What Do you think really happened to Rey? Unsolved Mysteries Netflix

For most of the segment, I was convinced he committed suicide and the family just didn’t want to accept it (that happens a lot).

Then they got to the part where the company where Rey worked (apparently owned by Rey’s best friend) got a gag order preventing all of its employees from talking to anyone. That’s shady as hell.

So now I’m going with the company was involved in something unethical or illegal and Rey perhaps got into an altercation with the friend and the friend killed him.

How are people allowed to prevent employees from speaking to law enforcement? Seems like they'd then be arrest, subpoenaed, or something.

bump

Rey's brother Angel has classic BDF!

I think he was hooking up with a guy, the guy fell in love with him and threatened to tell the wife. I think there’s parts of the story they deliberately left out because it doesn’t fit the family’s narrative. They should be looking at people that lived in the hotel and cross check with calls etc.

Guys that are deeply closeted don’t want to be found out and would go to any lengths to avoid it. The guy that I was involved with would get violently ill and guilt ridden after sex. There’s also a question of mental health.

Let’s be honest and say that he was way out of her league as well.

I was thinking the same thing about the sociopath who shot his family and disappeared

This story was also featured this week on the Crime Junkies podcast. Really a mystery as to how he died. Looking forward to watching the Netflix version of the story.

I just can't believe it was suicide. That guy ran fast enough in flip flops to hurl himself forward to then fall in a position that medical examiners said didn't make sense?

I think that former best friend/employer was somehow involved.

Something in the newsletter that Rey worked on pissed of someone in the Mob and Rey had to pay.

The weird note taped to the computer makes me think that he was a high-functioning schizophrenic. All the random references to M. Night Shamalyan movies and delusions of grandeur. I also wouldn’t be surprised by a gay relationship with the BFF, because he came from a very Latin family and seemed to really want to be a white frat boy... those types sometimes have a white fantasy to the point of ejaculation.

Someone on the Reddit unresolved mysteries forum said the bar in the Belvedere Hotel catered to a mostly gay crowd. Maybe Rey was meeting someone there.

Also, he mentions the David Fincher/Michael Douglas movie ‘The Game’ in that note, he also makes grandiose references to the purpose of life and says he hopes people enjoyed playing it. If you’ve seen that movie you know that Michael Douglas’ character is basically setup to be driven insane, so he can appreciate life more, by his brother with the help of this mysterious company and at the climax he commits suicide by jumping through the ballroom skylight of a hotel... only there is actually an inflated bounce to catch him and the whole thing was coordinated. Definitely some sketchy stuff with the BFF & Company, but I also think he might have been nuts too. Oh and a closet case because the wife was like Sarah, Plain & Tall and Rey was fine.

R7, you're going to love watching the show after listening to the podcast. I listen to all of the Crime Junkie episodes and didn't realize how involved I would find this one. I definitely recommend both the podcast and the show. I watched Unsolved Mysteries last night and now I can't stop thinking about this case. The first thing I saw was the discussion on the podcast and everyone was certain it was suicide - and were mocking the podcast hosts for saying it was anything else!! There is way, way more to the story.

I am certain Porter (the BFF) is directly involved and holds the answers. I want to know who made the phone call. It was probably him, or someone else at the company is being paid a lot of money to not talk. How come investigators can't push more into Stansberry and Porter (despite the lawyers and gag order).

Also, I want to know more about Porter and his past. R11 - WOW, that's very interesting.

I'm also convinced the hole was already there and what happened was staged to look like a suicide.

Rey was hot. One of the items on his list was Madonna's Confessions on a Dancefloor.

Alonzo Brooks, black guy killed at a party, was fine as fuck, too. Looked a lot like pron star Tiger Tyson.

The UFO one was weird.

Sandra and Kris getting off scott free is infuriating. How old is Colter now?

The hairstylist one creeped me out. Especially the suspects being questioned. Not sure the husband was involved in her death.

For Christ's sake...no future episodes with subtitles!

who is Rey Rivera? Never heard of him.

He committed suicide, and the wife is hell bent on proving to the husband’s Puerto Rican family, that her husband was straight and in love with her. He wasn’t and she knows, yet is holding on to a lie that was convenient for her and Rey and his real lover, his BFF. She should have lived with him and accepted an open relationship, rather than moving across the country under the guise of Rey writing for a ridiculous newsletter, that could have been arranged for remote employment. This was all an elaborate bearding project that the wife agreed upon, and would provide a child.

I believe that Rey also suffered from childhood trauma, as a result of being molested by his brother or his father, or both. His father married the mom, and Rey was expected to marry a woman, and provide grand babies as the “straight” male in the family, because clearly, his gay brother would not.

I believe the wife knew about all of it, including the romantic relationship between Rey & his BFF/Boss. She financially benefitted from their involvement and her bearding. So don’t feel too sorry for her.

I believe that Rey was being exploited by his BFF/boyfriend. I believe that one of the main reasons he had Rey move to his town, was to pimp Rey out. Rey did it because he has no boundaries between genuine, parental or familial love, without having to be sexually abused and/or being expected to sacrifice his authentic self, for the sake of his mom or for the sake of getting financial support through college, from his parents. Puerto Rican boys who are “straight” acting or genuinely straight, are like kings to their mothers, ESPECIALLY when tall, dark and handsome. The mother and family wanted something very specific from Rey, as did his BFF. Rey is a people pleaser, and could no longer live with unresolved, unprocessed childhood trauma, and the lifelong dysfunction resulting thereof. This guy was not only self loathing, he carried around unwarranted guilt, and a responsibility that wasn’t his to fulfill: giving his mother a normal, straight, child producing son who was a college graduate.

When the wife left for the business trip, she told Rey that she loved him. His response was, according to her, “Thank you for always loving me so much”. That was his swan song, right there. His goodbye to her.

He plotted the whole thing about leaving abruptly for a meeting. He went to the hotel, gathered liquid courage, and either hooked up one last time or didn’t. Doesn’t matter. He found his life unbearable.

I suspect that Rey also admitted to himself that no matter what he did, the BFF was never coming out of the closet, living with him as a partner, nor did he genuinely love him like Rey thought he did. So even if he wasn’t pimping Rey out, the bff profoundly hurt and disappointed Rey, and very likely had replaced Rey with a younger, more compliant, piece of ass.

The wife, the brother, and the BFF, are aware of what happened and are lying sacks of shit for peddling in false conspiracies for cash. Fuck em. All three of them.

Rey deserves real love, not a life filled with the expectations of an overbearing mother and the three vultures that either once used him carelessly while he lived, or continue to shit on his grave and memory, by propagating a lie that has become profitable for them.

Is it even possible for a body to smash through a reinforced roof like that? I recall stories of stowaway bodies falling from planes (from far greater heights) landing on roofs, not damaging them. Was this roof rotten?

Was there no CCTV between his house and where he exited the car?

Anyone know if there's a copy of the autopsy report?

[quote] I also wouldn’t be surprised by a gay relationship with the BFF

Here's Rey and his cookie sniffing friend Porter Stansberry.

Here's Porter Stansberry today...

Porter and Rey...

Rey was straight!

Porter reminds one of Miss Lindsey

This sounds like the most plausible theory:

[quote] According to The Baltimore Sun, Stansberry's business was ordered to pay $1.5 million in civil penalties for “disseminating false stock information and defrauding public investors through a financial newsletter.”

[quote] On the week of his disappearance, Rivera’s home alarm went off two times. And on the night he went missing, Rivera picked up a call from work, but it was impossible to determine who had called him because the call came from a switchboard.

[quote] The theory is that Rey, being a fully trained finance journalist, used his investigative skills to look into his new employer. Rey, it is alleged, may have found out something he wasn't meant to and wanted to expose it.

[quote] Rey was low on cash at the time, so perhaps he was hoping that someone would pay good money for the story.

[quote] The theory is that someone ordered a hit on Rey to keep him quiet.

Case closed.

In general, if a corpse is badly decomposed is it compulsory to cremate them?

I call bullshit, R23, especially since the case isn’t closed. Do I believe Rey May have known about the fraud? Yes. But if you’re here telling us about it, it was easy information to uncover, and the car was already out of the bag, yes?

Rey jumped. He was not of average height, he was over 6’4 or was 6”8? Depending on the wind trajectory or other variables, a tall body of solid weight had the potential of falling differently than a body of someone who is 5 feet tall.

He had a very precise trajectory, feet first, into the roof of the building. That’s what’s hanging people up. It is a rare and very clean break to go down feet first, however, not impossible and very likely in this case, as he did fall in this manner.

The fall, the impact, and the broken bones as a result, only stand out because most people who commit suicide splatter onto sold ground. However, I’ve read of the very same oddity of a rare fall, when people jump off roofs, and crash onto and through patio covers for people dining below the roof, in Manhattan.

The narrative is held up to sustain a highly probable insurance pay out and/or a settlement reached with his wife, and the hotel, as well as creating more profit opportunities when his story is highlighted as a mystery, rather than a suicide, which would negate insurance payouts and NDA negotiated settlements between the hotelier and the widow. If the cause of death is undetermined, the insurance company has to pay.

There’s a lot of information missing when listening to this narrative, and a critical thinker knows this.

The wife and brother are full of shit. The coroner in charge of writing the autopsy report and search certificate, was grossly negligent and unprofessional when she chose to discuss a possible homicide or suicide, with the wife, BEFORE deterring objective findings.

Betcha Rey’s boyfriend had coached her on how to approach this, in order to get paid, because as a former FA, we know how insurance pays, or doesn’t.

[quote] There’s a lot of information missing when listening to this narrative, and a critical thinker knows this.

There's a fine line between "critical thinker" and conspiracy theorist.

Not so fine a line, R26, which is why I am the critical thinker with no skin in the game, and why Rey’s widow and family built a conspiracy theory narrative around Rey’s death, with a life insurance policy, and a a probable denial of monies from said policy, if the cause of death was ruled a suicide, hanging in the balance.

Either pushed or jumping off at his own volition, Rey’s fall was highly unusual and rare, but NOT impossible, or he wouldn’t have been found a week later, after clearing right through a roof.

Again, remote, and unlikely fall trajectory but it DID happen, regardless of how he got there, whether by homicide or by suicide.

And let me remind you, his wife married him, a closeted gay man, who was in a relationship with his BFF, and that relationship was serious enough for them to relocate.

Now, I don’t claim to factually know, and ONLY theorize that his wife knew, whether she knew from intuition, or because she had full disclosure at some point, from Rey.

I tend to theorize that she knew, because women just KNOW. Even when they say no, I had no clue, by the time you hit 30, you KNOW.

What newlyweds move and alter their entire lives, because the husband was one of multiple employees, asked to write in a fucking newsletter???

Do you know how much that actually pays??? It’s a NEWSLETTER akin to the Motley Fool, not the freakin’Washington Post during Watergate.

Rey wasn’t an investigative journalist. What’s there to investigate and disclose when working for a fund management firm, focused on giving clients good news and positive messaging on sheer speculation??? It’s not like Rey was writing up articles tantamount to insider trading.

JFC. Probability is 9/10 that Rey intentionally jumped and did so, all on his own.

R27 are you insane? There is no evidence he was gay or he was having an affair. Plus how much insurance money did the wife receive?

How old was he when he died? Depending on his policy or multiple policies, they would have paid out plenty, because he was young and physically healthy. You don’t reveal depression or mental illness for these policies, and most don’t ask you to, depending on the insurer. Policies are also paid out on existing annuities, where a considerable of money is paid out depending on the annuity type, annuity amount at the time of initiating the claim, contributions from the annuity holder, and matches from employers, & ultimately, the determined life expectancy of the buyer when purchased, vs actual date of death. The younger the policy holder or holders, the higher the pay out.

All companies require a search certificate and cause of death, in order to pay out. Banks, investments, assets, straight life insurance policies, or annuities doubling as life insurance policies.

Everyone on this aforementioned list, will pay out the beneficiary, regardless of cause of death, except for a straight life insurance claim. Some companies will cover suicides, but for a higher, biweekly or monthly price. My former policy through my former employer, one of the biggest companies in the world and in the Fortune 100, and even Fortune 25, paid out 250K for 70 bucks a month, 500K for 130 bucks a month, or up to , for almost 200 bucks a month. That actually pretty standard in Fortune 100s, specifically financial giants within the investment banking sector, that are fortune 100s. And had o wanted, I could have maintained multiple policies, and would have had I been married and/or a parent with young kids at the time, or at anytime, really.

When a rare and even unlikely or inexplicable cause of death plays out, the insurance companies can do one of several things: they can pay you,if it cannotbr 100% determined that it was suicide, or they can choose to withhold the money, from anywhere to 2 to 5 years, while waiting for the police to close the investigation, or keep it open for whatever undetermined length of time. Depending on the company and the policies fine print, the insurer can also conduct its own investigation under what called a subrosa team. The team has actual private investigators, financial/accountants who specialize in banking fraud, insurance fraud forensics, psychologists who review records and interview coworkers, family and friends of the deceased, and they are fully authorized to engage in discovery with attorneys representing beneficiaries, representing workers Comp insurers and any insurer who underwrote policies for the deceased, all the way to local to state law enforcement assigned to the case and IRS records.

Insurers don’t fuck around when a certain monetary threshold has been met for payouts. So either the widow got paid or is pending payment(s). The absolute max, is 10 years, depending on the state the policy was underwritten in.

But for sure, under no circumstances other than underwriting high risk policies for a lot more money paid to them by the insured while living, are companies obligated to payout suicides, and never do, unless underwritten and purchased as such, in a state that allows this and provides that feature.

The fact that she approached the coroner is reason to deny benefits. The widow can arbitrate, but for sure, subrosa would find out eventually. I cannot believe she did it, nor can I believe the coroner engaged her, and put her at high risk for denial of benefits. The coroner did not go on camera to confirm or deny this alleged conversation or alleged context within said conversation.

The widow can say whatever the fuck she wants, and the coroner cannot publicly comment, due to attorneys representing the insurers writing letters to her bosses, reminding them of state rules, enforced by the state attorney general, when investigations are still open and a million is at stake.

R28, I am not insane. I am highly and well trained in finance and insurance. I hold three separate licenses and I know my shit inside and out. I have also had the displeasure of dealing with very nasty, greedy, in compassionate widows, who file multiple claims literally 10 minutes after the husband died. The best one was the old man who left 75M ENTIRELY to his granddaughter, who was just starting college. JFC, that was an EPIC meltdown requiring security on standby, which we correctly assumed would be necessary.

I believe Rey had two to three policies at the time of his death, as is customary for a married man his age, with minimal assets or real estate holdings.

The wife and brother are yapping on podcasts and unsolved mysteries, under the narrative that it could not have possibly been a suicide. There’s a reason for that, and that reason is pending insurance policy determinations and payouts. That type of public pressure does not sway a professional and experienced subrosa team, or the adjusters who advise the ceo to approve the claim, or to deny it. Either way, that determination is reached via policy guidelines, investigations via subrosa and actual police, They will not approve the claim, if they themselves find that it cannot be proven to be murder (they cannot prove it was murder), or if they cannot prove it was suicide (they cannot prove that either). For these reasons, I believe the widow has not received payment, or refuse to settle for a lesser determination.

Oh, and Rey was gay. I didn’t learn that in insurance or finance. I learned that by living in NYC and WeHo all of my life. LMAO!

How did Rey and his wife live in that huge house? Are homes in Baltimore cheap? He could not have been making very much money as a financial journalist.

[quote]So now I’m going with the company was involved in something unethical or illegal and Rey perhaps got into an altercation with the friend and the friend killed him.

That's my theory as well.

Yes but how did he get through the roof? Was the hole investigated?

r31 the wife had a job, it was not mentioned what kind of job she had. Perhaps she made a decent amount of money so they could afford that house.

I think he was having an affair with his friend, Porter Stansbury and shit hit the fan. Either Rey killed himself because he was upset the affair ended or a physical fight ensued with Porter over the affair and Rey was killed during the physical altercation.

OR...

Rey had a psychotic mental break

Rey was zesty as hell. The professional widowed wife was too much. I think she was oblivious to her “talented and brilliant” husbands homosexual extracurriculars and really believed he worshipped her and they had a perfect life.

I can’t stand bitches like this. Open your eyes bitch, your husband loved cock, you ugly ass Becky Bitch.

Ugh, I hated the wife. Her nose was HUUUUGGGEEE!

Rey was totally gay. There’s no way he was into his wife with her nose. She was a beard.

"He committed suicide, and the wife is hell bent on proving to the husband’s Puerto Rican family, that her husband was straight and in love with her. He wasn’t and she knows, yet is holding on to a lie that was convenient for her and Rey and his real lover, his BFF."

Based on what? Why would she have to be hell bent on proving that her husband was straight when no one thinks he's gay but DLers

"I believe that Rey also suffered from childhood trauma, as a result of being molested by his brother or his father, or both."

So now we're accusing people of being molesters based on nothing?

So, the thing is he fits more of a bisexual than gay guy. I’ve dated Latin guys just like him and somewhere along the way they minimize gay love in the big picture of kids, family etc. To call him gay isn’t quite right but he’s definitely not with the woman for her looks. They couldn’t make a more odd couple! Some of the reasons don’t add up unless he had something else going on. You can also TELL there’s more than what the family is saying. He really left them in the lurch with his death.

I also think something snapped in him and yes, it had to do with the guy he worked with.

Moving clean across the country and uprooting their family for a string along newsletter?? No, just no. There’s more there than meets the eye.

Wow. If you block the poster with all the wacky conspiracy theories half the thread disappears. The story intrigued me so I sniffed around and found a book, An Unexplained Death, from a few years back, written by Mikita Brottman, a woman who happened to live in the hotel. (It’s not actually a hotel anymore, by the way, but condos.) This woman became obsessed with what happened from the moment she heard the crash and watched the initial police search from her 5th floor apartment. She did exhaustive research. I’m only halfway through but have found so much more about this case than is included in the TV show.Although I first, like others, suspected something like a gay/suicide angle, after reading the book so far it looks much more likely something shady to do with Porter Stansberry’s extremely dodgy company. I’m now firmly in the “found out some threatening information and was silenced” camp. Porter’s company is creepy/scary, and people investigating the case are told to “be careful.”

What family did he uproot? The wife said they made a pact to go to Baltimore for 24 months to build up their savings and then he could tackle his screenwriting dream again.

The poster saying Rey was molested as a child or having an affair with Porter, based on absolutely nothing, all I can say is I hope you aren't an Investigator!

Does anyone know if they investigated the hotel?

Sorry, investigated the hole! There must be evidence on his clothing or in the roof hole that he actually came through it?

R35 has it.

Occam’s Razor. Don’t allow the rarity, and peculiarly of the fall, distract you from facts.

The facts are, that Rey had to at the very least, be as close to the adjoining property, yet separate roof, that he fell into. The seemingly impossible happened, and he indeed fell through a roof. Rey wasn’t thrown off a helicopter like a spy film. Rey fell onto the roof, feet first.

The reason why the hole in which he fell through, is so small and even “neat”, is because of the speed and distance at which his body caught air, during gravitational pull. Take the speed and estimated distance, and multiply them. Let’s keep it really fucking simple, & assume Rey fell 100 ft, before making contact with that roof. Let’s assume that the speed of the fall was under 10 seconds. Sounds improbable? Nope, not when you’re really tall and all muscle, tumbling or shooting like a cannon, straight into a roof top.

Scenario. Ray was already contemplating suicide. He was planning it for weeks.

First, ray went on to the roof of the building which he fell straight into. He mentally calculated his height, weight, and distance to the ground, and probably assumed that there was a good chance of surviving that fall, even if ending up para or quadriplegic. That’s not what he wanted. His plan was to conceal his suicide or attempted suicide, so that he would not be immediately found, hence unable to be “saved”, by receiving immediate paramedic first aid, if he miraculously survived a fall straight on to the pavement, with regular foot traffic. He also most probably did not want his beloved mother see photos of this scenario, regardless of results.

Continued from R48 -

He surveyed the new top of the adjacent building he was now standing on, and realized that if he made a full speed, full force, running jump onto the lower, adjacent roof,,there was a seemingly unlikely chance to clear distance, and dive into the roof, as he regularly dove into pools. An investigator who never dived professionally or competitively may find that impossible, but if you’re in top shape, 6’7, and weigh a solid amount under 300 lbs, it is not impossible, at all, whatsoever.

The sandals and sun glasses provided markers for his intended target, which he missed, by landing several feet over them.

The break was as clean as a whistle, because ray was an experienced and very tall athlete, who knew how to form his body into a way that mechanics allowed him to pierce through water, without hitting bottom and recovering into a horizontal position, and start swimming, as quickly as possible. The difference this time, was that he needed to hit the roof, and based on his haphazard structural audit of the roof, not only was he to hit it, but he had to fall in like a straight arrow and pierce through. Had he fallen into that roof horizontally, he may have survived. However, let’s remember that it was HIGHLY unlike to even make it to that roof, without engaging his body and diving form in a very specific manner, which, he did, and hence achieved his goal.

If you’re a coroner or a homicide detective, and you attempt to piece this together without factoring in Ray’s height, weight, athletic prowess, and specific years upon years long experience in water sports, then of course you’re gonna say, “Impossible”.

It’s not impossible. It happened and a guy who was determined to die, knew how to do it and could, where a non athlete probably could not.

Rey killed himself. The insurance companies know this, because unlike cops, insurance adjusters are trained to do the math, and make what looks impossible to the average person, seem highly possible for someone like Ray.

The cops and coroners know this too, by now. They’re highly sympathetic to the wife, and are babying her into her wall of denial, motivated, financial by a combination of financial insecurity and the very difficult task of asking herself why she thought it was a great idea to date, become engaged to, marry, and upend her life, just so that she could make her fairytale wedding dreams come true.

Her success and achievement of her objectives, required that she stubbornly remain insistent on wearing blinders in order to get married to a man who did not passionately love her, rather than loving him and herself enough to admit that not all was right in Wonderland, and she was much too mature in age, to demand she play Alice, and Ray play the mad hatter.

Rey va e her what SHE wanted, and then he decided to take it all back, and just fucking jump, in order to FINALLY get what HE wanted, as misguided and ducked up his methods were, when going about it.

Oops! Forgot this part when making two posts instead of one. Apologies

First, ray went on to the roof of the building which he fell straight into. He mentally calculated his height, weight, and distance to the ground, and probably assumed that there was a good chance of surviving that fall, even if ending up para or quadriplegic. That’s not what he wanted.

He surveyed the structural strength of the roof, by pounding his foot into different areas of the roof, explaining the broken sandal, because of the force used to hit the roof with his foot. He looked up at the adjacent building, and realized, as an experienced and lifetime polo player, that he could dive into the building, break surface, and be concealed for days to months. If he fell into a room below.

He kicked off his sandals, laid his sunglasses down, and hightailed it to the higher building.

His plan was to conceal his suicide or attempted suicide, so that he would not be immediately found, hence receiving immediate paramedic first aid, if he miraculously survived a fall straight on to the pavement, with regular foot traffic. He also most probably did not want his beloved mother see photos of this scenario, regardless of results.

R47 firstly how could he even remotely expect to survive such a high fall?

Secondly, how was he to know that the roof you assume he intended to go through wasn't directly above someone? It could have been staff quarters, offices etc. Doubt it was public knowledge it was empty.

The weirdest part is why is (subsequently gagged) colleagues decided to go on the roof, then spot the hole, then investigate it.

R46, the cops know he didn't commit suicide. Only one cop is trying to keep the "He was murdered" theory alive

He may ha e k own at what time to jump, when employees weee not likely to be there.

Remember, he was a regular at the bar.

The top rooms were not used regularly, fyi. They were reserved for conventions, Christmas parties, etc.

Again, Rey wanted to minimize the chances of being found immediately after sustaining injuries, hence negating any chances of surviving. That’s why he planned what appears to be a dramatic exit, but was pretty fucking brilliant when reviewing it objectively.

Hats off.

He gagged because his lungs either punctured leading to immediate, bilateral pneumonic-collapse, AND/OR miraculously not puncture, yet collapse, on impact.

Either way, he was going to encounter diaphragm and pneumonic, respiratory failure and heart failure, ASAP. Whether he chocked quickly or gagged as a result of edema, before systemic decomp, he was going to choke and show signs of gagging or drowning.

Yourtjust being an argumentative prick, now, R49.

Unless you’re in that department, you know no such thing, nor do I.

Jesus. Why we may get another 4 years of Trump.

Right here.👆🏽@ R48’s trolling.

Autopsy report?

Pull an FOIA Request & get it yourself, R62.

r51, duh, did you watch the episode? The one cop who was pushing the "He was murdered" theory said he was the only one on the force who didn't think it was a suicide

R51 I was asking genuine questions

It's all about the peen!

How big was his pinga?

Ask his goofy, manly looking wife.

[quote] How big was his pinga?

[quote] Ask his goofy, manly looking wife.

Wrong!

Ask Porter Stansberry.

R55, I’m sorry. You’re correct in that you were asking a genuine question.

Not an excuse, however, an explanation that isn’t obvious when communicating via a message board:

I’m a native New Yorker, and get mouthy when challenged. However, I do immediately recognize that I do it when pointed out to me, admit it, and change course I’m the manner in which I communicate, if requested do to so, or I’m communicating with another New Yorker, who enjoys the banter and gives it right back, playfully. Because it’s not genuinely malicious, yet how would you know this, when you cannot see my facial expressions, hear my vocal intonations, when getting mouthy?

Sorry 😐

I also assumed you’re R46? If not, please read R46, which makes no sense on its own, and even less when countered with R54, which you probably aren’t R54, or R46 and R54. Again, apologies. Truly. My mistake.

That said, the gag order was placed because of the alleged unprofessionalism that the city coroner engaged in, before submitting her report to her supervisors, and the insurance companies, and the corporation that owns the hotel.

If there was ALSO a previously open and active investigation regarding financial fraud, on behalf of illegal activities such as fraud, perpetuated. Is Stansburry’s firm, then it was a already considered to be under the umbrella of a larger investigation.

I do not believe Ray had anything to do with the alleged fraud perpetuated on behalf of Stanburry’s Hedge Fund. It wasn’t considered an enormous fund and just like the Bernie Maddoff situation, only one actor was legally responsible for the fund’s manager, and that’s Stansburry. That’s why the theory of shutting up Ray, makes no sense. Ray was not legally or financially responsible for meeting and sustaining industry, State, or Federal compliance standards. That was all on the shoulders of his BFF.

Ray was a marketing and promotion writer, not a fund manager, an account manager, a broker, or a business development officer. He had no role in the board of directors, if there was one, nor was he legal counsel, a company CEO, CIO, CFO, or CTO. He wasn’t an FA, nor did he make trades on behalf of the managers or investors.

That’s verifiable within minutes, when running Licsence checks on Ray’s info, via specific databases administrated by the SEC, or the DOJ, or FBI.

Ray appeared manic and under intense pressure, causing him great stress, whether real or imagined. I suspect that the BFF’s “trouble” played out in their “friendship”, and that this was a primary factor and driving force, behind Ray’s emotional despondency and eventual suicide.

What really sucks about suicide, as opposed to accidental OD’s, is that the person determined to commit suicide, will do so eventually, no matter what support systems available, meds, or therapy.

People don’t recognize how the ideation is obsessive, and once determined to check out, they probably will and do, no matter what.

Even people like me, who have depression, don’t get this, because I have a will to live and genuinely believe that there is a solution, and major improvements to be reached, where the suicidal person just doesn’t have that perspective and are unlikely to ever have it again, if they ever did.

I actually question whether or not ray even knew about it.

I can say I was involved with several guys just like Rey. They fail to acknowledge or equate relationships with men as “equal” to a traditional wife and marriage. It’s obvious with his sly remarks he wasn’t in love with his wife but he was just pacifying her, perhaps because she was the breadwinner. This dynamic doesn’t work well in Latin culture.

I also think the relationship with his gay boss was one that was tested throughout time over many years- and there was a power play- and something “broke”, whether the guy dumped him, threatened to out him, or started dating another guy or introduced drugs or a threesome into the mix.

I’ve posted a lot because I thought Rey was striking and wow what a waste of a perfectly great looking guy.

Thanks R60 no I'm not any of the otherss It's just so much of the evidence can be interpretated in various ways and psychologically, if Rey had intended to die that night when he left home I would have expected him to "tidy up" some of his affairs.

The elaborate scenarios imagined by people (one person?) here who think they know what Rey was like--"I know Puerto Rican guys like him, so I know everything that was going on in his life!" "He's just like me, trust me!"--are creepy and wild. I feel sure that this is about the company and Porter Stansberry, not a closet suicide.

There are quite a few elements that intrigue me most about the story.

(1) Why was Stansberry so insistent and persuasive in getting Rey to move to Baltimore to work for him if he was going to give him such a nothing job?

(2) What about the hole in the roof? It was a metal roof: how high was he dropped from to plummet through a metal roof like a bullet? When watching the Netflix show, I kept having the same thought about the roof as R12. No one in the UM ep mentioned any blood or tissue around the hole.

(3) What are Stansberry and his company hiding about that night, and why hasn't anyone defied the gag order anonymously yet? I can only think they're terrified of the retribution if their boss found out who squealed.

(4) The fracture of his shins.

(5) The utterly bizarre note taped to the back of his computer, found a week after his death was confirmed. Was he actually just nuts at the end?

Also, (6), About the objects found on the roof: How were his glasses unscathed and his phone screen intact? Who has his money clip?

Stansberry + Russian mob= Murder of Rey

Stansberry knows what's up.

Rey's brother said he tried several times to walk into the Belvedere off the street and get up to the roof, and he kept getting stopped. He said it was impossible to get past the lobby.

The brother kept getting stopped because he looks unhinged. While Rey was hot af.

What to make of the notes taped to the wall behind his computer? Rey was HAF but off.

Can we definitively know if the CCTV from the lobby and stairways was working, broken or had taped over itself?

Also, from this photo, wouldn't his body have crumpled directly under the hole rather than being sprawled out like this, a distance from where the hole is?

The friend is no such friend if he doesn't cooperate, he is a suspect. NO, I don't think there was any gay angle at all.

Watching it now!

Maybe Porter was gagged by someone more powerful in the company?

R47 LOL 'he mentally calculated his weight, height and distance to the ground"

Why didn't he use the calculator on his phone?

Are you sure he didn't visit in the days before with a compass, protractor and a triangular ruler and work it all out on a yellow legal pad?

no gay angle at all, none....

It is possible that Ray was gay or bi and closeted, but the company was involved in his death. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Leave the JoAnn Willette-looking wife alone!

Was he having sex with the house guest?

There was a lot of stuff that the episode didn’t get into in deference to the widow and family.

Why does a wannabe scriptwriter take a job in finance and investment?

Was Rey on drugs? His crazy note they found sounded like there were drug issues. Even grieving wife couldn’t make sense of it. Yet she somehow knew he wrote it the day he died.

I think it was obvious he fooled around with his water polo buddy. Moving cross country for a lame job writing fucking stick tip newsletters? For an ex-lover when wife isn’t making him happy. Ok.

Even if the company put a gag order on employees, why couldn’t the cops call him in for questioning?

Even his wedding vows sounded halfhearted.

He wanted children so bad. Well why didn’t you have one?

He was married only 6 months.

I look at that huge house and can't help but think that they were way overextended financially.

It was never mentioned what line of work the wife was in. She must've been making big bucks. I know it's Baltimore and all, but still that house must've cost a bit of money.

Maybe she invested her Just The Ten Of Us money well.

The idea was that he would only take the job for 24 months and save up for a move to Hollywood. So why the huge house?

The house was huge, but apparently she was making bank at her job?

Was he a toy boy?

A few things really stuck out to me: - The weirdness of the house guest conveniently overhearing Rey’s call, and then her being awake at 5:30 to confirm he hadn’t come home. Why were they there in the first place? - Porter offering the $1000 reward before Rey was found. - The wife noting that he told her he loved her so much before she left. (Was that a sign he was thinking about killing himself, or is that her trying to emphasise how good the marriage was?) - The sunglasses and the phone not having a scratch on them. Even if he’d used them as a marker, you’d have expected the glasses to have cracked when he threw them down.

I think the wife is lying about something. Perhaps about how happy the marriage was, because there’s no way everything would have been as rosy as she made out if her husband was as unhinged as that note made him seem. That Rey fled from the house in such a hurry and then engaged in such a meticulous suicide plan makes no sense. There had to have been forethought there as it’s such an elaborate way to go, rather than him just downing a bottle of pills or putting a gun in his mouth. It’s all so convenient that the wife just happened to be away when he took the call as well. I don’t know what the fuck happened, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a mutually assured destruction deal going on with her and his boss/friend.

It is true - if he planned his suicide, there are a lot of better ways to do it.

They didn’t interview the houseguest and the widow seemed reluctant to talk about it - “my work colleague....”

Were there no security cameras/traffic light cameras on Rey's route? It seems odd that there wouldn't be in downtown Baltimore. What about the building he worked in?

That said, Netflix has done Unsolved Mysteries right...

Stansberry offers a reward to help find Rey, but when the body is discovered he makes all his employees sign a gag agreement, WTF??????? Some friend. Something shady there for sure.

Why wasn’t he caught on camera anywhere in the hotel? Did they look at cameras at his office?

I would have investigated his hole.

Just finished watching it. One thing stood out for me, if I heard it right - it was the MIL who just casually notice Reys missing car while they're driving around. Whats the odd? Anyway, the BFF is clearly hiding a thing or two. One maybe is that he and Rey were gay lovers on the dl. And something illegal going on with his company that Rey stumbled upon.

Was the wife Jewish?

There were things that were not clear, the camera thing is a big one. A luxury condo building would have security cameras, would it not? They never mentioned this.

R93, it's not that odd; they were driving around deliberately to look for his car. So they were checking out parking lots around town.

For those who may not recall: Ray and the wife moved to Baltimore after 6 months of marriage. By the time Ray died, they were just coming up on the 2 year mark.

She was the primary breadwinner. Probably worked in Biz Dev or sales/consulting, , but wasn’t earning more than 120K tops, and that’s a generous guess. Likely closer to 60-70K. That’s why they needed to rent out a room to the roommate who was smart enough to get out of the house as soon as possible. She lived with them, and understood things about their lives less and unhappy marriage, that mDe her either get out then because she had already an Ed and secured a spot back in NYC, and was always planning to go back, or went back as soon as ray disappeared, because the house of cards’ collapse, was now complete. You know who knew Ray and his bff were an item and ray and the wife weren’t? The roomie. She knew the bff, the wife and ray were all nuts, and she was right.

Ray did NOT tell his wife he loved him, as she departed with her luggage in her car. She was seen to the car, by Ray, to whom she sai, “I love you”, and Ray responded, “I know. Thank you for loving me so much, all these years, or always”. He did not say, “I love you too”. He basically said, “Of course you do. Thanks, Doll! You’ve been swell - and this is the last time you will ever see me, dead or alive, so I’m going to finally do the right thing by you, for once in my life, and not lie to you for a final time, by saying, “I love you too”.

Ray and his bff were hustlers who hustles this chick for extra subsidies, such as a large, out of their income, RENTAL. He had no interest in committing to a family by having kids, hustling for a well paying job that paid him for work that was competitive income for his skill set, and all he wanted was his bff.

The bff either dumped him or told him he would never make an honest man out of him, and support him completely by moving ray in as the househusband. That was what Ray’s wife was for-remember??? I also suspect ray may have been fired along with dumped. All roads to bff were closed.

That’s when Ray finally knew for sure that he was fucked. And that suicide plot that he’d been batting about with those sad, last days, was now a real option.

That phone call from the office? That was the ex bf, telling ray that he would agree to see him. .

Ray thought that the bf was taking him back. The bf made it clear that this wasn’t ever, EVER, going to happen again, either before or after he and ray hooked up one last time.

And that’s when ray went down to the bar, got pleasantly buzzed, and jumped.

To the genius who mocked me for saying that Ray calculated the jump? What do you think you are doing, every time you cross the street as a car is coming, and there are no stop signs, or crosswalk meters telling you to stop or go? You are calculating whether or not you can beat that car, or not. That’s called hand, eye movement to ratio of oncoming mass speed, divide by distance. We do it every day, automatically, and athletes are better at it than most, because they are trained to make decisions that are optimal for their success. This is especially fine tuned when diving competitively.

In the doc it was stressed he could not have lept so far as to go thru the roof where he did.

So the detectives didn’t even bother to check Ray’s PC/laptop for search history, emails from BFF, previous “activity” when she was away on business? I mean, she found the “suicide note” taped or behind the computer and the police did not. They didn’t seem to want to do the work investigating.

R98 they were opinions not facts.

So he made the hole in the roof on impact? Also seems highly unlikely.

Did they even mention head injuries? I don't recall that they did. You'd think that his head would be completely smashed from going through a metal roof, but all they mentioned was postcranial injuries.

"So the detectives didn’t even bother to check Ray’s PC/laptop for search history, emails from BFF, previous “activity” when she was away on business?"

What makes you think they didn't?

Because there was a note taped to it that they would have found if they'd looked!

I do not think he was gay at all. He was a complete nutso. The wife is lucky he only took himself out.

Here's the real mystery: why is the poster who's writing the lengthiest, most elaborate fan-fic shipping Rey and Porter, claiming to have multiple certifications and an insurance background, CONSISTENTLY MISSPELLING HIS NAME???!??!

R102 they posited that he went through the roof feet first. Because of advanced decomp a lot of evidence was lost but what's frustrating is the lack of investigation of the roof hole. Did it have any of his blood on it for instance.

If it was reinforced with steel it must logically have scrapped him up?

R97 please let us know how you were informed of their last conversation? The documentary said the colleague was just a house guest, do you have information to the contrary?

There’s no way Rey went through that roof. The hole was there, the bf knew it, so he sent thugs to whack him for uncovering the dirty dealings of the firm. They tried twice to get into his house prior to the meeting in the conference room. The corrupt Baltimore cops were paid to keep the suicide story going.

To me, the position of the body under the hole makes little sense. He was sprawled out away from the opening. If he fell in feets first I would have expected him to be crumpled under the hole

Back in the mid-90s I lived in Baltimore and we spent some time at the Belvedere Hotel. At the time, there was a restaurant/bar in the back of the first floor (The Owl Bar) and a small bar/dancefloor on the top floor (I forget the name but it was something like "Twelfth Floor"). One evening we spotted Charles S. "ROC" Dutton at the Owl Bar alone, seemingly enjoying his dinner...

Anyway, at the time, the building had been long converted from a hotel to condos. There was security in the lobby as you enter so ensure that only residents access the residences while customers like me only access the restaurant or bar. You couldn't enter that lobby from the front door without being seen by at least one security person. A man running in frantic or distressed in any way would certainly be noticed if not stopped and kicked out.

The hotel lobby is typical of old buildings of its kind--it isn't large with huge ceiling and tons of furniture like a modern-day hotel. In fact, it feels somewhat cramped and uninviting.

Was the firm overbilling and committing mail fraud?

"Because there was a note taped to it that they would have found if they'd looked!"

I was talking about the email/computer records, not the note.

I read on another site that the police did confiscate his computer and never revealed to the wife what they found when it was returned 90 days later. What is strange is that they obviously did not investigate his home office until AFTER his body was found and after she found the note taped to it. In a missing persons case, wouldn’t you look for clues to his whereabouts immediately and why wouldn’t wifey have provided access? There are definitely things she is not telling.

R86, one thing I wanted to know more of is who was the houseguest, why was she there. And how come she's barely involved. On the podcast they do talk about it - one of the hosts says something like "You'd think it's odd (maybe they were having an affair) but it appears not, and the houseguest fades into the background..." - why was she there?? Why isn't she talking?

The whole case is so damn bizarre.

Did they look at Rey's text messages and email history with Porter?

Rey was too cute to be nuts.

I couldn’t get into the podcast, especially after I realized the podcast writers simply watched the episode and rehashed it along with the book. They didn’t do any real reporting. It was mostly speculation and they sounded like valley girls. (Oh mi god really?)

The houseguest did not want to be interviewed. It also seems like the wife went to great lengths to keep her involvement to a minimum. Wrong place, wrong time, but still ....

Another thing the show doesn’t cover - Rey moved to Baltimore first and was there seven months before The wife joined him. That pretty much tells you all you need to know about how in love they were.

R112, I realize that.

Do you realize that if they were checking his electronic records, the first thing they would have done was seize his computer, and thus would have seen the note?

The note was taped behind the desk, it wasn't in plain sight

Thanks to R164 in the Unsolved Mysteries general thread.

He killed himself because he liked a movie? He must have been cray.

What a bloody waste of good pinga!

What was all that stuff about his interest in the Masons??

Easy call... I watch Lifetime TV. The friend forced the wife to have an affair with him after he gave Rey the lousy job. Then, Rey figured out wrongdoing, then told his wife who told the friend. The friend hired a hit man to push him off the roof.

For those that insist that the gaping hole was already there- explain how the room was not reported to have been weathered by rain, snow etc that would have completely trashed the room and probably other areas by way of that gaping hole. Of course it was not there before.

There is so much over reaching here.

He was clearly mentally ill, and jumped off the roof. The notes are those of an addled mind.

Is there no satellite imaging that can show us when the hole appeared?

[quote]Rey was too cute to be nuts.

The cute ones are ALWAYS crazy.

[quote]He killed himself because he liked a movie? He must have been cray.

The Game was a really good movie though.

What if the company he worked for, the one his bff owned and operated” did a version of the Game with their inner circle. They are all frat boys and this would explain his co-workers finding the hole on the roof of the hotel that prompted Rey’s body being discovered and it would explain why the BFF stopped anyone from the company taking to the police.

Ray jumped.

The prevalent POV presented by the wife, Ray’s family, & attention deprived, fame seeking, fame whores who were working for the Baltimore PD, when this happened, & agreed to give their opinions on this series, is the ONLY qualifying POV offered, for this to be an erroneously titled, “unsolved mystery”.

The shit-show became a shit-show, the moment the coroner disclosed to the widow, a PERSONAL opinion, rather than one dictated by professional standards.

I’m not going to get into an entire physics lesson. YouTube can and will, for anyone here who wants to theorize how it was absolutely possible for a man like Ray, to “cannonball” himself into a rooftop, as if it were a pool, by using an adjacent rooftop, as area necessary to gain momentum to do so, as well as doubling as a diving board, for a very tall, physically fit, 27 year old man, who was so good at getting into water, and competing in a pool setting, he did just that, all through his school years, and in college.

The manner in which his body was found, is, what it was, because the force of the body hitting reenforced structures, within a room, with four walls, beams, and contained by a cement floor, covered by thick padding underneath an industrial rug, and ceilings.

That’s called a “bounce”, and you can bet your ass that Ray bounced just like a ball, feet first, when those bare feet made impact, against the floor, breaking his legs, before his body hit a wall, or a piece of furniture, or a beam, or ceiling, before finally being rendered prone, on the floor.

The only reason this scenario is unbelievable to you, is because it was presented to the audience, PURPOSELY, as highly unlikely, hence making it a qualified “unsolved” mystery. Duh!

It’s not an unsolved mystery.

It is a VERY rare, unlikely, yet VERY possible feat, accomplished by a man who had all of the necessary skills and athleticism, to accomplish it.

Go watch old footage of Caitlyn, when Caitlyn was still Bruce, competing in the summer Olympics back in 1970-something, and becoming the greatest American Athlete and Olympian, scoring Gold Medal after Gold Medal, in multiple track and field events, and allow that footage, to provide you an example of what I posit:

white men can fucking jump!

Is it often?

Nope.

But JFC, when they can, and do, they really can, which is why they do! Only some and very few, but they exist, and Ray was one of them. He missed the Olympics, or the Lakers, but what Ray did not miss, was that motherfucking roof!

Either way: Ray jumped. I don’t know why, nor do IGAF, at this point.

If I assume he jumped, so do others.

There may also be a reason why the wife is actually lucky, that he did,

How so? IF Ray was perhaps being pressured by Stansbury to kill her, and collect on HER life insurance policy, underwritten by Stansbury or someone else.

Did Ray and Stansbury “mark” Ray’s wife as a life insurance hit & death payout, requiring her death?

Was Ray ridden with guilt, and couldn’t go through with it, finally deciding to kill himself, or was he a man having an illicit affair with his boss, and killed himself because of shame for being a gay man, or losing the man he loved?

That’s *👆🏽* the real & only “unsolved” mystery, here.

How Ray got on that roof, or through that roof, however, is NOT.

Something isn’t Kosher here, and my spelling errors do not make that “something”, my mind, nor its train of thinking, R106. 😘🖕🏽😂.

r131, I think the family is more motivated by denial and inability to accept the truth than fame or whatever you're accusing them of. I see this all the time in suicides. The family can't accept that their loved one committed suicide, so they latch onto the idea that he or she was murdered

R132, agree 100%, which is why I thought I wrote what expressed that the persons who worked on the case as investigators were not fame whores, not the family.

Apologies, if what was clear in my mind as I wrote out my thoughts, did not clarify this enough, therefore lacking that clarification to anyone who read, or may read my post referenced post, at R131. .

Correction:

“[R132], agree 100%, which is why I thought I wrote what expressed that the persons who worked on the case as investigators were THE* fame whores, not the family.

Jayne Miller. The dykiest dyke that ever dyked.

[QUOTE] for a very tall, physically fit, 27 year old man,

He was 32.

Porter and some of their other high school buddies who also work there, mind fucked him and it went too far. There are a lot of other details in the book about the case that were left out of the series. He had a psychotic break and thought he was literally in the movie "The Game". The way he died is how the movie ended. The attempted break ins were part of the "game". He was very afraid. His personality had drastically shifted over the last year of his life.

R137 that’s what happens to schizos , sad but true. it seemed like the mom has accepted it but not the crazy wife.

Wow some of you have way too much time to kill.

Why didn’t the wife talk about any of that or did she need the money from Unsolved Mysteries?

The body usually crumbles, no bouncing. Like this guy at 1:35.

We don't know that Rey raced out of the house. Only the house guest claims he booked after getting a call. The call happened and can be verified but the circumstances and emotions around it can't be verified.

We don't know that the wife told him she loved him and he thanked her; it's the wife's claim. BUT it doesn't really serve her because what she said he said is more like a goodbye than anything else.

The friend put up... a mere $1K? Seems too little.

The MIL happened to spot the car? Nope.

The friends happened to go up on another roof and spotted a nondescript blackness on the lower roof that turned out to be a hole?

The brother claims he tried to get into the Belvedere. Do we have CCTV to confirm he tried? I don't doubt it. The 92 St Y also has a residents/public divide upon entering, so what does that mean? Rey was known at the Belvedere and could travel freely within; or he was at the bar and a resident brought him into the non-bar area.

There was a lot of "we're so in love" to what? Convince us he loved her. That doesn't tell me shit about his mental state, the nature of the relationship with the gay BFF. In fact, I'd say the wife dangled a small accusation the way she worded Rey's friendship with the gay blonde. She said it twice, something like, "Very close. Very close." She's pointing us in the direction of the friend/boss.

The wording: "We decided to go to Baltimore for 24 months." You don't just say two years? What's that? Something there. Who talks in months? (Not sure but I think this is notable.)

Where's Rey's father? Did he die or decline to be in this?

The attempted break-ins, the alarms going off twice: Confirmed or not? Rey running out with a baseball bat--was it because the alarm went off and he's protecting himself and his wife (and oh yeah a random house guest/roommate), or did he realize he was in danger? We have only his wife's testimony here. But wouldn't the roommate be able to confirm the spate of attempted break-ins, the alarm going off twice?

Off to read the Reddit threads.

R137, WOW! I had no idea about this, however, I DID think to myself: “Well. What if Ray didn’t actually kill himself intentionally, & thought he was capable of jumping successfully and without injury or harm, from one rooftop to another, because he was experiencing “Superman-Super Power” delusions under mania, or any delusion, under a psychotic break?

What’s the name of the book, please? Interested in reading it. Is it well written and do you recommend?

TIA.

An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere

I would have loved to have sucked Rey and the brother off together

[quote]The guy that I was involved with would get violently ill and guilt ridden after sex.

Ya got a mirror r5?

R146 nothing to do with my looks- he was a Latin guy that had a lot of religious and familial guilt about being attracted to men. It wasn’t seen as gay, but a fault and sin. Gay is still very much one of the worst things you can be in certain Latin cultures. It has to do with machismo

This thread would be a lot different if the dead straight man would have been just ten pounds heavier, lol. It's so funny to me that only the hot straight guys are gay and never the fat straight guys. Never change, Datalounge.

Anyone ever check exactly where the wife was on that night? She could have lured him to the roof and thrown him off! Never underestimate the power of a woman scorned!

Anyone pinga pics?

The messages he taped to the wall behind his desk scream schizophrenic. They tend to kill themselves

The wife said she tried calling when she got off work at 6:30, the exact time he was talking to the mysterious caller the roommate heard the conversation. I guess he just didn’t want to talk to you, hon. The bf took priority.

No gay angle anywhere in this story, sorry to those who want to imply it.

R153 = Rey’s wife

Also, we’re not implying it; we’re outright saying it.

r149 = delusional. Yes, I'm sure she had the strength to hurl a 230 pound man off a roof

R155 I was being facetious, for all those on here who seem determined to make the wife out as the villain

He practically RAN out of the apartment right after a quick phone call the day before his wife was supposed to come back, this sounds a lot like someone blackmailing him to lure him to go to the location. Also, there was nothing aside from the supposed break ins that Rey’s behavior had changed for the worse. This and several other actions indicate deception on Rey’s behalf. Why not call the wife and let her know where he was going? Sometimes it’s not what you do, but what you DON”T do that is the tip-off, especially when someone says, “I love you” and you give them some other obtuse reply other than “I love you too”. It’s the subconscious, repressed part of the mind lashing out...

I believe the wife saw several things that made her realize her man may be bisexual and deliberately ignored them hoping to would go away and doubled up her love for him, thinking she could “love” away the gay- she certainly seemed like the type .

Men on the down low do crazy things when confronted or have designed an insular, compartimentalized straight life absolutely incompatible with being gay. I think someone threatened him with a photo or letter proving he stepped out on the wife and took his money clip or he left it with them as a goodbye memento.

R157, you don't know that. The mysterious, left-while-relatives-huddled-at-the-table "house guest" was reported by the wife to have said that. Maybe it happened, maybe it didn't. I'm not sure if the detective confirmed with the house guest but I presume he did, so it's this house guest's claim that Rey dashed out after allegedly reacting to the phone call.

I found it odd the relatives should drop everything and go to Baltimore the day he disappears. Travelling hundreds of miles. Why not wait to see if he turns up with a reasonable explanation?

R159, you must not be close to your family. I would be on a flight instantly. Even for a close friend

It's all in "The Game"!

R161

R12 pointed that out too

Why was the wife's "work colleague" staying at their house, when the company put the wife up in a hotel in another city at the very same time? And if it was just a suicide, why does this "work colleague" seem to be in hiding?

Who says she's in hiding? Maybe she's just private and doesn't want to be on Unsolved Mysteries. Kind of weird to slam the family for being famewhores because they did an interview.....then question why people don't do interviews.

Work colleague wants nothing to do with it.

This show scared me as a kid. Two episodes in, I am creeped out going to bed tonight.

I immediately thought he was gay too but what do I know. I have been wrong before.

I don’t like how they use just the one point of view ( I have only seen the first episode)

In the old version, it was more like a fly-on-the-wall type of show with re-enactments mixed in with interviews from all sides. They would usually have at least one dissenting point of view.

Also, they would have 2 or 3 mysteries per show, I think.

And of course it’s just not the same without Robert Stack.

But I will give them this, they got me on this first episode. I’m stumped.

Ray was a hustler, hustling BOTH his wife and the guy at work. He seemed aimless, unemployed and merely an ambitious “screen writer” with NO screenplays written. It sounds to me like he flirted or seduced everyone into what he wanted and had carefully hidden compartments of his life obscured to others.

The wife’s love is so strong but blind. I’m sure there was more cues that would’ve been obvious but for one reason or another she refuses to acknowledge them or might have even hidden evidence because it made Rey look bad. Rey PLANNED this to happen though maybe not the way it was supposed to- he might have been waiting for the call that it was clear to head over, maybe hook up with another married guy that had some free time. He might have even been an escort.

I don’t think the employer had anything to do with Rey’s murder. I think he figured out Rey was a hustler or had his heart broken by Rey who left an aftermath of debt, or possible lawsuit so he cut Rey out of his life and his lawyers advised him to have nothing to do with the investigation.

I think someone had irrefutable proof that would’ve destroyed Rey had it come out and he made a last ditch attempt to clear it up before committing suicide. I think he completely fleeced his wife and convinced his family he was pure as driven snow.

R168, what a horrible thing and random thing to say about someone without any evidence. I pray his family doesn’t come across this reckless, evil thread that is making up every vile lie about him and his family for sport. I pray for the souls or someone that would make up far-fetch lies about people who have had to endure such heartbreaking tragedy. Some people are just reprobate.

R169, Look lady, The title of the thread is “what do YOU think really happened to Rey?” What r168 wrote is what he thinks.

You sound like someone who gets cheated on, then dumped. Go finger fuck yourself while clutching your damn rosary beads somewhere else.

R168 prefaced the thoughts with "I think" and "I don't think the employer," which signals to me this is speculation so it fits this thread which asked, "What do you think really happened?"

You reproach "I think" but write "I pray." Give that a think.

I find it odd that Rey took a 15k cash advance from Alison's credit card for camera equipment she'd already bought for him. He left her 90k in debt, which took her 10 yrs to pay off. Where the money went is a mystery in itself. She is a sales rep who makes good money. She also looked quite a bit older than him at the time they married. I think he wanted a sugar mama to support him while he played around trying to be a screen writer.

But I still believe he had a psychotic break and jumped from the building under the assumption that there was still a pool in that building. His friends fucked with him and it went off the rails. The alarm going off the night before his death was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I am disappointed that Unsolved Mysteries didn’t waver much from the wife’s story. Not that she was,going, but she obviously wants to believe there was foul play. I guess if they poke holes in her retelling, it becomes - yeah he was crazy and it was likely a suicide and then there is no unsolved mystery.

“I spoke to [Rey’s wife] Allison Rivera about that,” Meurer told EW of Reddit’s The Game theory. The Unsolved Mysteries co-creator said that Allison has “spent a lot of time with that note, as did the FBI,” and neither believe there is any meaning behind the Fincher reference.

“If he had only ever left just that writing or if it was the only thing he had ever written randomly, then people would be a little bit more suspect,” she continued. “But this is what he did all the time. He kept so many journals full of random writing. Allison feels that she’s been through all the journals just trying to find any clue that could help her figure out what happened to him, and she couldn’t find any real or strong connections in The Game.”

Meurer also sounded off on other Unsolved Mysteries cases, including the murders of Patrice Endres and Alonzo Brooks. While some viewers feel that Endres’ husband, Rob Endres, killed his wife (he is profiled in the episode), Meurer insisted that his presence provided a necessary balance to the story. “We respect Rob and appreciate that he was willing to tell his story. We respect the fact that the police department did thoroughly investigate him and they couldn’t find any connection to Patrice’s abduction and murder,” she said. “I don’t like to speculate because we are here only to present the facts as we hear them.”

With regard to the Brooks case, a Black man who disappeared in rural Kansas in 2004, Meurer is pleased that the FBI recently announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. “Alonzo’s story has been on our radar since 2017, before we even pitched Unsolved Mysteries to Netflix,” she told EW. “Seeing them offering that $100K reward was a very happy surprise to us. We had no idea they had reopened the investigation until a couple of weeks before the show premiered. I think the fact we were producing this episode shined a light on the case and helped them want to take a look at this case again.”

R130, I find that highly believable at this point

The friend refuses to cooperate, and the company has lawyered up, placing a gag order on all employees

WTF

I didn't know this, mentioned above:

"I find it odd that Rey took a 15k cash advance from Alison's credit card for camera equipment she'd already bought for him. He left her 90k in debt, which took her 10 yrs to pay off."

That is weird. Why is he accessing her credit card? 90K in the hole for what?

There is no way a screenwriter is the best candidate for a job writing for a financial newsletter except if his inexperience is exactly what they need. Cleaning up their image, is what I remember about what Rey's role was. So something was afoot already.

So sick of seeing the note described as "the ramblings of a mentally ill person." Anyone who thinks that obviously does not know any writers or filmmakers. I can open an old notebook and see something like "cookie weapon ignition murder justify purple," and I'll have no recollection of writing it, no idea which project it was about, no understanding of it whatsoever-- but I did, then.

Writers scribble what appears to others to be nonsense, or even disturbing thoughts, ALL THE TIME. And I sure hope no one takes my notes literally, especially those I wrote for fiction projects, because I'd probably wind up behind bars for God knows what.

who cares about the incoherent crazy text on the note. Why was it printed in tiny font and taped in a bizarre place?

That episode had shoddy reporting and investigation and storytelling.

I think that house was at least a duplex if not a triplex. It could have been multi units in an old house.

No way was that entire house hers.

He didn't fall through the hole. He was in the hotel which means what? The company he worked for rented rooms or space there (conference rooms). He was invited in by a guest. He was a regular at the bar. Someone invited him up. Something like that. So he's in the building. Killed in the building. Someone beat the shit out of him, maybe. For what? money or information. Money clip gone suggests to me that they took it but it's not enough. Beat him up some more, and then he can't come up with more. Can't tell the wife, already in debt the thing he was supposed to do to get money didn't happen or he got stupid and spent it (a dreamer who gets into 90K debt can get into 190K debt). Now they kill him. And they remember that fucking hole they noticed when they were blowing each other while smoking cigars on the roof or whatever these jagoffs do and the brought Rey's body to the conference room and didn't have their shit together enough to put his body under the hole. The friend put up only $1K because he didn't have much more. After all, Rey fucked up.

[quote] I can open an old notebook and see something like "cookie weapon ignition murder justify purple," and I'll have no recollection of writing it, no idea which project it was about, no understanding of it whatsoever-- but I did, then.

You sound mentally ill too

Instead of the hotel roof, could he have fallen from a window facing the other roof? Could the hotel windows be opened?

Hate to say it but I’m getting Schitzo vibes.

They didn’t mention anything about that. Weird.

Schitzo = ?

Schizophrenic.

R182, then I guess anyone who's ever written fiction about violent/crazy people is "mentally ill." Except most of them are not.

The attempt to turn a writer's notes into a "suicide note" is what's disturbing, when we have a ton of circumstantial evidence showing that this guy was mixed up with a very shady, controlling, ultra-right-wing "financial genius" who is doing everything he can to hinder any investigation of this case.

R186 there is no T in Schizo. And I seem to recall that reference was mentioned in the episode.

Your are no evening punctuationist yourself.

r181 and yet no one noticed a dead body being dragged around the hotel

If someone falls through a roof from a height of 100 feet would there be any damage to the floor below the hole or does the impact from the roof slow them down so there isn’t? Rey was a big guy

Am I the only one who thought that the rooftops of buildings were more durable? It’s not like he fell from a plane.

R190, Stephen Paddock paraded through the Mandalay Bay Hotel with an entire fucking arsenal. It's really not that hard to stuff a body into a garment bag and wheel it around on a dolly cart.

Well I'm fucking stomped!

In a weak moment, he slipped and caught the AIDS. It’s the gift that keeps on giving

[Quote]they noticed when they were blowing each other while smoking cigars on the roof or whatever

I like the way you think. Too bad you weren't interviewed on camera for this episode.

Or maybe he was alive with the fellas in that room and then they killed him. No body to drag. But also, remember, it is not a fact that "nobody say anything," but that nobody reported or disclosed anything. It is supremely suspicious that nobody saw anything, and the resident who wrote the book mentioned above indicates there was something to see.

He met the guys maybe in that very room, whatever was supposed to happen didn't (time to pay up, or he confronted the boss friend), and then they kill him. The hole could have been there before the murder. Could have been the marker for a meeting: see the hole? That's the meeting room.

Oh please, see the hole, that's the meeting room. Lol why not give the fucking room number?

And not to shit on your theory but there would have been lots of blood slatter if they bashed him to death in that room, especially from those critical head injuries.

Maybe he was ran over by a car, either near the hotel or elsewhere. His car dumped there. Someone then suggested they dump the body in the room with a hole in its roof because clearly it wasn't in use at this time.

*splatter, sorry

None of the hotel cameras recorded Rey at the hotel that night

Why are there no crime scene photos of where his body was in relation to the hole?

Also, would the Belvedere allow someone in who was dressed as casually as he was?

"Maybe he was ran over by a car, either near the hotel or elsewhere. His car dumped there."

Hit and runs happen all the time. They don't drag the bodies to hotels to hide them, they just leave the bodies where they are and drive away

R202 I mean someone killed him on purpose then hid his body. Obviously it would take more than one person. It would have been interesting to check all elevators in the building for his DNA

The book is very good even though the author wanders a bit. I was surprised people were upset with my postings earlier but the series as well as the wife are portraying Rey in a very innocent light- and that’s just not what I’m seeing at ALL. There’s things that don’t match up.

It’s not what he said, it’s what he didn’t say. There are also instances where he lived with his boss, struck up odd relationships with older women and was able to get a job coaching young men with NO teaching credentials. He s doesn’t pass my smell test, something wasn’t right.

Is it normal for a body to decompose as badly as they said he was, presumably within just 1 week? He was indoors, no heating on, ventilation from the roof hole..

There was enough degradation they couldn’t test for alcohol or drugs properly. Yes, after a few day decomposition accelerates, they found a neighbor of mine a week out from her overdose and the body expels gases and begins to leak fluids.

I would start by talking to the guard who found the body, although he looked really shaken by the memory. Still, he either did or didn't know Rey as a regular, and he would know the unofficial uses of the room and what happened with that roof.

I'd check weather; the hole could have been there for as many dry days as there had been before the body was found.

So the hotel was known for clandestine gay hookups for down low guys since the 80’s. There was also an after hours party in the basement, nightclub and bar on the premises. It seems like a lot of people looked the other way or it wasn’t labeled as “gay”, but where guys hooked up for sex.

I’ve been to plenty of places like this where

Where there’s three guys at the back that are too pretty to be completely straight and would turn after 3 drinks.

These are guys that are religiously or culturally sexually repressed. They don’t consider themselves gay in the political sense. They’re just dabbling

Of course, R209. I've heard about that too. And if we know, the wife by now knows too.

I think the company is involved in his death.

The wife talked about him in a very neutral way as if she was describing a family friend, not a lover and husband she lived with.

Rey's interest in Freemasons and secretive cults and groups should have been more investigated.

The wife couldn't get hold of him, so she immediately called the guest to ask her about her husband, but then she forgot about it until the guest called her 5:30 am. That doesn't add up.

In the first seconds of the show, the camera froze on the new couple walking in their wedding party, and then zoomed in on Rey tilting his head to the side. That's when I said this guy must be gay.

I get a bisexual vibe, which means Rey would be absolutely unclockable among friends and family if he wanted to be. This is a guy that knows he’s attractive and can get what he wants, and was used to people falling for him. He’d be hanging with other bisexual guys that are very careful. I’m not saying he didn’t love his wife but it wasn’t the love she expected and hers was much more intense.

I had a relationship where I was like the wife- and finding out he was cheating with a friend of his that fell in love with him. It completely shattered my estimation of him and left him without a place to live.

I think it was something like an HIV diagnosis from a trusted partner- that tipped Rey to suicide because not only would it shatter the illusion for Allison but also any chances of having kids as well.

R211, you’re stark raving mad, man. Get help. Smh

R212 is just as bad

R214 Thanks!

I grew up without a TV, so I don’t accept the narrative that we’re spoon fed and expected to think.

The building which houses BFF and Rey's office is directly across the street from The Belvedere. That's how his Mother spotted his car, they started searching at his job location. The Belvedere was never a gay nightspot then or now. If Rey was a regular at the Owl Bar there its because of the proximity to his office.

Never said gay nightspot. Both staff and police acknowledged in the book it was where MSM guys went to “hook up”.

OR one of the teenage swim team guys he was coaching- fell in love or seduced him- and then threatened to out him to his wife.

🙄🙄🙄😬

Rey's pinga was for pussy only, stop fantasising lads

Yeah, I’m not buying that Rey was completely straight either because he spent a lot of time alone without the wife (MONTHS) and sought out a job coaching a bunch of young men rather than focusing on his career.

“After talking to Freddie, I email Stein and ask him where these hookups are supposed to occur: “Do they happen in a public place, like the 13th Floor or the Owl Bar, or do they take place somewhere secret, like the second stall in the men’s basement bathrooms, or the corner table at Belvedere Bagels and Grill?” He picks up on my skepticism, and replies flatly that “with regard to the Belvedere, it is commonly known through law enforcement community as a discreet place to hook up, and has been since the 80s.”

I bought the book An Unexplained Death. I'm liking it so far.

What are some other mysterious or horrendous things that have happened at that hotel?

Good review of the book: “I'm not a fan of true crime, and this book reminds me why - it's exploitative, and lets readers leer into somebody else's worst tragedy and the do nothing productive except offer our own theories. And yet, when it's done well - as it is here - it's seductively attractive by the way it makes a completely disconnected reader suddenly *care* about what happened.

In this example of an "unexplained death" there are plenty of theories and I'm not sure what I feel comfortable with - suicide? Murder? Accident? They all could make sense but are equally implausible. There are strange behaviors of different associates and family members, and it's all left frustratingly unresolved.“

That review really pinpoints why it’s so unsettling to see this and other stories presented this way. No matter what happened, Rey is dead in a horrific way. Even an accident or supernatural explanation is tragic. Although I am baffled and riveted by his tragic death, I am at root, profoundly saddened and horrified by it.

R26 exactly. I think it also shifted my perception that the way the story was told on the series smoothed a lot of edges and was biased. Reading the book shows Rey in a different if not unflattering light.

The series took all the responsibility or accountability off Rey and portrayed him as somebody that fell into a bad happenstance from outside forces.

The book shows there were different facets of Rey, and he wasn’t as innocent. He also actively and deliberately kept information from his wife, took advantage of his looks when dealing with people, and he simply wasn’t what he appeared to be or the wife wouldn’t have been so left in the dark.

‘Unsolved Mysteries’ Boss Offers Updates on Cold Cases and Talks Tackling Ghosts in Upcoming Episodes

RIP Rey

What ghosts are they doing on the show?

Next show will have ghosts

The last one with the mother murdering her husband and her daughter isn’t really an unsolved mystery

But Patrice Endres’ Murder is

I saw a ghost once in college. I went to school in Vermont and during my senior year, I lived with three friends in an old farm house that was way off-campus. The street on which it was located was named after the family who had lived in this house at the turn-of-the-century.

It was the mother of that household who I believe I saw coming out of my closet in the middle of the night. She was wearing clothing that dated to around 1905 and had a very particular ski-sloped nose when she turned and showed her profile before disappearing. I wasn’t dreaming because I had actually never fallen asleep. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen one but it 100% happened. It was almost comforting for me to have some verification that there was a world after death in some fashion.

White people are always so calm encountering ghosts and the paranormal. People of color would have immediately run out of that house to never return and gotten the pastor to rebuke and cast out any demonic spirits that may have accompanied the encounter. We don’t play that

The creator makes it sound like it's a ghost story but isn't. Not sure what the fuck they're getting at.

Poor Rey-Rey, already forgotten.

R235, why do you assume that R234 is white?

Remember, we placed Rey at home getting a call, which can be confirmed, but did they confirm he was at home? Only the mysterious guest says she heard him get a call.

What if that's not true?

He could have been at the hotel since the minute the wife went on her business trip. Let's not assume he dashed off after getting a call and "seeming upset" and running out with only flip flops.

So Rey wasn't seen in the hotel that day but what about earlier?

Has anyone interviewed Candy Spelling yet?

I think she was in Baltimore when Rey died.

She wasn’t

This story is deliberately missing important details.

Was there any blood on the roof or around the hole.

How did he gain access to the building without being seen by security.

How did he know where to jump so that his body would end up in an empty conference room.

How is it that the hole was found by his work colleagues.

The wife said he was afraid of heights, so why choose a method of suicide that makes you face your phobia head on.

Why didn’t the cops reveal Beñat the y found on his PC.

R27, I wondered the same: “ What newlyweds move and alter their entire lives, because the husband was one of multiple employees, asked to write in a fucking newsletter???”

Last one should be “Why didn’t the cops reveal what they found on his PC”.

I like how it’s a “conspiracy theory” to think that Rey and Porter has some kind of more-than-friends relationship, but every other outlandish scenario is acceptable. Professional hits don’t wind up like... whatever this is.

I have to rewatch. As my lord and savior Judge Judy says “If it doesn’t make sense, it’s not true!”

Not a lot of this makes sense. Nothing these people did makes any sense. I’m not saying the wife had a single thing to do with it, but their marriage made little sense to me. Why did they buy such a huge house? What was up with the colleague/houseguest? That’s weird. Were they running some kind of air bnb?

It’s such a horribly sad, disturbing, and baffling story. It borders on supernatural because none of the possibilities make sense.

What’s wrong the fucking roof of that building? So poorly made.

It's definitely one of the most mysterious cold cases I ever knew. And just the actual details of his death, are missing! I just don't think he made that hole.

And the wife knows a lot of stuff, she isn't telling.

And the corrupt friend with the finance company.

And yes, I wondered about the gay angle, too.

R250, I’ve been looking at Reddit, and there are a few people questioning it. It’s something to look at, at least.

when is the 2nd batch of episodes coming out?

That hole is just not plausible for someone thrown or jumping from the hotel roof or ledge. Falling from the garage is very unlikely to impossible to make the entire roof collapse and have that degree of trauma to his body.

How strong was the roof he fell through? I don’t know anything about roofs except they’re expensive to maintain and replace.

I heard second batch is due around Halloween. I feel like this show could easily be done even in a Covid world.

I rewatched this last night. My observations: the wife is crazy, the only source of the call that caused Rey to run out of the house in flip-flops was the mysterious "houseguest", the brother is hot.

I personally think he was dropped from a UFO through the roof.

I get how there was no footage from the roof cam. However, there should have been another camera which could have picked him up entering the building. It's frustrating when they tell stories like this without being exhaustive.

Unless someone had snuck into the mansion and taped the note onto his computer, we have to accept that he wrote it.

I do wonder with the alarm going off two nights in a row, the "oh shit" phone-call, if it really was a psychotic break and thought he was Michael Douglas in "The Game." The size of the hole in the roof seems to confirm it.

The glasses and cell phone being in good shape is weird though.

The whole thing is weird.

[quote]There was enough degradation they couldn’t test for alcohol or drugs properly. Yes, after a few day decomposition accelerates, they found a neighbor of mine a week out from her overdose and the body expels gases and begins to leak fluids.

So there wouldn't have been the possibility of finding Porter's DNA inside Rey's asshole or stomach?

But if, as someone earlier surmised, Porter summoned him to the Belvedere, they had a tryst and he either killed Rey or Rey became despondent and jumped, Porter would be freaking out that his DNA would be found in/on Rey, which would then make sense why Porter lawyered up.

[quote]Unless someone had snuck into the mansion and taped the note onto his computer, we have to accept that he wrote it.

Mansion? Houses in that neighborhood today, 14 years later, sell for under $400k so while it's a nice house and not small, it's not huge and not expensive, and it's in an okay neighborhood, not a much sought after one. I wondered myself when I saw the house on Netflix how they afforded it but then I realized the neighborhood is a something of a nice pocket near some very good areas but largely surrounded by not so good neighborhoods.

lol, maybe mansion wasn't the right term, but it's more accurate than the gay fan fiction theories concerning Rey and his boss/childhood friend.

Also, the wife knows more than she is telling here. She's on a TV show, she's being paid. She's going to reveal just enough details to make it dramatic, but unknowable.

Rey caught the AIDS, ruined his straight life and jumped out of despondency.

-He had someone at the office do a mail in HIV test so his wife wouldn’t find out. He ran out to find out the results that night and jumped.

R263 I suppose that's as plausible a theory as any but how do you account for the intact glasses and phone, the missing money clip, and the fact that nobody saw him at the Belvedere that night?

This whole thing is so ridiculous that I’m having a hard time caring about Rey anymore.

Again, the story doesn’t make sense if you buy that Rey was an upstanding person- we’re only hearing from the brother and wife. It’s obvious the wife refuses to see any other facet of Rey than what she wants. It’s possible he was a conniving, sneaky and down low kind of guy that was doing all sorts of stuff while she was away. We also don’t hear anything from his old boss, who he really seemed to be taking full advantage of with odd jobs like writing and videotaping meetings- these positions are usually contracted out.

It also sounded like he was a free spirit kind of guy perhaps on the spectrum and sexually ambiguous. C’mon, he could’ve taken a 9-5 job instead of hanging out with a bunch of young guys volunteering as an unpaid coach... that’s something a pedo would do. I don’t think he was a pedo though because someone would’ve come forward by now.

I do think something irreparable happened that night and would’ve unwound his carefully woven facade. If not HIV, then maybe a hepatitis or gonorrhea test taken anonymously and the results were given to his friend’s number or mailing address- so the wife wouldn’t find out if she was snooping on his phone.

I also think the wife found proof that revealed his proclivities towards men, and willfully ignored them. She seems very much the insecure wife of a down low man. I’m not doubting they loved each other, but she definitely loved him a lot more than he did her to hide so much of this from her. I think the two break ins and the former boss are just red herrings, perhaps deliberately placed to distract attention.

I have no speculation on his sexuality (could be, or not.)

Indeed, the wife seems to have a narrative from which she doesn't encourage any deviation. There is something odd about her (but luckily all odd people are not murderers.)

The ex-boss/best friend from school is a fishy fucker, but I get the impression he is a little shady with everyone regarding everything. His action in cutting off outside communication of his staff on the matter isn't entirely odd, but the more civilized way is to issue a public statement, profess full support to the investigators, and then ask staff not to make comments to the press or public outside of assisting official investigations.

If I understand correctly, the couple moved from California to Baltimore so that Rey could take a job with his school friend, and at the time of the murder they were planning a move back to California? All this for a dream of writing screenplays? A million people with no particular skill seem to share that dream; what could he possibly think that proximity to Hollywood people would chance his luck? He had some great plot derived from his job in Baltimore? The sophomoric scribbles and references on the note found taped out of sight in his office seems like a red herring to me (maybe some of his own notes but re-contextualized by concealing them and suggesting some dark meaning in them?)

Maybe I missed this too, but I didn't see much said of the financial situation of the two. How flush or in debt were they? What financial stresses were there? Who made or had more money? It's an odd thing not to address even if simply to dismiss it that "investigators found no evidence of financial problems."

No one will ever come forward because it was another married guy.

It could also have been a “one off” he ran off to a PNP sex party in the building and someone gave him a toke of meth off a pipe and he went crazy.

The writings seemed methy.

[quote]I suppose that's as plausible a theory as any but how do you account for the intact glasses and phone, the missing money clip, and the fact that nobody saw him at the Belvedere that night?

[quote]How were his glasses unscathed and his phone screen intact?

[quote]The sunglasses and the phone not having a scratch on them. Even if he’d used them as a marker, you’d have expected the glasses to have cracked when he threw them down.

I think a lot of people are ignoring this because they're too distracted by their own gay fan fiction conjecture (justified by such things as the wife being a few years older than him, etc).

I don't want to believe any conspiracy theories, but the phone and the glasses being pretty much intact raises too many questions. They're simply no explanation and points to them being planted to cover up a murder. I do wonder if his cell phone log was checked.

He jumped, made a hole in the roof, and died.

Seeing the clickbait online ads for Stansberry reasearch is more than enough for me. That guy is sketchy AF.

I just watched the Stephanie Harlowe two-part series on YouTube (she's a popular True Crime Youtuber). She did a deep dive beyond Unsolved Mysteries. Based on what she shared (and she isn't one to believe conspiracy theories), there is good reason to believe Wentworth or whatever his name was was somehow connected to Rey's death.

R270 But is there proof Rey wrote them?

R275 The wife knows Rey wrote them because she found matching cutout trimmings in the waste basket.

He had to have set the font extremely small and again, that’s totally something a meth head would do. They hide it very well, I’ve lived with a few that would do projects and disconnected ramblings like this and find it hard to believe he was undiagnosed if he had decent healthcare. Also if he was indeed schizophrenic, etc. why would they do a televised show knowing the truth might leak out about his mental health?

Thanks r274 I'm always looking for good true crime accounts to follow on YouTube.

About the STEPHANIE HARLOW YOUTUBE video: if you watch, be sceptical. Watching only bits of part 1, I came across a few major errors. She posts a picture of the Monumental Life building on CHARLES ST where Rey worked and states its the Christian Science Bldg on CHASE ST. There are other mistakes regarding building names and locations. She pronounces refurbished as REFURBRISHED. She says Rey was in a pre-Olympic event held in St. Louis, MICHIGAN. Picky? She's an investigator, she can't be both reliable and sloppy. Plus I CAN'T with those eyebrows...

If Stansberry wanted to kill Rey... what a bizarre way to do it. The only mystery for me is why his phone wasn’t more damaged.

I find the wife and the visiting friend much more weird than anything. But I don’t think they had anything to do with his death.

Maybe he used his huge pinga like a helicopter rotar and that's how he got so far off the roof?

Anyone got crime scene photos?

There's an interesting article from The Baltimore Sun (link below to a cached version, but article date is August 5, 2020.)

Employer/best friend Stansberry "pushes back," saying he was cooperative with investigators but that one the body was found he was convinced it was a suicide: nothing more to say. Between the Baltimore Sun article and a piece in Esquire of July 7, 2020, Stansberry is, in one case, cagey about whether he barred his staff from speaking about the incident, or he simply staff to refer any public/press inquiries to a media spokesperson.

[quote]When Rivera went missing, Stansberry said, he hired a private investigator, offered a reward and personally helped look for Rivera. Once the body was found, Stansberry said this week, “we were all sad and shocked by the fact that Rey killed himself, but once we saw all the facts [bold]and his financial pressures[/bold], it wasn’t much of a mystery.”

About the job at Stansberry...

[quote]Stansberry and Rivera went to high school together in California and were water polo teammates. Rivera, an aspiring screenwriter, had moved from Los Angeles with his wife to take what Stansberry says was an entry-level position at his company writing a financial newsletter called the “Rebound Report.”

Stansberry says the show is wrong that Rivera worked for him at the time of his death and that Rivera had left the job six months earlier on his own accord.

[quote]“He resigned voluntarily — no ill will. He said he didn’t want to write in the newsletter world anymore” but didn’t have a solid next move lined up, Stansberry said.

There's also a Brad Hoppleman with a curious background and statements:

[quote]But a second friend, Brad Hoppmann, who said he knew Rey Rivera since childhood and remained close with him up until his death, also believes the story has been twisted.

[quote]“This is a real conversation the world can have about mental illness and help people get help when they need it,” Hoppmann said, “and it turned into a murder mystery where they’re accusing people of being involved.”

And

[quote]Hoppmann, Rey Rivera’s childhood friend, said not long before his death Rey repeatedly asked him about being a member of the Freemasons and discussing the film “Eyes Wide Shut.”

[quote]Hoppmann, [bold]who also worked for Stansberry at one time but says they are not close[bold], said the week before his death Rivera asked to be able to visit his top-floor apartment in Jersey City alone. Rivera had a key to the place, but then returned it.

[quote]“He was acting really, really weird,” Hoppmann said.

[quote]Stansberry said Rivera had also asked him previously if he was in leadership of the Freemasons, which Stansberry said he thought was a joke. He said when Rivera’s family and friends were searching for him, Rivera’s wife told him that the Saturday before he went missing, Rivera was “morose and would not get out of bed.”

[quote]“She told me she was very worried about his mental state at the time he disappeared,” Stansberry said. “I’m not the only friend Rey approached and said things that were very odd.”

[quote]Allison Rivera has said that her husband was in good spirits, though anxious about work. She said Tuesday that [bold]she couldn’t recall if she had such a conversation with Stansberry.[/bold]

[quote]Rey Rivera and his wife Allison originally moved to Baltimore so that Rey could accept a job writing newsletters at Rey’s longtime friend Porter Stansberry’s financial publishing company. The Netflix episode explains that Stansberry had wanted Rey to come join the company for a while, so when Rey’s filmmaking dreams stalled, he decided to oblige his friend for a year or two and relocate for the role. Stansberry['s firm] provides financial research and investment advice to its paid subscribers. At the time of Rivera’s death, he was no longer writing newsletters but instead producing videos for Stansberry. The last call Rivera received before his disappearance was tracked to the switchboard of Stansberry & Associates, though who it was from remains a mystery.

Both the Baltimore Sun and Esquire articles trace Rivera's last call as from the switchboard of Agora Publishing, of which Stansberry is an owned subsidiary. But more curious for me is the moving back and from L.A. where the screenwriter/director/filmmaker dream wasn't setting the world on fire to Baltimore then plans to move back again to California as though everything is going to come together on the filmmaker dream. RIvera's wife seems, how shall I say... a bit no-nonsense to abide too many episodes of cross country chasing after something that was only a dream in one man's mind from what we know. Why for that matter was she game to move from L.A> to Baltimore so that Rey could take an entry level job for a small investment newsletter publisher. The video work he was doing for Stansberry can't have been the stuff of dreams; it's the stuff you sub out to a local firm to do for a few grand. Doesn't sound like something worth moving coasts for unless some greater outcome were a possibility.

And what of the financial stresses? Not that Stansberry seems a credible person without bias, but I assume that if he would say "but once we saw all the facts and his financial pressures, it wasn’t much of a mystery" to the Baltimore Sun then there must be at least some kernel of truth to it. Some commentary on the financial worries of the couple seems warranted if only to say that there were none; it seems an odd omission.

The bigger mystery is where did Porter's lips disappear to...

I'm going to go with "Forehead," R283.

[quote]no gay angle at all, none....

Really, 'cause Rey makes me hard

Really, ‘cause the woman looks nuts

I have a hard time feeling too bad for anyone involved here. The friend/boss guy: sneaky, liar, won’t ever admit what he knows. Rey: He was up to some sort of no good. He didn’t deserve that demise, but he was leading some sort of double life, whether it was the result of mental illness, drugs or hiding his sexuality issues, I don’t know. He didn’t deserve the death penalty for it though, but he was a messy man.

His wife is, as sad as she portrayed her story, is better off. He would’ve kept up that messy life as long as he could have. That includes debt, secrets, VD and lies. At the least, hopefully she’ll find some peace and get on with her life. Same goes for his family. Both the wife and his family really don’t want to admit truths about Rey it seems.

One thing I can’t get past is though, is the roof of the hotel. How fucking old or poorly built was it? This is a roof that is built to provide protection the people under it. It should be able to hold weight and some impact. I still don’t believe he fell with such speed and an impact to break through the roof, insulation, duct work, and ceiling of a commercial building but didn’t splatter his guts upon impact with the floor? Yet, that’s what happened.

I want to know more about the examination of the hole and if there is conclusive proof he fell though it instead of being placed under it

I wish I could have examined Rey's hole.

At the autopsy?

The house where Rey lived at 3113.

At the time they lived there (Rivera's body was found in May, 2006) it was worth somewhere around $300K. It's said that they moved there six-months earlier, but may have rented. Zillow shows the house as having been bought in 2004 and sold in September 2006. It last sold in March of this year.

It's a street of handsome houses , but somewhat on the edge of much less expensive neighborhoods. Over 17 years it rose in value at the same rate as the average U.S. house: 21%

Sold 12/2004 $279K

Sold 9/2006 $315K

Listed 2011 unsold (listed at $279.9K; reduced to $265K)

Sold 3/2021 $338.2K

It pains me to say this, but now I am slightly leaning toward suicide. Sometimes people have a sudden impulse that No one could have anticipated before it tragically occurs. Still, where his body landed is bagging relative to the adjoining hotel tower

I forgot all about Rey.

Me too.

I don't see how someone could have actively killed him when the evidence says that he would have had to run and jump to end up where he did.

He seems to have had some kind of schizophrenic or mental imbalance - the nonsensical things that he wrote backs this up - and likely randomly decided to jump off there.

But were those things planted?

R296 How can you plant the hole that he crashed through? And planting those crazy notes seems far fetched too when it's a family house with people there frequently.

He was dropped

The alarm was set off at the house during the relevant time period. The wife is the only other person at the house

R298 How could he have been dropped at that spot when it has been calculated that he would have needed to run pretty fast and jump to get there?

I know that some people think a helicopter drop but it's very implausible due to airspace and noise issues that would have flagged up as well as unusual. Plus the fact that there are way better places to dispose of a body like in water or somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

I’m not sure why I care enough to ask this again, but…

Why was the roof so thin? Suicide jumpers that don’t clear a building completely and land on the roof of an annex don’t typically breach the roof, insulation and ceiling, landing on the carpet intact.

It’s not an old, rickety building.

[quote]Why was the roof so thin?...It’s not an old, rickety building.

He jumped jumped/descended from the historic hotel to an attached by essentially separate modern parking garage structure, falling through the roof of a stair hall or circulation space of some sort. That part if the (2 raised stories?) garage would not have had the same building standards as the hotel or the vehicular load bearing portions of the garage. It's indeed odd that his fall punctured the roof, though at that point it was thin and it's weight load considerations limited to supporting (walking) maintenance workers, rain, and snow.