WITHOUT GRATITUDE –
Jan. 24, 2026 – Friends say Reiner bounced constantly between rehab centers and his family’s Los Angeles mansion, where he killed his parents, Rob and Michele. Unemployed at 25, Nick had spent a decade bouncing between this gated enclave and at least 18 rehab facilities paid for by his parents.
He has told stories on an addiction podcast about going to downtown Los Angeles’s Skid Row to procure heroin and shooting crack cocaine in a McDonald’s restroom in Maine. But after each bout of degeneracy or failed treatment, he always seemed to end up back here, with his parents.
For as much as he resisted their interventions, Nick had become accustomed to the trappings of his privileged upbringing. Unlike at rehab, he had a staff to tidy up for him at home. He was so attached to his private quarters that he once demanded the family’s housekeeper retrieve him from a friend’s house across town so he could use his own bathroom, a childhood friend recalled.
Tensions were high that Thanksgiving, according to a guest who attended the meal with roughly 20 others. This person saw signs that Nick might be using again — using air freshener to cover smells in the billiard room, “screaming, yelling, cursing,” throwing tantrums so violent one longtime household employee threatened to quit.
As the turkey leg made its way around the personalized place settings and professional flower arrangements, guests and family waxed rhapsodic about the bountiful blessings in their lives. Then it was Nick’s turn.
