brother again.
He had a lot of life in him, you know?
[woman speaking]
We were safe.
We were very happy,
but our lives changed.
And that was -- that was hard.
NARRATOR: Just three years after they move in,
the Renick family's dream home meets with disaster.
We were at a hotel at the time
when we were informed that there was an explosion.
But by the time we got there, it was, there wasn't much left.
The main residence at the property was destroyed.
I remember watching my mother.
She was just weeping, and you could see the insulation
falling out of the sky.
We had carpet that was stuck in the trees.
We lost about everything out there.
This home meant the world to my mother.
NARRATOR: Investigators conclude that a storage tank leaked
3,000 gallons of propane into the house.
[Frank speaking]
NARRATOR: The explosion is so loud,
local police think it's an earthquake.
Losing that house was devastating.
Unfortunately, the gas explosion had a major
impact on both Ben and I as children.
It took a major toll on my parents.
It was a different world.
You know, it changed the trajectory.
In looking back, I don't know --
I don't know why we didn't do something.
It's hard to imagine what Ben would
feel now about where things ended up.
NARRATOR: After a gas explosion destroys his home
in 1992, Frank Renick moves his family into
a trailer and starts building a new farmhouse.
That same year, the Renicks received more devastating news.
SAM: Immediately after we had the house explosion,
my mother was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer.
It was kind of a one-two punch at the time.
When my mother got her diagnosis,
I was probably about eight years old.
Ben was about six years old.
Let's put the clean towels on.
BOBBETTE: She was gonna have to have a double mastectomy
and going through the chemo treatments and the radiation.
She was a trooper, though. Kim was very strong.
We would keep the boys during the time when Frank would be
taking her to her doctor's appointments
or if she was in the hospital.
The boys pretty much, probably for the majority of
their childhood, that's all they knew,
their mom being sick.
SAM: When we were young,
my father encouraged us to have exotic animals as pets.
We'd go outside.
We'd always find big black snakes, and I remember we had
caught one one time, and it was giving birth,
and it had a whole bunch of little baby eggs,
and Ben thought that was fascinating.
Ben had a snake at a pretty young age,
and it wasn't too long after that
he started experimenting with breeding,
and that definitely grew his interest.
NARRATOR: Fast forward to 2002.
The Renick family moves into their new
farmhouse 10 years after the explosion.
Dad Frank builds for 15-year-old Ben
a reptile house to help foster his son's fascination
with snakes.
BOBBETTE: Most kids, they'll have a little aquarium with
a gerbil in it or they'll have a puppy or whatever.
Not this kid -- he had a wall
full of aquariums with big snakes in them.
NARRATOR: The Renick family has just five years in
their new farmhouse before tragedy strikes once more
in 2009.
SAM: My mother passed on the property.
It was New Year's Day.
We had to be strong for her.
That's what she would have wanted.
BOBBETTE: It was hard on the boys, and then for Frank,
it was probably hardest on him.
He lost the love of his life.
That farm meant a lot -- to my mother,
to my family, and to Ben.
She made Ben and I promise we'd take care of that land
and save it for our children,
and because it meant the world to them.
Ben decided to stay there, to live on that property.
That's where he built his business, as well.
[speaking indistinctly]
NARRATOR: Ben founds Renick Reptiles
to sell designer snakes worldwide.
[Ben speaking]
Renick Reptiles was a reptile breeding
facility that focused mostly on designer reptiles that had
mutations in colors and patterns.
NARRATOR: Ben promotes his company at snake shows
across the U.S.
[man speaking]
[Ben speaking]
[man speaking]
Ben was an excellent snake breeder.
He genuinely cared about the animals far more than the money.
NARRATOR: In 2010, Ben meets 22-year-old
old Lynlee Gallatin at a friend's party.
A few weeks after the party, Ben introduces Lynlee to
his brother, Sam, and his sister-in-law, Ali.
ALEXANDRIA: Sam and I were at Frank's house, and he brought her over
to introduce her to us, and she seemed really nice and sweet.
They had a lot of the same interests, and he found
a woman that enjoyed snakes, reptiles, and didn't mind being
around them.
I thought he was pretty lucky to find
a second person that had an interest like that.
NARRATOR: Lynlee has a three-year-old son
from a previous relationship.
Ben took right to him.
I really, truly thought that they were a perfect couple.
SAM: Ben couldn't stop talking about how happy he was
with Lynlee.
I think they'd been together for less than
a year before they got pregnant with their first child.
NARRATOR: Lynlee gives birth to a daughter
On March 17th, 2012.
She was our bright, shining star.
And, uh,
gosh, she meant the world to Ben.
Ben was a very caring, doting father
and took care good care of those kids.
NARRATOR: Away from Ben and Lynlee's baby bubble,
Frank Renick's business is in deep financial trouble.
In 2012, both my wife and I were
working with Frank at his company at the time.
He had called us and asked us to help him with the company
after my mother's passing.
Unfortunately, we realized that it was in dire condition.
We had the postal inspector stop by our door
and give us a cease and desist order for the company.
It had appeared my father had committed mail fraud.
We've determined that a lot of the funds that he had
taken were likely going towards my mother's medical
expenses and her bills.
I understood from all of it that Frank was possibly
going to be indicted, and he was looking at prison time.
SAM: We would have lost the family farm.
Ben would have lost his home.
Ben would have lost his business.
I don't think Frank was willing to let that happen.
BOBBETTE: 24 hours before the federal investigators,
the FBI, were going to come in and take possession
of all of his assets, the farm and everything,
[gunshot blasts]
Frank committed suicide.
It was Ben that found him on Father's Day.
SAM: It was hard, especially after losing my mother.
We were still relatively young at the time.
He's very missed.
NARRATOR: Frank's suicide stops the FBI investigation
and prevents them from seizing his assets.
Frank's will divides his estate between his sons.
Ben inherits the 72-acre farm and farmhouse.
Sam receives $1.2 million cash on
the understanding that he helps Ben maintain
the property.
He was trying to incentivize me to come back and work with
Ben, um.
I should have just fled -- when we got to the property,
there were several hundred thousands of dollars worth of
work that needed to be done, and the money
allowed me to do that.
ALEXANDRIA: Sam and I moved out to the farm after Frank had
killed himself.
We were helping with -- contribute with the bills there,
and we had our own home, and we couldn't afford both places.
SAM: We loved the fact that Ben and I were on the farm together.
It was nice that we were so close,
our families were so close.
ALEXANDRIA: We would have, like, dinners or, like, Sunday,
I would cook something, and they would come over.
I would watch the kids a lot when Ben and Lynlee would go
out on their date nights or when they'd go out to, um,
like the reptile shows on the weekends.
NARRATOR: But behind the scenes, a huge rift is
developing within the family over the farm's finances.
It was costing us so much money to --
to maintain and keep the property.
I was going broke. I couldn't keep doing it.
Ben was the sole owner at the time.
We always had the understanding that
we would get things worked out.
Ben was the safest bet in town.
Nothing was ever gonna happen to Ben.
ALEXANDRIA: I don't think any of us
could have expected what happened after that.
NARRATOR: In the aftermath of his father's suicide,
Ben Renick pours his energy into growing his snake
breeding business.
Renick Reptiles skyrocketed to success because Ben
was just an amazing entrepreneur.
And I don't know what...
He understood marketing and knew how to push
things out there on the internet to get more business.
Lynlee would help manage some of the work.
She would go in there and scrub tubs down at the end of
the night if needed, or she would help clean the babies.
It took a lot of work off of him.
[Lynlee speaking]
NARRATOR: Ben and Lynlee tie the knot on April 14th, 2014,
in St. Charles, Missouri.
Lynlee helped to make Renick Reptiles a commercial success.
After the wedding,
Ben agrees to help Lynlee start a spa business.
CHASE: Lynlee wanted to open a spa because
it's something that she's always been passionate about.
Ben helped financially get the business
up and going off the ground.
NARRATOR: Business savvy Lynlee invites
local YouTubers to make a video
about the spa and spread the word about her new venture.
It looks like Lynlee and her employee,
Ashley, are naturals in front of the camera.
[woman speaking]
CHASE: Lynlee's role was to run the spa.
She was also a massage therapist there, as well.
She was excited to be able to do her own thing.
NARRATOR: But the optimism that Lynlee shows
in the promotional video is short-lived.
Her spa struggles financially.
Ben questions why the project
he's bankrolling is failing to turn a profit.
CHASE: Ben was very frustrated, because she was working
a lot of hours and just still not making it happen.
It just didn't quite make sense.
NARRATOR: Around the same time,
Sam and wife, Ali, are struggling to
afford the upkeep on the family farm.
It was very, very expensive to be out there.
We had to put a lot of money into that property to keep
it up -- it was a draining experience.
I wasn't making the kind of money that Ben was at
the time, and I don't think I ever wanted to leave the farm.
Unfortunately, I had everyone under the sun telling me that's
what I should do, because I was gonna
go broke trying to keep the farm.
ALEXANDRIA: Sam and I did sell some of the furniture
around the house.
We had had a conversation with Ben, and he didn't
have a problem with us selling anything from the property.
There was one day that Lynlee sent a really long, angry text
message to Sam about selling
the furniture and how it was not fair, and I
really just kind of blew up --
explained how much Sam and I had
sacrificed to keep the property
and to save it from being sold at auction
when we first moved out there.
After the angry text message that Lynlee sent, um,
my opinion of her definitely changed.
It seemed so out of character.
It wasn't the Lynlee that we had known before.
Sam and Ben talked about it and smoothed things over.
But unfortunately, Ben and I did not really talk after that.
SAM: We were coexisting on that property,
trying to make things work,
and it was a unique relationship with Ben and I,
especially that year.
NARRATOR: Then, in early 2017,
the years that Ben has invested into building up
Renick Reptiles promised to pay off
and help ease the family's money troubles.
Ben's business was growing, and he
was coming up on a big transaction.
He had a big sale that we knew about
and he was very excited about it.
CHASE: Ben had a client that was looking for a deal
upwards of $1 million dollars for his collection of
Ball pythons.
The first payment for Ben's
collection happened in February of 2017.
And then, just out of nowhere, everything took a deep dive.
NARRATOR: On June 8th, 2017,
just four months after Ben makes his big sale,
911 receives a call from his breeding facility.
The caller is Ben's wife, Lynlee.
[phone ringing]
[Lynlee sobbing]
[operator speaking]
[Lynlee speaking]
[operator speaking]
[Lynlee speaking]
[operator speaking]
[Lynlee speaking]
[operator speaking]
[Lynlee speaking]
[operator speaking]
[Lynlee speaking]
[siren wailing]
-[operator speaking] -[Ben speaking]
[operator speaking]
[Ben speaking]
[operator speaking]
[Ben speaking]
NARRATOR: Law enforcement raced to Ben Renick's snake
breeding facility
following his wife Lynlee's call to 911.
DEVIN: The Montgomery County Sheriff's Department
arrived first.
We're all from Missouri.
It's a rural state -- we're comfortable around snakes for
the most part.
Being around 3,000-plus was different -- it made the crime
scene slightly challenging.
[officers speaking]
You have Lynlee Renick, Ben's wife, who is
beside herself, distraught.
[officer speaking]
[Lynlee speaking]
The deputies are essentially going in here thinking that
we're looking for a loose snake that's killed somebody.
And what they also find inside is Ben Renick's body.
-[man speaking] -[officer speaking]
It's a fairly gruesome scene.
There's blood pooled mainly around his head,
laying on his back on the ground,
and some very obvious disfigurement with his head.
[man speaking]
-[officer speaking] -[man speaking]
DEVIN: At first, Sam thought it might have been a snake
that killed Ben.
Sam was not familiar with snakes,
and on Ben's body, there was a part where if you didn't know
what you were looking at,
you might think that it was a bite from a snake.
We learned very quickly that was not the case.
We found shell cases underneath the racks.
We discovered several gunshot wounds in the back, as
well as one to the back of the head.
LUCAS: Now we've gone from a snake hunt to a shooting scene.
Immediately on their radar, Sam Renick
and Lynlee Renick.
NARRATOR: Missouri State Highway Patrol deploys specialist
officers to help with the murder investigation.
DEVIN: Another investigator, Sergeant Matt Cook and I,
we interviewed Sam, Ben's brother,
as well as Lynlee at the Montgomery County
Sheriff's Department.
NARRATOR: Sergeant Cook and Corporal Faust
interview Lynlee Renick first.
[officer speaking]
[Lynlee speaking]
[officer speaking]
Lynlee told me that it was a fairly normal day.
She worked her day in the spa, and the only thing that was
different towards the end of the day
is that Ben wasn't answering his phone
or wasn't answering his text messages.
She picked up the kids on her own,
which is something that Ben would have normally done,
and she continued to call him and text him
on her way to the snake farm.
She talked about the struggles that the families had with
money and how the trust from their late father
was processed.
She painted the picture that there was a real issue
with Sam.
[officer speaking]
[Lynlee speaking]
She just kept steering us towards the thought that
Sam may have had something to do with this.
[officer speaking]
[Lynlee speaking]
NARRATOR: Next, investigators interview Sam Renick.
Police are suspicious of Sam early on.
He is someone with
a strained relationship with the murder victim.
[officer speaking]
[Sam speaking]
He says that Ben is always talking about money.
He's always talking about his success in his business.
[Sam speaking]
At this point,
law enforcement are wondering what motive would he have
had to kill Ben, where he was at the time,
what his story is.
They asked him to take a polygraph test, and as well,
they want to do what's called a gunshot residue test.
This will let them know if
the person has recently fired a weapon.
[gunshot blasts]
I provided the police with the shirt off my back,
my cellphone,
all my personal social media accounts, everything imaginable
to try and rule myself out quickly.
LUCAS: Sam's polygraph test comes back fine.
It's negative for gunshot residue, as well.
DEVIN: We ruled Sam out as a suspect.
With Lynlee,
we had no probable cause to build on.
So we let both of them go at that point.
NARRATOR: The Renick family holds
Ben's funeral on June 18th, 2017.
Within 30 days, Sam receives news
about the future of the family farm.
After my brother's service,
uh, Lynlee isolated herself
and the children completely from everybody else.
And that's when we were given notice to vacate the farm,
that she had intended to sell the property.
When Ben was murdered,
she inherited the family farm.
Uh, we -- we lived on that property.
Our children lived on that property together.
I was living there with my children.
It was a shock.
NARRATOR: Lynlee eventually sells the property for $740,000.
Initially, we could have never imagined
that Lynlee had any involvement in this.
But after the sale of the farm,
we realized something was wrong.
NARRATOR: Less than a month after Ben's murder,
Lynlee attends a follow-up interview with investigators.
She reveals that her and Ben's relationship was in trouble.
And during that interview,
that's when we discover about an affair that she has.
She told us in the beginning that they had a good marriage,
and that wasn't the case.
She talks about Eric Bremmer.
He is helping Lynlee market the spa.
This business relationship eventually evolves into
a sexual one -- essentially,
she's cheating on Ben at the time of Ben's murder.
During this part of the investigation,
the State Highway Patrol is looking at messages between Ben
and Lynlee about Lynlee's spa.
DEVIN: In just about a month leading up to the murder,
they're fighting almost constantly.
LUCAS: These messages suggest that the relationship
is in a really rocky point.
It's another crack in Lynlee's story.
SAM: Lynlee was having financial troubles at her spa.
Ben was going to find out about the affairs.
Her world was kind of crumbling.
He just had a $1.2 million dollar deal
that was about to close for his snake business.
She had a lot to gain from my brother's murder.
Police are beginning to think that Lynlee knows
a lot more about Ben's death than she's telling them.
DEVIN: Approximately four months after the murder,
Linda consented to a polygraph examination.
She failed it.
Then I did a post polygraph interview, which
then turned into an interrogation.
The next day, she hired a lawyer.
LUCAS: Investigators are still missing crucial pieces
of evidence.
They're missing a gun.
They're just missing a lot of good physical
evidence to tie her to committing a crime.
Police are circling, watching,
they're waiting for that right piece of evidence to come on
that's gonna crack this thing even wider open.
And then a tip to law enforcement
essentially exposes this whole thing for them.
NARRATOR: Almost three years after Ben Renick's murder,
the police catch a break.
A witness comes forward with vital information.
On January 14th of 2020,
the Missouri State Highway Patrol hears from
an inmate at the Boone County, Missouri, jail
named Brandon Blackwell, who tells them that he's got
information on a murder case
that they've been working for a few years now.
Brandon Blackwell is a man in his 30s who says
that he was in a previous relationship with
Lynlee Renick,
a relationship that started in 2017,
while she and Ben were married,
and went until about the end of 2019.
This relationship does not end well.
They ended up fighting, and that led to her filing
orders of protection against him and having him charged
with stalking.
NARRATOR: While he waits for his sentencing date,
Blackwell reveals to investigators that he wants to
share information about Ben Renick's murder.
DEVIN: Brandon told us this story, first and foremost
because he was in jail,
and he was looking to lessen his charges,
but I think he was also ready to do the right thing,
and he proceeded to lay out this entire story
that was dead on.
Brandon says that,
"Lynlee Renick confessed to me that she killed her husband."
Brandon tells them that Lynlee conspired with
one of her coworkers, Ashley Shaw,
and they go seek out another ex, Michael Humphrey.
He has not talked to Lynlee Renick in several years
at this point when suddenly, out of the blue in the summer
of 2017,
she and Ashley Shaw just appear in his life.
Lynlee tells him about her
rocky relationship with her husband.
They're hoping that Michael will help them kill Ben at the farm.
Within a day, arrest and probable cause statements were
made for Ashley Shaw, Lynlee Renick,
and Michael Humphrey.
SAM: I got a call the morning of
when she was gonna be arrested.
They let us know that it was finally time.
The relief was huge.
NARRATOR: Investigators interview Michael Humphrey
on January 16th, 2020.
[speaking indistinctly]
NARRATOR: He claims that he agreed to accompany
Lynlee to the snake farm, but not to kill Ben.
DEVIN: When they arrived at the facility,
she introduced Michael as someone who
may be interested in buying some snakes.
[Michael speaking]
[gunshots blast]
LUCAS: Lynlee Renick's arrested on January 16th of 2020,
and she is accused of
and charged with first-degree murder
and armed criminal action.
NARRATOR: Investigators also arrest her coconspirators,
Michael Humphrey and Ashley Shaw, for first-degree murder.
DEVIN: Ashley Shaw, she decided to get
a lawyer and then ultimately cooperated.
In exchange, she was granted immunity from prosecution.
NARRATOR: Ashley says that Lynlee claimed
that Ben sexually assaulted her.
Lynlee worried that Ben's lawyer would help him
win custody of the children following a divorce.
Her only option was to kill Ben.
Ashley says that she believed Lynlee's
story and agreed to help her.
Investigators discover messages between Ben and Lynlee
that detail problems in their sex life.
But Lynlee reported no sexual assault to law enforcement,
nor did she mention one in her interviews
with them following Ben's death.
Michael Humphrey and Lynlee Renick stand trial separately.
In October 2021, a jury finds Michael Humphrey
guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
LUCAS: Michael Humphrey and his legal team
asked the state, if you replace
the first-degree murder conviction
with second-degree murder,
we'll show you where the gun is
that Lynlee used to kill Ben.
DEVIN: We did recover the firearm -- he'd kept it
in his possession the whole time.
We have the firearm that was used,
and it matches the casings.
NARRATOR: Forensic tests on the firearm
fail to recover DNA or fingerprints
that proved that either Lynlee or Michael
pulled the trigger.
Due to Michael's cooperation, he still has life in prison,
but now he has the possibility of parole.
NARRATOR: Lynlee's trial begins on December 6th,
2021, in Boone County, Missouri.
DEVIN: The prosecution was able to set forth
a very good case against Lynlee Renick.
The financial problems and the relationship problems,
her multiple affairs.
When Lynlee finally took the stand, we were shocked.
Lynlee is not a religious person at all, ever,
and she got up there with a big cross necklace
and started putting on a show.
I walked, you know,
down the aisle, and I walked up behind, um, Michael.
Ben was back around the corner, and then Michael turned around,
and I saw a gun in his hands, and then I heard shots ring out,
and I screamed, and I ran outside.
And then I heard more shots go off,
and everything just went numb.
LUCAS: She testifies Michael was the one that brought the gun.
Michael was the one that killed Ben.
The verdicts came in
in the afternoon of Thursday December 9th of 2021.
NARRATOR: The jury will decide
both the verdict and the sentence.
MAN: If the defendant would please rise.
Verdict as to count one,
we the jury having found the defendant,
Lynlee Renick guilty of murder in the second degree
assess and declare punishment
for murder in the second degree at 13 years.
As the verdict is to count two,
we the jury having found the defendant, Lynlee Renick,
guilty of armed criminal action,
assess and declare the punishment for armed
criminal action at three years.
Are these your verdicts, so say each of you? Okay.
LUCAS: Investigators have been pushing hard
that Lynlee Renick was the one that shot
and killed Ben.
A lot of people in the courtroom were shocked
at this verdict.
16 years total -- to this day,
I truly believe that she put eight bullets in my brother.
CHASE: I definitely miss Ben pretty much every day.
I had a son, and he got the name Renick,
so he's named after Ben.
ALEXANDRIA: I wish I could have had a conversation with him
before he died, before he was killed.
I would have told him I was sorry
and that I loved him.
Losing my mother was hard. Losing my father was hard.
Losing Ben was unthinkable.
After my parents passed, Ben was all I had.
He was the last family member I had left,
and he meant the world to me, um --
he will be forever missed.