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E167: Rey Rivera
5.4k Plays3 years ago
The reboot of Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix, focused the first episode on the suspicious death of Rey Rivera on May 16th, 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland. While law enforcement quickly ruled Rivera’s death a suicide, such a ruling (at its core) discounts many statistical improbabilities and ignores glaring questions. This week, Allison and Maggie delve deep into the case, exploring details not aired on the Unsolved Mysteries episode, to determine the most likely cause of Rey Rivera’s untimely death.
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Transcript
Introduction to Mind Over Murder Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
We are honored this week to introduce you to our friends, Bill Thomas and Kristen Dilly, the hosts of the True Crime Podcast, Mind Over Murder. A recent review of their show had this to say, quote, Too many true crime podcasts are in it to make money, period. But Mind Over Murder is truly interested in solving cold cases. Bill Thomas is a brother of a murder victim whose case is still unsolved.
00:00:26
Speaker
He and Kristen Dilly worked very hard to get reputable people on the show and spread awareness of current technology. Their interview with Kristen Middleman was one of the best interviews ever. The two episodes on identifying the Summerton Man were so informative with the most recent status. If you haven't given this podcast a try, do so." End quote, and we couldn't agree more.
Meet Bill Thomas and Kristen Dilly
00:00:48
Speaker
Here is a little about the show from the hosts themselves.
00:00:53
Speaker
Announcing Mind Over Murder, a new true crime podcast. You're listening to the Mind Over Murder podcast. My name is Bill Thomas. I'm a writer, consulting producer, and now podcaster. I am now trying to use my experience as the brother of a murder victim to help other victims of violent crime. I'm working on a book on the unsolved Colonial Parkway murders, and I'm the co-administrator of the Colonial Parkway Murders Facebook group together with Kristen Dilly.
00:01:23
Speaker
My name is Kristen Dilly. I'm a writer, a researcher, a teacher, and a victim's advocate, as well as the social media manager and co-administrator for the Colonial Parkway Murders Facebook page with my partner in crime, Bill Thomas. Join us each week as we explore new true crime cases, as well as introduce you to experts from a variety of fields in the true crime space. You're listening to the Mind Over Murder podcast, available on your favorite podcast platform.
Freemasonry: Fact or Fiction?
00:01:54
Speaker
If you've seen the film National Treasure, then you've heard of Freemasonry. Based on that movie, you might glean because of the Masonic clues left in various national architectural landmarks that it began as a stonemason's guild back in medieval Europe.
00:02:10
Speaker
Because of popular films like National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code, you might also associate Freemasonry with coded and cryptic messages, with rituals, with a fraternity, with secrecy, and sometimes with something darker.
00:02:28
Speaker
A December 8, 2013 article entitled Inside the Secret World of the Freemasons, published by CBS News, notes not only famous historical figures who were Freemasons like Benjamin Franklin, Mozart, Winston Churchill, Harry Houdini, John Wayne, and Colonel Sanders, among many others, but also that the group, quote, reportedly donate $2 million to charity every
00:02:56
Speaker
day." After all, the Shriners are part of the Freemasons.
00:03:02
Speaker
However, because of the secrecy and the mystique of what goes on at Masonic meetings, many also associate the group by extension with danger, an association we tend to make with most things we don't understand. And since I myself do not understand Freemasonry, I read several articles about the group in preparation for today's case. Articles that, I have to admit, only left me feeling even more
00:03:30
Speaker
In the dark, for example, here's an excerpt from the same CBS article quote for meetings masons dress up in their Sunday bests and just like the original stone cutters where aprons at the center of any lodge room is an altar. All the activities of the lodge take place about the altar.
00:03:51
Speaker
said Piers Vaughan, the lodge master, and then there are the ceremonies. Each one teaches a moral lesson related to the legend of one Hiram Abeth, the architect of King Solomon's temple. They can be a little unusual, as pointed out in a recruitment video.
00:04:11
Speaker
Even while blindfolded, try to concentrate on what you are asked, what is said to you, and what is happening around you. Everything will be explained to you in later sections of the degree.
00:04:25
Speaker
When a candidate comes in through the door, he's blindfolded because, symbolically, he's in a state of darkness, said Vaughn, because masonry is all about moving from darkness into Masonic light." A bit confusing, right?
The Enigma of Ray Rivera
00:04:45
Speaker
Despite that link to enlightenment that Lodgemaster Vaughn discussed with CBS, our case this week instead is shrouded in darkness. Instead of clear charity, our case is masked with confusion and potentially deceit. Instead of everything being explained in the end, we're only left with more questions instead. This is the case of Ray Rivera.
00:05:48
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
00:05:57
Speaker
We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families. With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive.
Community Engagement and Future Plans
00:06:20
Speaker
So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:06:25
Speaker
Before we get into our show today, I wanted to let everyone know that we are so grateful to all of our local Sleuth Hounds who were able to attend our first live show last week at the Hall Coffee and Social Club in Winchester, Kentucky. Yes, so fun. Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. Maggie and I were so nervous.
00:06:48
Speaker
Yeah. But we are so thankful to the hall for hosting us and to our listeners for showing up to support us.
00:06:59
Speaker
Yeah, some people drove like two hours. It was actually standing room only by the time we got started. And we had what I felt was a fantastic discussion about the case that we covered. And we actually urged our attendees to post the flyers that we passed out and to help us push for answers and justice in that case because each new voice matters. So I hope they hung those up in their hometowns or posted them on Facebook.
00:07:28
Speaker
And we even had two different husbands make comments to us afterwards, something to the extent of, I used to make fun of my wife for being obsessed with true crime and podcasts, but you two were really in-depth, highly researched and clearly cared about the victims and their families. And I really enjoyed tonight. Both of them said something to that extent. And one of them was like, I think I'll come to these more often. I know. So I felt that was a win.
00:07:58
Speaker
And that really is why we do what we do because we care. And we also care about our listeners. So if you were at that live show, don't forget about the giveaway. We're going to be doing a drawing for it in next week's episode. And don't forget about all the ways that you can enter. And don't fear for our regular listeners who just live too far away to attend one of our live shows, we will soon have a similar drawing for all of you as well.
00:08:26
Speaker
We love giving away things. We really do. Even though it costs us money, but it's fine. Cause I love giving gifts. We also have some more live local shows that are in the planning stages. So we will update you as soon as we have more details about those nailed down. And in the meantime, we have some fun announcements for upcoming episodes, both in the next couple of weeks and in the next months. So in February.
00:08:56
Speaker
We will give you a sneak peek episode from another of our podcasting friends, the Body to Burial podcast. That'll be super fun. That will post on February 6th. And we will have a two-part Valentine special that we took part in.
00:09:15
Speaker
And that will post obviously the week of Valentine's Day that was a collaborative project alongside other podcasts like the trail went cold love murder and crime lines and Then in the coming months
00:09:29
Speaker
In addition to some cases that are months in the making in terms of research and interviews, we will also be creating some collaborative episodes with some special podcasting friends of ours as well. So be on the lookout for all that bonus content that is coming your way. It's a lot of happy, exciting things happening. That's right. That's right.
The Mysterious Disappearance of Ray Rivera
00:09:52
Speaker
So let's get into this week's case. OK.
00:09:57
Speaker
Due to the graphic content and the subject matter of this week's episode, listener discretion is advised. May 16, 2006, began with a goodbye, but just a temporary one. Allison said goodbye to her husband, 32-year-old Ray Rivera, as she grabbed her bags and headed out the door to begin her business trip to Richmond, Virginia.
00:10:27
Speaker
So Allison was actually going to be going out of town for a couple of days for business. So she and Ray exchanged a sweet parting before she walked out the door. She said, I love you so much. And Ray responded, thank you for loving me so much. Aw. I know. I thought that was sweet. So Allison left for her trip, and Ray continued to work the rest of the day of the 16th from home.
00:10:55
Speaker
He was both a finance writer and a video contractor. He'd been working for Stansberry and Associates Investment Research, which is a subsidiary of Agora Publishing. But in the last several months, he'd actually been doing some freelance work for another subsidiary of Agora Publishing. So Ray had been working on
00:11:19
Speaker
during this time, some videography, but he'd also been working on a passion project of his. He had actually been writing a screenplay.
00:11:28
Speaker
And I feel like that's so healthy for you to have like a little outlet, kind of like the podcast is for us. Oh, absolutely. So while he had recently been working on both of those projects on the 16th, he was focusing on a videography project. And that day he'd actually made some phone calls to set up some time in a studio so that he could work on the project. And he'd even spoken with a worker at an Apple store to rent some editing equipment that he would need.
00:11:58
Speaker
Even though Ray was hard at work from home, he wasn't alone. One of Allison's work colleagues named Claudia was actually staying with the Rivera's. And it's because of her, because of Claudia, that we know any details about Ray's activities during the day on the 16th, as well as what made Ray leave his home on the last day that he's seen alive.
00:12:28
Speaker
Around 6.30 that evening of the 16th, Claudia overheard a call come into Ray. He answered and she overheard him say, oh bleep, oh crap, before running out the back door of the house and hopping into Allison's SUV.
00:12:50
Speaker
Claudia went back to her own work, only to hear minutes later, Ray opened the door, run back inside to grab something, and rush back out. Okay, but I mean, you know, he could have forgot an appointment or anything like that. Right, right. Yeah, it sounds like, you know, there's a meeting or something. Mm hmm. Because why else would you say that and then run out? Yeah, and then run out. A bit later, around 10pm, Allison called Claudia to ask if she had seen Ray.
00:13:20
Speaker
Allison was worried because Ray hadn't been answering his phone. At this point, Claudia told Allison about the overheard conversation, but that she hadn't seen Ray since he rushed out of the home hours earlier. Not answering Allison's phone calls was out of character for Ray, especially when one or the other of them was out of town. And even though Allison
00:13:48
Speaker
felt something was wrong in the pit of her stomach. She pushed that emotion to the side, convincing herself that he probably just went out to meet some friends for a drink and that he would either call her later that night or give her a call in the morning. But you know, really that is scary because there was a time I think Anthony was out of town or something and
00:14:13
Speaker
Usually if he's at a conference or whatever, he'll say, Hey, my battery's getting ready to die. I won't be able to take, you know, answer your phone calls, but he forgot to do that. And I was calling him because I was going to go to bed and he didn't answer and I called several times.
00:14:29
Speaker
And then I was freaking out. He wasn't anywhere where I could get to him quickly, you know? And then when he finally did call me, I was livid. Right. Yeah. I mean, so you can imagine what Alison was feeling, but she's trying to convince herself, you know, there's a logical reason I shouldn't be getting worked up, but the morning rolled around and he still hadn't called. Nor had Ray returned home.
00:14:58
Speaker
It was actually when Claudia called Allison the next morning to let her know that Ray hadn't come back, combined with the fact that Ray still wasn't answering Allison's phone calls, that she ended her business trip early, called Ray's family to see if they had heard from him, and upon learning that they hadn't, rushed home to file a missing persons report at 3 p.m. on May 17th. Wow, okay. So the very next day.
00:15:27
Speaker
Not even 24 hours later. Allison returned home to a scene that showed Ray's rush the evening before. The lights downstairs as well as the lights and the computer and Ray's upstairs office had been left on. Ray had also left his laptop, a bag of chips and a bottle of sparkling water on the counter as well as his Invisalign.
00:15:54
Speaker
Oh, I'm there with you. And from what Allison could tell, only a few items were missing from their home. Ray's keys, obviously, were more missing. His cell phone, a credit card, and this special money clip that Allison had actually given to her husband. It was a family heirloom. And he always carried it. So he has his phone, but he's not answering it. Correct.
00:16:19
Speaker
Correct. So as soon as Allison got home, in addition to filing the missing persons report with the Baltimore Police Department.
00:16:26
Speaker
She also called Ray's parents, his sister, and his brother Angel, as well as her own parents and some of their closest friends to help look for Ray. They called hospitals. They called other friends and other family members who may have spoken to him. Basically anyone in every place that they could think of.
00:16:49
Speaker
Ray's friend, Porter Stansberry, he actually offered $1,000 reward for anyone with information concerning Ray's whereabouts and hired a private investigator to aid in the search. And within a couple of days, Stansberry actually increased that reward to $5,000. And as soon as word spread that Ray was missing, many more people joined in the efforts.
Ray Rivera's Baltimore Move and Paranoia
00:17:14
Speaker
And they're not wasting any time. No, they're really not. I mean, yeah, he didn't answer his phone. He left the house in a rush at 6 30 p.m. on the 16th and she filed the missing persons report 3 p.m. on the 17th. Mm hmm. Yeah.
00:17:30
Speaker
The couple Ray and Allison, while only having been in Baltimore, a short time they'd only been there about two years. They had made friends very quickly do in part to their likable and friendly personalities and due to their involvement in the community. So Ray, in particular.
00:17:49
Speaker
He was very interested in others and engaging in conversation with them. He was ambitious and he was active. He'd actually been a water polo star. And despite the move across the country from California to Baltimore where they were now living,
00:18:08
Speaker
He didn't give up on that love. In fact, he had a job as a water polo assistant coach at Johns Hopkins University. That's cool. And so as a result of all of those elements, he had developed swift but strong relationships.
00:18:25
Speaker
And that's coming in handy right now. Exactly. Yeah, because all of these people are coming out to help. So previously, like I said, Ray and Allison had been living in California until Ray received a call from an old friend, Porter Stansberry.
00:18:42
Speaker
who had graduated high school with Ray and with whom Ray had actually been water polo teammates and Stansberry offered Ray a job. I don't know if you noticed way back at the beginning, but Ray is working for
00:18:58
Speaker
Stansberry and Associates. So Stansberry ran a financial advising firm that gave stock tips, gave advice on investments and things like that. That's the reason he could put up that $5,000 reward so quickly. Precisely.
00:19:14
Speaker
And he put Ray in charge of writing a newsletter called The Rebound Report. So what Ray was supposed to do was to find stocks that were really low, that were likely to make a turnaround and if invested in early enough, had the potential to earn someone significant money. While this was absolutely not Ray's passion,
00:19:39
Speaker
this job did have the ability to earn enough money so he could marry Allison and have that wedding that she dreamed of having. So they haven't been married long then? They have not. Only about a year. Okay.
00:19:55
Speaker
And that's exactly what this job did. A year after moving to Baltimore, Ray and Allison actually got married. So by the time this is happening, yeah, they'd been married about a year. But there were also some unpleasant events that had also occurred in that first year in Baltimore. For example, Tom Hickling, a friend of Ray's, went to Africa to visit his daughter.
00:20:19
Speaker
And while there was under suspicious circumstances killed in a car accident. And Allison said that Ray had always seemed concerned about the details surrounding Tom's death, but he kind of refused to talk about his concerns with his wife. So Ray had actually also exhibited some strange behavior in the weeks leading up to the 16th.
00:20:50
Speaker
According to his wife, Allison, he had been both paranoid and protective over her much more recently than he ever had before.
00:21:00
Speaker
So to illustrate, Allison had actually gone jogging at a track near their home and Ray insisted on coming with her, which is weird because he wasn't himself jogging. Well, I was going to ask, was he running with her or just hanging out? No, he was not. He was just hanging out. So while she was jogging, she noticed and so did Ray, a man walking toward her on the track. And Allison recalled that Ray jumped from his seat in the bleachers and ran toward the man.
00:21:29
Speaker
who then quickly turned around and left. That's a little weird. Mm-hmm. I agree. Because if he wasn't doing anything, then he would have been like, why are you running at me? But instead of Lyft. Right. Right. And again, Ray didn't tell Allison what was bothering him and making him anxious. And perhaps, Maggie, there was cause.
00:21:52
Speaker
information that, again, Ray did not make Allison privy to. And I say this not only because when Allison would ask him what was bothering him, he wouldn't tell her, but also because of the home alarms. So recall that the last time anyone saw Ray, like I mentioned at the beginning, was the evening of May 16th.
00:22:15
Speaker
when he rushed from his house. The first time the home alarm sounded was 1 a.m. on May 15, just one day before.
00:22:26
Speaker
Okay, that's a little coincidental. Allison awoke to the screeching noise of the alarm having been triggered. She glanced over to the other side of the bed to see that Ray was already up. He was already out of bed. When Allison crept down the stairs in the dark to see what had happened, which by the way, she is a much braver woman than I am, because I would have been like, well, hopefully Rodney's got it because I would be
00:22:54
Speaker
But when she she snuck down the steps, she came upon Ray holding a baseball bat and looking scared. When the police arrived, they advised Allison and Ray not to worry. They said maybe the alarm was triggered by a squirrel or something like that, because I guess they looked around the home and they didn't find anything suspicious. But here's the kicker Maggie.
00:23:23
Speaker
That wasn't the only time that it happened. The very next morning, oh, the morning of May 16th, the last day that Ray Rivera was seen alive, again at one in the morning, the alarms blared. Allison noted the terrified look on Ray's face again. Again, the police calmed the couple by saying that
00:23:52
Speaker
It had likely been tripped by squirrels. Allison, though, was not so sure. She argues that the alarms had never been tripped before those two nights in the entire time that they had been living there. Okay, so my question is, how easy is it to
00:24:13
Speaker
make this alarm sound, because there are several systems you have to tamper with the door, tamper with the window, try to break a window. How would a squirrel do that? And if squirrels were highly populated in that area, then why just all of a sudden are they tripping the home alarm? I would agree with both of those things. I know, because we have an alarm system, so I know that there are sensors. And so obviously, once they separate,
00:24:44
Speaker
Right? That's what triggers the alarm going off. So I would imagine this is the same. And now, I mean, in addition to that, in addition to the fact that they'd never been triggered before,
00:24:57
Speaker
Allison also said that one of the first floor living room windows looked to her as if it had been tampered with by someone trying to get
Discovery and Investigation of Ray's Car
00:25:06
Speaker
into their home. Did they have security cameras outside? They did not. And now, of course, her husband was gone.
00:25:16
Speaker
Right. So it seems like I said almost too coincidental. So while many people around her, they were trying to comfort her and say, oh, you know, I'm sure we'll find Ray soon. I'm sure we'll find him safe. Something didn't feel right to her.
00:25:31
Speaker
Yeah, because he's seeming more paranoid. There was the man at the track and then there was the alarm getting triggered two nights in a row. That's like a slow buildup. Right. And now he's just gone. There was no action on a cell phone, nor with his bank cards since he had last been seen. So police had to depend on people to fill in the blanks.
00:25:53
Speaker
While searching for the missing Ray, police spoke with anyone and everyone that they could find who had recently spoken with Ray or who had information concerning his recent movements and in all of the conversations, Maggie, all of them. No one seemed to indicate that Ray had seemed upset recently.
00:26:13
Speaker
or anything like that prior to showing up missing. So he was not from their determination and thus law enforcement's determination later, suffering from any mental distress or depression. But if that was the case, then where was he? Days passed with no activity and no answers.
00:26:36
Speaker
It was actually Allison's parents who on May 22nd, driving around Baltimore and focusing on areas near Ray's work, as well as places that he would frequent, that they actually located Allison's car in a parking garage off of St. Paul Street in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, right beside the historic Belvedere building.
00:27:03
Speaker
and only about a half a block away from Agora Publishing, the parent company to the businesses that Ray worked for. Okay, well maybe we do have some security footage then. We'll get to that. Okay. The car was parked as if the person driving were in a hurry. So it was like crooked in a couple of spots and not straight in a parking spot as if it were just pulled in there and then whoever was driving jumped out.
00:27:31
Speaker
There was also a ticket on the car window that was dated the morning of the 17th, seeming to indicate that obviously it had been left there overnight on the 16th. Okay, but then wouldn't police have had record that that was Rae's car? Because wouldn't they have taken the license plate number down and he's reported missing in her car? I would have thought so unless the ticket is just from like a
00:27:59
Speaker
like building security versus local police. But at least they had a clue because it looked like once it was parked there that last night that Ray was seen alive that it hadn't been moved since. But the question in the back of my mind though is why police themselves, why Baltimore police didn't find the vehicle before now?
00:28:22
Speaker
Yeah, because this is May 22nd. Yeah. And we've had the missing persons report filed on the 17th. So we're now five days later, and the cars only found less than a block away from where he works. Yeah. And you would think they would have checked that area pretty thoroughly, you know, close to his work, close to his home, if he went to the gym, like those top areas. Right. That's what I would have thought.
00:28:46
Speaker
The parking garage was actually part of the belvedere and i'm going to tell you a little bit about. The belvedere it was a historic building in the mount Vernon area of baltimore and it itself had an illustrious past so here's part of its history.
00:29:05
Speaker
According to its website, quote, on the evening of December 10th, 1903, the Hotel Belvedere made its formal debut. And what a debut it was. The next day, the Baltimore Sun reported, quote, the revolving doors on Chase Street were never still. All the season's debutants were there.
00:29:30
Speaker
Half a century later, a reporter present to the Belvedere any night in the social season could have written the same thing. The Belvedere was conceived to be a patrician and has remained in that tradition. When it was completed, the Belvedere, according to early accounts, was considered something of a sensation for Baltimore. Over the years, it had figured prominently in Baltimore's social, political, and economic life.
00:29:56
Speaker
In 1911, Woodrow Wilson, once a professor at the Johns Hopkins University, stayed at the Belvedere while attending the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore. That convention nominated him for president. Today, the Belvedere, still as elegant as ever, is in a new role as Baltimore's premier in-town living, shopping, and entertainment center." So indeed, by 2006, Maggie,
00:30:23
Speaker
the time that this case is taking place. The Belvedere was no longer a hotel, but a luxurious privately owned condo complex.
00:30:35
Speaker
So then the people that lived in the condo would have parked in the parking garage? Yes. So then we assume he could be meeting someone there? Well, there was also retail space on the first floor. Okay. So there's shops on the first floor of the Belvedere. So it could be that shoppers could park in the parking garage also. Gotcha.
00:30:59
Speaker
I didn't read in any of my research the amount of time that had elapsed between Allison's parents' discovery of the vehicle on the 22nd and the next discovery by some of Ray's coworkers, although I am going to assume that there were no more than two days in between because the police responded to the second discovery on the 24th.
The Belvedere Hotel Discovery
00:31:25
Speaker
So I'm going to assume that the coworkers made the call to police on the same day that the police responded, but I didn't read that clarified anywhere. Nor did I read any information about why the coworkers were there looking around in the first place, other than that they had decided to spend their lunch break, quote unquote, looking for Ray.
00:31:51
Speaker
OK, a little suspicious. But police were contacted again concerning Ray when several of his coworkers called to say that they had noticed something that might be important to the investigation.
00:32:06
Speaker
Standing on top of the parking garage where Raison Allison's car was located, they spotted a hole in the roof of the Belvedere Hotel in the South Wing, an extension that had been built out on the second floor. And surrounding the hole were personal items, a cell phone, flip flops, car keys,
00:32:33
Speaker
and according to some reports, but not all, eyeglasses. Okay, hold on. So, they're looking for rain, and they're on the top of the parking garage, and this hole that's in the roof, is it like, as in a hole in somebody's house? Like that top of hole? I'm gonna show you a picture in a second. Okay. Of this hole.
00:33:02
Speaker
but they say they see a hole and they're like personal effects are surrounding the hole. And they think this has to be related to Ray. And so they call police. Now I do want to stop here anyway. So I'm glad that you did because I do want to go ahead and discuss a couple of things. First,
00:33:25
Speaker
I don't know the names of the individuals who spotted the whole and called the police. I don't know how many of them were present or any of that information because law enforcement didn't take statements from them. Why? No idea.
00:33:42
Speaker
No, this is potentially involving a missing person. Mm hmm. And I'm not in any way trying to imply that any of these individuals was involved in what was at this point raised disappearance. But they should have at least been questioned their information record and their statements taken. Right. So we have it on record. Mm hmm. Second,
00:34:05
Speaker
If I saw something like that and I'm looking for my good friend, which I would assume you would have to be a pretty good friend. If you're going to spend your lunch hour out there looking Right for your friend. So if I saw something like that, like a whole and I'm looking for my good friend and I truly believe that this whole is somehow linked
00:34:29
Speaker
There is no way, and I know I probably should, but there's no way that I would have just stopped right there and then called the police. No, I would have been trying to figure out where that hole led and then finding that room to get inside of it to see if my friend were there and potentially still alive. And I need to know how close this hole was to this parking garage and also how long has this hole been here and
00:34:56
Speaker
Why have police not noticed it, which I guess they didn't find his car in that parking garage, they're not gonna find the hole in the roof there. But remember, the car's found on the 22nd, and these friends are finding this hole on the 24th. And you know the police responded to the car on the 22nd. Right, so I guess did they just go to the car and not look anywhere else? I guess. And so,
00:35:24
Speaker
Finally, I'm gonna show you the image of the hole that they spotted on the roof and called law enforcement about. So here is the image, Mackie. You can scroll down and see it. Now, I don't know about you, but it would seem awfully hard to not only see this hole, but to make out specific items around it or to link it in any way because of the size and the distance from the parking garage.
00:35:53
Speaker
to Rey.
00:35:55
Speaker
So is this like banister rail thing? The parking garage? No, the parking garage was actually, and Sleuth Hounds will post this picture for you. The parking garage would actually have been to the right. Do you see those like half circle things? Those are actually like glass skylights into the room below and the parking garage is to the right of those.
00:36:24
Speaker
I mean, it literally looks like someone just jumped off something and went through this roof. Right. To me, it just kind of looks like the roof collapsed there for some reason. I wouldn't see that and think that someone had jumped. Well, I mean, we go there because we know we're talking about a disappearing person, but yes, if it was the first time I was seeing it, I would be like, how the heck did you get here?
00:36:54
Speaker
How did they know there are items there? This is far away. To me, it is. And we'll talk more about this later, but it was about 20 feet away. So about 20 feet down and about 20 feet away from the edge of the
00:37:14
Speaker
parking garage. I mean, you would almost have to have like binoculars or something to say, Oh, those are Allison's keys. Well, and even if I see a set of keys and a phone in a random place that's not associated with a person, then I'm not going to be like, Oh, I'll bet those are Maggie's things. You know what I mean? I don't know. It's just, I don't know. There's something in my gut that doesn't sit right with the finding of the hole.
00:37:43
Speaker
But law enforcement taking this tip seriously that they're getting, that there's a hole, they're saying, look, it could be related to Ray. His car was found here a couple of days ago. They arrive at the Belvedere to investigate. And to start, they began searching for the exact location that would be below that hole in the roof.
Autopsy Revelations and Doubts
00:38:04
Speaker
They found the room quickly and it was an abandoned meeting slash conference room that was referred to as the old church space. But police didn't just find an empty room. What greeted them immediately was a distinct smell. Oh, no. Hard to know. With that, they knew that they had found Ray.
00:38:32
Speaker
Based upon the decomposition, it seemed clear that he had died likely on the evening he left home on the 16th, with the discovery of his body being made about a week later on May 24th, 2006. As mentioned from the sighting, his personal effects were found surrounding the hole on the roof all intact.
00:38:57
Speaker
The only thing damaged or out of place was that the strap on one of his flip-flops was broken and the shoe scuffed, but the other flip-flop that was up there was intact as well. It's almost like he stepped on it or something. As was his phone and everything like that, not broken, just laying on the roof near the hole.
00:39:22
Speaker
Ray's body, according to the autopsy, showed the following injuries. Compound fracture of the tibia and fibula in one leg, several sternum, clavicle, and rib fractures, which punctured both lungs, facial and cranial fractures, chest contusion, as well as many, many lacerations, abrasions, and contusions on his body. Okay, so how tall were the ceilings in this room?
00:39:51
Speaker
I do not know. So I wonder if they were so tall that, are they thinking he fell through this hole and that's what caused these injuries? They're thinking he, when he fell, he created the hole. Oh, so potentially like he jumped or homicide.
00:40:18
Speaker
So interestingly, however, the coroner didn't label Ray's death as an accident, a suicide, nor as a homicide, which are the only three options seemingly available in this case. Obviously, natural cause of death is out of the question. But instead, labeled the cause of death as undetermined. To the coroner, something about this case made him unsure that this were a clear suicide.
00:40:47
Speaker
Despite the undetermined ruling by the coroner and the in-depth work that police had done in the days when Ray was a missing person, once the body was discovered, the investigation was closed really quickly.
00:41:03
Speaker
Police ruled Ray's death a suicide. Case closed. You know, sometimes I think they're just anxious to get the case closed and they're like, yeah, we could say this was a suicide and then be done with it. Ray's friends and family though, they say, not so fast. In fact, Ray's brother Angel stated about the suicide theory, quote, not my brother. It's ironic because he was terrified of heights, end quote.
00:41:31
Speaker
And they believe there are still way too many unanswered questions to merely close the case based just on appearances. And it seems to me like they're right. After all, even small details make me question whether this was foul play. For example, the phone call that came into Ray right before he rushed out of the home, the trip that he never returned from.
00:41:57
Speaker
came from the Agora Publishing Switchboard, but because it was a master switchboard for all of the subsidiaries and their associated numbers, there was no way of telling from which office or which person the phone call had originated and no one
00:42:16
Speaker
has come forward to say that the phone call was from them. So to me, if that phone call were innocent, right, or unrelated, then why wouldn't the person have come forward with that information and said, oh my gosh, that was me. He forgot to turn in this report. I met him and he did this or we met at the coffee shop down the street or whatever it was because, you know, if it's innocent, why wouldn't they come forward?
00:42:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's a lot of questions that I have because if it's suicide and he's jumping from something, then how is his phone not broken and just some different things that aren't adding up. And like you said, where's this person? And we're gonna talk about some of those. And when we explore the theories, you're gonna have even bigger questions and you're gonna notice even more inconsistencies that make this
00:43:14
Speaker
entire case one big puzzle. So there are really two main theories that I'm going to talk to you about Maggie. And while I tell you about each of them, I'm also going to share some concerns with them before I ask for your take. Okay. So theory number one is suicide.
00:43:34
Speaker
Obviously, this was the official police ruling and Ray's death. And it's easy to see why. His car was parked at the parking garage by the Belvedere. There's a hole in the roof with Ray's personal items lying around the rim of that hole and Ray's body found in the room beneath the hole. So it does certainly appear the easy answer that Ray had just jumped. Well, is it easy to get wherever he would have had to jump from?
00:44:04
Speaker
it is not. That is one of the problems that we're going to talk about. But before we talk about that problem, let me tell you about another one. Okay, herein lies the issue with that ruling of a suicide. First and foremost, there is the autopsy that does not match a fall from a height. In fact,
00:44:26
Speaker
And sleuth hounds I will share all of these illustrations that I'm sharing with Maggie, I will share with you as well. But look at this illustration Maggie that a certified medical illustrator named Marie dauenheimer made of raise injuries and tell me what you notice. They're just kind of
00:44:44
Speaker
everywhere, particularly more on one side than the other, which I don't think would be natural for a fall. Like this. Right. Yeah. Most of the injuries are actually on the left side of Ray's body and on his upper body, like his face and his chest. There's a picture in the middle that show all of the facial cranial fractures.
00:45:12
Speaker
And it is quite extensive. Yeah, because there's only the one, like there's some ribs on the right hand side, something in the pelvis, right, and then the bone in the leg. Right, in one leg. But everything else is on the, yeah, is on the other side. And it's that very fact that gives Dauenheimer pause. So she's done medical illustrations for falling victims many times before. And raised injuries don't match.
00:45:39
Speaker
Instead, she claims they look more like the injuries of someone who has either been hit by a car or was beaten to death. Interesting. She says had he entered the roof, feet first, as his position in the room would indicate, then the major injuries would not have been on the upper body. Right, I feel like more of his legs would have been crushed. Exactly. Yeah, there would have been severe foot injury.
00:46:08
Speaker
and not just external abrasions, which is all that's wrong with his feet. Additionally, jumping victims usually sustain significant injury to their spinal cords and both of their legs, and that is noticeably absent in Ray's summary of injuries. So therein lies the first problem. Interesting.
00:46:36
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:49:27
Speaker
To pick up your PaperLike, head over to paperlike.com forward slash coffee and cases. Click buy PaperLike and select your iPad size. Plus shipping is completely free. Ready to do more with your iPad? Head over to paperlike.com slash coffee and cases to get started. So the second problem with the suicide theory is exactly what you asked about Maggie. The math,
00:49:57
Speaker
doesn't add up for Ray to have crashed through the roof at the spot of the hole from any of the three potential places from which he could have jumped. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about these jumping spots.
Debunking Jump Theories: Could Ray Have Jumped?
00:50:14
Speaker
The first proposed jumping spot is the highest point, the roof of the Belvedere. This spot is 177 feet vertically.
00:50:27
Speaker
oh wow away from the hole and 43 to 45 feet horizontally from the hole okay so he would have had to basically been a superhero to run leap that far and then fall through the roof at that place right because the fall itself would have only taken 3.3 seconds
00:50:55
Speaker
But yes, in order to have jumped that distance horizontally, it's not impossible.
00:51:04
Speaker
but it would have meant getting up to a running speed of around 10 or 11 miles per hour. So that's considered a fast sprint, which is easily possible for somebody who has a straight path, is in shape and is wearing tennis shoes. And while Ray was fit, the path to the edge of the building though was riddled with air conditioning units and all these other barriers. He also had on flip-flops. He did, yeah. He wasn't wearing tennis shoes at all. He had on flip-flops.
00:51:34
Speaker
So for many people, this scenario does not seem likely. And if you look at the illustration, you'll see like in between the roof of the Belvedere and the hole in that ceiling, there's like a courtyard in between. Yeah. And if his goal was just to jump, why just jump into that courtyard?
00:51:52
Speaker
Exactly. A second potential spot would have been from the top of the parking garage, like we talked about. But the height from the top of the parking garage to the hole was 20 feet vertically and the distance 20 feet horizontally. Plus, as you can see in the second picture, there's a ledge and a rail at the edge of the parking garage, meaning a run. So we couldn't even run. Right.
00:52:20
Speaker
See, in this case, that's maybe a distance that a long jumper could make, right? But when you've got a rail and a ledge and you can't jump, like you can't get a running start, then again, the ability to jump that distance from that height is unrealistic at best. The third potential spot is a ledge on the 11th floor of the Belvedere.
00:52:50
Speaker
And although the height and the distance for this one is probably the most likely, if this is a suicide, and there's an illustration of this one as well, to the whole, this scenario would have required access to a condo that was privately owned. And- Do we know the person there? Not that we know of.
00:53:16
Speaker
And it was still a decent jump from a perilously narrow ledge. Yeah, he was scared of heights. Exactly. That's what I was getting ready to say. And all of this for someone who was deathly afraid of heights. So which theory do police go with? Do we know? They don't say. Or did they just say suicide in their den? Exactly.
00:53:39
Speaker
And no matter the place theorized for the jump, you said this also, the conundrum for the suicide theory in general is the breakable items like Ray's phone that were located on the roof around the hole unscathed. I mean, my phone could be inches from the ground and I drop it and it would break or crack when it fell. I mean, I know phones were a little bit different back then than they are now, but I think even from that height,
00:54:09
Speaker
if you had, you know, one of those supposedly indestructible phones, it's probably gonna break. Right. Yeah. So we are in 2006. The first iPhone doesn't come out until 2007. So this was probably something like a Motorola Razr or something like that. But you're right. I mean, if it's falling from 100 feet, then I would expect something that fragile to have broken and shattered into a million pieces. Yeah.
00:54:35
Speaker
For sure. So the explanation that's given by believers of this theory for why the phone didn't break is they say, well, maybe it fell out of his pocket just as he was entering the roof. I just think that's a very, I think that's just very like almost circumstantial or something. I don't even know the right word to say that though, like to just say, Oh, well, his phone didn't break because, you know, when he was three feet above the
00:55:04
Speaker
That's when they dropped it. But there are other issues with the suicide theory that Ray's family also bring up.
Ray's Future and the Cryptic Note
00:55:13
Speaker
So to illustrate, while law enforcement found Ray and the other items that Allison had identified as being missing, one item was never found.
00:55:24
Speaker
Even after thorough searching of every conceivable place that it might be, that special money clip, the family heirloom that Ray always carried. So if this were suicide, why would that item be missing? Right, and why wasn't it with the rest of his items that fell out of his pockets, you know, three feet above the roof? Right, right.
00:55:47
Speaker
I also want to reiterate, again, if we are believing that Ray's death were a suicide, it's still curious to me why the person who made that phone call to him on the 16th never came forward to explain
00:56:01
Speaker
you know, the context or the content of that call because even if it's innocent, there's so much information that they could have gotten from it. You know, maybe we find out whether he did drive straight to the Belvedere, right? Or maybe he was driving to meet them someplace else and then perhaps something had happened to Ray there and someone else drove his car to the parking garage.
00:56:26
Speaker
After the ruling of suicide, Ray's friend, Porter Stansberry, withdrew the reward of money for information and now argued that he believed Ray to have been unhappy shortly before his death. To explain why Ray had been unhappy, Stansberry noted that Ray had actually written an article
00:56:47
Speaker
for that newsletter that Stansbury put him in charge of, suggesting to investors that they put money in this one stock that actually never rebounded as he had indicated that it would.
00:57:01
Speaker
and that potentially led many people to lose large sums of money. But you know that when you invest, though. It's a risk. Anthony and I are young, and we've met with a financial advisor and talked about investing money. And he was like, well, what would you say if one day all this money you put in, I called you and was like, I'm really sorry. This stock didn't rebound the way we thought it would. And I was like, well, I would say you better find something else to invest in what money is left.
00:57:31
Speaker
Like it's a risk that you take. So they know that going in. Right. But that's what Stansberry suggests as a reason why Ray hadn't been happy. And all of this despite Stansberry initially saying when Ray was a missing person that Ray was happy.
00:57:49
Speaker
This was reported in an article by Colin Campbell and the Baltimore Sun. Sansbury said, quote, he's 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, end quote. Yet several years later when interviewed again, Sansbury's recollection had changed.
00:58:15
Speaker
According to Grace Henry's article, Unsolved Mysteries creator did speak to Porter Stansberry about Ray Rivera disappearance. That was published on July 24, 2020 in the Radio Times. Unsolved Mysteries creator, Terry Dunn,
00:58:33
Speaker
was able to interview Stansberry. And now 14 years later, he told her that Ray and Allison had been seeing a marriage counselor. They weren't. And that Ray was having a mental health break at the time of his death. Another claim for which there is zero proof.
00:58:55
Speaker
And one, Allison, one, definitely have known about the marriage counselor because she's the other half of the marriage. And two, have known if he was on a mental health break from work. Right. And I don't think he was on a mental health break, but that he had a break in his mental health.
00:59:14
Speaker
Oh, I'm so crazy. I definitely thought that was like, he was struggling and they gave him like some PTO because I was about to say. I need a mental health break sometimes, but. Because I was about to say that seems a little like, you know, advanced in our thinking. Oh, in 2006. To say, oh, here's the mental health day. No. Yeah. I think he meant he was, um, there was a breakdown in his mental health.
00:59:39
Speaker
And again, other than the anxiety and the fear that he was feeling, obviously there's paranoia that something bad is going to happen, and for just cause for the weird things that happened in those days leading to him leaving in that rush. But those close to Ray wonder why this shift in memory, right? Why say he was happy at the time, and then later say he wasn't.
01:00:06
Speaker
Because I could understand for getting a few details, but to completely change your story, that's a little much. But those closest to Ray said he was under no such duress in conjunction with an already problematic ruling of suicide based on the details that I already gave you. Friends and family argue that Ray had too much planned.
01:00:27
Speaker
and too much going on for him for his death to have been a suicide. So Ray and Allison were just recently married, right? And they had a loving relationship. They were about- They're going to New Mexico? Yeah, they're about to leave for a trip in New Mexico just a couple of weeks later. And
01:00:45
Speaker
Even though they might not have felt the most at home in Baltimore, they'd been talking about changing that. In fact, Ray and Allison had been having numerous discussions about moving back to Los Angeles to start a family. They'd even begun plans for that return to Florida for Ray to start a production company and for him to start shopping his recent screenplay. So him basically finally getting to live out
01:01:14
Speaker
his passions. It almost seems to me that someone just didn't want him to leave. That is what it seems. Another glaring omission for this theory, for Ray's family, is if this were a suicide, then they say, well, there was no suicide note left. And I know that that doesn't always happen, right? But you would think, let's forget about the suicide note for a second.
01:01:43
Speaker
One would think, if you were going to commit suicide, at least I would think this, that it would either be methodical, meaning I've planned it out, in which case I'm not gonna be like, oh crap, and rushing out of the home to go do that. Or it's going to be spontaneous,
01:02:08
Speaker
which to me would be the result of circumstances being right or availability of a means to commit suicide and again it wouldn't be something that I would be like I suddenly got a phone call and oh shoot rush out oh I forgot something come back and then run out to get you know run in to get whatever item it was and then
01:02:29
Speaker
run back out and then drive someplace only to spontaneously jump to my death. Like that chain of events doesn't make sense to me if we're saying this is suicide.
01:02:41
Speaker
Right. I think it would either be like you said, we planned it out and we know on this particular day at this particular time, this is what I'm doing. Or we get a phone call and where something drastic has happened and it's, Oh crap. And that just kind of flips the switch in you and you do it spontaneously, but not like you said, where you leave, come back then leave again. Right. And then again, the spot, it's not spontaneous if you're having to drive somewhere. Right. Just strategically.
01:03:12
Speaker
do it at a particular place. And you know what, it just doesn't make sense. While the FBI, now I'm gonna come back to the note. So while the FBI determined it to not be a suicide note, there was a note that Allison found after Ray's death. It was typed in extremely small font
01:03:38
Speaker
And was in three columns. The note itself was found taped to the back of Ray's computer. Interesting. I put two pictures. One of them is how the note was found. It was like folded up in plastic and taped two inches wide. Yeah. So tiny. And then even unfolded.
01:04:03
Speaker
The whole thing was not, it was around like seven inches long, it looks like, in three columns. So each column is only about two inches wide. And the font is minuscule. Yeah, because there's a lot of words on that page.
01:04:22
Speaker
According to a local news station, WBAL-TV, quote, the note was addressed to brothers and sisters and referred to a well played game. It named people who had died, including actor Christopher Reeve and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. It also contained a long list of people Rivera knew and was related to.
01:04:48
Speaker
with a request to make them and himself five years younger. The note also introduced an element of the case that involved Rivera's apparent interest in the Freemasons. The note began and ended with phrases used in the Masonic order, end quote. And some of those movies that were mentioned on that sheet were ones like National Treasure,
01:05:15
Speaker
and the DaVinci Code, among others. According to the case in Newsweek, the coverage of the case in Newsweek, the note contained cryptic lists and phrases, including the following among them. So these are going to be a little bit creepy, but I'm going to read you like six of the things that were mentioned in this note. Okay. Number one said,
01:05:45
Speaker
I'd like to welcome those who accepted our invitations for membership during the game. We couldn't have done it without you. A second one. I took on the endeavor to find the truth, but not for its own sake. In accepting this quest for the truth, I hoped to make myself, with the help of others, into a man worthy and ready to receive it.
01:06:12
Speaker
Number three, members of the council, please note that I will lend careful concentration to the traditional responsibilities. In light of those proceedings, I will satisfy the standard request of this council within the appropriate time. These almost sound like business meeting notes, like minutes. Some of them. The following few don't.
01:06:39
Speaker
The fourth one said, that was a well played game. Congratulations to all who participated, but it was time to wake up. So here I am. Number five, I stand before you a man who understands the purpose and value of our secrets. That's why I cherish them as secrets. And then another one, life is a test.
01:07:09
Speaker
to see if you can control your spirit. Take care and enjoy the festivities. I would be interested to read this note in its entirety to see how the statements fit into the body of the note. And I don't get the sense that it is like a clear narrative. I think that there are comments like these intertwined with like,
01:07:35
Speaker
lists of movies, or then with like a list of famous people intermingled with people who Ray knows. And what does that mean? Like, are we literally gonna he lit this note literally as requesting that
01:07:54
Speaker
he wants to pretty much turn back time in the statement where he wants to be five years younger? Well, I'm going to get to how Allison takes this note here in just a second. Okay. But according to that same WBAL-TV report, quote, on the day Rivera disappeared, he talked with a member of the Maryland Lodge of Freemasons to inquire about joining.
01:08:17
Speaker
On the weekend before his disappearance, he spent time reading the book The Builders, which is a study of masonry. On the day he disappeared, Rivera went to a bookstore and bought the book Freemasons for Dummies." But despite the seeming connection between all of those events to the Freemasons, Ray's wife Allison has actually just chalked the note and the link to the Freemasons up to
01:08:47
Speaker
it being something akin to research that Ray may have been doing for a movie script. Yeah, that was another thing I was going to say. Like these scribbles almost seem like quotes that would be pulled out of a movie. So maybe he was, you know, brainstorming. And she did say that he would do like these random scribblings about things, that that was something that he did all the time when he's like generating ideas for movies.
01:09:14
Speaker
I wonder though, if that's the case, if he does stuff like this all the time, then why turn this one note in? And why was it taped to the back of his computer? And that makes me wonder, you know, was the back of his computer against a wall and she had to look for it? Or, you know, could you see the back of the computer when you walked in and it was, you know, obvious it was taped there? That I don't know. A Reddit user.
01:09:41
Speaker
who we know on reddit there's all kinds of theories but a reddit user has been more intent on proving a link between the note and the freemasons by arguing that one element of Ray's note gives a hint to his death particularly because another one of the movies on Ray's list
01:10:02
Speaker
was a movie called The Game, starring Michael Douglas. The user wrote, quote, immediately, I thought, of course, there's one big scene at the end of the movie where the main character jumped off the roof of a fancy hotel and goes through the glass roof.
01:10:24
Speaker
The similarities to Ray are truly astonishing. The whole movie is about this crazy game that makes you think you lose everything in order to let you appreciate life again. Ray was an unsuccessful movie script writer and maybe he got involved in something that tried to imitate the game in some way. End quote. Now, while that is an intriguing theory,
01:10:52
Speaker
It is just what I said, a theorized link to the Freemasons that would also link to suicide. And I think it's, I mean, obviously it's a theory, but yes, I think it's a stretch. And how can we say he was unsuccessful in movie writing if he hadn't even started trying to get people to, yeah. His script around, yeah.
01:11:18
Speaker
So theory one is suicide.
Was Ray Rivera Murdered?
01:11:20
Speaker
Theory two is murder. Those who argue that Ray met with foul play and was murdered are generally in one of two camps. There's actually a sizable group who feel that Ray was dropped from a helicopter to his death.
01:11:40
Speaker
I did read in one of the sources that there were helicopters that often flew through the area. So if that is true, then I imagine that's where this theory was born. And I think the appeal of this theory is that then there's no improbable math equation to explain the distance to the whole, especially if Ray merely fell straight down.
01:12:06
Speaker
He may have, if this helicopter theory is true, have already been killed and dropped out of the helicopter, or at least severely injured before the fall from the helicopter. And if helicopters did actually frequently fly in the area, then it wouldn't necessarily be memorable whether one flew that night.
01:12:29
Speaker
So then a week later when the bodies discovered, the memory of the sound of a helicopter on that particular night wouldn't have stood out if it happened all the time. Right, because it happens regularly. In contrast though, Detective Michael Bayer openly dismisses this theory by saying that helicopters can't fly at that low of an altitude in Baltimore because of airspace issues. Now, I personally am unsure which of the two is correct, so I wanted to share it with you.
01:13:00
Speaker
So maybe you'll talk about this, I guess, in the other half of the murder theory, but is it possible some type of altercation took place on the roof? That is possible. Yes. That absolutely is. And then, you know, if something falls out of his pocket there,
01:13:20
Speaker
Right. It would just be from the height that he's standing at. I don't know how we explain that the hole is there unless, like you said, just part of the roof had fallen in. Right, collapsed. Yeah. And if he's already beaten badly enough and falls through, you know, maybe... And that room wasn't being used, so people didn't know there was a hole there. And then, you know, whoever is fighting him on this roof, if they see that he fell through and he's not moving, they could have potentially just left.
01:13:49
Speaker
And that's not even a theory that most people talk about, but I think that's absolutely plausible. Or, you know, they he's so weak after and not completely and not dead at this point that they see this whole as a way to finish them off and they just push them through. Right. Yep. Because other people argue on the other half of the murder theory,
01:14:15
Speaker
that the most likely scenario is that Rey was either killed in the room itself or elsewhere and then brought to the room, which I guess is kind of an extension of what you're saying, except he wasn't brought to the room, he fell to the room if he was killed on the roof.
01:14:35
Speaker
So one source I read said that the room was in such disarray that a scuffle could very likely have occurred in there because things are just kind of strewn everywhere. And whether you're more likely to believe the theory that Ray was killed elsewhere or that Ray was brought to this room to be killed, the belief is that the hole in the roof was then created to make it appear as though Ray Rivera had committed suicide.
01:15:06
Speaker
And then his items are just placed around. Yep, thus explaining why they didn't have any damage. Which I think also fits with your theory if something happens on the roof and he does accidentally fall through.
01:15:20
Speaker
But a lot of people who believe the murder theory, they argue that the whole was staged because they say, you know, I feel like if you're talking about a man the size of Ray Rivera falling from one of the heights that was proposed at any of the heights that were proposed, that the whole would have been far larger than it is. Yeah.
01:15:45
Speaker
And if we're talking about they created this hole to make it look like suicide, then I still think that something could have happened on the roof and then he's dead and they're like, Oh, well, let's just make this hole and make it look like he fell through there. Right. And they just kind of, you know, cram his body through a hole that's not their right size. And then I wonder if, so this room would have been
01:16:06
Speaker
easily accessible for people that lived in this condominium complex? Yes. In fact, I'm going to talk about the accessibility because I started thinking, you know, if you believe either of these series of murder, then you have to start asking, why the Belvedere?
01:16:25
Speaker
why this room, why this spot? Like what's the connection or the significance? So the hosts of the podcast, Land of the Unsolved, they actually did explore the area and they went to this parking garage and they noted that the room where Ray was found was accessible not only by outside passerby's via the parking garage,
01:16:49
Speaker
but also by those within the Belvedere and even those within the Belvedere who may want to stay out of view because you could access, you know, the floors right below that room and then take stairs up to it from the basement of the Belvedere.
01:17:09
Speaker
Then because the Belvedere had retail space on the bottom floor and was now condos with people constantly going in and out, there's no hindrance to whoever is entering or exiting the building. Like I said, that room is empty and has been for a while, so I'm sure whoever
01:17:34
Speaker
Murdered him if that's the theory we're going with would have known that and that it you know It would have been a while before his body was discovered right and if we're talking murder. I don't think that it's random because I don't know the how or the why but I can say that to me with that specific location of raised body and with him clearly leaving his home as though he's late for a meeting with someone and
01:18:00
Speaker
that his death doesn't seem to be random. This isn't somebody random off the street coming up to him. And I do feel like we must also consider the fact that no employee of Agora Publishing has been willing to discuss Ray's death.
Agora Publishing's Silence and Missing Footage
01:18:23
Speaker
Well, that's kind of weird. So while Ray's friend Stansberry released a statement that there's never been a gag order of the Agora publishing workers to not discuss Ray's case, that getting someone, literally anyone from the company to talk on record has been impossible. And so that detail stands out as odd to a lot of people.
01:18:49
Speaker
Yeah, it is different for sure. While it was not discussed in the Unsolved Mysteries episode of Ray's Case, several sources from my research, including an article in Marie Claire that cited Unsolved Mysteries creator, Terry Dunne Murrer, as the source of the information, mentioned strange calls from someone very interested in gaining access to Ray's computer
01:19:19
Speaker
after his death, and who even tried to pick up the computer from the police. So what would they have wanted, though? Exactly. Exactly. So is there more information on this computer that might explain what happened to Ray? And if it's a suicide, then why do we care what's on his computer if nobody is linked to this murder because it's a suicide? Those are my questions, too.
01:19:48
Speaker
So as you can likely guess, many people in this, when they're looking at Ray's case, they blame the difficulty of clearer answers solely on law enforcement shoulders. A huge criticism is often made of the police work in the case, particularly after Ray's body was discovered, right? When they're like, okay, suicide, we're done.
01:20:13
Speaker
And we mentioned the failure to take written statements from the people who discovered the hole in the roof. The fact that raise money clip was never located doesn't seem to be
01:20:25
Speaker
of concern to them or indicate anything other than suicide, even though Allison literally saw the money clip and raised hand on the morning of the 16th before she left on her work trip. Nor does the fact that the autopsy doesn't support their determination of suicide seem to deter them in that ruling.
01:20:45
Speaker
But there are other problematic elements. One is that police couldn't track down a single person who had seen Ray the night of the 16th. So as I previously mentioned, the Belvedere was extremely close to Agora Publishing. I remember Ray worked for a couple of subsidiaries of that publishing company. And the bar in the Belvedere, the A1 bar, was one that Ray frequented. So people knew him there.
01:21:15
Speaker
And even for those who didn't know him, it would have been hard to miss this handsome six foot five Ray Rivera. But no one remembers seeing him the night of the 16th. So not in the bar, not on the elevator, not on any of the floors. So it doesn't seem as though he's going to the Belvedere to like meet up with a friend or something like that.
01:21:44
Speaker
Right. And we can't even verify that Ray went straight to the Belvedere because police also never pinged Ray's phone to determine his location in his final hours despite the fact that pinging and cell phone location was a capability in 2006. And I guess they're never going to do that because to them the case is closed. Right.
01:22:07
Speaker
Law enforcement also took very few pictures of the crime scene, so of his body, of the placement of the personal items on the roof, and eyewitnesses of the scene, because the hallway reportedly wasn't even sealed off from the public, say that they didn't see police dusting for nor searching for fingerprints. And these standard procedures, they may have been done, but I'm just reporting the issues that I found in my research. Right.
01:22:37
Speaker
Then there's the final issue of the camera footage from the parking garage. So you asked this at the beginning and I said, I'll get to it. We have none. Yet a concrete reason as to why we have none remains unclear because there are cameras.
01:22:56
Speaker
One source that I read said that the footage was erased from the night that Ray died, that there was footage for the 15th and for the 17th, but that the 16th footage just wasn't there.
01:23:09
Speaker
OK, which definitely is fishy. But a second source said that the police file noted that they had spoken to the manager of the parking garage who has said that the surveillance footage would be available June 7th. I mean, why the delay? I have no earthly idea. But that there was no other note in the file of a follow up to collect nor view the footage.
01:23:33
Speaker
So that source makes it sound like there was footage, but that the police just never followed up and watched it. And then a third source said that one of the cameras, the one that the police needed, was disconnected either because of a malfunction or because it was tampered with.
01:23:52
Speaker
Fishy. And a final source, an article for E Online by Chris Harnick, published on July 8th, 2020, has the Belvedere's concierge, Gary Shivers, swearing that the surveillance video was sent to law enforcement, but that when it came back, it had been erased. Also fishy. Yeah. So they're all fishy, but every source had a different story.
01:24:20
Speaker
So regardless of which version is the truth, the footage was purposefully erased, the camera was tampered with, the camera wasn't working, or the footage just wasn't retrieved, it doesn't change the fact that we don't have it. So if it contained information concerning what truly happened to Ray Rivera on May 16th, 2016, we will never know.
01:24:45
Speaker
As for Ray's friend, Stansberry, he had a simple explanation for reporter Justin Fenton of the Baltimore Sun concerning his silence about Ray's death since the body was discovered, saying, quote, the reason I've never commented about Ray's death publicly, first and foremost, is because I never thought there was any mystery about why or how he died, end quote. As for who from Agora made that phone call,
01:25:14
Speaker
Stansberry told Fenton in that same article, quote, every person in our company who had worked with Ray was on the Eastern Shore at the time that call was made, having a corporate retreat at St. Michael's. No one in my company was in town when Ray disappeared. The idea we were calling him from our switchboard is ridiculous, end quote.
01:25:39
Speaker
He went on to say that Ray had been approaching not just him, but other friends right before his death and saying bizarre things that even Allison had been concerned about his mental health in his final days. In contrast, Allison maintains that her husband's death is a mystery that has no answers.
01:26:03
Speaker
She told Emma Hernandez of In Touch Weekly, quote, I think he turned over some rock that he shouldn't have turned over, but I know that he didn't kill himself, end quote.
Allison Rivera's Quest for Truth
01:26:18
Speaker
So Maggie, what are your thoughts?
01:26:22
Speaker
I also do not think he killed himself. I don't know how the hole in the roof got there or how that comes into play. I don't know if it was staging or what, but definitely think it was a murder.
01:26:37
Speaker
Armchair sleuths analyzing the case and conspiracy theorists alike point out why they believe law enforcement quickly ruled the death a suicide. Number one, it means no more looking into the case on an organized scale. No more digging. And number two, it means that the case will not get the news coverage that a murder would.
01:27:00
Speaker
They say that the quickest way to get the media to move on from a story is to declare the death a suicide, something not covered in the news. Even when talking about celebrities, it's a topic swiftly brushed under the rug, a story easily buried. Was that the case with Ray Rivera?
01:27:22
Speaker
Was Allison right that he uncovered information he shouldn't have? And his death was made only to appear as a suicide so people wouldn't continue digging? Answers to questions like those are elusive. We have one more oddity to deal with that was not reported on the Unsolved Mysteries episode that, while still cryptic, may be a clue, though a clue to what has yet to be determined.
01:27:51
Speaker
According to Elena Nicolaou, in her article for Oprah Daily published on June 30, 2020, a memento was found in Ray's pocket when his body was found. It was a penny that had a small heart cut out of it that Allison had brought home as a gift to Ray from one of her business trips.
01:28:11
Speaker
According to the article, Unsolved Mysteries creator Murr said on the You Can't Make This Up podcast that Allison had said to Ray when giving him the penny, quote, whenever you need me, you hold this penny and know I'm close, end quote. It was a penny that had always stayed in a little bowl at Ray's bedside. When Ray was found, however, it was in his pocket.
01:28:39
Speaker
We may never have the answers as to whether Ray Rivera's death was the result of suicide or foul play, but we at least have to admit that there were many missteps in the case that could potentially have led to clarity.
01:28:53
Speaker
Sadly, we can't go back in time to change those things. What we can do moving forward is to keep talking about Ray Rivera's case and sharing about it. Discussion that Ray's family, who still do not believe Ray would have taken his own life, is extremely grateful for because their prayers for answers and their need for support doesn't lessen with time. While the investigation itself is closed,
01:29:20
Speaker
Tips may still be submitted to Unsolved Mysteries. Should you have any information concerning Ray Rivera that are pertinent to the investigation or information concerning his death, please submit those tips to Unsolved Mysteries online by going to unsolved.com forward slash tips.
01:29:43
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
01:30:12
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
01:30:36
Speaker
It's love notes for Maggie and Allison. I want to start this week by sending love out to Rihanna, Christina, Kelly, Clara, Bryce, and Heather, who reached out to us on Facebook, Instagram, or email this week, or who recommended us to others. We need that word of mouth.
01:30:53
Speaker
and love you guys all the more for it. Yes, we do. We also have an abundance of love going out to the five new five-star written review writers. Yes, from this past week. We had Valve Coordinator, who wrote, quote, a fantastic podcast for true crime enthusiasts full of details regarding the case and fun chats.
01:31:22
Speaker
Thank you so much. Yes. We also had Kcat79 write, quote, love the way these ladies present the information about the cases while being candid and respectful of the families being presented. They truly have a heart and passion to want to share the cases so they can be hopefully solved, end quote. And yes, we do. And it makes me so happy that our mission is clear. So thank you for that.
01:31:51
Speaker
Those are amazing reviews. And we also had a review from Ash 710B who wrote, quote, such good attention to detail. Thank you for shedding light on these cold cases, especially in the Kentucky area, end quote. And we do, we have a passion obviously for all of the cases that we talk about on the show, but we have a special place in our heart for those local Kentucky cases. Yeah, we do.
01:32:20
Speaker
And we also got a review from kcope24, who said, quote, as a fellow English teacher, boop, boop. I really enjoy listening to this podcast and how I relate to Maggie and Alison's story from the classroom. As a true crime podcast listener, I really like how Maggie and Alison tell their stories. My new favorite podcast. And we do have some good stories. We got lots of stories.
01:32:47
Speaker
So thank you guys for all of those reviews. They were all really sweet and really needed this week. Yes, they were. And last but not least, we had one from KR Johnson 76 who said, quote, I absolutely love your podcast and the care that you give to each case, end quote. So thank you. Thank you. We honestly have the best listeners out there.
01:33:09
Speaker
And we also had a listener, Clara, who sent us such an amazingly sweet email that I just have to read a portion of it. It was so sweet. She said, quote, first of all, I just have to say, I love your podcast. I'm obsessed with your podcast. Your banter and commentary makes me feel like I'm hanging out with two old friends and I love it. Your podcast brings me comfort knowing that every week, one thing will always be the same.
01:33:35
Speaker
Oh, no, I know you have no idea how much that means to us. So thank you, Clara. And to end our show today, we have boo coos of love, which by the way, we script our episodes. And I had boo coos is a word that I've used many times before. But I never knew how to spell it. And I had to look it up. And I was like, No,
01:33:58
Speaker
There's no way it's spelled that way. Wow. Yeah, we have it anyway, even though I didn't know how to spell it. We have boo-coos of love for our new Patreon addition to the CNC fam, Megan. We are so happy to have you. And if you haven't yet joined Patreon, now is the time. If you caught our episode of The Mothman from a couple weeks ago, then you got a sneak peek
01:34:23
Speaker
inadvertently because of technological issues. The type of content you can find over there in addition to many solve cases as well as short little episodes about us and sometimes things from our listeners. So if you're interested head on over to patreon.com slash coffee and cases to join today. And with that all of our love is going out to each and every one of you. Until next week sleep hounds.