Featured Image Credit: Laura Cavanaugh/FilmMagic
Topics: Crime, True Crime, Celebrity, News, World News, US News
Madison Burgess
Topics: Crime, True Crime, Celebrity, News, World News, US News
Hollywood has been left reeling after the tragic deaths of film director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer.
The actor and filmmaker, 78, and photographer, 68, were found dead from apparent stab wounds in their home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on Sunday (14 December).
Few details were announced at first, except that investigators were treating their deaths as an 'apparent homicide' and a family member had been questioned.
However, the latest update that came yesterday (16 December) sent even more shockwaves around the world as it was revealed that Nick Reiner, the couple's 32-year-old son, had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
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He was initially arrested around 14 miles from the crime scene and taken into custody, a few hours after his parents' bodies were discovered.
Following the shock news, here is everything we know about Nick Reiner and the charges against him.
Rob and Michele had three children together - actors Jake Reiner, 34, and Romy Reiner, 28, and screenwriter Nick Reiner.
Nick is their middle child and as we say, a screenwriter, who has battled with addiction and homelessness throughout his life.
He worked with his father on the 2016 film Being Charlie, which was loosely inspired by Nick’s experience of addiction and attending rehab.
The film, which he co-wrote, was directed by Rob and follows the son of a US governor, Charlie, played by Nick Robinson, as he battles with drug abuse.
In a 2016 interview with People Magazine, Nick said that the film was not about him; however, parts of the story he had experienced himself including going to rehab throughout his teenage years and his own experiences of homelessness and spending 'weeks' on the streets for refusing to return to a rehab facility.
He said at the time: "It’s not my life but I went to a lot of these places, so I had a lot of these stories.
“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.”
It came after he refused to go to rehab, as he explained during the interview: “If I wanted to do it my way and not go to the programs they were suggesting, then I had to be homeless.
"That made me who I am now, having to deal with that stuff. I met crazy great people there, so out of my element.
"Now, I’ve been home for a really long time, and I’ve sort of gotten acclimated back to being in LA and being around my family. But there was a lot of dark years there."
Nick Reiner has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder after the deaths of his parents, with the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.
He also faces a special allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, a knife.
Police in Los Angeles revealed in their release that in 'approximately the early morning hours of December 14', Reiner is accused of fatally stabbing his parents at their home.
Allegedly, he fled but was arrested hours later that evening in Exposition Park near the University of Southern California.
Reiner has not yet entered a plea and did not appear in court on Tuesday as expected because of unspecified health reasons, according to his lawyer Alan Jackson.
He is expected to appear before a judge on Wednesday.
If convicted as charged, he faces death or life in state prison without the possibility of parole and a decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made at a later date.