Nick Reiner was unsettling Hollywood’s elite with bizarre questions at Conan O’Brien’s holiday party just hours before prosecutors say he would go on to murder his own parents.
What began as a glittering, star-studded celebration reportedly took a dark turn when the 32-year-old son of legendary filmmaker Rob Reiner began pestering A-list guests, prompting hosts to ask him to leave. According to The Wall Street Journal, Nick wandered through the party repeatedly asking guests, “What’s your name? What’s your last name? Are you famous?”
One of those uncomfortable encounters involved Saturday Night Live star Bill Hader. Introduced by his father, Nick allegedly interrupted Hader mid-conversation and grew visibly angry when the comedian told him he was “in the middle of a private conversation.”
“Nick just stood there and stared before storming off,” an insider later told NBC News.
Less than 24 hours later, Rob Reiner and his wife of more than three decades, Michele Singer Reiner, were found brutally stabbed to death inside their $13.5 million Brentwood mansion.
The horrifying discovery began when a massage therapist arrived at the home for a scheduled appointment Sunday afternoon and was unable to get inside. Concerned, the therapist contacted the couple’s 27-year-old daughter, Romy, who lives across the street.
Romy managed to open the door — and was met with a nightmare. She discovered her father’s lifeless body and fled the house in shock. Her roommate called 911 as Romy reached out to one of her father’s closest friends, actor Billy Crystal.
According to The New York Times, Romy did not learn that her mother was also dead until paramedics arrived and delivered the devastating news.
Authorities later revealed that the couple had been killed in the early morning hours. A source close to the investigation told the Daily Mail that Rob and Michele were found in bed, their throats slit, and may have been asleep when they were attacked. Rigor mortis had already set in, indicating they had been dead for hours before being discovered.
“Nick could have done it not long after they all went home,” the source said. “They were in bed when that happened.”
First responders were dispatched to the home around 3:30 p.m., but efforts to save the couple were unsuccessful.
At the scene, Romy told investigators that her brother also lived on the property. However, when police searched the guest house, Nick was nowhere to be found.
Instead, investigators learned that Nick had checked into The Pierside Santa Monica hotel at around 4 a.m. using his own credit card. Witnesses later told TMZ he appeared “tweaked out.” Staff allegedly discovered a shower filled with blood, a bloody trail near the bed, and a window covered with bedsheets.
Nick had not checked out when police finally caught up with him hours later.
At approximately 9:15 p.m., officers arrested him at a subway station in Exposition Park, about 15 miles from his parents’ home. Video obtained by the Daily Mail shows police cars flooding a busy Los Angeles intersection as Nick slowly walked down the street before raising his hands in surrender.
Witness Kevin Cheatham, 34, said Nick appeared calm as unmarked police vehicles surrounded him.
“He didn’t see them coming,” Cheatham said. “He was minding his own business. He stayed cool.”
Nick is now charged with two counts of first-degree murder, along with a special allegation that he used a dangerous weapon. He is being held without bail and placed on suicide watch at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. If convicted, he could face life in prison without parole — or even the death penalty.
A motive remains unclear. Authorities said there was no indication Nick was under the influence of drugs at the time, despite his long and public battle with addiction. By age 22, Nick had been to rehab 17 times and experienced homelessness after refusing treatment options offered by his family.
“I spent nights on the street. I spent weeks on the street. It was not fun,” he once told People magazine.
His struggles later became the basis for the 2016 semi-autobiographical film Being Charlie, which he co-wrote with his father. Rob Reiner said the project forced them to confront their relationship and heal old wounds.
But sources say Nick had been spiraling again in recent weeks — and that his parents brought him to O’Brien’s holiday party to keep an eye on him.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the case “heart-wrenching,” adding, “Rob Reiner was one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation. His and Michele Singer Reiner’s murders are shocking and tragic. We owe it to their memory to pursue justice.”
source : daily mail
