The Reiners were, as Tolstoy would say, one of those happy families that resemble each other, one more, like all of them. But they carried a weight that, indeed, made them unhappy in their own way. Rob and Michele’s middle son, Nick, had a lot of problems. About addictions, about mental health. At 32 years old, he lived with his parents. They were more than worried, they discussed it with their closest friends: the Obamas, the Crystals. But they probably never imagined that it would be Nick who ended their lives.
Hollywood no salt of shock. All of Los Angeles is paralyzed, shaken, by the story of a couple who, in addition to being famous people and very loved by the community, were simply next-door neighbors. The murders of director Rob Reiner (78 years old) and his wife, Michele Reiner (68 years old), whose bodies were found fatally wounded by stab wounds on Sunday afternoon, have greatly impacted the city. And even more so when it was learned that, presumably, it was their middle son, Nick, who ended their lives. On Tuesday, the Prosecutor’s Office announced, in a logically crowded press conference, that it will present two charges of first-degree murder, with special circumstances and aggravation by using a knife for the crime. They can carry a life sentence or even the death penalty. Even Police Chief Jim McDonnell appeared broken, stating that the case was “overwhelming and deeply personal.”
The information pointed very quickly, even too quickly, that Nick was the supposed murderer. On Sunday, minutes before seven in the afternoon, the media began to report that there were two bodies in the Reiner house. By age, they coincided with those of the owners. That wasn’t confirmed until almost an hour later. But soon after, not tabloids, but trusted media, such as Peoplethey pointed out the culprit: before eight in the afternoon they were already publishing that Nick was the author of the crime.
The police, on the other hand, were much more leisurely. With caution, but also hiding certain information, the deputy chief of police gave a press conference on Sunday at nine pm. They did not reveal how, or thanks to what call, they had found the bodies. When asked by the press about Nick, they only said that “many family members” were being “interviewed.” They stated that they had also spoken with the neighbors “as part of the investigation,” and that they were not afraid. “There is no one in custody and no suspects identified,” Alan S. Hamilton, deputy head of the detective bureau, said at the doors of the family home on Chadbourne Avenue. “We are not looking for anyone.” 15 minutes later, Nick Reiner was arrested.
The search took about six hours to complete. The events started much earlier. The investigation and the autopsy will provide more information on the matter, but everything seems to indicate that a fight on Saturday night was a point of friction. Rob, Michele and Nick attended a Christmas party hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien in Los Angeles. In it, several guests saw how Nick behaved strangely, erratically (“Nick made everyone nervous, acting strange, asking people if they were famous,” one of those present stated in the press), and how a heated and public argument arose between father and son. Things got so heated that the couple decided to leave the celebration.
There, for the moment, there is a time jump. That happened on Saturday afternoon. The next thing that is known – always with information from the local press, not from police sources, who have barely given any explanations at the moment – is that later, that night, Nick Reiner settled in a hotel in Santa Monica. He arrived around four in the morning and asked for a room, just for one night. Eyewitnesses claim that he was “very upset.” He left without doing the check outand housekeeping discovered a lot of blood in the shower and also stains on the bed.
Again, here’s another jump. It is unknown where Nick was or with whom that morning. But around three-thirty in the afternoon the emergency services received a call, apparently from inside the house. It was later learned that it had been made by the couple’s youngest daughter, Romy, 28 years old. She, who lives nearby, went to her parents’ house and there discovered their bodies, already lifeless. He also notified another intimate couple in the family: the one formed by Billy Crystal and his wife Janice, who have been married for 55 years and have been friends with the Reiners for almost as long. They went to the house and saw the bodies of their friends. There were no signs of force on doors and windows. From there, at some point, the police started looking for Nick.
It took them about five and a half hours to find him. The city’s police department joined forces with the elite US Marshals Task Force, which searches for fugitives both locally and federally, and was finally arrested by the Gang and Narcotics Unit of the Los Angeles police.
They arrested him more than 25 kilometers from the hotel (and more or less the same distance from his house), in the center of the city, in an area close to the University of Southern California, the well-known USC, and the so-called Exhibition Park, where the 2028 Olympic Games will be held. That police unit even posted some photos on Instagram — now deleted — showing the man being detained, in gratitude to the US Marshalls for their collaboration. Nick was brought into court at 5:04 a.m. on Monday and is in a city correctional facility called Twin Towers. It is unknown when he will appear in court because, according to his lawyer, Alan Jackson, who has represented Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey, he does not have medical clearance, a common and necessary procedure.
The judges, coroners and investigators will try to unravel what happened that night, but also what caused Nick Reiner to kill his parents. His problems were many, but his relationship with his family was strong. He shared the 1,000-square-meter house that his parents had in the wealthy Brentwood neighborhood. I went with them to parties and events; Just as he was with them at O’Brien’s, he attended the premiere of the latest installment of his saga of fake rock documentaries. Spinal Tap along with his brothers, Romy and Jack, and his sister-in-law, Maria, in September in Hollywood.
“They were an absolutely united family, they did everything together,” said a source very close to People these days. “They never achieved stability with Nick, they tried everything, giving him space, keeping him close, but his suffering was very deep.” Nick Reiner’s problems with drugs began in his early adolescence, and at the age of 15 he entered rehab. He was there until he was 19, coming and going, about twenty times. He lived homeless, all over the country, from Texas to Maine. Around 2015, at the age of 22, he seemed to have recovered: he left the streets, wrote what would later become the script for Being Charlie With his father, he returned to them, he was focused. As he said in a 2016 interview, “there was a lot of darkness in those years.” But the addictions never went away. In 2018, for example, he told the podcast Dopey how the year before, full of cocaine and methamphetamines, he had destroyed his parents’ guest house.
Their children were the Reiners’ greatest pride. They often had dinner together, watched basketball games at home, entertained friends. But they were also his biggest concern. The director said in several talks and interviews that their relationship was always complex, that they never fully understood what was best for him, that they listened to all the experts, blindly. “We were desperate, and since those people had diplomas hanging on the wall, we listened to them, when we should have listened to our son,” said the director of The princess bride a Los Angeles Times in 2015.
But they never expected that. The former first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, said on Monday on Jimmy Kimmel’s show that both couples were “friends for many, many years.” “We should have seen each other that night. Last night,” he revealed with enormous sadness, raising his voice for his dear friends: “Rob and Michele are among the most decent and brave people you will ever meet. They cared about their family, about their country, about justice and equality.”