Dateline NBC S30E16 Venom H 264

Carbonarapasta

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Transcript

00:00:09I'm Lester Holt. Tonight on Dateline, an exotic pet dealer found dead, leaving investigators to

00:00:16unravel a venomous mystery. Oh God. What happened? Oh God. I went to go check on him. He saw him

00:00:27on

00:00:28the ground. He raised a large 500 pound snake. We were told it was a snake attack. To me, it

00:00:39did not

00:00:39seem like a snake injury at all. This was not an accident. Ben was shot eight times. Why would

00:00:46someone want to kill Ben? Everyone thought it was his brother. Did Lindley say what the brothers were

00:00:52fighting about? The farm, money. They were having marital problems. Finding out that she was in

00:00:59another relationship so soon after the murder was a big red flag. He was toxic. She was afraid of him.

00:01:05His texts to her were awful, evil. I just broke down. It can't be real. I believe that the truth

00:01:12will come out and trust me, this is not the truth. Some people might say this beautiful piece of

00:01:18property is cursed. There's a lot of history out there. It's not all pretty.

00:01:34Here's Andrea Canning with Venom.

00:01:42It was a warm June evening in 2017, just before dusk down a long road in rural Missouri. Out here

00:01:50it was

00:01:50desolate, isolated, about an hour outside of bustling St. Louis, but a world away. This family farm was

00:01:58once a place of happy memories with plenty of room to raise kids and let them roam. And on this

00:02:04evening,

00:02:04like so many others, all was quiet. Still. Then came the call.

00:02:16All that came through were desperate cries, confusion.

00:02:30The woman managed to tell the dispatcher she'd come home to find her husband in a pool of blood.

00:02:35Do you know what happened to him?

00:02:40Dee Wassman was an EMT on duty in Montgomery County that night.

00:02:44Where are you when this call comes in?

00:02:47We were at the ambulance base. They were teaching EMT classes.

00:02:50Dee and her partner jumped in the ambulance and asked questions as they raced to the scene.

00:02:55So we asked for additional information. Was he conscious?

00:02:59Did he have a pulse? Respirations? Had CPR been started?

00:03:03The 911 dispatcher still couldn't get much from the woman on the line.

00:03:07Okay, is he conscious right now or breathing?

00:03:10I don't know. My brother-in-law just went inside.

00:03:14A minute later, the woman's brother-in-law got on the line.

00:03:18Hello?

00:03:19Yes.

00:03:19Okay, we've got everybody on the way. Do you know what happened?

00:03:21I know.

00:03:23I don't know what happened to the snake. Literally, I don't know where the snake is.

00:03:28Oh, my God.

00:03:30Hear that? A snake. Apparently on the loose.

00:03:34While we were en route, it came across that they believed a 600-pound anaconda had caused this damage.

00:03:39Very unique call.

00:03:40Yeah, I mean, have you ever heard anything like that before?

00:03:43No, I had never heard anything like that.

00:03:45Dee and her partner flew down the dusty driveway toward the property.

00:03:48A 72-acre farm with several homes and buildings.

00:03:52You arrive on the scene. Lights are flashing. You guys are in a huge hurry. What do you see as

00:03:57you're pulling up?

00:03:58Multiple deputies out, guns drawn, ready to go into this building.

00:04:02But they're still afraid to go in because they think there's a 600-pound snake on the loose.

00:04:08Deputies from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department had arrived there first.

00:04:12Their body cameras rolled.

00:04:14You're a little snake on the loose.

00:04:15Yeah, I'm not good with that. I'm not scared of snakes, but I'm scared of this one.

00:04:19The deputies located the victim's wife, who had called 911.

00:04:23The whole building is full of snakes.

00:04:26I understand you have an anaconda?

00:04:30Where's it at?

00:04:33I know it's difficult right now, but we need to make sure nobody else gets hurt.

00:04:37It's down in the basement.

00:04:39And I was not aware it was a snake facility, but my partner was because he was local to the

00:04:43area.

00:04:44Some of the deputies also knew this farm was home to more than 2,000 snakes housed in a facility

00:04:49on the property.

00:04:50And they knew who it belonged to, Ben Rennick, a world-renowned snake breeder.

00:04:55So, I learned it's a snake farm, and here's all of these country guys that are terrified of snakes.

00:05:02I had been raised with a snake. I wasn't afraid of a snake.

00:05:05So, they've all got out shotguns, and they're ready to just start blasting at a snake if it comes at

00:05:11them.

00:05:11I'm like, come on, guys.

00:05:12The police?

00:05:12Yes, the police. It's a 600-pound snake. You're going to see it coming.

00:05:16So Dee went inside, only to find she was too late.

00:05:20It was obvious he was gone.

00:05:24There was no helping Ben Rennick.

00:05:26Dee thought he'd been dead at least a few hours.

00:05:29It fell to Dee to give his wife, Lindley, the news.

00:05:32Once there was no life, and I went to her and told her that he was dead.

00:05:38What was her reaction to getting that news?

00:05:41It was guttural. She was devastated.

00:05:43She acted like her life was completely over.

00:05:46She was completely devastated, worried about her children, how they were going to survive,

00:05:52without their father.

00:05:54She looked so weak.

00:05:57Were you trying to console her?

00:05:59Of course.

00:06:00Deputies still had a dangerous suspect to track down, the massive missing anaconda.

00:06:05Harley, you see a snake come on here?

00:06:07You better shoot that dumb bitch.

00:06:08I got him.

00:06:09Row after row, the building was filled to the brim with reptiles of every size.

00:06:14What do they do with these things?

00:06:15They sell them.

00:06:16It's like a little shop.

00:06:19Deputies cautiously made their way through the facility, all too aware that this snake could

00:06:23be a killer.

00:06:32This was a death scene no one had encountered before.

00:06:36Do we have anybody we could call to deal with an anaconda?

00:06:43I'm going to kill her.

00:06:44We'll see you.

00:06:45Something sinister had slithered into Ben Rennick's life.

00:06:49But just what?

00:06:50Deputies couldn't be sure.

00:06:52One thing was for certain, the hunt was on.

00:06:59The hunt underway for a lethal reptile.

00:07:03But when we come back...

00:07:04To me, it did not seem like a snake injury at all.

00:07:08Loved ones rattled by disturbing news.

00:07:11The coroner let me know that this was not an accident.

00:07:28This family farm in New Florence, Missouri, had gone from calm to chaos.

00:07:33I'm going to kill her.

00:07:34We'll see you.

00:07:35Ben Rennick had just been found dead.

00:07:37His big brother Sam had come running when Ben's wife Lindley called him to help.

00:07:42It was Sam who first alerted authorities about the snake on the 911 call.

00:07:46Could you see what the nature of the injury was?

00:07:49His skull was crushed.

00:07:50So, you know, I didn't know what to think.

00:07:53My first thought was, of course, the snake.

00:07:56Sheriff's deputies combed the area with guns at the ready.

00:07:59They were hunting for a possible slithering perp.

00:08:03An EMT spoke to Lindley's father, Lindell Gallatin, that night.

00:08:07She said, Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Rennick has passed away, and they don't know whether it was a snake.

00:08:16Family friend Bobette Tucker also heard about the snake as she raced to the property that night.

00:08:21They had said that Ben had died, and they think that it was a snake.

00:08:26Oh, my gosh.

00:08:27What are you thinking when you hear a snake?

00:08:29How could this happen?

00:08:32Bobette had known Ben for decades.

00:08:34Her son was Ben's best friend.

00:08:36How do you think it shaped Ben and your son Cody, his best friend, growing up in such a small

00:08:41town?

00:08:42I mean, 2,800 people.

00:08:44Yeah.

00:08:44I think that it gives them a good moral compass.

00:08:48People know them, you know, and they know their families.

00:08:53Ben had loved animals even as a child, which wasn't a surprise to his parents since they owned a thriving

00:08:58pet food company.

00:08:59He particularly liked exotic reptiles, lizards, turtles, and snakes.

00:09:05Your parents actually encouraged exotic animals?

00:09:08They did.

00:09:08We were encouraged to have exotic pets as kids, and Ben had a variety of unique pets at a young

00:09:15age.

00:09:16The Rennick sprawling farm was the perfect place for Ben, Sam, and Babette's son to run wild, secluded in a

00:09:21world all their own.

00:09:22Was it the kind of place the boys would run around and discover nature or have their, maybe their ATVs?

00:09:29I don't know.

00:09:29Yes.

00:09:29That kind of thing?

00:09:30There was a little pond out there.

00:09:32The boys were in the woods all the time.

00:09:34I mean, Sam will tell you that they've got buried treasures out there.

00:09:39Did you become really close because of the location of your farm?

00:09:43We did, yeah.

00:09:44We did everything together for the longest time.

00:09:48Ben was also a talented drummer.

00:09:51In his early 20s, he played in a local metal band that would change his life.

00:09:55Through the band, he met a special woman.

00:09:58What did he tell you about her?

00:09:59He told me that he'd met someone and that they had a lot in common, and he was head over

00:10:04heels for Lindley.

00:10:06Lindley was from a small town just down the road from the Rennicks, a single mom raising her young son.

00:10:11Lindley was very sweet.

00:10:13She was perfect for Ben.

00:10:14She was very outgoing, bubbly.

00:10:16She was everything that Ben ever wanted.

00:10:18Lindley says the couple was a perfect fit.

00:10:21Were you really happy that Lindley had found Ben?

00:10:24Yes.

00:10:25They seemed like a great couple together, and I liked Ben a lot.

00:10:29He was really easy to get along with.

00:10:31Yeah, I was very happy.

00:10:33The whirlwind romance turned into an instant family.

00:10:37The two got married and had a daughter.

00:10:39Could you see them moving really fast, that these two were really into each other?

00:10:44Yeah, we did.

00:10:45I, too, was a mom, a single mom.

00:10:49And when you have children, you're going to look for something serious.

00:10:52And Ben took them both in, and they seemed to get along.

00:10:56They had mutual likes.

00:10:58I mean, you either like snakes or you don't.

00:11:01With a growing family, Ben left his music career behind and turned his passion for reptiles into a budding business.

00:11:07But hopefully this girl will be, uh, good to go in another year or two.

00:11:13Did you think that love of reptiles, he would parlay it into an actual career?

00:11:17No, I didn't expect that whatsoever.

00:11:19He did a good job at it.

00:11:21He was very focused.

00:11:22We are at the beginning of our hatching season.

00:11:26Lindell says breeding and selling snakes was a lot of work, but Lindley didn't mind.

00:11:30Why do you think Lindley was okay with that?

00:11:32Not every woman would be.

00:11:34She loved animals.

00:11:35She loved taking care of things.

00:11:38She was just a compassionate person.

00:11:41We do breed smaller females than this.

00:11:43Ben operated out of this large facility on the family farm and made videos for his YouTube channel under the

00:11:49name Renwick Reptiles.

00:11:50In this video, we were going to show you how we ship all of our reptiles.

00:11:56Now, Ben was dead in the very place his business came to life.

00:12:00Back at the scene, the chaos had only escalated as deputies tried to figure out how a snake might have

00:12:06killed him.

00:12:07Remember, they were on high alert after someone noted a possible snake bite on Ben's arm.

00:12:12But Sam said Ben didn't deal with poisonous snakes.

00:12:23That didn't mean Ben's snakes couldn't kill.

00:12:26Perhaps, like Sam first thought, one of the large snakes had crushed Ben's skull, like the reticulated python or the

00:12:33anaconda.

00:12:34Not your everyday house pets.

00:12:36How big were Ben's snakes?

00:12:37At the time, I think his biggest one was 12 feet.

00:12:42Now that I have her, it's been a couple years and she's a little bit bigger.

00:12:46This here is a male green anaconda.

00:12:48Wow.

00:12:49His name is Blue.

00:12:50Megan Kelly, or as her followers know her, Megaconda, is an anaconda breeder and friend of Ben's.

00:12:57What is the most likely scenario if a snake were to kill someone?

00:13:00It would be by strangulation.

00:13:01It would be purely like an accident.

00:13:03It would either have to get around your neck or like, like kind of crush your, like your ribs, like

00:13:08your lungs.

00:13:09You could see how someone would think that Ben might have been killed by one of his snakes.

00:13:12When you get up close, it's very powerful.

00:13:17But as powerful as these snakes are, experts like Megan found it hard to believe that someone with Ben's experience

00:13:23would end up the victim of an attack.

00:13:25Yeah, they're very powerful snakes, but like I said, it comes with experience and like knowing like what you're doing

00:13:30with them.

00:13:31And like Ben was very experienced.

00:13:33On the scene that night, EMT Dee Wassman was thinking the same thing.

00:13:37Remember, she'd grown up with snakes.

00:13:40Could you tell if this indeed was a snake injury?

00:13:43To me, it did not seem like a snake injury at all.

00:13:48Lindley told the police that too.

00:13:50Oh, the snake wouldn't do that.

00:13:54Dee and Lindley were right.

00:13:56The coroner finished his examination and shared some very big news.

00:14:00A snake wasn't, in fact, to blame.

00:14:03The coroner let me know that this was not an accident, that this was not a snake attack and that

00:14:09someone had hurt Ben.

00:14:11Ben had been shot, murdered.

00:14:14Amidst the frenzy of the snake hunt and the chaos at the scene, somehow the bullet holes had been missed.

00:14:20How many times was Ben shot?

00:14:21Ben was shot eight times.

00:14:23Now it was clear there was no missing snake at all.

00:14:28The case suddenly went from reptile hunt to homicide.

00:14:32Ben was a beloved father, husband, and animal lover.

00:14:35If it wasn't a cold-blooded snake, who was cold-hearted enough to kill him?

00:14:40It was time for investigators to talk to Ben's inner circle.

00:14:46Coming up, friends utterly mystified.

00:14:50I thought it was crazy.

00:14:51He was like the nicest person.

00:14:52He never seemed to have an issue with anyone.

00:14:54But there was something that troubled Lindley the day of the murder.

00:14:59Obviously, I got a little more worried.

00:15:01It just kind of gave me a bad feeling.

00:15:1629-year-old Ben Rennick's death had been ruled a homicide, and the crime was brutal.

00:15:22The snake breeder had been shot eight times.

00:15:25Family friend Bobette Tucker found the news that Ben had been murdered nearly impossible to process.

00:15:30What was really going on here?

00:15:32Yes, yeah.

00:15:33And of course, who would shoot Ben?

00:15:37That shock reverberated through the large community of people who knew and loved Ben,

00:15:41including those in the reptile industry, like Ben's friend and anaconda breeder, Megan Kelly.

00:15:47What is going through your mind when you hear that Ben, who everyone liked, had been shot?

00:15:53I thought it was crazy.

00:15:54He clearly did not deserve it.

00:15:56He was the nicest person, always happy to help.

00:15:59Like, he never seemed to have an issue with anyone.

00:16:01So it was just kind of shocking to her that he'd been shot.

00:16:04The Missouri Highway Patrol arrived to take the lead in the investigation.

00:16:08Lindley Rennick was the first to find Ben in the snake facility,

00:16:11and investigators needed to talk with her to build a timeline of the day.

00:16:15I know you've talked to a handful of other people today about how your day went.

00:16:23But if you want to go ahead and walk us through it, so...

00:16:27Did they come to the beginning or from...

00:16:30Say from this afternoon.

00:16:32Lindley told investigators she'd been at work that day at the spa she owned in Columbia, Missouri,

00:16:37about a 45-minute drive from the farm.

00:16:39You mentioned that you did speak with Benjamin before you left the farm.

00:16:49What time was the last time you spoke?

00:16:51It was 3.45.

00:16:52He said, you still good for kids tonight?

00:16:54Or do I need to?

00:16:57And I said, I need you to.

00:16:58I'm not going to be able to leave right now.

00:17:01On her way home, the phone rang.

00:17:03It was the school.

00:17:04The kids had not been picked up that afternoon.

00:17:06And so I got a call from them.

00:17:08So I was like, okay, well, I'm on my way.

00:17:11I'm so sorry, but I don't...

00:17:13And then I tried to call Ben in the facility a couple times and send him some messages.

00:17:19Ben wasn't responding.

00:17:22Obviously, I got a little more worried, but...

00:17:24Like, okay, well, a thousand things could be why he's not answering.

00:17:30And then I got home, and I told the kid I was to stay in the car since he wasn't

00:17:40answering.

00:17:41He's never forgotten them.

00:17:42So it just kind of gave me a bad feeling.

00:17:45Then, Lindley repeated the story she told first responders.

00:17:48I saw him laying on the ground, and there was a lot of blood.

00:17:53And so I ran outside, and I called Sam.

00:17:56So I just told him, you need to get to the facility right now.

00:17:59And then I got off the phone with him, and I called my mom.

00:18:03She still seemed to be in shock.

00:18:21But any homicide investigator will tell you.

00:18:26The spouse always gets a cold, hard look.

00:18:29Friends and family, however, felt certain that looking at Lindley would be a dead end.

00:18:33Did you think, you know, it could be the spouse?

00:18:37No.

00:18:37Which would be Lindley?

00:18:38No.

00:18:39No.

00:18:40That never crossed our mind.

00:18:42Ever.

00:18:43Mm-mm.

00:18:43Why not?

00:18:44She loved him.

00:18:45I mean, there was nothing that would give us pause to think that it was ever Lindley.

00:18:52Proof of that love?

00:18:53Her commitment to Ben and his snakes.

00:18:56She even helped him travel across the country to reptile shows.

00:19:00Former NFL linebacker Chad Brown is a successful reptile breeder and owner of a reptile shipping

00:19:06company in Denver.

00:19:07He got to know Ben on the reptile show circuit.

00:19:10I get to know Lindley because Ben brings her to the shows.

00:19:13In the reptile hobby, there's some spouses who are full participants.

00:19:17That makes up a very small minority.

00:19:18So whenever you see a couple who's at the shows, you kind of take note of that.

00:19:23And then she was more than just a tag-along.

00:19:25She was part of the team.

00:19:28Lindley was Ben's right-hand woman in his thriving snake business.

00:19:31She spent long days working with him at the snake facility and helping him build an online

00:19:36presence for renic reptiles.

00:19:38So here, Ben is going to show you essentially what we do from the moment that they hatch out

00:19:43of the eggs.

00:19:44Everyone in the snake industry seemed to admire the couple's obvious synergy.

00:19:49Ben was a good dude.

00:19:50And then the fact that it was Ben and Lindley, and I've always got a heart for folks who are

00:19:55entrepreneurial, who are trying to build something.

00:19:59After the couple's success with Renic Reptiles, Lindley wanted to try a business venture all

00:20:04her own.

00:20:05She took her former training as a massage therapist and with Ben's help, opened that spa in Columbia.

00:20:10That's a big step.

00:20:12Oh, wow.

00:20:12They put a lot of money into this spa.

00:20:16And it was top of the line.

00:20:18It was beautiful.

00:20:19They both spent a lot of time there getting it ready.

00:20:23She did a great job.

00:20:25Back in the interview room, Lindley told investigators how much she admired Ben as a hardworking businessman

00:20:30and father.

00:20:32Ben's just so, I mean, he's just, he's just, like, everything okay.

00:20:36And while Ben and Lindley seemed to have the perfect little family, she had a lot to say

00:20:41about someone very close to Ben.

00:20:43Was there any family issues?

00:20:46Like, between them and, uh, yeah.

00:20:51Investigators would soon learn the brothers had a history that read like a tragic novel.

00:20:59Coming up, a bizarre account of Sam's behavior at the murder scene.

00:21:04He was saying, that's right.

00:21:06I'm the brother murderer.

00:21:07The brother murderer.

00:21:09What did that mean?

00:21:23I saw him laying on the ground and there was a lot of blood.

00:21:26Police had been asking Lindley Rennick to relive every detail of that horrible day, the day

00:21:32she'd found her husband murdered on the family farm.

00:21:35Investigators knew how Ben was killed, but as for the why, they asked for Lindley's help.

00:21:40Do you have any thoughts or ideas, or do you know what happened tonight?

00:21:45I don't.

00:21:48The more Lindley talked, the more a story emerged.

00:21:51It was about Ben's brother Sam and the farm.

00:21:54Ben and I actually own all of the property.

00:21:58Sam kind of basically just went to Ben and he was like, you need to give me half of the

00:22:01property.

00:22:02Ben was like, no, I'm not going to give you half of the property.

00:22:07Investigators learned the brothers were feuding over the Rennick land.

00:22:09A property with a long and tragic history.

00:22:13Welcome to the Rennick household.

00:22:15Their parents, Frank and Kim Rennick, bought the farm in the 80s and raised their young family

00:22:20miles from the nearest town or grocery store.

00:22:23Was it kind of a sanctuary?

00:22:24It was their sanctuary.

00:22:26It really was.

00:22:27From the beginning, the Rennicks had their own way of doing things.

00:22:30And the family farm was at the center of it all.

00:22:33They did everything big.

00:22:34They didn't buy a bottle, they bought a case.

00:22:37But a shadow of hardship seemed to follow them.

00:22:40In 1992, the family's newly built house was destroyed in a suspected gas explosion.

00:22:46Leaving Sam's room, going into Ben's room.

00:22:49They rebounded, though, and replaced it with a 10,000 square foot home, complete with a pool

00:22:54and diving board.

00:22:55Was it nice?

00:22:56Oh yeah, it was beautiful.

00:22:57Yeah, Kim did a fabulous job, you know, interior decorating and stuff.

00:23:01It was beautiful.

00:23:03But their piece of paradise couldn't escape another tragedy.

00:23:06Ben and Sam's mom, Kim, was diagnosed with cancer.

00:23:09It just became a part of their life, you know, because she managed with it a long time.

00:23:16In 2008, after 15 years of living with cancer, Kim died in her bedroom in that beautiful house.

00:23:23After fighting so hard for so long, it must have been just so devastating.

00:23:29She was the strongest woman I'll ever know for what she went through.

00:23:34The boy's dad, Frank, seemed to crumble without their mom.

00:23:37She was Frank's rock.

00:23:41Aside from his kids, Kim was his solid.

00:23:45And when she passed away, he lost a big part of his life and, you know, changed as a person.

00:23:53Ben and Sam wouldn't understand those changes until years later.

00:23:57Frank sadly took his own life?

00:23:59Yes, Father's Day.

00:24:01Oh, on Father's Day?

00:24:02Mm-hmm.

00:24:04Wow, just like one tragedy after the next.

00:24:08Yeah, yeah, Ben found him.

00:24:11The series of tragedies left the Rennick Sons sudden landowners of the family's massive property.

00:24:16They were only in their 20s.

00:24:18What happened to the land and the boys?

00:24:20Did they take it over?

00:24:22Yeah.

00:24:22Frank had things set up for them not to lose the farm.

00:24:27You know, the farm was also, you know, that was their legacy as well.

00:24:33And it meant everything to them.

00:24:35Would you say that everything that happened really strengthened the bond between Ben and Sam?

00:24:40Oh, yeah.

00:24:41But Lindley told police that dealing with the farm and their inheritance had been tearing the brothers apart.

00:24:46Part of the reason was the financial agreement they'd worked out after their father died.

00:24:51The mortgage was put in Ben's name and Sam paid him rent.

00:24:54Lindley said Sam wanted to change that.

00:24:57And so Sam and his wife were married at that time, but no kids.

00:25:02And so they moved into that house and they were talking to us about buying half of the property from

00:25:09us.

00:25:10And then they would have that house.

00:25:11But that never ended up happening.

00:25:14That's when Lindley said Sam asked Ben to give him half of the property.

00:25:18And Ben refused.

00:25:20And they were like, well, we can't afford to live out here.

00:25:22We're going to have to move.

00:25:23Lindley said she tried to intervene.

00:25:25And so I sent Sam a message, like, I don't think you understand how much that really hurt Ben.

00:25:31But she said it was too late.

00:25:33His wife sent Ben and I a message that was basically just kind of like, f*** you.

00:25:39And there for a while, Sam and I were like, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.

00:25:45Sam was on the property when Lindley found Ben.

00:25:48So police dug deeper.

00:25:49Had the brothers' feud fueled an enraged Sam to kill Ben.

00:25:52What is Sam's demeanor like in general?

00:25:57To me, he has kind of a depressed personality.

00:26:00He's overly dramatic.

00:26:03I don't know.

00:26:04He's just so different than Ben.

00:26:09He's a lot more in your face.

00:26:11First responder Dee Wassman remembered Sam complained about his brother at the crime scene.

00:26:20They were just very off-color remarks to be being made on a scene.

00:26:25What else was he saying?

00:26:26He was saying, that's right.

00:26:28I'm the brother murderer.

00:26:29Brother murderer?

00:26:30What did that mean?

00:26:32Was there anything in your gut saying just with Sam's behavior that night that he could be involved in this?

00:26:39He was who I originally thought did it.

00:26:41Did you start to wonder about Sam?

00:26:44Question Sam?

00:26:45How can you not?

00:26:46We didn't want to believe that he could do this to his one and only family, living family member, aside

00:26:52from his own children.

00:26:53I mean, this is his brother.

00:26:55But you still have this question.

00:26:57It was a crime of passion.

00:27:00Investigators had a lot of questions for Ben's big brother.

00:27:03Questions that were about to be answered.

00:27:07Coming up, Sam admits to tensions with Ben.

00:27:12Ben and I aren't close.

00:27:13Ben has been hanging out at the top, really.

00:27:18He's only lived next door to each other.

00:27:19One conflict sharing the family farm.

00:27:23It's complicated.

00:27:24When Dateline continues.

00:27:39Rumors about Ben Rennick's death started to ripple through the reptile community.

00:27:43His friend Megan Kelly heard a story about who might have wanted Ben dead.

00:27:47At first, everyone kind of thought it was his brother over just, like, jealousy of something.

00:27:52That was, like, the first rumor that was kind of, like, going around.

00:27:56That Sam killed Ben?

00:27:57Yeah.

00:27:58Lindley's dad even heard the chatter about Sam.

00:28:01What did you make of the rumors that were going around that Sam killed Ben?

00:28:05I didn't know exactly what to make of them.

00:28:07Ben and Sam were not as close as what a lot of people are led to believe.

00:28:16Police brought Sam down to the station and asked him about what he'd done

00:28:19and where he'd been on the day Ben was murdered.

00:28:22When do you usually get up for him?

00:28:24At five.

00:28:24I'm not.

00:28:25Got out of work, picked up babies, took the kids back to the farm.

00:28:32Sam lived in his parents' big house on the farm.

00:28:34He told investigators he was home by six because he had an appointment.

00:28:38He was interviewing a new babysitter.

00:28:40But only minutes into that interview, it was interrupted by a phone call.

00:28:47Screaming because she just found her husband dead.

00:28:50Sam said he was devastated by the loss, but he admitted he didn't always get along with his brother.

00:28:56Ben and I aren't close, Ben and I don't have a lot in common.

00:29:00Ben doesn't drink, he's real serious, he doesn't have any fun at all.

00:29:05He doesn't leave the farm much.

00:29:08I'm the opposite of Ben in almost every way.

00:29:13I had a lot of fun.

00:29:26Sam said one reason he didn't talk much to Ben, his brother, could be arrogant.

00:29:31I know he's top of his fields.

00:29:39He liked to brag a lot.

00:29:40He's always, always.

00:29:42That's one of the reasons I didn't like being around Ben.

00:29:44He's always talking money.

00:29:45My mom's money he made this day.

00:29:47How much he's making on that transaction.

00:29:50Money seemed to be a source of contention for the brothers.

00:29:54Sam admitted the terms of their inheritance made things complicated.

00:29:58Ben got ownership of the land.

00:30:00I got most of the money.

00:30:02Big good to afford the land, not the money.

00:30:05So we had to work together to make it happen.

00:30:08It was complicated.

00:30:09How'd y'all do that?

00:30:11That's a good question.

00:30:12I don't know if we really did.

00:30:15The farm was also a money pit, Sam said.

00:30:17Which is why he was planning to leave.

00:30:20We were moving from the farm because I can't afford the farm.

00:30:23That's an expensive place to live.

00:30:25The house I'm staying at, the big main house on the left out there, is falling apart.

00:30:30It needs $50,000 put in there.

00:30:33I'm spending more than I'm making.

00:30:36I'm taking money from the treasure every month.

00:30:38I can't afford to live there.

00:30:39Sam, Ben, and Lindley appeared to be in a bad place before the murder.

00:30:43And it seemed like the police were starting to wonder if Sam had something to do with Ben's death.

00:30:47Now that we're going to get ahead of anything.

00:30:50No, I hear what you're saying, but I don't have anything to tell you.

00:30:53And I wish I did.

00:31:00Because I don't have the first idea.

00:31:02Sam, did you have anything to do with the death?

00:31:04No.

00:31:06Anything at all?

00:31:07No.

00:31:25Sam maintained his innocence, but police challenged him to prove it.

00:31:29Are you willing to submit to a shotgun or, not a shotgun, a gunshot resolution?

00:31:35Yeah, anything you want, you got it.

00:31:36Okay.

00:31:37We'll do that.

00:31:39Are you willing to...

00:31:41DNA, whatever you want, it's yours.

00:31:43Turn over your phone?

00:31:47For how long?

00:31:52Be overdrive by the day?

00:31:54Oh, that's fine, yeah.

00:31:55Uh, you willing to do that?

00:31:58I want whatever I can do to help Ben, I'm all for it.

00:32:02Sam promised to take a polygraph and make himself available to police.

00:32:06And they let him leave the station.

00:32:08But in the days after the murder, Sam's behavior would seem to turn hostile.

00:32:15Coming up, alarm at the farm.

00:32:19I blocked the road and I put a sign up that said, I'm drunk and I'm armed.

00:32:24And then, could Ben's business have provided a motive for murder?

00:32:29Was it a disgruntled customer?

00:32:30Was it a disgruntled employee?

00:32:33Was it a rival where a deal went wrong?

00:32:51Sam Rennick had spent hours with police at the crime scene and down at the station.

00:32:56I'm not going anywhere.

00:32:58If you guys need me, I'm 100% available.

00:33:00Like I said, I'm out of the book.

00:33:01He seemed entirely cooperative.

00:33:04But shortly after, he put up a threatening sign near the farm warning would-be visitors to stay away.

00:33:11I did something stupid.

00:33:13I blocked the road and I put a sign up that said, I'm drunk and I'm armed.

00:33:20Whoa.

00:33:21Why?

00:33:21Well, I didn't want any company at that point in time.

00:33:24I didn't know, you know, who could have been done something like that or who could be out there.

00:33:30Did you worry that people might take that as that you were guilty?

00:33:34That this was, you know, you're acting irrational, that maybe you were capable of murder?

00:33:38I don't know if that was all that irrational for me at that point in time or not.

00:33:42No, I wasn't concerned about that.

00:33:44Sam told us he was simply a man struggling to make sense of his brother's death.

00:33:48And says that even explains his bizarre behavior at the crime scene right after Ben's murder.

00:33:53Remember EMT Dee Wassman said he called his brother cheap and called himself a brother murderer?

00:33:59Something Sam doesn't remember saying.

00:34:01There was some talk that you were acting strange.

00:34:05Anything you want to say about that?

00:34:06How does one act after they lose their last family member?

00:34:10You know, I had a hard time.

00:34:13After everything that we've been through, losing Ben was devastating.

00:34:18Sam says he passed his polygraph and remained cooperative with police.

00:34:22But he understood why they would need to look at him.

00:34:25Was there thought that there could be a motive there for you with the financial interests of the farm?

00:34:30Well, I'm sure the finances came into it along with the investigation.

00:34:34And if they were looking for motive, we had, you know, Ben and my finances were intertwined, you know, quite

00:34:39a bit, especially with the property.

00:34:41Do you think the police had to look into that, though, and take it seriously?

00:34:44Oh, yeah.

00:34:44I'm sure that they did look into that.

00:34:48Sam told us he never demanded half of the property from Ben.

00:34:51They had already come up with an informal agreement to split up the farm.

00:34:55We'd always planned to have the property divided.

00:34:59That's the way that my father and mother had asked us to do it.

00:35:02And that's definitely something Ben had planned to do.

00:35:04This was a temporary situation.

00:35:06Exactly.

00:35:07And whatever ups and downs the brothers might have had, Sam says he never harmed Ben.

00:35:13Did you have anything to do with the murder of your brother?

00:35:16Absolutely not.

00:35:17But if Sam didn't kill Ben, then who did?

00:35:19We had problems with people out there looting the place.

00:35:23Sam had given police his own theories on the case.

00:35:26For starters, he thought maybe this could be a burglary gone bad.

00:35:30He didn't lock the doors.

00:35:31He didn't lock the doors or anything.

00:35:34Sam told police Ben was robbed a couple of years earlier at his house on the farm and $6,000

00:35:40in cash was taken.

00:35:41But that kind of money would have been nothing to Ben compared to the scaly valuables he had on the

00:35:46property, his collection of snakes.

00:35:49Ben's reptiles were sought after.

00:35:51How big of a player was Ben in the business at this point?

00:35:55Ben was at the cutting edge of producing new and interesting morph animals.

00:36:01His ability to combine different genes to create new, brand new, fascinating animals.

00:36:08He was at the cutting edge of that, towards the top.

00:36:11Chad Brown, Ben's friend and fellow snake breeder, says over the past decade, the industry has become very popular and

00:36:18very lucrative.

00:36:19Ben owns some incredibly rare snakes, like this T-positive albino anaconda, apparently the only one in the world.

00:36:26A snake like that could fetch as much as $100,000.

00:36:30I tried to think, you know, there have been some beefs in the reptile world.

00:36:35Maybe somebody feels they got the wrong end of a deal or something like that.

00:36:39Could Ben have had some beef with somebody?

00:36:42What could have possibly been the cause or origin of this, you know, his death?

00:36:47And Ben seemed to get along with everybody.

00:36:50He didn't have those kind of reptile beefs that I've heard about with other breeders.

00:36:54But maybe there could have been a rival that you didn't know about, or a disgruntled customer.

00:36:59Yeah, was it a disgruntled customer?

00:37:01Was it a disgruntled employee?

00:37:04You know, was it a rival where a deal went wrong or somebody was jealous of Ben's collection?

00:37:09But was Ben actually looking to leave his beloved business altogether?

00:37:13Lindley told investigators he was in the process of selling his whole collection to NHL goalie Robin Lenner,

00:37:18who was trying to break into the reptile industry.

00:37:21The two had even talked money, and Ben priced his business at over a million dollars.

00:37:26Ben valued everything at $1.9, and then they settled on $1.2.

00:37:31There was one other theory surrounding Ben's death that also involved money,

00:37:35and another difficult chapter in the Rennick family's story.

00:37:39Right before his suicide, Sam and Ben's dad, Frank, was indicted on three federal counts of mail fraud.

00:37:46Remember, Frank ran what seemed like a successful pet food company.

00:37:49But the government alleged that behind the scenes,

00:37:52Frank was taking millions from investors with no intention of paying them back.

00:37:56He faced 20 years in prison.

00:37:58He shot himself before the case could go to trial,

00:38:01leaving his children parentless and his investors upset.

00:38:05Did you think this could be related to your dad's business,

00:38:10even though that was so long ago, that just unfinished business?

00:38:14That definitely crossed our mind.

00:38:15We definitely thought that that was a possibility.

00:38:20Investigators couldn't find a link between Frank's past and Ben's murder.

00:38:24And if the killer wasn't Ben's brother, Sam, or a rival from the reptile worlds,

00:38:29then who could it be?

00:38:30Police kept working to find the answer.

00:38:32And meanwhile, whispers around town were that Lindley wasn't exactly acting like a grieving widow.

00:38:41Coming up, a possible clue unearthed at the scene.

00:38:46There was a part of me that was kind of excited, like, you know, what if this is something?

00:38:50Then, Lindley meets a new man, and...

00:38:54She has some news.

00:38:55She was pregnant.

00:38:56Is this feeling a little premature to you?

00:38:58It was a surprise.

00:39:15If investigators had a prime suspect in the Ben Rennick murder case,

00:39:19they weren't sharing that information with his loved ones.

00:39:22We would question, what's going on with that?

00:39:25You know, is there any suspects?

00:39:27You know, well, yeah, there is, but, you know, we can't talk about it.

00:39:32As for Lindley, the young widow was now busy raising her two children as a single mom.

00:39:38It left little time to focus on Ben's enormous snake collection.

00:39:41So Lindley called a professional.

00:39:43This man.

00:39:44Do you go about David or Dave?

00:39:46Dealer's choice.

00:39:48David Levinson was good friends with Ben.

00:39:51They'd become close on the reptile show circuit.

00:39:53He admired Ben and the magic he worked breeding his snakes.

00:39:58He was putting animals together and creating colors that nobody had seen before.

00:40:01A lot of first-time things in the industry.

00:40:04His name was really...

00:40:05Very well known.

00:40:06...getting around that he was the guy.

00:40:08Worldwide, yes.

00:40:10So when Lindley reached out to David about Ben's one-of-a-kind creations, he didn't hesitate.

00:40:15You're on a flight to Missouri to help with the collection.

00:40:17Um, essentially anything I could help with.

00:40:20Um, just, yes, just headed right out there when I had the first chance.

00:40:26David put his own life on hold and took charge.

00:40:29For weeks, he fed the snakes and cleaned their cages.

00:40:32All in the same facility where his friend was shot eight times.

00:40:36David says it was the least he could do.

00:40:38Lindley was in no condition to go back into that building.

00:40:41Was Lindley really struggling?

00:40:44Um, she was extremely emotional when I got there.

00:40:46Um, you know, a lot of crying.

00:40:48Um, a little bit of isolating herself, sitting on the porch.

00:40:52David says things got so painful for Lindley that she left the farm and moved in with her dad.

00:40:58David continued to live and work on the property.

00:41:01One day, he found what seemed like an important clue.

00:41:04I found a shell casing at one point while cleaning some of the caging.

00:41:07Did that just creep you out, finding that?

00:41:10Um, yes.

00:41:12I mean, anything to do with it gave me an uneasy feeling most of the time.

00:41:15Um, it, it was surprising.

00:41:17And there was a part of me that was kind of excited, like, you know, what if this is something?

00:41:21The case said, got quiet.

00:41:24You know, nobody was really talking too much about it anymore.

00:41:27Finding that, again, was kind of exciting to me because I was like, what if?

00:41:32David turned over the shell casing to police and waited for something to happen.

00:41:35But his excitement about the discovery faded as weeks passed.

00:41:40Did you start to think this would never be solved as the months go by?

00:41:44There were some points there where it got scary.

00:41:47Um, you know, there were months where it never even came up in conversation.

00:41:50So, you know, there was always that fear that, you know, nothing could ever come out of it.

00:41:54You're on this property and the killer is still out there.

00:41:57Um, the property was terrifying.

00:42:00Babette didn't spend much time at the property, but she did keep in touch with Lindley.

00:42:05We would meet up and talk and she'd come by and, you know, we, we kept in real close contact.

00:42:11And then it was kind of like she started fading away and harder to get a hold of.

00:42:16Is Lindley kind of withdrawing?

00:42:19Yeah.

00:42:19From you, like, just seeing her less and less, hearing from her?

00:42:22Yeah, she wasn't answering our calls and stuff.

00:42:24And, you know, it was frustrating.

00:42:27Sam was also frustrated.

00:42:29We tried to communicate with Lindley, uh, for quite some time.

00:42:33However, we, we, to no avail.

00:42:36And, uh, it was disconcerting that she would isolate herself and the children.

00:42:42Was she really isolating herself?

00:42:45David noticed Lindley was with a new guy, a man named Brandon Blackwell.

00:42:50He lived close by and worked at a power plant.

00:42:54He was introduced to me as a close friend.

00:42:56I think it was a couple months later, and, you know, it became very apparent, or maybe

00:43:00soon after that, that there was a relationship there.

00:43:02Did he seem like a nice guy?

00:43:03He did seem like a very nice guy.

00:43:04Very cordial, um, very polite.

00:43:08David tried not to get involved in Lindley's dating life.

00:43:10But then, over a year after Ben's death, she stopped by to visit.

00:43:15And this happened.

00:43:16She has some news.

00:43:18Yeah.

00:43:18Some big news.

00:43:19She had come by.

00:43:20I, I don't remember the exact month, but, um, she, she was pregnant.

00:43:24Is this feeling a little premature to you?

00:43:27It was a surprise.

00:43:29I think I found out through her friend.

00:43:32It was on the, her Facebook page.

00:43:35What's the timing on that?

00:43:37Well, it was awful soon.

00:43:39Yeah.

00:43:39And that's, and that surprised me, you know.

00:43:43What are you thinking then?

00:43:44She's moving forward.

00:43:46You know, she's a young woman, beautiful, attractive.

00:43:51Babette figured Lindley had every right to move on with her life.

00:43:54Sam wasn't so sure.

00:43:56Do you reach out to the police or talk to the police about Lindley having this relationship?

00:44:01We, you know, made sure that they knew, but at, at, at that point in time, they knew a lot

00:44:06more than, than we knew.

00:44:08More about Lindley's new life and her new man.

00:44:13Coming up, does Lindley have reason to fear for her own life?

00:44:18He began stalking her, texting her 150 times a day.

00:44:23His own mother called Lindley and said, get out, get out, get out.

00:44:26He's on his way to your house.

00:44:41Police knew about Lindley's new boyfriend, Brandon Blackwell.

00:44:45In fact, a few months into their homicide investigation, they spoke to him.

00:44:50Well, Lindley and I have definitely formed, like, a very special connection, and she's the most amazing woman I've ever

00:44:56met.

00:44:57Brandon had gushed about Lindley.

00:44:59But by the summer of 2019, not everyone in town was as fond of her.

00:45:04Ben's brother Sam couldn't shake a nagging feeling that Lindley was hiding something.

00:45:09Finding out that she was in another relationship and publicly, you know, so soon after the murder was a big

00:45:15red flag.

00:45:16It wasn't just her new relationship that bothered Sam.

00:45:19It was the way Lindley was making an effort to erase Ben from her life.

00:45:23That included selling the beloved family farm, Sam says, without even telling him.

00:45:27We were given notice that we had 30 days to leave.

00:45:30That's how you found out you had to leave?

00:45:32That's right.

00:45:33Moving was the toughest.

00:45:34She left all of my brother's belongings behind.

00:45:37She never returned to the property.

00:45:39She actually left all of his things there and abandoned them.

00:45:45Are these, in your mind, parlaying into, could she have had something to do with Ben's death?

00:45:50That did cross our mind.

00:45:52By now, even David, the friend she brought in to care for Ben's snakes, had become wary of Lindley.

00:45:58He felt betrayed when he discovered she was trying to sell Ben's prized anacondas, also without saying a word.

00:46:04She essentially had asked a friend of mine in the hobby to sell them or help relocate them.

00:46:10Without talking to you.

00:46:12Without talking to me.

00:46:12And you've been spending months for free taking care of the animals.

00:46:16That definitely put me off.

00:46:18Lindley wanted to sell the snakes to Ben's friend, Megan.

00:46:21I got really nervous with it.

00:46:23I was like, what do I do?

00:46:23I called Dave immediately, and he's like, just kind of go along with it and see where she takes it.

00:46:30Megan had no intention of going through with the deal.

00:46:33And when she walked away, Lindley blamed David for interfering.

00:46:37He said she sent him a threatening text.

00:46:39I just keyed in on, like, four words.

00:46:41And one was lawyer, there was a phone number, and you should be ashamed of yourself.

00:46:45It was just so mean.

00:46:47Not that Lindley, he thought he knew it all.

00:46:50Are you starting to think that Lindley might be involved?

00:46:53There was some suspicions, just based on conversations and some other things.

00:46:58But Lindley's dad said there was nothing sinister about the way his daughter acted after Ben's murder.

00:47:03He believes she was just a widow trying to put her painful past behind her.

00:47:07She had no control over the sale of the farm, says Lindle.

00:47:11It was up to the trustee in charge of Ben's father's estate.

00:47:13And he says Lindley might have seemed distant to Ben's circle, but she was just trying to rebuild her life

00:47:18and raise her children.

00:47:19Did you think she was trying to help the kids cope with the loss of their dad?

00:47:23She was, but I was also.

00:47:26Them children had an emotional state of their own that had to have been taken care of.

00:47:37Plus, Lindley was dealing with her own personal drama that summer.

00:47:40Her once perfect relationship with Brandon, the man she'd had a child with after Ben's death, had turned toxic.

00:47:47I know she did come to our house a couple of times because she was afraid of Brandon.

00:47:52Were you scared for Lindley?

00:47:54Yeah.

00:47:55I was scared for myself also.

00:47:57He's a pretty good-sized guy.

00:47:59And he'd already threatened to kick my ass, so.

00:48:01Had he been threatening Lindley?

00:48:03Not when I was there personally.

00:48:05But to the best of my understanding, yes.

00:48:07According to Lindley, Brandon didn't just threaten her.

00:48:10On one occasion, she told police he wouldn't let her and the children leave the house, and he put his

00:48:15hands on her.

00:48:17He was arrested for assault, and Lindley was granted an order of protection.

00:48:21But Brandon's attorney told us the assault never happened.

00:48:24He said Brandon never laid his hands on Lindley, nor did he threaten her dad.

00:48:29Brandon was released, and Lindley says he still wouldn't leave her alone.

00:48:34Connie Sullivan is an attorney Lindley hired after Brandon was accused of violating the terms of the court order.

00:48:39He began truly stalking her, texting her 150 times a day.

00:48:46His own mother called the police, called Lindley, and said, get out, get out, get out.

00:48:51He's on his way to your house.

00:48:52He says he's in your backyard.

00:48:54He says he's going to sleep in your driveway.

00:48:57Lindley told Connie that Brandon terrorized her for weeks.

00:49:00He ended up going to jail for felony stalking, an allegation he denied.

00:49:05There wasn't a snake in that facility more venomous than Brandon Blackwell, and he was controlling and determined to run

00:49:10her life.

00:49:11The whole Brandon situation, dreadful as it sounds, didn't seem to have any connection to Ben Rennick's murder.

00:49:17But when investigators heard about it, it gave them an idea.

00:49:21Brandon had been so taken with Lindley the first time they interviewed him, he hadn't offered much.

00:49:25But now that things had soured, they thought maybe he'd say more.

00:49:30Boy, were they right.

00:49:32My information is out of the horse's mouth.

00:49:34Okay.

00:49:34And by the horse, you mean Lindley?

00:49:37Or...

00:49:37We'll get to that.

00:49:38Okay.

00:49:53In January 2020, Lindley Rennick was emerging from a fresh trauma.

00:49:58Her boyfriend Brandon was in jail on charges of felony stalking.

00:50:02Was there some relief with Lindley that he was behind bars?

00:50:06Yeah, Lindley was in a very vulnerable spot, and he knew that.

00:50:12But if Lindley thought her troubles with Brandon were over, she was wrong.

00:50:16He was about to detonate a major bomb in her life.

00:50:19He agreed to sit down with the investigators working the Ben Rennick case.

00:50:24Frank?

00:50:24Yes, sir.

00:50:25Your dad gave me a call today and said that you wanted to talk to us.

00:50:29Yeah.

00:50:30Brandon told the investigators the very thing they were hoping to hear,

00:50:34that he had vital information about the case.

00:50:37Brandon felt Lindley had blown their disputes out of proportion and was making up lies about him.

00:50:43She's got him convinced that I'm this evil, savage human, and I'm the farthest thing from that.

00:50:50The investigators promised to work with him if he helped them solve the case they'd been working for years.

00:50:55Ben's murder.

00:50:57My information is out of the horse's mouth.

00:50:59Okay.

00:51:00The whole situation.

00:51:02Brandon says as their relationship progressed, he wondered if Lindley knew more about Ben's death than she was saying.

00:51:08I just, you know, just had a really odd, strange feeling about it, and just little stories weren't right.

00:51:13And so, you know, I kind of kept poking her about it.

00:51:16And, you know, I was like, just laid out like, you know, if it's going to go anywhere, you know,

00:51:22I need to know what really happened.

00:51:25He said Lindley eventually agreed to talk.

00:51:28They were in a cabin on vacation.

00:51:30She put their cell phones in another room.

00:51:33Why did she take?

00:51:34Because she's, I mean, she's just paranoid.

00:51:35You know, I just thought you guys were listening in on it, you know, and just like, you know, you

00:51:38know, what's on TV.

00:51:39Yeah.

00:51:39It's real and what's not, so.

00:51:41Brandon already knew that Lindley and Ben's marriage had been far from perfect.

00:51:45As it turns out, Ben was still alive when Brandon and Lindley first hooked up.

00:51:50She'd been cheating.

00:51:52She told Brandon the marriage was all but over.

00:51:54Ben was getting to the point where he was going to leave her.

00:51:57She was sucking money out of him for her business, and their relationship wasn't going well.

00:52:03What he said next was an explosive allegation.

00:52:06Brandon told investigators Lindley was so worried Ben would take the kids from her, she decided to do something drastic.

00:52:12She hatched a plot to kill him.

00:52:16Yes, according to Brandon, Lindley was Ben's killer.

00:52:19And now sitting in jail, accused of stalking, he said he was done keeping her secrets.

00:52:25Whatever she ended up, I could get two shits at this point.

00:52:28Yeah.

00:52:29What she's put me through.

00:52:30And there was more to the story, a lot more.

00:52:33He said Lindley didn't do it alone.

00:52:35She roped in an old boyfriend, someone she dated before marrying Ben.

00:52:39He worked odd jobs and had a history with drugs.

00:52:43His name was Michael Humphrey.

00:52:45How did she get Michael to get on board with this?

00:52:49She said that she just knew, based on his past and other things, that it's probably not too far from

00:52:55stuff he's been involved in before.

00:52:57And the way the relationship ended and whatnot, that he kind of owed her that.

00:53:02Owed Lindley, Brandon said, because Michael had gotten her hooked on painkillers.

00:53:07She didn't mention paying him to do it or anything like that.

00:53:09You think maybe?

00:53:10I know there was no money involved.

00:53:12On the day of the murder, he told investigators Michael picked Lindley up at her spa and together they drove

00:53:17out to the farm.

00:53:18And then it was Lindley who grabbed the gun and marched into the facility.

00:53:22Ben's in there, you know, cleaning, whatever, up against that back wall and she walks in with a gun and

00:53:30Ben's like, what the f*** are you doing?

00:53:32And she just shoots him a bunch of times and leaves.

00:53:36Did she ever break down when she was telling the story or just non-emotional like?

00:53:41Pretty non-emotional, yeah.

00:53:43It wasn't like a remorseful, like.

00:53:46Almost like he deserved it and he made her do it type deal?

00:53:49Yeah, I mean, she just snaps in her head, like, and makes up her mind, like.

00:53:55Lindley may not have been remorseful, but Brandon said he was.

00:53:59That living with a secret like that for more than two years hadn't been easy.

00:54:03You know, ever since I found this stuff out, it's been in my head every f***ing day.

00:54:07Just, you know, as a man and a human that values things, what should I do?

00:54:14And I, it's been hard.

00:54:16Why do you think she told you, like, I know you said because you were asking, but why do you

00:54:21think she trusted you to tell you?

00:54:24I guess, I don't know.

00:54:26I guess she came off as trustworthy.

00:54:27You know, she just thought she could get away with her, you know.

00:54:30And I think just the way I presented it to her, like, that I wasn't gonna, and didn't for a

00:54:35long time, you know, let it bother me like it should.

00:54:40Turns out what Brandon was saying made a lot of sense to the investigators.

00:54:44Unbeknownst to the public, they'd been looking hard at Lindley for a long time.

00:54:48And if Lindley had anything to do with this, I want her sitting in that seat.

00:54:53So.

00:54:54That's where she deserves to be.

00:54:55They got a warrant, and three days later, Lindley and her old boyfriend, Michael, were arrested and charged with Ben's

00:55:01murder.

00:55:02For Ben's brother, Sam, the news was a long time coming.

00:55:06How do you get word that Lindley has been arrested?

00:55:08They let me know the morning of, that it was going to happen.

00:55:12And it was a huge relief, knowing that there was gonna be, finally, be some justice.

00:55:17And I was like, oh my God, I just broke down.

00:55:20I just, like, it can't be real.

00:55:23This is real.

00:55:24It just shook our world.

00:55:27Lindley's family and friends thought her arrest was all wrong.

00:55:30They were quite certain she was innocent, and that not a shred of Brandon's story was true.

00:55:36Do you believe Brandon Blackwell is a liar?

00:55:39Without a doubt, he's definitely a liar.

00:55:45Coming up.

00:55:46You believe Brandon going to the police with this accusation about Lindley was all an act of revenge?

00:55:53Revenge, and in order to get a deal and get out of jail.

00:56:12Lindley Rennick was under arrest, charged with the murder of her husband, Ben.

00:56:17Her father couldn't believe it.

00:56:20Well, I thought, this is crazy.

00:56:21This can't be happening.

00:56:22Just, you know, I knew it wasn't true.

00:56:24How did you find out?

00:56:25She called me up, said, Dad, they're arresting me.

00:56:31Come and get the grandkids.

00:56:32Lindley Rennick says the daughter he raised could never have killed anyone, never mind the man her two eldest children

00:56:38called Dad.

00:56:39The children are her life.

00:56:42She would do anything to protect them kids and to take care of them.

00:56:46That was what she lived for.

00:56:47He says she's a soft-hearted person who always made a habit of following the rules.

00:56:53She bumped into another car, a van.

00:56:56Well, she immediately called the police to report it.

00:57:01The people in the other van said, no, no, no, we don't need to do this.

00:57:04You didn't do any harm.

00:57:05There's no damages.

00:57:06But she called anyways because she knew that was the right thing to do.

00:57:10And it wasn't just Lindley's loved ones who felt the police had it wrong.

00:57:14EMT Dee Wassman, who'd been at the scene the day Ben was killed, didn't buy it either.

00:57:18When I found out that Lindley had been arrested, I called her defense attorney and told them I did not

00:57:24think Lindley was guilty.

00:57:26And that if I could help in any way, to please contact me.

00:57:31Remember, Dee is the person who told Lindley that Ben was dead.

00:57:34You're basing this on your experience with her at the scene.

00:57:38Yes.

00:57:38And what was it about her that day that you felt compelled all that time later to make that phone

00:57:45call?

00:57:46She was genuine.

00:57:47There was something about her that I just could never get out of my head.

00:57:52It still hangs with me.

00:57:55Dusty Brashler was also in Lindley's camp.

00:57:58She's an investigator for the Missouri State Public Defender's Office.

00:58:02She met Lindley for the first time in the county jail.

00:58:05What's your first impression of Lindley?

00:58:07I mean, I was like, her?

00:58:09I mean, I've met with a lot of people accused of a lot of different crimes.

00:58:13And it just felt off.

00:58:16It felt wrong.

00:58:17To Dusty, Lindley was an unusually straightforward client.

00:58:20I would ask questions.

00:58:21She would answer them.

00:58:22She never held back.

00:58:23She was an open book.

00:58:25It was easy to get information out of her.

00:58:27As Dusty dug into this case, she came to believe that Brandon was an angry ex-boyfriend who hoped to

00:58:33get out of jail, whatever it took.

00:58:36We requested his phone calls, his jail phone calls.

00:58:38The whole time he's saying, I'm going to make some journalist's career.

00:58:43I'm going to f*** up Lindley's life, excuse my language.

00:58:46But he said he's going to ruin her.

00:58:48Lindley's defense provided dozens of those calls to Dateline.

00:58:51While many are mundane, some make no bones about how Brandon felt about Lindley.

00:59:06He's just mad at the world, saying he's going to screw her life up.

00:59:13Dusty said the calls suggest that Brandon would have said anything to get out.

00:59:17Get the f*** out of this mess.

00:59:20Good, bad, ugly.

00:59:21Connie Sullivan, the attorney who Lindley hired to guide her through her stalking case with Brandon, agrees.

00:59:27You believe Brandon going to the police with this accusation about Lindley was all an act of revenge?

00:59:34Revenge, and in order to get a deal and get out of jail, he'd just been told he was going

00:59:39to be held there without bond until his trial date, which could easily have been six months away.

00:59:45Connie says Brandon had been threatening to point the finger at Lindley for some time.

00:59:49Lindley even documented it when she applied for her orders of protection against Brandon.

00:59:53When their relationship ended, two years to the day after Ben's death, he threatened that if she took his child

01:00:02to go to the police and tell them that she'd murdered Ben, she was very open about that from the

01:00:08beginning.

01:00:08She made numerous police reports, all stating that that was one of his threats, and she testified to it under

01:00:15oath in front of two different judges.

01:00:17Brandon's attorney says he never stalked Lindley and was talking to police because he was upset about sitting in jail

01:00:23for something he didn't do.

01:00:25But if Lindley had really committed murder, Connie says wouldn't she have scrapped the stalking case against Brandon to keep

01:00:31him quiet?

01:00:32Connie thinks the investigators bought Brandon's story way too quickly.

01:00:36I must say that they just swallowed it all hook, line and sinker.

01:00:40They didn't investigate his motive to lie.

01:00:43They didn't listen to his jail phone calls.

01:00:46The Missouri State Highway Patrol said at this time they can't comment on the case.

01:00:51Connie feels they should never have charged Lindley in the first place.

01:00:54I was an assistant prosecutor for 10 years.

01:00:58I like to think I have a certain amount of being able to tell Lindley is not a murderer.

01:01:05What is it about Lindley?

01:01:07Why do you have a soft spot for her?

01:01:09You know, there's sometimes you meet somebody and you just click.

01:01:12Lindley was that kind of warm, open person.

01:01:15We hit it off.

01:01:17And she never lied to me.

01:01:19So what do you say to anyone who says she's playing you?

01:01:22That's what they think and I understand why they think that, but it's not true.

01:01:26What do you say to anyone who says this woman is clearly a cold-hearted snake and this is all

01:01:30a bunch of you-know-what?

01:01:31I mean, I say you're entitled to your opinion, but, you know, I'm in deep in this case and I'm

01:01:40not comfortable saying that about someone unless it's been proven.

01:01:45Prosecutors were ready to take their best shot at that.

01:01:48And they would tell the jury a very different story about Lindley.

01:01:52One about a devious, conniving woman who tried to kill her husband not once, but twice.

01:02:11On December 6, 2021, Lindley Rennick went on trial for Ben's murder.

01:02:17His brother, Sam, had been waiting for this day for years.

01:02:20We were definitely ready for this and we needed to seek justice for Ben.

01:02:24We needed to see it through.

01:02:25But what Sam was not prepared to hear was how diabolical the crime actually was.

01:02:30The prosecutor said Lindley didn't just pull her old boyfriend into the plot to murder Ben.

01:02:35She roped in the manager of her spa, too, seen here in this promotional video for the business.

01:02:41Hi, Ashley. I'm the spa manager.

01:02:43Ashley Shaw was the state's star witness.

01:02:45She was an employee of Lindley's who was given immunity for her cooperation.

01:02:50And you did ultimately participate in attempting to kill Ben Rennick yourself, did you not?

01:02:56I did.

01:02:57Ashley said that leading up to the murder, Lindley had been confiding in her about troubles with Ben, fighting, emotional

01:03:03abuse.

01:03:04She says Lindley even said one day he sexually assaulted her while she slept.

01:03:08When she told you this, what was your reaction?

01:03:10I was shocked and felt sorry for her, kind of hurt for her, I guess.

01:03:17She said Lindley told her she had to get away from Ben, but if she divorced him, he had the

01:03:22money and resources to take away her kids.

01:03:25She didn't really think of any other option and that she asked if I could help her with murdering him.

01:03:30She regrets it now, but Ashley said she agreed to help.

01:03:46According to Ashley, shooting Ben wasn't Lindley's original plan for murdering him.

01:03:52She said first, Lindley tried to poison him with pills.

01:03:55About a week before Ben's murder, Ashley said she got a handful of prescription painkillers and gave them to Lindley,

01:04:02who then mixed them into Ben's protein shake.

01:04:05She called me and said that he was very sick all night, threw up, but he was still alive.

01:04:11Ashley said after that plan failed, she and Lindley tracked down Lindley's old boyfriend, Michael.

01:04:17Then, Michael and Lindley headed out to the farm to confront Ben.

01:04:21Do you recall about what time of day it was that she left the spa?

01:04:26It was afternoon 2 to 3, somewhere around that time frame.

01:04:30Ashley also said Lindley asked her to provide an alibi.

01:04:33She said Lindley had intentionally left her phone at the spa.

01:04:36So while Michael and Lindley were on their way to the farm, Ashley used Lindley's Facebook account to send Ben

01:04:42a message.

01:04:43Just said, I'm not feeling well, I'm going to lay down, I think is what it said, can you pick

01:04:48the kids up from school?

01:04:48Ashley didn't know exactly how the shooting happened at the farm.

01:04:52When Lindley and Michael returned to the spa, she said Lindley made a beeline for the shower.

01:04:57She asked me to scrub her body and her hands really well, and she washed her whole body.

01:05:02She said Lindley initially told her that Michael had been the shooter, but later admitted she was the one who'd

01:05:08shot Ben.

01:05:08She said that Michael got too nervous or didn't want to do it, and so he handed her the gun

01:05:14and she actually killed him.

01:05:16And Ashley wasn't the only spa employee from that video who said she knew about the murder before it happened.

01:05:22I'm Rachel, I'm the esthetician here.

01:05:25Employee Rachel Hunt told the jury Lindley had confided details to her as well.

01:05:29What did she tell you?

01:05:31Her and Michael Humphreys, Lindley and Michael Humphreys, were going to take a gun and go see Ben, and they

01:05:37said they were going to murder him.

01:05:39Could these ladies have stopped this murder from the spa?

01:05:43They could have. Anyone could have stopped this murder by calling 911, but they did not.

01:05:49To tell the jury what actually happened at the farm, the prosecution called their surprise witness.

01:05:54Call your next witness.

01:05:56Michael Humphrey.

01:05:58Michael Humphrey.

01:05:59Michael and Lindley had been arrested for the murder at the same time, but now Michael was going to point

01:06:04the finger directly at Lindley.

01:06:07In his orange uniform, he told the jury he hadn't seen her in six or seven years when she showed

01:06:11up at his house and asked him to help kill Ben.

01:06:15Initially, I thought she was just exaggerating some, you know.

01:06:19Did you respond?

01:06:22I told him that that was crazy.

01:06:25But then he said he ended up going with Lindley to the farm anyway.

01:06:28He said she told him she changed her mind about the murder and just needed support while she collected her

01:06:33things.

01:06:34Why would you help her in this manner?

01:06:36I thought that was going to be a peaceful resolution.

01:06:41According to Michael, he picked Lindley up after 2 p.m. on June 8th.

01:06:46A charge on her card showed they got gas on the way to the farm.

01:06:50When they arrived, he said Lindley told Ben a cover story about Michael being a high school friend who wanted

01:06:54to see his snakes.

01:06:56What is his reaction? Can you see what his reaction is?

01:06:59He was just, I guess, momentarily hesitant as to, you know, just randomly showing up there, but was like, fine,

01:07:06that's fine, come on in.

01:07:07Michael said he had just walked inside when he heard the first shot.

01:07:11I was looking at a whole lot of snakes, and then I heard a shot come out, which inside there

01:07:22was extremely loud, so I kind of ducked a little bit.

01:07:24I looked down through there, and she was at the end of the corridor, posed up like this with a

01:07:30gun.

01:07:31He said he ducked out the door as Lindley continued to fire shots into Ben.

01:07:35She comes out the door. I'm still standing there. She runs around to the passenger side of the car and

01:07:43starts screaming at me to drive, basically.

01:07:46The prosecutor said remarkably Lindley hadn't promised Michael a dime for his help with the murder.

01:07:52She hadn't offered Ashley or Rachel anything either.

01:07:55The prosecutor also told the jury that before the murder, Lindley was cheating not only with Brandon,

01:08:01but with this man, who was in charge of advertising the spa.

01:08:05When did your relationship become sexual, if you recall?

01:08:09Around December of 2016, something like that.

01:08:11With all this testimony about Lindley's deceptions and so many firsthand accounts of her role in the murder,

01:08:17the case against her looked formidable.

01:08:20But defense attorneys Tim Hessman and Catherine Berger said all was not what it seemed.

01:08:25Right off the bat, I sort of said to myself, this is all witnesses.

01:08:29There's no DNA. There's no fingerprints.

01:08:32No gunshot residue either.

01:08:34Lindley's hands had been tested after the murder and they were clean.

01:08:37They said the state's theory of motive just wasn't true.

01:08:40It's been said that Lindley was afraid because Ben had all the money

01:08:43that he would be able to put up a big fight for the kids and that she could lose out.

01:08:49That I don't think ever entered Lindley's mind.

01:08:51She said, no, my mom was a social worker.

01:08:54I know how this works.

01:08:56It takes a lot for courts to be willing to take kids away from their parents

01:09:01when those parents love them and are competent caretakers.

01:09:04The defense said the whole case against Lindley was based on the words of three people

01:09:09who had very good reasons to lie.

01:09:11They thought the police leaned on Ashley in particular.

01:09:14Here is a woman that is inside of an interrogation room with no attorney who's 29 years old

01:09:22and is told expressly, if you continue to help Lindley run it and you do not help us,

01:09:29you're not going to leave this room.

01:09:31Now, who in that situation would not tell the police anything they wanted to hear?

01:09:37And Michael, who'd already been tried and convicted for Ben's murder months earlier,

01:09:41was getting a reduced sentence for his testimony.

01:09:44Instead of life without parole, he now has a chance to get out.

01:09:48But you're eligible for parole, right?

01:09:50Hopefully we'll not die in there.

01:09:52But how would they explain Lindley's gas station stop shortly before the murder?

01:09:56Or Ashley's phony Facebook message to Ben?

01:09:59The defense said that the truth was that Lindley did know more about the murder than she told police.

01:10:05That she'd lied to them, but they said she had not killed her husband.

01:10:09Lindley was about to tell that story to the jury herself.

01:10:14Coming up.

01:10:16Michael turned around and I saw a gun in his hands and then I heard shots.

01:10:21Lindley testifies that Michael killed Ben.

01:10:25Will it convince the jury?

01:10:27I think that she put on a heck of a show.

01:10:29Up there.

01:10:30And then Lindley sits down to face our questions.

01:10:48Lindley Renick had a lot to answer for.

01:10:51The prosecutor said she'd had affairs, lied to the police, and shot her husband eight times.

01:10:56So the courtroom was buzzing when Lindley took the stand.

01:11:00Can you please introduce yourself to the jury?

01:11:02Hey, I'm Lindley Renick.

01:11:03In her soft voice, Lindley admitted that, yes, she'd gone to the farm with Michael the afternoon Ben was killed.

01:11:09But her intention wasn't to end his life.

01:11:12It was to end their marriage.

01:11:15Why were you really there?

01:11:17To ask Ben for a divorce.

01:11:19You weren't going to kill Ben?

01:11:21No.

01:11:23She said there was never any murder plot.

01:11:25Her marriage to Ben was in shambles and she'd been involved with other men.

01:11:29She wasn't proud of that.

01:11:31Do you regret it?

01:11:32Yes.

01:11:33And she said she did not want Ben dead.

01:11:36She claimed the poisoning story wasn't true.

01:11:38That she and Ben both drank a bad protein shake a week before the murder.

01:11:43Did you get sick?

01:11:44Yes.

01:11:45Lindley also said she'd only asked Michael to come with her to the farm because she was afraid of how

01:11:49Ben might react.

01:11:50And she said she was absolutely floored when Michael pulled out a gun.

01:11:55Lindley's testimony was that he was the one responsible for Ben's death.

01:11:59Michael turned around and I saw a gun in his hands and then I heard shots ring out and I

01:12:06screamed and I ran outside.

01:12:10And then I heard more shots go off and everything just went numb.

01:12:17She said she was in total shock and denial as they drove back to the spa.

01:12:21I mean, I didn't know what had happened.

01:12:23That wasn't even a thought that was in my mind at that point that Ben was dead or could be

01:12:28dead.

01:12:29Lindley said it was only later when she got a call from her kid's school that she realized Ben might

01:12:34really be hurt.

01:12:35Is this when that, for lack of a better word, fantasy that nothing had happened started to crack for you?

01:12:42Yes.

01:12:43I just started to panic because Ben wouldn't not pick the kids up.

01:12:49But to the prosecutor, Lindley's story sounded preposterous.

01:12:53If you're willing to lie to the police about such a vital matter, why should these jurors now believe you?

01:13:04I was lying to protect myself and I told a lot of really awful lies just to do that.

01:13:15All I can do now is just sit up here and tell the truth.

01:13:20Plus, she said Michael threatened her so she'd keep her mouth shut.

01:13:23Her dad says she had good reason to be afraid.

01:13:26This was not a threat.

01:13:28This was a promise.

01:13:29You feel like he could kill her?

01:13:32Oh, I feel like he would.

01:13:34Definitely.

01:13:34Most definitely.

01:13:35When it came time to deliberate, Lindley's defense team knew the jurors had options.

01:13:40First degree murder could mean life in prison for Lindley, whereas a conviction for second degree murder could mean she'd

01:13:46be out in as few as 10 years.

01:13:49The jury deliberated for almost 12 hours, then sent the judge a message.

01:13:54A verdict had been reached.

01:13:56We, the jury, find the defendant, Lindley Rennick, guilty of murder in the second degree.

01:14:03What was her reaction in court?

01:14:04She just shocked.

01:14:06She crumbled.

01:14:08Next, the jury gave the judge a recommendation for sentencing.

01:14:11The judge accepted it.

01:14:13Lindley got 13 years for the murder, plus three on a related charge for a total of 16 years behind

01:14:19bars.

01:14:19Her dad was despondent.

01:14:22With the health problems I got, I don't know whether I'll be alive when she gets out.

01:14:28But Ben's loved ones thought the sentence wasn't nearly enough.

01:14:32It seems like in the state of Missouri, a life is worth 13 years at best.

01:14:36We were hoping for first degree murder.

01:14:38Why do you think she didn't get first degree murder?

01:14:40I think that she put on a heck of a show.

01:14:44Lindley says she wasn't putting on a show, not on the stand, or to us, when we visited

01:14:48her at this maximum security women's prison north of St. Louis.

01:14:52We wanted to hear her story firsthand.

01:14:54She told us she had no motive whatsoever to want Ben dead.

01:14:58Out of everybody here, I had the most to lose.

01:15:02Why did you have the most to lose?

01:15:04I mean, I lost everything with Ben dying.

01:15:09Lindley said she went to the farm to ask Ben for a divorce.

01:15:12But messages she sent him earlier that day didn't seem like they came from an unhappy wife.

01:15:17Why did you send Ben nude photos that day if you were planning on going there to talk to him

01:15:22about separating?

01:15:24I don't have a very healthy relationship with sex or my body.

01:15:32And it is very much a way, and in that moment was a way, to put Ben in a good

01:15:39mood and make him happy.

01:15:41How would that continue to make him happy?

01:15:43It wouldn't continue to make him happy, but you've never tried to soften the blow?

01:15:47Not like that, no.

01:15:50Okay.

01:15:51We also wondered why she felt she needed to bring someone with her to the farm.

01:15:55Why did you bring Michael with you?

01:15:58Since Ben and I's marriage was kind of falling apart and everything had kind of started escalating with him being

01:16:06a little bit more controlling and physical,

01:16:09Ashley had told me that she wanted me to have somebody that would be there with me so that nothing

01:16:15would get out of hand.

01:16:16But then why would Michael shoot Ben?

01:16:18I don't know.

01:16:21Somebody told me they thought that maybe Michael was high and maybe Ben said something across to him.

01:16:32I don't know.

01:16:34You're the common denominator here between Michael and Ben.

01:16:38You brought Michael to the snake facility that day.

01:16:41Not to kill him, though.

01:16:44Did you ask him?

01:16:45Why did you kill him?

01:16:46No.

01:16:46It just seems to me like you would want to know why or that there was a reason.

01:16:51Have you ever experienced any sort of trauma that just absolutely unearthed every part of the life that you have

01:17:01to where you don't know the ground that you stand on or the air that you breathe?

01:17:09Did you tell...

01:17:09Have you ever experienced that?

01:17:12Because if you haven't, I don't know.

01:17:14Okay.

01:17:14If you haven't, I don't know.

01:17:17That anybody would understand.

01:17:19Why didn't you call 911?

01:17:21I wasn't...

01:17:22Why didn't you run in to help them?

01:17:24I ran away.

01:17:25I mean, I heard gunshots and I ran away.

01:17:28I honestly, I don't know anybody who hears gunshots and runs to it.

01:17:34Michael, of course, is already serving a life sentence for his role in the murder.

01:17:39Did you kill Ben?

01:17:40I did not kill Ben.

01:17:42Did you have Michael kill Ben for you?

01:17:44I did not have Michael kill Ben.

01:17:47I never wanted Ben dead.

01:17:50We also pointed out that four people implicated her in the plot.

01:17:54Are you saying that all four people in this case were lying then?

01:17:58Michael, Brandon, Ashley, Rachel, all telling lies?

01:18:03Yes.

01:18:03And what do you say to anyone who says, you know, it's kind of hard to believe that all

01:18:07four people would be lying.

01:18:11Some don't even know each other.

01:18:14I can see how that would be hard and, you know, but having walked through it and lived

01:18:20it and seeing the motives and threats and intentions behind everyone, I don't think

01:18:25it's that hard.

01:18:27And then there was the matter of Sam.

01:18:29Why had she pointed the finger at him if she knew for a fact that he was innocent?

01:18:33I mean, when I tell you, everybody around me, even people that I didn't know, were sending

01:18:38me messages saying that Sam did it and I just...

01:18:41But you knew he didn't.

01:18:42I didn't make the right choice.

01:18:44I can't take that back and that was just a really ugly thing to do.

01:18:50But you do feel bad about it?

01:18:51I feel awful.

01:18:54Ben's family and friends say the reality is that a snake didn't kill him, but a cold-hearted

01:18:58snake killed him and that cold-hearted snake is you.

01:19:01Oh, I'm aware.

01:19:02I don't have any response or reply to that and it doesn't change my conscience in knowing

01:19:08that I didn't kill Ben and I never wanted him dead.

01:19:12Linley's eldest son and the daughter she had with Ben are being raised by her family.

01:19:17Brandon is raising the son he had with Linley.

01:19:19All charges against him, including felony stalking, were dropped after Linley's conviction.

01:19:25And Sam?

01:19:26He has no parents to lean on and no family farm to go home to.

01:19:29It's in the hands of new owners.

01:19:32Still, Sam is resilient.

01:19:34He's made a home of his own.

01:19:36You have had a life of tragedy.

01:19:38There's been a lot of tragedy, yes.

01:19:41It is what it is.

01:19:42You know, we've been through a lot, but I'm here.

01:19:46We made it.

01:19:48And we have to move forward.

01:19:54That's all for this edition of Dateline.

01:19:57I hope you'll join me this Sunday at 9, 8 central for an NBC News special, my exclusive

01:20:03interview with former Attorney General Bill Barr.

01:20:06You said some of those press conferences were rambling, cringe-inducing, and he put himself

01:20:11at the center.

01:20:12A lot of people have said he's narcissistic, and from what I observe, that's true.

01:20:16An insider's view of the Trump White House.

01:20:19I'm Lester Holt.

01:20:21For all of us at NBC News, good night.

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