Secrets of the Snake Farm
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Tonight on date light.

I don't even say there's a typical crime scene, but that's the only crime scene i've worked where your surrender .

by snakes inside the investigation first time details in our most venomous mystery.

I had a shake. He raised large. I got to passed to me.

IT did not seem like a snake injury.

This was not an accident that was shot eight times.

Why would someone want to kill bit?

You had a real who done IT on your hands. Did everyone thought was his brother? Did lindy say what the brothers .

were finding about the farm money .

they were have marked to problems finding .

after he was another relationship. So soon after the murder was a big red flag.

He was toxic. SHE was afraid of him.

his text to her world off of evil. We ask her shows.

why is this happening?

I just broke down. IT can't be real.

I believe that the truth will come out. And trust me, this is not the truth.

Some people might say this beautiful piece of property is cursed.

There is a lot of history out there. It's done all pretty.

I'm letter hold, and this is deadline.

Here's Andrew, a canning with secrets .

of the snake farm. IT was a warm june evening in twenty seventeen, just before dusk, down a long road in real missouri. Out here, IT was desalted isolated, about an hour outside of bustling saint Lewis, but a world away.

This family farm was once a place of happy memories, with plenty of room to raise kids and let them wrong. And on this evening, like so many others, always quiet still. Then came the call.

All that came through were desperate cries, confusion.

OK, i'm sorry, what do you say?

Every on the ground in this world.

everywhere the woman managed to tell the dispatcher sh'd come home to find her husband in a pool of blood.

D wasson was an em t on duty among guy county that night. Where are you when this call comes in?

We were at the ambuLance space. They were teaching emt classes.

D, and her partner jumped to the ambuLance and asked questions as they raised to the scene.

So we asked for the information. Was he conscious? Did he have a post aspirations? Had cpr been started.

the nine one one dispatcher still couldn't get much from the woman on the line. Okay, give me concious for now.

our breathing with inside. A minute later.

the woman's brother and got on the line.

Yes.

okay, everybody on the way, you know what happened?

no.

Oh my god.

hear that a snake apparently on the loose while we rude IT came across .

that they believe a six hundred pounds anaconda had caused this damage. Very unique call.

I mean, have you ever heard anything?

I had never heard anything like that.

D and her partner flew down the dusty driveway toward the property, seventy two acre farm, with several homes and buildings. You arrive on the scene. Lights are flashing. You guys are in a huge Terry. What do you see as you're pulling up .

multiple deputies of gang drawn, ready to go into this building, but they're still afraid to go in because they think there's a six hundred pound snake on will lose.

Deputies from the montgomery county shares department had arrived their first, their body cameras roll in. Good master snakes from scared of this one. The deputies located the victim's wife, linny runner, who had called nine .

one one building.

What I understand you have an encounter.

I know it's critical right now, but we need to .

mention what else could her?

And I was not a word, was a snake facility, but my partner was because he was looking to the area.

Some of the deputies also knew this farm was home to more than two thousand snakes housed in a facility on the property, and they knew who would belong to ben ranic, a world pronounced .

snake breeder. So I learn at a snake farm, and here's all of these country guys that are terrified of snakes. I had been raised with a snake.

I wasn't afraid of a snake. So they've got out and they're ready to just start lasting at the snake. If IT comes out and ready, come on guys.

The police, yes, the police. It's a six underpants snake. You're gonna see IT coming.

So they went inside, only to find he was too late.

IT was obvious he was gone.

There was no helping them. Ranic d thought he had been dead at least a few hours. IT felt a deep to give his wife lindy the news.

Once there was no wife, and I went to her and told her that he was dead.

What was her reaction to get with the news?

Got all SHE was a devastated SHE acted like her life was completely over SHE was completely devastated, worried about children and how they were going to survive without their father SHE looked so weak.

Were you trying to console her?

Of course.

deputy still had a dangerous suspect to track down the mass of missing anaconda.

那 干嘛 要 row .

after row？ The building was filled to the brim with rap tiles of every size they sell. Take a little shop. Deputies cautiously made their way through the facility, all too aware that the snake could be a killer.

Something got him. Every medic, that is a bike mark on. So they're a snake, move in here.

And now a dangerous hunt was on. Do we have anybody? We can call .

them deal with .

an an economy. They were looking for a dangerous snake, but as the twist in terms of this case began to unfold, investigators would uncover a far more venomous plot than they could have ever imagined.

This family farm and new FLorence, missouri had gone from calm to chaos. Ben running had just been found dead. His big brother sam had come running when bs wife lindy called him to help.

IT was sam, who first alerted authorities about the snake. On the nine one one call. Could you see what the nature of the injury was?

His school was crushed. So no, I didn't know what to think. My first thought was, of course, the snake.

Sheriff deputies called the area with guns at the ready. They were hunting for a possible silvering perp. Family friend, bob t. Talker, also heard about the snake as he raced the property that night.

They had said that been IT had died, and they think that IT was a snake.

Oh my gosh, what are you thinking when you hear snake?

How could this happen?

Then had loved animals, even as a child, which wasn't a surprise to his parents, since they owe a thriving pet food company. He particularly liked exotic reptiles, lizard, turtles and snakes. Your parents actually encouraged exotic animals.

They did. We were encouraged to have exotic ass, his kids, and then had a variety of unique pets as a Young age.

The run x sparling farm was the perfect place for ben salmon bobbet sun to run wild, included in a world all their own n around the maybe there are A T, V S.

I don't know. Yes, that kind of think there was a little pond out there. The boys were in the woods all the time. I mean, say, i'll tell you that they've got, uh, very treasurer out there.

Did you become really close because of the location of your far?

We did we did everything together for the longest time.

Ban was also a talented drummer in his early twenty. He played in a local metal band that would change his life. Through the band, he met a special woman. What did he tell you about?

Tell me that he had met someone and that he had a lot in common, and he was head over heels for the lindy was .

from a small town just down the road from the rics. A single mom raising her Young .

son was very sweet, and he was perfect forbid, and he was very outgoing, bubbly. SHE was everything a big? Everyone at her .

father window says the couple was a perfect fit.

They seemed like a great couple together. And I, like, been a lot. He was really easy to get along with. Yeah, I was very happy.

The world wind romance turned into an instant family. The two got married and had a daughter. With a growing family, benn left his music career behind and turned his passion for rap tiles into a budding business.

I hope of this girl will be good to go in another year, too. Did you think .

that love of retails, he would play IT into an actual career? No.

I didn't expect that. What whatever he did a good job at. We very focused.

We are at the beginning of our hatching season.

Linda says breeding and selling snakes was a lot of work, but lindy didn't mind. What do you think Linda was okay with that? Not every .

woman would be. SHE loved animals. SHE loved taking care of things.

SHE was just a compassionate person.

Ban Operated out of this large facility on the family farm and made videos for his youtube channel under the name ran ic rep tiles.

In this video, we will going to show you how .

we ship all of our utitsa now. Then was dead in the very places business came to life. Back at the scene, the chaos had only escalated as deputies tried to figure out how a snake might have killed them.

Well, even small.

like if it's really toxic.

exposed, didn't heavy board, is what my understand.

Perhaps like sam first thought, one of the large snakes had crushed bds kull, like the particulates python or the ancona, not your everyday house pets. How big were bent snakes at the time? I think his biggest one was twelve y now that I have, it's been a couple of years and she's a little bit bigger this year is a male Green and icon, a wow.

Its name is blue meg Kelly. Or as her followers know, her mega is an anaconda eder and friend of bans. What is the most likely scenario if a snake work to kill someone that would be an extra gulam and would be purely like an accident?

You could see how someone would think the ben might have been killed by one of the snakes. When you get up close, it's very powerful. Megan found IT hard to believe that someone with bands experience would end up the victim of an attack that comes with experience and like knowing, like what you're doing with him.

And like ben was very experienced on the scene that night. Emt divorcement was thinking the same thing. Remember, she's grown up with snakes. Could you tell if this indeed was a snake injury?

To me, IT did not seem like a snake injury at all.

Linton told the police that too. D. N. Lindy, we're right. The corner finishes examination and shared some very big news. A snake wasn't to blame.

Bin had been shot, murdered amid the frenzy of the snake unt and the chaos at the scene. Somehow the bullet holes had been missed. How many times was been shot?

Was shot eight times.

Ben was a beloved father husband, an animal lover, who was called harder enough to kill them. Missouri highway patrol investigator devon falls were now join the case, looking for a killer whose intention seemed clear.

This person definitely wanted to kill bin. They're gona make sure that he was dead.

And for the first time he'll reveal what went on inside the investigation into this brutal homicide.

Twenty nine year old ben ran x death had been ruled a homicide, and the crime was brutal. The snake breeder had been shot eight times. Investigators from the missouri state highway patrol arrived on the scene to take over the investigation. Your own call on this particular day, and you get a very strange call.

That's correct.

This is the first time as A Y highway patrol investigator, devon d false has talked about the case on national television. He told me he got the call around eight .

thirty that night. They spoke of how they believed a murder occurred and there was a victim with gunshot wounds and there was no gun present, and that this occurred red and a snake form, or a snake facility.

You already know that this is a murder. This was done by a human, not a snake.

IT was a parent by the time we'd started that evening that this was going on homicide and unsold homicide. When he arrived .

at the sprawling property, he was struck by the size of the facility and the number of animals inside.

Say there's a typical crime scene, but that's the only crime scene i've worked. Or your surrounded by snakes. One of the first things we did was try to get a handle on what the snake facility really was and if there was a danger .

present tense wife Linda called in a friend of bans to help out with handling the snakes. He also had some helpful information.

He let me know that he was aware of the sale of a large portion of snakes to a hockey player that's earn, apparently, be a lot of snakes. Let me, a couple of snakes had just sold two snakes for a total day, five thousand dollars.

That's a lot of money, right? That could be the kind of thing you might kill someone over .

that kind of money animal part to play a more.

Do you want to get interviews done immediately with people who might be able to shut some light on what bend to bend?

absolutely. To start, learn about his life, in his family, in his business, to start really work.

In his case, who's your first person in the .

first place we talk to with his wife, to the I know you talked to a handful of the people .

a day and about how your day one. But if you want to, for him, focused through at some.

like the beginning from this afternoon, lindy told .

investigator she'd .

been at work that day at the sort I wed in colombia, missouri, about a forty five minute drive from the farm.

You mentioned you can speak with managment me for you. what? What time was last time you spoke was three.

forty five. He said, used to good for kids and I don't know. I need to. I said, I need you to. I am not going to all the leave right .

now on our way home. The phone rank IT was the school. The kids had .

not been picked up that afternoon.

Ben wasn't responding.

Okay, one thousand things could be why he entry in. 那个 好， 我爱 i all the kills， say, in the cars, and he was an answering, ever forgotten. So give a feeling.

Then linton repeated the story. He told first responders.

That's so very oxide. I called the theme for this all you needed to the facility right now. Well, SHE still seemed .

to be, in short.

give me questions for us.

What happened? What if I mean, what do I do?

Friends.

family within that was almost like .

checking a box. Our first in interview .

with third was just a common lead to start sorting family function and who this person is in their job and any grievances they may have with anybody else.

And no one doubt ted lindley's love or her commitment to ban on his snakes. SHE spent long days working with him at the snake facility in helping him build an online presence for ranic rep tiles.

So here bin is going to show you essentially what we do from the moment that they hatch out of the eggs.

Everyone in the snake industry seem to admire the couple's obvious synergy. Former nfl line backer chat Brown is a successful tell breeder and owner of a reptile shipping company in denver.

Bin was a good do. And then the fact that he was been in, and i've always got to a heart for folks who are entrepreneurial, who are trying to build something.

after a couple success with running rep tiles, lindy wanted to try a business venture all her own. SHE took her former training as a massage therapist. And when bands help open that span columbia.

that's a big step. Oh, wow, they put a lot of money into the SPA. And IT was top of the line. IT was beautiful. Back in the interview room.

lindy told investigators how much he admired them as a hard working business man and .

father thing. OK bin linley seem to have .

the perfect little family, but SHE had a lot to tell corporal false about someone else .

who was very close to them.

like between salmon. yeah. Did lindy have any idea .

who might have wanted to hurt that?

That evening, lindy started to perhaps paint a picture of bans, dealings with his brother and how they didn't get along as well as they used to.

Does your antenna go up when you hear that you've got a murder on your hands and now you're being told that there's a family?

Feel sure he was something to take into account.

but the field was much more involved than IT first sounded. Investigators would soon learn the brothers had a history that read like a tragic novel. There was big tension between the brothers.

That's correct.

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From the moment corporal devon foust stepped onto the runeck family farm in june twenty seventeen, he had many questions, but he was laser focused on the obvious one. Who would want to a kill ben roni? A lot of things to figure out. Quite a mystery.

correct? Yeah, there's a lot to get lined out there early, so you don't miss anything that you can go back to do later on.

The investigator had spent the early morning hours after the homicide questioning ben's wife.

lilly. Do you have any thoughts, ideas? Do know what happens.

onions. More lindy talked.

the more story emerged. IT was about ban's brothers.

sam and the farm. Then, and I actually owned all of the property, then i'm kind of ici just went to them and he was like, you need to give me half of the property and I was like, no, i'm not gonna you half of the property.

Investigators learned the brothers were fusing over the ranic land, a property with a long and tragic history.

Welcome to the raining household.

Their parents, Frank in camera, bought the farm in the eighties and raise their Young family miles from the nearest or grocery store. Was IT kind of a sexually IT was there section?

And IT really was from the beginning.

The roni s are their own way of doing things. And the family farm was at the center of IT.

All they did, everything big, they didn't buy a bottle, they bought a case.

but a shadow of hardship seemed to follow them. In one thousand nine hundred ninety two, the family's newly built house was destroyed in a suspected gas explosion, leaving sand room going into binswanger builded, though, and replaced IT with a ten thousand square at home, complete with a pool and diving board was IT nice.

Oh yeah, he was beautiful. Yeah, kim, what did a famous job? You know, interior decorating and stuff. IT was beautiful.

But their piece of paradise couldn't escape another tragedy. Ben and sam, mom cam, was diagnosed with cancer.

IT just became a part of their life, you know, because SHE SHE managed with IT a long time in .

two thousand and eight. After fifteen years of living with cancer, kim died in her bedroom in that beautiful house. After fighting so hard for so long that I must have been just so devastating.

SHE was the strongest woman I ve ever. Now big for what he went through.

The boy's dad, Frank, seemed to crumble without their mom.

He was Franks rock. And when he passed away, he lost a big part of his life. And and change is a person bed.

And sam wouldn't understand those changes until years later, bring, sadly.

took his own lifeless father's day.

one father's day, just like the one tragedy after the next.

Yeah, I have been found him.

The series of tragedies left the running sons sudden landowner of the family's massive property. They were only in their twenties. What happened to the land? And the boys, did they take IT over?

Yeah, flink had things set up for for them not to lose the farm. You know, the farm was also there. That was their legacy as well, and he meant everything to them.

Would you say that everything that happened really strengthen the bond between benz? Sam.

oh yeah.

But now linley was telling corporal false that the land that once bonded the family had been tearing the brothers apart.

In this case, been received the land and sam lived on IT. Sam had an issue with halley, were paid and being that was still live in a line.

Wife were married at that time, but no kids. And so they moved into that house and they were talking to us about buying half of the property from us. And they would have that house, but never ended up happening.

That's when lilly said sam asked ben to give him half of the property and then refused.

Are lines .

said he tried to .

intervene and and how much severly her then but .

he said he was too late.

His wife sent A I message that was basically just and there for a wild m and I were like, I I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.

Sam was on the property when lilly found ban. So police doug deeper had the brother's fuel filled an enraged sam to kill ban.

What is seems to me or .

like in general .

of the press personality, it's over a later many. It's just so different .

than that.

A lot more in your face. First .

responder d. Wasn remembered sam complained about his brother at the crime scene.

Two problems when to hire any help. They were just .

very off color reMarks to be being made on the thing.

What else was he saying?

He was saying, that's right. I'm the brother murder.

brother murderer. What does that mean?

Rumors about ben rick's depth started to rip through the repetitive community. His friend Megan Kelly heard a story about who might have wanted bn dead. At first, everyone kind of thought, was his brother over, just like jealousy of something. But that was like the first rumor that was kind of like going around the sam killed them yeah linley's daddy even heard the chatter about sam. What did you make of the rumors that we're going around that sam killed ban?

I didn't know exactly what to make of them and say were not as close as what a lot of people are LED to believe.

corp. Process had heard those rumors, too, from almost the moment he walked under the farm just hours after samon Linda discovered ben's body. Were you told about some of the strange things that sam had been saying at the scene?

We were, and I don't remember really even how those came across to us where there was almost like people in the crowd or whether was another share deputy. But I did make this kind of excited for that first interview with sam, but IT was how he was excited or how he was sweating so much. I think he changed a shirt. And so all of those were something that we took into account on that evening.

And IT wasn't just sams behavior at the scene that night that investigators had to consider sam had a motive, potential motive.

Sam did have a potential motive. He wanted to stay on that form. And he was afraid that that land when to always be there and when I stand the family.

So corporal false had a lot of questions when sam walked into the police station just hours after his brother was found murdered.

When you use, get up that, take the babies, take kids back to the farm.

Sam lived in his parents big house on the farm with his wife and two small children.

That means sam let us know that he was meeting with some potential babysitter and that girl's mother as well, something that may watch his kids. They were present up at the big house, what I referred to as the big house at that time. Why he was talking with them, lindy called him. He was frantic, and he basically left his kids with this potential babysitter and her mother and went down the hill to be with lily.

the.

Screaming because he just found her husband dead. Sam said he was devastated by the loss, but he admitted he didn't get along with his brother.

He talked about, alin didn't have any fun, and he was one had fun, and he talked about how he would go out and .

then will always work our close common and drink he serious and plants, if you want to lead for much. The has been almost every way. I love her and A. But IT is is an hang our top really next.

Sam also said his brother could be arrogant.

and. You like to brand money. How about you made this way? How would how much think on that transaction?

Money seemed to be a source of contention for the brothers, sam admitted. The terms of their inheritances made things complicated.

being the ownership of the land. I have most the money be good to for the land now, the money of the world together. And they have happened. Can't get question. I know he did.

The farm was also a money pit, sam said, which is why he was planning to leave.

We were moving from the farm that I for and for as expensive place to live, the house i'm staying at, the big main house, and life out there is following apart any two thousand put there that i'm spinning more than i'm making. I'm taking away in the first month I hear .

for the sam benny. Lindy appeared to be in a bad place before the murder, so investigators put sam on the spot.

Same, did you have anything? anything? no. I think very well. Yes, no. I'm like for my money around all this. I know you ask your short questions I want to have about the .

police chAllenged him to prove .

IT are you willing to submit to a shop or sam appeared to be CoOperative.

You promise to take a polygraph and make himself available, so please let them leave the station. But for corporal failed in his team, the work was only just beginning. I would imagine the son's probably coming .

up at this point. I was we worked all night and um IT was evident. This was gonna be of the full scale homicide. What a lot of leads to sit down and write out and start hand out to people to start going to handle on this, because there was a lot of things involved early on.

And as investigators, doug deeper, the pool of suspects grew. Bs colleague said he was a lovable guy with a neck for breeding snakes. But had he been involved in a business deal gone bad.

I tried to think you, there has been some beef in the reptile world. Maybe somebody feels I got the wrong into a deal, or something like that could been have had some beef with somebody.

Serena could spend hours with police at the crime scene and down at the station. Investigators found him CoOperative and agreeable, but sams interactions with police were undercut by how he was behaving in public. There was his bizarre and seemingly self incriminating behavior at the murder. Cy, that night.

two problems. Then.

shortly after the murder, he put up a threatening sign near the farm, warning would be visitors to stay away. Contradictory behavior for a man who claimed to be trying to help the investigation. When sam SAT down with us, he said there was an explanation for all of IT beginning with that sign.

But I didn't let me stupid, right? I block the road and I put a sign after that said, I am drunk and i'm armed .

and wo why?

Well, I didn't want any company at that point in time. I didn't know, you know, who could have been done something like that or who could be out there.

Did you worry that people might take that as that you were guilty, that this was know you're acting a rational, that maybe you were capable .

of murder was rational for being at that point? No, no. I was a concern about that.

Sam told us he was simply a man struggling to make sense of his brother's death and says, that explains his crime scene rantings. There were some times you are acting strange. Anything you want to say about that?

How does he want to act after they lose their last fAiling member? You know, I wish I had a hard time after everything that we've been through. Losing ben was devastating.

In fact, he says he doesn't even remember calling himself a brother murder. He passed his polygraph and remain CoOperative with police, but he understood why they would need to look at him. Was there thought that there could be a love there for you with a financial interests of the farm?

I'm sure the finances came into IT along with the investigation. Then if they were looking for mode of, we had bit and my fines were in or twin, you know quite a bit, especially with the property .

sam told as he never demanded half of the property from ben, they'd already come up with an informal agreement to split up the farm.

We'd always planned to have the property divided um that's the way that my father and motherboard ask us to do IT and that's definitely something been had planned to do.

This was a temporary situation exactly. And whatever ups and downs the brothers might have had, sam says he never harmed. Band, did you have anything to do with the murder of your brother? Absolutely not. What is going on with sam at this point is, is he's .

still a suspect. Sam is still, I would say, off maybe a soft expect.

You haven't ruled out just good .

practice not to not to get ahead ourselves and start focusing to hard on one thing doesn't hurt to just set something off to decide for a while and and focus on a new path.

But if sam didn't kill ban, then who did? We had problems .

with people out there loosing the place. Sam given .

police his own theories on the case. For starters, he thought maybe this could be a burglary gone.

You like doors. You don't like the doors.

Anything that was something corporal felt was hearing to was one of the theories you were looking at a possible burglary that came .

because then let us know that at some point that had money out of the facilities are one thousand dollars.

Sam confirmed that ben's house on the farm was robed of six thousand dollars a couple of years earlier. But that kind of money would have been nothing to bend compared to the scale valuables he had on the property, his prized collection of snakes. How big of a player was been in the business at this point?

Bin was at the cutting edge of producing new and interesting moral animals. His ability to combine different genes to create, you know, new, brand new, fascinating animals. He was at the cutting edge that towards the top.

ben owns some incredibly rare snakes like this. Tea positive lbo. Anaconda aren't the only one in the world. A snake like that could fetch as much as one hundred thousand dollars.

I tried to think there has been some beef in the reptile world. Maybe somebody feels they got the wrong end of a deal, or something like that could been have had some beef with somebody. What what could have possibly been the cause, the origin of this know his death and been seem to get along with everybody. He didn't have those kind of reptile beef s that i've heard about with other .

breeds but maybe they could have been arrival that you didn't know about a disGraced .

customer yeah was a discontent customer, was IT a discount LED employee? Um was that our arrival where a deal went wrong or somebody was jealous of been collection .

investigators were carefully studying the snake industry and bends place in IT. I bet you had no idea that the snakes were worth that much money.

No, we were all pretty shocked to learn how much the snakes, just one of them, would be worth a hard ware. Some of the ones were um to begin to learn how he bread these snakes and why they are worth so much money.

Linton told investigators ban was actually looking to get out of the business altogether and suggested that might have upset some of his colleagues in the snake world. Lindy was inferred that possibly someone might have killed ban over the snake business.

correct? Over the snake business, or over him getting out of the snake business.

Apparently, bin had entered into an agreement to sell the business to n hl. Golly Robin lender valued .

everything at one point. And on one point.

corp. Fast learned that then subsequently had some disputes over payments, then died before the sale could go through. Doesn't sound like a perfect relationship.

I would agree. That was not a perfect relationship.

Was Robin lender and ever a suspect?

He was always something that we kind of set aside um anytime now if you have a sale at large, I never directly talk to him, but he was always A A potential path.

Investigators couldn't rule Robin out, but set them aside for the time being to explore other theories. And there was one other theory surrounding bds death that also involved money, and another difficult in the ranic family story, right before he died by suicide. Salmon bed's dad Frank was indeed on three federal counts of male fraud. Remember, Frank ran what seemed like a successful pet food company, but the government alleged that behind the scenes, Frank was taking millions from investors with no intention of paying them back. He faced twenty years in prison and died before the case could go to trial, leaving his investors upset, had one of them come back to exact revenge on the rani c family.

We have to keep our minds open that this could still be something from the inie past coming back to their land. So that was something that we maintain an idea throughout the earlier parts of the investigation.

Did you think this could be related to your dad's business, even though that was so long ago that unfinished business that definitely .

cross our money, and we definitely thought that, that was a possibility.

Did that lead you anywhere?

Did did not we rule that out?

Because it's amazing when you look back and you see that the house exploded and Frank was embezzling money and IT all seems like I could potentially add up to revenge or murder.

I would agree.

If the killer wasn't band's brother sam, or arrival from the reptile world, then who could IT be? As police kept working to find the answer, whispers around town began growing louder. Lindy running wasn't exactly acting like a grieving widow.

IT was a big bread flag that he had moved on to other relationship so fast.

While investigators were busy evaluating several possible suspects in the ban rony murder, they weren't sharing any information with the public.

We would question what's going on with that. You know, there are any suspects know? Well, yeah, there is. But can talk about IT.

As for lining, the Young widow was now busy raising her two children as a single mom. IT left little time to focus on benz enormous snake collection solino called a professional. This man met David or .

David's choice.

David levenson was good friends with ben. They they become close on the rap tile show circuit. He admired ban and the magic. He worked breeding his snakes.

He was putting animals together in creating colors that nobody had seen before. A lot of first time things in the induction.

his name was really very well. Get around that. He was the guy .

worldwide. yes.

So when lindley reached out to David about bends, one of a kind creations, he didn't hesitate. You're on a flight to misery to help with the .

collection tie. Anything I can help with just headed RAID out there. When I had the first chance.

David put his own life on hold and took charge for weeks, he felt the snakes and clean their cages all in the same facility where his friend was shot eight times. David says, that was the least I could do. Lindy was in no condition to go back into that building, was lonely, really struggling.

SHE was extremely emotional when I got there. You a lot of trying, a little bit of isolated yourself.

sitting on the porch, David says things got so painful for lindy that he left the farm and moved in with her dad. Corporal foust visited them later dad house several times. He too had noted he was struggling. She'd been to the E.

R. I learned from her friend that was there that she's been to the E. R. For a panic attack or something close to that.

He also talked off. And with David, who continue to live and work on the property, are using him at all as as someone to talk to, to someone to sort to keep an eye on you what's .

going on over there I am David would talk quite a bit, and he would kind of keep me up to date with things, and I would kind of keep him up to date. He helped quite a bit.

One day, David found what seemed like an important clue.

I found a shell casing at one point while cleaning some of the K. G.

Did I just creep you out finding that?

Yes, I mean, anything do with the gaming an uneasy feeling most of time um IT IT was surprising and there was a part of me that was kind of excited. Like, you know what if this is something the case said, get quiet. No, nobody is really talking too much about IT anymore. Finding that game was kind of exciting to me because I was like.

what if and he'd been taking the rax apart, the trays out, the rax apart, to clean them and move on. And all who is doing that at a shell casing fell out. He gave me a call, and we had another investigator down there pick IT out. And IT was just one that we had missed from that evening.

But true to form, investigators kept their findings to themselves, and David was left to wonder if was even safe to stay on the property. You're on this property and the killer is still out there.

The property was terrifying.

Family friend bob bet tucker didn't spend much time at the property, but he did keep in touch with Linda.

We would meet up and talk and to come by, and you know we we kept in a roll close contact and then IT was kind of like to started fading away and harder to get a .

hold of islam. I kind of withdrawing yeah .

from you like just .

seeing her lesson less hearing .

from yeah SHE wasn't answering our calls and staff and you know, IT was frustrating.

Sam was also frustrated.

We tried to communicate with learning for quite some time, however we would to no avail. And IT was disconcerting that he would isolate herself in the children.

Corporal fans thought he knew why Linda was keeping to erself. He suspected SHE was hiding something from the star. He'd been carefully studying her social media conversations, and they revealed her marriage wasn't quite as SHE portrait IT and her pot was in trouble financially. You believe that that he was hiding things from them?

I know he was, I mean, because they would have arguments about IT and he he would say, I keep buying this out. I want to help you .

with your business or reply would be.

well, you know how to take .

care of my own this is definitely not the the picture that was painted of, but in lonely as being the cannon barbi e of the snake world that, you know, they had this great life, everything was really good between them.

right? That all started to change.

In fact, fast said, even brought her in for another interview just eleven days after the murder, then ask a blunt question.

IT was an environment that what you can .

think about me before there .

is another relationship we need a to help anyone, origin relationship.

Wow, with that moment, like when just on a hunt you're asking for this question and SHE admits that I was pretty .

sure the validation, you know, was there. I wasn't happy about that. I was good to have another piece of what was going on. So now it's, you know worse is gna take us next.

Eric was a local radio personality who sometimes help Linda with marketing at the spokeo ed in columbia.

Help you can see.

I mean, we met once a month ago over my numbers to the clock when he would may be cut in.

Lilly surprised .

the investigator by saying ben had even met to her new lover on a few occasions without knowing IT. So what are you thinking when you now have this piece of information? Are your sites really on lindy .

know that ships had already started, but IT definitely kept us going down that path with what else is SHE not telling us?

Sure enough, everyone was about to discover linley was hiding a much bigger secret.

Corporal devon foust had discovered linley ranic was keeping secrets, and in the late summer of twenty seventeen he was collecting them one by one, including a particularly juicy one. Eric, the man sh'd been having an affair with behind bends back, was not the only other man in her life. How does brand in blackwell get on your radar? This is another, yet another man whose in lindley's world.

i'd mashed up some different records and kind of another little bit of a hunch there.

She'd met Brandon just before ben's murder and was often seen with him afterward, too. David levenson took notice.

He was introduced me as a close friend. I think he was, a couple months later, became very apparent, or maybe soon after that, that there was a relationship there.

Did he seem like a nice guy?

He did seem like a very nice guy, very quartus, very polite.

David tried not to get involved in lindy's dating life, but then over a year after ben's death, SHE stopped by a visit. And this happened. He has some news and some big news come.

I don't remember the exact month, but he was pregnant.

Is this feeling a little premature to you?

IT was a surprise. I think I found out through her friend was enough. Her facebook page .

was the timing on that?

Well, that was awful soon. Yeah, and that's and that surprised me. You know.

what are you thinking .

that she's moving forward? You know, she's a Young woman, beautiful, attractive.

But sam saw IT differently.

find now he was in another relationship, and publicly, so soon after the murder was a big.

grand flag. Do you reach out to the police or talk to the police about lindy having this relationship?

Make sure that they knew. But at at that point time, they knew a lot more than than we knew.

Sam wasn't wrong. Police had talked to Brendan, who was head over heels. What did he say about Linda when you asked him about? He was basically .

in love with lindy when I interviewed, had been a little while after the murder, and he didn't feel bad about tell me how much, how much he liked her and what he thought of burn. He was thank you, even told me he was in love.

What you're already definitely like a very special connection and she's the most amazing woman i've ever met.

Meanwhile, Linda was also selling the beloved family farm. Sam says, without even telling us.

we were given notice that we had three days leave.

That's how you found out you had to leave.

That's wrong. Movie was the tough st. SHE left all of my brother's belongings behind. SHE never returned to the property. SHE actually left all of his things there and abandoned them.

David discovered lindley was trying to sell ben's prize anaconda without saying a word SHE essentially .

had asked of a friend of mind and the hobby to sell them or help relocate .

them without talking to you. We talking, and you've been spending months for free taking care of the animals. Put me off. Lindy wanted to sell the snakes to ben's friend Megan. Yeah, I got really nervous with that.

I was like, what do I do? I like I called dave immediately and he just like, just kind of go on with IT and see where he takes IT. Megan had no intention of going through with the deal, and when he walked away, lindy blamed David for interfering. He said he sent him a threatening tax.

I just keep and unlike four words, and one was lawyer, there was a phone number, and you should be ashamed yourself.

IT was just so mean, not the Linda he thought he knew at all for the first time. He wondered, had he been telling the truth about bands death, are you starting to think that Linda might be involved?

Um there was some suspicions just based on conversations and some other things.

But lindy's dad said there was nothing sinister about the way his daughter acted after benz's murder. He believed he was just a widow trying to put her painful past behind. SHE had no control over the sale of the farm, says lindu.

IT was up to the trusty and charge of band's father's estate. He says lindy might have seemed distant to the circle, but he was just trying to rebuild her life and raise her children. Did you think SHE was trying to help the kids cope with .

the loss of their dad? SHE was, but I was also. The children had emotional state .

of their .

own .

that had to have been taken care of.

Plus, linley was dealing with her own personal drama. That summer, after SHE had her baby with brand dom, their relationship turned toxic.

I know SHE did come our house a couple of towns because he was a great of branded m.

Were you scared for lindy?

Yeah, I was scared for myself also that he's pretty good SaaS ga, and he thread to kick my s so had to .

have been threatening lindy.

not when I was there personally, but it's the best among standing. Yes.

according to lindy, Brandon on did just threaten her on one occasion, he told police he wouldn't let her in the leave the house, and he put his hands on her. He was arrested for assault, and linley was granted in order protection, but Brandon's attorney told us the assault never happened. He said brand da never laid hands on, lindy noted he threatened her dad Brandon was released, and lindley says he still wouldn't leave her alone. Tony Sullivan is an attorney Linda hired after Brendan was accused of violating the terms of the court order.

He began truly stalking her, texting her one hundred and fifty times a day. His own mother call the police, call lilly, and said, get out, get out. Get out.

He's on his way to your house. He says he's in your backyard. He's says he's gona sleep in your job way.

Lindy told tony that Brandon terrorized her for a weeks. He ended up going to jail for felly stocking and allegation he denied there was .

in a snake in that facility more venomous than brand and blackwell, and he was controlling and determined to run her life.

The whole brand and situation, dreadful as sounded, didn't seem to have any connection to bend rennick murder. But what investigators heard about IT IT gave them an idea. Brydon had been so taken with lindlay the first time they interviewed him, he hadn't offered much.

But now that things had swear, they thought maybe he'd say more. Boy were they write. What Brandon had to say would turn the investigation upside down.

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In january twenty twenty, lindy ranic was emerging from a fresh trauma. Her boyfriend Brendan was in jail on charges of felling stocking. Was there some relief with lines that he was behind bars?

Yeah, Linda was in a very vulnerable spot, and he knew that more .

than two years had passed since ben's murder, but investigators worked diligently on his case. Then that winter, they got a call from a jail bird. IT was brand and black wall on the line.

So a fight OCR between brand and lindy brand, alls me, gets arrested. And during that arrest, he decided time to call our investigators back because he feels is the right time to tell the story that he knows that lay told him in the past.

If linny thought getting brand and sent to jail meant her troubles with him were over, SHE was wrong. He was about to detonate a major bomb in her life.

Your dad gave me a call today and said that you wanted to talk to us. yeah.

Brandon started by claiming to investigators that Linda had blown their disputes out of proportion, and he was making up lies about him.

She's got convince the on this evil said of human and the far thing from that.

The investigators promised to work with them if he helped them solve the case. They've been working for years. Ben's murder.

my imation is out of hours of mouth. Okay, the whole situation.

brand don says as the relationship progressed, he wondered if lindy knew more about ben's death .

than he was saying really strange feeling about IT a little stories warned, right? And so the poking about IT and you like say that, like, you know, it's going go anywhere. You know, I need to know what really happened.

he said. Linley eventually agreed to talk. They were in a cabin on vacation. SHE put their cell phones in another room.

Rendon already .

knew that Linda in ben's marriage had been far from perfect. Now SHE told brand dan that ben was getting ready to call IT off when he died.

then was to where he was going to leave her. He was sucking money out for business and didn't well.

But what Brandon said next was an explosive allegation. He said lindy was so worried ben would take the kids from her. He decided to do something drastic.

SHE hatched a plot to kill him. Yes, according to Brandon, linley was benz killer and now sitting in jail accused of stocking. He said he was done keeping her secrets .

like to this point. But what she's put me through.

he said lily didn't do IT alone. SHE roped in an old boyfriend, someone SHE dated before mary ban. He worked odd jobs and had a history with drugs. His name was Michael hum free.

How did he get Michael to get on board with this? He said, just knew, based on his past and other things that is probably not too far from stuff he's been involved before and whether relationship ended IT and what .

not he to older that olenin Brandon said because .

Michael had gotten her hooked on painkillers on the day .

of the murder, he told investigators Michael picked linny up at her pot and together they drove out to the farm. And then IT was linton, who grabs .

the gun and marched into the facility. SHE walks in with the gun and is like what we do. And and SHE just shoot them a watch times SHE ever break down when he was telling the story, or just not emotional light pretty emotionally. Yeah, wasn't wasn't like a remorse, like almost like key deserved IT and he made her do a tight deal. Head makes our mind like Linda .

may not have been remorseful, but Brendan said he was living with a secret like that for more than two years.

Hadn't been easy ever since I found this self out been in my head every why you think he told you, like I know you said, because you are asking, but why do you think SHE trusted you to you, I guess I don't know. I came off trust partly you she's going to get away with, you know? And I think just the way I presented to, like that, I wasn't going and didn't for a long time. You know, let IT bother me. Like you shoot.

Turns out what Brandon was saying made a lot of sense to the investigators.

And if they had anything to do with this, I want her and that sea so where he deserves. The .

investigators got a warrant. And three days later, lindy and her old boyfriend Michael were arrested and charged with bands murder for ban's brother sam. The news was a long time coming. How do you get word that lindley has been arrested?

They let me know the morning of that. That was going to happen. And there was a huge relief, knowing that there was gonna be finally be some justice.

And I was like, oh my god, I just broke down. I just like, IT can be real. This is real and just suck our world.

Lindley's family and friends were shaken to. They said her arrest was all wrong because brand and story wasn't true, and one of Linda's lawyers would soon fight back, pointing to jail house phone calls as evidence. Brandon was simply out for revenge.

and I got on, do do you believe .

brand and black well as a liar?

Without a doubt, he's definitely a liar.

Lindy rhino was under arrest, charged with the murder of her husband ban. Her father couldn't believe IT.

Well, I thought this is crazy. This can be happening just, you know, I knew that wouldn't true.

Lindo gallet says the daughter he raised could never have killed anyone. Never mind the man her two eldest children called dad.

The children are her life. SHE would do anything to protect them. Kids and a tight care of that was what he lived for.

And IT wasn't just lindley's loved ones who felt the police had IT wrong. Emt d. Wasson, who'd been at the scene the day ben was killed, didn't buy IT either.

When I found out that loney had been arrested, I called her defence attorney and told them I did not think lily was guilty and that if I could help in any way to please contact me.

remember d is the person who told lilly that ban was dead. What was IT about her that day that you felt compelled all that time later to make that phone call? SHE was genuine.

There was something about her that I just could never get out of my head. It's double hangs with me.

Dusty brush ler was also in lindy's camp. She's an investigator for the missouri state public defenders office. SHE met lindy for the first time in the county jail.

What's your first impression of lindy? I met with a lot of people accused of a lot of different crimes, and just was I felt off IT felt wrong to dusty. Linda was an unusually straight forward client.

I would ask question SHE would answer them SHE never held back. SHE was a book I was easy to get information out of. As dusty tugged into this case, he came to believe that Brandon was an angry x boyfriend who hoped to get out of jail.

Whatever a talk we requested his phone calls, his jail phone calls the whole time he saying, i'm going to make some journalist career. I'm going to blend his life because he's my language, but he's said he's going to ruin her. Lind's defense provided dozens of those calls to date line, while many or male some make no bones about how brand and felt about lindy.

Maybe and we might do is burn a bit. I mean, it's got on to do.

He's just mad at the world thing. He's gonna screw her life up. Justice said the calls suggests that Brandon on would have said anything to get out.

There.

tony Sullivan, the attorney who Linda hired to guide her through her stocking case with brand dan, agrees. You believe Brandon going to the police with this accusation about Linda was all .

an active revenge. E, in order to get a deal and get out of jail, he just been told he was gonna held there without bond until his trial day, which could easily have been six months away.

Connie says brydon had been threatening to point the finger at linley for some time. Linley even documented IT when he applied for her orders of protection against Brendan .

when their relationship ended two years to the day after bans death, he threatened that if he took his child to go to the police and tell them them that she's murdered, SHE was very open about that from the beginning. He made numerous police reports all stating that that was one of his threats, and SHE testified to IT under earth in front of two different judges.

Brinn's attorney said his client never stock lindy and was talking to police because he was upset about sitting in jail for something he didn't do. But if lindley had really committed murder, coney says when SHE have scrapped the stocks in case against Brandon to keep him quiet, Connie thinks the investigators bought brand and story way too quickly.

I must say that they just swallow at all hook, line and sinker. They didn't investigate his motive to lie. They didn't listen to his jail phone calls. I was an assistant prosecutor for ten years. I like to think I have a as a certain amount of being able to tell lindy is not a.

what is IT about lonely? What's what do you have a soft spot for her?

You know, there are sometimes you meet somebody and you just click, lilly was that kind of warm, open person? We hit off and SHE never lied to me. So what do you say?

Anyone who says she's playing you?

That's what they think and understand why I think that.

but it's not true. But corporal foust said he and his team had been gathering the puzzle pieces for years. They just needed Brandon to put them together after brand dom black.

Well, spill the beans, if you. Well, why did you believe him? Because he had an exterminate with Linda.

we didn't really have to believe him. Um he just there's no way he couldn't known that he couldn't make up a story with all our pieces that we'd gather that he didn't know we had. If that makes sense, all of our records.

It's all the stuff that we have not released to anyone and interview or to the public. He had all those pieces together. So wasn't whether we believed him or not. I was just that was A S.

But now the case against linley would have to hold up in court, and the man who was at the farm with Linda that day would soon take the stand.

SHE was at the end of the corner. What I want to call IT post up like this with the gun.

On december six, twenty twenty one, linley ic went on trial for ben's murder. His brother sam had been waiting for this day for years.

We were definitely ready for this, and we needed to see justice for band. We needed to .

see IT through. But what time was not prepared to hear was how diabolical the crime actually was, the prosecutor said. Lindy didn't just pull her old boyfriend into the plot to murder, ben SHE wrote in the manager of her spot too.

Seen here in this promotional video for the business, actually the small in year, Ashley shaw was the state's star witness. Investigators had spoken to ashly early in the investigation, but did not realize the scope of her involvement until they spoke to brand in black. Well, was actually given a deal.

He was, he was offered full community .

if he would testify against lin Michael.

That's correct.

And you did ultimately participate in attempting to kill the iranic yourself and you not.

I did. Ashley said that leading up to the murder, lindley had been configured in her about troubles with ben fighting emotional abuse, SHE says. Lindy even said one day he sexually assaulted her while he slept.

When he told you this, what was your reaction?

I was shocked and felt sorry for her, kind of hurt for her, I guess, SHE said. Linton told her he had to get away from them, but if SHE divorced him, he had the money and resources to take away her kids. SHE didn't really think of any other option and that he asked if I could help her with hurting ing up.

Why would you help your boss trying to kill .

her husband? I think i've thought sorry for um IT was a surreal situation, so it's kind of hard to explain what I was feeling at the time. But according to Ashley, shooting ben wasn't lind's original plan for murdering him.

About a week before benz murder, Ashley said he got a handful of prescription painkillers and gave them to lindy, who then mix them into bands protein shake. SHE called me and said that he was very sick of all night through up, but he was still life. Ashley said that after that plan failed, SHE in lindy tracked out lindy's old boyfriend Michael. Then Michael and linley headed out to the form .

to confront ban. Do you recall about what time of day was .

that SHE left in IT was afternoon to the three summer on that to provide an alabi SHE said lindy had intentionally left her phone at the sport. So while Michael and linley we're on their way to the farm, Ashley used lindley's facebook account to send bena message just said i'm not feeling well. I'm going to let down I think is what I said.

Can you pick the kids out before? Actually didn't know exactly how the shooting happened at the farm. When Linda and Michael returned to the spot, he said, Linda made A B line for the shower.

SHE asked me to scrub her body and her hands early well, and SHE washed her whole body, SHE said. Lindy initially told her that Michael had been the shooter, but later admitted he was the one who shot them. He said that Michael got a, didn't want to do IT, and so he did the gun and SHE actually killing. And ashly wasn't the only employ from that video who said he knew about the murder before IT happened. Employee Rachel hunt told the jury lindy had confided details to her as well.

What did you tell you?

I hea Michael humper ies. Lindy and Michael humper ys were going to take a gun and go see bin, and they said they were going to murder him.

Could these ladies have stopped this murder from the pool?

They could have anyone could stop this murder by calling out one one. But they did not to tell .

the jury what actually happened at the farm. The prosecution called their surprise. Witness Michael humpy, Michael humfrey, Michael linley had been arrested for the murder at the same time, but now Michael was going to point the finger directly. Lindy, in his arch uniform, he told the jury he had scene in six or seven years when he showed up at his house and asked him to help kill ban.

The initially I was just exaggerating, so you.

Did did you respond?

I told him that that that was crazy.

but then he said he ended up going with Linda to the farm anyway. He said he told him SHE changed her mind about the murder and just needed support while SHE collected her things.

Why would you help her in this manner?

I thought that was going to be a peaceful resolution.

According to Michael, he picked lilly up after two P. M. On june eight. A charge on her card showed they got gas on the way to the farm when they arrived, he said. Linton told ben a cover story about Michael being a high school friend who wanted to see a snakes.

What is his reaction?

And can you see what his reaction is?

He he is, I guess moment. Eric hasn't. And as you know, just rand was showing up there, but I was like, finish flying on in.

Michael said he had just walked inside when he heard the first shot of.

And then I heard a shot come out, which inside there was extremely love. So I kind of duck a little bit. I looked down through there, and he was, at the end of the corner, posed up like this for the gun.

He said he ducked out the door as lindy continue to fire shots and the band .

SHE comes out the door. I'm still standing there. He runs around of the passenger side of the car and start scream and I ve ted to to dry basically .

on their way back to the spot. He said, Linda wasn't anxious.

Mess cheese I called freak out. The prosecutor said, remarkably.

Linda hadn't promised Michael a dime for his help with the murder. He had offered ashlea Rachel anything either with all this testimony about lindley's, desus, tions and so many first hand accounts of her role in the murder. The case against her looked formidable, but defense tourneys tim husband and Katherine burger said always not what IT seemed right off the bat I sort of said in myself, this is all witnesses.

There is no DNA or no fingerprints, no gunshot residue. Either lil's hands had been tested after the murder and they were clean, they said. The state theory of motiv just wasn't true.

It's been said that Linda was afraid, because ban had all the money, that he would be able to put up a big fight for the kids and that he could lose out that I don't think ever entered lindy's mind that he said, no, my mom was a social worker. I know how this works. IT takes a lot for courts to be willing to take kids away from their parents when those parents love them.

In our competent caretakers, the defense that the whole case against lindy was based on the words of three people who had very good reasons to lie, given what lindy's employees, ashly and Rachel knew about the plot, they were trying to avoid jail time themselves. The defense of the police leaned on Ashley in particular. Here is a woman that is inside of a interrogation room with no attorney whose twenty nine years old and is told, expressed, if you continue to help when I run IT and you do not help us, you're not going to leave this room. Now who in that situation would not tell the police anything they wanted to hear? Really, almost like a thread.

IT was a thread.

And Michael, who'd already been tried and convicted for ben's murder months earlier, was getting a reduce sentence for his testimony instead of life without parole, now has a chance to get out.

hopefully will not die in there.

They also said, after story just didn't ring true, ashly shot claims she's approached and asked to murder a man and he agrees for no reason for no compensation to do that, not once, but twice. We don't think that that's believable, but how would they explain? Lindy's gas station stopped shortly before the murder, or Ashley's phony facebook message to ban the defense said that the truth was that lindy did know more about the murder than he told police. Linley was about to tell that story to the jury herself.

Lillian ic had a lot to answer for. The prosecutor said she's had affairs, lie to the police and shot her husband eight times. So the court room was buzzing when lindy took the stand. Can you please introduce .

yourself to the jury? I'm the liberal .

in her soft voice, lindy admitted that, yes, she's gone to the farm with Michael the afternoon ben was killed, but her intention wasn't to end his life. IT was to end their marriage. Why were you really there .

to ask band for a divorce?

You were gonna kill bin.

no.

SHE said there was never any murder plot. Her marriage to ban was in shambles and she's been involved with other men. SHE wasn't proud of that.

You regret? IT, yes. And he said he .

did not want ban dead. SHE claimed the poisoning story wasn't true that SHE and then both drink a bad protein shake a week before the murder.

Did you get sick? Yes, how sick. I was violently ill.

Lindy also said he only asked Michael to come with her to the farm because he was afraid of how ban might react, and SHE said he was absolutely flared when Michael pulled out a gun. Lindley's testimony was that he was the one responsible for ben's death.

Michael turned around and I saw them in his hands. And then I heard shots spring out, and I screamed and I ran outside, and then I heard more shots go off and everything just went. No, he said he was in total .

shock and denial as they drove back to the SPA. I M.

I didn't know what had been that wasn't even. I thought that was in my mind at that point. That been was dead or could be dead. I truly was just not there in my body or present for any of those moments, said I was.

Only later, when he got ta call from her kid's school, that he realized band might really be hurt. Is this in that, per luck of a Better word, fantasy, that nothing had happened started to crack for you?

Yes, I just started to panic because bin wouldn't not pick the kids up.

But to the prosecutor, lindy story sounded preposterous.

If you're went to lie to .

the police .

about such a vital matter, why should these juries now believe you?

I was lying to protect myself in, I told a lot of early, awful lize just to do that. All I can do now is just sit up here until the truth plus lonely.

testified Michael threatened her so SHE keep her mouth shut. But that such, he had good reason to be afraid.

This was not a thread. This was a promise.

You feel like he could kill her off.

feel hockley would. Definitely, most definitely.

The jury deliberated for almost twelve hours, then sent the judge a message. They had reached a verdict.

We, the jury find the defendant leny rony guilty of murder in the second degree.

What was her reaction in court? Rumble lily got thirteen years for the murder, plus three on a related charge. For a total of sixteen years behind bars. SHE could have been convicted a first degree murder with a much longer sentence. Still, her father was responded .

with the health problems I got. I don't know what they're. I'll be alive when he gets out.

Bs, loved once, thought the sentence wasn't nearly enough.

We were hoping for first degree mother.

why do you think shouldn't get first degree murder?

I think that SHE put on a heck of a show.

Lindy says he wasn't putting on a show, not on the stand or to us. When we visited her at this maximum security women's prison north of saint Lewis, SHE told us he had no motive whatsoever to want .

them dead out of everybody here, I had the most to lose.

Why did you have the most to lose?

And when I lost everything with with been dying?

Lindy said he went to the farm to ask band for a divorce, but messages SHE sent him earlier that day didn't seem like they came from an unhappy wife. Why did you send the nude photos that day if you were planning on going there to talk to him about separating?

I don't have a very healthy your relationship with sex or my body. And IT is very much a way. And in that moment was a way to put them in a good mood and make him happy. How would that continue .

to make him happy? He wouldn't .

continue to make him happy. But you've never tried to soft in the blow.

Not like that. No, OK.

We also wondered why he felt he needed .

to bring someone with her to the farm. Why did you bring Michael with you?

Well, since been in, his marriage was kind of falling apart, and everything that kind of started escalating within being a little more controlling and physical. Actually, he told me that he wanted me to have somebody that would be there with me and so that nothing would get out of hand.

And but then why would Michael shoot ban.

don't know, told me maybe my goal is high and we have been said something across to him. I don't know. You're the the .

common denominator here between Michael. And then you brought Michael to the snake facility that day .

not to kill him. no.

Did you ask them? Why did you kill them? So IT just seems to me like you would want to know why or that there was a reason.

have you ever experienced in his sort of trauma that just absolutely unearthed every part of the .

life that you have to.

where you don't know the ground that you stand on or the air that you breathe. Did you have you ever experienced that? Because if you haven't, I don't know. If you haven't, I don't know that anybody would understand.

We also wanted to know why lindley didn't call nine one one as soon as he realized ban had been shot. My hope would be that if I heard my husband getting murdered, that I would call nine one one.

I would really hope that too.

Why didn't you call nine one one? Why didn't you run into help them?

I an away. I mean, I heard gunshots and I ran away.

Did you kill ban?

I did not kill bin.

did you have Michael kill bang for you?

I did not have Michael hill. Ben, I ever want IT been that we also pointed .

out that four people implicated her in the plot, are using that. All four people, in this case, relying then Michael brand and Ashley Rachel, all telling lies. And what do you say to anyone who says, you know, it's kind of hard to believe that all four people would would be like I who some don't even know each other.

I can see how that would be hard and you know, but having walked through IT and lived IT and seeing the motives and the threats and intentions behind everyone, I don't think that .

that hard lind's elder son and the daughter SHE had with ben, or being raised by her family. Brydon is raising the sun he had with lindy all charges against him, including fellini stocking, were dropped after lindy's conviction. And sam, he has no parents to lean on and no family farm to go home too.

It's in the hands of new owners. Still, sam is resilient. He's made a home of his own. If you have had a life of tragedy.

there has been a lot of tragedy. Yes, IT is what IT is. We've been through a lot, but i'm here. We made IT and we had to move for.

That's all for this edition of deadline. And a reminder, we'll see you again sunday at seven six central. And of course, i'll see you each weeknight for nbc nightly news.

I'm lester ha, lt. For all of us at nbc news. Good night.

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