TRUE CRIME ROUNDUP: Philly's 'House of Horrors' and insight into Louisiana sex trafficking invesigations

Lauren Barry (0:02)

This is a True Crime Roundup from The On Deadline Podcast. We explore crime stories reported on by Audacy's radio newsrooms across the country.

I'm your host, Lauren Barry.

This week, we're taking a deep dive into an ongoing investigation into what's been called a House of Horrors in Philadelphia. It's a gruesome tale and more details keep coming out. So far, it involves a deceased pornographer, hard drives that have disturbing footage on them, missing women, apparent drug use, urns filled with cremated remains, bomb-making materials, and more. Audacy station, KYW Newsradio has been on the case for months. And we'll hear both the latest news and a rundown of the situation from KYW's Gone Cold Podcast. We're also going to hear about human trafficking investigations in New Orleans and from people there working to help victims of sex trafficking operations. First, we have some quick crime updates from LA, New York, Dallas and Philadelphia. We'll start on the West Coast with the latest on the trial of Nick Reiner. He's accused of killing his parents, beloved director Rob Reiner and producer Michelle Reiner. Here's Odyssey Station KNX News in Los Angeles, reporting on the case this Tuesday, September 15th.

SPEAKER_2 (1:38)

The DA here in LA County has taken the death penalty off the table in the murders of actor, director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle. That announcement made this morning just before their son, Nick Reiner, made an appearance in court. Our Jon Baer joining us now live from downtown Los Angeles.

Jon Baer (1:55)

And of course, the son Nick Reiner is charged with the murders. He was in court. My understanding is he was sitting at the defense table instead of being behind the glass in the secure area for this pretrial hearing. Now we understand also there were discussions about whether they should seal the grand jury transcripts. The Reiner family is against the release of the transcripts because they say it will cause them more trauma.

The judge indicated he would move in that direction towards sealing them while giving the news media room to challenge that ruling. Now as far as the death penalty, DA Nathan Hockman said this just before the hearing.

Nathan Hockman (2:37)

Where we look at the aggravating factors as well as the mitigating factors. Where we have spoken to the victim's family, where we have spoken to prosecutors, law enforcement. I've worked with the most senior people in the district attorney's office.

After a careful and thorough review of all these factors, the district attorney's office will not be seeking the death penalty in this case. That means that the maximum sentence that Mr. Weiner will be looking at is life without the possibility of parole.

Jon Baer (3:06)

The DA also indicated this trial will not likely go forward until 2027 at the earliest, but he said they will be ready when the defense is ready.

Lauren Barry (3:17)

KNX News also covered a deadly helicopter crash on Tuesday. As the news helicopter crashed live on air, it killed a journalist, a pilot, and a person on the ground. Here's KNX with the details.

SPEAKER_5 (3:32)

We've been telling you all day about the investigation into the crash of News Chomper 4, Channel 4's news gathering helicopter. National Transportation Safety Board is on the ground digging through the wreckage in the initial phases now of trying to figure out what happened. And Pete Demetrio got an update from them.

Pete Demetrio (3:50)

NTSB lead investigator Fabian Salazar has 10 years with the agency, 20 as a helicopter pilot. He said one of the key pieces of evidence they're looking at is the video the chopper was shooting at the time of the crash.

Fabian Salazar (4:02)

In that recording, we are clearly hearing sounds that are consistent with the engine changing its speed. And we're also hearing tones that are being generated that are likely advisories to the pilot. So it's important that we get those, that recording to our lab so that they can be downloaded and we can get to that factual evidence that way.

Pete Demetrio (4:28)

Salazar says they'll also try to collect as much as they can of debris from the crash site today before they actually remove the helicopter and take it to a secure location for complete disassembly and analysis. They're anticipating a preliminary report on the incident in about 30 days, but a final report laying out the probable cause of the crash may take as long as 18 months to complete. In Chatsworth, I'm Pete Demetrio, KNX News.

Lauren Barry (4:52)

Now that crash isn't a true crime story, but it coincides with what might become a criminal case. That is the car versus bus crash that the helicopter was covering when it went down.