Dr. Kathleen Heide outlines four offender profiles commonly seen in parricide: severely abused juveniles, the severely mentally ill (often during medication lapses), dangerously antisocial individuals motivated by gain or control, and enraged offenders acting in conflict. Parricide is rare—about 250 cases yearly with fewer than 20 double parricides—and most perpetrators are adult males. Heide urges careful investigation of motive, review of medical and family records, and that parents take threats seriously.
Why Some Children Kill Their Parents: An Expert Explains 4 Parricide Profiles
Phillip Faraone/FilmMagic; BACKGRIDRob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner; Nick Reiner
Dr. Kathleen Heide, a leading expert on parricide and a criminology professor at the University of South Florida, outlines four offender profiles that most commonly appear in cases where a child kills a parent. Although she is not involved in the ongoing Reiner investigation, Heide emphasizes that "double parricide" — when both parents are killed — is extremely rare and provokes intense public shock because parents are usually their children’s primary protectors.
How Rare Is Parricide?
Heide estimates roughly 250 parricide cases occur each year, with fewer than 20 of those involving the killing of both parents. Most parricide perpetrators are adults over 18, and the majority are male. These statistics underscore how uncommon these crimes are, even as each case draws deep attention.
Four Offender Types
1. The Severely Abused Offender
This profile is most common among adolescents still living at home who have endured long-term physical, sexual, verbal, or psychological abuse and chronic neglect. The motive is often desperation: victims may have sought help without success or feared imminent harm to themselves or a sibling. In many cases these youths have no prior criminal record and can appear, to outsiders, as "good kids."
Broadimage/ShutterstockMichelle Reiner, Rob Reiner, Jake Reiner, Rony Reiner and Nick Reiner in 2014
2. The Severely Mentally Ill Offender
These individuals have a history of serious psychiatric illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder with psychotic features. Killings in this group frequently occur after medication is discontinued or during a psychotic episode, when delusions or command hallucinations lead the person to believe they must act. Media reports indicate that medication noncompliance has been a factor in some recent high-profile cases, though each situation requires careful clinical investigation.
3. The Dangerously Antisocial Offender
Antisocial offenders act with instrumental, selfish motives: financial gain, immediate access to an inheritance, or removing parental obstacles to a relationship. These perpetrators often display long-standing patterns of manipulation, deceit, and lawbreaking and may meet criteria for antisocial personality disorder. They view parents as obstacles to their objectives and may believe eliminating those obstacles will solve their problems.
4. The Enraged Offender
Enraged offenders kill during intense conflict and overwhelming anger. Rage can stem from past abuse or from the frustration of grown children who have been overindulged and then confronted with demands to become independent. Heide compares some incidents to extremely violent tantrums by people with poor frustration tolerance.
Denise Truscello/GettyNick Reiner in 2024
Investigation, Prevention, and Family Safety
Heide stresses that no single label explains every case and that understanding motive requires thorough, time-consuming investigation. That includes in-depth interviews with the accused, conversations with surviving relatives, and review of long-term medical and mental-health records, school reports, and family dynamics. Quick judgments are inadequate.
"You have to find out what drove the offender," Heide says. "Happy and healthy kids don't kill their parents."
For parents, Heide's practical advice is clear: take any explicit threat seriously regardless of the child's age, set firm boundaries, and seek professional evaluation and intervention. Early involvement of mental-health professionals, social services, or law enforcement can be lifesaving.
Above all, Heide reminds readers that every parricide case is tragic: parents are lost, families and communities are altered forever, and the alleged offender's life is permanently changed. The trauma extends to friends, neighbors, and everyone who loved those involved.
