This case is filled with questions that have yet to be answered. Questions that I am not sure without eyewitnesses or confessions, will ever be answered. I became familiar with this case when I watched the new Unsolved Mysteries series on Netflix. Most of us grew up with our parents watching the original series and me being obsessed and intrigued by true crime, had to check out the new one. Rey's case was the very first one covered: season one, episode one. Make yourself a nice hot cup of coffee and let's explore the mystery of the murder of Rey Rivera.
Rey was born in June 1973. His father was a military man and the family moved around quite a bit. Rey loved to play water polo and his dream was to write and direct films. He is remembered for so many things, but his sense of humor is what brought out Rey's true character and the amazing man he was. Rey had met and married his wife Allison in Puerto Rico just 6 months before his untimely death. The couple resided in California but in 2004, Rey was offered a position to come and work for his best friend from high school, Porter Stansberry. The job was to write a financial newsletter for Porter's company, Stansberry and Associates. The couple moved from California to Baltimore in late 2004.
On May 16th, 2006, Allison was up early leaving to drive to Virginia for a work trip. She had told him right before she left that she loved him very much and Rey had thanked her for loving him so much. When Allison got to Virginia and had settled for the night, she tried multiple times to reach Rey by phone but never got an answer. At the time, The Rivera's had a houseguest by the name of Claudia staying with them. She was a coworker of Allisons and was using their spare bedroom. When Allsion was unable to reach Rey, she called Claudia to see if something was wrong. Claudia told Allison that about 6:30 PM, Rey had taken a call on his cell and ran out of the house like it had been urgent or an emergency. Allison figured it was work related or something that wasn't super urgent as she had not received a call from Rey about it, so she went on to bed and figured she would speak with him the next morning. Claudia calls Allison the next morning and advised her that Rey never returned home the night before. Allison immediately left Virginia and headed back to Baltimore to find her husband. All the way calling his phone with no response.
She also called his brother Angel and his mother and neither had heard from Rey. Upon arriving home, she finds Rey's Invisalign and an almost full can of Coke. She realizes quickly that Re did leave very rushed and is very concerned about his whereabouts. Allison, her parents, Rey's mother and brother all come together at the house to make flyers to pass out. They also reached out to the media and offered a 1k reward for any information leading to Rey.
On May 22nd, 6 days after Rey went missing, his car was found by Allison's parents on St Paul St in the # 7 parking space. The car had to have been parked there since the night Rey disappeared because it had a parking ticket on it from that date. There was no evidence in the truck that suggested foul play, a struggle, or that the vehicle had been stolen.
Allsion struggled to try and figure out why Rey's car would be at that location. It is not a place he would have been. On May 24th a couple of Rey's friends/coworkers that were helping in the search, decided to go to the top of a parking garage in the area of the vehicle to look around. At this time, they noticed a hole in the roof of The Belvedere Hotel on its south wing. Afte going into the Belvedere, Rey's lifeless and very decomposed body was found on the floor of a locked conference room. Somehow, he had fallen through the metal roof to his death. Rey had been missing for 8 days at this point and the body had decomposed quite a bit. Blood spatter was found on the walls around the body.
Almost instantly it was thought that Rey had jumped to his death, however, several factors made that very unlikely. For starters, there was a SIGNIFICANT angle between the tower he would have come off of to the actual hole located in the roof. His belongings were found on the roof and it was surmised that he would have had to have a running start but was in flip flops or his bare feet. Another theory was that he jumped from a ledge on the side of the hotel, however, all of the offices and Condos were privately owned and he would not have had access to them.
In his autopsy report, Rey was found to have two broken shins, multiple rib fractures, his right hand had two breaks through the flesh, he had punctures to his lungs, and skull fractures. By the hole that Rey went through, his glasses and cell phone were found...in perfect condition. How if he had jumped or even had been pushed, how the hell were these items still intact? Very suspicious. Kinda seems like someone had placed them there huh? I can honestly say, no one knows how Rey ended up through the roof of the Belvedere. My personal theory ? Because of the speed in which the police and forensics calculated he fell at, I say he was in a helicopter or small plane and was pushed. And I believe it was his so called "best friend" that killed him or had him killed. More on that in a moment...The Medical Examiner's office concluded that Rey's manner of death is UNDETERMINED. Which allows his case to stay open thank goodness. The ME knew that the police were trying to close it as a suicide and that suicide was NOT what happened.
Several things about this case are very unsettling. Rey was afraid of heights. Why would he even attempt to go that high in a building? Rey also had a money clip that his wife gave to him on the day they were married. It always held his Id, credit cards, money, etc. It was never found. Why leave behind the cell phone but not his money clip? No camera footage of him going to or leaving the hotel was ever found of him (which supports my theory that he wasn't actually IN the hotel to begin with). And ironically, the camera on the roof was " out of order". Seriously. This case reeks of coverup and murder. Rey also had no alcohol or drugs in his system. Let's go back to the broken shins for a moment. According to the ME, this is not associated with a fall. So what happened to them? Did someone break his legs and push him? Giving him no chance whatsoever to be able to survive a landing. Also, right before that fateful call and Rey rushing out, their home had been broken into twice in the middle of the night setting off alarms. According to Allison, Rey had been very worried and paranoid about what was going on.
Let me also say that Rey was hired to clean up Porter Stansberry's image and the newsletter for the company.
Stansberry was in the process of being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, 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. 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.
A true friend would have been out looking for Rey. A true friend would have gone to the end's up the Earth to find him. Porter Stansberry put a GAG ORDER on his entire company and never allowed them to speak with the police. Yeah, that's not SUS at all! I don't know what Rey did or did not do, but Porter Stansberry (in my humble opinion) got rid of him. He is guilty as sin. I hope that one day, someone is brave enough to come forward and tell the truth.
If you have any information on Rey's case please contact the Baltimore Maryland police.
Sources:
Unsolved Mysteries: Season 1, Episode 1.
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