Rob Reiner and his wife Michele had been dead for hours when they were found, with their bodies already showing signs of rigor mortis, according to police sources.
The Hollywood director and his wife were knifed to death between Saturday night and 3.30pm Sunday, when their daughter Romy stumbled into the grim scene after going to check on them at their LA home.
Their throats had been cut and they may have been asleep in their bed when they were murdered, a source close to the investigation claimed to the Daily Mail.
The couple had been dead for at least several hours by the time law enforcement arrived, sources told TMZ. Rigor mortis usually sets in between two to six hours after death.
The couple’s son Nick was later arrested after reports stated he had been ‘acting crazy’ at a holiday party he attended with his parents on Saturday.
Nick is said to have left A-list guests feeling unnerved at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas bash, getting into a tiff with comedian Bill Hader and prompting his parents to leave the event.
A source close to the investigation told the Daily Mail that Nick may have killed his parents after the party.
‘He could have done it not long after they all went home, meaning he went there and slit their throats in the middle of the night,’ the source said. ‘They were in bed when that happened.’
Rob Reiner is pictured with his son Nick (right), who has now been arrested in connection with the deaths of his parents
Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner (pictured in 2014) were found dead on Sunday
The 32-year-old, who a source said has been living in his parents’ guesthouse, later checked into a hotel at around 4am on Sunday.
Staff at the Pierside Hotel later discovered the shower in his room ‘full of blood’, as well as a trail of blood over the bed and the windows blacked out with bedsheets, according to reports.
The scene at his parents’ $13.5 million home was described as ‘like something out of a nightmare’.
After finding her parents dead, Nick’s sister Romy, 27, reportedly told police that her brother was ‘dangerous’ and should be considered a suspect in his parents’ killings.
Nick was not at the house when she found her parents, TMZ reports, implying that he had fled the scene.
Romy called 911 around 3.30pm Sunday before calling longtime family friend Billy Crystal, who was later pictured close to tears as he left the home.
Reiner and Michele had just confided in friends that they were ‘scared’ and increasingly worried that their son’s ‘mental state was deteriorating,’ according to a neighbor.
Fears for the Reiners’ safety were only raised when a masseuse arrived at their $13.5 million mansion in the Brentwood district of LA at 2pm the next day, and no one answered the door, the Daily Mail previously revealed.
Romy, who lives across the street, then reportedly investigated and called emergency services when she discovered the horrific scene.
The LA Fire Department says first responders were called to the Reiner home around 3.30pm on Sunday and tried to render aid to the stabbed couple, to no avail.