A Snake in the Grass

I’ve come across many people and medium- to large-sized businesses in my career, both as debtors and creditors.  This is the first in a series that will highlight the most memorable cases. 

The Renick family of Rolla, Missouri, owned and operated BowWow, a dog food company.  St. Louis Cardinal player and manager Red Schoendienst appeared in its newspaper ads.  ConAgra, a multibillion-dollar company, bought BowWow in 1977. 

Frank Renick married Charlene Kemmish and they had two children, Ben and Sam, who were by all accounts good kids with no run-ins with the law, but they did not always get along with each other. 

Frank and Charlene lived in a fine home on a 40-acre farm in New Florence, Missouri, about 70 miles west of St. Louis.  In 1992, while the family was staying in St. Louis, there was a monster explosion at their house, heard from miles away.  A washer, dryer and other junk crashed onto their handyman’s yard nearby.  Insulation was still raining down an hour later. 

No one was hurt or arrested, but the fire marshall determined that gas plugs were taken out of the gas line.  The insurance carrier initially denied the Renicks' claim because of a suspicion of arson, and litigation ensued.  The Renicks' lender demanded payment because it was an innocent co-insured.  The insurer then bought the bank’s mortgage, and the Renicks and the insurer fought it out.  Several bankruptcy proceedings followed, with an eventual settlement funded by a new lender that allowed the Renicks to keep the house and farm. 

Four years later Frank opened Spectrum Pet Care, basing it on his alleged involvement with the former BowWow (which a family member later claimed Frank had exaggerated).  Spectrum professed to sell natural and organic pet food, but in reality there was little evidence that it sold anything.  However, Frank sold stock in the company to mostly unsophisticated small investors.  In 2011 he was indicted for defrauding 250 of them out of more than $7 million.  There was a claim that he had used the funds to pay for personal expenses.   

When the U.S. Marshals came to arrest Frank, they found him dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  Charlene had died in 2008 of natural causes. 

That left Ben and Sam Renick as heirs, and an independent trustee took charge of the farm and other assets. 

Ben had become a world-famous breeder of reptiles, while Sam held more mundane jobs.  In a series of agreements, Ben ended up with title to the farm and main house, but he allowed Sam and his sister-in-law to live in a smaller house on the farm, supposedly in exchange for maintaining it.  Sam and his wife later moved out, possibly over a dispute. 

On June 8, 2017, a call came from Ben’s estranged wife Lynlee, who claimed that upon a visit to the snake farm, she found Ben dead.  Initially it was thought he had been killed by a snake, but later it was determined that he had been shot in the head. 

There was suspicion that Sam shot his brother Ben, but Sam passed a lie-detector test with flying colors and there was no evidence against him. 

The case went cold for several years, until Lynlee filed for an order of protection against her boyfriend, Mike Humphrey.  When the police came to arrest him while he was in jail on another charge, Humphrey exclaimed, "Abuse?  She is a murderer!" and spilled the dime on her.  He claimed he was with Lynlee when she fired the shots into Ben.  Humphrey was found guilty of first degree murder, but later cooperated with the prosecution in Lynlee’s trial in exchange for a downgrade to second degree murder. He is serving life without parole.

Lynlee was tried in a much ballyhooed trial on Court TV, found guilty and sentenced to 14 years.  She was exposed as a snake in the grass and a cold-blooded killer when the scales of justice found her guilty.  (Puns intended.) 

The aforementioned trustee sold the snake business to NHL Las Vegas Golden Knights goal-tender Robin Lehner, who paid for the business in full and honored his written agreement with the trustee. 

The final insult was that Mr. Lehner, who moved like a snake when defending goals in the NHL, couldn’t make it as a reptile breeder and recently filed for bankruptcy.