Chiropractor Robert Rainey

CrimePAY$       $50,000 Reward       TipLine 1-888-755-TIPS (8477)

PALMS, Calif.  — A $50,000 reward is being offered for information in the case of a chiropractor who was beaten to death in his office in Palms three weeks ago.

Los Angeles City Council member Paul Koretz announced the reward at a recent news conference.

Authorities say they are still looking for clues in the brutal murder of Culver City chiropractor Robert Rainey, found beaten to death in his Venice Boulevard office on May 31, 2012.

That morning at around 8:15 a.m., a patient coming in for a scheduled appointment found Rainey, 54, on the floor of his office with his jaw crushed and teeth smashed in, police said.

LAPD detectives believe he was killed sometime between 7 and 8 a.m., and are now combing through surveillance footage from the area — although not all of the cameras were operational at the time of the murder.

Authorities sometimes ask that business owners keep their surveillance equipment operational as it can help them solve crimes. As LAPD Det. Glenn O’Shea told KPCC in April, “Make sure your video functions.”

Meanwhile, Rainey’s brother, L.A. Times media writer Jim Rainey, has written a moving tribute to his brother which he posted on his Facebook page.

In it he gave details on his brother’s life, accomplishments and character — describing him, for example, as a wine connoisseur and “something of a health nut.”

Rainey was well-known and very active among long-distance running groups such as the Santa Monica Mountain Goats, Jim Rainey said.

He was an avid runner who ran more than 25 marathons. He also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, his family said.

“Our father, Ford Rainey, lived to two weeks shy of his 97th birthday. Robert told people he would live longer. At first he said he was shooting for 100. At some point he moved his target to 105. Recently, he recalibrated again: 110 didn’t seem unreasonable.”

And yet, Jim Rainey said, Robert “liked to finish meals with copious helpings of pie and, especially, ice cream.”

He was also a friend to disadvantaged people, and “would talk to every oddball door-to-door salesman who came by his office. He would give handouts to the homeless men who hung out in the neighborhood. Sometimes he would pay them for an odd job.”

Above all, Jim Rainey wrote, “Robert Rainey was a gentle man. He didn’t pick fights or look for trouble. He had a kind heart. … He deserved a much better, more humane end.”

The office where he was found, Rainey Chiropractic, is located on the second floor of a strip mall on the 9200 block of Venice Boulevard in Palms, just over the border from Culver City.

Rainey opened his practice in 1993, according to his website.

“It’s a shock,” said longtime friend Mark Westover. “Nobody can believe this.”

CrimePAY$      $50,000 Reward       TipLine  1-888-755-TIPS (8477)

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2012 at 8:25 am and is filed under $50,000+, California, Unsolved Murder. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.