LOS ANGELES – Under the fluorescent lights of an Alco gas station, Nick Reiner emerges from the morning/afternoon market thirsty. Blue Gatorade in hand.
The moment was captured on surveillance camera near the University of Southern California on Sunday, Dec. 14.
Wearing jeans and a green track jacket, his dark hair covered by a baseball cap and a red backpack slung over his shoulder, he waited at a bus stop near Expo Park, which was filled with homeless people.
Alexis Hernandez, a security guard at the market, passed the 32-year-old man. Nick’s departure was the start of a typical night shift.
“He was acting normal,” Hernandez said.
Nick walked across the street to the bus stop, where Los Angeles Metro Bus 204 took him all the way to Hollywood.
Hernandez watched as Los Angeles Police Department and U.S. Marshals descended on the busy South Vermont Street, followed by University of Southern California police. A waning crescent moon hovered overhead.
At approximately 9:15 p.m., law enforcement ordered Nick onto the street and handcuffed him face down.
He was 25 miles from home. He is wanted on suspicion of murdering his father. And his mother.
Nick is currently in a downtown Los Angeles jail, charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of acclaimed film director Rob Reiner and his wife, producer and photographer Michelle Singer Reiner. Prosecutors added special circumstances to the charge, meaning he could face the death penalty.
This tragedy struck Americans who grew up with Rob Reiner. Throughout his 60-year career, Rob told heartwarming stories such as “Stand by Me” and “When Harry Met Sally.” He’s taken us through the generations, from playing Meathead on Michael Steivich’s “All in the Family” to playing America’s father on the millennial favorite “New Girl.” Rob changed the way we love, think and laugh. Michele helped drive him with her passion and fierce love for family and friends. (“She’s a Bunsen burner lighting my ass,” he once joked.)
Actors and friends, including politicians and celebrities, shared anecdotes about one of Hollywood’s last greats, calling the couple’s deaths a tragic end to a storied life.
Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner’s children break silence on their parents’ death
The children of Rob and Michelle Reiner have issued a statement asking for privacy following the “terrifying and devastating loss” of their parents.
“He’s in a really good place.”
Rob Reiner spent the fall promoting Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The sequel comes 41 years after he directed the cult hit metal band mockumentary. (He, his wife, and their three children, Jake, Nick, and Romy, met Paul McCartney on set as the former Beatle filmed scenes for the long-awaited sequel.)
As part of the film’s pre-release press conference, Rob spoke with NPR’s Terry Gross and also asked him about 2015’s Being Charlie.
“Your son co-wrote it and you directed it,” Gross said. “And your son has struggled with drug addiction, so this seems like a semi-autobiography.”
Since that very peculiar collaboration, Rob has rarely been asked about Nick. According to Rob, this was his most personal work. They both spoke about the tumultuous times their family faced while Rob was battling addiction, and the guilt Rob and Michelle felt as parents. The worry and stress Nick was putting on the people who loved him. But it all seemed to be behind them.
“Did you feel like you were sometimes too busy to pay attention to him?” Gross asked, recalling those difficult teenage years.
“No, no, I was never too busy,” Rob told her. “I think I made a mistake. You know, he’s been great. He hasn’t done drugs in over six years. I mean, he’s in a really good place.”
The second son of the great director, who candidly talked about how difficult it was growing up with his famous father, Carl Reiner, who also struggled in the shadow of his famous father, Carl Reiner, until he found his own path, was coming of age.
Nick told podcaster Paul Meculio in 2016 that talking about addiction isn’t difficult. The difficult part was that he shared his vulnerable story and people told him, “You’re just a spoiled white rich kid.”
But he and his father agreed that talking about addiction can help others.
“That’s what we’re doing, to start a conversation,” Nick said on the podcast. “I feel lucky because I have parents who care about me. … If I go out and do drugs, I feel a tremendous amount of guilt. My parents care about me and want me to do good.”
A family of five celebrated the movie premiere of the Spinal Tap sequel in Los Angeles on September 9th and posed for photos on the “black carpet.”
Photos and videos of Rob posted to his daughter’s Instagram account in May show their closeness, including sweet conversations and silly interactions.
Romy, 27, who lives near her parents’ home, shared the photo with her father two days after Thanksgiving.
She and her father are floating in turquoise ocean waves in their swimsuits, and Rob is wearing a Spinal Tap baseball cap. “I’m grateful for my family, my health, and my supporters of all ages, but I’m not grateful for the president and the nation of this country,” she wrote.
Sources close to the Reiner family told The New York Times that nothing in recent weeks suggested Nick was capable of committing violent murders. Rob and Michelle also said they aren’t concerned about Nick’s recent behavior.
“Being Charlie” cinematographer Barry Markowitz told The Wall Street Journal that he stayed at Liners during a visit to Los Angeles three weeks ago. He also said that he was watching Nick play tennis because he seemed to be doing well.
Friends said Nick lived in a guesthouse at Reiners’ home in the Brentwood neighborhood. This is the same guest house where he once told a podcaster that he “had a heart attack from cocaine and started hitting things.”
night with friends
Conan O’Brien’s annual Christmas party is a household name in Los Angeles comedy circles. Past guests have included Martin Short, Adam Sandler, and Tom Hanks.
Social gatherings are filled with laughter and lots of food, but one year, a gust of wind blew embers from the patio fire pit onto an outdoor couch, setting it ablaze. Comedian Bill Hader said O’Brien’s wife put out the fire with a fire extinguisher.
Rob and Michelle attended with Nick on December 13th of this year. Mr. O’Brien lives near the Reiners, 2.7 miles away in the windy Pacific Palisades area, in a mansion surrounded by gates and hedges that survived this year’s fires.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nick was not invited to the party, but was brought by his parents who were reluctant to leave him alone due to his recent behavior.
Hader was there, Jane Fonda was there.
While others wore formal attire, Nick wore a hoodie. According to media reports, he caused a disturbance at O’Brien’s home, stared at guests, asked them their first and last names and whether they were famous, and yelled at his father.
A family friend told People magazine that Nick acted like he was “entitled.” Others said the episode was exaggerated. Others say Nick was simply trying to make his own way in the shadow of his father and grandfather.
What people agree on, and even Nick said, is that the Reiner family really wanted to help their son.
At some point during the Dec. 13 party, the three left O’Brien’s home. It is unclear whether they left together or all returned home.
The next day, Rob and Michelle were scheduled to get massages at their home and have dinner with Barack and Michelle Obama.
One masseuse said she called the Reiners’ daughter when she arrived on Sunday, Dec. 14, and no one answered the wooden gate of her parents’ home.
Romy came home.
Police were called at 3:38 p.m.
Yellow warning tape soon surrounded Reiners’ home, and neighbors said they saw Reiners’ close friends Billy Crystal and Larry David heading toward the house that afternoon.
The Los Angeles Police Department held a press conference just before 9 p.m., announcing only that two bodies had been found inside the home.
By that time, police had already zeroed in on the couple’s youngest son, Nick.
According to reports, Nick was not far from his parents’ home. Sometime on Dec. 14, possibly early Sunday morning, he went to the Pierside Santa Monica Hotel, officials said. Hotel employees told the Times that police began investigating on December 14. It’s unclear what led them to the beach-themed hotel, a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean and 11 miles from Reiners’ Brentwood-area home. They couldn’t find Nick.
By 9pm on December 14th, Nick had apparently traveled on foot and stopped at a morning/afternoon market 29 miles from his hotel. Security cameras showed him going in and out and coming back to buy a blue Gatorade. he wasn’t in a hurry. He strolled across the parking lot.
Within 15 minutes, Nick was taken into custody. He was booked into the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, a county jail in downtown Los Angeles, in the early morning hours of December 15th.
On Tuesday, Dec. 16, at 1 p.m., prosecutors charged Nick with two counts of first-degree murder. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner died from “multiple sharp impact injuries.” Prosecutors have not yet disclosed why police focused on him as a suspect or any potential motive.
On December 17, Nick appeared briefly in a special holding area of a Los Angeles courtroom, away from cameras, wearing a blue protective smock.
Nick’s lawyer Alan Jackson asked the court for patience and asked that the arraignment be postponed until January 7.
The judge asked the defendant if he would waive his right to a speedy arraignment.
“Yes, sir,” Nick said quietly.
Two hours after their brother’s court appearance, Jake and Romy Reiner released the following statement: “Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day. They were more than just our parents, they were our best friends.”
Friends say the couple lived a storybook life.
Rob Reiner was considered America’s father in many ways. Most importantly, he and Michelle were mom and dad to Jake and Romy. And Nick.
