Now streaming on Netflix, Unsolved Mysteries "Mystery on the Rooftop" references a businessman named Frank Porter Stansberry, but leaves out relevant information. The documentary investigates the death of Rey Rivera, a Baltimore writer whose partially-decomposed body was found at the Belvedere Hotel in 2006. 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).
Unsolved Mysteries provides the grisly details about Rivera's death, but mostly explores various theories about what might've happened to him. Interviewees reveal that Rivera received a phone call from Stansberry & Associates on the evening in question, and the location of his body suggests that a suicide jump would've required a running start. Online, it's been theorized that Rivera acquired damning information about Stansberry & Associates, a company that had been successfully targeted by the SEC for a "scheme to defraud public investors by disseminating false information in several Internet newsletters."
Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries: What To Expect From Season 1, Part 2
In Unsolved Mysteries, Rivera's wife, Allison, reveals that she found a bizarre note by her husband's computer after his death, and the FBI later determined that the writing wasn't suicidal in nature. The circumstances of Rivera's demise have sparked various online rumors, including speculation that Stansberry was somehow involved, with the most damning evidence being that gag orders were placed on his company employees. It has been theorized that Rivera was acting out a scene from David Fincher's 1997 film The Game, in which Michael Douglas' Nicholas van Orton seemingly leaps to his death, only to realize that he was the subject of extravagant plot to change his worldview. Here's what Unsolved Mysteries leaves out about Stansberry, a businessman who's been rumored to be the devious orchestrator of a deadly game.
Two days after "Mystery on the Rooftop" premiered, The Baltimore Sun published an article with quotes from Stansberry that aren't cited in Unsolved Mysteries. When Rivera initially passed away, his long-time friend and business colleague, Stansberry, made the following statement:
“He’s a happy guy...He and his wife had just booked a trip to go to New Mexico in a few weeks. This is not a man that wanted to leave. I’ve got to find my friend. I can’t imagine my life without him. He’s my best friend.”
Because Stansberry declined to be interviewed for Unsolved Mysteries, online sleuths have created a narrative that pinpoints him as the obvious suspect. 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 with Aaron Brabham.
Per Bloomberg, Stansberry remains a relevant figure in the Baltimore business world, and continues to provide various types of financial tips through newsletters. Stansberry has also gained attention for his company's YouTube site, which has released 10 videos since 2013 and once prophecized the "end of America" during Barack Obama's tenure as the United States President. Stansberry Research also runs the website American Consequences, which focuses on "the world’s biggest absurdities." Porter Stansberry is currently 50 years old, and hasn't publicly commented about Unsolved Mysteries.