Partly due to the hotel's mansard roof, there was a considerable horizontal distance between the hotel tower and the location of the hole in the lower roof. The Belvedere Hotel, the lack of video evidence, the inconsistencies, the undetermined cause of death, and the strange circumstances under which all of it happened were all very intriguing. Im not going to comment on how easy or hard it is to fool the Baltimore Police Department. Rey Rivera. And it could be an amazing red herring. } One of these movies was The Game. Rivera's coworkers went to the top of a parking structure near where the car was discovered, and noticed a hole in the roof of the south wing of the Belvedere Hotel. rey rivera crime scene photos. Will We Ever Know What Happened to Rey Rivera? Allison said that their security system was tripped twice in those few weeks, but no one was found breaking and entering into the house. And . We dealt with this. Now, an amateur sleuth and movie buff has a hunch about the note and Riveras death. So I think that stuck out to me when I went through the file, is that they interviewed a lot of people and they went through financial records, et cetera, and they didnt find anything, no one told them anything that would suggest that he was distraught. Jayne Miller: Well, they have a body, they have a hole in the roof. The 2020 Netflix reboot of Unsolved Mysteries brought international attention to Riveras mysterious death. 2,581, This story has been shared 2,379 times. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, As Brottman delves into the murky circumstances surrounding Rey Rivera's deathwhich begins to look more and more like a murdershe contemplates the nature of and motives behind suicide, and uncovers a haunting pattern of guests at the Belvedere, when it was still a historic hotel, taking their own lives on the premises. Stephen Janis: Hit by a car rather than falling from a distance. When you make your first submission, you will receive a unique codename. Netflix owes us answers after that ending. A hole in the rooms roof suggested he had leapt off the top of the Belvedere 14 floors up. She told police that Rivera was unusually anxious when their home alarm had gone off and that an encounter with an unknown man at the park left her husband visibly distraught. And this isnt your everyday investigation, no question about it. According to Claudias account, as Brottman laid out in her book, Rivera seemed preoccupied with an assignment. 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. Signal (signal.org) is a free, open-source messaging application that encrypts all communications end-to-end. A week later his body was discovered beneath a hole in the roof of the Belvedere Hotel. However, the coroners autopsy stated his cause of death was undetermined. Meanwhile, his wife and family suspected foul play. 1. But theres nothing that I see in there. About a week after the 32-year-old aspiring screenwriter vanished, his body was found inside an abandoned conference room at Baltimores historic Belvedere Hotel. Unsolved Mystery, Rey Rivera QUESTION . 8,387, This story has been shared 7,808 times. If theres an employee of the building that says we started Yeah, correct. So its significant that the parking garage is attached to the building. She finally called Claudia at 10 p.m. to ask about her husband, but Claudia said she hadnt seen him since he had left earlier that evening. The similarities to Rey are truly astonishing.. And when he went missing, there were a lot of people that turned out to try to find him, including members of the water polo theme at Hopkins and others in the community outside of his connections to Agora, the publishing company where he had worked and others who knew him in other ways. Instead it marked the beginning of a story of a young man whose death still remains shrouded in mystery. Stephen Janis is an award winning investigative reporter turned documentary filmmaker. 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. Rey Rivera's mysterious death in 2006 was one of the focal points in the series. Netflix. At 9:30pm, Allison phones her co-worker, Claudia, who is staying at the couple's home. Stephen Janis: But this is total stone silence, cut off. Mystery on the Rooftop: Directed by Marcus A. Clarke. A post shared by Unsolved Mysteries (@officialunsolvedmysteries) (opens in new tab). I dont want to sound But thats basically most of the cases Ive covered. After theUnsolvedepisode came out, even more information has surfaced about Rivera's death. Jayne Miller: Well, I can answer that from a media perspective. Correct. Porter Stansberry is currently 50 years old, and hasn't publicly commented about Unsolved Mysteries. But its another five or six days until his body is found, because the room was never used. Why was he in a hurry to get there? Rivera, who is the subject of Episode 1 of NetflixsUnsolved Mysteriesreboot, Mystery on The Rooftop, was found dead in a hotel room, but left a note behind before he went missing. Once you are connected to a public network at a cafe or library, download and install the desktop version of Tor Browser. The synopsis of the episode previews the twists and turns of this perplexing mystery. This is a very different kind of case. 'Unsolved Mysteries' Creator Weighs In on Theory. But really no one at Agora would ever give me a comment on the record or anything official. The writer's death in 2006 was ruled as a suicide, but his loved ones don't think that's what really happened. A file contains valuable metadata about its source when it was created and downloaded, what machine was involved, the machines owner, etc. Boom! I remember the players would sprint to the side of the pool during timeouts just to listen to what Rey had to say, recalled George Akopyan, who was the assistant coach under Rivera for two seasons. "I am watching the Rey Rivera episode on Netflix and what really caught . In the show, It's the brick house on the hill with green shutters, we feel like it's in the Guilford or Homeland area. Yes, there was a hole in the roof where Reys body was found, but there was not a single witness who placed him in the hotel the night of his death. And its the kind of story that generates everybodys own theory of what happened. Host & Producer join our growing community of sustaining members. And the way he parked his car in the parking lot where his car was found suggests that he parked in a hurry. There doesnt appear to be anything in the information that was gathered in the week he was missing by detectives that were working a missing persons case. Jayne Miller: Well, sometimes people kill people to keep them quiet, too. Taya Graham is an award-winning investigative reporter who has covered U.S. politics, local government, and the criminal justice system. #544. Ron DeSantis oversaw torture in Guantnamo as a military lawyer, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. But one of them is that one way police can use to figure out what happened is just ping their cell phone. ", WATCH 'UNSOLVED MYSTERIES' ON NETFLIX (opens in new tab), Will We Ever Know What Happened to Rey Rivera? Why on earth would they not do that, Jayne? 1. Rivera's car was found in a parking lot on St. Paul Street. DO access SecureDrop on a network not associated with you, like the wifi at a library or cafe. His first feature film, The Friendliest Town was distributed by Gravitas Ventures and won an award of distinction from The Impact Doc Film Festival, and a humanitarian award from The Indie Film Fest. So the police wanted to close this as suicide literally as soon as his body was found. The last person known to see him alive was Claudia, his wifes work colleague who was staying over as a houseguest. In "Unsolved Mysteries" episode "Mystery on the Rooftop," Netflix examines the mysterious death of Rey Rivera (top right), who was once a water polo star at Winter Park High School in. Jayne Miller: No. One of the most enduring episodes of Netflix'sUnsolved Mysteriesisthe story of Rey Rivera (opens in new tab). On Saturday. Thedocumentary investigates the death of Rey Rivera, a Baltimore writer whose partially-decomposed body was found at the Belvedere Hotel in 2006. 393, This story has been shared 360 times. Jayne Miller: Sure. Jayne Miller: And it just always struck me as it just didnt seem to add up to And then they have the injuries that are described in the autopsy, which have been noted significantly because theres a leg injury that just doesnt seem to make a whole lot of I think weve had a forensic person look at that. This isnt a gunshot victim, which obviously Baltimore has more than its share of gunshot victims. Alleybux. A post shared by Unsolved Mysteries (@officialunsolvedmysteries). Its ironic, because he was terrified of heights.. In 2020, according to the social networking site LinkedIn, Stansberry has spent 21 years at Stansberry Research as the company founder, and has also co-hosted Stansberry Radio for the past nine years withAaron Brabham. A missing Baltimore man was puzzlingly found dead in a local hotel in 2006, but a bizarre note added even more mystery to the baffling case. Your online behavior can be extremely revealing. After Rivera vanished and was found dead in Baltimores Belvedere Hotel in 2006, his wife discovered a note tucked away that Rivera had left at home. As police began to analyze the case, numerous aspects seemed odd about Rivera jumping off the main roof of the Belvedere Hotel. Im your host, Taya Graham, This is Land of the Unsolved. Stream It Or Skip It: 'Obsession' On Netflix, Where An Acclaimed Surgeon Is Having A Kinky Affair With His Son's Girlfriend, Mark Consuelos Disappoints Millions By Admitting He And Kelly Ripa "Definitely" Wont Be Discussing Their Sex Life On 'Live'. [6][b] Rivera had stopped working for the company six months prior to his death in May 2006,[8][9] but according to Stansberry, did freelance work for another subsidiary of Agora Publishing. 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. listeners: [], When he came here, he actually coached at Johns Hopkins. But these were people that were familiar with Rey, they were familiar with Reys business associates, and they were filling in a few blanks. Rey Omar Rivera was born on June 10, 1973, to Angel and Maria Rivera. He wasnt in Baltimore all that long before he met his demise here. She has written extensively for a variety of publications including the Afro American Newspaper, the oldest black-owned publication in the country, and was a frequent contributor to Morgan State Radio at a historic HBCU. "[3] After searching the house for evidence, Allison found a note behind Rivera's computer. Jayne Miller: Yeah, there you go. And I think , Jayne Miller: Well, the biggest question is why did he go there? Jayne Miller: Well, the vast majority of our cases that involve both suspicious death and homicide involve gunshots. Carmine Galante Had A Mental Age Of 14 And Was The King Of Heroin, Inside The Death Of Aaron Hernandez And Why The Disgraced NFL Star Killed Himself, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Sign up for our newsletter. Here's what Unsolved Mysteries leaves out aboutStansberry, a businessman who's been rumored to be the devious orchestrator of a deadly game. All the show tunes! Prior to joining The Real News, Janis won three Capital Emmys for investigative series working as an investigative producer for WBFF. But What Really Happened? He didnt tell . Stephen Janis: Which contrasts very much with what you mentioned, the parking garage. 308, This story has been shared 260 times. [15] The confusing note included the names of prominent figures in Hollywood, movie titles, Freemasonry quotations, and additional ramblings. (function() { Solidarity, not charity! ); We know a big missing piece of this whole thing is that security cameras were inadvertently deleted. On May 24, 2006, the body of 32-year-old Rey Rivera was found in an abandoned conference room at the Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore. When Rey Rivera's death first made headlines in 2006, it originally seemed like a suicide. Visit our organizations unique SecureDrop URL at http://isomzhlu2hqz2ll6t3c7mt67j3mvad2omzptk6cnc2ce2fzdabjjmnid.onion/. (Image credit: Courtesy of Netflix) By Katherine J. Igoe last. admitted there were really bizarre elements. If you go through the front entrance, theres usually somebody sitting there because it is an apartment building, a condominium, theres usually a security person, and theres a bar. And they started to notice an odor in the building on the 19th. His wife Allison (right) said the newlyweds had planned to start anew back in Los Angeles. Why Police Said Rey Riveras Death Was A Suicide And Why The Bizarre Evidence Says Otherwise, Rey Riveras case was examined in the episode. The body of Raymundo Rivera, 35, was found about 2:40 p.m. Saturday inside a pillar at Winco Foods, according to the Los Angeles county coroner's office and sheriff's department. For days family and friends searched frantically for him, but to no avail. Follow him on Twitter. (Photo courtesy: Kathleen Jones). 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. Regularly monitoring our publications social media or website can potentially flag you as a source. But the day the body was found was not the end of the uncertainty surrounding Reys death. And once that happens, the whole story will be there. Jayne Miller: Well, the parking garage is literally attached to the building, the Belvedere building. 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. But Rey didnt have any business entanglements to speak of. Maximilian Alvarez, Editor in Chief 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 night approaches, she calls their houseguest Claudia who tells her something odd. Jayne Miller: Well, Ive seen Reys telephone records, but Ive seen them because Allison has them, his wife. 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. Thirty-two-year-old Rey Rivera and his new wife, Allison, had only been in Baltimore a few years when Rivera went missing on May 16, 2006. event : evt, Belvedere Hotel is located in the top left. At the time of his death, Rivera had been working for his longtime friend, Stansberry, the founder of Stansberry & Associates Investment Research (now known as Stansberry Research). When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. forms: { The show jumped to number one in the US partly because of the story we will be exploring today: the death of Rey Rivera. As Netflix releases a new season of Unsolved Mysteries, Jayne Miller, Taya Graham, and Stephen Janis break down the latest evidence in the mysterious death of Rey Rivera. 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. We control the servers that store your submissions, so no third party has direct access to the metadata or content of what you send us. Send us physical mail. We dont know. Stephen Janis: Is it 400 in Mount Vernon by itself? Allison was very troubled.". The note he left behind began and ended with phrases used in the Masonic order. But it was originally a hotel and it had retail spaces on its ground floor and on its first floor. 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. Do NOT access SecureDrop using your employers hardware. Police at the time suspected he'd died from suicide. 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. Very few, if any photos of the scene exist (including Rey's body and his belongings found on the roof). 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. 'The Mandalorian' Set up the Season 3 Finale And the Future of Star Wars, 'Breaking Bad's Skinny Pete Makes Surprise 'The Mandalorian' Appearance, Fans Praise Drew Barrymore's Intimate Interview Style: "F*** Therapy, I Wanna Be a Guest on 'The Drew Barrymore Show'", Jennifer Garner Left Speechless After Drew Barrymore's Multiple Surprises: "I'm So Freaked out About What You're Gonna Do to Me Next", Drew Barrymore Says Its Possible Her Scream Character Survived Ghostfaces Brutal Murder: Im Pretty Sure a C-Section is Comparable. 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. 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 . Who Killed Rey Rivera? There is a possibility of what may have happened in the parking garage. Do NOT access SecureDrop on your home network. Shes been afreelancerfor 11 years and has had roles with Cosmopolitan and Bustle, with bylines in Parents, Seventeen, and elsewhere. DO access SecureDrop on a network not associated with you, like the wifi at a library or cafe. Jayne Miller: Body was found, it was just like And theres something that is, I have asked about this and I have yet to receive an answer, and that is that the parking garage adjacent to the Belvedere apparently had video surveillance, and the detectives inquired about it. In more recent years, its been largely converted into a condo building. But they all felt pretty confident from what theyd heard that Rey did not fall off the building in any way, shape, or form. This doesnt sound like a man who was suicidal, but it doesnt necessarily sound like a man who has enemies. On the evening of May 16, 2006, Allison Rivera is out of town on a business trip when she tries to call Rey, but he doesn't answer. Interviewees reveal thatRivera received a phone call fromStansberry & Associates on the evening in question, and the location of hisbody suggests that a suicide jump would've required a running start. Based on the extensive research she did for her comprehensive book about Rey Rivera's death entitled An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere, author Mikita Brottman concluded that the only plausible answer was that Rey Rivera had taken his own life after suffering a psychotic break. Mystery still surrounds Belvedere death scene. So that obviously would be a critical piece, would provide, perhaps, some critical information. And that is something of what I would say would be a professional hit kind of thing. And then the hole is I have to tell you, this is strictly an observation, but Ive always thought the hole looked like the kind of hole that someone was walking across a roof and hit a soft spot and punched through it with their leg. 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. 494, This story has been shared 393 times. His body was found on May 23 at the Belvedere Hotel. The FBI announced a $100,000 reward. Despite the strange details of his case, the police and some amateur sleuths remain unmoved from the investigations conclusion that Rey Rivera committed suicide. 231 Holliday St. 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. But did Rey Rivera really take his own life? But yeah, I think that would be accurate. Jayne Miller: Well, we know his car went there. Allison tried to reach her husband on his cellphone that day but couldnt get ahold of him. His reluctance could simply be a matter of protecting his business from bad publicity. Theres a school of thought who think he did jump from the building or jump from a window and are obsessed with the angles and the speed because it seems like it would be very difficult for him to end up where he did based on jumping. He took only keys, a cell phone, $20 and a credit card, and then disappeared. So the Belvedere Hotel is an old building and it had this room that had been added on much later and it was an abandoned meeting room or ballroom or whatever. One espsiode is about Rey Rivera's mysterious death at the Belvedere Hotel in Mt. That is what is so crazy about this: Were planning on moving and starting a new life. Is 'Drunk, Driving, and 17' on Lifetime Based on a True Story? If you would like to customise your choices, click 'Manage privacy settings'. I am watching the Rey Rivera episode on Netflix and what really caught my eye was the note Rey wrote on the day he died and he hid the note behind the computer, they wrote. She is the host of TRNN's "Police Accountability Report," and producer and co-creator of the award-winning podcast "Truth and Reconciliation" on Baltimore's NPR affiliate WYPR. 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. Is there anything at that scene that stands out to you as being unusual? To protect your anonymity when using SecureDrop, it is essential that you do not use a network or device that can easily be traced back to your real identity. Okay. Rey Rivera, the author who vanished after taking a mysterious call and was found dead in a prominent Baltimore hotel, is the subject of the first episode of Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries. And also, similarly, you could walk up from the back of the basement. Rivera was found dead at Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore in 2006 about a week after . Stephen Janis: And as you point out, he was an employee of Agora, which is one of the largest employers in Mount Vernon with 2000 employees, I think . People have been discussing the mysterious circumstances surrounding Rey Rivera's death ever since he was found in a room on the second floor of The Belvedere. He lived a comfortable life with his longtime partner and newly-wedded wife, Allison. Jayne Miller: We dont know. } window.mc4wp = window.mc4wp || { We dont know what that Because we dont have anybody that is filling in that blank. I think that would be of great interest. NetflixHis wife Allison (right) said the newlyweds had planned to start anew back in Los Angeles. Thats exactly right. And its a place of public accommodation because it was, actually it had been converted to a condominium by the time this incident occurred. Stephen Janis: And we dont have any witnesses. Shortly before his death, Rivera was also reading books related to masonry, such as The Builders. 7,808, This story has been shared 6,423 times. Mikita Brottman/An Unexplained DeathRey Rivera and his wife Allison before he went missing in 2006. A couple of nights before his disappearance their alarm is triggered and Rey exhibits extreme fear that his wife has never seen. And they were In fact, I think the last thing that I found notes on in the file was at the end of June of 2006 when they interviewed Reys former friend and person he came here to work with, and met with that person and a lawyer. How did they manage to survive such a big drop when their owner clearly did not? Stream It or Skip It: 'The Wedding Cottage' on Hallmark Casts Erin Krakow and Brendan Penny as Unlikely Wedding Planners, Stream It Or Skip It: 'It's All Right!' Stephen Janis: And before he moved here, he was a water polo star. This involves an extraordinary amount of trauma and some injury that has been questioned about whether it really would be indicative of a fall. It did not look like a hole made from an impact of 260 pounds from 13 floors up, which is 400 feet. As his death is being investigated as a homicide, Allison Rivera continues the crusade for answers. There doesnt seem to be any indication that he had a threat against him, someone who was trying to do him harm. Anyone with information related to Riveras case, or any of the episodes featured onUnsolved Mysteries,can submit their tips on the shows website, unsolved.com. Netflix. 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.