Their troubled recovering junkie son Nick, 32, who lived in a guesthouse on the property, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances in connection with his parents’ deaths. Sources have confirmed both victims died with their throats slit as they lay in bed and “multiple sharp force injuries.”
Nick has not entered a plea, and the investigation remains ongoing. Friends of the family say the revelation Nick, suspected to have been suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the bloodbath, had spoken about wanting a gun in the weeks before the killings, which has added a disturbing layer to the Reiners’ friends’ grief over their horrific passings.
One insider said, “People can’t stop thinking about the way Rob and Michele died. Knowing they were stabbed makes it unbearable. There’s this awful feeling that if Nick had gotten hold of a gun, they might not have suffered the way they did.”
Another friend echoed the sentiment, stressing it was not about excusing what happened. “Nothing makes this okay,” they said. “But the idea of the violence they endured is what’s tormenting everyone. People are saying they wish it had been over quickly, not with a knife.”
