MD MD - Rey Rivera, 32, suicide or foul play, Baltimore, 16 May 2006

[Dylansmom08]

I was able to track down a copy of his autopsy report and according to that he was 6'4 and weighed 251 pounds I don't know if that would have anything to do with the angles and speed at which he would go off the roof or not but just thought I would put that out there just in case.

 

[Tbone144]

I was able to track down a copy of his autopsy report and according to that he was 6'4 and weighed 251 pounds I don't know if that would have anything to do with the angles and speed at which he would go off the roof or not but just thought I would put that out there just in case.

Height would be a good indicator or stride length. Not necessarily speed although I imagine long legs can make you run faster. 251 pounds is 113.85 kg. Energy of impact E=mgh (mass *gravity*height) 113.85kg*9.81m/s^2*41.15 m

45959 kg•m^2/s^2. That may be Joules looks like m•N. I’ll try to figure out what that means in layman’s terms but my brain is a bit fried at the moment so I need a break.


Energy of falling object

 

[Tbone144]

Okay, home and back at it.
Mass doesn’t matter for speed at which he’s falling (feathers and bricks). I’ve found the hotel as 188 feet tall but that may be to the height of the top of the doorways on the roof, thought they said 180 feet. He didn’t fall all the way to the ground. I can’t remember if the structure he fell on was 45 feet high or the parking garage they were looking down on it it. I’m going with distance traveled of 135 feet or h = 41.15 m. g=gravity 9.81 m/s^2
V=sq rt (2gh)
V= 28.41 m/s or roughly 63.5mph when he hit the roof below.

That roof he went through didn’t look terribly thick and I think if he traveled feet first he would punch through with that mass and speed and his legs would have been absolutely destroyed like the autopsy found.

Now why he jumped, I don’t know. I wonder if who was ever trying to break into his house threatened him and his wife and it was to protect her or if he had lost his job, or if he just had a psychological break.
All IMOO

 

[Dylansmom08]

With that speed his injuries would make more sense. As to why I don't think we will ever know for sure but it seems to me that it is completely possible that he had a psychotic break. The note he left behind his computer seems to be ramblings and his wife said he had been acting paranoid in the days before his death. Now maybe he had a valid reason to be and someone was after him or maybe it was all in his mind and he was spiraling out of control. There are so many things that don't add up I just don't know what to think at this point.

 

[kemo]

I don’t understand the physics but I think there is no other reasonably probable explanation except that he jumped off of the building with enough lateral thrust to travel to where the hole in the roof is. At the top of the roof there is a flat area that he could have run across and then pushed off from the side. He was tall and athletic and would have done a similar maneuver many times entering a swimming pool. Being pushed or thrown off the roof would never have resulted in significant lateral thrust.

The roof of the building he landed on seems to be cement with Steele supports but it appears to be rather old and he would have hit with a lot of force. It is very had to explain how glasses he was wearing or a cellphone in his pocket would respond during the fall or at the point of impact.

The alternate explanations such as staging the scene by creating the hole in the ceiling and placing his body beneath the hole is the stuff of bad crime fiction. Arranging for workmen to create the hole could be expected to be noticed and the act of employing multiple helpers to assist with a murder is absurd. There would be so many easier, safer way to kill someone.

Suicide is often impossible to explain yet it does happen. We may never know why and the exact point where he jumped and the trajectory of his body may never be established but the fact that he jumped seem pretty irrefutable.

 

[Hopperrr]

Okay, home and back at it.
Mass doesn’t matter for speed at which he’s falling (feathers and bricks). I’ve found the hotel as 188 feet tall but that may be to the height of the top of the doorways on the roof, thought they said 180 feet. He didn’t fall all the way to the ground. I can’t remember if the structure he fell on was 45 feet high or the parking garage they were looking down on it it. I’m going with distance traveled of 135 feet or h = 41.15 m. g=gravity 9.81 m/s^2
V=sq rt (2gh)
V= 28.41 m/s or roughly 63.5mph when he hit the roof below.

That roof he went through didn’t look terribly thick and I think if he traveled feet first he would punch through with that mass and speed and his legs would have been absolutely destroyed like the autopsy found.

Now why he jumped, I don’t know. I wonder if who was ever trying to break into his house threatened him and his wife and it was to protect her or if he had lost his job, or if he just had a psychological break.
All IMOO

This is brilliant! I’ve always been terrible at math. I know with WS we can’t “draw” on any maps/images but could someone maybe walk me through what this would look like? I.e. where would have been a likely “starting” point for him to possibly gather enough speed?

The note has been typed up by other Internet sleuths over on Reddit should anyone want to have a look. It’s maddening, as his wife mentioned. I can’t decide if it’s relevant or a red herring.

 

[Dylansmom08]

Based on everything I have been able to find where he landed was a 45 foot drop from the main roof where he is alleged to have jumped from. The roof above was 40 feet across from one ledge to the ledge he jumped from. So I'm thinking with him being so tall he could have made that dive off the building there. Everything that I have seen said the roof he went through was metal and had two glass skylights on either side. As for the note I have looked over the parts of the note that were typed over on reddit and I can't really make no sense out of it. Seems to me it's just ramblings but it does mention his friends name a lot so I don't know if he was just fixated on his friend or there could be some other meaning behind this. Some have suggested it could contain some elaborate coded message but I haven't seen anything that supports that theory.

 

[Hopperrr]

Rey Rivera Timeline

Here’s a basic timeline of the week of Rey’s disappearance leading up to his body being found.

May 16th, 2006 - Rey disappears; he was last seen leaving his home in the Northwood neighbourhood of Baltimore

At around 4 PM, a colleague of Rey’s wife hears Rey take a phone call, say “oh sh—“ into the phone and leave out the back door. It is described as if Rey is “late for an appointment.”

The article also notes that Rey “... left driving his wife’s car only to come back briefly and run out again, leaving the lights and the computer on in his office.”

EDIT: A secondary source places the time of this call around 6:30 PM

10 PM - After trying time reach Rey throughout the day, Allison (Rey’s wife) calls Claudia (the aforementioned colleague). Claudia says that she hasn’t seen Rey since he left.

May 17th, 2006
A missing persons report is filed around 3 PM by Allison, after the family spent the day trying to look for him

May 23rd, 2006
Allison’s car is found in a parking lot in Mt. Vernon

EDIT: a secondary source lists this date as May 22nd, with the car being found in spot #7 in a lot on St. Paul’s St. According to an attendant, the car was likely left there the day of Rey’s disappearance.

May 24th, 2006
Rey’s body is found in an “abandoned meeting room” in the Belvedere Hotel. His body is badly decomposed, as if it’s been there for sometime. It is believed Rey jumped from 14 floors up from the roof of the building. Rey’s sandals and phone were found on this lower roof, intact.

I’m still trying to pin down specifics regarding the police investigation (when the home was searched, interviews with Belvedere employees etc) but here’s a basic timeline! If there’s any additional info that’s relevant, please let me know!

Quotes pulled from the article below:
A Cryptic Note, A Blank Check, And The Free Masons: Inside The Strange 'Suicide' Of Rey Rivera

Secondary article that provided additional information: 'Unsolved Mysteries': What Really Happened to Baltimore's Rey Rivera?

 

[raiders444]

Hi all, i just watched this 2 nights ago...definitely compelling stuff! I have a couple of thoughts or theories.

One is that he and his best friend were both "pledging" the Freemasons. On the episode his wife said she googled some of the stuff from his note and the hit that came up was related to the Freemasons. I don't know what is involved with becoming a Freemason so this is a shot in the dark of course. Could it be he was called by either his best friend or someone who was at the office with the best friend and told "get over here immediately" or "meet me at so and so immediately"? I pledged a fraternity and there was some of that sort of thing involved by older brothers calling on us pledges. Could explain the urgency. I was also thinking maybe they were involved in some sort of pledge exercise or initiation that went wrong, and he fell? Could have been like "the item you need is in room X and the only way to get there is through the window on that ledge". I do think that however he died, it would be pretty impossible for his cell phone and glasses to remain undamaged after an extreme fall, and his flip flops to have landed oh so neatly near one another on the roof (i think that is how they were found). Those items do seem staged. The hole in the roof also seemed odd- no blood anywhere on the roof after such an impact? Could he have fallen somewhere else and been moved there, and maybe someone goes up on the roof and drops a cinder block or bowling ball? That hole just seems too small and clean

The other theory many have already mentioned and that it is some sort of business transaction gone bad, or a client lost a lot of money. This theory maybe better explains the house alarms the 2 times leading up to his death. He was possibly being harrassed by a client. Maybe the client goes to the office looking for him and that is when he gets the call to get his a$$ over there ASAP to explain himself, and when he arrives things go haywire? Could also explain the gag order for the entire company- i am sure people who work there could name clients who visited that day, or people they saw, or if Rey went there first etc. I also think some of the body trauma could have been from him being beaten- broken shins etc.

At any rate, the best friend definitely must know something. Why lawyer up immediately, rather than be there for the grieving wife and to help in the search? That says everything to me

All my own opinions of course...thanks!

 

[AllElseFailed]

Hi all, i just watched this 2 nights ago...definitely compelling stuff! I have a couple of thoughts or theories.

One is that he and his best friend were both "pledging" the Freemasons. On the episode his wife said she googled some of the stuff from his note and the hit that came up was related to the Freemasons. I don't know what is involved with becoming a Freemason so this is a shot in the dark of course. Could it be he was called by either his best friend or someone who was at the office with the best friend and told "get over here immediately" or "meet me at so and so immediately"? I pledged a fraternity and there was some of that sort of thing involved by older brothers calling on us pledges. Could explain the urgency. I was also thinking maybe they were involved in some sort of pledge exercise or initiation that went wrong, and he fell? Could have been like "the item you need is in room X and the only way to get there is through the window on that ledge". I do think that however he died, it would be pretty impossible for his cell phone and glasses to remain undamaged after an extreme fall, and his flip flops to have landed oh so neatly near one another on the roof (i think that is how they were found). Those items do seem staged. The hole in the roof also seemed odd- no blood anywhere on the roof after such an impact? Could he have fallen somewhere else and been moved there, and maybe someone goes up on the roof and drops a cinder block or bowling ball? That hole just seems too small and clean

The other theory many have already mentioned and that it is some sort of business transaction gone bad, or a client lost a lot of money. This theory maybe better explains the house alarms the 2 times leading up to his death. He was possibly being harrassed by a client. Maybe the client goes to the office looking for him and that is when he gets the call to get his a$$ over there ASAP to explain himself, and when he arrives things go haywire? Could also explain the gag order for the entire company- i am sure people who work there could name clients who visited that day, or people they saw, or if Rey went there first etc. I also think some of the body trauma could have been from him being beaten- broken shins etc.

At any rate, the best friend definitely must know something. Why lawyer up immediately, rather than be there for the grieving wife and to help in the search? That says everything to me

All my own opinions of course...thanks!

I second the Freemason theory and think it should be explored further. JMO

 

[raiders444]

I also wanted to add that I think a 6-5", 250 lb man jumping or falling from 14 stories up and crashing through a ceiling would have made a very loud bang, almost like an explosion, on impact. How would no one have heard this?

 

[kemo]

I also wanted to add that I think a 6-5", 250 lb man jumping or falling from 14 stories up and crashing through a ceiling would have made a very loud bang, almost like an explosion, on impact. How would no one have heard this?

So, how do you explain the hole in the roof?

In any urban setting, there are going to be occasional unexplained noises. Generally, when people hear a loud crashing sound that I occurs and then does not reoccur, they tend to dismiss it as one of those random sounds that are just part of life in the big city. How often does someone die of gunshot wounds yet no one in an adjoining apartment hears anything?

 

[HarlequinHoudini]

Hi all, i just watched this 2 nights ago...definitely compelling stuff! I have a couple of thoughts or theories.

One is that he and his best friend were both "pledging" the Freemasons. On the episode his wife said she googled some of the stuff from his note and the hit that came up was related to the Freemasons. I don't know what is involved with becoming a Freemason so this is a shot in the dark of course. Could it be he was called by either his best friend or someone who was at the office with the best friend and told "get over here immediately" or "meet me at so and so immediately"? I pledged a fraternity and there was some of that sort of thing involved by older brothers calling on us pledges. Could explain the urgency. I was also thinking maybe they were involved in some sort of pledge exercise or initiation that went wrong, and he fell? Could have been like "the item you need is in room X and the only way to get there is through the window on that ledge".

The Freemasons and other secret societies do not do a pledge status the same way college level fraternities do. These societies are based more off camaraderie than a "what are you willing to do to become one" type of thinking. People often obsess over secret societies and their activities, which honestly is by design. Humans have an innate desire to uncover things. Hence, the existence of this site and every member here. We're wired to be nosy, for lack of a better term. So, he definitely had an interest in Masons and secret societies , but I definitely think this interest and the note show more of a psychological point of starting to break due to an obsession rather than what actually lead to his demise. My working theory is more closely aligned to the secondary one. I think he was helping out a client involved in Mafia/Cartel ties and things were getting a little too close to home. He may have tried backing out, delivered some news they didn't like, or simply been attacked by a rival of the client. Keep in mind he was employed by a very powerful and wealthy client who was investigated and fined for stock fraud, of which Rivera was the finance writer for. My working theory is they wanted him to take the fall as a patsy. He declined. The phone call was a warning someone was after him. He answered it, was told, said the expletive, then tried to meet them somewhere to calm the storm. Things went sideways. Now comes the hard part. We can probably rule out the ledge of the hotel because he would've had to go through a room. We can rule out the roof of the hotel due to all the locked doors(unless someone was on payroll.) So that leaves the parking garage. That's the right angle and height. His fall was believed to be the equivalent of a pencil dive in which his legs pretty much hit the floor straight. This would also explain the hole being so clean through and the clearance. Mass wouldn't matter for terminal velocity from that height because, as someone stated, feathers and bricks fall the same. I strongly believe he was pushed off the roof. However, with that being stated, I don't know why he would not have flailed his arms and struggled in the air, making his body more lateral than it would've been. Again, these are all my own theories.
Source for secret society information: I'm an active member of two.

 

[BtheSleuth]

Hey guys! Like many, I have been watching Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix. Rey Rivera's story is especially frustrating because there are so many questions that I want answers to. But first, my theory:

My theory is that the "best friend" (Porter) had something to do with it (OBVIOUSLY). I think that the call that he got was either from Porter or someone that knew him. Porter was the one that was about to commit suicide. This is why he ran out of the house.

That puts him out on the ledge trying to get his friend down. From that point, anything could have happened. This would explain why Porter (being alive) would not want anyone to speak on it.

A couple of questions that I have:
If it was a Condo, has anyone accessed the public property records? (if condos have those)
What about the neighboring businesses, did they have surveillance?

 

[raiders444]

Keep in mind he was employed by a very powerful and wealthy client who was investigated and fined for stock fraud, of which Rivera was the finance writer for.

I've seen/heard this a few times that Porter and/or the company was worth a lot of money. Have the financials of either ever been investigated or disclosed? Sending out a weekly newsletter about stocks to me does not seem to be a huge money maker unless you can prove you know how to find stock winners. That company probably had fallen on hard times after the fraud filing by the SEC. I know if I was a paying client i would probably stop subscribing after something like that

 

[RaeOx]

Hey guys! Like many, I have been watching Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix. Rey Rivera's story is especially frustrating because there are so many questions that I want answers to. But first, my theory:

My theory is that the "best friend" (Porter) had something to do with it (OBVIOUSLY). I think that the call that he got was either from Porter or someone that knew him. Porter was the one that was about to commit suicide. This is why he ran out of the house.

That puts him out on the ledge trying to get his friend down. From that point, anything could have happened. This would explain why Porter (being alive) would not want anyone to speak on it.

A couple of questions that I have:
If it was a Condo, has anyone accessed the public property records? (if condos have those)
What about the neighboring businesses, did they have surveillance?

I believe they checked to see if there were any camera's from neighbouring businesses but none were available so it wasn't an avenue they could go down.

 

[RaeOx]

Link to the wiki about the owner & company, also what the company does does incase anyone wants further details:

Porter Stansberry - Wikipedia

 

[LadyL]

I scanned the thread and didn't see this mentioned
I read about this somewhere but lost the link
someone on Reddit posted about this I think
one of the movies on Rey's list was The Game
The Game (1997 film) - Wikipedia
there's a scene in The Game where the character jumps off a roof and falls though a glass ceiling
also, that character's father had committed suicide
sorry if this has been covered already

 

[raiders444]

I scanned the thread and didn't see this mentioned
I read about this somewhere but lost the link
someone on Reddit posted about this I think
one of the movies on Rey's list was The Game
The Game (1997 film) - Wikipedia
there's a scene in The Game where the character jumps off a roof and falls though a glass ceiling
also, that character's father had committed suicide
sorry if this has been covered already

Agreed about the movie and that scene, but he or anyone would have to be absolutely off their rocker to think they'd survive a fall like that if he was mimicking the scene from the movie, and his family said he was of sound mind

 

[Hopperrr]

The Freemasons and other secret societies do not do a pledge status the same way college level fraternities do. These societies are based more off camaraderie than a "what are you willing to do to become one" type of thinking. People often obsess over secret societies and their activities, which honestly is by design. Humans have an innate desire to uncover things. Hence, the existence of this site and every member here. We're wired to be nosy, for lack of a better term. So, he definitely had an interest in Masons and secret societies , but I definitely think this interest and the note show more of a psychological point of starting to break due to an obsession rather than what actually lead to his demise. My working theory is more closely aligned to the secondary one. I think he was helping out a client involved in Mafia/Cartel ties and things were getting a little too close to home. He may have tried backing out, delivered some news they didn't like, or simply been attacked by a rival of the client. Keep in mind he was employed by a very powerful and wealthy client who was investigated and fined for stock fraud, of which Rivera was the finance writer for. My working theory is they wanted him to take the fall as a patsy. He declined. The phone call was a warning someone was after him. He answered it, was told, said the expletive, then tried to meet them somewhere to calm the storm. Things went sideways. Now comes the hard part. We can probably rule out the ledge of the hotel because he would've had to go through a room. We can rule out the roof of the hotel due to all the locked doors(unless someone was on payroll.) So that leaves the parking garage. That's the right angle and height. His fall was believed to be the equivalent of a pencil dive in which his legs pretty much hit the floor straight. This would also explain the hole being so clean through and the clearance. Mass wouldn't matter for terminal velocity from that height because, as someone stated, feathers and bricks fall the same. I strongly believe he was pushed off the roof. However, with that being stated, I don't know why he would not have flailed his arms and struggled in the air, making his body more lateral than it would've been. Again, these are all my own theories.
Source for secret society information: I'm an active member of two.

These are really great insights! I also agree that a widespread conspiracy involving Freemasons is likely far fetched; however, is it possible (MY SPECULATION ONLY!) that perhaps a contact from the Masons “off lined” elements of the initiation? There was an instance back in 2004 where a man was accidentally shot as a result of a unfortunate Mason-adjacent ritual gone wrong. It wasn’t affiliated with the formal initiation in any way, and lends more to a ‘hazing’ ritual. Could this be possible? Perhaps someone was fooling around with Rey in the name of “Masonic initiation” as a prank that went wrong? I’ve attached the article of the event in question.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/10/nyregion/a-ritual-gone-fatally-wrong-puts-light-on-masonic-secrecy.html