He . Stephen Janis is an award winning investigative reporter turned documentary filmmaker. As police began to analyze the case, numerous aspects seemed odd about Rivera jumping off the main roof of the Belvedere Hotel. At the time of his disappearance, Rivera was a 32-year-old finance writer for The Oxford Club as a video contractor. Jayne Miller: And it has elements of it that cause questions to be asked and raise suspicion about things that we dont have firm answers to. They staged a killing and staged a suicide and made it convincing enough to fool the Baltimore Police Department. [14], According to Stansberry's publicist, "There was no gag order or direction given to employees to not speak to the press, law enforcement or any other party. There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. So the idea that Rey could suddenly just walk in the front and no one sees him is hard to believe compared to someone going down into that basement. Do NOT access SecureDrop using your employers hardware. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Many sources later confirmed that Rivera was unhappy with the job he held shortly before he died, especially since the stocks he wrote about often didnt rebound as hed hoped. Just read this now. Why Police Said Rey Riveras Death Was A Suicide And Why The Bizarre Evidence Says Otherwise, Rey Riveras case was examined in the episode. Once you are connected to a public network at a cafe or library, download and install the desktop version of Tor Browser. The Real News journalists Taya Graham and Stephen Janis have previously covered Riveras death, asking why his injuries were more consistent with being struck by a car instead of falling from a rooftop, as the discovery of his body suggested, Taya and Stephen return with Jayne Miller to break down the latest evidence in Rey Riveras death. What are your thoughts? Send us physical mail. Why would a police department want to close that investigation so quickly? And its a place of public accommodation because it was, actually it had been converted to a condominium by the time this incident occurred. When their beloved husband, brother and son goes missing, an entire community searches for him. "[3] After searching the house for evidence, Allison found a note behind Rivera's computer. Stephen Janis: And let me just contrast, let me just add, because youve done such a good job of describing, anyone whos seen the Belvedere hotel. But as an investigative reporter who has worked in one of the most violent cities in the country for nearly 15 years, I can tell you this is not true. that it picked up along the way? After the Unsolved episode came out, even more information has surfaced about Rivera's death. Stephen Janis: We know his car went there, we know his body ended up there. 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. A loving husband and aspiring writer, he was suddenly called away from his Baltimore home and disappearedlater found dead in a conference room of one of the city's hotels. 3. Jayne Miller: Well, I can answer that from a media perspective. The first episode of new Netflix series Unsolved Mysteries centres around the 2006 death of 32-year-old newlywed Rey Rivera, who was found dead at a hotel in Baltimore, Marlyand. Rey took a job at good friend Porter Stansberry's 'Stansberry & Associates Investment Resea Dis friends have said she referred to the doctor as the love of her life., She and Prince Philip strike up an unlikely friendship throughout the fifth season of 'The Crown.'. The cell phone was not broken, it wasnt damaged. Jayne Miller: Correct. The footage from that day. As the Daily Mail reports, "Unsolved Mysteries" has proven wildly . 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. In more recent years, its been largely converted into a condo building. Netflix. At about 4 p.m., Claudia heard Rivera answer a call on his cellphone and reply, oh sh, and run out the back door as if he was late for an appointment. Taya Graham: Jayne, could you describe a little bit about how the parking garage connects to the concourse where Rey was found? According to Naya's mother, Yolanda Rivera, Naya and her . Signals servers will store only your phone number and the time you were last active, and messages can be set to automatically erase themselves from your phone and ours after a certain period of time. Rivera was also described as the kind of person who wouldnt take off without telling his wife and loved ones but he did. Discussing further, they learned she hadn't seen the autopsy report. Jayne Miller: Well, if he jumped, then they would suggest that he was trying to take his own life. According to Riveras wife Allison, the two were planning to move back to Los Angeles, where Rivera could pursue his dreams of screenwriting. [13], Rivera's eyeglasses and phone were found relatively intact on the lower roof near the hole. Why on earth would they not do that, Jayne? Mystery on the Rooftop, the first episode in the gripping Netflix series, which aired on July 1, tells the story of . The true crime series Unsolved Mysteries originally aired from 1987 to 2010, and was revived by Netflix. Though ruled a suicide, numerous people think that something more . Just like somebody said thats enough. Featured on Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries. According to Claudias account, as Brottman laid out in her book, Rivera seemed preoccupied with an assignment. And I thought it was interesting when we went through the investigative file that we received through public information request, is that the missing person investigation seemed to be pretty thorough. News of Rey Riveras death reached Burbank, California, where he had worked as an aquatics coach at a local high school. Rey Omar Rivera was born on June 10, 1973, to Angel and Maria Rivera. Then cut off all contact with the family. Speaking on theYou Can't Make This Up (opens in new tab)podcast and reported byCosmo UK (opens in new tab),Unsolved Mysteriescreator Terry Dunn Meurer divulged that an unidentified someone wasveryinterested in Rivera's computers once they had been taken by the policeand even tried to pick them up (!). Visit our organizations unique SecureDrop URL at http://isomzhlu2hqz2ll6t3c7mt67j3mvad2omzptk6cnc2ce2fzdabjjmnid.onion/. That day, while Allison was away on a work trip, the couple's house guest Claudia reported hearing . Because circumstances surrounding the incident are unclear, the medical examiner marked Rivera's manner of death as "undetermined". Its a common thing to do, and it could have been done in the aughts. What could make a stable, gregarious, newly married man who had just made plans for the weekend suddenly jump off a building? author Mikita Brottman questioned in her 2018 book An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere. At the time of his disappearance, Rivera was a 32-year-old finance writer for The Oxford Club as a video contractor. Stansberry's company produced a newsletter advising on investments, which Rivera wrote for. His office was across from the Belvedere. All this has led to speculation about what really happened to Rey Rivera, a question we will try to answer today, because luckily Im joined by my co-host Stephen Janis and Jayne Miller, who reported on the case when it occurred and also appeared in the Netflix episode, which examined the evidence and brought national attention to it. 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. Shortly before his death, Rivera was also reading books related to masonry, such as The Builders. A post shared by Unsolved Mysteries (@officialunsolvedmysteries) (opens in new tab). And the way he parked his car in the parking lot where his car was found suggests that he parked in a hurry. And today we are going to be discussing a case that made national headlines several years ago after it became the subject of Netflixs reboot of Unsolved Mysteries. Netflix Unsolved Mysteries Mystery on the Rooftop, https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a32944829/who-was-rey-rivera-unsolved-mysteries/, https://allthatsinteresting.com/rey-rivera-death. One of the theories links Rivera's death to David Fincher's film, The Game, which features a character dying in a similar way to . Signals servers will store only your phone number and the time you were last active, and messages can be set to automatically erase themselves from your phone and ours after a certain period of time. In September 2004, one of Rey's high school friends, Porter Stansberry, offered him a job. The only way I got anything about Agora, just because it was of interest, because thats where he worked when he came to Baltimore, was just to talk to people off the record who would pick up the phone and talk to me. Jayne Miller: Yes. There was a note taped to the back of his computer, but it was just a weird note and were not positive he wrote it. Jayne Miller: Well, the vast majority of our cases that involve both suspicious death and homicide involve gunshots. In this article, we take a look at the case, some of the . His reluctance could simply be a matter of protecting his business from bad publicity. Case. 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 . Correct. So that obviously would be a critical piece, would provide, perhaps, some critical information. Jayne Miller: Not locked. % New information has come to light in the Unsolved Mysteries case on Rey Rivera. So we dont know when it arrived, but we know it was there at least by the next morning. Until now, Rey Rivera's death has been a mystery, but it is undoubtedly a mystery that can be solved. Host & Producer The helicopter theory to me seems so far out there. But these were people that were familiar with Rey, they were familiar with Reys business associates, and they were filling in a few blanks. 0. You can scrub metadata from some files prior to submission using the Metadata Anonymization Toolkit featured in Tails. 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. Stephen Janis: Thats what it appears. Stephen Janis: And to Tayas point, which is a great point and a great question, if someone did kill him this way, they are good at what they do. It didn't take long for Rey to realize that investment advice was not his strong suit so . The first episode of Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries covers the tragic and perplexing 2006 death of Rey Rivera. 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. Jayne Miller: Yeah, I would agree. And that is something of what I would say would be a professional hit kind of thing. So does that mean he was called to meet somebody? He is also the co-host of the true crime podcast Land of the Unsolved. I think he was put there, killed somewhere else. His body was found at the Belvedere Hotel. admitted there were really bizarre elements. A writer and videographer based in Baltimore, Maryland, he had a good job as a finance writer for Stansberry and Associates, he had a new wife, Alison, who he loved very much, and he was also an assistant coach for the men's water polo team at Johns Hopkins University, as well as an aspiring screenwriter, with plans to move to . His body was badly decomposed, indicating that he had been deceased for quite some time. And the evidence of suicide was murky at best. A week later his body was discovered beneath a hole in the roof of the Belvedere Hotel. If you're unfamiliar, the episode details the mysterious disappearance and death of aspiring screenwriter Rey Rivera. Perhaps the most nefarious theory is that Rivera was killed by an investor who blamed him for significant monetary loss. 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? Theyre called progress reports. Maximilian Alvarez, Editor in Chief This isnt a gunshot victim, which obviously Baltimore has more than its share of gunshot victims. Follow her on Twitter. There are several hints hidden in their social media pages. According to NPR, he was last seen on May 16th. I don't see anything about any debris in or on the body in this report. Questions turn to torture when they lack answers. Taya Graham is an award-winning investigative reporter who has covered U.S. politics, local government, and the criminal justice system. And I think , Jayne Miller: Well, the biggest question is why did he go there? But whats significant about it is it was accessible from the street because of the way the hotels entrances are. The Game. 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. And with the release of a new season of Unsolved Mysteries, we thought it would be timely to revisit the latest evidence and where the case stands. And after that, were not really going to be curious about any other aspect of the case. That hole has definitely taken any attention off other ways that this could have happened in other , Jayne Miller: Well, because what the hole does is that it provides an answer, or a possible answer. We know he went there because . You walk through. We dont know. Rey was wearing flip flops or barefoot and would have had a maximum run up of just over 15 feet or 5 meters (2.5 seconds). Theres not as much traffic there. There was a lot of tracking down of his last steps and talking to people and family. 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