The Internet’s Most Talked About Unsolved Mystery - What Really Happened To Rey Rivera?

He was the kind of guy that truly had it all, a beautiful wife, a brand new marriage, and then suddenly he became really paranoid, like someone was after him, and he truly seemed terrified for his life, until one day he vanished, and was later found dead under extremely suspicious circumstances. Family members say he was definitely afraid of heights, so what led a 32-year-old Baltimore businessman to the rooftop of a Mount Vernon landmark? That's why the questions begin in the year-old mystery in the case of Ray Rivera. Did he jump? Was he pushed? There's a bizarre cryptic note, possible links to a secret society, and one sketchy businessman, seemingly at the center of it all. Somebody has, there's an answer out there, somebody knows something. This is the unsolved mystery of the death of Ray Rivera, and my name is Brianna and I'm hot on the case. I want to quickly start off this episode, just letting everyone know that throughout my research into this case, I found a lot of conflicting sources and information. It was mostly like some pretty minor details, like which car did Ray primarily drive, or which car did his wife primarily drive? Was there a broken left leg or broken right leg? Regardless, I did my best to compile all the information for this episode that I believe to be the most accurate. If you believe that I got anything wrong or possibly left something out that you would have brought up, please just let me and your fellow detectives know down in the comments. This case had a lot of eyes on it, especially after the Netflix reboot of unsolved mysteries. This case was actually chosen for the very first episode of the series. This is a very complicated case, there's a lot of key players, a lot of things that don't make sense, a lot of things that maybe make sense if you link them all together, so I really need everyone to lock in for this episode. For legal clarity, this episode contains discussion of alleged events and is presented as commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. Hot on the case is not affirming the truth of any claims discussed in this episode. Ray Rivera was born on June 10, 1973, on an Air Force base in Madrid, Spain. His father, Angel, was a part of the US Air Force and was stationed in Madrid. And after his father retired, the family settled in to a really nice neighborhood within Orlando, Florida. Ray grew up with a very lovely beautiful family. His parents, Angel and Maria, both originally were from Puerto Rico and they raised their three children. Ray raised older brother Angel and raised younger sister Elena to be deeply proud of their roots and heritage. Ray grew up being the it guy. Whatever he put his mind towards, he was going to succeed in. Ray was extremely handsome, he was funny, he was smart, he was charming. He definitely seemed like the guy in high school that was like the golden boy, teachers loved him, guys wanted to be him, all the girls wanted to be with him. He was extremely talented, passionate and creative. Like I said, literally everything that this guy puts his mind towards, he's going to succeed in his entire life. He was really passionate about music and he taught himself how to play multiple instruments just by ear. He was also an extremely talented athlete, baseball, basketball, swimming, water polo. This is the kind of guy that could truly do it all. After high school, Ray went to the University of Pacific in California on a full athletic scholarship. Ray was an English major in college, writing was another huge passion of his. Ray was really into movies, he was a huge film buff and he had this huge dream of being a successful screenwriter in Hollywood, working on big budget films. But another huge dream of his was to be an Olympian. When I tell you this guy is passionate and determined, I mean it, I'm not kidding. Like who dreams of being a Hollywood hot shot slash Olympic athlete? But if anyone was going to do it all, it was going to be Ray. As a water polo player, Ray was selected to compete in the 1994 Summer Olympic Festival. Many Olympians that have gone on to win gold bronze silver medals in the Olympics first started their careers during the Olympic festival. So this was a huge deal, especially since it was always a dream of Ray's to be in the Olympics. And the Olympics was only two years away. So if we really proved himself in the Summer Olympic Festival, he would have hopefully a better shot at being chosen for the Olympics. After college, Ray was even playing water polo professionally in Spain when he got the call of a lifetime. He was chosen to compete for the US water polo team in the 1996 Olympics. Ray immediately left Spain and went to begin his training and he trained so hard. But sadly, only two weeks before the Olympics started, Ray was cut from the team and apparently it wasn't because of a lack of skill or talent. It was because of a disagreement that Ray had with the coach. This was a huge blow for Ray. Could you imagine having a lifelong dream and it being within gaps, like you can feel it, you can taste it and then all in one moment, it's just ripped away from you. I mean, that's really, really tough and a lot of people that really knew Ray said that this was like his one big regret in life that he didn't have a chance to compete in the Olympics. I mean, what could have happened if you know he had that shot? But like always, Ray bounced back and he decided to take all of that passion into another dream of his and that was writing. Back in California, Ray was working three jobs to support himself as a screenwriter in LA and then it was in the year 2000 that Ray would meet his future wife, Alison Jones. Alison was a gorgeous, funny, talented and vicious woman who was passionate about athletics and writing. So obviously her and Ray were the perfect match. They both even shared a deep-seated fear in heights. They really, really headed off. They had everything in common. They really suited each other. They really fell in love and they were engaged by 2004. Alison was the kind of woman who was like really, really thoughtful and she would always do certain things to make sure that Ray knew how much she loved him. While away on a business trip, Alison found a lucky penny on the ground and it actually had a heart shape cut out of the penny. When she returned home from her business trip, she gave it to Ray and said, "If you ever feel like you need me, you can hold this penny and you can know that I'm close to you." Ray thought this was adorable and he always kept that penny on a bowl on his dresser. That wasn't the only really sentimental gift that Alison ever gave Ray. She also gave him this really nice money clip. Now I saw some sources saying that this was actually a family heirloom of hers, so it was really important. Some people said it was a wedding gift. I think it's possibly both because this money clip meant everything to Ray and he never left the house without it. If Ray left the house, he had that money clip with him. Everyone knew this. It was like a really important part of like his branding as a person. It was more likely that Ray left the house with that money clip than even his own cell phone. The newly engaged couple Ray and Alison seemed like they had it all. The only major issue in the couple's lives was money. Neither was making enough, especially living in L.A. to pay for a dream wedding and then hopefully start a family. And honestly, for a smart and driven that Ray was, he wasn't the most financially literate. A lot of people said that he was actually really bad with money and that's when Ray got this great job offer. It literally came right after him and Alison got engaged and he started thinking about his future, thinking that he needed to make some more money. So it literally felt like fate that he got this job offer and it wasn't just any random job offer. It was actually coming from someone that Ray had been friends with all the way since high school. And that was from Frank Porter-Stansbury who just goes by Porter. Not only were Porter and Ray friends since high school they were even on the same water polo team in high school and even went to prom together as part of like a big friend group. And even though Porter and Ray ran in the same circles in high school, they were definitely very different. Like I've said multiple times now, Ray was like the it guy and Porter was more average. I mean they were literally on the same water polo team and Ray not only played professionally after college, he was almost on the US water polo Olympic team. So that tells you everything you need to know about these two people. From what I've gathered it was almost like Porter lived through high school a little bit and raised shadow. And I sense that there might have been some jealousy there. But since high school it was now Porter was the one that had become wildly successful. He actually ended But upstarting his own business, and as of 2015, his business had a gross revenue of $150 million a year. So it was now Porter. That was the big deal. He was the it guy. Porter Stansbury was a self-made success. He didn't come from a wealthy or influential family. Before being the owner of Stansbury Research LLC, Porter worked for a company called Agora. And Agora is owned by a man named William Bonner, which will be very, very important in this case. All this stuff is going to come back. So I know it's like a lot of me throwing names and companies around, but like I said, we have to lock in. Agora is a very successful company. It's actually one of the leaders in the industry. And after two years of working at Agora, Porter worked for the Oxford Club, a company owned and controlled by Agora. And a year after that, Porter launched his own company, also under the Agora umbrella, called Pirate Investors LLC. And allegedly, all of these companies that are under the Agora umbrella had some pretty sketchy practices, like some possible schemes and scams. Like not exactly like, but pretty much like the Wolf on Wall Street. You know what I mean? The Oxford Club was actually previously in some really hot water for some scams that they were involved in. And Porter's company, Private Investors LLC, was sued for fraud in 2003. The year before he gave a job offer to Ray, where Porter allegedly scammed his investors out of over a million dollars. So Porter would later re-brand his company to Stansbury Research LLC. And I know that's a lot of information I just threw at you, but I promise it's all going to come back to become very important. If you need a little bit of a review, there's a company called Agora, okay? And there's a bunch of different companies that are under what I'm going to call the Agora umbrella. The Agora company is a very successful and influential company. Porter Stansbury has a company that is owned and controlled by the Agora umbrella, as well as these other companies like the Oxford Club. Ray just got a job offer from Porter Stansbury, who is under the Agora umbrella. So when Ray's old high school friend Porter reached out to him in 2004 with this job offer, Ray took it. The whole self-made success thing, Ray really admired, and he absolutely did not know about any of the sketchy practices that allegedly the Agora umbrella were involved in. The job would be in Baltimore, Maryland, across the entire country, but Ray and Allison both agreed that this would not be a permanent move. Just something short-term where they could try and just make as much money as possible, and then they would move back out to the West Coast and then start their family there. Ray and Allison were both very different from the people that worked for Porter's company, and the people that like Porter ran in circles with now. Ray and Allison were both very laid back, very much like California types, and now Ray is working with a bunch of East Coast money-hungry finance guys. Ray and Allison tried to make the most of it out in Baltimore. They actually bought their first home together. This really gorgeous little place, but still, Baltimore just didn't feel like home. And Ray really wasn't loving his job. He was making good money and he was making good money as a writer, but it wasn't the writing that he wanted to do. Ray was writing his own weekly finance letter for Porter's company. And in the newsletter, Ray would give tips on investments, something he really didn't know anything about. Like I already told you, Ray wasn't the most financially literate person. So not only is he working a job that he's not passionate about, something he's not interested in, something he doesn't know anything about, but this job wasn't Ray. It was really against his morals and his values doing this work, especially since the tips he was giving these people could potentially lose them a lot of money, especially because he didn't really know what he was talking about. So in July 2015, Ray told his friend and boss Porter that he wanted to leave his company. And according to Porter, there was no bad blood. Not only did Porter accept his friend's resignation with no heart feelings, Porter even helped Ray get some freelance videographer work for the Agora umbrella. So at this point, Ray is not a technical employee under the Agora umbrella, but he's still working within the company. But instead of writing all this finance stuff that he's not really interested in and could potentially lose people a lot of money, Ray does video work for Agora. Like he helps them film promotional content or helps film different conferences that some of their investors or sponsors couldn't attend. And then these people would like buy the DVDs of these conferences that Ray would film for them. On November 5th, 2005, Ray and Allison got married in a romantic intimate ceremony on a beach in Puerto Rico. His friend and former boss Porter-Sansbury made a grand entrance to Ray and Allison's wedding arriving in a private helicopter. Some of you guys might not know, but I'm actually getting married in August. And if anyone other than me arrives at my wedding in a private helicopter, they would have some words. I actually saw someone in Reddit say I was doing a lot of research for this case on Reddit. A lot of people have some really interesting theories, by the way. On this case, we want to check that out. But I saw someone over on Reddit actually say that Porter arriving to his friend and former employee's wedding in a private helicopter is the male equivalent of showing up to, you're like, old college roommates wedding in a white dress, like in a white wedding dress. I thought that was kind of silly. By April of 2006, Ray and Allison were ready to leave Baltimore. They had made their money and they were ready to go back to California. Ray had actually finished a screenplay that he wrote all by himself. He put a lot of work into it and he was really, really excited to go pitch it in LA and hopefully make it big and really break through into the Hollywood filmmaking scene. So Ray and Allison actually put their home up for sale. Ready to leave Baltimore, but that would never happen for Ray. In the weeks leading up to Ray's disappearance, his behavior would drastically change into one day he vanished into thin air. The once, chill California guy had become exceedingly more paranoid and nervous. It started with Ray never wanting Allison to ever leave the house without him, which was extremely out of character. Allison was actually training to run a marathon at this time and Ray and Orshah, she would be running laps at the local track. Out of nowhere, Ray would always insist on accompanying Allison when she went and ran at the local track. On nice days, Ray would sit in the bleachers and watch Allison or read a book. But one day it was raining and the usual, very full track was completely empty, either then Allison running her tracks and Ray was sitting in his car in the parking lot to not get wet. Allison said as she was running laps in the pouring rain, this man appeared out of nowhere and began walking towards her. Before this man could actually get to Allison, Ray had already leaped out of the car and was running towards her. And as he did that, the man that was just belining towards Allison immediately just turned around and started walking away. Two days before Ray disappeared, in the middle of the night, Allison woke up to the sound of their home alarm going off. Her husband had already jumped out of bed and was holding a baseball bat. With the most intense look in his eyes, Allison will never forget, Ray looked petrified. He truly looked terrified for his life. The police told Ray and Allison that squirrels likely tripped the alarm. But the very next night, same thing, in the middle of the night, the home security alarm went off. Allison said that one of their windows looked tampered with like someone was trying to break in. And that was the very same day that Ray would disappear. In the two years that they had lived in this house, never once did the home security alarm go off. Not once was it tripped. But in the two days before Ray Rivera disappears, it goes off in the middle of the night and the police said that squirrels were to blame. May 16, 2006, the day that Ray Rivera vanishes. His wife, Allison, actually had to leave for a business trip. Her husband of only seven months carried her bags out to the car for her, kissed her goodbye. And that was the last time that she ever saw her husband alive again. At the time, Ray and Allison actually had a house guess, saying that it was one of Allison's friends named Claudia. That day, Ray went out and he bought himself a new book, Free Masons for Dummies. And this was no random purchase. I had recently become really interested in the Freemasons, and was nonstop reading this book called The Builders, a story and study on Freemasonry. If you're not familiar with the Freemasons, they are a very, very old secret society that is still active today. A lot of really famous people throughout history have been a part of the Freemasons, like even like George Washington, the first president of the United States. But the secret society, the Freemasons, there's a lot of obviously secrets surrounding them, but there's a lot of conspiracies surrounding them. There's a lot of conspiracies involving rituals, and even some members of the Freemasons don't even know why they're performing these rituals. So there's like secrets amongst the secret society, like based on what level you are. But there's also some conspiracies that the Freemasons are actually or are linked to the Illuminati. For whatever reason that we do not know, Ray became extremely interested in the Freemasons right before he disappeared so much so that on the day he disappeared he bought a book about them. Also that day, Ray was working from home. He had a video due the following week for the Oxford Club, a company under the Agora Umbrella, and he was a little stressed out about finishing the video on time. That day, Ray rented some equipment to finish his video and he also rented some editing space. The guy that Ray was on the phone with to rent out this editing suite for the following week said that Ray seemed perfectly normal. He seemed like a really friendly guy, maybe a little stressed out about his tight deadline. Around 6 p.m. Ray's back home and Ray and Allison's house guest Claudia said that she could hear Ray's phone ringing. Someone was calling Ray. She could hear Ray pick up the phone and say hello. And then whoever called Ray spoke for a moment. Claudia could not hear what that person said, but she then heard Ray scream into the phone. Oh shit! And then Ray hung up the phone and immediately rushed out of the home, got in his car drove away and was never seen alive ever again. About 30 minutes after Ray got that call and rushed up the home to God knows where. His wife Allison had a ragged for her business trip and was settling in to the hotel and decided to call her husband to let him know that she got there safe. She called around 6.30 but he did not answer. Later that night before Allison was planning to go to bed she tried to call her husband again and still she got no answer. So instead she called the house guest. I was staying with him Claudia and Claudia said that Ray was not home. Claudia told Allison that later in the evening Ray had gotten a call. It sounded like maybe he missed an appointment like he was late for an appointment. He rushed out and he wasn't home yet. Very early the next morning Claudia called Allison again to let her know that her husband never came home last night. So Allison's calling Ray again and again and again and every single time he doesn't answer. In fact now the phone is either dead or turned off because all her calls are just going to voicemail so she's really starting to freak out. She called every friend, family member and co-worker she could think of but no one had seen or talked to Ray. So Allison immediately left the business trip. She flew back to Baltimore to search for her husband and report him missing. His family and her family also both immediately flew back to Baltimore to search for Ray. They called every police station every single hospital no signs of Ray. Ray's friend and former boss Porter Stansbury even helped out by putting up a $1,000 reward out of his own pocket for information that would lead to the safe return of Ray Rivera. Missing person's posters were made with the reward and they were put all over the entire city. On May 22nd after being missing for six days, loved ones had the great idea of driving around the city looking for Ray's car. They were hoping if they found Ray's car parked somewhere then they'd be that much closer to finding Ray and they did find Ray's car. His car was parked in a paid-a-park parking lot in the city because obviously if you've ever been to a city there's not parking everywhere you need to go so if you need to go to a certain restaurant or a certain hotel or a certain business place you would pay usually to pay these different parking lots through the city. This parking lot was right next door to the historic Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore and it was also only two blocks away from the Agora headquarters. Unfortunately they found Ray's car but they did not find Ray with his car and there were no clues where Ray could be. Yes he parked his car in this parking lot but it's surrounded by different buildings so they have no clue where he would go next but then two days later some of Ray's old co-workers were walking around this area where his car was found and they decided to go up on the roof of a parking garage that was right next to this parking lot and was right in front of the Belvedere Hotel hoping with some high ground they might be able to see something and that's when they noticed something strange over at the Belvedere Hotel right in front of this parking garage. The Belvedere Hotel is a very old historic building it's also considered one of the most haunted places in the entire city. At this time the Belvedere Hotel had actually been reconstructed into different apartments and also like some office space and some like conference rooms. The Belvedere Hotel is very very tall and at the tippy top is what I would call the high roof and about halfway down is a lower roof. Ray's friends saw a strange hole in the lower roof of the Belvedere Hotel and a pair of footflops on the lower roof so they called the police. The hole in the lower roof of the Belvedere Hotel was above a locked unused conference room so police had the manager unlock the room and as soon as they did they were immediately hit with the smell of death and lying on the floor of this room in the Belvedere Hotel was Ray Rivera's dead body. The room looked like a horror movie. Blood was dripping down the walls. Ray himself was lying in a pool of his own blood. He was in really bad shape and was pretty much unrecognizable. Pretty much right away this looked like Ray likely caused his own death that he jumped to his death from the high roof of the Belvedere Hotel and then his body crashed through the lower roof of the Belvedere Hotel which caused that big hole that his friends saw and why his dead body was behind a locked door in the Belvedere Hotel. But there's a lot of strange details at this scene that just don't quite make sense. On the lower roof the Ray crashed through were both of his flip flops and were on top of the roof. One was completely ripped apart and both flip flops were 60 feet away from each other. Now this doesn't make a whole lot of sense because I don't know am I supposed to believe that Ray fell pushed or jumped from the high roof of the Belvedere Hotel and on his way down decided to take off both his flip flops and throw them so they would end up 60 feet apart from each other on the roof that he crashed through and also on the way down he decided to rip his flip flop in half because one of his flip flops was ripped in half. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I feel like even if you jumped wearing flip flops your flip flops would still be with your body when you crashed through the lower roof. Even weirder though Ray's sunglasses and his phone were also on top of the low roof where his sunglasses were. It's also kind of odd that both his sunglasses and his phone would fall out of his pockets while he fell but even stranger was that they were in perfect condition. His phone and his sunglasses perfect condition not even a scratch on them. I don't about you but I personally break sunglasses every single summer and my phone has cracks on it just from falling out of my bed in the middle of the night but you're trying to tell me that his phone and his sunglasses not even a scratch on them after crashing from 14 stories and landing on the top of a roof. Even one of the detectives on this case on day one said that this scene looked staged. In Ray's pocket was the lucky penny with the heart cut out of it that Allison gave him. She has no idea why he had that penny with him that day. Like I said he always kept it on that bowl that he had on his dresser so this is really confusing why of all days the day that he died he grabbed this penny with him but even weirder was what Ray did not have on him. That money clip that Allison gave him the money clip that he never left the house without was not on his person when his body was found and to this very day that money clip has never been found and I gotta be honest I don't have an explanation why that would be if it wasn't foul play. From the very start to this very day Ray's wife and his entire family refused to believe that Ray would have brought an end to his own life and to be honest his behavior doesn't really add up with someone planning to take their own life. Usually there's warning signs. There's usually some pretty similar things that we see in people that do something like this but Ray was showing the complete opposite. Ray was the kind of guy that had everything to live for. He was a really happy guy. He had a close family, a beautiful new wife. He just got married a few months earlier. Ray just finished a screenplay that he put all the a lot of work into that he was so excited to go back to L.A. and pitch to people and hopefully get his screenplay turned into a movie. Speaking of L.A., him and his wife had plans to sell their house in Baltimore and move back to California, the home in Baltimore was already put up for sale. If he was so unhappy in Baltimore that it would cause him to want to take his own life, he was about to go back to California. And on top of that, Ray and Allison had just planned a trip to New Mexico. They were supposed to go to New Mexico only two weeks after Ray died. Usually people planning to bring an end to themselves don't make these kinds of plans for the future because they know that they're not going to be there. But if we even take it to the very day that Ray died, the day he went missing Ray was still making plans. He bought a new book. He rented a studio space for the week later. If he knew that that was his very last day on Earth, why would he bother renting editing space that he knew he wasn't going to need? If he knew that that was his last day on Earth, why would he spend it buying a book? He knew he was never going to read. Another thing that never sat right with Ray's family was that he had a very intense and well-known fear of heights. Most of the time when people do something like this, like bring an end, they try to do it in the least painful and like the quickest way possible. Why would Ray want his final moments on Earth to be something that scared him so much? Ray's autopsy was done and there was a very long list of injuries, 24 broken ribs, a broken pelvis. His heart and his lungs were punctured. His left leg was broken in two places so bad that the bone was visible. He had damage to his skull, lacerations, and cuts all over his body and that's just naming a few of his injuries. The medical examiner ruled his death not a suicide, but inconclusive. Despite the medical examiner's ruling and really no evidence from the very start, police were convinced that this was an open and shut suicide. And because of that, evidence wasn't handled properly. They didn't test a scene for fingerprints. They didn't even close off the scene to the public, so it was completely contaminated. When Allison spoke to the medical examiner that ruled her husband's death undetermined about the police's theory, the medical examiner told her, "I know what they are trying to do. We are not closing this case." Which sounds to me, that the medical examiner knows that the police are going to try and rule this suicide, but she will not close the case. The medical examiner also told Allison that raised injuries were mostly consistent with a large fall, but not totally. And to this day, a lot of people are really skeptical that the fall and crashing through the roof alone would have caused raised injuries. Typically, with a fall, you see a lot of injuries to the skull. And he did have damage to the skull, but it wasn't as bad as the damage he had everywhere else. Usually with a large fall, like I said, you're going to see damage mainly to the skull. But with this case, it was more spread out, which is more consistent with something else and we will get to that later. But specifically, the medical examiner told Allison that the way that raised shins were broken was absolutely not consistent with a large fall. Even though the police believed that the array jumped to this very day, they've never been able to explain how he did that. Which I don't know, that seems pretty important. Conveniently, even though the Belvedere Hotel had a very, very good surveillance system, the cameras on the roof of the hotel on the day the raid died, those cameras, which would hold all the answers were either unplugged, not working, or the footage was compromised in some way due to a technical error. I say all those different reasons because there's actually a different explanation why the cameras weren't working, depending on who you ask. But the rest of the cameras in the hotel, that day that were working just fine, never show Ray Rivera entering the Belvedere Hotel. And there's not a single witness that could place him in the hotel on the day that he went missing. There is zero evidence that Ray Rivera was in the Belvedere Hotel the day that he died. So how would he get to the roof to jump off of it? The police actually have three theories about where Ray jumped from and spoiler alert, none of them really make any sense. My opinion, the first theory is obviously that Ray jumped from the high roof of the Belvedere Hotel and crashed through the lower roof of the Belvedere Hotel. Not only do most experts agree and even architects that worked in the Belvedere Hotel agree that because of the shape of the high roof that has a good curvature, it wouldn't really be possible to fall, be pushed or jump from the high roof and have to have landed where Ray landed on the low roof. But even if he could have, Ray would have also had to have jumped from the high roof and clear 45 feet horizontally to have landed where he landed to crash through that hole on the low roof. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. The other theory was that Ray fell from the top of the parking garage. The same parking garage where his friends actually first saw the hole in the lower roof of the Belvedere Hotel. But if that is what happened, Ray would have only fallen 20 feet and pretty much every expert agrees that a fall of only 20 feet would not have caused all of Ray's really extensive injuries and it's also really likely that Ray could have survived a fall from 20 feet. The only other place that the police agree that Ray could have fallen from was the 11th floor ledge of the Belvedere Hotel. There's like a ledge that surrounds all sides of the building. But the only way that Ray could have gone access to that ledge was climbing out of a window and the only windows that had access to the 11th floor ledge were through people's offices or their apartments. No one says that a strange man entered their apartment or office that day. Ray didn't know anyone that lived or worked in the Belvedere Hotel and on top of that, those windows were half windows meaning that they only opened up halfway and Ray was a really athletic man. He was really big. Lots of muscles. He was six foot five and there's no way that he would be able to fit through a tiny window like that. So in my opinion, not an expert, all of the police's theories just seem unlikely to me. So it's really frustrating that they would just assume that his death was a suicide without even being able to prove how he died. But if he didn't fall from any of those places, how did Ray Rivera fall through that hole? Because we know that he did. He had to have fallen from somewhere. He couldn't have just fallen out of the sky. Ray's poor wife, Allison was so devastated and confused. She never once believed that Ray would leave her in this way. But she wasn't getting any help from the police. So just completely grief struck in and just determined to find out what happened to our husband. Allison starts like tearing their home apart, looking for any answers. And that's when she comes across arguably one of the most bizarre things I have ever heard in a true crime case before. And that is the note hidden behind Ray's desktop computer was a typed up note. The font size was so small, it was pretty much impossible to even read. It was printed out. The part of the note that was blank, no words typed on it was either cut or ripped off. And then the note was folded a bunch of times. It was covered in plastic and taped to the back of Ray's computer. So not only that in itself seems so weird. It seems like something out of like a spy movie. But trust me, it gets even more confusing when we get into the contents of that letter. We have no clue when this letter was typed up and printed out. But Allison believes it was either the day her husband went missing or shortly before because those pieces that were ripped off of the paper were found in Ray's trash can. The entirety of this note has never been officially released in the public. But because we have pictures of it, a lot of people have tried to zoom in and piece together what they believe the note says. So I'm going to give you going to read out what I have of the note. But I'm just going to warn you now is very confusing, very, very confusing. The note starts out brothers and sisters right now around the world volcanoes are erupting what an awesome site. Ray then includes in the second sentence a Latin phrase which when translated to English reads whom virtues unites death will not separate. The note then goes on to say that was a well played game. Congratulations to all who participated. I hope you enjoyed it. But it was time to wake up. So here I am. I'd like to thank those who accepted our invitation for membership during the game. We couldn't have done it without you. I took on this endeavor to find the truth. Not for its own sake, but in accepting this quest for the truth I'd hoped to make myself one with the others into a man worthy and ready to receive it. I stand before you a man who understands the purpose and values of our secrets. That's why I cherish them as secrets. Members of the council, please note, I will lend careful consideration to the traditional responsibilities in light of these proceedings and I will satisfy the standard requests of this council within the appropriate time. Again, well done to all who participated. I expect the council has invited all the players who gave their lives to this pursuit back so they might join us. That last part, you hear that? It says that he expects the council to give back the lives of people who gave their lives for the game. After that section, Ray then lists a bunch of people's names who are passed away, who are dead. Some of them are members of Hollywood filmmakers or actors, but a majority of them are people that worked under the Agora umbrella or that were connected to people that worked under the Agora umbrella, like the wives of Agora employees. Ray then continues on saying, "Before I continue with my instructions to the council and claim the prize for my service, I'd like to allow Porter Stansbury to claim his prize. Now Porter, don't waste these words by claiming something I'll just take back. Now that the game is finished, I expect the council to compensate those who have given time and talent to this venture, along with myself. These players should be made five years younger by the council." So now he's saying, "Me and these people should be made five years younger." He then goes on and lists a bunch of names. He includes his wife Allison, but instead of calling her Mrs. Allison Rivera, he calls her Miss Allison Jones. He also names Angel, my father, Angel, my brother, Maria, my mother, Elena, my sister. He lists a bunch of Allison's family members. Allison does say though that Ray forgets a lot of significant people. I don't know who that is, but I'm suggesting that that's a bunch of family members that he does not include. He also includes a bunch of friends, people he knew from high school, and a bunch of agora, employees, and then their families, like their wives and their children. And then after listing all these people, Ray writes, "And Porter Stansbury, if he didn't do it himself." So he writes, "Along with myself, these players should be made five years younger and Porter Stansbury, if he didn't do it to himself or Eddie, like make himself five years younger." Ray then writes, "Brothers and sisters, our lands of achievements have seen many ideas become new innovations since the game began." And then Ray lists out a bunch of innovations and inventions. A bunch of them are technology, but some of them aren't. So he lists out DVDs, CDs, the internet, flash drives, computer operating systems, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth. But he also says, "Sodoku, overnight express shipping, Viagra, in this line, Muscle Milk." He also has the Human Genoing Project, the DaVinci surgical robot and cloning, and that's just the name of few, there's probably like three times more innovations that he lists out. And then Ray writes that 1% of the rights, patents, and proceeds of all of them should be transferred to him by now. He writes, "I know that our host, Porter Stansbury, has created a way for you to do so, and to arrange for future transactions, you should visit me at any of the properties I will resume control of." He writes, "My primary residence, which includes a beautiful piece of property in northern Argentina that I'm told is the biggest mansion in Buenos Aires, well done, Porter. And you're up, you can visit me at my house in Nice, or in Madrid, although if I'm in Spain, I'm more than likely at the Costa. In Asia, you will be able to find me in Thailand, another good job, Porter. I will keep the two houses in Las Felas, California, and the one house in San Francisco. Although I'll be looking for a new place in Baltimore, and perhaps some other cities. He then mentions four different albums and one song, and mentions a bunch of different movies that he says has inspired him. He also says that those of you, he's like talking to a group of people, he says, those of you that have worked on this movies, I look forward to meeting you. Amongst these different movies that he mentions is The Matrix, one, two, and three. The Family Man, National Treasure, The Da Vinci Code, Eyes Wide Shut, The Game, Fight Club, Seven, and More. He also writes that he expects M and Night Shyamalan to keep coming up with great ideas on movies. He then lists some of his movies, Wide Awake, Sixth Sense, The Village, The Others, Signs, Unbreakable. He then finishes up writing, "What's mine is mine, the game is up, the deed is done, it's time for some shut eye, take care, and enjoy the festivities." I mean, how weird is that note? So let's dissect the note a little bit. I'm not going to be able to go by sentence by sentence because this episode will probably be three hours long, but I will dissect some parts I think are the most important, but of course just my opinion. So obviously we know that this, no, doesn't make a whole lot of sense at this value. It kind of sounds more like a speech than it actually does like a note or like a letter he wrote for someone. He opens it up, brothers and sisters. He talks about how there's an event hosted by his friend. He said, "Our host, Porter Sandsbury. He mentions that he's speaking to you, a group of people. He mentions that he expects a council to have done something. He mentions a list of movies that all have similar themes to them, technology, conspiracy theories, a government or secret society having control over the public, delusions, time travel, secret codes. The one movie that he mentions, the game, seems extremely significant. Since the note mentions I, him and the people he's speaking to, these members of a council are all playing the game. He mentions that multiple times in the note. I've never seen this movie the game, but according to the internet, the main character is forced to play the game and it ruins his life. So he tries to take his own life by jumping off a building and he crashes through a roof. Where then he finds out that this is all part of the game. And that is eerily similar to what happened to Ray Rivera. I also forgot to mention when I said a lot of those movies have to do with secret societies, we obviously know that Ray had an extreme interest in the secret society of the Freemasons before he died. While that second sentence in his note, that Latin phrase that he chose to include is actually a well-known motto used by the Freemasons. So is this council he's speaking to? Is it the Freemasons? Not sure. Don't know. This sense he also included a bunch of ingora employees and also mentioned Porter a few times. Is he saying that Agora and Porter are also part of the Freemasons? This note has been looked at so many people, there's been so many internet sleuths that have tried to decode it. The note mentions a bunch of M Night Shyamalan movies that people believe could be decoded to actually mean the address of Porter Stansbury's company, a put that photo on the screen now for people watching the video version on YouTuber Spotify and I believe Apple Podcasts also has video version of the show now. Meet new grippy setting mist from Maybelline New York. Jelly mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all-day comfy grip. Tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just clump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Maybelline New York. Maybe it's Maybelline! Some people think that the way the note is typed is actually code for help. Like the different sections of the note literally spell out the letters H-E-L-P. Personally, in my opinion, I think this one's a bit of a stretch. Like I kind, I see the L and I kind of see the E but I don't really see the H in my opinion but I will have back-to-back photos on the screen now where you can see the regular note by itself and also people showing how they see the letters H-E-L-P written in the note. The FBI has concluded that this note is not a suicide note. It's not. This is not how people write suicide notes and it appears to be more the writings of someone experiencing some kind of mental illness. as I know, it'd be really strange because there's no explanation or apology. It doesn't focus on his family or his wife. You would think, since he's a writer, he's this creative person, that if he was going to do something like this, he would leave Allison some kind of explanation. You don't see that here. There's a lot of names written in this note, but I'm sure you noticed that there's one name that is said over and over again in the note. And that is Ray's friend from high school and former boss, Porter, Stansbury. At one point in the note, he lists off a bunch of people connected to Ray, his family, his friends, people that he used to work with Adagora. He asks the committee to age all these people back five years. He then writes and also, age Porter standsbury back five years if he hasn't done it to himself already. The note also asks the committee to bring back the people that gave their lives for the game. It seems like he's asking the committee to bring people back to life that have died, playing whatever game he's referencing. He then lists off a bunch of people that have died. A majority of these people, like I said, are people connected to Hollywood, filmmakers, actors, but a lot of them are also Adagora employees, so people connected to Adagora employees. And one of the people he lists is a man named Tom Hickling. This man worked for Adagora and actually died under mysterious circumstances five, six months before Ray died. Tom died in a car accident that he was in with his daughter. In the accident, his daughter broke her leg and had to be transferred away in an ambulance, but she said before she left an ambulance, her father was alive and well after the car accident. But later, Tom's wife would get a call saying that her husband Tom was found dead at the scene of a crash. Now apparently Ray, in the months weeks leading up to his death following Tom's death, was really hit by Tom's death. He knew Tom personally. He said he was one of the only real people that was working for Adagora. He was apparently bringing up to his family and his friends, his wife, Tom's death quite a bit and there was something that just felt off about it. This is what Ray said. The note also claims that Ray is the owner of a bunch of lavish properties all over the entire world. Argentina, a couple places in Europe, a place in Thailand, some places in California. Now we know obviously Ray is not the owner of all these places in the entire world, but do you know who did own property? In all those places listed in the note, the Adagora's founder and owner, William Bonner. Is this some kind of code? Is Ray trying to tell us something with this note? I mean, what is the reason for this note? Is this note an introduction speech for some kind of secret society that Ray was joining? Was it a suicide note? Was it the ramblings of a man that lost his mind? Or a secret code to tell the world what was happening to him? Or was this note written by someone else and planted in Ray's home to make it look like he had gone crazy? There is zero evidence that Ray Rivera is the one that wrote that note and hid the note behind his computer. Before Ray's body was found, when he was still just a missing person, his friend and former boss Porter-Sansbury was very helpful. He was doing everything he could, you know, in the public eye. He was helping out Ray's wife, helping out Ray's family, doing everything he could to support them. He even put up the reward money out of his own pocket. He spoke to the media, saying that he was heartbroken. He wanted to find Ray that Ray was his best friend. But right after Ray's body was found, something switched. Porter-Sansbury cut off Ray's wife, cut off Ray's family, didn't speak to them anymore. He didn't even go to Ray's memorial or Ray's funeral. He wasn't cooperating with police and apparently also put a gag order on all of his employees for abitting them from speaking to the police. After the unsolved mysteries episode aired in 2020, Porter-Sansbury did make a statement. He said that he was shocked at the accusations that the episode made that he was involved in his best friend's death, that he was heartbroken, that he would not do that. He said that he didn't speak to the police because he never thought that there was any mystery surrounding Ray's death that it was open and shut. Ray killed himself. He also adamantly denied ever putting a gag order on his employees and also made a claim that before Ray died, Ray's wife Alison had multiple conversations with Porter claiming that her husband Ray was really depressed. She was really worried about his mental health. That the weekend before Ray died, he was so depressed he couldn't even get out of bed. Alison claims that this conversation never happened. When Porter-Sansbury and Agora heard that Ray's death was going to be featured in the reboot of unsolved mysteries, they sent a cease and desist letter to Netflix to try and get them to not air the episode. When that didn't work, they hired an extensive PR and crisis management team. Why would you do that if you didn't have anything to hide? It really seems like everything goes back to Agora and Porter-Sansbury. But why? So let's quickly look into the main theories about what happened to Ray. The first obviously being that he committed suicide. That Ray was suffering from some kind of undiagnosed mental disorder, some kind of psychosis or delusions. This would explain the bizarre note that he wrote. And it would also explain Ray's bizarre paranoia in the weeks leading up to his death. I personally also think that this would explain why Ray had that penny on his body when he was found dead. The penny that his wife gave him said if you ever need me, you can hold this penny and know that I'm close. Alison says she has no idea why Ray would have taken that penny because they're always sat on his dresser every single day. So if he felt like he had, he ran out of options and he was depressed and he wanted to take his own life, it would make sense to me that he would want to hold something, have something with them that made him feel close to his wife. There's also a lot of people that believe that Ray was suffering from something called a Truman show delusion. Ray felt like he could have possibly been living in a false reality. He was living in a simulation. A game, you know, he mentions the game multiple times. Something similar to the Matrix possibly. You know, he also references the Matrix. It was actually the first movie he listed on the note when he was talking about inspirations. I've never seen the Matrix, but I saw someone on Reddit say that in the Matrix, the main character is tested and the main character jumps off a building to test reality. Is it possible that that was what Ray was aiming to do? He believed that he was in the game in a game and he wanted to test reality. But again, I have to go back that Ray had a lot of things he was excited about. He made a lot of plans. Usually you don't see that in people that are planning to take their own life. Ray also had injuries not consistent with the fall and considering the police can't even explain how Ray killed himself. I personally have a hard time believing that this is what happened to him, especially because no one that truly knew and loved Ray in real life believed that he would do that to himself. So obviously that leaves one more theory. That Ray was killed. Was it possible that someone was really after Ray? Someone was threatening Ray, threatening his family, threatening his wife? That would definitely explain why he was so paranoid leading up to his death. Why he didn't want anyone going anywhere without him. Why Alison wasn't allowed to leave the house without Ray? This would explain why he rushed over to her when he saw a man approaching her at the track. Or why Ray was truly terrified when the home alarm was tripped and packed to back nights. If Ray was killed and his death was staged to look like a suicide that would also explain why there's no evidence he was ever inside the Belvedere Hotel. It would also explain while his belongings ended up on top of the lower roof that he supposedly crashed through. And they were in perfect condition even though they landed on a roof after falling 14 stories. But what really trips me up is that Ray had to have fallen through the roof from somewhere and that brings us to the infamous helicopter theory. Since no one can explain how Ray fell through the roof, the lower roof of the Belvedere Hotel. Some people have speculated that maybe he was pushed from a helicopter that was circling above the Belvedere Hotel. Honestly, in my opinion, I gotta be honest, I think this theory is very far-fetched. That's just my opinion. But honestly, every other theory I've brought up so far is also far-fetched, in my opinion. The manager of the Belvedere Hotel said that there was a helicopter flying in the area the day the night that Ray died. And we all know someone connected to Ray that liked to fly around in helicopters so much so that he would come in to someone's wedding on a private helicopter. In my research, I did find a theory that I believe makes the most sense how Ray fell through the lower roof of the Belvedere Hotel with the injuries that he did have. have. Every medical expert that has looked at this case has had a really hard time with the injuries that Ray had. Even though they were mostly consistent with a fall, they weren't all the way consistent with the fall, and in fact, most experts agree that Ray or Bear as injuries were more consistent with being hit by a car. So the theory is that Ray got that call before he died. He was set up and learned to meet someone for whatever reason on top of that parking garage that was right next to the Belvedere Hotel, the same parking garage where his friends first saw the hole on the lower roof of the Belvedere Hotel. So imagine, there's multiple ways that someone could lure him, but in this theory, let's say that he gets a call. Someone's already been after him, someone's already been threatening his wife, right? Get's a call after Allison leaves for a business trip. Get's a call. Someone's threatening him and says, we have Allison. Meet us on this parking garage at this time and get her back. He's going to scream, oh shit, and rush out the house to the parking garage. So he's at the parking garage and he's waiting. But as he's standing there and he's waiting, a car comes out nowhere and at high speed hits Ray and it's sent him flying. It's because his injuries and then he fell through the lower roof of the Belvedere Hotel. What's also really important to note that those friends that went on top of the parking garage and actually saw this hole where they would later find Ray's body, a lot of people have been really suspicious about the story that his friends went up on this parking garage. They just saw a random hole in a random old hotel's roof and immediately thought it was suspicious enough to call the police. A lot of people have thought that that's really weird. And those two friends that actually found that hole and called the police were employees of the Agora umbrella. So let's bring this back to Porterstandsbury for a moment. Two days before Ray disappeared. He was with Allison and he got really excited, right? It was with Allison and he gets excited and he picks up his phone and he calls Porterstandsbury. Porter doesn't answer. So Ray leaves him a voicemail and he says, "Hey man, I finally got it all figured out." Where did he figure out? Two days before he disappeared. Calls Porter and leaves a voicemail, I finally figured all out. Well Porter says he had no idea what Ray was talking about. It was a mystery to him. He doesn't know what Ray was talking about referring to. And man, I just don't believe him. I don't believe him at all. And that's extremely suspicious to me, in my opinion. And I bet now that I brought up that phone call, you're probably wondering did the police ever find out who called Ray moments before he disappeared that caused Ray to scream, "Oh shit, into the phone and rush out of the house and never be seen alive again?" Yes and no. Yes and no. The police figured out who it was. So they tracked the call back to Agorra. The entire Agorra umbrella used the same switchboard, meaning that that call, what 100% came from someone with Agorra, but it couldn't be traced to an exact person. And to this very day, the person that called Ray has never come forward. And that is just so unbelievably sketchy and suspicious. If you called him to remind him that you're late to a meeting, and it was completely innocent, and whatever happened happened after that. Why won't you just say that? But the fact that Ray disappeared after getting a phone call from Agorra, and that person has never come forward. So it could be anyone under the Agorra umbrella, meaning it could be from Agorra, the Oxford Club, Porter Stansbury's company, or a bunch of other companies. We don't know who, but there's clearly someone that knows something more than they're letting on. After Ray's death, Alison gave over all of their computers to the police, hoping that they would find some evidence on them. On the day that she was scheduled to come pick up the computers, a detective told her that someone called them multiple times asking what they found on Ray's computers. They were also asking if they could come pick up Ray's computers. Obviously this person was not Alison. It was no one in Ray's family. Alison has no idea who was calling the police, trying to find out what they found on Ray's computer, and asking to come pick up Ray's computer. One year after Ray's death, Porter Stansbury was found guilty of fraud and was ordered to pay $1.5 million. So clearly, there were more sketchy things happening under the Agorra umbrella. Did Ray see something, or hear something that he wasn't supposed to? Did he get involved with the Freemasons or some other kind of secret society? Did he learn too much about the sketchy practices under the Agorra umbrella that they were allegedly scamming investors out of millions of dollars? Or did Ray learn too much about the other Agorra employee, Tom's death? If you ask me, I really think that it's very possible that there actually was someone after Ray threatening him or his wife's life, and that he was too scared to tell anyone about what was happening because he would put them in more danger. If you break down this case to the most simple explanation, Ray Rivera got a call from someone from Agorra. He then drove his car and parked in a parking lot two blocks away from the Agorra headquarters and then was found dead under very mysterious circumstances. This upcoming May, it will be 20 years since Ray Rivera died. He had been married for seven months to the love of his life, and he was only 32 years old. It's so young, only a little older than me. He had so many dreams, so many things that he was going to accomplish, but in his life was taken tragically way too soon. Ray Rivera still has so many people in his corner fighting for him, and I truly believe that there is more to his death. His wife, Allison, even though it's been 20 years, still fights for him. His older brother, Angel, still fights for him. Ray's older brother, Angel, even has apparently like a talk show, we're in a radio show and he talks about Ray all the time. They want answers. And I think they're out there. I think there's more to this story that we just don't know. There's pieces of this puzzle missing, but someone, multiple people, have the answers. Who was after Ray Rivera? Who would be covering up his death? Was it Porter Stansbury? Was it Agora? Or was it the Freemasons? Or are they all connected? All just one and the same. Oh my gosh, I have not fallen down. A rabbit hole like this is so long. I swear, I could have researched this case for three more weeks and make like three more episodes on this case. I need to know all our thoughts, theories and opinions in the comments. I am so interested. I might even put a poll on Spotify to find out what theory that we believe the most. So interested, need to hear all your opinions, all your theories on this case. You guys are always coming up with different theories and making different connections that I would never come up with in my own head. So I need to hear from all of you, but until then, that is all I have for this week's episode. While you're in the comments, also I need to note, please remember to always be respectful. People that actually knew and loved Rivera in real life could be in the comments. You never, never actually have any idea who's reading your comments. So please always remember to be respectful. Let me know all your thoughts and opinions in the comments, all those theories and need to know which one you believe the most. This is so tricky, so convoluted, so complicated. I've been literally talking my fiancee's ear off a whole week about how confusing and frustrating this case is. So I'm really, really looking forward to continuing the conversation with all of you down in the comments. Until then, that's all I have for this week's episode. And I will see you guys all next Friday when we are hot in the case once again. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Jelly mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plum. Do we hydrate its skin? It still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Maybe it's Mabelie.