Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Nick Reiner Schizophrenia Treatment, New Meds Before Parents Murder "Made Him Erratic" | CRIME ALERT RECAP SATURDAY 12.20.2025

Episode Date: December 20, 2025

Breaking crime news as it happens throughout the day! Follow "Crime Alert Hourly Update" now on your favorite podcast app: https://link.chtbl.com/Crime_Alert Here's some of our top stories this week: Sources claim Nick Reiner was diagnosed with Schizophrenia before parents were murdered and the recent medication change "made him erratic and dangerous"  A scathing lawsuit is calling out a hospital - accusing them of gross negligence after a granny's skull chunk it tossed out - in a bone blunder. They offered a $25 gas card to make up for the error.  The individual suspected of last week's mass shooting at Brown University has been discovered deceased in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, following a six-day multi-state manhunt. The arrest of sixty-eight-year-old Joe Campbell, a once-celebrated children’s pastor now accused of first-degree rape and lewd acts involving a child under sixteen, marks what survivors say is a long-overdue reckoning more than forty years in the making.  Stay informed, stay safe, and stay ahead with "Crime Alert Hourly Update.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Crime Alert, hourly update. Breaking Crime News now. I'm Nicole Parton with breaking details in the shocking Brentwood double homicide involving Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle Singer-Riner. According to TMZ, their son, Nick Reiner, who's now charged with their murders, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in the weeks leading up to the killings.

His behavior reportedly became erratic and dangerous after a change in medication. Two sources with direct knowledge say Nick was under psychiatric care and had recently been treated at a Los Angeles high-end rehab facility specializing in mental illness and substance abuse. That facility cost about $70,000 a month, and it's known for catering to wealthy families. TMZ reports that about a month before the murders, doctors adjusted Nick's medication in an effort to stabilize him, but instead his condition worsened. One source said, quote, Nick was out of his head. Substance abuse reportedly compounded his schizophrenia.

Legal experts believe this case is headed toward a not guilty by reason of insanity plea. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has released the Reiner's bodies to their family. Funeral arrangements will be announced later. The autopsy confirmed both victims died from multiple sharp force injuries. Nick Reiner remains in custody without bail and is scheduled for arraignment in January. Freud Hospital did not just drop the ball on a grandmother's recovery. They allegedly tossed a chunk of her skull in the trash and tried to pay off the family with a measly $25 gas card.

Edna Burton, a beloved Nana, and 20-year veteran employee of Ascension St. hospital in Detroit, Michigan, is now at the center of a scathing negligence lawsuit after a routine medical procedure devolved into a grotesque administrative blunder. Daughter Erica Burton spoke to Newsford, Detroit. It ain't even about the money like, y'all don't even know what y'all took from us. The nightmare began when Burton was rushed into emergency surgery following a devastating stroke. To save her life, surgeons perform. formed a hemicranectomy, removing a significant section of her skull, a bone flap, to

allow her brain to swell safely. Standard protocol dictated the bone be preserved and reattached once the pressure subsided. However, when doctors prep for the follow-up procedure months later, they made a stomach-churning discovery. The bone was gone. According to the lawsuit, on December 16th in Wayne County Circuit Court by the Oliver Bell Group. Staff allegedly confused Burton with another patient named Edna Brown and misplaced or discarded the vital anatomy.

Forced to improvise, medics installed a synthetic plastic plate instead of her God-given bone. The result has been catastrophic. Burton's family says the prosthetic has left her in agony, largely bed-bound with painful sores, unable to eat, and stripped of her voice. Adding insult to the literal injury, hospital honchos reportedly offered the family a $25 gas card as an apology, a gesture her daughter slammed as beyond insulting, to say the least. While Henry Ford Health, which took over operations in 2024, is trying to disliked.

distance itself from the previous administration's botch. The Burton family is demanding justice for the loss of their matriarch's quality of life. The suit seeks unspecified damages for medical malpractice and emotional distress. Ascension says they cannot comment on pending litigation. The individual suspected of last week's mass shooting at Brown University has been discovered dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, following a six-day multi-state manhunt, according to law enforcement officials. The suspect has been identified as 48-year-old Claudio Nivas Valenti, a Portuguese national, who attended the University in Providence, Rhode Island, approximately 25 years ago.

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez stated that video surveillance and tips from the public guided investigators to a car rental facility where they matched Valenzuela. Valenti's name to their person of interest. Authorities also suspect that the man was involved in a murder of a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mitt just two days after the December 13 shooting at Brown. No motive has been disclosed for either incident. Brown University President Christina Paxson confirmed that Valenti was enrolled at the university from fall 2000 until spring 2001 pursuing a Ph.D. in physics, but he did not.

not have any current affiliation with the institution. Officials suspect the man fatally shot MIT professor Nuno Gomez, 47 in his Brookline home, located roughly 50 miles from Providence, both the victim and the suspect were reported to have studied at the same university in Portugal in the late 1990s. The connection between the two cases was established when Valente's vehicle was identified through CCTV footage and a witness account from Brown University. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Norona reported that Valenti was found with a satchel and two firearms. Evidence discovered in a nearby vehicle matched that from the Providence scene, and that same car was seen close to the site of the professor's shooting.

Preliminary investigations suggest that Valenti died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but police have not commented on how long he may have been inside that storage unit. Although the suspect has been found dead, our investigation is far from over. There are numerous questions that still need to be answered, said special agent-in-charged Ted Docks, noting that approximately 500 agents had been deployed to aid local authorities. Leah Foley, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, remarked that Valenti was using a cell phone that obscured tracking, indicating he was skilled at evading detection. Federal agents found Nees-Volente dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

This is what we learned during this multi-jurisdictional investigation. Nees-Volente studied at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on an F-1 visa around 2000 to 2021. He eventually obtained legal permanent resident status. Previously, he attended the same academic program as the MIT professor, Nuno Lauriero in Portugal between 1995 and 2000. Although Neves Valenti appeared to reside in Florida, between November 26 and November 30 of this year, he rented a hotel room in Boston. On December 1st, he rented a great Nissan Centra with Florida plates from a car rental agency

in Boston. That same day, he drove to the vicinity of Brown University, where his car was observed intermittently between December 1st and December 12. On December 13th, Neves Valenti entered an auditorium on Brown University's campus during a study session and began shooting at students. In response to the shooting, the U.S. has suspended its green card lottery program with Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nome asserting that Valenti, quote, should never have been allowed in our country. Nome explained that Valenti entered the U.S. in 2017 through the diversity. lottery immigrant visa program and subsequently received a green card. The program grants up to 50,000

visas each year through a random selection that countries with low immigration rates to the U.S. and Nome has paused that program under President Donald Trump's directive to prevent further harm to Americans, she says. Public frustration grew over the investigation into the Brown University shooting, which occurred when a gunman opened fire in the engineering building during a study session before finals. Two students were killed and nine others were put in the hospital. Six of them still listed in critical condition. The victims have been identified as 19-year-old Ella Cook from Alabama and 18-year-old Muhammad Yuzovic, a Uzbek American first-year student. Police say the investigation is still ongoing. The arrest of a once celebrated children's pastor now stands

as the latest reckoning in a case survivors say took more than 40 years. to reach this moment. 68-year-old Joe Campbell was arrested Wednesday on child sex abuse charges after U.S. Marshals took him into custody in Missouri. He is charged with first-degree rape and lewd or indecent acts involving a child under 16. Oklahoma prosecutors say the case centers on abuse alleged to have occurred decades ago when Campbell was a rising Pentecostal preacher working closely with children. Authorities say Campbell is being held in the Green County Jail in Springfield while awaiting extradition to Oklahoma.

If convicted, he faces life. Campbell's arrest follows months of renewed scrutiny triggered by an NBC News investigation into abuse allegations within the assemblies of God. Five women say Campbell sexually assaulted them as children in the 1970s and 80s. Nine more people, including four men, reported that he showed them pornography,

made sexual comments, or touched them inappropriately while acting as a trusted youth minister. At the center of the case is Carrie Jack who says Campbell abused her repeatedly in Tulsa, starting when she was about nine years old. Prosecutors revived the case using a frontier era Oklahoma law that pauses the statute of limitations when the suspect leaves the state. In sermons aired nationally for years, Campbell often described himself as a man chosen by God after surviving a violent car crash. And one recorded message obtained by NBC News, he framed his survival as a divine bargain.

NBC News reporters say Campbell used that testimony repeatedly to build credibility with congregations and parents. Survivors say the same language was later used to gain access to children, foster trust, and silence victims. In sermons reviewed by investigators, Campbell repeatedly emphasized authority, obedience, and loyalty inside the church. One message delivered at a men's conference. Don't show me your building and thank God for buildings. Don't show me all your equipment and your drama and your pretty props. Show me your men. Don't tell me about your bank account.

Tell me about your disciple account. Show me your churches. The allegations against Campbell are not new. According to church records and interviews reviewed by NBC News, complaints reached Assemblies of God leaders as early as 1983. One accuser by the name of Fadra Creed reported abuse to police and Ms. Missouri in the late 1980s after living with Campbell and his family as a teenager. A medical examination confirmed she had been sexually assaulted.

Campbell was arrested at the time, but the case never went to trial after Creed withdrew her case under pressure. The assemblies of God expelled Campbell from the denomination in 1989. Despite that, he continued working with children. He later founded a non-denominational church and a youth camp in the Missouri Ozarks. The camp became a gathering place for people accused or convicted of sex crimes. Campbell also joined the PTL television network in 2016, the one made famous by Jim and Tammy Faye. His sermons were broadcast nationwide until earlier this year. NBC News says its Pastors and Prey series prompted Oklahoma investigators to reopen the case.

Attorney General Gantner Drummond called the allegations horrific and said his office would pursue accountability for survivors who said they were ignored for decades. Drummond said in his statement, quote, this arrest is about justice delayed, not justice denied. The assemblies of God said it is grateful to those who came forward and hoped the legal process brings healing. Campbell has not responded publicly to the charges. More crime and justice news after this. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.