The premiere episode of Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries revival explored the strange death of aspiring filmmaker and newlywed Rey Rivera, which was quickly declared a suicide by the Baltimore Police Department. Yet there is little evidence to support the idea that Rivera was suicidal, and ample reason to believe he was the victim of foul play.
As documented in Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries, Rivera was last seen alive in the early evening of May 16, 2006, by a business associate of his wife, who was staying in their home at the time. According to their guest, Rivera left home in a hurry after receiving a phone call. His body was found eight days later in a closed conference room in the galleria annex of the Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore, which had a hole in the ceiling. The police theorized that Rivera had jumped to his death from a higher point and broken through the ceiling upon impact. However, there were several problems with this theory. The chief one was that there was no obvious way Rivera could have hit the point of impact with a running jump from either the hotel roof or the adjacent parking garage roof, particularly given that he was wearing flip-flop sandals rather than athletic shoes. Another problem is that Rivera's glasses and phone were found intact next to the hole, having apparently somehow survived the same fall that killed Rivera. Finally, Rivera's autopsy described injuries that were inconsistent with a death by falling and the medical examiner on the case declared Rivera's death to be inconclusive rather than suicide.
Another odd aspect of Unsolved Mysteries' Rivera case centers around a mysterious note, which he apparently wrote on the day of his disappearance and taped behind his computer. The note was a rambling manifesto, which quoted a number of phrases significant to the Freemasons and listed some of Rivera's favorite movies, books, and albums. Many theories have risen up around the note, with most focusing upon the media Rivera mentions. Some of the movies listed involve conspiracy theories and secret societies, like Eyes Wide Shut, National Treasure and The DaVinci Code. (Coincidentally enough, the film adaptation of The DaVinci Code opened three days after Rivera's disappearance.) Other movies involve the idea of reality being an illusion, like The Matrix Trilogy, The Family Man, Wide Awake and The Village. Finally and perhaps not coincidentally, several of the movies (The Matrix, Wide Awake and The Game) all feature scenes of a man jumping off a building. The exact meaning of the note is unknown but the FBI and Rivera's family both agree that it was not a suicide note.
This raises the question of who would want to kill Rivera, if his death was not a suicide. Again, there are few obvious answers, but Rivera was reportedly in fear for his life and felt someone was out to kill him and his family. In the weeks leading up to his death, Rivera had become overprotective of his wife, refusing to let her go anywhere without him. The burglar alarm in the Rivera house was also tripped in the middle of the night, two nights in a row, in the days before Rivera disappeared. Strangest of all, the security camera footage for Belvedere Hotel on the day the police believe Rivera committed suicide disappeared and the security camera on the roof of the hotel was later found to have been unplugged.
Another series of oddities regarding Rivera's case concern his employer and best friend, Porter Stansberry. At the time of Rivera's disappearance, Stansberry had been convicted on fraud charges by the SEC and Rivera came in to help clean up his company's image. Some theorize that Rivera may have learned something he wasn't meant to know and was killed to cover up another crime. While there is no evidence to suggest further wrong-doing on Stansberry's part, the call that lured Rivera out of his home was later traced to Stansberry's offices. Curiously, Stansberry refused to speak to the police once Rivera's body was found, placed his employees under a gag order regarding the case and did not participate in the Unsolved Mysteries investigation of Rivera's death.
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