Rob and Michele Reiner autopsies unfinished as son Nick's case delayed

Jami Ganz, New York Daily News on Apr 29, 2026

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The autopsies of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner have not yet been completed, stalling the criminal case against their son Nick, who is charged in the couple’s grisly December 2025 deaths.

The 32-year-old — who has pleaded not guilty to killing his parents at their home in Los Angeles' Brentwood neighborhood on Dec. 14 — attended a preliminary hearing Wednesday morning at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, where prosecutors were scheduled to present evidence for a judge to decide whether the case would go to trial.

At the “brief” hearing, it was decided that the case would resume in September, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Per the outlet, the reason for the medical examiner’s office’s delay in completing the autopsies remains unclear.

The “When Harry Met Sally” filmmaker, 78, and 70-year-old Singer Reiner were found deceased by their daughter Romy, now 28, on Dec. 14. Nick had been staying at his parents’ guest house at the time of their murders.

He was quickly arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, with the special circumstance as multiple murders.

Nick Reiner, who is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, faces a special allegation he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon.

As of Wednesday, Los Angeles officials had still yet to decide whether to pursue the death penalty. It was announced when Reiner entered his plea that he would appear for a hearing on April 29.

It’s still unclear why his first defense attorney, Alan Jackson, stepped away from the case in January, even as the attorney called for “the most robust defense,” which is currently coming in the form of a public defender.

A source in February told TMZ that Jake and Romy were “not involved” with hiring a lawyer for their brother.

Wednesday’s hearing came on the heels of his older brother Jake breaking his silence on the murders in a Substack essay, published Friday and titled “Mom and Dad.”

Jake, 34, recounted Romy telling him their parents were dead, at which point, “My world, as I knew it, had collapsed.” He described the “living nightmare” of recent months, and having “lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable.”

Nick was reportedly in a mental health conservatorship from 2020 to 2021 and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

In the wake of the killings, sources told TMZ that he’d become “erratic and dangerous” in the weeks prior, following a change in medication.

A source recently told Us Weekly that the Reiners were “warned ... not to let Nick live at home until he got his medication straightened out.”

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