Nick Reiner has been charged with first-degree murder following the deaths of his parents, the legendary film director Rob Reiner and acclaimed photographer Michele Singer Reiner.
The couple were found dead at their Los Angeles home with stab wounds on Sunday, according to US media. It is believed that their bodies were discovered by their daughter Romy. Nick Reiner was revealed to have been arrested a day later, on Monday.
Rob and Michele had three children together: Jake, 34, Nick, 32, and Romy, 28. They were a close-knit family unit, albeit one marked by the trauma of Nick’s addiction struggles, which eventually became the subject of the 2016 film Being Charlie, written by Nick and Rob Reiner.
Speaking at a Los Angeles Police Department press conference, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell told reporters: “We have our robbery-homicide division handling the investigation, they worked throughout the night on this case and were able to take into custody Nick Reiner, a suspect in this case.”
Nick was charged with two counts of first-degree murder on Monday. If he is found guilty, he could face life without parole or the death penalty. He will be brought to court to formally face charges and enter his plea after he is medically cleared by prison officials, according to District Attorney Nathan Hochman. The charges also include a “special allegation” that Reiner used a knife, which prosecutors described as a “dangerous and deadly weapon”.
Multiple accounts have emerged of Nick and Rob Reiner getting into an altercation at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party on what is believed to be the night of the murder, where Nick was seen looking “anxious and uncomfortable”.
Here’s what we know about the troubled son of Rob and Michelle Reiner as he is placed under investigation for murder.
A liberal upbringing with famous school friends
Nick and his siblings attended the progressive Wildwood School in Los Angeles, which is known for educating the children of A-listers. Other alumni include Amandla Stenberg and the children of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. The 750-student school charges fees of $34,950 to $39,950 per annum. Per the school’s website, Wildwood fosters children into becoming “high achieving, emotionally intelligent students” who are challenged to become “the most extraordinary versions of themselves.”
The Reiner children's’ liberal upbringing was shaped by Rob Reiner’s moral ethos and politics. Along with his unparalleled directing career, Reiner was a committed activist, campaigning for marriage equality and early childhood development services. He was also vehemently anti-Trump and regularly spoke out against the President’s decisions.
While growing up, Nick Reiner was close with Patrick Schwarzenegger, a friendship which influenced Rob Reiner’s decision not to campaign for governor of California back in 2006. “We sat down as a family to discuss it, the five of us,” Reiner recalled in a 2016 interview with The New Yorker. “Nick was friends with Patrick Schwarzenegger, and he saw all the security detail around, and he said, ‘No, Dad! We won’t be able to go bike riding!’ So we voted on me running, and I got forty per cent. I couldn’t even carry my own family!”
Schwarzenegger’s fondness for the Reiner family still runs deep. When Donald Trump took to Truth Social to criticise Rob Reiner on Monday, saying his death was “due to the anger he caused others" with his "Trump Derangement Syndrome”, Schwarzenegger quickly responded online, writing on X: “What a disgusting and vile statement.”
Homelessness, addiction, and Being Charlie
Nick Reiner struggled with addiction from a young age, undergoing his first few stints in rehab at age 15. “The experts told us to send him away, to do the tough-love thing,” Rob Reiner said in his 2016 New Yorker interview. “It went against every one of my instincts, but I played that role — even though Nick kept saying, ‘These programs don’t work for me!’”
Even though the Reiner family were very close, Nick would occasionally take on the role of black sheep, telling AOL in 2016 that he “didn’t bond a lot” with his father growing up.
Reiner’s addiction even meant that he was homeless for periods of time after running away from home. “I was homeless in Maine. I was homeless in New Jersey. I was homeless in Texas. I spent nights on the street. I spent weeks on the street. It was not fun,” he told People in 2016. “If I wanted to do it my way and not go to the programs they were suggesting, then I had to be homeless,” he said, adding that he could have died on the streets. “It’s all luck,” he said. “You roll the dice and you hope you make it.”
In an interview with The Times, he added: “I got sick of doing that. I come from a nice family. I’m not supposed to be out there on the streets and in homeless shelters doing all these [...] things.”
While in one rehabilitation facility, Nick met Matt Elisofon, with whom he started writing a screenplay. Rob Reiner eventually signed on to direct and pitched the film to studio execs, who agreed to finance it. The film became 2016’s Being Charlie, an addiction story based on Nick’s own experiences.
Speaking about the filmmaking process, Rob Reiner told AV Club in 2016: “I got to work with my son, who’s gone through really difficult times. His mother and I have gone through difficult times along with it. We made a film that reflects both sides of drug abuse and so on. It was painful, but also incredibly creatively satisfying.”
At the time of the premiere, The New York Times reported that during Nick’s addiction journey, Rob and Michele often “wondered if there was an end in sight, and whether it would be the tragic one that a voice in the back of their heads kept telling them was coming.”
Arrested on suspicion of his parent’s murder
Nick was arrested on Monday on suspicion of murder following the deaths of his parents Rob and Michele. The couple were found dead with stab wounds at their home in Brentwood, an upmarket neighbourhood of Los Angeles. It is believed that their daughter Romy is the one who discovered their bodies.
Family friends who spoke to The New York Times have revealed that Rob and Nick got into a “shouting match” on Saturday evening at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party and that multiple people had noticed Nick acting strangely that evening.
According to the paper, attendees noticed Nick looking “anxious and uncomfortable” in a way that “deeply unsettled them.” Sources say that many people approached Rob Reiner to ask if his son was okay.
Meanwhile, sources told People Magazine that Nick was apparently “freaking everyone out” at the party and “acting crazy”, as well as approaching people and asking if they were famous.
New CCTV footage of Nick Reiner from moments before his arrest shows the 32-year-old walking calmly into a petrol station and purchasing a Gatorade. He is apprehended shortly afterwards by the police and can be seen raising his hands above his head.
Nick Reiner is currently being held without bail at the city’s Twin Towers Correctional Facility.
