The entertainment world was rocked on Sunday when Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their home in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood.
The horrific event became even more shocking when it became clear that the main suspect is said to be the couple’s 32-year-old son, Nick.
Nick Reiner was formally charged with murder on December 16th. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or possibly the death penalty (although Gov. Gavin Newsom currently has a moratorium on executions in the state).
Family reactions
The following day, Nick’s siblings Jake and Romy broke their silence in a statement: “Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we experience every moment of every day. The terrible and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something no one should ever have to experience. They were not just our parents; they were our best friends.”
They continued: “We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness and support we have received not only from family and friends, but from people from all walks of life. We now ask for respect and privacy, that speculation is tempered with compassion and humanity, and that our parents be remembered for the incredible lives they led and the love they gave.”
As the criminal trial begins and more details about the alleged crime emerge, here’s everything we know (and don’t know) so far about this shocking Hollywood tragedy.
The crime scene
Reiner and Singer were found dead on Sunday afternoon, December 14th. Paramedics were called to the home around 3:30 p.m. and crews were dispatched after firefighters discovered a fatality.
In an interview with The New York Times, a person close to the Reiner family (who requested anonymity) said the bodies were discovered after a massage therapist came to the house for an appointment but was unable to enter. The massage therapist called the couple’s daughter, Romy Reiner, who came over with a roommate. Romy entered the house, found her father’s lifeless body and ran back outside, whereupon her roommate called 911.
Only after the paramedics arrived did Romy learn that her mother was also dead. At that point, the source said, Romy informed authorities that her brother Nick was living in a guest house on the property, but she did not suggest that he might be a suspect or be involved in any way. Nick was not on the property at the time.
The suspect
Investigators arrived at the Reiners’ home Sunday evening and there was much chaos and confusion, while detectives revealed they were still waiting for a search warrant to properly search the home. At this time, Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton also said police were “not looking for anyone as a suspect or person of interest.” But sources told Rolling Stone and other media outlets that it was believed that Nick was involved in the killings.
Nick was the second of the couple’s three children, born after his brother Jake and before his younger sister Romy. While not much is known about Nick’s childhood, it is known that he had a complicated relationship with his parents and a long battle with drug addiction, including cocaine and heroin. He first went to rehab at 15 and spent much of his teenage years checking in and out of facilities. Between rehab stays he was often homeless.
“If I wanted to do it my way and not go into the programs they suggested, then I had to be homeless,” Nick told People in 2016, adding, “I was homeless in Maine. I was homeless in New Jersey. I was homeless in Texas. And I spent nights on the streets. I spent weeks on the streets. It wasn’t pretty.”
“We believed the lies”
After Nick got clean at 19, his parents spoke about the challenges he had experienced in rehab and acknowledged their own shortsightedness about the effectiveness of these programs for their son. “When Nick told us it wasn’t working for him, we didn’t listen,” Rob told the Los Angeles Times in 2015. “We were desperate, and because people had diplomas on the wall, we listened to them when we should have listened to our son.”
Michele added: “We were so influenced by these people. They told us he was a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. And we believed it.”
Nick later co-wrote a semi-autobiographical film called Being Charlie, which was directed by Rob Reiner. The film, released in 2016, revolved around the relationship between a difficult son and his famous father. In the same 2015 LA Times interview, Nick admitted that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do the film, while Rob said: “It was very, very hard going through it the first time, with those painful and difficult ups and downs. And then making the film brought it all back up again.”
Conan O’Brien’s party
On Saturday evening, December 13, the Reiners attended a Christmas party at Conan O’Brien’s house. Although only the couple was invited, sources told Rolling Stone that the Reiners asked if they could bring Nick out of concern for him and to “keep an eye on him.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Reiners were reluctant to leave Nick at home unsupervised and were concerned about his recent behavior, which was described as extreme and stressful.
Accounts of exactly what happened at the party vary somewhat, but all paint a similar, disturbing picture. Sources told ROLLING STONE that Nick exhibited “anti-social behavior,” such as staring at people. Other media outlets such as THR and The Wall Street Journal claimed that Nick was walking around the party asking people if they were famous. He reportedly interrupted comedian Bill Hader while he was talking to someone else; After Hader told Nick he was having a private conversation, Nick allegedly stared at him for a long time, according to the WSJ.
Shortly after, there were reports that Rob and Nick got into an argument over Nick’s behavior. Rob and Michele reportedly apologized to O’Brien and left the party, but it remains unclear whether Nick left with them.
The person close to the Reiners who spoke to the Times did not dispute these accounts, but downplayed the reported intensity of the argument between Rob and Nick. The source also criticized the suggestion that Rob and Michele left the party early, noting that the Reiners have become accustomed to Nick’s behavior over the years.
After the party
Questions remain about what exactly happened next. The LA County District Attorney’s Office would eventually allege that Nick fatally stabbed his parents in the early morning hours of December 14th. A coroner with the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office later confirmed the couple died Sunday from “multiple sharp force stab wounds.”
According to multiple reports, Nick checked into the Pierside Santa Monica Hotel sometime on Sunday, but exactly when he got there is unclear. And when the police found him there, Nick was gone. Hotel officials told the LA Times that police were still investigating the hotel and the possible role it may have played in the alleged crime through Tuesday.
The arrest
Nick was arrested on Sunday evening, December 14th – just hours after his parents’ bodies were found. He was booked in just after 5am on Monday, December 15th. A manhunt led by the LAPD’s Gang and Narcotics Division along with a U.S. Marshals Service task force tracked Nick down to Exposition Park near the University of Southern California, about 15 miles from the Reiners’ home.
It remains unclear exactly how authorities found Nick, but local ABC station KABC obtained footage that appears to show Nick at a gas station kiosk before his arrest. The station also showed video footage of a number of police vehicles descending on Nick outside the kiosk.
Possible motive, open questions and what happens next
Neither prosecutors nor investigators have yet spoken about a possible motive for the alleged crime. There has also been much speculation about Nick’s recent mental health and the tensions between him and his parents leading up to the alleged crime. While some of the reporting surrounding the O’Brien party suggested that the Reiners had become increasingly concerned about Nick’s behavior, the person who spoke to the Times said nothing had happened in recent weeks to suggest Nick was capable of such an attack.
Just three months ago, Rob Reiner sounded optimistic about Nick in an interview with NPR. While talking and reflecting on their film “Being Charlie,” Reiner said, “He’s doing great…he hasn’t done drugs in over six years. He’s in a really good place.”
Nick is officially charged with two counts of first-degree murder, as well as a special additional allegation that he used a dangerous and deadly weapon – a knife. Reiner is being held without bail in a downtown Los Angeles jail.
“Yes, your honor.”
An arraignment was originally scheduled to be read on December 16, but Nick’s lawyer Alan Jackson told reporters his client was not medically cleared to appear in court. Nick then appeared in court on December 17, sitting in a plexiglass enclosed area and wearing a padded blue suicide prevention gown with a cuff around his waist. Jackson asked that the plea be postponed until January 7, and when the judge asked if Nick agreed to waive his right to a speedy arraignment, he replied: “Yes, your honor.”
Outside court, Jackson told reporters: “This is a devastating tragedy that has struck the Reiner family. We all recognize that. Our condolences go out to the entire Reiner family. There are very, very complex and serious questions associated with this case. They need to be thoroughly but very carefully addressed and examined and investigated and analyzed.”