Rob and Michele Reiner slayings: A chilling narrative emerging

Five days after Rob and Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Brentwood home, a basic timeline is emerging about the killings and the arrest, hours later, of their son Nick.

Reiner, 32, was charged with two counts of murder on Tuesday. He appeared in court Wednesday, when a judge postponed his arraignment until January.

Authorities have revealed few details about the killings and why they focused on Nick Reiner as a suspect.

What we know

• Time of the slayings: Prosecutors allege Nick Reiner fatally stabbed his 78-year-old father and 70-year-old mother sometime in the early-morning hours of Sunday. No precise time has been released. The killings occurred several hours after Rob and Nick got into some kind of argument at a Hollywood Christmas party, several family friends told The Times. The details of the argument are unclear — and some friends said too much emphasis had been placed on the incident. The bodies of Rob and Michele Reiner were found in the master bedroom of their home around 3:40 p.m. Sunday, authorities have said.

• Discovery: A massage therapist arrived at the couple’s home Sunday afternoon for a weekly appointment with the couple. When no one responded to her at the gate of the Brentwood home, the therapist called the Reiners’ daughter, 27-year-old Romy, who lives nearby. She discovered the gruesome scene and had a friend call 911, according to a source who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation. Romy and her brother Jake issued a statement Wednesday saying the “horrific and devastating loss of our parents … is something that no one should ever experience. They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends.” They asked “for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity.”
• Cause of death: The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office confirmed the Reiners’ deaths were the result of homicide, listing the cause as “multiple sharp force injuries” in its public database on Wednesday.

What we don’t know

• Why Nick Reiner? Authorities have not said what made them focus on him as a suspect. Reiner, who lived in his parents’ guesthouse, checked into the Pierside Santa Monica hotel on Sunday after the killings, according to a law enforcement source who spoke about the case on the condition of anonymity. He was arrested Sunday night near USC. It’s unclear how police tracked him to the hotel or to the South Los Angeles location where he was arrested.
• Motive: Authorities have not theorized about a motive, but that is not unusual this early in a case. Nick Reiner had struggled with drug addiction but was also described as being close to his family.

What’s next

• Nick Reiner will continue to be held in Los Angeles County jail without bail.
• He is expected to be arraigned on Jan. 7. His attorney, Alan Jackson, said Wednesday: “There are very, very complex, serious issues associated with this case.”