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Woman Kills Snake Breeder Husband In the Worst Way Possible · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I want you to just take a second and imagine
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: walking into this huge facility. We were talking like 3,500
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: square feet right in the middle of a hot Missouri summer.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. That summer heat is no joke. Right.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: And inside, the air is just thick. It is sweltering.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: It is heavily humidified. And all around you, neatly organized
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: in thousands of these specialized climate-controlled tubs, are over 3,000
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: apex predators.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Which is just a staggering visual to walk into.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: It really is. I mean, we were talking massive anacondas,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: reticulated pythons, and honestly, some of the most venomous snakes
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: on the North American continent.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's basically a fortress of lethal animals.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And right there, right in the middle of this intense,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: highly controlled environment, you find the man who built it all.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: He's known globally as the rock star of the reptile
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: breeding world. But he is lying dead on the floor. Wow.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Just a chaotic scene.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Totally chaotic. His head is heavily lacerated. There is blood
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: pooling everywhere. There is what looks like a massive snake bite.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: And just to add an unbelievable layer of tension to
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the scene, there is an enormous, incredibly powerful anaconda actively
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: on the loose.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Just slithering somewhere in the facility.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: You know, it is a scene that completely hijacks the
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: human brain. I mean, we are evolutionarily hardwired to fear
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: venom and fangs, right?
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. I would be terrified.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Right. So when you walk into a room and you
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: see a bloody body surrounded by thousands of literal monsters
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: from the natural world, your brain relies on a cognitive heuristic,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: like a mental shortcut.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: A shortcut, yeah.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: You see the environment, you see the blood, and you
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: just immediately jump to the most obvious statistically probable conclusion.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: You assume nature finally won. It is very reminiscent of
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the tragic death of Steve Irwin back in 2006.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, man. Yeah, exactly like that. And that is exactly
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: what the first responders thought. The initial 911 call actually
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: came in as a suspected snake attack.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Which makes total sense given the context.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: It does. But then the coroner arrives. He steps into
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: this terrifying room. He looks past the fangs. He looks
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: past that loose anaconda. And he realizes that this rock
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: star of the reptile world wasn't killed by a snake
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: at all. Right.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: He rolls the body over.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he rolls him over and finds that this man
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: was shot in the back eight times. including one shot
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: at absolute point-blank range.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Which instantly shatters that entire psychological illusion. I mean, the
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: environment was basically weaponized to trick the eye.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Codally weaponized.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Suddenly, investigators are dealing with some tragic occupational hazard. They
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: are standing in the middle of a meticulously staged, highly
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: orchestrated crime scene.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: And that is exactly what our mission is for this
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: deep dive. We are going to unpack a wild case
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: from Montgomery County, Missouri. It starts as this suspected wildlife tragedy,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: but man, it unspools into a chilling web of debt, poison, affairs,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: and just deep betrayal.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: It is a masterclass in deception, really.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: It really is. So I want you to keep your
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: detective hat on as we go through the evidence, because
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: human deception can camouflage itself so well behind natural dangers. Okay,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: let's unpack this. The victim is Ben Rennick. The date
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: is June 8th, 2017.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: And the location is his massive family farm in New Florence, Missouri.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Right. And I was reading through the source materials, and
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the initial police reports are just wild. The cops are terrified.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: They're essentially saying, like, if a snake even looks at me,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I'm emptying my clip.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they had absolutely zero attachment to these animals. They
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: just wanted to secure the perimeter and get out.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Exactly. But for Ben, it was the exact opposite. These
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: creatures were his entire world.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: And understanding Ben's relationship with these animals is really the
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: only way to understand how this whole tragedy took shape.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Because at the time of his murder, Ben was just
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: 29 years old.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Which is so young to have built what he built.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: It really is. He wasn't just some guy with a
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: few terrariums in his basement. He had turned a childhood
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: fascination into this sprawling, multi-million dollar empire called Rennick Reptiles, Inc.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that empire, because the sheer scale of
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: it just blew my mind. He was considered a worldwide
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: pioneer in breeding.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: A true pioneer, yeah.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I watched some of his old YouTube videos, and you
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: could see it. He genuinely loved these creatures. He called
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: them his babies. But the money involved, it is staggering.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Some of his snakes were selling for up to $ 100, 000 each.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: It sounds unbelievable, right? $ 100, 000 for a snake. Yeah.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Like, how does a snake become worth $ 100, 000?
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Well, it comes down to the highly complex science of
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: genetic morphs. So in the wild, a ball python is
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: typically brown and black, you know, just basic camouflage for survival. Right.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: They need to blend in. Exactly.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But occasionally, a genetic mutation occurs in the wild,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: and it creates a unique color pattern or scale variation.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: And what Ben mastered was this incredibly intricate process of
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: isolating those recessive and dominant genetic traits.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: So he was kind of playing mad scientist.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: In a way, yes. He was selectively breeding them over
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: multiple generations. He was essentially running living Punnett squares.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, remind me. Punnett squares are the little grids from
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: high school biology, right?
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: That is the one. So he would take, say, a
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: snake with a rare yellow pigmentation and breed it to
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: a snake with a rare stripe pattern, hoping to hit
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: the genetic lottery and produce an entirely new, never-before-seen visual combination.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Like those sunset morphs I kept seeing mentioned in the notes.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: The ones that literally look like they are glowing bright
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: red and orange.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Yes, the sunset morphs are a perfect example. But creating
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: something like a sunset morph isn't just putting two snakes
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: in a tub and hoping for the best.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: It takes a lot longer than that, I imagine.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: No, it takes years. You might breed a visual sunset
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: to a normal snake to create what they call heterozygous offspring.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Those are snakes that carry the gene but don't visually
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: show it.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, so they look normal but have this special DNA.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Then you have to raise those specific offspring for
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: years until they reach sexual maturity, breed them back together...
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: And only then do you have like a 25% mathematical
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: chance of actually producing a visual sunset baby.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Wow. A 25% chance after all those years of waiting.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Right. And Ben was managing thousands of these genetic timelines simultaneously.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: The logistics of that are just insane to me. And
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: in the notes, it mentioned that any snake past four
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: or 500 grams had to be moved to specific specialized tubs.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Why does that specific weight matter so much?
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Well, that 400 to 500 gram mark is a really
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: critical threshold in reptile husbandry. When a python or an
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: anaconda is just a hatchling, it is super vulnerable.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: So it needs to feel safe.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Yes. It needs a very small, highly humidified enclosure to
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: feel secure and to make sure it eats consistently. But
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: once a snake hits that 500 gram milestone, its metabolic
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: needs just fundamentally change.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, so?
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: It requires a completely different temperature gradient. It needs a
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: specific hot side for digestion and a cooler side for thermoregulation. Plus,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: the structural integrity of the tub has to be upgraded.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Because they get too strong.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The muscle mass of a 500-gram constrictor is actually
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: strong enough to push open a basic lid.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: That is terrifying. It is.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: So Ben had to track the exact weight, the feeding schedule,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: the shedding cycle, and the genetic lineage of over 3,000
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: individual animals to know exactly when to transition them.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: That requires a level of microscopic control that just borders
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: on obsession.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: It absolutely does.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: But, I mean, his obsession really paid off. Just months
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: before his death, he secured this massive deal with an
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: NHL player to sell a large collection of his exotic python.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Right, a landmark deal.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: We are talking a multi-million dollar transaction. But what really
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: stood out to me when I was researching this was
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: why he needed this intense level of control. Because his
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: background was marked by some deeply chaotic compounding trauma.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: The psychological foundation of Ben's life was built on immense instability.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: In 2008, when he was just, you know, stepping into adulthood,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: his mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Which is just awful. Losing a parent at that age
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: is deeply destabilizing. It is.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: But then, almost immediately, his family was hit with a secondary,
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: very public catastrophe. His father was implicated in a massive,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I can't even imagine dealing with that on top of
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the grief.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Right. Facing public ruin, criminal charges, and the total loss
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: of his reputation, Ben's father tragically took his own life.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: It is unfathomable to lose your mother to a biological
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: disease and then your father to a scandal and suicide
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: in such a short window of time.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: It completely shatters your worldview.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: And the fallout just left Ben holding the bag. He
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: inherited the family farm, which caused these huge rifts with
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: his older brother, Zamb. who was also living on the property.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of friction there.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, constant arguments about land rights and buyouts. Ben was
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: essentially swimming in an emotional and familial chaos. So it
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: makes total sense to me that he retreated into the
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: reptile facility.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: It is a classic psychological defense mechanism. When the human world,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: like your family, your parents, your legacy, proves to be
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: entirely unpredictable and dangerous, you naturally seek out a system
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: you can control.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: And he can control the snakes.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Completely. The rules of genetics are immutable. The husbandry requirements
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: of a python do not change. If Ben set the
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: thermostat to 88 degrees, it stayed at 88 degrees.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Right. It didn't lie to him or leave him.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Exactly. He couldn't control the cancer that took his mother
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: or the financial ruin that took his father, but he
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: could absolutely control the biological destiny of the creatures in
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: his facility.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: But, you know, that is the ultimate tragic irony of
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: this entire case. It's like taming dragons. He spent all
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: his energy mastering these incredibly dangerous, lethal creatures. He built
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: this fortress of controlled variables.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: He did.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: But because his eyes were so focused on the terrariums,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: he was completely blind to the human danger he had
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: brought into his own home. He couldn't see the predator
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: sitting right next to him at the dinner table.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: You're talking about his wife, Lynn Lee.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, Lynn Lee. And to understand the human danger here,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: we really have to look at her. Because if Ben's
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: life was defined by this desperate search for control and stability,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Lynn Lee's life prior to meeting him was defined by
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a profound lack of it.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: That is a very accurate assessment.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about Lynn Lee's background because her trajectory
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: is wild. She was a former high school cheerleader, but
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: her 20s were just a mess.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: She struggled heavily with severe depression.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Depression and an eating disorder, yeah. She had a teen
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: pregnancy at 19, right when she was trying to get
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: her massage therapy license. And then the father of her
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: child ended up going to prison for a long time
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: after a horrific car accident.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: So she is a young single mother feeling totally unmoored.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And that vulnerability leads her straight into the arms
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: of an old acquaintance, a guy named Michael Humphrey.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: And that relationship was the absolute definition of toxic codependency.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the notes mentioned they had a pretty severe addiction issue.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Very severe. Both Lynn Lee and Michael Humphrey developed an
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: intense addiction to prescription opioids, specifically pain pills. And when
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: you introduce opioid addiction into an already unstable dynamic, The
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: relationship basically ceases to be about partnership.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: It just becomes about the drugs. Right.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: It becomes entirely transactional. It's about securing the next pill,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: managing withdrawal, and just surviving the chaos of the day.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: But in 2010, she actually tries to break the cycle.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: She packs up her son, she leaves her hometown, and
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: she moves to Columbia, Missouri. She wants a fresh start.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Which is a very common geographic cure attempt for addiction. Yeah.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And it is right at that exact moment when she
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: is trying to escape her drug-addicted past that Ben Rennick
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: randomly messages her on Facebook out of the blue.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: The timing there is critical from a psychological perspective.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Well, you have Ben, who is financially successful, but deeply
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: isolated on his farm, carrying all this grief about his parents.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: And then you have Lin Lee, who is... quite literally
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: fleeing the wreckage of her own life, desperate for a lifeline.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: So they basically rescued each other.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: In their minds, yes. When they started talking, Ben wasn't
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: just a potential boyfriend to her. He represented total salvation.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: He was sober. He owned property. He had a booming
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: international business. He was a safe harbor she desperately needed.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: They bonded over horror movies and reading, and things just
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: moved incredibly fast. Her young son moved onto the family farm.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: They had a daughter together. They got married in 2014.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: And Ben just poured his wealth into making her happy.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: He really wanted to build a perfect life for them.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: He did. He actually bought her an entire business a
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: day spa called Essentia Spa. And if you look at
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Ben's social media, he was selling this beautiful, redemptive narrative.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: The public image was flawless.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Flawless.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Just four months before he was murdered, he posted this
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: photo of Lin Lee and wrote, Most amazing woman ever.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: There's not a day that goes by where I don't
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: appreciate everything this lady does.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: It is a very sweet sentiment.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. He even praised her for helping him unload thousands
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: of frozen rats to feed the snakes. Like true love.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: You love in the reptile world. Absolutely. But what's fascinating
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: here is that the investigators eventually uncovered the metadata of
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: their phones and it told a completely different story.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: The digital facade starts to crack.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Right. Behind those glowing Facebook posts, their lives were structurally collapsing.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: That day spa that Ben purchased for her to run,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: it was bleeding money at an astonishing rate. By the
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: spring of 2017, Essentia Spa was carrying $ 200, 000 in debt.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Wait, let's pause there for a second. How does a
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: local day spa rack up $ 200, 000 in debt? That seems
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: like an impossible hole to dig for just a massage
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: and facial business.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: It actually happens incredibly fast if the business owner is
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: utilizing commercial credit lines without truly understanding the mechanics of overhead.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: OK, break that down for me.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Running a high end day spa is notoriously capital intensive.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: You aren't just paying for, you know, massage oil and towels.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: You are signing a commercial lease in a high foot
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: traffic area, which is exorbitant.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Right. The rent alone would be crazy.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Then you are financing specialized esthetician equipment like laser
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: hair removal machines. hydrofacial stations, which can cost tens of
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: thousands of dollars each.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I hadn't even thought about the equipment costs.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Add in payroll, liability insurance, marketing. If the client volume
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: isn't there to support that massive overhead, the business is
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: forced to survive on credit.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: And because Ben was her husband and the primary breadwinner,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: her business debt was threatening his meticulously built empire.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: The farm was suddenly at risk.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw a text message he sent her that
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: was just raw panic. He wrote, I honestly don't know.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Even if I file bankruptcy, the bank could put liens
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: against us personally.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: He was realizing the gravity of the situation.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: He was terrified. He thought her failing spa was going
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: to pierce their personal assets, meaning the bank could theoretically
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: come after his farm, his snakes, everything he had built
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: to survive his family's trauma. He was threatening to shut
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: the spa down entirely.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: And for Lynn Lee, the spa wasn't just a ledger
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: of debts and credits. It was her entire identity.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: It was her proof that she was a success.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Right. It was her proof that she was no longer...
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: the broke, addicted single mother from her past. So Ben,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: threatening to close it, was perceived as an existential threat
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: to her ego and her newly established social standing.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't just financial betrayal going on. While Ben
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: was working around the clock in the snake facility to
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: keep them afloat, Lindley was having multiple extramarital affairs.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Yes, the secret life was extensive.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: She was seeing a guy named Eric. She was on
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: dating apps and met a man named Brandon Blackwell. She
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: was living this entirely fractured double.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Life, The psychological pressure cooker here is immense. I mean,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Lin Li is entirely dependent on Benner's money to maintain
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: her lifestyle and fund her affairs, but Ben is finally
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: realizing he is being used and financially drained.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: The illusion of the rescue mission has totally evaporated.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The host is shutting down the life support.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Which brings us to the final fatal breaking point. Just
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: hours before Ben was found face down with eight bullets
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: in his back, he sent Lin Li a text that
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: completely shatters everything That happy husband Facebook image.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: That text is a crucial piece of evidence.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: He wrote, no more lying, no more keeping things from me,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: no more not paying people and thinking it's okay to
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: pay later.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: That is the text message of a man who has
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: finally reclaimed his boundaries. He is cutting off the financial supply.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Now that's dangerous.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Very dangerous. In cases of domestic homicide driven by a
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: financial motive, that exact moment when the parasitic partner realizes
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: the gig is up is statistically the most dangerous time
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: for the victim. Wow.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: So let's look at how that danger played out on
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the evening of June 8th, 2017. Okay, set the scene.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: It's about 6.45 p.m. Lynn Lee calls Ben's older brother, Sam.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: She sounds absolutely hysterical on the phone.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Which prompts Sam to rush over.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, Sam rushes over to the property, finds Lynn Lee's
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: kids waiting in her car, and he just sprints into
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the snake facility. There's a sweep of the downstairs, goes
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: upstairs to the massive snake enclosures, and finally finds Ben
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: in the back corridor.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: And it is a gruesome discovery.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: There's blood everywhere. Sam sees the lacerations on Ben's head
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: and immediately assumes a snake struck him, wrapped him, and
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: crushed him. He's on the phone with 911 in a
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: total panic, thinking there's a killer snake lurking in the shadows.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: It's a completely understandable reaction given the visual noise of
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: the environment. We talked about that earlier.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Right. But once law enforcement secures the scene and the
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: coroner identifies the gunshot wounds, the protocol shifts instantly.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: It goes from wildlife accident to homicide investigation in seconds.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: And in any domestic homicide, the statistical probability overwhelmingly points
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: to the spouse or the immediate family.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: The police know this?
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: They do. So the very next day, they bring both
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Sam and Lynn Lee into the station, and the very
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: first thing they do is test their hands for gunshot residue,
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: or GSR.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Right. And here's what completely threw me when I was
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: reviewing the case file. Both Sam and Lynn Lee test
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: totally negative for GSR.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Which is often misunderstood by the public.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, before we get into why they passed, can you
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: explain what GSR actually is?
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Because I think TV shows make it seem like this
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: magical glowing dust that proves you fired a gun forever.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: The CSI effect has certainly distorted public understanding of forensics.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Gunshot residue is not paint. It is a microscopic cloud
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: of vaporized heavy metals.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, vaporized metals.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Yes. When you pull the trigger of a firearm, the
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: firing pin strikes the primer cup at the base of
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: the bullet cartridge. That primer contains a highly specific chemical mixture,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: typically lead stuffnate, barium nitrate, and antimony sulfide.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: That is a lot of chemicals. It is.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: And the intense heat of the ignition vaporizes these metals.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: And as the bullet exits the barrel, a high-pressure plume
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: of this vapor blasts backward toward the shooter.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: So it basically coats the shooter's hands and clothes in
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: these microscopic metal particles.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But it is incredibly fragile evidence. These microscopic particles
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: do not embed themselves deeply into the skin. They simply
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: rest on the surface.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, so they can just fall off.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Pretty much. Under normal circumstances, simply going about your day,
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: putting your hands in your pockets, touching your face, opening doors,
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: will naturally wipe away most GSR within four to six hours.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Wow, that fast.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Yes. And if you actively wash your hands with basic
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: soap and water... The GSR is completely eradicated almost immediately.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Which explains why Lynn Lee passed the test. It wasn't
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: because she was innocent. It was because she had plenty
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: of time to wash herself before the police ever swabbed
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: her the next day.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Precisely. She beat the forensic window.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: The police also clear Sam, the brother, because he agrees
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: to take a polygraph test and he passes with flying colors.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: But Lynn Lee tries to... to use her interview to
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: throw Sam under the bus.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: She tries to redirect the suspicion.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she brings up the family disputes over the farm inheritance,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: basically saying, hey, look at the angry older brother.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Which is a classic deflection tactic. But investigators aren't easily deterred.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: They know about the $ 200, 000 spa debt. And the affairs.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: They have recovered the deleted text messages about her affairs.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: They know she has a massive financial motive. So four
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: months later, once the initial shock has kind of worn off,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: they call Lynn Lee back into the station and ask
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: her to take a polygraph.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: And she fails it miserably.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: She does.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Now, I know polygraphs aren't invisible in court, but how
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: do they actually work? Is it really a lie detector?
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: No, the term lie detector is a complete misnomer. A
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: polygraph machine cannot detect a lie.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: So what is it actually doing?
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: What it detects are the physiological markers of the sympathetic
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: nervous system, which is the body's autonomic fight-or-flight response.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: The machine utilizes a pneumograph tube wrapped around the chest
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: to measure respiratory rate, a blood pressure cuff to monitor
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: cardiovascular activity, and galvanometers attached to the fingertips to measure
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: electrodermal activity.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Electrodermal activity? What is that?
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: It is essentially microscopic sweating on your fingertips.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, so it measures the physical stress of deception.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Precisely. When a person is asked a baseline question like,
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: is your name Lin Lee? Their body is relaxed. But
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: when they're asked a relevant, highly accusatory question like, did
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: you shoot Ben? The cognitive load of fabricating a lie
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: combined with the fear of getting caught triggers the amygdala.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: So your body just reacts without you wanting it to. Right.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: The heart rate spikes, the breathing shallows and the sweat
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: glands activate. The conscious mind can try to maintain a
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: calm facade. But it is nearly impossible to consciously override
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: the autonomic nervous system.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: So the machine spikes, indicating deception. And the investigator uses
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: this failed test to pivot into one of the most
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: intense interrogations I've ever read.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: The post-polygraph interview is where the real work begins.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: He walks back into the room and doesn't sugarcoat anything.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: He tells her point blank. You failed the relevant questions.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: I asked if you shot him, and your body said yes.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: But the tactic he uses next is fascinating. He doesn't
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: scream at her. He actually tries to sympathize with her.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: That is a highly calibrated psychological tactic known as minimization.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: It is a core component of the Reed technique of interrogation.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Minimization. Okay. How does that work?
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Well, when a suspect is cornered, their defense mechanisms are
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: at maximum capacity. If you accuse them of being a
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: cold-blooded monster, they will just shut down and ask for
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: a lawyer. Minimization attempts to bypass that defense mechanism by
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: lowering the moral weight of the crime.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: So how does the investigator apply that to Lynn Lee?
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: He offers her a face-saving narrative. He says something to
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: the effect of, Listen, there's a massive difference between standing
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: over your husband and pulling the trigger in cold blood
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: and maybe just complaining to a friend who took things
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: too far. I don't think you're a monster. I think
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: maybe things just spiraled out of control.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Ah, I see.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: He is offering her an illusion of leniency. He's basically saying,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Confess to the lesser moral failing and I will understand.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Here is where it gets really interesting, though. She doesn't budge.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Not an inch. Most people would grab onto that lifeline
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: and say, yes, my friend did it. I just watched.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: It is the easiest way out in that moment.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: But she sits there, perfectly composed and completely stonewalls him.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: She freely admits to the affairs, crying about her guilt
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: over cheating, but draws an absolute impenetrable line at the murder.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: She says, I have a tremendous amount of guilt for
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: cheating on Ben. But no, I didn't have any involvement
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: in his death.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Her composer in that room is highly anomalous. Most individuals,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: when confronted with a failed polygraph and investigators utilizing minimization,
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: will eventually crack or at least alter their story a
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: little bit.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: But she didn't give them anything.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Nothing. Lin Lee's ability to remain rigidly detached and compartmentalize
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: the murder while feigning remorse for the infidelity suggests a
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: profound lack of empathy.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: So because polygraphs are legally inadmissible, and they lacked any
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: physical evidence tying her to the actual trigger, they were
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: legally obligated to let her walk out the door.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: They had no choice.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: And she didn't just go home and lay low. She
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: walked out of that police station, and for three years,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: she lived out her absolute fantasy.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: She got everything she wanted.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: She shut down the reptile business. She sold Ben's family
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: farm for over $ 700, 000. She moved away with her kids,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: and she sat there, patiently waiting for Ben's $ 1 million
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: life insurance policy to clear.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: It is chilling to think about.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: It is chilling. You go to the grocery store, you
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: take your kids to school, you go out to dinner,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: all while knowing you orchestrated the brutal execution of your
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: husband and you feel like you got away with it.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: She believed she had won. She had successfully navigated the
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: immediate forensic window, the police investigation, and the interrogation. She
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: was flushed with cash and free from her marriage. The
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: case effectively went cold.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: But the perfect crime usually only falls apart when there
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: is a weak link in the chain. And in this case,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the weak link wasn't found at a crime scene or
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: in a forensics lab. He was sitting in a jail
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: cell three years later.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: Yes. In January 2020, the investigation gets a massive, unexpected
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: jolt from Brandon Blackwell.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Now, recall that Brandon was one of the men Lynn
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Lee had been sleeping with prior to the murder.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Right. The guy from the dating app.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Exactly. What's fascinating is that after Ben was killed, Brandon
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: actually left his own wife and children to be with
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Lynn Lee full time. They went public, moved in together,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and even had a child of their own.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: But when you build a relationship on the foundation of
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: a murder and infidelity, it's not exactly going to be
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: a healthy dynamic.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: No, not at all. The relationship devolved into total toxicity.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Lynn Lee claimed Brandon became violent and threatening, and she
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: successfully filed for a protection order against him.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: But Brandon couldn't let it go.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: He couldn't. He violated the protection order. stalked her, and
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: subsequently got himself arrested and thrown in jail. So now
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: he's sitting behind bars, angry, facing charges, and suddenly he
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: tells the guards he has information about the unsolved murder
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: of Ben Renick.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Which puts the investigators in a very precarious position. This
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: raises an important question. Why should law enforcement trust a
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: word that comes out of the mouth of a spurned,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: jailed ex-lover?
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Because he has every reason to lie. I mean, he
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: wants revenge on the woman who put him in jail,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and he probably wants a plea deal for his own charges.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Jailhouse informants are notoriously unreliable. The legal system views
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: their testimony with extreme skepticism because the incentive to fabricate
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: information in exchange for leniency is incredibly high.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: So they can't just take his word for it.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: The investigators know they cannot take Brandon's word as gospel.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: They need corroboration. But Brandon doesn't just offer vague rumors.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: He provides highly specific operational details that were never released
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: to the public.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: He brings receipts. He tells the police that Lynn Lee
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: absolutely did not act alone. He gives them two specific names.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Ashley Shaw, the co-worker at Lynn Lee's spa, and Michael Humphrey,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: the ex-boyfriend from her pill-addicted past.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: And then he drops a bombshell that changes the entire
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: scope of the investigation.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: A huge bombshell.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: He reveals that the shooting on June 8th wasn't the
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: first attempt on Ben's life. He says Lynn Lee previously
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: tried to poison him.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: The audacity of this first attempt is just staggering to me.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: The specifics of the poison plot are deeply unsettling. Brandon
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: detailed that Lynn Lee had acquired a massive quantity of
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: narcotic painkillers, crushed them up, and laced a protein drink
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: that she gave to Ben at the farm.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: It is a very intimate way to try and kill someone. Right.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: She handed him a lethal dose of narcotics in a
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: shaker bottle in his own home. And what's wild is
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: that during her later trial, Lynn Lee actually had to
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: admit that she and Ben got violently ill from a
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: protein drink.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: But her explanation was, well, highly creative.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Highly creative is a nice way to put it. She
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: claimed that a random client at her spa had left
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: some sample doggy protein shakes on the counter, and she
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: and Ben just decided to try them and got sick.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: Wait, what is a doggy protein shake? And who randomly
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: drinks an unmarked powder left on a salon?
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: It is a completely absurd defense strategy designed to mask
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the reality of the toxicological event. She was likely begging
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: on the fact that Ben's intense physical labor on the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: farm and his relatively healthy metabolism allowed him to survive
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: the acute narcotic toxicity.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: He was a strong guy, so he fought it off. Right.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: But now investigators finally had a tangible roadmap. They had
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: specific names and a prior timeline. However, they knew that
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Brandon's hearsay wouldn't secure a conviction. They needed a direct
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: confession from a co-conspirator.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: So they look at the two names, Ashley Shaw and
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Michael Humphreys, and they target the weakest link. They don't
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: go after the ex-boyfriend with a criminal record first. They
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: go straight for the esthetician.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: It is a smart tactical move.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: They bring Ashley Shaw into an interrogation room and just
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: drop the hammer on her.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: They utilize a classic variation of the prisoner's dilemma, which
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: is a well-known game theory concept.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: How did they set that up?
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: They isolate Ashley from Lynn Lee so she has absolutely
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: no idea what evidence the police actually have. The investigators
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: sit down and essentially tell her, we know everything. We
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: have the texts. We have the informant. You have a
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: choice right now. You are either on Team Lynn Lee
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: or you are on Team Missouri.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Wow. Laying it out in black and white.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They tell her Team Lynn Lee is going to
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: a maximum security prison for first-degree murder. Team Missouri gets
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: to go home. Decide.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: They maximize the threat of a life sentence to force
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: her hand. And unlike Lynn Lee, who possessed that sociopathic composure...
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Ashley is just a normal civilian.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: She doesn't have the stomach for an interrogation.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: She completely cracks under the pressure.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: She folds and confesses to everything. She admits that she
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: was the one who sourced the drugs for the poison smoothie.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: She says she illegally acquired 15 Percocet pills for Lindley.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: Let's analyze the pharmacology of that for a moment.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, please do, because 15 sounds like a lot.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: It is a massive, highly dangerous dose. Percocet is a
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: combination of oxycodone, which is a powerful opioid. and acetaminophen,
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: which is the active ingredient in Tylenol.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Not only does that level of oxycodone induce severe respiratory depression,
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: but the sheer volume of acetaminophen would cause acute hepatotoxicity.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: That means rapid liver failure. The intent was undeniably lethal.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: But wait, I have to ask. Why does an ordinary
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: spa worker suddenly agree to source lethal narcotics to help
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: her boss murder her husband? I mean, going from doing
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: facials to facilitating a homicide is an astronomical leap.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: It really speaks to Lynn Lee's mastery of psychological manipulation.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: Ashley didn't participate for financial gain. She participated because Lynn
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Lee weaponized the concept of victimhood.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Weaponized victimhood, wow.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Yes. Lynn Lee had spent months feeding Ashley a completely
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: fabricated narrative, claiming that Ben was severely physically and sexually abusive.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: She painted a picture of herself as a terrified, trapped,
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: battered wife.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: So she made Ashley think she was saving her.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Exactly. She convinced Ashley that if she tried to leave,
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: Ben would use his massive wealth to take her children away,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: and that murder was literally the only viable escape route.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Lynn Lee manipulated an ordinary, empathetic woman into becoming a
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: righteous accomplice who believed she was saving a victim's life.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: That is incredibly dark.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: She drafted her friend into a proxy war using lies.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: And it gets worse. Ashley breaks down the entire orchestration
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: of June 8, Lin Lee had this incredibly meticulous plan
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: to establish a digital alibi.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: The digital alibi is fascinating.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: On the day of the murder, Lin Lee left her
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: personal cell phone at the spa with Ashley. While Lin
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: Lee drove to the farm to commit the murder, Ashley
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: was instructed to sit at the spa and send text
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: messages from Lin Lee's phone to clients and friends.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Which is a highly sophisticated counter-forensic tactic. Law enforcement relies
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: heavily on cellular tower triangulation to establish timelines.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Right, the pings.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Yes. When a phone sends a text, it pings the
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: nearest cell tower. By having Ashley send texts from the spa,
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: the metadata would create a digital footprint placing Lynn Lee
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: miles away from the farm at the exact time Ben
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: was killed.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: And Ashley's involvement didn't stop at the digital alibi. After
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Ben was shot, Lynn Lee drove straight back to the spa.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Ashley helped her strip off her clothes, put her in
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: the shower... and literally washed the gunshot residue off her body.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: Which perfectly explains why she passed the GSR test the
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: next day.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Yes. Ashley then took the murder weapon and helped hide it.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: It is a profound level of complicity. But notice the
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: missing puzzle piece here? Ashley stayed at the spa. She
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: helped with the logistics and the cover-up, but she was
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: not present at the reptile facility. She cannot testify to
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: what actually happened in the room with the snakes. She
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: cannot testify to who pulled the trigger.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Wait, if Ashley wasn't at the farm, How do we
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: know what actually happened in the sneak facility?
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: To get that final piece of the puzzle, the police
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: have to turn to the third person, Michael Humphrey.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: The man who actually drove the getaway car.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: Once Ashley gives them Michael's name, the police arrest him,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: and we finally get his play-by-play of the execution on
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: June 8th.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: And Michael Nee's narrative introduces a fascinating legal and logistical complication.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: What did he say happened?
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: According to his interrogation, Lynn Lee reached out to him,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: claiming she needed a ride to the farm because she
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: was finally going to ask Ben for a divorce and
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: pack her bags. But because Lynn Lee had fed Michael
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: the exact same fabricated stories of physical abuse that she
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: fed to Ashley, Michael believed he was stepping into a
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: highly volatile, dangerous domestic dispute.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: So he thought he was protecting her.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Exactly. So he brings a loaded handgun. He claims he
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: brought it purely for self-defense, just in case Ben snapped.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: So Michael drives them to the farm. They get out
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: of the car, and Michael claims that as they were
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: walking up to the house, Lynn Lee steps behind him
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: and physically unholsters the gun from his hip and takes it.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Just takes it from him.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And at that moment, Ben walks out of the house.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Lynn Lee plays it completely cool. She introduces Michael as
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: an old friend from high school who just really wanted
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: to see the famous snakes.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: And Ben, who is fiercely proud of his breeding operation,
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: happily obliges. He leads them into the massive climate-controlled facility.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: So they're inside. And Michael says he is instantly mesmerized.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: He's looking at these massive anacondas. He's looking at the
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: specialized tubs. He's totally distracted by the sheer scale of
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: the operation.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: It goes back to that visual noise we talked about.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Right. So he says Lindley walks past him, moving deeper
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: into the corridor behind Ben. Michael isn't paying attention. And
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: then he hears a deafening gunshot. He instinctively ducks, turns around,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: looks down the long corridor. and claims he sees Lin
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Lee standing over her husband, posed with a smoking gun.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: That is Michael Humphrey's explicit version of events. He places
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: the gun directly in Lin Lee's hands at the time
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: of the murder.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: But the story doesn't end there, does it?
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: No, because in the legal system, when multiple co-conspirators are
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: facing life in prison, the narrative often fractures into competing self-interests.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: And during her eventual trial... Lynn Lee presents a story
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: that completely diametrically opposes Michael S.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, her defense strategy is unbelievable. Lynn Lee takes the
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: stand and claims that she went to the farm strictly
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: to ask for a divorce. And Michael was just there
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: for emotional support. She claims she had absolutely no idea
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Michael had a gun on him.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: A total contradiction.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Total contradiction. According to her, they are walking through the facility.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: She is behind Michael. And out of nowhere, Michael just
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: inexplicably draws his weapon and assassinates Ben. She claims she
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: screamed in absolute horror, ran out to the car in
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: a panic, and Michael followed her after finishing the job.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: So we are presented with two dueling, mutually exclusive narratives.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: Both individuals legally place themselves at the active scene of
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: the crime. Both admit to being in the SNCC facility
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: at the exact moment of the homicide, but both point
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: the finger squarely at the other person for the commission
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: of the fatal act.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean? Let's break down the
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: logic of that, because Lynn Lee's story makes absolutely zero
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: sense to me.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: It has some massive logical holes.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: Right. If Michael Humphrey just randomly went rogue and executed
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: her husband in cold blood, why would her very first
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: reaction be to drive back to the spa and let
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Ashley wash the gunshot residue off of her?
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: You wouldn't do that if you were an innocent bystander.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Why would she actively help hide the murder weapon?
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Why would she spend the next three years meticulously lying
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: to the police, throwing her brother-in-law under the bus, and
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: then gleefully cashing a million-dollar life insurance policy? You do
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: not orchestrate a multi-layered, counter-forensic cover-up to protect a rogue
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: shooter who just ruined your life.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Logically, her narrative collapses under the weight of her subsequent actions.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: The premeditation established by the prior poison attempt, the orchestration
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: of the digital alibi with Ashley, and the forensic scrub-down—
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: all point unequivocally to Lin Lee as the primary architect
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: of the conspiracy.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: She was the mastermind. Yes.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: However, the legal system requires more than just logic. It
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: requires an evidentiary threshold that eliminates reasonable doubt. And because
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: the physical evidence inside the facility was limited, the ensuing
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: trials became a highly volatile showdown of credibility.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: It turned into an absolute courtroom spectacle. Michael Humphrey is
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: actually put on trial first. And initially, the jury finds
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: him guilty of first-degree murder.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: Which carries a massive penalty.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he is staring down the barrel of life in
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: prison without parole. But Michael makes a massive strategic play.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: He offers to cooperate fully with the prosecution against Lin Lee.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: In exchange for his testimony, his conviction is subsequently reduced
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: to second-degree murder, which gives him an eventual chance at parole.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: And he has to prove he isn't lying just to
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: save his own skin.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Right. And to prove he isn't just lying to save himself,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: He leads investigators directly to the murder weapon, which he
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: had stashed in the attic of his girlfriend's mother's house.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: The recovery of the murder weapon is a monumental victory
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: for the prosecution. It physically corroborates Michael's timeline and firmly
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: links the conspiracy to tangible evidence.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: So they finally have what they need for Lindley.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: Exactly. With the weapon in hand and the co-conspirators cooperating,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: the state finally puts Lindley on trial. Their strategy is comprehensive.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: They methodically dismantle the abused wife narrative and expose the cold,
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: calculating financial motive.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: They bring out all the receipts.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: They do. They present the jury with the ledger of
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: the $ 200, 000 spa debt, the immediate sale of the $ 700, 000
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: family farm, and the pursuit of the $ 1 million life
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: insurance policy.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: The prosecution paints her as a total mastermind who killed
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: for cash. But Lindley does not fold. She actually takes
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: the witness stand in her own defense, which is incredibly risky.
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: Most defense attorneys strongly advise against that.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but she sits there, looks the jury in the eye,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: and admits to having affairs. She openly admits that she
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: lied repeatedly to the police for three years, claiming she
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: only did it to protect herself. But she vehemently sticks
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: to her core defense. She did not want Ben dead,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: and Michael Humphrey pulled the trigger.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: The jury is tasked with dissecting these conflicting testimonies. They
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: deliberate for an agonizing 12 hours. And when they finally
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: return to the courtroom, the verdict sends shockwaves through the
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: legal community and the public.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: It really did.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: They find Lindley guilty, but they do not convict her
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: of first-degree murder. Instead, they convict her of second-degree murder
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: and armed criminal action, recommending a sentence of only 16 years.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: 16 years.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: I am completely baffled by this. She literally tried to
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: poison him weeks beforehand with 15 crushed Percocets. She orchestrated
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: a fake text message alibi with a co-worker. She drove
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: to the farm with an armed man. How does a
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: jury look at that mountain of meticulous planning and say, Yeah,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: we aren't totally sure this was premeditated.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture to understand
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: that verdict, we have to deeply analyze the legal architecture
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: of a trial and the psychological phenomenon known as the
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: CSI effect.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, lay it out for me.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: In Missouri, to secure a conviction for first-degree murder, the
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt not only that
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: the defendant caused the death, but that they did so
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: after cool reflection, meaning premeditation and deliberation regarding the specific
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: act of pulling the trigger.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: But didn't the poison plot prove she had cool reflection
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: about wanting him dead?
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: It proved she had intent to kill in the past.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: But the jury instructions for the June 8th shooting require
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: unanimity on the mechanics of that specific event. Because both
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Lynn Lee and Michael Humphrey were heavily impeached witnesses, meaning
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: they were proven liars on the stand. The defense was
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: able to exploit the lack of direct physical evidence.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: So because there was no video camera.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: Right. There was no DNA on the trigger. There was
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: no video camera in the snake facility. The defense merely
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: had to plant a microscopic sliver of reasonable doubt about
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: the exact choreography of those final 10 seconds in the corridor.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: It's a sliver of doubt.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: If even one or two jurors believe that perhaps Michael
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: pulled the trigger while Lin Lee watched. They could not
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: legally reach the unanimous conclusion required for first-degree murder as
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: the primary actor.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: So they compromised. The muddied waters, the conflicting stories of
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: two liars, created just enough confusion that the jury settled
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: on second-degree murder to ensure she didn't walk free but
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: spared her a life sentence.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: It is a pragmatic, if frustrating, legal compromise.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: It is one of those quirks of the justice system
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: that is incredibly frustrating to watch. The judge agreed with
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: the jury's recommendation. and she was officially sentenced to 16 years.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Michael Humphrey also received a second-degree conviction, and while the
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: legal proceedings are closed, the collateral damage of this crime
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: is permanent.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: The devastation left in the weight of this conspiracy is profound.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: During the sentencing phase, the victim impact statements were harrowing.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: Ben's older brother Sam, who was initially suspected and blamed
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: by Lin Lee, stood up in open court and unequivocally
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: labeled her a monster. He articulated the raw truth. She
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: annihilated her family solely for financial gain.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: And the ripple effects are just heartbreaking. Because of Lynn
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Lee's greed, her children, including the young daughter she shared
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: with Ben, are now growing up with a mother in
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: a prison cell and a father in the ground.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: It is a total tragedy for those kids.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: It really is. The global reptile breeding community also lost
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: a genuine visionary. The outpouring of grief from his peers
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: was immense. Immediately after his death, before anyone even knew
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: it was a murder... The community rallied and raised over $ 40, 000
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: for his family.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: And their tribute to his legacy is deeply poetic. The
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: herpetology community, recognizing his pioneering work in genetic morphs, actually
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: named a newly discovered breed of snake in his honor.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: It is officially known as the Rennick ghost.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: The Rennick ghost. It's a beautiful, haunting detail. And it
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: brings us full circle to the very beginning of this story.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: We walked into that facility, and our instinct was to
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: fear the massive pythons and the venomous vipers. We spent
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: our lives searing the fangs and the literal monsters of
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: the natural world.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: But the real danger was much closer to home.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Ben Rennick spent his entire life mastering those creatures.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: He understood them, he mapped their genetics, and he lived
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: safely among them. In the end, it wasn't the wild
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: that took him down. He was taken down by the
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: uniquely human venom of greed, betrayal, and deception.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: It highlights a grim reality. The most dangerous predator is
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: rarely the one with scales. It is the one that
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: smiles at you from across the dinner table.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: Which leaves me with a thought that I really want
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: you to mull over as we finish up. We consume
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: true crime stories, we see a guilty verdict, and we
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: comfort ourselves by thinking the system worked and the truth
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: was found.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: But this case challenges that comfort.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Completely. Look at the anatomy of this trial. Every single
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: major player, Lynn Lee, Michael Humphreys, Ashley Shaw, the jailhouse
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: informant Brandon Blackwell, was a proven liar, a manipulator, or
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: an opportunist desperate for a plea deal.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: A cast of very unreliable narrators. Right.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: In a legal scenario where literally everyone involved in the
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: conspiracy is lying to save their own skin, how does
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: a jury ever truly find the objective truth? Does the
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: justice system actually figure out what historically happened in that room?
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: Or does it just mathematically settle on the most believable
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: legally compromised story?
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: It is a terrifying concept to consider.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: It really is. Keep questioning the narratives around you because
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: as we've seen today, The real monsters don't always look
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: the part. Thanks for listening to this deep dive. We
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: will see you next time.