Rey Rivera /// Part 1 /// 429 | Forensic Files

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foreign [Music] [Music] with over 500 episodes the television show Unsolved Mysteries is a household
name the show first aired on the NBC Network on January 20th 1987. this show went on to cover hundreds of
real-life Unsolved Mysteries over the course of the next 15 seasons many of us remember tuning in each week to see
Robert Stack stepping out of the smoke wearing a trench coat and telling us about alien abductions conspiracy
theories and ghost stories this week's True Crime Story like some of the others we have covered here in
the garage was featured on the show today we explore a story that is so much more than a unsolved
mystery it is really a bundle of many small Mysteries all tied together with the unfortunate
loss of a very loved man this big mystery starts as just a simple question for a woman named Allison
and for her that question was where is my husband he was supposed to be at home working
but he was not sensing that something was just not right she went to look for him
soon the entire family was looking for this man and then the police joined in this question became a missing person's
case then the questions not only grew in number but they got louder and louder as
missing posters went up and suddenly a city was looking for a man named Ray Rivera
his body was eventually found in an old hotel but how did he get there and why nothing seemed to add up
and over time this mystery goes nowhere it just sort of sits there and goes cold
no one can seem to agree on just what the hell happened this is a true story did Ray Rivera commit suicide
or was he the victim of Foul Play join us perhaps you can help solve a mystery [Music]
Ray Omar Rivera was born on June 10th 1973 to Angel and Maria Rivera Ray had an older brother named angel and a
sister Elena at the time of his disappearance Rey was just 32 years old and recently worked as
a finance writer and a video contractor now many of you from listening to today's trailer already know what case
we are talking about and that is because when Unsolved Mysteries came out in July
of this year on Netflix one of the stories was titled mystery on the rooftop and it was all about the
mysterious death of 32 year old Ray Rivera Ray died in Baltimore Maryland in May of 2006 but the how and the why are
the Unsolved Mysteries here let's start off with some background information and
some key events and dates leading up to Rey's disappearance and death in 2004 Rey and his girlfriend Allison moved
from California to Baltimore Maryland this is for the purpose of Rey taking a job working for his longtime friend from
high school Frank Porter Stansberry Porter Stansberry is the founder of Stansberry and Associates which operates
under the larger company Agora publishing Rey is a writer more specifically a screenplay writer
Ray was hired to be an editor for the financial newsletter that is called The Rebound report sounds like they're
describing my dating life now Captain I think that it's important to mention that Rey does not seem to have any real
Financial background he has a writing background and as said it will be his job to be the editor of
the financial investing newsletter called The Rebound report well it seems like this is a pretty big shift in his
life and in his career yeah the rebound report offers investment advice specifically it tells you these one-time
High performing high-valued stocks that have not been doing so well as of late well they are about to make a comeback
and here is why they're going to make a comeback so it is time for you to buy these stocks while they are still low
now Allison says on Unsolved Mysteries that Ray took the job so he and Allison could get married
some sources say it was to purchase a ring for her but regardless this move does not overly seem like a desirable
one for Rey but the job seems to me Captain like maybe some sort of sacrifice he's willing to make so that
he and Allison could start their marriage life together off on the right foot yeah anybody in the Arts know that
it's a struggle he's with this girl that he loves and she wants to move things forward and he probably felt like he
wasn't able to afford them moving forward in his current position and also they moved across the country true and I
mean as you're pointing out here I mean even Stephen King one of the most successful authors of our lifetime he
started off as an English teacher because you need some kind of Base some kind of income to build your family life
and your life around while you pursue your dreams if not you're you're just a starving artist so likely what they want
to do here the goal I'm guessing is to have a good Financial foothold to start off their marriage
plus Not only would this be steady income for Ray the cost of living in Baltimore has got to be less than Los
Angeles so it makes all kinds of financial sense and also he's given this opportunity from one of his friends that
he is successful yes I think that when your buddy that is successful and maybe you look up to him
in that way and he's saying hey come over here and I can help you get get where I'm at yeah it's certainly an
opportunity in December of 2004 Ray and Allison purchased their home in Baltimore this is for about two hundred
and eighty thousand dollars after this Rey starts to express some unhappiness regarding his job different
sources State different reasons for Rey's occupational unhappiness Allison recalls that the job was simply
just not a good fit for Rey Allison says Rey was not a desk guy or your typical nine to five type of person one thing
that is so important to any relationship be it marriage or otherwise Rey and Allison had a set of shared goals and
their plan was not to stay in Baltimore forever as said Rey and Allison were both working hard to build a good little
foundation and a short-term and very realistic goal for them was to move back to California
now I don't have an exact date for this next event in the timeline I've seen this listed as early as the summer of
2005 but I actually think it was more likely later in the year of 05 but Ray quit his editing job and according to
everything I could find that this was on good terms so now done with the newsletter job Ray
started a video production company he took out a fifteen thousand dollar cash advance from Allison's credit card
to buy equipment Rey and his new startup gets some contract work producing videos for the
Agora company on Saturday November 5th 2005 the happy couple Ray and Allison get married in
Isabella Puerto Rico you can see some of the video footage from the wedding on Unsolved Mysteries both Rey and Allison
are tall and good looking and they both look extremely happy in the videos yeah now here is a weird event
on the timeline on December 27 2005 a friend of Rey's and an employee of Agora this is Tom hickling dies in a car
accident while visiting his daughter in Africa it is said that Rey was quite suspicious of this death don't you think
that raises some kind of red flag if your husband or your partner somebody at their work died now now
they're not in the United States they're in a different country but they're going that's suspicious
if they died maybe within the country right it's to me it's more of a red flag that he's suspicious of a death that
happened even in another country but also who are you working with it's also a red flag is this some sort of
paranoia that's setting in that it's not realistic for him to be suspicious about
this death right you know you could go either way with it and it's really weird too Captain because I really wish that
we knew more details regarding this death and why he believed it to be suspicious I mean we have his his former
wife and his friends who who have said this they've echoed this throughout the years that he was suspicious of this
death I don't know why though right was this guy into some kind of hot water with the
company he was working for right or or did he have gambling debts and like you said if somebody is going to set this
guy up this Tom hankley guy to die and what is to look like an accident they're going to have to go to the trouble of
going all the way to Africa to do so now maybe you go there and take care of business there so to speak because you
don't think it's going to be investigated the way it would be investigated here right it's just really a difficult
situation on the surface but also a difficult situation to analyze his thoughts and
feelings on it because we just don't have really any of the details regarding this whole event this tragic yeah and it
wouldn't be that big of a deal if oh this guy died in a car accident I'm suspicious of that well why ah he was a
drinker maybe he was driving drunk all right well that's a big difference between I think possibly somebody killed
him who possibly from the company I was working for and doing contract work for currently but the the streets and the
traffic and traffic laws or lack of traffic laws in other countries in some other countries not all and I don't know
specifically what country this man was in when he we passed away but they're quite chaotic
the traffic itself so I mean you can see some countries have a much higher rate of accidents than than others so I mean
it really could be could be anything um didn't didn't TLC didn't we lose one of the members of TLC to some kind of
vehicle accident another country left tire yeah rest in peace left eye in the spring of 2006 and I think this was in
the month of April Ray and Allison returned to Los Angeles now one of the major reasons for this
trip was to start planning their move back to Los Angeles when they returned to Baltimore
according to Allison she says there is a noticeable change in Rey's behavior and
demeanor she says Rey seems to be nervous which is totally out of character for this guy
again another red flag yes she says he is agitated and he seems annoyed maybe with her I don't know with what
she's not specific on this he says that um she says that he was concerned or overly
concerned about her doing things by herself by her doing things alone there's a particular story of Allison
going on a pretty routine jog this is roughly a week before Rey goes missing to which Rey insists on going with
Allison and he does go with her he sits in the bleachers reading a book while she's running
during the run a man enters the track area and Rey according to Allison has some kind of reaction to
this he seems startled or whatever by this man being there but this man was someone that was unknown to both Allison
and if Rey knew this guy he didn't tell her that he did well think about that for a second you just show up because
you want to run around the track and all of a sudden this guy is causing a scene
because he thinks you're there to hurt him or possibly him and his wife and this guy he leaves
the area and for all we know he could have just been like you said showing up to go for a run or just to pass her by
now I do want to point out that this quote change in Behavior well it's only really suspicious if you believe that
Rey was murdered or think that Rey was truly afraid of something or someone Rey does not seem to tell anyone of this
if he is in fact afraid of something specific yeah but what point as the the spouse
are you gonna say hey I know we moved out here because your friend had this opportunity
but my first question in this case is was this initial opportunity actually the job that Ray was telling her it was
or was there something a little more involved that he may not have told her about
was this opportunity on the up and up yeah that I don't know and can't say for certain it appears to me from everything
I've seen that that the the job that he was working was in fact the one that he was offered long distance before he
moved out there right but we don't again we have a guy that's suspicious of people's death that work at that company
right and I think what I'm trying to point out here is what I would really like to know from
those closest to Rey when they observe this change in Behavior is this something that clicked for them
right away you know when he got back from La was this something that was just so obvious to them then or is this only
something that they are seeing now in hindsight where they're going well something happened to this poor man
oh and that oh now come to think of it he was acting a little strange he was acting a little different you know it
only is suspicious in itself if it if you think something horrible happened to that this guy was set up or killed right
the other thing that I want to point out here too again I'm going back to let's say he is agitated let's say he is
afraid of something because that's what Allison says but again he doesn't say anything
specific to anyone that we are aware of he doesn't say hey this happened and this happened and I'm afraid for my wife
I'm afraid for me because of a b and c he doesn't say that to anybody this is all
him behaving a certain way and people later saying that they noticed some kind of change in him
you have to wonder since he does not cite anything specific to the people closest to him at the time
could this just be something in regards to his environment that does not have anything to do with him personally on a
personal level right because Rey is relatively new to the area of Baltimore as a whole I mean we just
talked about that he just moved out there in 2004 he disappears in 2006 Baltimore has a higher violent crime
rate than most cities is there a chance that this is something that he just recently became aware of
Baltimore had 269 homicides in 2005. now that may seem like a low number as Baltimore has managed to score over 300
homicides each of the last five years but for 2005 269 murders is a high number the days before Rey goes missing Rey
spends time reading the builders it's a story and study of masonry this is by Joseph Fort Newton
there's a different version a few different versions of this book the one that I'm referencing here is from 1914.
so it's a new release on Sunday May 14th Rey and Allison go to church this is a regular weekend activity for this young
married couple Allison overhears Ray leaving a voicemail for someone there's a couple
different versions of this story Captain some say that he excused himself from the church service the other report is
that this was shortly after church was over regardless what is the same and all the reports I could find is that
this is coming from Allison his wife who says that she overheard her husband Ray
leaving a voicemail for someone she says that he says something like hey man give
me a call back I finally got it all figured out and that's as much as she says that she
hears so who is this call to now I couldn't find anything to formally back up this
next statement but this next statement comes from a Reddit post that says that Allison at
some point later learns that the phone call was to Rey's friend Porter who he worked for
and this post goes on to say when questioned by Angel Rey's brother Porter says he didn't know what it was about or
what Rey meant by the the the message they call me back he wasn't expecting a call and did not
know what the the message meant the next day this is Monday May 15th the rivers have a home security system and the
alarm goes off at about 1am now police do respond to this alarm and they tell Ray and Allison after looking around and
checking everything out that they believe that it was likely that a squirrel or some type of wildlife had
caused the alarm to go off now this is a little weird and Allison says this is super weird to her because
they had lived there for some time and the alarm had never gone off before about 24 hours later this is sometime in
the early hours of May 16th the home security alarm goes off again and on Unsolved Mysteries Allison says that
this is one of the front downstairs windows and given her description this appears
to be a window that could be easily accessible from the outside yeah because I think they had some other windows but
there were bushes in the way so maybe someone was trying to pry this window open yeah or tamper with this window in
some fashion in the middle of the night in the dark I do question this a little bit like I'm
not saying that that she's wrong or wrong to be suspicious it seems very weird to me
that the alarm would go off two nights in a row and they've lived there for months and it's never gone off before so
that I agree with her 100 percent seems very strange to me what I kind of question is the location and knowing
what I know about security this does not this would not be the window that I would choose if I were wanting to gain
access to the home it's easily visible from the street it just doesn't seem like the type of window that someone
would pick when you get to choose from multiple windows to try to enter a home and later that morning the morning of
May 16th Rey and Allison spend the morning together and then Allison leaves to go out of town for a work trip down
within hours of her leaving for that trip Ray is going to go missing [Music] thank you
[Music] all right we are back cheers mates cheers to all that morning May 16th Ray and Allison
they spent the morning together Allison says that Ray made her breakfast she carries
he carries her luggage out to the car and again Allison is leaving to go out of town for a work related trip she is
going to Richmond Virginia later that day Ray talks to a Maryland Freemason member at the local Mason
Lodge talk to him about joining later WBAL TV 11 News questioned the member and he stated there was nothing unusual
about this conversation that it was a typical conversation of someone inquiring about a membership now note
sometime leading up to this Ray purchased a book called Freemasons for dummies at a local bookstore Freemasons
for dummies is your key to the history beliefs and rituals of free masonry here is the book description it says
fascinated by Freemasons Freemasons for dummies is the international best-selling introduction to the Masons
the oldest and largest secret society in the world this balanced eye-opening guide demystifies Freemasonry explaining
everything from its elaborate rituals and cryptic rights to its curious symbols and their meanings find out what
goes on in a masonic meeting you'll understand the true purpose of masonic secrecy and philosophy meet
famous Masons throughout history and discover related organizations like the Knights Templar the Scottish Rite Order
of the Eastern Star and the Shriners explore the controversies and conspiracy theories that swirl around this
organization at the center of Dan Brown's novel The Lost Symbol and discover the changes coming to the craft
all right but it's confusing to me that somebody that's planning to head back to California
is going to try to enter this group and Baltimore yes that's a good point but it would be like because they have
chapters right yes so essentially you could join in Baltimore and then relocate to California that shouldn't be
much of an issue it's also we don't have anybody to explain to us why he is carrying out these actions
yeah or if this was talked about months in advance where if this was just oh my wife's gone
I got some time to kill let me go ask about the Freemasons well we have Allison who tells us that he was reading
the book The builders so that's tied to the Freemasons we know that he purchased this Freemasons for
dummies book at a local bookstore I don't have a date on that I've seen that it was the day that he went missing I've
also seen that it was the weekend before or a week before right and one thing I want to point out here too I think with
a lot of this information or lack there of specific detailed information is that the number one source for this
case seems to be the episode of Unsolved Mysteries not just for me and you here in the garage today it seems like
to everyone out in the whole big world and because they're giving you a report of this
they're not super detailed about days and times and things like that as they don't want to to get kind of lost in the
minutia of it when they have this bigger story to tell and also what is their purpose their purpose is not to inform
every detail their purpose is to get some Spotlight onto this case but also entertain you
so most people aren't entertained by every little detail correct so I also want to point out here
like people have really pointed to this all this activity that he seems to be doing with the the Masons as again
something suspicious or something to be worried about he's a wannabe screenwriter
he just is not profiting off of it correct yeah is is this research for you know you write you write a lot of songs
I'm sure you do some research for the lyrics that you put into those songs yeah I meet with different groups like
the Freemasons and figure out how to write songs about them right but I mean you're you're making light of what I'm
saying but it's it's not far-fetched to say okay um Dan Brown's novel The Lost Symbol The
Da Vinci Code yeah we're huge books at the time and oddly enough if you want to try to tie in the Freemasons to Ray
Rivera's death it's weird that the it's a little weird that the movie The Da Vinci Code came out the same week
that he went missing no I think your point is very valid and I'd almost argue that it's it's more valid that he was
doing research than actually wanting to join another interesting thing that happens that day we have Ray who calls
Chesapeake systems and he speaks with a man named Adam Gold this is an employee at Chesapeake systems he calls late in
the afternoon and this is for the purpose of booking a video editing suite for the weekend so he could edit a video
for a Stansberry Associates conference Rey was an occasional customer of Chesapeake system so Adam Gold was
somewhat familiar and he knew Rey and gold says that the call was business as usual Rey sounded normal but maybe a
little pressed for time sometime between 6 and 6 30 P.M Allison checks into her hotel now this
is when she calls Ray and she gets no answer Allison calls the house guest that is
staying at their house okay so we have to explain this bit a little bit and I think it's a little weird that they
don't explain it in Unsolved Mysteries this is this in itself is a mystery there is a woman named Claudia and the
best description we get on the show is that it's a work colleague of Allison's that is staying at their house and is
staying on the day that Rey happens to go missing there's not a whole lot anywhere else
that I could find that explains any more about this house guest are you sure that she works without
Allison and didn't work with Ray what I recall hearing and reading is that she is referred to as a colleague
of Allison's I could be I could be wrong on that so Claudia says when Allison calls and
speaks with her Claudia says that Rey got a phone call around 6 30. he had a brief conversation with someone
and at the end of the call Ray says oh [ __ ] and then he runs out of the house in a hurry
she says that Ray returns a few minutes later for just a very brief moment and then leaves again yeah and I believe
they're both upstairs and I believe the rooms were connected like being there was a wall just separating them
and so she could really kind of not only just hear what he was saying to the the person on the other line but she
also talks about how he kind of thrusts his chair out hmm you know like you were saying you
know we're leaving in a hurry yeah so the way that it's described is that Claudia would have been staying in what
I'm again what I'm guessing is the guest room and that they had an upstairs office
that Rey was you know he's working out of home at this point for the most part and I don't know if he shared if he and
Allison shared this space as an office space but on that day that's where he's working and as you said it's like next
door to Claudia where she is staying so he leaves in a hurry returns very briefly for just a few minutes and then
leaves again there's no description given by Claudia or to the public anyway of what or why Rey returned to the house
it could have been something as simple as he left it was a surprise to him that he was leaving and he you know oh I
forgot my keys phone forgot my wallet forgot my wallet forgot my my phone the the interesting thing about the wallet
though is um one thing they state is that he left with like twenty dollars in his pocket
and assuming that he left with his money clip as well so I don't know that he actually had a
wallet but yes he had um money clip same purpose as a wallet his phone could have been the keys that
he returned for I don't want to throw a wrench into things I don't believe she actually saw Rey when he returned now
I'm guessing that she hears the commotion of all of this she hears oh [ __ ] Here's the the the uh chair move
and then he runs down the steps she probably hears the door open and close door open and close again yeah because
again I've seen on a couple online forums where they question if it if it's Rey I would assume like you said because it
was such a quick come back to the house that it was something as simple as forgot his phone
or his wallet or whatever and it said that Ray left a soda some chips and his Invisalign retainer
on the kitchen counter now I'm not certain if that means that he he placed these items down there before leaving or
if they were just already there and he left abruptly Allison continues to try to reach Rey a
couple more times that evening to no avail she does find Rey's unavailability strange
but she says that she knew that Rey was very busy with his video projects and it
sounds like he had a deadline coming up at some point I do want to reference another source here and this is a good
source for people to check out in regards to this case there's a book out there titled an unexplained death
the true story of a body at the Belvedere and this is by Makita brotman in her book she writes that Rey had left
a website up you know when he leaves in this hurry he's busy working at his computer and whatever it's believed he
was looking at was still up uh and running at a later point was it porno yes it was porno because I mean I'm just
saying it could be very embarrassing well so the website that he left up was a website that gave the time of that
day's sunrise and sunset hmm that's weird well I can't say that he was looking up Baltimore specifically
I I don't know if if he you know was looking in his City or another city you can look up cities all around the world
on that day just for for reference on that day in Baltimore the sunrise is listed at 5 52 a.m and
the sunset was set for 8 14 P.M right I do know that people uh you know directors people that make movies like
the film things I don't know what it's called there's a word for it but there's like that magical hour
of the day when you want to film things because the way that it will look especially the sky is actually a very
good point I didn't think about that so knowing that that is his business at the
time it might be something that is important to him especially if he was planning a
future um project or not even that though but it doesn't have to be that time period
it could simply be I'm going to meet these people at whatever time I want to see what the Daylight's going to look
like because that's going to determine do I need to bring this camera or that camera or do I need to bring some lights
with me so that's definitely a tool that photographers and obviously filmmakers use
another thing that's interesting and this is just it's one of those little tidbits where I found a statement but I
can't find anything to formally back it up was that Ray at some point within a short period of time before his
disappearance had inquired or spoke to somebody about filming something from the Belvedere Hotel from the top of the
Belvedere Hotel there's no more detail that I could find on that but then you go okay well this
is a major city does he want to get some footage from a top of a big building at
night you know get the skyline get the city all lit up you know very cinematic type type stuff
so any anybody's guessing you should be a director I'm going to throw a little wrench into that idea about him
contacting the hotel because we have no way of knowing how he did that whether it was by phone or in person
I think the speculation was it's just by phone and all I'm going to put out there
is somebody can call and easily say that they're Rey and not be right right but again I I don't know who the person was
that he is supposed to have this conversation with so I don't want to take it a step further and say that
someone called the hotel or that this is a hotel employee that information is not there this could
have simply been a friend that he mentioned this to right so that evening on the 16th
Rey was on the receiving end of a phone call that Claudia has to believe led him to running out of
the house in a hurry and the short of it is that Ray never returns police state that the last phone call
received by Ray originated from Fells Point Unsolved Mysteries says it came from a
switchboard at Stansberry and Associates from my general understanding of this Captain it's possible that this could be
from both meaning someone could have called into Stansberry and Associates and get redirected or type in some type
of extension and then get sent along to Rey's phone right later Allison reviewed
the phone bill from that day and is on record saying that there were only four calls
that day and all of them were from Ray's work and that's about as far along as we
get of a description of who could have been calling Rey especially that last call before he runs out the door May
17th at 5am Allison wakes up she calls Claudia again and unfortunately Allison learns that
Rey still has not returned he's not come home and it's now been overnight yeah Claudia doesn't say you know oh I heard
him come in and then he left again no he he never came back according to the house guest Allison then decides this
might be some type of an emergency something really weird is going on so she decides to leave her work trip early
and head home a frantic Allison returned home and by this point the house guest Claudia has left she left sometime that
morning Allison is quoted as saying that Claudia quote had her own drama end quote
again another thing that doesn't make a lot of sense yeah it could be some more details here please it could be
something as simple as she just happened to be staying there that night and she doesn't want her you know her
her information out there she doesn't want you know she doesn't want to be involved well I don't know
that she doesn't want to be involved but but she probably has some kind of private life that she may not want every
detail that was going on in her life at that time out there right when somebody says to when somebody says she had her
own drama no and doesn't my imagination doesn't have to run too wild to go well maybe
she and a significant other or somebody she's living with or for whatever reason she needed a place
to stay that night and I don't think that it was just because she happened to be working in town that night usually
they don't refer to work as drama and Allison's going out of town so well when people are showing up dead from
your work that I would consider that drama Rey's brother Angel he gets on a plane that same day and
then the search for Rey commenced in the next couple of days several other family members arrive in Baltimore to
assist in the search on Saturday May 20th this was the video editing session that Ray booked so
he's now been gone for a couple of days and this appointment that he arranged on
his own has come and passed and we still don't have any Ray Rivera two days later on May 22nd Rey's car is
found mid-afternoon in a paid parking lot behind a building which is near the Belvedere Hotel
it's also near Stansberry and Associates so it's not really it's not really out of the realm of
possibility that you would find his vehicle there it doesn't seem like an entirely strange place to find the
vehicle right it's in an area where I'm also curious like would this be an area where he's parked before for work in the
past they don't really go into detail about that but what we do have is a parking ticket you know you have to pay
to park there so they have a parking ticket that confirmed that the car had been there for six days he's missing for
six days the vehicle's been there for six days this car somehow got to this paid
parking spot the same day that Ray went missing according to the parking attendant
this man left work at 6 PM that day the day that Ray went missing right he says that the vehicle that's later identified
as Ray Rivera's was not there when he left that day at 6 pm he said that he returned to work to
monitor the lot the next day May 17th at 7 A.M he says when he arrives at 7 A.M on the 17th Ray's car Ray's vehicle was
there at that time but the four calls that he's getting they might not be significant at all he might have stopped
writing for them but he was still doing projects for that company correct and there's any number of
reasons why those calls could have come in and had nothing to do with him going missing or later his death
two days later on May 24th some Oxford Club employees some Reports say two employees some say three regardless
these would have been like one-time co-workers of Ray Rivera we said Oxford Club employees
the company is a little confusing on the surface okay he worked he being Rey worked for Stansberry and Associates
worked for Porter Stansberry Stansberry and Associates is under the parent company of Agora
same with this Oxford club they're under the parent company of Agora and where it
gets more confusing about the calls coming into Ray's phone that day they necessarily do not have to be from
Stansberry and Associates it could have been any of the companies that fall under Agora and a lot of these
share office space or have buildings uh together or their businesses are located
on different floors of the same building all in this same area of Baltimore the same little intersection really so these
three employees one-time co-workers of Ray Rivera on May 24th they're out and about and they're looking for Rey or at
least looking for clues about Rey's whereabouts in the area of the Belvedere Hotel keep in mind this is not like they
went way out of their way to do this this is right by their work the three employees go to search a parking garage
that's located right by the Belvedere Hotel while on the top level of the parking garage one of them looks over at
the roof below them and sees a hole in the roof they also spot what they believe to be flip-flops a phone and
Eyeglasses they immediately call law enforcement and detectives go go to The Belvedere Ray's body is found lying face
up wedged against a wall in an unused portion of the Belvedere yeah isn't it just used for
maybe special events or something it could be it's a little unclear to me because I've seen it referred to as a
conference room as a banquet hall I've also at one point the guy on Unsolved Mysteries who eventually becomes the
property manager over the Belvedere right refers to it as the uh what does he call it like the old
the old racquetball quarter the old tennis he calls it something that seems seems strange but it may have been that
at one time and then repurposed for something else later regardless this is not an area that people frequently go
into it's a locked door a locked space that you have to believe has been unused from the time that Ray went missing
until they find his body his lifeless body there lying face up against the wall and it appears he came through the
roof that hole that we just talked about which created a 40 inch diameter hole in
the roof yeah and it seems like a lot of layers that you need to go through to go
through a roof yeah he's not a small man no He's listed at what six foot four six
foot five and about 250 pounds yeah and if he jumped from the hotel one would assume that he could
go through the roof yeah depending on what height he fell from or jump from or was pushed from I mean
that's where you start getting into well why did this happen and how did it happen yeah
crazy now all three of those employees that we mentioned that were involved in actually helping to find Rey they were
sent off to the police station and of course they were they gave statements at that time according to Allison and a
retired detective and now retired Detective still active at the time and some others they all say that shortly
after Rey's body is found that Porter Stansberry Rey's longtime friend he becomes uncooperative
where before when Rey was simply missing that he was cooperating and he was involved in the search for Ray right he
even offered up a thousand dollar reward for information leading to his missing friend
but they say you know as soon as the body was found magically now this guy doesn't seem to want to be involved in
any of the discussions into what could have happened to Ray yeah which is very suspicious that you'd be I'm offering
money if you can find him it's almost like and the way in which he finds him that that lets Porter know something
you see what I'm saying oh he this is a a murder or a possible murder or a murder where somebody's trying to
make it look like suicide I know who did this I know who's capable of this I know what
Circle that these individuals are running around in because this is my business and so these guys that did this to Rey
are capable of doing this to me so I need to not be involved and I need to keep my mouth shut
or I could be next that's interesting that you say that and I like that you say that because I've always found look
many people are suspicious of of porter in his behavior and what his is his involvement in this whole mess there's
no question about that but what I find to be weird is I get why people question his actions and are suspicious of him
but I also would like for everybody to keep in mind that if Porter knew in advance what happened to Rey and why or
if Porter was involved in what happened to Rey and why he knows that the body is very close to
him in proximity right so it seems strange to flip this behavior from cooperating when he's not found to not
cooperating when found so to give a little background here to those that don't know the area from the place that
Ray parked his car well we don't know that he parked it but from where his vehicle was found right in that paid
parking lot it is I'm gonna bring up my notes here I don't know how many cameras in this
parking lot nobody has referenced cameras in this parking lot at any time so if you were to walk from his from
that parking spot where the vehicle was found that parking lot it's a one minute
walk to the Belvedere Hotel if you were to walk from that parking lot to his old place of work Stansberry
Research it's a two-minute walk so all of this stuff is really within the same intersection of
Baltimore hold on a second there's a whole Porter Stansberry it sounds like a douchey Rich character from a John
Hughes movie or something from the 80s according to Allison and the now retired detective and some of the others that
say that they find Porter to be uncooperative immediately after the body is found they say that Porter is not
returning the detective's phone calls and when the detective tries to contact employees at the office he is told by
company lawyers that employees are not allowed to speak with him right he claims that this is some type of gag
order Allison said that Porter spoke directly to her and that he told her that he doesn't want to speak to the
police and fears that they will be against him due to his prior SEC investigation this is all this is all a
bit messy right here in this because it is true that Porter in the company were under investigation at the time by the
SEC right to be 100 clear though we should point out that this investigation was an ongoing one that started before
Rey even moved to Baltimore before he started working at Stansberry and Associates right it's just a [ __ ]
excuse and it was still going on after Rey's death it might be a [ __ ] excuse but we're
we're not hearing this directly from Porter we're here we're hearing it second hand as to why he says he doesn't
want to speak with police that they might oh they might be suspicious of him because there's already a government
agency looking at him and his company for missed dealings previous to this right right this is so strange because
when you when I finished the episode of watching Unsolved Mysteries you you go this this character this Porter
character is is extremely interesting and extremely suspicious but like I said it's like well did he
have something to do with this and if he did why would he be so involved initially in the search
unless that was a cover-up and then once they found Rey that he decided that he needed to be less
involved or more fingers would point to him I I believe that there is a reason that Porter brought his friend out there
from Baltimore not just to help him hey come out here there's great opportunities for you but
I think there were some opportunities that got them in trouble got them into situations that they couldn't handle
and I think that's why Ray was so concerned you know about people I worked with dying well that one
person all right to say people makes it sound like they're dropping like flies over at Stansberry and Associates Old
Stansberry and Associates they're dropping like that's their motto and again we're dropping like flies we have
zero information on that car accident other than this man died in in Africa that's a whole that's a whole freaking
continent like we don't we don't even have a statement that narrows it down to a specific country right so it seems a
very but it also seems like in a sense that this is stage to make it seem like he committed suicide
that he jumped off the the building or maybe he was thrown off the building who knows but if it was a possible
suicide then why would Porter just you know pack it in and cut off all communication with
law enforcement again it's the description of a select few people that are saying that that's what went
down and how it went down yeah as you've pointed out in plenty of our other cases
there's two sides to every story three well you we we can argue that we've we have in the past but sometimes there's
just two there's his and hers and the truth and sometimes one of those people are telling the
truth that leaves two other cases you do have two stories and then the truth is somewhere else out there right that
could be the situation here I don't know but I have worked for companies in the past where there is something some news
tidbit that hits the papers and I have been told this by several different companies
that if so and so contacts you that you are to refer them to such and such and that's so non-descriptive but well
we'll get your point right like I mean you can yada yada yada no I've been cold called by people in the media at
different jobs that I've had and they're like we wanna hey uh just so and so here
from channel four so and so here from The Columbus Dispatch just want to ask you about blah blah blah and you're not
supposed to speak to that because they've hired and paid someone to give the official
statement of the company and people can look into that and look at it with a with a a cross eye or
whatever and and say that this is suspicious Behavior but it happens everywhere all the time
which doesn't necessarily mean that it is suspicious I think we should also direct something to or dive into
something too in regards to the Belvedere Hotel because people that do not know this case might be a little
confused by the term Hotel the Belvedere at one point was a hotel in Maryland and it was built in 1902 and
1903 it's a probably a Historic Landmark in Baltimore by this time but in 1991 it
was converted into Condominiums so some of the some of the building remains open to the public from my
understanding but the majority of the building is now privately owned by these homeowners yeah last week's case was
strange and this one is already very strange and we have so much more to go well and
this starts off as a missing person's case and eventually his body is found but again it is the how and why he got
there yeah like he was just shot out of the sky through that roof into that room
[Music] such a crazy case and I want to hear from you so go to our website truecrimegarage.com and go to
our blog and let us know what you think of this case and join us back here in the garage tomorrow for more garage
action until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music] thank you foreign

Rey Rivera /// Part 1 /// 429

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

In July of this year an old favorite of armchair sleuths made it’s long awaited return to television and streaming to your favorite device. Unsolved Mysteries kicked off their return with the mysterious death of 32 year old Rey Rivera. The episode was titled "Mystery on the Rooftop.” Now this story has everyone talking, including Nic & The Captain. Join us in the Garage for a couple of cold ones and a lot of mystery. Beer of the Week - Bonfire Imperial Porter by Napa Smith Brewery Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5

True Crime Garage is very happy to be a part of True Crime Week. Stitcher's hosting True Crime Week, where they're showcasing the creepiest and most gruesome True Crime podcasts, including ours. Download the Stitcher app and check out their curated homepage to find your next True Crime Pod obsession. And don’t forget: Stitcher's the only place to listen to our older Archive episodes. And if you sign up for Stitcher Premium, you'll get access to our bonus episodes too. Just go to stitcherpremium.com and sign up with the code 'GARAGE'. And go check out True Crime Week!

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Brief Summary

Ray Rivera's mysterious disappearance and death raise questions of suicide or foul play in Baltimore in 2006.

Key points

The Mysterious Disappearance of Ray Rivera. A woman's search for her husband leads to a chilling mystery.
Unsolved Mysteries Returns. The podcast explores a case featured on Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries.
A Suspicious Death. A friend's death raises red flags for Ray Rivera, leading to deeper questions.
A Change in Behavior. After returning to Baltimore, Rey's demeanor shifts, raising concerns for his wife.
The Alarm Goes Off. A strange occurrence at the Rivera home raises suspicions just before Rey goes missing.
Mysterious Disappearance. Rey goes missing shortly after his wife leaves for a trip, raising suspicions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Where is my husband?

A woman's desperate search for her missing husband.

5:18WatchNov 11, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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