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Snakes, Lies, and Murder: The Ben Renick Story · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:44
  Speaker 1: June seventeenth, twenty seventeen, in Montgomery County, Missouri, law enforcement
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: responded to a nine to one one call that you
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: just don't see every day. As they pulled into a
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: farm sprawling over seventy two acres, they found the owner
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: lying in a pool of his own blood. This man
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: was Ben Rennick, the bonafide rock star of the reptile world,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: who had over three thousand snakes surrounding him in various
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: cages and displays. As if that didn't make this case
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: unique enough, it was more than likely that one of
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: these snakes was still on the loose and could potentially
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: strike again. But Ben had his reasons. Aside from a
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: burning passion for having so many dangerous animals in the
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: middle of his home, Benrinnick was actually an internationally renowned
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: snake breeder. What it started as an interest when he
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: was only a child had quickly blossomed into a booming business.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Ben was doing stuff nobody had seen before. Friend and
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: fellow breeder David Levinson later spoke to the press he
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: had a lot of world's firsts over the years. Through
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: his company Rennick Reptiles Ink, Ben bred snakes with unique
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: colored combinations and patterns, essentially filling a hole in the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: market for bespoke designer pets and reptiles. His animals usually
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: sold for upwards of one hundred thousand dollars and went
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: from everywhere in the States to all the way across
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the ocean to Japan. Maybe needless to say that when
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Ben's wife, Linley and his brother Sam called the police
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: after the discovery of his body, the blame almost immediately
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: went to one of these prized reptiles. My brother's skull
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: was crushed. Sam later said it had to have been
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a snake, he told the nine one one operator over
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  Speaker 1: the phone. Investigators rushed to the scene and pronounced Ben
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Rennick dead. He was twenty nine years old at the time.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: During the then desperate search to locate and secure the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: dangerous snake believed to have killed him, a grief stricken
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Linley explained what had happened. She claimed to have come
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: home and found Ben lying in a pool of his
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: own blood. Not knowing what else to do, she then
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  Speaker 1: called her brother in law Sam and asked for help.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: It had been Sam's idea to call in law enforcement
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  Speaker 1: and seek aid in capturing the snake that had killed
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: his brother. In my wildest dreams, I would have never
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: imagined someone would hurt Ben. Sam later spoke to the press,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: but the investigators quickly ruled out that Ben's death had
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: been an accident. Lying on the shelf above Ben's body
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: was a discharged shell casing, and the investigators would quickly
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: find more. It turned out that Ben had been shot
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: eight times. One of those had been in the head,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: which had then caused the initial false impression that his
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: skull had been crushed. The investigators quickly turned their attention
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: from locating a deadly snake to finding Ben's real killer.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: They first held his brother Sam as the prime suspect
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: after discovering disputes that the two men had been having
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  Speaker 1: over the Rennick farm and property. But there was another
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: big contender in this arena, Ben's wife, Linley. Ben and
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Linley had known each other since they were teenagers, but
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: they had parted ways, only to reconnect again in twenty eleven.
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  Speaker 1: They were married three years later and had a child together.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: As threw herself into helping Ben develop his snake breeding business.
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  Speaker 1: By twenty seventeen, Ben had made a million dollar deal
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: that included the sale of some pythons and anacondas, and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: it looked like the young family would be set for
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: life with one successful business under their belts. Linley then
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: wanted to try her hand at running her own business.
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  Speaker 1: She and Ben opened up a spa called Essentia Spa, Inc.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: And established themselves as the couple to be in Montgomery County.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Only things are never quite as they seem on the surface.
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  Speaker 1: Investigators quickly uncovered Facebook messages between the couple where they
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: were arguing about finances and Linley's mismanagement of the spa.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: It turned out that Linley was way behind on her loan,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: her rent, and staff payments, and now her business was
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: throwing the entire financial stability of the family into jeopardy.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Sensing a potential motive for murder, the police questioned Lindley.
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  Speaker 1: They even tested her hands for gunshot residue, but the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: tests came back negative. It looked like the investigation had
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: been barking up the wrong tree. Linley was released and
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the investigation continued, and then detectives uncovered another string of
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: messages between Ben and Linley. It turned out that only
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: three years into their marriage, Linley had cheated on Ben
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: with multiple men from the messages between them, it looked
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: like Ben had been suspicious about Linley and her infidelity,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: but had no proof. At the time, the Montgomery County
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: couple to be was actually falling apart of the seams,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: and then the investigators heard a statement from a SPA
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: employee that added fuel to the growing fire. It turned
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: out that a month before Ben had been murdered, Linley
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: had come into work and opened up about some of
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: her most painful secrets. She claimed that Ben was abusing
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  Speaker 1: her and that she didn't see a way out of
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: her marriage. Desperate to help her friend and boss, this
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  Speaker 1: SPA employee had then agreed to do something heinous. She
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  Speaker 1: and Lindley laced a protein shake with fifteen percocet pills
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  Speaker 1: and gave it to Ben. Ben was poisoned. He became
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: incredibly sick, but miraculously he survived this murder attempt. He
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: then went on about his life, unaware of the fact
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: that he was living with someone who had literally just
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: tried to kill him. But the investigators would only find
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: out about this attempt on Ben's life much further along
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the course of the investigation. For the moment and the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: initial period after Ben's death. Ben's friends and family, especially
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: those who knew him from the reptile community, were left
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: reeling from the sudden loss. They raised money to help
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: support Ben's family and his prize possessions his snakes to
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: see that they went to good homes and reptile experts
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: within the community. But on the flip side of the coin,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: only two weeks after the death of her husband, Linley
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: made preparations to sell the Rennick farm. This action in
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: and of itself tells us that she was in a
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: bit of a hurry to financially cash in on her
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: husband's death, but that wasn't the only thing that she did.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Mere days after Ben had been murdered, Linley was on
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the phone to the insurance company asking how she could
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: claim on Ben's million dollar life insurance policy. She was
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: now looking less like a grief stricken widow and more
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  Speaker 1: like a prime suspect in the death of her husband.
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  Speaker 1: She was interviewed a total of six times and even
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: took a polygraph test. She unsurprisingly failed a polygraph, but
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: that alone isn't enough for law enforcement to arrest or
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  Speaker 1: charge her with murder. With the detective severely lacked was
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: physical evidence, and it would take three long years for
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: there to be any movement in the case. But it
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: started with a tip that came from a jail cell.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: A witness claimed to have overheard a conversation about Linley
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: killing Ben with the help of one of her ex boyfriends,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: a man named Michael Humphrey. That wasn't much to go by,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: but it was enough to arrest both Lindley and and
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Michael on suspicion of murder. In the hot seat once again,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: this time, Linley surprisingly cracked. She told investigators that she
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: had asked Michael to go with her to the farm
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: that day. It turned out that she was finally going
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: to pull the plug on her marriage, and she wanted
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: back up just in case things turned sour. Linley claimed
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: that she had no idea that Michael had been carrying
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: a weapon that day. It had never been the plan
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: to kill or even hurt Ben, but during the course
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: of the argument, Michael had drawn his weapon and shot
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: her husband. As you can imagine, Michael had a very
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: different version of events. He did admit that he'd shot
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Ben that day, but it had actually been Linley who
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: fired the killing shot. Exactly which one of them was
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: telling the truth didn't seem to matter much. In the end,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the jury found them both guilty of second degree murder
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  Speaker 1: and sent them both to prison. Michael received a life sentence. Linley,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Ben's wife, the mother of his child and maybe the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: mastermind behind the entire plot, received sixteen years. At a
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Boom County John sentenced Linley Rennick to sixteen years in
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: prison after she was convicted of killing her husband, Ben
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  Speaker 1: Renick in twenty seventeen. ABC seventeen's Laylah Mitchell is live
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: from the Boone County Courthouse. She covered this case from
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: start to finish. Laila Ben Rennick's brother spoke for the
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: first time this whole case.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Devin Lucas. Emotions were high in the courtroom today as
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Sam Rennick told the court how Linley's choices and actions
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: have affected their family since twenty seventeen, and Judge Kevin
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Crane did not take today lately and even had words
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: for Lindley at the end of the sentencing. Last month,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: a jury sentenced Lindley to thirteen years in prison for
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: second degree murder and three years for armed criminal action. Today,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: Judge Kevin Crane, agreeing with the jury, sentenced Lindley to
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: sixteen years in prison. Flint's count one thirteen years, Count
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: two three years said sentences to run consecutively. Ben's brother
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Sam spoke to the judge and the court for the
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: first time, asking for the maximum possible sentence. And she
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: murdered my brother to profit from his death. Lenny Rennick
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: is a murderer. She will always be a murderer. Linley
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: maintains that she did not kill Ben, but that her
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: ex boyfriend Michael Humphrey shot him in twenty seventeen. During
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Linley's three day trial in December, Humphrey told a different story.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Whatever phrase she used, you understand it to mean.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: What talking about killing Ben?
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: What did you tell her about your acknowledge willingness killer?
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I'm not in on my that Today. The defense asked
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: the judge for a ten year sentence.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Injury by finding murder of a second degree, rejecting the
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: fact that this was a premeditated burder.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: The prosecution, like Sam, asked the judge for the maximum
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: prize for her children, her family, those things d and
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Judge Crane had this message for Lindley. You're awful lucky ma'am.
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  Speaker 2: You're gonna get out in your forties and my forties
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  Speaker 2: work too bad. I just hope you don't kill again.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 11:29
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