Where Are the Menendez Brothers Now, 36 Years After Murdering Their Parents? Inside Erik and Lyle's Lives Behind Bars Jessica Sager, Nicole PomaricoAugust 20, 2025 at 5:00 AM Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty (2) Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered their parents José and Kitty Menendez on Aug.
- - Where Are the Menendez Brothers Now, 36 Years After Murdering Their Parents? Inside Erik and Lyle's Lives Behind Bars
Jessica Sager, Nicole PomaricoAugust 20, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty (2)
Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered their parents José and Kitty Menendez on Aug. 20, 1989
The brothers were convicted in March 1996 and sentenced to life in prison
In May 2025, a judge resentenced the brothers to 50 years to life, which means they are now eligible for parole
It has been 36 years since the Menendez brothers, Lyle and Erik Menendez, murdered their parents, José and Kitty Menendez.
However, new developments in the case continue. In 2023, Lyle and Erik's lawyers filed a petition to vacate the brothers' convictions in light of new evidence — a letter Erik wrote eight months before the murders and Roy Rosselló's claims that he was drugged and raped by José in the '80s. In May 2025, a judge resentenced Lyle and Erik to 50 years to life in prison. They are now eligible for parole, and their hearings are set for August 2025.
On the evening of Aug. 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik murdered their parents — José, an entertainment executive, and Kitty, a former teacher — in their Beverly Hills home. Lyle and Erik shot them at point-blank range with shotguns, then called 911 themselves, saying they came home from a night out and found their parents' dead bodies. Intrigue in the case was almost immediate, with initial investigations looking into the mob as potential suspects.
But notes from the brothers' therapist, a shotgun casing and a screenplay pointed to Lyle and Erik, whom prosecutors claimed were privileged, spoiled and eager to cash in on their father's $14 million fortune. Lyle and Erik were tried twice, during which they alleged that José was physically, emotionally and sexually abusive and that Kitty was addicted to drugs and alcohol, physically abusive and an enabler of José.
In March 1996, the brothers were each convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. They are now incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.
"Looking back on the trials, Erik and I and our family thought we were going into a manslaughter case with a district attorney that understood the traumatic impact that sexual violence creates in a person," Lyle reflected in the 2024 Fox Nation docuseries Menendez Brothers: Victims or Villains. "And we ended up with the same sentence as a serial killer."
From their time spent in prison to their marriages, here's everything to know about the Menendez brothers and where they are now.
Where are the Menendez brothers now?
Nick Ut/AP Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez in court in 1990
For more than 20 years, Lyle and Erik were imprisoned separately, with Lyle in Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif., and Erik about 500 miles away at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County. The brothers didn't speak for years, though they communicated in letters (and played chess through the mail).
"Our start to prison life was tremendously painful. My brother actually went on a hunger strike to try to keep us together," Lyle told Barbara Walters in a 1996 interview.
In February 2018, Lyle was transferred to another housing unit at Richard J. Donovan — and in April of that same year, Erik moved into the same unit as Lyle.
When the Menendez brothers reunited, they burst into tears and Lyle whispered, "Finally," he told DailyMailTV. "It was just a remarkable moment," he added. "It was just something I wasn't sure was ever going to happen."
In 1999, Erik married his longtime pen pal, Tammi Ruth Saccoman, with whom he shares his stepdaughter, Talia. Tammi wrote a book, They Said We'd Never Make It: My Life with Erik Menendez, about their relationship and experiences. Erik also took up painting — and even gifted a portrait to comedian Kathy Griffin — and, with other inmates, made attempts at prison reform.
"Being arrested was such a relief. My life was over and I was glad," Erik told PEOPLE in 2005, adding that he was never motivated by money. "Once I was arrested and put into prison, that person who I was began to emerge again. I had to find it for myself."
Lyle served as president of inmate government at Mule State Creek Prison before being transferred and has worked in a support group for other prisoners who endured sexual abuse. From 1996 to 2001, he was married to Anna Eriksson. Two years later, he married Rebecca Sneed.
In November 2024, Sneed shared in a Facebook post that she and Lyle had separated.
"This is NOT a cheating scandal," she wrote. "Lyle and I have been separated for a while now but remain best friends and family. I continue to run his Facebook pages, with input from him, and I am forever committed to the enduring fight for Lyle and Erik's freedom, as has been so evident over the years."
In July 2025, Tammi and Talia shared an update on Erik on social media, revealing that he was recovering after undergoing two surgeries "due to complications with both kidneys having multiple large stones" and will need a third.
Will the Menendez brothers ever get out of prison?
Kim Kulish/Sygma/Getty
Erik and Lyle Menendez in Los Angeles.
The Menendez brothers were serving life sentences without the possibility of parole until a judge resentenced them to 50 years to life with the possibility of parole on May 13, 2025. The Parole Board of California will now decide whether or not to release Erik and Lyle from prison.
Attorneys for the brothers filed a petition with the court on May 3, 2023, citing Rosselló's allegations against José featured in the Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed as well as a newly discovered letter Erik wrote to one of his cousins describing his father's sexual abuse just months before the murders.
"The new evidence not only shows that Jose Menendez was very much a violent and brutal man who would sexually abuse children, but it strongly suggests that — in fact — he was still abusing Erik Menendez as late as 1988," the filing read in part, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. "Instead, the crime was manslaughter, not murder. The killings occurred in imperfect self-defense, after a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse from their parents."
The filing also pointed out that in their second trial, evidence of the alleged sexual abuse they endured was excluded, with prosecutors accusing the brothers of fabricating the claims because they were never corroborated.
The brothers are now set to attend their parole hearings in August 2025.
What new evidence was discovered relating to the Menendez brothers?
Ronald L. Soble / Los Angeles Times via Getty
Erik and Lyle Menendez on the steps of their Beverly Hills home in November 1989
In April 2023, Rosselló, a former member of a popular Puerto Rican boy band called Menudo, seemingly corroborated Lyle and Erik's stories of abuse when he came forward with his own story about José.
He alleged that the Hollywood executive drugged and raped him as a teen.
"I know what he did to me in his house," Rosselló said in Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed. "That's the pedophile," he added, referring to a photo of José.
In addition to Rosselló's statement, the brothers' lawyers also provided a never-before-seen letter written by Erik in 1988. It was discovered by José's sister Marta Cano and addressed to her late son Andy.
"I've been trying to avoid dad. It's still happening Andy, but it's worse for me now," the letter read. "I can't explain it. He [sic] so overweight that I can't stand to see him. I never know. When it's going to happen and it's driving me crazy. Every night, I stay up thinking he might come in. I need to put it out of my mind."
In October 2024, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón recommended that the Menendez brothers be resentenced. A resentencing was granted in May 2025 — and the brothers are now eligible for parole.
What have the Menendez brothers said about their crimes and incarceration?
Ted Soqui/Sygma/Getty LYLE and ERIK MENENDEZ trial
Erik gave his first comprehensive interview in 2017 for A&E's docuseries The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All. He shared explicit details about encounters with his abusive father, including one "overwhelming memory" of José pounding on his bedroom door.
"He would have me massage him, and he would have me perform oral sex on him. He would graphically describe to me how he would kill me if I ran away," Erik recalled.
The younger Menendez brother also expressed regret for the murders, saying, "I wanted to go back in time. I wanted to take everything back that Lyle and I did."
That same year, Lyle spoke with PEOPLE. He also admitted to still "carrying the guilt" over his parents' slayings.
"This tragedy will always be the most astounding and regrettable thing that has ever happened in my life," he said. "You can't escape the memories and I long ago stopped trying."
While incarcerated for the past three decades, the Menendez brothers have tried to be "productive" people. In June 2024, Lyle earned his bachelor's degree in sociology at UC Irvine along with 23 of his fellow inmates, and he is currently pursuing a master's degree in urban planning.
"I just decided even though I'm incarcerated and there isn't hope of freedom, I still have a chance to feel proud of what I'm doing with my day," Lyle said over the phone to a crowd at CrimeCon 2024 Nashville. "Education seemed like an obvious answer to that question."
The Menendez brothers will appear at their parole hearings in August 2025.
on People
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