The Reiner Murders | The Trial Of Nick Reiner

Hidden Killers Podcast

Rob Reiner directed some of the most beloved films in American history. On December 14, 2024, he and his wife Michele were stabbed to death in their Brentwood home. Their daughter found the bodies. Their son Nick was arrested that night. This podcast covers the case from arrest through trial — but the real story starts seventeen years earlier. Nick Reiner went to rehab at fifteen. By nineteen, he'd been through seventeen programs. Homeless in three states. Heroin. Meth. His parents had every resource imaginable — money, connections, access to the best treatment in the country. They followed the protocols. They trusted the experts. They did everything right by the system's standards. And the system gave them nothing. Because here's what nobody wants to say out loud: in America, if your adult child is addicted, mentally ill, or dangerous, your legal options are essentially zero. You can beg. You can pay. But you cannot force treatment. Their autonomy is protected. Your safety is not. The Reiners lived that nightmare for almost two decades. It ended the way these stories sometimes do — with two people dead and a family destroyed. This isn't true crime as entertainment. No breathless narration. No shock-jock nonsense. Just rigorous, fact-based coverage with legal experts, former prosecutors, defense attorneys, and behavioral analysts breaking down the evidence, the strategy, and the questions that actually matter. We're following this case because it exposes something broken in how we handle mental illness, addiction, and families in crisis. The Reiners had every advantage. It didn't save them. New episodes as the case develops.

  1. You're Not Crazy for Grieving Someone Who's Still Alive — The Reiner Case Proves It

    17M AGO

    You're Not Crazy for Grieving Someone Who's Still Alive — The Reiner Case Proves It

    There's a version of your son, your daughter, your brother that no longer exists. You remember them. You have photos. You can describe exactly who they were before. That person is gone — and nobody will let you mourn them because they're still breathing. Rob and Michele Reiner lived inside that contradiction for seventeen years. The Nick they raised disappeared slowly — replaced by someone they couldn't reach, couldn't trust, and eventually feared. There was no funeral. No moment where the loss became official. Just an endless middle where hope and grief traded places until neither felt survivable. They made a movie with Nick in 2015 about recovery. Press tours. Public healing. He wasn't sober for any of it. The redemption was a performance the Reiners believed was real. When the truth surfaced, the wound reopened — worse than before, because they'd let themselves hope. That's how ambiguous loss works. Every glimpse of the person you remember sharpens the absence when they vanish again. Hope becomes the cruelest part of the cycle because it refuses to let you settle into the grief. And the lies you build around it aren't weakness. "This time is different." "Nobody understands them like I do." "If I stop trying, I failed." These are survival mechanisms — the only frameworks your brain can construct when the truth is unsurvivable. Rob said he was petrified of Nick. He brought him to a Christmas party anyway because he couldn't leave him alone. That's a man who saw reality and couldn't act on it — because acting meant releasing the last thread connecting him to a son who no longer existed. You weren't foolish for believing the lies. You were surviving with the only tools you had. The grief you carry for someone who's still alive is real. Their absence deserves to be mourned. Consider this your permission. And forgive yourself for every story you told to keep breathing. #RobReiner #NickReiner #MicheleSingerReiner #TrueCrime #AmbiguousLoss #GrievingTheLiving #AddictionFamily #InvisibleGrief #Denial #HiddenKillers Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

    43 min
  2. You're Allowed to Stop: What the Reiner Case Teaches About Love, Guilt, and Survival

    17H AGO

    You're Allowed to Stop: What the Reiner Case Teaches About Love, Guilt, and Survival

    "If you really loved me, you wouldn't give up on me." That sentence is a hostage negotiation disguised as love. The Reiners never gave up. Seventeen years. Eighteen rehab stints. Every boundary erased. Every line redrawn and crossed. Rob was simultaneously terrified of Nick and unable to separate from him. That's not caregiving — that's captivity. This episode is about the psychology that keeps people tethered to someone who's destroying them. The guilt trap. The sunk cost. The fantasy that the next attempt will be the breakthrough. And the hardest truth no one says out loud: some people never hit bottom because someone's always there to catch them. You can love someone and still refuse to let them consume you. Walking away isn't betrayal. It's survival. And for anyone who saw the signs and carries the guilt of not preventing the outcome — your knowledge was not consent. You're not guilty for seeing what you couldn't change. #RobReiner #NickReiner #MicheleSingerReiner #TrueCrime #LovingSomeoneDangerous #Enabling #Boundaries #AddictionFamily #SurvivorGuilt #HiddenKillers Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872 This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

    47 min
  3. After the Reiner Trial: Peace Without Answers

    1D AGO

    After the Reiner Trial: Peace Without Answers

    Jake and Romy Reiner are going to spend years in courtrooms. Hearings. Testimony. Motions. Their brother's face across the room while lawyers argue about what happened in that bedroom. And at the end of it — guilty, not guilty, insanity — their parents are still dead. The trial will give them an outcome. It won't give them peace. That's the trap of waiting for external resolution. You make your healing contingent on something you can't control. And while you wait, your life stays frozen. Justice doesn't equal peace. Families of murder victims describe this — years of anticipation, the belief that "guilty" will shift something inside them. Then the verdict arrives. And they feel nothing. Because the court addressed what the defendant did. It didn't undo what it cost. Apologies don't rewrite history. Even if Nick ever explained himself, even if the words were everything they've imagined — the damage remains. Their parents are gone. Their family is destroyed. Understanding why won't rebuild what was lost. Time doesn't heal. It just passes. Healing isn't passive. It's something you build. Actively. Painfully. Day by day. With or without the ending you deserved. The shift that separates people who stay stuck from people who move forward: closure isn't something that arrives. It's something you construct. Peace isn't waiting for external validation. It's deciding — actively, repeatedly — that their chaos doesn't get to write your future anymore. At some point, Jake and Romy will have to answer a question they could answer today: what now? What kind of life do they build? How do they move through a world where their parents are gone and their brother is something unrecognizable? The answer — the only one that works — is they decide to build anyway. Not because the trial gives closure. Because waiting was its own kind of dying. The survivors who make it aren't the ones who got answers. They're the ones who stopped needing them. The next chapter doesn't require permission. It's yours to write. #RobReiner #NickReiner #MicheleSingerReiner #ReinerMurders #ReinerCase #PeaceWithoutResolution #HealingWithoutClosure #MovingForward #SurvivorRecovery #TrueCrime Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872 This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

    23 min
  4. The Reiners' Denial: Survival, Not Stupidity

    2D AGO

    The Reiners' Denial: Survival, Not Stupidity

    Rob Reiner directed films for forty years. He understood narrative structure, how stories build, how they telegraph their endings. Michele navigated Hollywood for three decades. These were not people who got fooled easily. And yet. They built frameworks — sophisticated, evolving frameworks — that kept them close to a son who was destroying them. First: trust the professionals. The counselors said Nick was manipulating, so they held the line. Then: the professionals are wrong. Nick convinced them the doctors were the problem. Then: redemption through art. Being Charlie. Press tours about healing. Then: he just needs more support. A guesthouse. Eighteen chances. Each framework had its own logic. Each one kept them in the room. The lies follow patterns. "This time is different." "Nobody understands him like we do." "He didn't mean it." "We'd be giving up if we stopped." Nick destroyed their guesthouse during a binge. Stole pills from sick people. Admitted to gaming every rehab. Told his parents the doctors were wrong about everything. And still the narrative held. These aren't failures of intelligence. They're survival mechanisms. The human mind building scaffolding to make an impossible situation bearable. Rob said at that Christmas party that he was petrified of Nick. That he thought his son could hurt him. That's not a man in full denial. That's a man who sees the truth and is trying to survive it anyway. Knowing and accepting are two different things. You can know something and still not act on it — because acting means letting go of the last hope that makes your world bearable. The Reiners probably knew. And they stayed anyway. Because the lies were the only tools they had. If you've ever needed to believe something that wasn't true just to survive another day — you understand. Forgive the lies. Forgive yourself. Start telling a different story. #RobReiner #NickReiner #MicheleSingerReiner #ReinerMurders #ReinerCase #Denial #SurvivalMechanisms #AddictionFamily #Codependency #TrueCrime Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872 This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

    27 min
  5. The Reiners' Invisible Grief: Losing Nick Before December 14th

    3D AGO

    The Reiners' Invisible Grief: Losing Nick Before December 14th

    Rob and Michele Reiner didn't just lose their son on December 14th. They'd been losing him for seventeen years. The Nick who existed at fourteen — whoever that kid was before the drugs, before the diagnosis, before the manipulation became his entire architecture — was gone long before that final night. But there was no funeral. No acknowledgment. Just a slow-motion vanishing where the person they loved was replaced by someone they couldn't reach. And they had to keep showing up. Keep funding. Keep pretending that the person in the guesthouse, the person at the rehab facility, the person on the press tour was the same son they'd held as a baby. This is what psychologists call ambiguous loss. When someone is physically present but psychologically absent. It's one of the hardest forms of grief because there's no closure. No ending. Just an infinite middle where you're suspended between hope and despair. The Reiners made Being Charlie with Nick in 2015. Press tours about recovery. Father and son healing through art. The whole narrative was built on hope — the prodigal son returned. But Nick admitted later he wasn't sober during any of it. After the interviews about redemption, he was getting high on rooftops. The whole thing was a performance. And Rob and Michele were in the audience, believing it was real. Grieving a loss they thought had ended — only to have it reopen when the truth surfaced. That's the specific cruelty of loving someone who keeps disappearing. Every time you think they've come back, the grief reactivates. Every glimmer of who they used to be makes the absence sharper when it vanishes again. Hope becomes its own torture because it refuses to let you settle into the loss. The Reiners mourned Nick long before they mourned each other. They just weren't allowed to call it that. If you've been carrying this kind of grief — the kind nobody sees, the kind nobody validates — you're not crazy. You're not giving up. You're just telling the truth about what you've already lost. And you're allowed to grieve it. #RobReiner #NickReiner #MicheleSingerReiner #ReinerMurders #ReinerCase #AmbiguousLoss #GrievingTheLiving #AddictionFamily #InvisibleGrief #TrueCrime Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872 This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

    16 min
  6. The Reiners Never Walked Away. Here's Why That Matters.

    4D AGO

    The Reiners Never Walked Away. Here's Why That Matters.

    Eighteen rehab stints. A guesthouse on the property. A movie made together. Seventeen years of second chances, funded programs, and erased boundaries. Rob and Michele Reiner never stopped trying to save Nick. They never walked away. And now they're dead. This episode examines something that doesn't get discussed in the legal coverage: the trap that keeps families tethered to someone who's destroying them. The belief that walking away is abandonment. That real love means staying no matter the cost. That presence equals protection. It doesn't. Nick reportedly told his parents that refusing their treatment suggestions meant homelessness. That was supposed to be the consequence. But it never held. Every line dissolved. Every ultimatum evaporated into another chance. And some people never hit bottom because someone's always there to catch them — hands outstretched, becoming the floor that prevents the only fall that might actually save them. The trap works in three stages. Guilt weaponization: "If you leave, I'll spiral" — your departure becomes the cause of their destruction. Sunk cost: you've invested too much to admit none of it worked. The fantasy of the final save: what if you walk away right when they were finally ready? These fears keep people in burning buildings. Rob Reiner brought Nick to a Christmas party because he was reportedly afraid to leave him home alone. A seventy-seven-year-old man couldn't attend a holiday gathering without bringing his thirty-two-year-old son. That's not supervision. That's a hostage dynamic where the hostage believes he's the warden. You can love someone and still refuse to let them destroy you. You can care deeply and still set limits. Walking away isn't proof you failed — it's recognition that your presence was never the thing that would save them. The Reiners stayed until there was nowhere left to stand. You're allowed to choose differently. #RobReiner #NickReiner #MicheleSingerReiner #ReinerMurders #ReinerCase #Enabling #WalkingAway #AddictionFamily #LovingSomeoneDangerous #TrueCrime Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872 This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

    27 min
  7. The Reiners Saw Every Sign. It Didn't Matter.

    5D AGO

    The Reiners Saw Every Sign. It Didn't Matter.

    "I'm petrified of Nick. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'm afraid of my son. I think my own son can hurt me." Those are Rob Reiner's words. Spoken out loud. At a Christmas party on December 13th. One guest reportedly left the room in tears after hearing it. By Sunday afternoon, Rob and Michele were dead — stabbed in their Brentwood bedroom. Their daughter Romy found them. This episode steps back from the legal case to examine something that rarely gets discussed: what it feels like to see an ending coming and be completely powerless to stop it. Rob knew. He said it out loud. And knowing didn't save him. Danny Spilar, who shared a room with Nick at a Malibu rehab when they were fifteen, told reporters he knew exactly who killed the Reiners the moment he heard the news. He wasn't alone. Multiple people close to the family had the same immediate reaction. The danger had been visible for years — documented, discussed, undeniable. We tell ourselves that awareness is protection. That seeing clearly means we can act effectively. Rob Reiner spent four decades directing films. He understood story structure better than almost anyone — how narratives build, how they telegraph endings, how everything in act one sets up act three. He saw where this story was going. And knowing didn't give him a rewrite. This isn't just about Rob and Michele. This is about everyone who's loved someone dangerous enough to see the destruction coming and stayed anyway. Who warned people and watched them do nothing. Who carries "I knew" like an indictment instead of what it actually is — evidence of love that refused to look away. Your knowing was not consent. Your staying was not permission. You didn't fail. You loved someone past the point where love made any sense. And that's not a crime. #RobReiner #NickReiner #MicheleSingerReiner #ReinerMurders #ReinerCase #BrentwoodMurders #SurvivorGuilt #FamilyTragedy #LovingSomeoneDangerous #TrueCrime Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872 This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

    20 min
  8. Rob and Michele Reiner: They Saw the Danger and Stayed Anyway

    FEB 14

    Rob and Michele Reiner: They Saw the Danger and Stayed Anyway

    Rob Reiner reportedly stood at a Christmas party telling friends he was afraid of his own son. Michele heard it too. They drove home to the property where Nick lived in the guesthouse a hundred feet from their bedroom. Hours later, both were dead. This episode isn't about whether the Reiners missed the warning signs. They didn't miss anything. Rob verbalized the threat out loud at a public gathering. The question that haunts this case is different: what psychological framework allows parents to acknowledge mortal danger and return to it? For fifteen years, Rob and Michele tried to save Nick. Eighteen rehab facilities. Sixty thousand dollars monthly. Every professional intervention available. When addiction counselors warned them Nick was manipulating them, they complied. Then something broke. By 2015, both parents publicly reversed course, apologizing for trusting experts over their son. They rebuilt their understanding around Nick being a victim of a system that failed him — not a man who was failing them. This episode examines the daily reality of living inside that framework. The way your identity becomes crisis response. The social isolation that happens so gradually you don't notice until you're alone. The psychological flip where raising safety concerns makes you the betrayer. Michele Reiner described this publicly — choosing to believe her son over the professionals who analyzed him. After the schizophrenia diagnosis came seventy thousand monthly for psychiatric care. Nick on the property. A Christmas party where guests reportedly recognized danger while his parents saw a bad night. This is the anatomy of how unlimited love and resources still couldn't override the choice to stay. #RobReiner #MicheleReiner #NickReiner #ReinerMurders #ReinerCase #MicheleSingerReiner #AddictionEnabling #FamilyAnnihilation #BeverlyHills #ConanOBrien Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872 This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

    48 min

Ratings & Reviews

4
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Rob Reiner directed some of the most beloved films in American history. On December 14, 2024, he and his wife Michele were stabbed to death in their Brentwood home. Their daughter found the bodies. Their son Nick was arrested that night. This podcast covers the case from arrest through trial — but the real story starts seventeen years earlier. Nick Reiner went to rehab at fifteen. By nineteen, he'd been through seventeen programs. Homeless in three states. Heroin. Meth. His parents had every resource imaginable — money, connections, access to the best treatment in the country. They followed the protocols. They trusted the experts. They did everything right by the system's standards. And the system gave them nothing. Because here's what nobody wants to say out loud: in America, if your adult child is addicted, mentally ill, or dangerous, your legal options are essentially zero. You can beg. You can pay. But you cannot force treatment. Their autonomy is protected. Your safety is not. The Reiners lived that nightmare for almost two decades. It ended the way these stories sometimes do — with two people dead and a family destroyed. This isn't true crime as entertainment. No breathless narration. No shock-jock nonsense. Just rigorous, fact-based coverage with legal experts, former prosecutors, defense attorneys, and behavioral analysts breaking down the evidence, the strategy, and the questions that actually matter. We're following this case because it exposes something broken in how we handle mental illness, addiction, and families in crisis. The Reiners had every advantage. It didn't save them. New episodes as the case develops.

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