"Rock star" reptile breeder murdered; Coroner says "This was not just a random act"

This story previously aired on March 4, 2023. It was updated on Aug. 3, 2024. OFFICER 1 (body cam video): I don't care if it's a 5-inch-long snake if something tries to bite me, I'm gonna light its a-- up.   OFFICER 1 (body cam video): Who is?  LYNLEE RENICK (body cam video): That's not a snake. OFFICER 1 (body cam video): This is Sam, that's his brother, Ben. OFFICER (body cam video): Sam? BEN RENICK VIDEO: "Welcome to the basement of Renick Reptiles. … we keep particular pythons — blood pythons, white lip pythons, green anacondas …" SAM RENICK [police questioning] I uh, I don't know where to start. MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: Do you have any questions for us? MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: Could you see anybody you know being upset with Ben to the point to where that may happen? MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: Are you willing to submit to a shotgun or, not shotgun, a gunshot residue? MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: Was there any family issues? MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: So, have you been talkin' to anyone, or did you have a relationship? MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: It was just — just sex? ASHLEY SHAW [police questioning]:  I mean I'm sure that you know she was having, um, an affair. ASHLEY SHAW: I know Brandon was like really a short time before that … BEN'S FACEBOOK MESSAGE TO LYNLEE: No more lying, no more keeping things from me, no more not paying people and thinking it's okay to pay later. MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR [interrogation]: OK, how do you think you did Lynlee? MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR [interrogation]: So, the results of the polygraph show that you failed the test. … When I asked you" did you shoot that man?" you failed the test.  LYNLEE RENICK [police interview]: He was coming in for massages.    LYNLEE RENICK: I don't have anything to do with this. MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: There is so much circumstantial evidence against you in this case it's mind-boggling. LYNLEE RENICK: I need to go get my children. MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: We're investigators with Highway Patrol.  I'm here because you used to be dating Lynlee. MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: Your dad gave me a call today and said that you wanted to talk to us. BRANDON BLACKWELL: My main concern is getting outta that cell …  BRANDON BLACKWELL: He was given a protein drink one night that was laced full of enormous amounts of narcotics … and somehow lived through it, but the plan was for that to be the last day of his life.  BRANDON BLACKWELL: My information is out of the horse's mouth. BRANDON BLACKWELL: They drove to the farm, he had gloves, he had a firearm, the plan was for him to do it.  They get there he hands her the gun and says he doesn't feel comfortable doing … it's something she's gotta take care of.  She walks in with a gun … and just shoots him a bunch of times. MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR (to Ashley Shaw during questioning): Now is the time, you're either on Team Lynlee or you're on Team Missouri.  And Team Lynlee's going to jail.  They're going to prison for first-degree murder.  ASHLEY SHAW: She asked if I could get any, um, thing, any prescription pills or anything in the amount that could, um, help her kill him and so I got her, um, perc, it was Percocet I'm pretty sure and there was, um, I think 15 of them. ASHLEY SHAW: … and she said, "Oh, no, once we got there I, I was fine to do it and so he handed me the gun and I did it." LYNLEE RENICK [police questioning]: I don't know what happened with him. I don't know  KELLY KING | PROSECUTOR: The defendant, Lynlee Renick, shot her husband, Ben, eight times, killing him … we're going to come back and ask that you to find her guilty …  KELLY KING: She goes to the school, picks up her two children, and drives them back to the place where she knows she is going to find their father's dead body because she killed him. TIM HESEMANN: She is not planning a murder. She's planning a divorce. ASHLEY SHAW: Michael was going to come to the spa, and they were going to go together to her — her house, his business — to kill him at home, or at — at work. KEVIN ZOELLNER | PROSECUTOR: So, Lynlee goes back there and she tells you to do what? ASHLEY SHAW: She said that Michael got — too nervous, or didn't want to do it, and so he handed her the gun, and she actually killed him, she said that she put the gun to his back and shot him several times. TIM HESMANN: How are you able to be so calm when you're being questioned about murders that you evidently claim to be so involved in, how is that Ashley?" KEVIN ZOELLNER: Now, what am I holding up? MICHAEL HUMPHREY: I heard a shot come out … so I kinda ducked a little bit, and I looked down through there. And she was at the end of the— corridor or whatever you want to call it, posted up like this with the gun. KATHERINE BERGER: Lynlee, was there ever any other occasion where an argument with Ben turned physical? LYNLEE RENICK: "Hey, my marriage is falling apart. Will you please just go with me just to make sure, like, you know, I'm safe and I can get some stuff and go?" LYNLEE RENICK: And I understand what that means and how this looks. I just — I don't know how to fully express that I — I never wanted Ben dead. KEVIN ZOELLNER: You were interviewed a bunch by a buncha cops. Correct? LYNLEE RENICK: And then anytime the police asked me who I thought, I just told them, "Sam." (cries) I'm so sorry." KEVIN ZOLLNER: Why should these jurors now believe you? … You now want these 12 people to believe you. Correct? JUDGE CRANE [reading verdict): As to count 1, we the jury find the defendant Lynlee Renick guilty of murder in the second degree … Verdict as to count 2, we the jury find the defendant guilty of armed criminal action.  JUDGE CRANE (to jurors): You may now retire to consider punishment in this case. JUDGE CRANE: Punishment for murder in the second degree at 13 years. … Punishment for armed criminal action at three years. SAM RENICK: I beg the common person to watch the trial again and ask themselves if my brother's life was worth only 16 years. Sixteen years is why I'm here today. SAM RENICK: The web of devastation travels far … SAM RENICK: She put the children through this experience. Here I am, covered in my brother's blood, attempting to comfort the children despite them asking me if their daddy is dead. JUDGE CRANE: You're awful lucky ma'am. You're gonna get out in your 40s. And my 40s weren't too bad. I just hope you don't kill again. That's it.

In the moments after snake breeder Ben Renick was found dead, investigators thought he might have been the victim of an attack by one of his prized reptiles. OFFICER 1 (body cam video looking at snakes): Holy s---! OFFICER 2: Ben, uh, Ben Renick. SAM RENICK: That's a snake honey. OFFICER 2: OK. SAM RENICK: Lynlee got here before I did so I don't know MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: OK. LYNLEE RENICK: What happened? LYNLEE RENICK: No. SAM RENICK: Yeah, anything you want, you got. LYNLEE RENICK: Um, like between Sam and Ben?  Yeah. LYNLEE RENICK: Aric. LYNLEE RENICK: Yeah. MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: Uh-huh. LYNLEE RENICK: I think I did well.  LYNLEE RENICK: I can't explain why I just failed that, but I didn't kill Ben. OFFICER: Yeah, but the thing is that that right there is very suspicious.  MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: I'll walk you out. BRANDON BLACKWELL: That's correct. BRANDON BLACKWELL: Yeah. MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: Now you're coming to us when you're in a pickle so … MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: OK. MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: After the murder, she ever seem remorseful? TIM HESEMANN: Lynlee is being deceptive to Ben. ASHLEY SHAW: To give her a shower … and she asked me to scrub her body and her hands really well. ASHLEY SHAW: I don't know. MICHAEL HUMPHREY: That's my gun. LYNLEE RENICK: Yes. KATHERINE BERGER: Did you ask Michael to help you kill your husband? LYNLEE RENICK: Yes. LYNLEE RENICK: Yes.

On June 8, 2017, Lynlee Renick called 911 to say her husband was face down in a pool of blood. She said she found him in his snake facility, which was home to more than 3,000 reptiles, some worth thousands of dollars. OFFICER 2: Something got him, so watch you're a--. OFFICER 1: Oh. LYNLEE RENICK: That's not a snake. OFFICER: OK. MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: We don't know yet. MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: How often did you guys hook up? MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL INVESTIGATOR: Did he think the same way? ASHLEY SHAW: A couple affairs, actually. LYNLEE RENICK: (Cries) BRANDON BLACKWELL: Right. ASHLEY SHAW: Never. KEVIN ZOELLNER: That's what your gun is? LYNLEE RENICK: Ben and I had been arguing at the house. … and he grabbed my arm and pushed me into the refrigerator and was like" I'm not done with this, we're gonna finish it now." LYNLEE RENICK: No. ZOELLNER: And you lied to them every time. KEVIN ZOLLNER: I bet you do.