New details suggest that legendary filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were dead for hours before their bodies were discovered, insiders say.
Rigor mortis “appeared to have set in” by the time the couple’s daughter, Romy, arrived to find their bodies mangled and their throats slit on Sunday afternoon, sources told TMZ.
The grisly scene was described as a “nightmare” and the work of a “madman.”
Known as the fourth stage of death, rigor mortis sets in multiple hours after one’s passing. The detail could be key to determining the timeline of the Reiners’ murder, which prosecutors say was the doing of their troubled son, Nick, who got into a public argument with his parents on their final night alive.
Below is a timeline of the tragic 48 hours that have left Hollywood in mourning.
Saturday Evening: Conan’s Christmas Party
Reiner, 78, and his wife, 68, got into a “very loud argument” with their troubled son at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party on Saturday evening. The gathering was attended by other A-listers, including Jane Fonda, who said that the Reiners appeared “happy and healthy.”
However, it was not all smiles for the couple. Reports say the elder Reiner asked if he could bring Nick to the party in West Los Angeles to “keep an eye on him” because he was “scared that his mental state was deteriorating.” O’Brien, 62, must have given the OK, as the 32-year-old Nick tagged along with his parents but clearly did not want to be there, according to eyewitnesses.
Nick appeared “out of place” and eventually got into a “shouting match” with his parents that was in earshot of other guests, sources told TMZ and The New York Times.
The couple left the party shortly after.
Early Sunday Morning: An Odd Check-In
Nick checked into The Pierside Santa Monica, a four-star hotel, around 4 a.m. Sunday, TMZ reported. Eyewitnesses told the site that the millennial, who bounced between rehab and homelessness as a teenager, appeared “tweaked out.”
There were no visible signs he had been in a violent confrontation when he checked in, but sources said he trashed his hotel room.
TMZ wrote, “When the staff came into his room later Sunday morning, they found the shower ‘full of blood’ and blood on the bed. The window in the room was covered by bed sheets.”
A front desk employee at the hotel declined to speak to the Daily Beast when reached by phone.
Sunday Afternoon: A Horrific Discovery
The Reiners’ youngest child, Romy, 28, found her parents’ bodies on Sunday afternoon, family friends told the LA Times. Sources told TMZ that “the scene was something out of a nightmare—with the bodies butchered.”
An exact timeline has not been made public, but the gruesome discovery occurred long enough after their slaying that rigor mortis was taking place. A 2023 NIH article says rigor mortis “is completely formed 12 hours after death, is sustained for the next 12 hours, and vanishes over the next 12 hours.”
If true, that suggests the Reiners were killed late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
ABC 11 reported that Romy’s call to 911 was made at 3:33 p.m. Sunday. Sources told the New York Post that the director’s daughter warned investigators that her brother was “dangerous” and “should be a suspect.”
Word Gets Out
The first report about deaths inside Rob and Michele’s Brentwood home was by TMZ at 3:22 p.m. PST on Sunday. The initial report did not say who died, or how.
That changed around 7:30 p.m. when senior law enforcement sources told ABC News that those killed were stabbed to death. Two hours later, the Reiner family released a statement confirming that Rob and Michele had died.
Dramatic Arrest Is Made
Soon after, around 9:15 p.m. Sunday, Nick was taken into custody by Los Angeles police officers near the University of Southern California—about 15 miles from his family’s mansion.
Dramatic photos of the arrest were shared by the department, showing its Gang and Narcotics Unit forcing Nick to the ground with his hands twisted behind his back. In another photo, officers push him against the front of a squad car. Prosecutors said Tuesday that he did not resist arrest.
Nick was taken to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, where he was booked on suspicion of murder. His initial court date was scheduled for Tuesday morning, but his high-profile lawyer, who previously represented Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, said he was not “medically cleared” to make the trip from jail.
Nick was formally charged with murder on Tuesday and is being held without bail.
Prosecutors say they have not yet ruled out the death penalty.
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