NEW FLORENCE, Mo – Two people are under arrest in connection with the 2017 murder of Ben Renick, 29, of New Florence, Missouri. The Missouri snake breeder who was found with several gunshot wounds near several hundred caged snakes inside his business, Renick Reptiles.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says that investigators recently got a break in their investigation. This led to the arrest of Lynlee Renick, 31, at her home in Columbia, Missouri. Michael Humphrey, 35, was arrested Thursday evening at a home in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Both Renick and Humphrey are being held, without bond, in the Montgomery County Jail on charges for Murder in the First Degree and Armed Criminal Action. They are scheduled for a court appearance on January 21, 2020.
Ben Renick specialized in breeding designer pythons at the business that he ran out of a building near his home. He sold the nonvenomous snakes nationwide.
The initial report was that he may have been killed by a large snake that was on the loose, although that’s not what happened. People of interest were identified by police in 2017.