Rob Reiner's sister-in-law speaks out nine months after double murder: 'The scar is there'

Nine months after her sister and brother-in-law were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home, Martine Singer sat down with Extra for her first public interview — and chose her words with the careful precision of someone who has spent that time trying to find them.

Our lives are changed forever. I suppose you heal from a wound, but the scar is there. It's a really hard thing to describe because it never goes away.— Martine Singer, sister of Michele Singer Reiner

The interview, released around September 28, 2026, marked the first time Singer had spoken publicly since filmmaker Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, 70, were discovered dead inside their Brentwood, California, home on December 14, 2025. The couple had been married 36 years. Their son Nick Reiner was arrested the same day on suspicion of murder, and the case against him is ongoing.

Singer's interview focused less on the crime than on what comes after it — specifically, her role in the lives of Jake and Romy Reiner, the couple's two surviving children, who have been navigating grief in the public eye since the killings.

Everybody in the family is healing in his or her own way. I'll never be my sister, and I can never be what's missing in their lives, but I consider them my kids. There's no daylight between us.— Martine Singer, sister of Michele Singer Reiner

Singer also reflected on her sister's relationship with Rob, describing the couple as 'the most caring, generous, brilliant people' who 'did a lot to try to heal the world' before their deaths, according to OK Magazine.

They were absolutely incredible together. They met and didn't take long before they were together forever.— Martine Singer, sister of Michele Singer Reiner

The grief has been expressed publicly by the siblings as well. In an April essay published to his Substack, Jake Reiner wrote about the morning-by-morning reality of the loss.

Nothing can prepare you for what it feels like to lose both parents instantly at the same time. It's too devastating to comprehend. I still wake up every morning having to convince myself that, no, it's not a dream. This truly is my living nightmare.— Jake Reiner, son of Rob and Michele Reiner

The circumstances of December 14 were reconstructed in detail by investigators and reported across multiple outlets. The night before, Rob, Michele, and Nick had attended a Christmas party hosted by Conan O'Brien, which they left after Nick got into what was described as a loud argument with his father. The following afternoon, the couple had a massage appointment scheduled and were due to have dinner with Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, according to Wikipedia. When their massage therapist arrived at 2:00 p.m. and received no answer, Romy — who lived directly across the street — went to check on her parents and discovered her father's body in the master bedroom. Her roommate called 911 at 3:38 p.m. Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics found both Rob and Michele dead inside the home.

Nick, who had a long and documented history of substance abuse beginning in adolescence and had been living with his parents at the time of their deaths, was located and arrested later that day. Police found blood in the shower and on the mattress of the hotel room he had checked into after leaving the family home, according to Wikipedia.

Nick, now 33, pleaded not guilty in February to charges of first-degree murder. A grand jury indictment added allegations that he committed the murders by lying in wait and personally used a knife. Earlier this month, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty.

After a careful and thorough review of all these factors, the district attorney's office will not be seeking the death penalty in this case. That means that the maximum sentence that Mr. Reiner will be looking at is life without the possibility of parole.— Nathan Hochman, Los Angeles District Attorney

We did speak with Nick Reiner's siblings, and they made their views very clear. We took their views into consideration in ultimately deciding not to seek the death penalty.— Nathan Hochman, Los Angeles District Attorney

Separately, Nick's attorneys have been fighting to give him access to money held in a family trust while he awaits trial. In court filings, they argued that California's Slayer Statute — which can bar a killer from inheriting from a victim — should not apply to funds Nick inherited from his grandfather, the late actor and comedian Carl Reiner, who died in 2020, because Nick is not accused of causing Carl's death. His lawyers claimed at least $325,000 from Carl's estate was transferred into Nick's trust in December 2024, and that Nick became entitled to at least $558,000 when he turned 30 in September 2023, more than two years before his parents' murders, according to OK Magazine.

For Martine Singer and the rest of the family, the legal proceedings are a parallel reality to the daily work of grief — one that, as she put it, leaves a mark that does not fade.

Why it matters — Martine Singer's first public words put a human face on a case that has moved steadily through the courts — and signal that, for the family left behind, the grief and the legal proceedings are inseparable.

Sources differ on Whether the Reiners left Conan O'Brien's party early because of Nick's behavior: The family left after Nick got into a very loud argument with Rob, who chastised his son for his conduct. (en.wikipedia.org) vs An associate of the Reiner family told The New York Times the Reiners would not have left the party early due to Nick's behavior, which the family had grown accustomed to. (en.wikipedia.org)

Reported by ew.com, okmagazine.com, usmagazine.com, people.com, en.wikipedia.org