True Crime Society - The death of Rey Rivera

Rey Rivera was 32 when he died in May 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland, Rey’s death has been discussed for many years because of the mysterious circumstances surrounding it.

As always, our sources for this info are linked on our blog. A blog called CalebKaltenbach.com has really comprehensive info on Rey and some of this info comes from that site.

As some background into Rey, he was born Rey Omar Rivera on June 10, 1973. His parents were Angel and Maria Rivera. Rey was born in Madrid, Spain but his parents moved him and his siblings – a brother and a sister – to the US when he was young. He grew up in Southern California and Florida.

In 1995, Rey graduated from the University of the Pacific. He went on to play water polo for the Royal Federation of Water Polo in Spain.

From 1998-2001, Rey coached water polo at a high school in Burbank, California. He also enjoyed writing screenplays.

When Rey was around 30, he met his future wife Alison. Around this time, in September 2004, one of Rey’s friends from high school, Porter Stansberry, offered him a job. Porter had started a financial planning organisation called Stansberry Research. Rey’s job was to write a financial newsletter for the company called ‘The Rebound Report’ where he recommended stocks.

Rey and Allison moved from California to Baltimore, Maryland. They bought a house, found a new church and began to plan their wedding. They agreed to try to live in Baltimore for two years.

Three significant events happened in a very short period for Rey, between November and December 2005.

Rey and Allison got married in November 2005 in Puerto Rico.

One of his friends Thom Hickling was killed in a car wreck while on vacation in Africa. Allison would later say that Rey was suspicious of how the wreck happened but that he would not share any of his concerns with her.

After their wedding, Rey left his job at Stansberry Research. He started coaching water polo for the John Hopkins University water polo team and he began working on another screenplay. He also launched his own small production company called Ceiba Video Production. He took a $15k cash advance from Allison’s credit card to buy equipment for his company.

There is an Unsolved Mysteries episode on this case, and if you have seen that, it states that Rey was still employed by Porter Stansberry at the time of his death, but I believe he resigned not long after his wedding.

This info about the name of Rey’s company is from reddit (there is an entire Rey Rivera subreddit on there, so much info)

The name of Rey’s company is worth noting. Mikita puts a blurb in her book saying that ceiba is a tree with spiritual meaning. It is believed that the souls of the dead ascend to the top of the tree to go to heaven. There is also some connection between all three worlds – underworld, earth, and heaven.

After Rey launched his production company, several companies contracted him to make videos for their clients. One of these ‘The Oxford Club’ was owned by a parent organization called The Agora. Stansberry Research was also owned by The Agora.

After their wedding, in Spring 2006, Rey and Allison went back to California for a visit and started to plan to move back there. They returned to Maryland and it is reported that they put their house up for sale. Allison said that Rey seemed stressed.

Allison has said that Rey insisted on going everywhere with her, almost as if he was protecting her. She said that one day she went for a jog at a track near their home and Rey insisted on accompanying her. It sounds like he didn’t jog with her, he just sat in the stands and watched. Another man entered the track while Allison was jogging. Rey got up and ran towards the man, and the man quickly left the area.

Allison has said she could tell something was bothering Rey but he would not tell her what it was.

On May 14, Rey and Allison went to church. When they got home, Allison heard Rey make a call and leave a message to Porter Stansberry saying “Hey man, give me a call back, I’ve finally got it all figured out.”

The entire time they were living in Baltimore, their home security alarm went off twice. The first time was on Monday May 15, 2006 at 1am. Allison has said that she woke up and saw that Rey was not in their bed. She went downstairs and Rey came out with a baseball bat. Allison said he had a look of terror on his face that she had never seen before.

The police arrived at the home and checked out the area. They told Allison and Rey that perhaps a squirrel had triggered the alarm.

The alarm went off again the following night, Tuesday May 16, again around 1am. Allison has said that Rey looked even more terrified than the night before. Allison said that the living room windows appeared to have been damaged from the outside. No fingerprints were found on the windows.

Police went to the house again, and again suggested that an animal had made the alarm go off.

Later that morning, Allison had to leave for a 3 or 4 day business trip. Rey walked Allison out of the house and they had the following exchange.

She said, “I love you so much,” to which he replied with, “Thank you for loving me so much.”

After Allison left, Rey did some work. He booked an editing suite for the next weekend so that he could finish off a project for one of The Agora’s companies. He also apparently made a call to a Freemason representative and had a discussion believed to be about a screenplay idea. At some point around this time, Rey also purchased a Free Masons for Dummies book.

One of Allison’s co-workers, Claudia, arrived at Rey and Allison’s home that day. She was going to spend the night there. At around 6.30pm, Claudia was in the guest room and Rey was working in his office, which was next to her room. Claudia has said that Rey got a call on his cell phone.

Claudia heard Rey yell ‘Oh shit!!” after he answered. Rey rushed out of the house in flip-flops and drove away in Allison’s car. He then came back briefly, ran into the house for an unknown reason, before driving away again.

The call was later found to have originated from The Agora switchboard. Porter Stansberry has denied that anyone would have called Rey.

“Every person in our company who had worked with Rey was on the Eastern Shore at the time that call was made, having a corporate retreat in St. Michael’s… No one in my company was in town when Rey disappeared. The idea we were calling him from our switchboard is ridiculous.”

Allison tried to call Rey multiple times that night and he never answered. She has said that this was out of character for him. She ended up going to bed, assuming that Rey was out with some friends.

Claudia called Allison the next morning to say that Rey had not come home. She also said that all the lights were on downstairs and in his office.

Allison tried to contact Rey again and by this point, she was very worried. She cut her trip short and went back to Baltimore.

Allison contacted their friends, family and colleagues and nobody had heard from Rey.

When Allison got back to their home, Rey had still not returned. His computer was on the kitchen counter, along with his Invisalign, some chips and the drink he had been drinking.

Allison called Rey’s parents and siblings and they traveled to Baltimore to help search.

Allison turned their home into a search headquarters. She discovered there had been no activity on his cell phone or his bank accounts since he left the home. She, along with friends and family, searched the neighborhood and other areas in Baltimore.

Porter Stansberry offered a financial reward, hired a PI and contacted the media.

During the search, Porter told a journalist that Rey was “a happy guy. He and his wife had just booked a trip to go to New Mexico in a few weeks. This is not a man that wanted to leave. I’ve got to find my friend. I can’t imagine my life without him. He’s my best friend.”

On May 22, 2006, Allison’s parents were driving around downtown Baltimore, trying to find the car that Rey had left in. By miracle and change, they spotted it in a downtown parking lot, near a building called The Belvedere. The building was a hotel at one point but now has apartments, restaurants and bars.

The parking lot where the car was found was close to Rey’s workplace. There was a ticket on the SUV that showed the vehicle had been parked there since May 16, which was when Rey ran out of the house in his flip-flops.

An employee at the parking lot said that the SUV was not there when he left on May 16, but that it was there when they got to work on the morning of Tuesday May 17, 2006.

The search for Rey moved to the area near where the car was found.

On May 24, some of Rey’s colleagues spent their break looking for him. They went to the top of the parking garage, next to The Belvedere. That level overlooked a building connected to The Belvedered. They looked over the ledge and spotted a narrow and small hole on the second floor of the building.

Surrounding the hole were flip-flops, a cell phone, a set of keys and glasses. Rey’s colleagues called police.

Police determined that the hole was in a conference room that was hardly ever used. When the police went to the room and opened the door, a horrible smell emanated.

The hole acted like a skylight into the room. Rey’s severely damaged body was sprawled under the hole, in direct sunlight. He had been laying there for over a week when he was found and he had started to decompose. Rey was taken to the Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

You can read Rey’s autopsy here.

Police began to look into how Rey could have ended up in the conference room. There was a large distance between the hotel and the location of the hole. It is thought that Rey would have had to have ran at a speed of 10 miles per hour which is between a fast run and a sprint for a male wearing sports shoes. Rey was either barefoot or wearing flip flops and would have had a maximum run up of just over 15 feet or 5 metres in 2.5 seconds. This indicates that Rey would have willingly gone off the roof, he could not have been pushed or accidentally fallen.

There is the possibility that Rey would have jumped from a lower ledge but the balconies/ledges there were from privately owned apartments or from an office that had a window on the ledge.

Just to note that Rey’s phone was found with some scratches but it was not broken and was still working. His money clip was not with him and has never been found.

Shortly after Rey was found, Porter Stansberry apparently became uncooperative. According to the subreddit for Rey:

He does not return the homicide detectives calls, and when the detective tries to contact employees/the office, he is told by company lawyers that employees are not allowed to speak with him [gag order]. Porter speaks to Allison and tells her that he doesnt want to speak to police and fears they will be against him due to his prior SEC investigation. David Churbuck, a publicist at Sitrick & co, a crisis management firm, recently hired by Stansberry Research, denies any gag order was ever placed on employees (July 2, 2020).

Allison hired a private investigator. She and the PI went to The Belvedere to review CCTV. Apparently the footage for May 16 was not available to view. There was footage for May 15 and May 17, but nothing for May 16. There was apparently a ‘protect’ button in the system, located on a keyboard in the concierge area and another button on a computer in the back end. Police took the hard drives for investigation

While searching their home for more info, Allison found a bizarre note, folded up in plastic and taped to Rey’s computer screen, alongside a blank check. The note had been typed in tiny print.

“It just seemed bizarre. Really bizarre,” said Baltimore Police Department Cmdr. Fred Bealefeld.

Officials found it so strange that police sent it to the FBI, which examined it and concluded it wasn’t a suicide note.Former police Cmdr. Mel Blizzard reviewed it and agreed.

“What it does appear to be is a weird stream of conscious writing,” he said. “The other thing I thought of is if he’s writing some type of code to someone about something. That’s possible.”

You can read a transcript of Rey’s note here:

I wrote out Rey Rivera’s “suicide” note as accurately as I could
by inUnsolvedMysteries

WBALTV has analysed the note and these are some interesting points from their article

The note began and ended with phrases used in the Masonic order.

(As we mentioned earlier, Rey purchased the book about Free Masons and also made a call to the organisation before his death).

“Based on what we’ve seen, his interest in the Masonic order was not to do charitable work,” Baltimore Police Department Cmdr. Fred Bealefeld said. “Somehow it was linked to his interest in the movie industry and this theory that somehow there was control being exerted by the Masonic order.”

“Because it [the note] was so weird, I just took that first sentence [referencing virtue] and laid it into Google search and the first thing that came up was Freemasons,” Allison explained.

For anyone not familiar with what a freemason is – a member of an international order established for mutual help and fellowship, which holds elaborate secret ceremonies.

Freemasonry is a Fraternal organization of men who believe in brotherhood and helping others. Its members are known as “Freemasons” (in full: “Ancient Free and Accepted Masons”, or simply “Masons”). Freemasons also help one another in times of hardship. Freemasonry can be found all over the world in various forms.

The Unsolved Mysteries co-creator spoke to Allison about a theory that pointed out similarities between Rey’s death and the movie The Game, which Rey mentioned in his note.

“I spoke to [his wife] Allison Rivera about that. She’s spent a lot of time with that note, as did the FBI, just going through the note trying to figure out if there were any clues or anything else in there. She doesn’t place any significance on the movie The Game. Rey liked a lot of different types of movies. He was just a guy who was interested in everything. 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. 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.”

If you’re not familiar with the movie, it starred Michael Douglas. This bio about it is from imdb:

After a wealthy San Francisco banker is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, his life is turned upside down as he begins to question if it might really be a concealed conspiracy to destroy him.

Just an interesting note, after Rey died, Porter Stansberry was ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution and civil penalties for providing false stock information in their financial newsletter and defrauding public investors, the Baltimore Sun reported in 2007.