“They Were Our Best Friends”: Rob Reiner’s Other Children Speak Out On Parents’ Murder As Sibling Nick Reiner Appears In Court For First Time

Three days after Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner were brutally killed in their own home and their youngest son Nick Reiner was arrested for murder, the couple’s other children have spoken out about the tragedy.

“Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day,” said Romy Reiner and Jake Reiner Wednesday. “The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience,” the 27-year-old daugher and the 34-year-old son added of the When Harry Met Sally director and his photographer wife, who he met during the filming of the rom-com classic.

“They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends.”

The duo added: “We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support we have received not only from family and friends but people from all walks of life. “We now ask for respect and privacy, for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity, and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.”

The widely circulated statement by the siblings comes as Nick Reiner made his first court appearance this morning after being formally charged with two counts of first degree murder on Tuesday by the LA County District Attorney’s office.

Potentially facing the rarely invoked death penalty due to what the DA called “special circumstances,” the 32-year-old Reiner did not enter a plea as he stood alongside his defense lawyer Alan Jackson Wednesday in downtown LA. In fact, the shackled young Reiner, who has struggled with addiction issues for years, said nothing at all during the quick hearing. The next hearing for Reiner has been set for January 7 next year.

Weighing the options of the death penalty or life in prison without parole for Reiner if he is found guilty DA Nathan Hochman on Tuesday said he would speak to the family, which mainly means Romy and Jake Reiner, before coming to any final conclusions about their brother’s fate.

Along with a friend, Romy Reiner was actually the one who discovered her parents’  bludgeoned bodies on December 14. A 911 call around 3:38 pm PT that first night o f Hanukkah soon afterwards brought medical assistance and law enforcement to the Brentwood scene, but both elder Reiners were already dead. The Reiner daughter also called longtime family friend Billy Crystal and Janice Crystal, who arrived quickly from their nearby home. Nick Reiner had been living in a guesthouse on his parents’ property for several weeks but was nowhere to be found that afternoon. He was arrested over 10 miles away by the LPAD just after 9 pm PT that night.

No information has yet been released identifying the precise time the Reiners died and if it was on December 14 or even earlier.