NEED TO KNOW
Nick Reiner was placed under a conservatorship five years before the killings of his parents Rob and Michele Reiner.
The New York Times reported Thursday, Jan. 15, that Nick, now 32, entered into a mental health conservatorship in 2020 that ended in 2021.
Licensed fiduciary Steven Baer was appointed conservator for Nick, according to the outlet. Baer told The Times that mental illness “is an epidemic that is widely misunderstood, and this is a horrible tragedy.”
PEOPLE has reached out to a rep for the Reiner family for comment.
On Dec. 14, Rob, 78, and Michele, 70, were found dead inside their Los Angeles home. Nick was arrested later that night and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with their deaths.
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Nick appeared in court Dec. 17, when his then-lawyer Alan Jackson declined to enter a plea for his client. During a subsequent hearing held on Jan. 7, Jackson revealed he was stepping down from the case and that Nick will be represented by public defenders. (The L.A. County public defender’s office declined to comment on The Times’ conservatorship report.)
A spokesperson for the Reiners said in a statement Jan. 7 that Nick’s family members “have the utmost trust in the legal process and will not comment further on matters related to the legal proceedings.”
Following his arrest, Nick was initially placed on suicide watch while being held inside a high-observation mental health unit at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles.
In interviews from a decade ago while promoting his semi-autobiographical movie Being Charlie, Nick was candid about his troubled past struggling with drug addiction since his teen years, including being in and out of rehabs over 18 times by age 22.
A source previously told PEOPLE the Reiners “were such a tight-knit family” who “did everything together.” Still, said the insider, “they could never reach stability with Nick. They tried everything — giving him space, keeping him close — but his struggles are so deep. It’s just a parent’s worst nightmare. They were such lovely people and tried in every way to help their son.”
Rob and Michele’s son Jake, 34, and daughter Romy, 28, spoke out about the “horrific and devastating loss of our parents” in a statement shared Dec. 17. “Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day.” The siblings added, “They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends.”
