On June 8, 2017, Lynlee Renick returned to the Renick family property in Montgomery County, Missouri, and found her husband, 29‑year‑old Ben Renick — a world‑known snake breeder — lying face down in a pool of blood inside the couple’s snake facility. First responders initially wondered whether a snake was involved, but coroner Dave Colbert found multiple gunshot wounds and a shell casing on a shelf above Ben’s head. Investigators quickly ruled the death a homicide.
Ben had built Renick Reptiles into an international business, breeding reticulated pythons and other exotic snakes. He and his brother Sam lived with their families on a 70‑acre spread west of St. Louis. Ben and Lynlee had married in 2014 and had a child together; Lynlee also had a son from a previous relationship. The couple had recently received a large downpayment — about $200,000 — on a prospective sale of part of Ben’s ball python collection that could have been worth roughly $1.2 million.
Early police work explored robbery and missing animals, but nothing supported that theory. Detectives interviewed Sam and Lynlee; both cooperated and submitted to gunshot‑residue tests that later came back negative. Lynlee told investigators Sam might have been upset over Ben’s plans to sell property inherited after their father, Frank Renick, killed himself in 2012 amid accusations of fraud. Detectives tested alibis and did not immediately rule anyone out; Sam provided a full account, passed a polygraph and other checks and was cleared.
In the days after the killing, members of the reptile community raised tens of thousands of dollars to help Lynlee and the children. Investigators, however, continued to probe relationships and possible motives. Lynlee admitted to extramarital affairs; a spa employee, Ashley Shaw, told police Lynlee had confided about affairs and financial troubles. Text messages showed Ben confronting Lynlee about money and lies. Eleven days after the murder Lynlee acknowledged infidelity and later took a polygraph that police say she failed on the question, “Did you shoot that man?” She continued to deny involvement.
Detectives also looked into men in Lynlee’s life, including Brandon Blackwell, whom she met online and with whom she later had a child, and Michael Humphrey, an ex‑boyfriend recently released from prison who had a drug history and who texted and called Lynlee, including on the day of the murder. For nearly three years the case remained cold.
In January 2020 a jailhouse tip and reporting by journalist Dave McKenna produced a breakthrough. Blackwell, jailed on unrelated charges and seeking a deal, told police that Lynlee had first tried to poison Ben with pills in a smoothie and, when that allegedly failed, had enlisted Humphrey. Blackwell said Lynlee and others planned Ben’s killing and that she had confessed to him — even claiming to have shot Ben herself.
On January 16, 2020, police arrested Lynlee Renick and Michael Humphrey and charged them with Ben’s murder. Ashley Shaw was also arrested and offered leniency to cooperate; she became a key prosecution witness, testifying that Lynlee had sought pills to put in a protein drink and that, after the shooting, Lynlee asked her to scrub Ben’s body and wash her hands. Shaw testified Lynlee initially blamed Humphrey for the shooting but later said she had shot Ben.
The state’s theory portrayed Lynlee as scheming to gain financially from life insurance, the sale of snakes and inheriting the family farm. Prosecutors relied on circumstantial evidence of motive, secret relationships, efforts to mislead investigators and witness testimony that described attempts to poison, procure a firearm and conceal evidence.
Humphrey was tried first. Prosecutors argued he took part in the plot and supplied the weapon; the jury convicted him of first‑degree murder. Facing that conviction, Humphrey later agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, admitted supplying the gun and told investigators where the murder weapon could be found — in the attic of his girlfriend’s mother. That discovery bolstered the state’s case against Lynlee and weakened claims that Humphrey had acted entirely alone.
At Lynlee’s trial, defense attorneys acknowledged her dishonesty and affairs but argued that lying and infidelity do not prove murder. Lynlee testified she had been trying to escape an abusive marriage and that she had asked Humphrey to accompany her on the day Ben died because she wanted protection while planning to ask for a divorce. She denied planning or committing the killing and the defense stressed inconsistencies in witnesses’ accounts and Humphrey’s prior lies.
The prosecution countered with testimony from Humphrey, who had flipped and testified he supplied the gun and that Lynlee took it and shot Ben after he hesitated. Ashley Shaw testified she helped obtain pills and later said Lynlee claimed to have fired the shots. Prosecutors also presented evidence they said showed attempts to conceal evidence, Lynlee’s quick departure from the farm after the murder, the closing of her spa and the sale of the property.
After deliberation, the jury found Lynlee Renick guilty of second‑degree murder and armed criminal action. Jurors did not return first‑degree murder verdicts. The judge sentenced Lynlee to 13 years for second‑degree murder and 3 years for armed criminal action, ordered to be served consecutively — a total of 16 years, though actual time served may vary under Missouri’s parole and credit rules.
The case left lingering questions and divided reactions. Ben’s brother Sam, initially questioned and later cleared, expressed outrage and called the sentence inadequate for the loss of his brother. Ben’s children were left without their father, and the reptile community mourned the loss of a respected breeder; colleagues have remembered his work, and a strain of snake has been named in his honor. The investigation and trials revealed a tangled story of deceit, affairs and violence that transformed a quiet world of snake breeding into the scene of a deadly betrayal.