So if he had been there that night, if he had been inside the building that night, somebody probably wouldve noticed it. One Unsolved Mysteries viewer may have cracked a major clue in the case of Rey Rivera. Whilst I don't believe he jumped what angle could he have been pushed from? [16] The Federal Bureau of Investigation analyzed the note and ruled it not to be suicidal in nature. This wasnt something that seemed to be a corner dispute about something. I think that would be of great interest. But Rey didnt have any business entanglements to speak of. Coming from a forensics background, it seems like he fell head first and was already dead when he went through the roof. Jayne Miller: Because there was a ticket on it. Perhaps the creepiest detail of all is that Riveras sandals and phone were later found intact on the lower roof. His body was found on May 23 at the Belvedere Hotel. He had just gotten married, he was working, he had just finished a screenplay. The true crime series Unsolved Mysteries originally aired from 1987 to 2010, and was revived by Netflix. Its also accessible from the parking garage, which is attached to the building, and thats also significant. There doesnt seem to be any indication that he had a threat against him, someone who was trying to do him harm. Questions turn to torture when they lack answers. Or, you can use an alternate operating system like Tails, which boots from a USB stick and erases your activity at the end of every session. Jayne Miller: And we dont have any witnesses. Google ImagesBurroughs High School in Burbank, California, where Rey Rivera was a popular aquatics coach. In this article, we take a look at the case, some of the . Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. News of Rey Riveras death reached Burbank, California, where he had worked as an aquatics coach at a local high school. Jayne Miller: Well, and we get back to the circumstance of how he left According to the woman that was staying in the house, the friend who was staying in the house at the time, Rey was working on something, got a phone call, and was like, oh, got to go. There's a lot that's strange about this story, including a mysterious note he wrote the day he died that seemed to point to Freemasonry; theories have abounded about what may have happened to him. Do NOT access SecureDrop on your home network. There is a possibility of what may have happened in the parking garage. Though ruled a suicide, numerous people think that something more . These are not some random person who got into a fight with Rey and just decided to kill him. Now theres no witness to any of this, theres no witness to him coming off the roof, theres no witness to him going in that room, theres no witness to him coming in off the street. Jayne Miller: We do know, however, that his car was in that parking lot the next morning. Sending us physical mail is also an option that can preserve your anonymity, especially if you use a public mailbox: Maximilian Alvarez, Editor in Chief Jayne Miller: And I think the other thing thats important is to frame the coroners finding in this case in terms of manner of death. And its also the kind of case that could be difficult to solve because he had perhaps a lot of connections in his life and his business associations, his associations personally, et cetera, in something like this that you really have to run out. Photos from a poster asking for information about Rey Rivera's disappearance. The police concluded Rey killed himself and shut down the investigation, but his family said it was simply impossible that Rey killed himself. Hi Everybody! Theres just nobody that Did you ever talk to anybody? And in the investigative file there are notes where the parking garage manager, whatever, said that the video from their cameras would be available on June 7th of that year. How did they manage to survive such a big drop when their owner clearly did not? But they all felt pretty confident from what theyd heard that Rey did not fall off the building in any way, shape, or form. Report abuse. So I wanted to know, in this investigation, there are a lot of details that just dont seem to add up. The autopsy report clearly states that (1) only the lower right leg was broken; and (2) "the injuries were consistent with a fall from a height" and were "sustained as a result of precipitation from a 13 story building." The Baltimore Police Department concluded that Rey Rivera took his own life. The body of Rey Rivera, who had been missing for just a little over a week, was found in an abandoned meeting room in the Belvedere Hotel. Visit our corporate site. Learn more about how we use cookies in our cookie policy. Welcome back to the Land of the Unsolved. Taya Graham: Jayne, could you describe a little bit about how the parking garage connects to the concourse where Rey was found? A representative at a local Maryland lodge confirmed that Rivera inquired about membership on the same day he went missing, but didnt recall anything unusual about their conversation. And that is something of what I would say would be a professional hit kind of thing. And it could be an amazing red herring. In 2021, new theories about the case emerged in a new investigation[19] carried out by the forensic expert, Miryam Moya, which invalidates the theory of suicide, focusing on the hit-and-run as a possible cause of death. Rey Rivera was a 32-year-old writer and videographer based in Baltimore, Maryland. Stephen Janis: We dont know where he went between leaving that And I think from the notes you have, you can surmise he died pretty quickly. Case. NetflixHis wife Allison (right) said the newlyweds had planned to start anew back in Los Angeles. But then, one of Reys former colleagues from the financial publishing firm, Agora, spotted a hole in the second floor conference center attached to the historic Belvedere Hotel. I think he may have been dead already, and maybe not thrown from the window but the roof? that it picked up along the way? Why on earth would they not do that, Jayne? Content warning: reference to suicide, violence, death. Rey took a job at good friend Porter Stansberry's 'Stansberry & Associates Investment Resea We dont know. Discussing further, they learned she hadn't seen the autopsy report. A select few journalists within our organization will have access to SecureDrop submissions. Does that mean, what? Police soon discovered Rivera's partially decomposed body inside the conference room under the roof's hole.[2]. One time we actually went looking, because they said there were tunnels underneath Mount Vernon that they could have brought Rey in, and we found that wasnt true, we checked that out and it wasnt true. This was a very different kind of case. We dealt with this. This theory is by far the most famous, and according to us, (and everyone else) the most intriguing. That is so strange it says, and this is verbatim: This 32-year-old Hispanic maledied of multiple injuries sustained as a result of precipitation from a 13 story building. Its literally the first sentence of the MEs cause of death opinion. And they started to notice an odor in the building on the 19th. Once you are connected to a public network at a cafe or library, download and install the desktop version of Tor Browser. And the room that was where his body was found was accessible to the outside. support our reporting by kicking in a little each month. It appeared that Rivera had jumped from the hotel roof and plummeted through the. He left driving his wifes car only to come back briefly and run out again, leaving the lights and the computer on in his office. And the evidence of suicide was murky at best. His body was badly decomposed, indicating that he had been deceased for quite some time. I think that speaks to your Not your theory, but your thought about how incomplete the file is that someone just said, whatever we found the body, thats the main thing. But the day the body was found was not the end of the uncertainty surrounding Reys death. Do NOT access SecureDrop on your employers network. Was there information in Rivera's computer that was important? In fact, security cameras that surveilled the staircase that led to the roof had been erased on the night he died. Jayne Miller: No, and I think its also interesting that, for the short amount of time he was here, he really developed some close relationships with folks. Jayne Miller: Well, I can answer that from a media perspective. Jayne Miller: Well, the vast majority of our cases that involve both suspicious death and homicide involve gunshots. His death was ruled a suicide, but investigators, as well as Rivera's family, make clear in the episode that the unusual features of the case call that into question. We know a big missing piece of this whole thing is that security cameras were inadvertently deleted. I dont find anything in the file where I think they took his phone, but I dont see any reference to what was on the phone. Principled, independent journalism that gets to the roots of the crises we face is more important today than ever. However, if Stansberry was indeed covering something up, no one knows exactly what it was. A select few journalists within our organization will have access to SecureDrop submissions. Our organization retains strict access control over our SecureDrop project. Stephen Janis: And as you pointed out many times And you can talk about this Is that this is the point and shoot city, where you point a gun and you shoot. join our growing community of sustaining members. Join us for part Two of Four (episodes released weekly) 32 year old writer Rey Rivera and his wife Allison moved to Baltimore from sunny California after his dreams of screenwriting didn't come to fruition. I think he was put there, killed somewhere else. So what do we know right now? But to try to put it together into a puzzle that makes sense has really been the biggest challenge. Join us for part Three of Four (episodes released weekly) 32 year old writer Rey Rivera and his wife Allison moved to Baltimore from sunny California after his dreams of screenwriting didn't come to fruition. But one of them is that one way police can use to figure out what happened is just ping their cell phone. Jayne Miller: Well, the parking garage is literally attached to the building, the Belvedere building. So does that mean he was called to meet somebody? Do NOT access SecureDrop on your employers network. Taya Graham: I have to ask the question, and there might be some people who are listening who are wondering the same thing. Like many unsolved cases, the uncertainty surrounding Rey Riveras death spawned several theories online. Follow him on Twitter. Stephen Janis: But this is total stone silence, cut off. There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Details on the 'Unsolved Mysteries' True Story", "Cops say he jumped from a building, but the evidence suggests foul play", "2006 Death Of Rey Rivera In Baltimore Featured In Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries Reboot", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Death_of_Rey_Rivera&oldid=1128826096, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, the Medical Examiner ruled death as undetermined however the police ruled it probable, Rivera's death was featured in the first episode of the, This page was last edited on 22 December 2022, at 05:09. Join us for part One of Four (episodes released weekly)32 year old writer Rey Rivera and his wife Allison moved to Baltimore from sunny California after his dreams of screenwriting didn't come to fruition. 'The government killed him': A tribute to activist and programmer Aaron Swartz 10 years after his death The latest theories on how Rey Rivera died don't point to the rooftop Scott Ritter: Don't . Theres no reference to it. But it wouldve raised suspicion, but you came up with the one way to make it ambiguous enough so that police could take that out and say, you know what? In fact, the FBI ruled at the time, their opinion at the time was that it was not a suicide note. An additional theory is that Rivera may have jumped from a ledge several floors below the roof, but it would have been difficult for Rivera to access the ledge from the privately owned condominiums and offices that had windows onto the ledge. Although her reporting focuses on the criminal justice system and government accountability, she has provided on the ground coverage of presidential primaries and elections as well as local and state campaigns. "One of the most baffling parts of this case is someone made that phone call to Rey and theyve never come forward," Dunn said on the podcast. All the nudity of porn, but with the plot and storylines of mainstream film. Why would a police department want to close that investigation so quickly? Jayne Miller: Yeah, I would agree. Otherwise it wouldnt be described as a scar, it would be a laceration or abrasion. So the problem is that you have bits and pieces of information from people who were in the building that day, in the building a lot because they worked in the building, knew this or knew that. In more recent years, its been largely converted into a condo building. Having plunged through the roof of the room, his corpse had been lying there for days. The 32-year-old Baltimore man left his home in a rush one night and was . And this isnt your everyday investigation, no question about it. But it was never determined who that person was or what the phone call was aboutand whatever transpired, it could offer important clues about what happened to him. Jan 16, 2023. Jayne Miller: Sure. Ambitious, from everyone I spoke to, who had moved to Baltimore based on the request of a friend who ran a financial publishing firm here in Baltimore. The last time anyone reported seeing Rey Rivera alive was Tuesday, May 16, 2006. So we know that it was there. He is the co-host and creator of The Police Accountability Report on The Real News Network, which has received more than 10,000,000 views on YouTube. Reviewed in the United . Alison was very troubled.". Thats exactly right. Rey's entrance point in the roof reminded me of the little tin roof the 9/11 jumpers were hitting, the holes were surprisingly small too. However, a number of factors bring this ruling into question. Stephen Janis: He was, many say, a larger than life person literally because he was tall, he was six-foot-five, I think, handsome young man. 0 coins. It just seemed odd at the time that And there are pictures in the investigative file of, I think it was a flip flop, the cell phone, and where they were on the roof of that meeting room. And . But to the point, yes, they have a body underneath a hole in the roof, and that roof is below the top roof of a 13-story building. Maximilian Alvarez, Editor in Chief Why Police Said Rey Riveras Death Was A Suicide And Why The Bizarre Evidence Says Otherwise, Rey Riveras case was examined in the episode. % Mystery on the Rooftop, the first episode in the gripping Netflix series, which aired on July 1, tells the story of . He had a future; why would he decide just then to kill himself?. A post shared by Unsolved Mysteries (@officialunsolvedmysteries). SecureDrop is an anonymity tool for journalists and whistleblowers. And we dont know. The first episode of Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries covers the tragic and perplexing 2006 death of Rey Rivera. Follow her on Twitter. But definitely he had ties in the community. Regularly monitoring our publications social media or website can potentially flag you as a source. Scott Ritter: Don't believe the hype. 4. Stephen Janis: But they never picked it up. His body was found at the Belvedere Hotel. Or, you can use an alternate operating system like Tails, which boots from a USB stick and erases your activity at the end of every session. This is info that wasn't covered in the episodebut, considering whatwascovered in the episode, it's an intriguing additional detail that does seem to support the assertion that something strange happened to Rivera. After theUnsolvedepisode came out, even more information has surfaced about Rivera's death. Content warning: reference to suicide, violence, death. The 50-minute episode raised significant suspicions of key personnel, and essentially proved the official story - that Rey died by suicide - as false. Because . Send us physical mail. Taya Graham: So Jayne, I know youve been reviewing the notes that you made on the case. Stephen Janis: Yeah, we had a forensic person who said it more resembled being run over by a car because of the nature of the fracture . And then she described the inside of the room as what would indicate to me is that it doesnt indicate a fall, but it indicates that something may have happened in the room. This could help indicate whether he was placed there or actually went through the hole. Just read this now. His office was across from the Belvedere. Your online behavior can be extremely revealing. Oh, baby, baby I shouldn't have let you go And now you're out of sight, yeah Mikita Brottman/An Unexplained DeathRay Riveras missing person poster offered a $5,000 reward for any tips on his whereabouts. Allison, meanwhile, was out of town on a business trip in Richmond, Virginia. That is what is so crazy about this: Were planning on moving and starting a new life. (opens in new tab), 'Unsolved Mysteries' Creator Weighs In on Theory (opens in new tab). If you're unfamiliar, the episode details the mysterious disappearance and death of aspiring screenwriter Rey Rivera. As police began to analyze the case, numerous aspects seemed odd about Rivera jumping off the main roof of the Belvedere Hotel. But since the Unsolved Mysteries case and since the Unsolved Mystery series, Jayne and I have been flooded with people of all sorts of ideas, and some of them have been quite interesting and intriguing. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading REY RIVERA, SUICIDE OR HOMICIDE? Joaqun Manglano y Cucal de Montull, Grandee of Spain, 15th Baron of Crcer, 2nd Baron of Beniomer, 18th Baron of Llaur, 6th Count of Burgo de Laverazo, 2nd Marquis of Altamira de la Puebla, 13th Baron of Alcahal de San Juan y Mosquera (1892-1985) was a Spanish entrepreneur, official, Catholic activist and politician. Stephen Janis: And when we walked through there, we found that you could get into the building from the parking garage , Stephen Janis: There was a direct entrance . You can use our SecureDrop installation to anonymously submit documents to The Real News, and our journalists can use SecureDrop to securely communicate with anonymous contacts. Rivera wrote reports about companies whose stocks were believed to be set to rebound in price, but many did not. Stephen Janis: So the first thing to know is that theres two schools of thought And Jaynes going to talk about, actually, because weve looked at the investigative files But just to lay out so theres a framework for people. Sign up for our newsletter. Rivera and his wife Allison had relocated from California to Baltimore to work for his longtime friend Porter Stansberry as a writer and videographer for Stansberry's investment company, Stansberry . And again, the investigative file shows that the parking garage was ready to provide security footage for review by investigators, but it doesnt appear . Perhaps the most nefarious theory is that Rivera was killed by an investor who blamed him for significant monetary loss. 231 Holliday St. Im your host, Taya Graham, This is Land of the Unsolved. The first episode of the new season, "Mystery on the Rooftop," is one of the most talked-about installments so far, delving into the strange and tragic 2006 death of Ray Rivera, whose body was . Netflix owes us answers after that ending. You walk through. Jayne Miller: No. {(ZM.Ad=/` dd,[G2 0'`2N5 @D8ln6lXE 7gX. ", "How Did Rey Rivera Die? So he is someone who was involved in a lot of things, a well-rounded person, certainly not someone who sounds like theyre about to go on, you know . I hope you are well and ready for this because its about to get interesting. This suggests if he did come from the roof, and traveled a horizontal distance of 43 feet[12] (13 meters) before impact, he would have had to have a horizontal speed of 10 miles per hour which is between a fast jog and a sprint for an average fit male wearing sports shoes. His death was ruled a suicide, but investigators, as well as Rivera's family, make clear in the episode that the unusual features of the case call that into question. And that, Taya, raises the question, who would want to kill Rey Rivera, for what? Sitting in the parking lot of the church, after the service, sat a green colored Sedan with four passengers inside: a man, a woman, and two younger children. Journalism that movements and changemakers need to fuel their activism against worker exploitation, the climate catastrophe, white supremacy, and more. Allison said that their security system was tripped twice in those few weeks, but no one was found breaking and entering into the house. 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