Rob Reiner's Family Said "We Tried Everything" To Save Their Son — Then He Destroyed Them
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Tony Brueski
4.2 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nick Reiner is 32 years old. He has been in and out of treatment programs since he was fifteen. He's experienced homelessness. He's struggled publicly with addiction and severe mental health issues for most of his adult life. His parents talked about it openly. They made a documentary about their attempts to help him. Michele Reiner reportedly told friends recently that they had tried everything.
And here's the part that should infuriate every family watching this — in California, "everything" doesn't include the one thing that might have actually made a difference. You cannot force an adult into treatment. Not even when they're clearly in crisis. Not even when they're deteriorating in front of you. Not even when you have unlimited resources and access to the best care in the country. You have to wait until something terrible happens.
California has 5150 psychiatric holds. It has a new program called CARE Court. None of it works the way families need it to. The holds are too short. The programs have no enforcement. Meanwhile, people in crisis cycle through emergency rooms and back onto the street while their families watch helplessly.
This episode breaks down what options families actually have under current law, why those options consistently fail, and what's likely coming next in this case.
#RobReiner #NickReiner #MentalHealthCrisis #CaliforniaLaw #FamilyTragedy #5150Hold #CARECourt #MentalHealthReform #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Bruske, Stacey Cole and Todd Michaels. |
| 0:08.6 | Rob Reiner's son, Nick, is sitting in a cell right now, held without bail, accused of stabbing both of his parents to death and their Brentwood home. |
| 0:18.2 | The night before witnesses say he got into a screaming match with |
| 0:21.7 | his father at a Christmas party and then by Sunday afternoon Rob and Michelle Reiner were dead, |
| 0:26.6 | reportedly found by their daughter with her throat slit. Nick Reiner is 32. He's been in and out |
| 0:32.5 | of rehab since he was 15, homeless on and off, struggled publicly with addiction and mental illness for most of his adult life. |
| 0:40.3 | His parents even made a movie about it. |
| 0:42.6 | They talked openly about trying to save him. |
| 0:45.0 | Michelle reportedly told friends recently, we have tried everything, and here's where it gets infuriating. |
| 0:50.9 | They probably did. |
| 0:52.9 | But in this country, everything doesn't include the one thing |
| 0:57.7 | that might have actually worked, getting him off the street and into a treatment where he |
| 1:02.6 | agreed, whether he agreed to it or not. Because the law says you can't do that, not until someone's |
| 1:09.3 | already dead, basically. You can't force somebody into not until someone's already dead, basically. |
| 1:12.1 | You can't force somebody into treatment. |
| 1:14.5 | Now, with this kid, did go in and out of treatment many, many times. |
| 1:17.5 | But when they're spiraling, when they're out of control, which it sounds like where he was, |
| 1:21.9 | the law is on the side of the mentally ill. |
| 1:26.3 | And unfortunately, it seems in this case, |
| 1:29.2 | the mentally ill eventually eclipsed the living here. |
| 1:33.3 | Bob, the family is saying that they tried everything. |
| 1:36.3 | Walk me through what everything actually looks like legally |
... |
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