48 Hours - The Poisonous Wife

Episode Date: March 14, 2022

A star snake breeder is murdered. Turns out the human closest to him was more cold-blooded than any snake. "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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ConstantContact.ca If you're afraid of snakes, then everything you think you know about them is wrong. My name is Ben Renick. I'm with Ben Renick Reptiles, and this is my story. Ben Rennick is an artist when it comes to breeding snakes. And this is a project that I'm actually a really big fan of. Are there some species of snakes in here that Ben used to work with? Yeah, actually right behind me there's a reticulated python, and Ben was actually very fond of his reticulated pythons. Ben Rennick was a great businessman. He was a young, up-and-coming rock star in the reptile world. My wife and I mainly run this company. Lindley Rennick is a kind soul, a devoted mother, and I would say a genuinely caring person.

They were happy, you know, they were very busy, you know, they worked a lot. And there was never any instance of anything ever being wrong. On June 8th of 2017, at about 5.30 in the afternoon, On June 8th of 2017, at about 5.30 in the afternoon, Lindley Rennick drives home to where her home and her and her husband's snake facility is. She goes inside and she finds her husband, Ben Rennick, lying face down in a pool of blood.

I got a call from Lindley. She was hysterical, complete panic. 911, what's the address? Emergency. I got a call from Lindley. She was hysterical, complete panic. And I went in to try and find Ben. And when I found Ben and his body, I knew that it was too late. Oh, my God. My brother too late. Oh my God. My brother's dead. What may have happened? He got killed by a snake.

I assumed it was a snake. Turn up at 1850. The whole building is full of snakes. There's a snake every four inches. I don't know what it's about. Someone being killed by a snake is not something that happens every day, especially in Missouri. Being the coroner, walking into a death scene with thousands of snakes jumping at the cages, it was just a crazy scene to be at. Do we have anybody we can call to deal with an anaconda?

How could you have something big enough to kill a person here? I still didn't know what to think. I squatted down next to the body. There's significant damage, there's blood all around. When I saw that shell casing on the shelf just above his head, I knew this was not from a snake. This was something much more heinous.

I knew that this was a homicide at that time. Who would want to kill Ben Renick that was the question you couldn't have imagined anything like that and it was a long wait until we got that answer Thank you. I don't care if it's a five-inch long stick. If someone's trying to bite me, I'm going to light it up. On a hot Missouri summer day in June 2017, Montgomery County Sheriff's deputies were called to a unique and potentially dangerous death scene. and potentially dangerous death scene. A literal snake pit, a building with more than 3,000 exotic serpents. Something got him, so watch your.

The first responders aren't sure if one of these snakes may have killed renowned breeder Ben Renick. Who is? Ben Renick. Oh. Make sure there's no snakes around the victim. Yeah. Excuse me. Coroner Dave Colbert had never seen anything like it. They're holding shotguns in hand.

They were guns out. She could just feel the anxiety amongst everyone there. No one knew where the killer could be coiled or lurking. But while examining Ben's body, the coroner made that surprising discovery. Ben's body lying face down hid the true cause of death. He hadn't been bitten by a giant snake. Ben had been shot eight times, once at close range. This was something that was not just a random act. Nearby was Ben's wife,

Lindley. She had discovered his body. And she was visibly upset, what you would describe as somebody who is grieving and, you know, just lost a loved one. who is grieving and, you know, just lost a loved one. Lindley had called Sam, who rushed to the scene. Sam, Lindley got here before I did, so I don't know that. Okay. He was all shot in the back, almost exclusively. I don't think he saw it coming at all. They had such a future ahead of him.

You know, he was 29 years old. He was almost 30. A lot was lost. Near this remote highway, about 80 miles west of St. Louis, once stood a world-renowned snake breeding facility, Rennick Reptiles, where Ben Rennick built his empire of serpents. Welcome to the basement of Renick Reptiles. We keep reticula pythons, blood pythons, white-lipped pythons, green anacondas. Ben had his first snake at a very young age, and that became somewhat of a passion for him.

It became a hobby, he'd build into a business, and he was very good at what he did. At the time of the murder, Sam and Ben Rennick were living in separate houses with their families on this 70-acre spread. We lived out there together and raised our kids out there together. We went fishing on the weekends and we were close. Ben and Lynn Lee first met when they were teenagers.

They reconnected in 2011, says local attorney Catherine Berger. They hit it off right away, and their relationship got pretty serious pretty quickly. I think they moved in together within the first year of dating. Lynn Lee had a son from a previous relationship. Sam says Ben became a second father to the child. In 2014, Ben and Lindley decided to tie the knot. They had a beautiful wedding. It was a beautiful, small family event, and it was very special. Soon, they had a baby of their own, a growing family to go with their booming snake breeding business.

Lynn Lee found Ben's passion interesting. She would work day and night helping Ben with the snakes, handling them, cleaning them, sorting them. In 2016, they opened a second business, Essentia Spa in Columbia, Missouri, a longtime dream of Lynn Lee, who once worked as a massage therapist. Hi, I'm Lindley. I'm the owner here. I know that when she started her spa business, it's just something that she had always wanted to do that empowered her quite a bit. By 2017, Rennick's snake business was wildly successful. He was shipping his snakes around the world, from the UK to Japan,

and traveling to reptile conventions across the United States. He was so successful, Ben realized, that if he sold a portion of Rennick reptiles, he could make some real money. Ben had planned on selling the majority of his ball python collections for uh from my understanding it was about 1.2 million dollars things were going to be very good for my brother and lindley the couple had received their first payment of at least two hundred thousand dollars but then ben was murdered when you heard that was dead, what did you think might have happened to him? So the first question that I asked was how many snakes were missing.

A facility like Ben's, it unfortunately attracts a lot of bad people. Bad people that see these snakes not as these beautiful, amazing creatures that they are, but see them as dollar signs. To understand the world of snakes that Ben lived and worked in, we spoke with Ben's friend, Dave Kaufman, who introduced me to a reticulated python, a snake Ben was known for throughout the world because of how he bred them in captivity. Ben loved these snakes because how can you not love these snakes? world because of how he bred them in captivity. That's my new scarf. There you go. Kaufman is also a snake breeder. Have you ever seen a blood python this big? And a documentary filmmaker who also travels the world tracking rare and exotic reptiles for his YouTube channel. This is a first.

It is a remarkable sensation. It is. Investigators looked into the theory that Ben's murder may have been a robbery gone bad, but ruled it out. No snakes were missing. Dave Colbert says it made sense to look more carefully at those closest to Ben. We definitely didn't want to exclude anybody from being a possible suspect. I didn't know if Sam was involved. Didn't know if Lindley was involved. The day after his brother's murder, Sam Rennick was brought in for questioning. I don't know where to start. Okay.

And they also brought in Lindley. Take any questions for us. What happened? I mean, what do I do? I'm not your friend or family. But soon enough, those same friends and family would have reason to question everything they thought they knew about Lindley Reddick. Lindley that we knew back then was very sweet, kind. However, there were other sides there that we didn't know.

In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch.

It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. With law enforcement discovering that Ben Rennick had not been killed by a snake and quickly ruling out the possibility of a robbery gone bad, Sam Renick had one major question. Who would have wanted Ben dead? A Missouri State Highway Patrol detective had this same question

when he spoke with Ben's wife, Lindley. Could you see anybody you know being upset with Ben to the point where that may happen? Both Lindley and Sam were cooperative in their initial interviews. Are you willing to submit to a shotgun or shotgun? Anything you want. Yeah, OK. Sam says he understood why police would first focus on them. And he told investigators he could never imagine Lindley being involved.

I didn't think that Lindley would have been capable of murder like that. Lindley also agreed to a gunshot residue test, but in her one-on-one interview with the detective, Lindley made a startling claim, saying that Sam might have had a motive to kill his brother. At issue, Lindley said, was Ben's plan to possibly sell the property where they all lived. She claimed Sam was upset about it. Ben had inherited the property after another tragedy on the Rennick family farm just five years earlier, the suicide of Ben and Sam's father, Frank Rennick. Ben found him. He came and got me and we went there together and it was a tough day.

Frank Rennick shot himself in 2012 after being implicated in a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme involving fraudulent stock certificates. There's a lot of people that lost a lot of money due to my father. you know, due to my father. Unaware that Lindley was implicating him, Sam wondered whether Ben had been killed in an act of revenge against their father. We were concerned, however, that, you know, someone could have been upset enough to have waited and done something like this. But that theory never took off, and Sam, who had tested negative for gun residue on his hands, was ruled out after cooperating fully with investigators. I provided them, you know, everything I had, my cell phone, the shirt off my back, my alibis, where I was when the murder happened. I gave a polygraph. As highway patrol detectives continued their investigation, the reptile

community stepped up to help Ben's wife and children. We have a male fire cinnamon. They held this online auction of donated snakes. She's a pretty girl, guys. Raising more than $40,000. Guys, remember, all this money is going to a great, great, great cause. You guys banded together, and you got thousands of dollars to Lindley to help her during this time of crisis. Yeah, we raised tens of thousands of dollars to help Lindley and the kids. Because you felt she was a victim. That's correct.

But that supposed victim had a startling confession when Lindley spoke with detectives again just 11 days after Ben's murder. Have you been talking to anyone? Did you have a relationship? Eric. How are you guys doing? I'm fine. Lindley admitted she had been unfaithful. It was just that.

Did he think the same way? Yes. she had been unfaithful. Detectives checked that man's alibi and cleared him of any suspicion. Investigators then interviewed Ashley Shaw, one of Lindley's employees and a close friend who she had confided in, which may have been a mistake. I mean, I'm sure that, you know, she was having an affair, a couple affairs, actually. Ashley, the manager at Ascensia Spa, said that Lindley had also been seeing another man named Brandon Blackwell, who she had met on a dating website. She said Lindley was hooking up with Brandon before Ben's murder. I know Brandon was like really a short time before that. Along with Lindley's affairs, investigators had discovered Facebook messages between Ben and Lindley. They revealed that Ben had found out the spa was losing

money and that Lindley had lied to him about it. Ben sent a message to Lindley just hours before he was murdered. No more lying. No more keeping things from me. No more not paying people and thinking it's okay to pay later. Four months after Ben's murder, Lindley was in front of cops again and agreed to take a polygraph exam. Okay, how do you think you did, Lindley was in front of cops again and agreed to take a polygraph exam. Okay, how do you think you did, Lindley? Okay. Not exactly. Lindley's polygraph test was a dismal failure.

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. When I asked you, did you shoot that man, you failed the test. I didn't believe why I just failed that, but I didn't kill them. But investigators suspected she did and may have had help from yet another man in her life. His name is Michael Humphrey, an old ex-boyfriend and ex-con

fresh out of prison on drug possession charges, who she texted and called numerous times, including on the day her husband was murdered. He's coming in from the side. The thing is that that right there is very suspicious. It appeared Lindley was close to breaking. I don't know. But she continued to deny any involvement dozens of times.

I didn't have anything to do with this. There is so much circumstantial evidence against you in this case. It's mind-boggling. But Lindley's gunshot residue test had come back negative. With no witnesses, no murder weapon found or direct evidence

linking her to Ben's murder, I didn't think I was going to get my job. She left that interrogation room a free woman. I won't kill. She left that interrogation room a free woman. The investigation went cold for nearly three years, until, unexpectedly, someone came forward with everything Missouri Highway Patrol investigators were looking for. In the Pacific Ocean,

halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn. And it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn.

When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty.

Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop.

Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. The boas are long gone. Pythons packed up. Snakes in new homes.

The reptilian paradise turned crime scene, now a vacant frozen field. Eight fatal shots, unanswered. I wasn't sure what to think. Unaware that investigators suspected Lindley, Ben Reddick's brother Sam was left more than a little uneasy. It was very, very tough knowing that someone's out there that had essentially gotten away with murder. I was conserved my own safety.

And without an arrest, serpent lovers were also left rattled. And without an arrest, serpent lovers were also left rattled. So when the case went cold, we would all contact each other asking if anybody had any information on what was going on. It was frustrating. It was frustrating to have all this time pass and not have a culprit in custody. All Dave Kaufman knew for sure. Humans do things other than what you expect. Snakes do not. And the most unexpected behavior came from the human closest to Ben Rennick, his widow, Lindley. We wanted to be as understanding as possible.

However, in time, when she refused to talk to us or allow us to talk to the kids or even receive my brother's belongings, we knew something was wrong. In fact, just weeks after Ben's murder, with her spa business failing, Lindley had sold the family property, closed up shop and left town in a hurry. So like one day she was there and the next day just left and then never came back. Today, Beth Mayberry works at that same location. But back then, she was just one more true crime buff in Columbia, Missouri, riveted by a case without a conclusion. How much is this Rennick case talked about around here? It's a lot.

And what do people say? What do they think? Crazy. It's crazy. And people did start to wonder. Maybe Lindley did it. Maybe she had someone do this. It did become a question. A question without an answer. Until January 2020, when cops followed up on a jailhouse tip. We're investigators with the patrol. I'm here because you used to be dating Lindley. That's correct. Out of nowhere comes this, you know, what I'm sure the investigators would think is a godsend. Journalist Dave McKenna of Defector Media was following the case that was about to change fast for investigators. Your dad gave me a call today and said that you wanted to talk to us. Yeah. It just lays out the whole story and it is very detailed. It was Brandon Blackwell,

the man Lynn Lee met online, the lover she was hooking up with the very week Ben was murdered. Her husband is freshly dead, body still warm, and she's found another warm body. Only a year and a half after Ben was killed, Blackwell and Lindley had a child together. But Lindley alleged Blackwell had become threatening and they had broken up. together. But Lindley alleged Blackwell had become threatening and they had broken up. Lindley got an order of protection and Blackwell was then charged with violating that order and stalking her. Charges he denies. He was jammed up in jail and looking to make a deal. Now you're coming to us when you're in a pickle. Now you're coming to us when you're in a pickle.

Blackwell's tale began weeks before Ben Reddick was shot dead, when he says Lindley and spa employee Ashley Shaw whipped up a toxic shake for Ben. 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. A poison potion served to a husband by his wife. Brandon says Lindley confessed that and much more to him. My information is out of the horse's mouth. OK.

So when pills failed to kill, Brandon says Lindley turned to one-time boyfriend Michael Humphrey. 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 since he doesn't feel comfortable doing it.

It's something she's got to take care of. She walks in with the gun and just shoots him a bunch of times. And according to Blackwell, Lindley's spa employee, Ashley Shaw, was once again involved. Brandon Blackwell told the police that Ashley was in on it intimately from the start of the planning. The cold case was blown wide open. On January 16th, 2020, cops made their moves. Lindley Rennick and Michael Humphrey were arrested, charged with the murder of Ben Rennick. Loved ones and friends never saw it coming. What that moment was like for you? Disbelief. I thought they got the wrong person. It took us years to find out that

Lindley was lying and that she was living a double life. A sociopath. If you look that up, that's Lindley's picture will be sitting right there with it. But what motive could Lindley have to murder the man she had built so much with? Some say it was as cold-blooded as a cobra. Money. Lindley started to gain millions of dollars from the death of my brother. Between the life insurance, the sale of the snakes, and the family farm that she would inherit, it was significant. Still, investigators needed someone to flip. They arrested Ashley and fast let her know exactly what her future reality might look like. Now is the time you're either on Team Lindley

or you're on Team Missouri, and Team Lindley's going to jail. They're going to prison for first-degree murder. In exchange for leniency, Ashley turned on her one-time boss, starting with the toxic ingredients in Lindley's venomous smoothie. Ashley would say that Lindley told her Ben had abused her. She asked if I could get anything, any prescription pills or anything in the amount that could help her kill him. And so I got her, it was Percocet, I'm pretty sure. And there was, I think, 15 of them.

According to Ashley, after the shooting, Lindley claimed Michael Humphrey was the trigger man. But she says a few days later, Lindley changed her story. Ashley now claimed that Lindley confessed to being the killer. And she said, oh, no, once we got there, I was fine to do it. And so he handed me the gun and I did it. After the murder, did she ever seem remorseful? Never. Never?

No. No. But as the case headed to trial, Lindley's legal team insists Michael Humphrey was the real shooter. And they argue the state's case isn't based on truth, but on the fearful, coerced testimony of Ashley Shaw. You're either on Team Lindley or you're on Team Missouri, and Team Lindley is going to jail. How would that impact somebody, a woman like Ashley Shaw, do you think? Well, if Ashley Shaw ever wants to leave that interview room for the rest of her life or for the indefinite future, she's going to change her story.

It was only after that threat that she changed her story and implicated Lunely Renick. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha To be continued... about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans,

discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. I don't know what happened with him. I don't know. It took a lot of time to just process, you know,

the lies that we were given by Lindley. In late 2021, Sam Rennick was bracing himself for the trials of his brother's alleged killers. My biggest concern was keeping my composure during the whole time. First up, Lindley's old boyfriend, Michael Humphrey. The prosecution said Lindley fired the gun and that Humphrey was in on the plan. Prosecutor said he was in on the plotting. He provided the weapon. He helped knock off her husband. But that murder weapon had not been recovered. Humphrey's defense argued that he had been lured to the snake farm by Lindley, who claimed she wanted protection when asking Ben for a divorce. Lindley had then surprised him and pulled out a gun and shot her husband. They painted him as

kind of a fawning suitor of this pretty blonde, petite snake salesman. The jury didn't believe Humphrey's story of being an innocent spectator. After deliberating for just five hours, jurors convicted him of first-degree murder. Lindley is a manipulator, and I truly believe that he was manipulated into where he is right now. Then, facing life behind bars, Michael Humphrey changed his story. Lindley's trial attorneys Tim Hessman and Katherine Berger. He decides to flip. Why does he do that? He's convicted of first-degree murder after a jury trial. He agrees to cooperate with the state in the hopes that he might be able to parole out eventually. Humphrey now admits that he provided the gun

that Lindley used to shoot her husband. And he tells them where they can find it, which is in his girlfriend's mother's attic. With the murder weapon in hand, jurors in Lindley's upcoming trial would have to answer one unresolved question. Who pulled the trigger? This is case number 3007, State v. Lindley Rennick.

The defendant, Lindley Rennick, shot her husband, Ben, eight times, killing him. We're going to come back and ask you to find her guilty of murder. The prosecution painted Lindley as cold-blooded as one of her husband's snakes, a killer who shot Ben and then went about her daily routine as if nothing had happened. 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. Lindley is being deceptive to Ben. The defense counters by saying that while Lindley lied and cheated on Ben, that doesn't make her a killer.

She's not planning a murder. She's planning a divorce. They pointed the finger at the man already convicted of murdering Ben Renick. Michael Humphrey took it upon himself, acting completely independently, took Ben's life himself. But Lindley's employee and confidant, Ashley Shaw, now the prosecution's star witness, swears Michael Humphrey and Lindley were full partners in crime. Michael was going to come to the spa and they were going to go together to her house, his business, to kill him at home or at work. Shaw says after the murder, Lindley returned to the spa, not for a massage, but to wash away her sins. So Lindley goes back there and she tells you to do what?

To give her a shower. And she asked me to scrub her body and her hands really well. Then Ashley tells the jurors what Lindley told her about what really happened at Rennick Reptiles the day Ben was killed. 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. But the defense claims Ashley Shaw, just like Michael Humphrey, made up this story in order to avoid life in prison. How are you able to be so calm when you're being questioned about murders that you evidently claim to be involved in? How is that, Ashley? I don't know.

There are so many aspects of Ashley Shaw's story that simply are not credible. And now, in a strange twist of judicial fate, the prosecution called an unlikely key witness to the stand. Now, what am I holding up? That's my gun. That's what your gun is?

Yes. Convicted murderer Michael Humphrey, Now, what am I holding up? That's my gun. That's what your gun is? Yes. Convicted murderer Michael Humphrey, who now swears he's telling the truth about how Lindley killed her husband. I heard a shot come out, so I kind of ducked a little bit. I looked down through there, and she was at the end of the corridor, whatever you want to call it, posed up like this with a gun. All right. Thank you so much.

Call your next witness. As the trial neared its end, the defense took a chance on a star witness of their own. Lindley began by detailing the troubled and sometimes violent marriage she claims she was trying to escape.

Lindley, was there ever any other occasion where an argument with Ben turned physical? Yes. 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 going to finish it now.

Lindley Rennick never filed any police reports about the alleged physical abuse. Abusive is a word that I would not use with Ben. He was very kind, very loving. Then came her chance to explain why she asked Michael Humphrey to accompany her that fatal day. 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. Did you ask Michael to help you kill your husband? No. Set the scene for me and the jury. I walked up right, right behind Michael. 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. staring at the trees, and then Michael running out of the facility and pushing me towards the car and telling me, we have to go, Lindley, get in the car. We have to go now. Claiming to be in shock, Lindley admitted she didn't tell the truth to investigators, but said that didn't add up to murder. And I understand what that means and how this looks. I just, I don't know how to fully express that I never wanted Ben dead. The prosecution was ready to strike. You were interviewed a bunch by a bunch of cops correct

yes and you lied to them every time yes but deep down in that heart of yours and in that brain of yours you know who killed him yes lindley's lies to cops included a terrible slander accusing sam renick of killing his brother and then anytime the police asked me who I thought I just told them Sam so sorry her trying to apologize to me on the stand and guard her sympathy with the jury didn't sit well with me sorry there's no low too low for that one. Why should these jurors now believe you? You now want these 12 people to believe you, correct? Yes.

I bet you do. While I regret that it took her two and a half years to tell the truth, I think she was relieved that the full story had finally been told and now it was in the jury's hands. Who do you think pulled the trigger? Look at the evidence in the case at 48hours.com. It had been almost five long years since Ben Rennick was murdered. Exhausted, Sam waited for a jury to weigh the evidence against his younger brother's bride. And after 12 hours, the judge revealed the verdict.

revealed the verdict. As to count one, we the jury find the defendant, Lindley Rennick, guilty of murder in the second degree. Verdict as to count two, we the jury find the defendant guilty of armed criminal action. In that moment, 33-year-old Lindley Rennick became a convicted killer. She really believed that she was going to get away with all this. And she really believed that she was going to get what she had planned after murdering my brother. The time still to be measured, the length of her stay in a Missouri prison. You may now retire to consider punishment in this case.

Now retire to consider punishment in this case. For that, jurors gathered again for a separate sentencing hearing. While life was an option, the jury would settle on something considerably less. Punishment for murder in the second degree at 13 years. Punishment for armed criminal action at three years. 13 plus 3 for Ben Rennick's life. Jurors never said why they chose such a seemingly light punishment. But six weeks later, Sam would tell the court that the sentence itself was an injustice. I begged the common person to watch the trial again and ask themselves if my brother's life was worth only 16 years.

16 years is why I'm here today. He would recount that hideous day that changed everything. The web of devastation travels far. And spared no one. 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's dead. Sam's frustration at the sentence seemed to be shared by the judge, but under Missouri law, he could not increase Lindley's

punishment. You're awful lucky, ma'am. You're going to get out in your 40s, and my 40s weren't too bad. I just hope you don't kill again. That's it. Some reflected on the cast of bad characters. Two convicted killers. And Ashley Shaw granted immunity after plotting with Lindley twice. These people, these creeps and dark characters behaving very badly and behaving inhumanely towards humans. Ben Rennick had created an Eden for serpent lovers. Spotless clown. But it was people, not a snake, that destroyed his paradise. You can reduce it to a story of greed. It may be as simple as that. Greed that left in its bloody wake children and a brother determined to carry on.

The kids lost their father, my babies and Ben's babies, and I'm here to take care of them for the rest of my life. And around the world, wherever reptiles coil, slither, and slide, the loss of a superstar is still felt. What happened to Ben was a tragedy that absolutely did not need to happen. And... Yet Ben Rennick lives on in a way he would surely have loved, celebrated with a new breed of snake named just for him. The Rennick ghost, and what ghost is, is a slight reduction of black's color. It gives the snake kind of a ghosty appearance to it. And that is such a testament

to what Ben meant to this community that he now has a mutation of a snake named after him. You miss your friend. Every single expo that we would see each other at, there is a vacancy there that will never be filled again. When he was 13, he committed an unthinkable crime. It was just a brutal, brutal killing.

28 years behind bars, now he's out. I can live in society as any other normal individual. Can he? What's next for Eric Smith? 48 Hours, Saturday on CBS. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.