Were Nick Reiner's Doctors Right About Him All Along?

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This is Hidden Killers, Half Year in Review. A look back at some of the most compelling cases of 2026 so far.
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**Tony Brueski** (0:15)
On Friday, a judge in Los Angeles signed a sealed medical order in the Nick Reiner murder case. Three sources with direct knowledge confirmed to NBC4 that Nick Reiner was being treated for schizophrenia. It had been for years and that his medication was changed. Weeks before, he allegedly stabbed both of his parents to death. Already, I can see where this is going. Already, the groundwork is being laid. The defense will say Nick was sick. The defense will say the medication made him unstable. The defense will say he wasn't in his right mind. The system failed him and this was a tragedy nobody could have prevented. Here's what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to let that narrative go unchallenged. Because Nick Reiner had every resource a human being could possibly had. He had parents with money, real money. He had access to the best psychiatric care in the country. He was recently in a facility that reportedly charged $70,000 a month, a place that specializes in exactly his combination of problems, schizophrenia and addiction, treated together. He had doctors actively managing his case, adjusting his medications, trying to find the combination that would stabilize him allegedly. And according to sources, he was still using, still making the choice. And it is a choice. But to put substances into his body that he knew would destabilize him further. Yeah, that's choice.
And if he was still doing it, still refusing to do the one thing that might have kept him and everyone around him safe, comply with treatment.
That is allegedly what was going on.
Medication only works if you take it. Sobriety only works if you stay sober. Nick Reiner apparently did neither. And two people are dead because of those choices that were made, if in fact, Nick Reiner is the one behind his parents' murder. And obviously, if we're playing along at home, that's where the arrows are pointing right now.
Let's go back to 2015 because this is where the dynamic started, or at least where it went public. Rob and Nick Reiner made a movie together called Being Charlie. It was semi-autobiographical based on Nick's struggles with addiction, his revolving door through rehab programs, his fractured relationship with his father. In interviews promoting that film, Rob Reiner said something that is haunting now. He said the treatment programs weren't working. He said Nick kept telling him that the experts were wrong and Rob admitted publicly on the record that he and Michele made a mistake. They listened to the professionals instead of their son. Quote, when Nick would tell us that it wasn't working for him, we wouldn't listen, Rob said, quote, we were desperate because the people had diplomas on their wall. We listened to them when we should have been listening to our son. Here's the thing about that statement. It sounds like an enlightened parent learning from his mistakes. It sounds like a father who finally understood that his son knew himself better than the experts did. It sounds like growth, but here's what the pattern suggests. The professionals were telling them what Nick needed to do. Nick was telling them the opposite. One of those sources had a vested interest in avoiding accountability. The other didn't. That's not a system failing. That's the system being undermined by the patient and the family letting it happen. I want to be clear about something because this is where people get confused. Schizophrenia is certainly a real illness. It is serious. It's not a moral failing. And people with schizophrenia are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. I'm not demonizing mental illness here. I'm not saying everyone with schizophrenia is dangerous. But I am saying this. Having a mental illness doesn't erase your choices. It doesn't eliminate your agency. And it sure as hell doesn't give you a pass for allegedly stabbing your parents to death in their bedroom. Nick Reiner knew he had schizophrenia. He knew he needed medication. He knew that using drugs would make that condition worse because that's what happens. And everyone in his life had been telling him that for years. According to TMZ, sources say his substance abuse was actively worsening the schizophrenia. His drug use wasn't separate from his psychosis. It was fuel on the fire. And he allegedly kept pouring it on anyway. That's not a symptom. That is a choice. The medication change everyone is pointing to? Sources say it happened 3-4 weeks before the killings. They say Nick became more erratic, not less. One source says he was out of his head. But here's what nobody is asking. Why did the medication need to be changed in the first place? Often it's because the patient isn't compliant with the current regimen. Often it's because they're using substances that interfere with the drugs. Often it's because the patient has made the current treatment unattainable.