Lindley and Ben Renek first met in high school. They may not have been friends, but acquaintances.

It wasn't until more than three years later, their paths crossed again on Facebook.

By that time, Lindley had already had a baby and began her career as a massage therapist.

Ben, while working for his father on the farm, had also begun a career in the reptile business.

When the two reconnected, they hit it off, and very soon a relationship began.

In 2012, they welcomed their own child, a daughter. Two years later, they were married.

And three years later, Ben was dead.

On June 8, 2017, deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department were called to Ben's business, Renek reptiles.

Lindley had called them just after 6.30 pm. She said she had found her husband lying in a pool of blood, dead.

Lindley then called Ben's brother Sam, who ran right over.

Sam told officers that one of the reptiles may have gotten loose. It looked like a snake attack.

Deputy Harley Haas was one of the first officers on the scene.

Prior to your arrival at Renek reptiles, were you given information that there was possibly a 500-count and a condo on the loose?

Yes, I was.

So when you arrive, what's the first thing you do?

The first thing we do is walk up to the structure, of course.

We make contact with a female outside that we later find out is Lindley Renek. She's hysterical.

So we go into the building and we start searching for the snake that is allegedly on the loose.

Eventually, they determined there wasn't a snake on the loose, and that what they were dealing with wasn't some sort of accident.

As I approached the body, we were telling the pretenses that there was a snake attack, and so whenever I entered there, we came to the body.

I removed the sheet from the foot to the head and then observed the body. I crouched down to take a closer look, and when I did this, I then saw some divots in the floor.

I also saw some injury to the face that I would say was more consistent with not a snake injury, but a gunshot wound.

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