It’s been nearly one month since Rob and Michelle Reiner were found murdered in their Brentwood home.
The couple’s son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested for their murder and is currently being held without bail.
Nick appeared in court last week, but he still has not entered a plea.
Little is known about his possible motives, but more information came to light over the weekend, thanks to a new documentary about the case.
The TMZ-produced project, The Reiner Murders: What Really Happened, offers new details about Nick’s lifelong battle with mental illness and how it may have led to his parents’ murders.
We already knew that Nick had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.
And we had already heard the claims that his condition deteriorated about a month before the murders, seemingly because his doctors made adjustments to his medications.
Now, new claims are being made about why his doctors made those changes.
Insiders tell TMZ that Nick’s previous meds had resulted in significant weight gain, and his doctors chaged his prescription in the hope of curtailing that common side effect.
“It wasn’t just about putting on a few pounds,” one source told the outlet.
“It was a total physical surrender. He stopped taking care of himself. The weight was just the most visible warning sign that he had given up.”
Nick’s struggles were nothing new, and his entire family had been working for several years to support him.
Rob even collaborated with Nick on a film — 2015’s Being Charlie — based on his battle with substance abuse.
Sadly, Nick’s career as a screenwriter never took off, and his problems only worsened. Insiders claim that in late 2025, the
“The tragedy is that the signs were there,” said one family friend told.
“But when you’re dealing with severe mental illness, sometimes the decline happens right in front of you, and you feel powerless to stop it.”
Currently, Nick resides in the mental health wing of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles.
He has been removed from suicide watch, but he reportedly remains in solitary confinement for his own safety.
We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.