Reptile Breeder Found Dead, Wife Arrested MURDER IN THE SNAKE PIT

THE 911 CALLER SAID BEN RENICK WAS FATALLY CRUSHED BY A SNAKE. HIS BULLET WOUNDS TOLD POLICE A DIFFERENT STORY

- JEFF TRUESDELL

In the world of exotic-snake breeding, Ben Renick was a rock star. Customers loved the unique color combinations and patterns he created in different species of snakes at Renick Reptiles in rural New Florence, Mo., and his designer pets sometimes sold for upwards of $100,000. "Ben was doing stuff nobody had ever seen before," says his friend and fellow breeder David Levinson. "He had a lot of 'world's firsts' over the years."

While Ben enjoyed his work, he also knew it could be dangerous-and he was careful handling deadly serpents. But on June 8, 2017, it looked as if his precautions had failed. Ben's wife, Lynlee, called Ben's brother Sam to say she'd found her husband facedown in a pool of blood. Sam raced to the breeding lab and reached what seemed to be the most logical conclusion. With Lynlee by his side, he told a 911 operator, "It had to have been a snake." He recalls: "My brother's skull was crushed. In my wildest dreams, I would've never imagined someone would hurt Ben."

 

Authorities called to the scene found Ben, 29, with "these two points on [his] arm," says criminal investigator Missouri Highway Patrol corporal Devin Foust. "If you don't know about snakes, you might think that could be fangs from a snake." What couldn't have come from a snake? The eight bullet wounds found on Ben's body by the coroner. The complex murder case would take investigators three years to unravel-and exposed illicit affairs, deleted marital communications and multiple suspects. "I'd never been in a snake-breeding facility," says Foust, "and so I didn't know what I was walking into."