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Death of Rey Rivera

Coordinates: 39°18′07.5″N 76°36′55.8″W / 39.302083°N 76.615500°W / 39.302083; -76.615500
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Death of Rey Rivera
DateMay 24, 2006; 18 years ago (2006-05-24)[1][a]
LocationBelvedere Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Coordinates39°18′07.5″N 76°36′55.8″W / 39.302083°N 76.615500°W / 39.302083; -76.615500
CauseUndetermined, probable suicide[3][4]
InquiriesBaltimore Police Department
CoronerBaltimore City Medical Examiner

The body of Rey Rivera was found on May 24, 2006, inside the historic Belvedere Hotel in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States.[5] Although the event was ruled a probable suicide by the Baltimore Police Department, the circumstances of Rivera's death are mysterious and disputed.

Background

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Rivera's car was found in a parking lot on St. Paul Street. Belvedere Hotel is located in the top left.

Rey Omar Rivera was born on June 10, 1973, to Angel and Maria Rivera. At the time of his disappearance, Rivera and his wife Allison had relocated to Baltimore from California to work for his longtime friend, publisher Porter Stansberry, as a writer and videographer for Stansberry's investment company, Stansberry & Associates Investment Research, a subsidiary of Agora Publishing.[6][b]

Disappearance

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Rivera went missing from his home on May 16, 2006, shortly after receiving a phone call from the Agora Publishing switchboard, according to a guest staying at the Rivera residence at the time.[8][c] After several days of searching for clues on his whereabouts, Rivera's in-laws found his car located in a parking lot off of Saint Paul Street in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood, near his workplace. 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 next door. Police soon discovered Rivera's partially decomposed body inside the conference room under the hole.[2]

Official investigation

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As police began to analyze the case, numerous aspects seemed odd about Rivera jumping off the main roof of the Belvedere Hotel. Partly due to the hotel's mansard roof, there was a considerable horizontal distance between the hotel and the location of the hole in the lower roof. The vertical fall of approximately 177 feet (building height 188 ft[9] = 57 meters) would have taken approximately 3.3 seconds. This suggests that Rivera, if he did come from the roof, and traveled a horizontal distance of 43 feet[10] (13 meters) before impact, would have had to have a horizontal speed of 10 miles per hour which is a speed between a fast run and a sprint for an average fit male wearing sports shoes. Rey was wearing flip flops or barefoot and would have had a maximum run up of just over 15 feet or 5 meters (2.5 seconds).

Rivera's eyeglasses and phone were found relatively intact on the lower roof near the hole. Because circumstances surrounding the incident are unclear, the medical examiner marked Rivera's manner of death as "undetermined".[11]

After searching the house for evidence, Rivera's wife found a note behind his computer.[12] The confusing note included the names of prominent figures in Hollywood, movie titles, Freemasonry quotations and additional ramblings.[13] The FBI analyzed the note and ruled it not to be suicidal in nature.[14] The Baltimore Police Department would soon step back from their investigation into the case after ruling Rivera's death as a probable suicide.[15]

Media coverage and alternative theories

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Rivera's death was featured in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries in July 2020.[16] An additional theory offered by the show 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.[17]

See also

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Further reading

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  • Moya, Miryam (2021). Rey Rivera, Suicide Or Homicide? (First ed.). Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp. ISBN 9788409281626.

References

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Footnotes

  1. ^ This is the date the body was found. Rivera went missing on May 16.[2]
  2. ^ Stansberry's company produced a newsletter advising on investments, which Rivera wrote for.[3] Stansberry was in the process of being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which complained that the company's newsletters "contain nothing more than baseless speculation and outright lies" and that in 2002, he had sent an email offering to sell the name of a company purportedly about to obtain a contract to dismantle nuclear weapons for Russia.[7] The case went to trial in 2005, and in 2007, produced the ruling that "Stansberry's conduct undoubtedly involved deliberate fraud, making statements that he knew to be false," fining him $1.5 million.[3]
  3. ^ According to Stansberry, this allegation is impossible because, "Every person in our company who had worked with Rey was on the Eastern Shore at the time that call was made, having a corporate retreat".[3]

Citations

  1. ^ "Rey Rivera – Obituary". Legacy.com.
  2. ^ a b Masad, Ilana (November 8, 2018). "'An Unexplained Death' Tells The Tale Of An Unsolved Mystery — And Being Remembered". NPR.
  3. ^ a b c d Fenton, Justin (August 5, 2020). "Rey Rivera's friend, former Baltimore employer pushes back on Netflix's 'Unsolved Mysteries'". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  4. ^ Delaney, Anne (July 5, 2020). "Death of Rey Rivera, man with ties to Windsor, subject in Netflix documentary series". Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  5. ^ "Baltimore police say man's death probable suicide". May 30, 2006.
  6. ^ "Unsolved Mysteries Theory: Who Called Rey Rivera (& Why)". Screen Rant. August 15, 2020.
  7. ^ Janis, Stephen (June 1, 2006). "Man found dead at Belvedere worked at company that had SEC complaint". Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on July 2, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  8. ^ Sorokach, Josh (July 1, 2020). "'Unsolved Mysteries' on Netflix: Everything You Need to Know About The Perplexing Death of Rey Rivera". Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  9. ^ Glenn Bristow and Coates Nelson (January 1977). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Belvedere Hotel" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  10. ^ http (July 6, 2020). "What happened to Rey Rivera a in Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries?". Trends Wide. Archived from the original on July 20, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  11. ^ Nguyen, Stacey (July 3, 2020). "Unsolved Mysteries: 3 Theories on What Happened to Rey Rivera". POPSUGAR Entertainment.
  12. ^ "Suicide Or Murder? Evidence Reviewed". WBAL. May 17, 2007.
  13. ^ "'Whom Virtue Unites, Death Will Not Separate': Why Do Some People Think The Freemasons Are Tied To The Death Of Rey Rivera?". Oxygen Official Site. July 1, 2020.
  14. ^ Kranc, Lauren (July 1, 2020). "Rey Rivera Left a Bizarre Note About Free Masons Before His Death. But What Really Happened?". Esquire.
  15. ^ "How Did Rey Rivera Die? Details on the 'Unsolved Mysteries' True Story". July 4, 2020.
  16. ^ "2006 Death Of Rey Rivera In Baltimore Featured In Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries Reboot". July 1, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  17. ^ Kickham, Dylan (July 2020). "4 Theories About Rey Rivera's Death From 'Unsolved Mysteries'". Elite Daily.
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