'Unsolved Mysteries' Viewer May Have Uncovered A Clue in Rey Rivera's Mysterious Death
Netflix debuted a reboot of true crime favorite "Unsolved Mysteries." The unscripted program includes features of the original, which was the pioneer in real crime.
While the series continues without its narrator, Robert Stack, who died in 2003, the documentary has led producers to receive 20 credible tips that may solve some of the cases, USA Today reported.
One such tip revolved around the mysterious death of Rey Rivera, a Baltimore resident. He was found rotting away inside the Belvedere Hotel. Consequently, his story is the series' first episode titled "Mystery on the Rooftop."
Who was Rey Rivera?
The victim was a 32-year-old writer and freelance videographer who aspired to be a screenwriter. He and his wife, Allison Rivera, had just married six months before his untimely death.
The married couple lived in the Northwood neighborhood of Baltimore. At the time of his death, Rivera was working for the financial institution Stansberry and Associates owned by a friend, Frank Porter Stansberry.
How did he disappear?
On May 16, 2006, a friend who was staying at their home as a guest claimed Rivera answered a phone call before rushing out of the house. Allison, who was on a business trip, rushed back home and called the victim's relative after he failed to come home that evening.
Police officers began searching. On the sixth day, Rivera's parents discovered his car in a parking area behind the Belvedere Hotel and near Stansberry and Associates. As three of Rivera's colleagues looked down from the top of an adjacent garage, they saw a hole in one of the roofs of the hotel. Next to the mysterious hole were a pair of flipflops.
The Baltimore Police Department deployed officers to search the hotel's premises. Rivera's corpse was discovered inside an abandoned church room with fatal wounds that included lacerations, cracked ribs, punctured lungs and broken shins.
How did he die?
It is unclear whether Rivera was murdered or if he jumped from the top of the building. While the police department ruled his death a suicide, Michael Baier, the homicide detective who worked the victim's case, believed he was murdered, and his suicide was staged.
A second theory about Rivera's death emerged when the medical examiner ruled his cause of death "undetermined" after finding that the victim's shin injuries were inconsistent with a fall. In the documentary, the producers speculated whether the 32-year-old was killed by someone who lost money due to Rivera's stock advice.
The theory was further fueled after Allison, Rivera's wife, said the alarms in their home went off twice before his disappearance and death. Subsequently, Stansberry and Associates were also charged $1.5 million for defrauding public investors.
Rivera's family believe the victim may have stumbled on classified and potentially damaging information. However, the investigators were unable to get statements from the company's employees due to a gag order filed hours after Rivera's body was discovered.
Possible Lead
One day, Allison was searching through her late husband's things when she found a letter that Rivera wrote and left behind his computer.
A viewer of the Netflix series may have uncovered a massive possible lead to the victim's death. According to the unnamed Reddit user, the letter was startlingly similar to the film Free Masons, which was directed by Stanley Kubrick.
The plot of the film involves one scene where the protagonist jumped off the roof of a hotel after participating in a game where the player loses everything. The goal of the game is for the player to learn how to appreciate life again.
"Rey was an unsuccessful movie scriptwriter, and maybe he got involved in something that tried to imitate The Game in some way," the Reddit user added.
The Reddit post is likely to add evidence that Rivera had an undiagnosed mental illness, though members of his family questioned the inconsistencies in the theory.
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