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Rob and Michele Reiner spent nearly two decades trying to save their son Nick from addiction. They sent him to rehab seventeen times. They let him live in their guesthouse. They made a movie together about his struggles. When counselors warned them that Nick was lying and manipulating them, they eventually rejected that advice and publicly apologized for ever believing the professionals over their own son. Now Rob and Michele are dead, allegedly stabbed by Nick in their Brentwood home the night after a Christmas party where they had asked the host if they could bring him just to keep an eye on him. Former FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke joins us to break down the darkest truth in cases like this: families are often fully aware someone is dangerous, but the law ties their hands. Parents cannot force an adult child into long-term treatment. They cannot limit their movements. They cannot compel medication. Without a documented immediate threat, the system defaults to the rights of the individual rather than the safety of the family. This is not a story about demonizing people in addiction or blaming parents who refused to give up. It is about understanding how addiction rewires family systems and how the people who love an addict the most can become the most vulnerable to manipulation, enabling, and ultimately danger. It is about how boundaries are not abandonment and how love without limits can become a weapon. The Reiners had every resource imaginable. Money, connections, access to the best treatment programs in the country. None of it was enough. Because there is no amount of money that can force an adult to get sober. There is no love powerful enough to override autonomy when someone is using that autonomy to destroy themselves and everyone around them. #RobReiner #NickReiner #MicheleReiner #TrueCrime #Addiction #FamilyTragedy #Brentwood #BeingCharlie #MentalHealth #Manipulation #ReinerMurders #RobinDreeke #TonyBrueski #HiddenKillers #MentalHealthCrisis #FamilyViolence #SystemicFailure #TrueCrimePodcast #ParentalGuilt #LegalLimitations Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

Nearly 29 years after six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found murdered in her family's Boulder, Colorado basement, Boulder Police have announced significant movement in the case. Chief Stephen Redfearn confirmed that investigators have collected new evidence, retested existing evidence with modern DNA technology, and conducted new interviews over the past year. Dozens of items are currently being tested at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation — including evidence from the basement crime scene that was never tested before. At CrimeCon 2025, the Ramsey family's former attorney Hal Haddon pointed to the garrote used to strangle JonBenét as potentially critical, noting that DNA analysis of the knots could be "promising" since someone had to tie them. John Andrew Ramsey, JonBenét's half-brother, says it's "not if but when" the case gets solved. But here's what's strange: as we get closer to potential answers, some people are suddenly saying "let it rest" or "let it go." After 29 years of obsession with this case, why would anyone not want it solved? The psychology is fascinating — and disturbing. Whether you believe the family was involved or an intruder did it, whoever actually committed this crime benefits from the ambiguity continuing forever. The ransom note — written on a pad from inside the home, with a pen from inside the home, demanding the exact amount of John Ramsey's bonus — has never been explained. Patsy Ramsey was never fully excluded as its author. The 2008 "exoneration" of the family remains deeply contested by former investigators. We don't know who killed JonBenét. But someone does. And they're counting on us to stop asking. #JonBenétRamsey #JonBenet #TrueCrime #ColdCase #BoulderPolice #DNAEvidence #RansomNote #TrueCrimeCommunity #ColdCaseMurder #JusticeForJonBenet Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

Kentucky Sheriff Mickey Stines has admitted in court filings that he shot and killed Judge Kevin Mullins in his chambers on September 19, 2024. Nine bullets. Seven of them fired while the judge was already on the ground. The entire killing was captured on video. But now Stines is claiming he had no control over his actions and his defense team is pointing to a rare neurological disease caused by bug bites as part of their explanation. For over a year, no one could explain why a longtime sheriff walked into a judge's chambers and executed a man he had worked alongside for decades. Stines had served as Mullins' bailiff. They ate lunch together that same day. After a seven-minute private conversation behind closed doors, Stines locked the door and opened fire. Court documents now reveal what was happening in the days before the shooting. Stines had lost forty pounds in two weeks. He was placing phone calls to dead relatives. He told staff that shadowy forces were coming to kill his wife and daughter. He made someone put a bulletproof vest on his wife. His own employees believed he was experiencing psychosis. An attorney warned Judge Mullins directly that Stines was losing it. The local police chief said he had lost his mind. But here is the problem. The day before the shooting, Stines visited a doctor. According to medical records, he denied experiencing any psychosis or homicidal thoughts. The doctor diagnosed acute stress reaction and sent him home. Twenty-four hours later, Kevin Mullins was dead. Now Stines is building an insanity defense that includes claims of California encephalitis, a tick-borne illness that can cause confusion and aggression. Whether this is a legitimate diagnosis or a legal strategy designed to avoid accountability remains to be seen. #MickeyStines #JudgeKevinMullins #LetcherCounty #KentuckySheriff #CourthouseShooting #TrueCrime #InsanityDefense #CaliforniaEncephalitis #TrueCrime2025 #JusticeForMullins #KentuckyCrime #TrueCrimeCommunity #CriminalJustice #MurderTrial #LegalDefense #TrueCrimeNews #CourtroomDrama #SheriffShooting #MentalHealthDefense #BreakingCrime Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were stabbed to death in their Brentwood home on December 14th, 2025. Their 32-year-old son Nick has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances — charges that carry the death penalty in California. Defense attorney Alan Jackson says there are "very complex and serious issues" in this case. The DA's office is asking the public not to rush to judgment. So what's really going on here? In this interview, defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis breaks down both sides of this case — how prosecutors will try to secure a first-degree conviction and possibly the death penalty, and how the defense will fight back using Nick Reiner's documented history of severe addiction and mental health crises. We examine the special circumstances allegation, the knife enhancement, and the reported argument between Nick and his father at Conan O'Brien's Christmas party the night before the killings. The coroner still hasn't confirmed time of death — and that matters. Nick Reiner entered rehab at 15. By 22, he'd cycled through 17 treatment programs. He's spoken publicly about methamphetamine, heroin, homelessness, and psychotic episodes while using. His father Rob directed a film about his addiction called "Being Charlie" and once said: "I'd rather you hate me than be dead in the street." A family friend who saw Nick ten days before the murders described him as healthy and "on the upswing." So what happened? Can addiction and mental illness reduce first-degree murder charges? What does it mean that Nick wasn't medically cleared for his arraignment? And if the death penalty is on the table, what mitigating factors will the defense present? This is the complete legal breakdown from both perspectives — prosecution and defense — so you understand what's actually at stake and how this case will unfold. #NickReiner #RobReiner #MicheleReiner #ReinerMurder #TrueCrime #MurderTrial #DeathPenalty #CriminalDefense #LosAngeles #BreakingNews Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

Jesse Butler pleaded no contest to eleven felony charges including attempted rape, strangulation, and domestic assault against two teenage girls in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He faced up to seventy-eight years in prison. Instead, a judge granted him youthful offender status. His sentence: community service, counseling, and supervision until his nineteenth birthday. No prison. No sex offender registry. If he complies, his record gets sealed forever. But the case is not over. Attorney Rachel Bussett just filed a motion that could reopen everything. We break down every legal avenue that could still put Butler behind bars. The Marsy's Law challenge argues the victims' constitutional rights were violated when the plea deal was finalized minutes before the hearing without their approval. A separate statutory argument questions whether reverse certification from adult to youthful offender status is even legal under Oklahoma law in rape cases. Butler has already missed two probation check-ins. State Representative JJ Humphrey is pushing for a federal grand jury investigation. And the possibility remains that new victims could come forward with fresh charges. Payne County District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas has publicly defended the plea deal, claiming the families were consulted and that trials for sexual assault are traumatic for victims. The families dispute this entirely. According to Bussett, both were vehemently opposed to youthful offender status from the start. Court documents reveal one victim was strangled so severely her doctor said she was thirty seconds from death. Police found video on Butler's phone showing him choking another victim until she lost consciousness. The DA's statement frames the case as conduct in ongoing consensual dating relationships. The evidence tells a different story. The February third hearing could change everything or the clock runs out in August. This is about whether victims' rights mean anything in Oklahoma. #JesseButler #MarsysLaw #StillwaterOklahoma #VictimsRights #YouthfulOffender #TrueCrime #PayneCounty #CriminalJustice #RachelBussett #JusticeForSurvivors #LauraAustinThomas #OklahomaJustice #DomesticViolence #TeenDatingViolence #SurvivorStories #TrueCrimeCommunity #AccountabilityNow #JJHumphrey #LegalAnalysis #CourtroomDrama Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872