{"id":285434,"date":"2026-04-25T11:12:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285434\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T11:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:12:20","slug":"jake-reiner-writes-on-parents-slayings-my-world-as-i-knew-it-had-collapsed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285434\/","title":{"rendered":"Jake Reiner writes on parents’ slayings: ‘My world, as I knew it, had collapsed’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The oldest son of Rob and Michele Reiner has published a heart-rending account of learning from his sister that their parents were dead and his troubled brother <\/a>had been arrested in connection with the slayings inside their Los Angeles home.<\/p>\n

In a personal essay published Friday on Substack<\/a>, 34-year-old Jake Reiner described the \u201cnightmare\u201d of unexpectedly losing his parents last December. His younger brother Nick, 32, was arrested in the double murder<\/a> within 24 hours of his parents\u2019 bodies being found inside their bedroom. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable. Sure, any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it<\/a>,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost too impossible to process. I understand that people have questions about what happened. Some of those answers will come in time. But some parts of this belong only to our family, and keeping them private is the only way to protect what little remains of something that was taken from us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hell do you say to someone who is living through this reality?,\u201d the essay read. \u201cThe truth is, there is nothing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele, 70, were found by their daughter Romy when she went to their home the afternoon of Dec. 14. Police believed Nick Reiner was the killer and tracked him into Los Angeles<\/a> and arrested him that afternoon near Exposition Park.<\/p>\n

Reiner has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. The L.A. County district attorney is also pursuing a murder conviction with \u201cspecial circumstances,\u201d a designation that could make him eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole.<\/p>\n

In his essay, Jake Reiner recalled being at Union Station celebrating the life of one of his recently deceased best friends when he got the call from Romy. She first said their father was dead and then she revealed their mother was too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 45-minute Lyft ride from downtown to the west side was unendurable. My world, as I knew it, had collapsed. I was in a trance,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe only thing I could focus on was that I needed to get to my childhood home. I needed to get to my sister. I needed to figure out what the hell just happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

He reflected on those who helped the siblings through the horrific events, his mother\u2019s role as the family linchpin and then what was taken from him personally.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime I was going through a tough time or had a complicated issue to hash out, I leaned on her brilliant perspective. I always felt like she was in my corner,\u201d he wrote of his mother. \u201cI get my intolerance to bulls\u2014 from her, and I love it. She was never afraid to tell the truth. She was also sensitive and always cared about everyone else before she thought about herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad is my hero,\u201d he said, revealing that their strong bond began with a shared love for baseball. \u201cI love how he would analyze my dreams or how I felt I could come talk to him about anything. No subject was ever off-limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also grieved for the moments he would not be able to share with his parents in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents won\u2019t be at my wedding, they won\u2019t get to hold their future grandchild, and they won\u2019t get to see me have the successful career I\u2019m still seeking,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt simultaneously breaks my heart and enrages me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing can prepare you for what it feels like to lose both parents instantly at the same time,\u201d Reiner continued. \u201cIt\u2019s too devastating to comprehend. I still wake up every morning having to convince myself that, no, it\u2019s not a dream. This truly is my living nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reiner said he\u2019s reminded of his parents\u2019 deaths every day, in meetings, in decisions that need to be made and in paperwork that needs to be filled out.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal in writing this piece is to offer some insight. Not only to what I lost but also to celebrate what my parents meant to me,\u201d he wrote, then concluded, \u201cI just ask for love and compassion \u2014 the same principles my parents lived by.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The oldest son of Rob and Michele Reiner has published a heart-rending account of learning from his sister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1023,122333,47515,1431,122331,48,52,51,1637,47,50,49,63,52348,6316,4084,7087,122332,54331,42254,8074],"class_list":{"0":"post-285434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-afternoon","9":"tag-daughter-romy","10":"tag-death-penalty","11":"tag-family","12":"tag-jake-reiner","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-la-headlines","15":"tag-la-news","16":"tag-life","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","19":"tag-los-angeles-news","20":"tag-los-angeles-times","21":"tag-michele-reiner","22":"tag-mother","23":"tag-nightmare","24":"tag-parent","25":"tag-personal-essay","26":"tag-rob","27":"tag-same-time","28":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}