1
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So, what are your thoughts, Rey?
2
00:00:13,346 --> 00:00:14,764
Uh, I'm really excited.
3
00:00:15,056 --> 00:00:15,890
And I...
4
00:00:16,766 --> 00:00:18,601
can't wait to see Allison
come down the aisle.
5
00:00:20,186 --> 00:00:21,688
We were both so happy.
6
00:00:22,689 --> 00:00:25,400
My wedding in Puerto Rico
was just magical.
7
00:00:25,900 --> 00:00:28,528
We got married in a town called Isabela.
8
00:00:29,112 --> 00:00:30,613
And it was right on the beach.
9
00:00:31,698 --> 00:00:34,617
It's one of the things that my brother got
from our parents, Puerto Rico,
10
00:00:34,701 --> 00:00:37,495
and the respect and the love
that we have for Puerto Rico.
11
00:00:37,996 --> 00:00:39,080
He made it a point
12
00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:42,042
to honor that.
13
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I want to welcome you here today.
14
00:00:50,050 --> 00:00:54,804
This beautiful,
fairy-tale wedding was just the beginning.
15
00:00:54,888 --> 00:00:57,348
-No matter what, Allison,
16
00:00:58,099 --> 00:00:59,225
I'll love you forever.
17
00:01:00,643 --> 00:01:02,145
Rey, take this ring,
18
00:01:03,688 --> 00:01:05,398
as a sign of my love and fidelity.
19
00:01:12,155 --> 00:01:14,491
That was probably
one of the happiest times, as--
20
00:01:14,574 --> 00:01:17,368
as the Riveras, you know, that we--
we had as a family.
21
00:01:17,744 --> 00:01:20,789
I present to you Rey and Allison Rivera.
22
00:01:34,511 --> 00:01:36,221
I don't know why he disappeared.
23
00:01:37,889 --> 00:01:39,766
When they said it was suicide, I was like,
24
00:01:39,849 --> 00:01:43,728
he ran out of the house
like he was late for something.
25
00:01:43,937 --> 00:01:45,146
Who sits there and says,
26
00:01:45,230 --> 00:01:48,274
"Oh, you know what?
It's 6:30, time to jump off a big roof."
27
00:01:51,611 --> 00:01:53,738
I kept saying there is something bigger,
28
00:01:53,822 --> 00:01:55,448
there is something more going on.
29
00:01:56,950 --> 00:02:00,829
I think he turned over some rock,
and he shouldn't have turned it over.
30
00:02:02,205 --> 00:02:04,165
But I know that he didn't kill himself.
31
00:02:05,667 --> 00:02:10,255
My hope is that there is somebody
that's out there that knows the truth.
32
00:02:57,427 --> 00:03:00,722
Rey was 6'5, 260.
33
00:03:01,181 --> 00:03:06,186
A water polo player, so,
broad shoulders, thin waist.
34
00:03:07,312 --> 00:03:08,313
But also,
35
00:03:08,396 --> 00:03:11,774
this beautiful smile, um,
that lit up a room.
36
00:03:15,695 --> 00:03:18,615
Family was definitely
one of the key things with Rey.
37
00:03:19,365 --> 00:03:22,535
Growing up, um, being Air Force brats,
uh, my dad was in the military.
38
00:03:23,661 --> 00:03:25,622
When you're moving from city to city,
39
00:03:25,830 --> 00:03:27,207
you become really tight,
40
00:03:27,749 --> 00:03:30,877
because you're constantly making
new, temporary friends.
41
00:03:32,003 --> 00:03:34,172
So the one constant is the family.
42
00:03:36,424 --> 00:03:37,759
He was happy.
43
00:03:37,842 --> 00:03:39,302
Always had us laughing.
44
00:03:39,385 --> 00:03:44,057
Could always find the funny
in pretty much everything.
45
00:03:47,268 --> 00:03:50,563
He had a hysterical,
awesome, keen sense of humor.
46
00:03:51,272 --> 00:03:54,108
You know, just naturally,
you would gravitate towards him.
47
00:03:54,192 --> 00:03:55,568
You know, that kind of energy.
48
00:03:58,029 --> 00:04:00,657
His dream was to be a writer and director.
49
00:04:00,740 --> 00:04:02,700
Film was everything for him.
50
00:04:03,952 --> 00:04:06,246
And so,
we were living in Southern California.
51
00:04:08,164 --> 00:04:12,252
But screenplays and all of that
was not bringing in money.
52
00:04:13,419 --> 00:04:18,383
So Rey turned to a friend in Baltimore,
Porter Stansberry.
53
00:04:20,176 --> 00:04:22,095
Porter was his high school buddy.
54
00:04:24,472 --> 00:04:26,933
-They were both water polo players,
55
00:04:27,308 --> 00:04:29,894
-and they stayed very, very good friends.
56
00:04:30,979 --> 00:04:34,065
And Porter,
who was like a big finance guy,
57
00:04:34,148 --> 00:04:38,486
and had a company, Stansberry Associates,
that wrote financial newsletters.
58
00:04:39,529 --> 00:04:41,531
Porter had always wanted Rey--
59
00:04:41,614 --> 00:04:43,074
it was for a long time,
60
00:04:43,157 --> 00:04:44,867
um, Rey to come write for him.
61
00:04:45,952 --> 00:04:49,247
Even though
Rey didn't know finance or stocks,
62
00:04:49,330 --> 00:04:53,126
Porter's persistent
and really wanted to work with his friend.
63
00:04:56,004 --> 00:04:58,548
So, Rey took a writing job,
64
00:04:58,631 --> 00:05:01,092
writing financial newsletters
in Baltimore.
65
00:05:01,884 --> 00:05:05,430
We moved to Baltimore for this company
and all we knew was Porter.
66
00:05:06,848 --> 00:05:12,478
We made a pact that we were going
to live in Baltimore for 24 months.
67
00:05:13,313 --> 00:05:16,649
We moved in in December of 2004.
68
00:05:17,859 --> 00:05:19,902
We found this amazing home
69
00:05:19,986 --> 00:05:21,738
and we found a church.
70
00:05:23,281 --> 00:05:24,449
We found a community.
71
00:05:25,825 --> 00:05:26,951
We were so happy.
72
00:05:32,915 --> 00:05:35,543
May 16th, 2006,
73
00:05:36,961 --> 00:05:38,379
I had a business trip.
74
00:05:39,589 --> 00:05:42,842
And that morning, I was a little tired.
75
00:05:42,925 --> 00:05:44,844
I had a three-hour drive.
76
00:05:45,386 --> 00:05:49,390
And Rey got up with me
and made me breakfast.
77
00:05:50,433 --> 00:05:52,018
It was such a beautiful morning
78
00:05:52,101 --> 00:05:54,937
and I said to him, I was like,
"I love you so much."
79
00:05:55,021 --> 00:05:58,066
And-- And he was like,
"Thank you for loving me so much."
80
00:05:59,525 --> 00:06:03,196
He carried my suitcase down the stairs,
put it in the car for me,
81
00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:04,989
and I was off.
82
00:06:07,617 --> 00:06:10,203
I finished my day, like 6:00 or 6:30.
83
00:06:13,081 --> 00:06:14,374
I check into the hotel
84
00:06:14,665 --> 00:06:16,959
and I call him.
85
00:06:19,587 --> 00:06:21,589
Please press one to leave me a message.
86
00:06:26,219 --> 00:06:27,845
And he doesn't answer.
87
00:06:28,137 --> 00:06:29,847
It was just, like,
"That's really strange."
88
00:06:31,641 --> 00:06:33,267
We had a houseguest,
89
00:06:33,351 --> 00:06:35,395
and her name was Claudia,
and she was a colleague.
90
00:06:35,478 --> 00:06:37,939
-That night, I call her,
91
00:06:38,481 --> 00:06:43,319
and she said around 6:30
she had heard a phone call come in...
92
00:06:44,737 --> 00:06:46,197
...heard Rey answer
93
00:06:47,031 --> 00:06:49,367
and then run out of the house in a hurry.
94
00:06:50,451 --> 00:06:52,870
And she was like,
"Let me see if he came back."
95
00:06:53,287 --> 00:06:55,331
So she walked around the house,
all the lights were on.
96
00:06:57,250 --> 00:06:59,252
She said, "He's not here."
97
00:07:03,464 --> 00:07:05,925
And then she called me
98
00:07:06,008 --> 00:07:09,512
that next morning at 5:30,
99
00:07:10,763 --> 00:07:13,182
and she was like,
"Allison, he's not home."
100
00:07:16,185 --> 00:07:17,103
I'm not one to panic,
101
00:07:17,186 --> 00:07:19,230
but there was just something
that wasn't right.
102
00:07:21,482 --> 00:07:22,984
I'm like, "I'm headed home."
103
00:07:26,779 --> 00:07:29,782
I'm driving up, calling everybody.
104
00:07:30,867 --> 00:07:33,286
At the time,
we were living in Puerto Rico.
105
00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:35,872
Uh, the phone rang,
106
00:07:36,456 --> 00:07:38,040
and it was Allison.
107
00:07:38,207 --> 00:07:39,917
She always call me "Mama,"
108
00:07:40,001 --> 00:07:42,670
and she said, "Mama, I can't find Rey."
109
00:07:43,713 --> 00:07:45,590
I was like, "Have you talked to him?"
110
00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:47,675
She's like, "No."
111
00:07:48,801 --> 00:07:52,180
After that, I called Angel, Rey's brother.
112
00:07:53,097 --> 00:07:54,891
I instantly knew something was amiss.
113
00:07:54,974 --> 00:07:57,351
You know, he's not the dude to disappear.
114
00:07:57,435 --> 00:08:00,563
So, for him to go, you know, MIA
115
00:08:00,646 --> 00:08:04,066
for any extended period of time,
and his wife not know about it,
116
00:08:04,317 --> 00:08:05,818
it was so out of the ordinary.
117
00:08:07,445 --> 00:08:10,198
By, like, 1:00 or 2:00,
118
00:08:10,281 --> 00:08:12,742
I'm on a flight from Orlando to Baltimore.
119
00:08:17,997 --> 00:08:19,290
I get to the house,
120
00:08:19,373 --> 00:08:20,583
his car's not there.
121
00:08:23,336 --> 00:08:24,921
And I walk in
122
00:08:25,004 --> 00:08:30,009
and in the kitchen,
there was a soda can opened,
123
00:08:30,092 --> 00:08:32,637
a bag of potato chips,
and his Invisaligns.
124
00:08:33,721 --> 00:08:34,722
I ran upstairs.
125
00:08:35,181 --> 00:08:38,684
Our bedroom light was on,
the office light was on.
126
00:08:41,604 --> 00:08:42,688
He wasn't anywhere.
127
00:08:43,940 --> 00:08:46,275
By seven o'clock, Angel landed.
128
00:08:46,984 --> 00:08:48,736
Claudia had went back to New York,
129
00:08:49,195 --> 00:08:50,863
and all our friends flew down.
130
00:08:52,740 --> 00:08:54,325
We're just really, um,
131
00:08:54,408 --> 00:08:56,202
you know, combing the streets.
132
00:08:57,662 --> 00:08:59,872
And then, Maria, his mother, came in.
133
00:09:00,456 --> 00:09:03,209
And my parents came in the next day.
134
00:09:03,334 --> 00:09:07,004
Hi, um, I'm calling regarding a person
that we're looking for.
135
00:09:07,547 --> 00:09:10,132
So I had cleared out
the entire dining room area.
136
00:09:10,466 --> 00:09:12,426
Then it became work.
137
00:09:13,010 --> 00:09:15,012
"Where do we have to go?
What do we have to do?
138
00:09:15,096 --> 00:09:16,722
Here's the license plate number."
139
00:09:16,889 --> 00:09:19,100
Approximately 6 foot 5, Hispanic.
140
00:09:21,811 --> 00:09:23,604
I would be calling the hospitals,
141
00:09:23,688 --> 00:09:25,189
you know, if there was a John Doe.
142
00:09:26,566 --> 00:09:29,485
Porter put up a reward of $1,000,
143
00:09:29,569 --> 00:09:31,779
because Rey and Porter were good friends,
144
00:09:31,862 --> 00:09:34,740
and was able to get the media in there
145
00:09:34,824 --> 00:09:36,701
and kind of get that all stirred up.
146
00:09:39,620 --> 00:09:42,540
So we're just kinda
trying to think of places
147
00:09:42,623 --> 00:09:44,542
that people would've seen him.
148
00:09:45,459 --> 00:09:48,588
Coffee shops, uh,
different restaurants, that kind of stuff.
149
00:09:50,131 --> 00:09:51,549
You know, you're hoping
150
00:09:52,091 --> 00:09:53,718
that someone spotted him.
151
00:09:57,555 --> 00:09:59,807
But... you didn't hear anything.
152
00:10:01,350 --> 00:10:03,477
There's no movement on credit cards.
153
00:10:03,561 --> 00:10:05,062
The cell phone was dead.
154
00:10:05,187 --> 00:10:08,232
There was no cash pullout
from our bank accounts.
155
00:10:08,441 --> 00:10:09,483
You know, nothing.
156
00:10:10,735 --> 00:10:12,570
And every step of the way in this,
157
00:10:13,029 --> 00:10:15,281
I-- I couldn't believe that it was real.
158
00:10:16,073 --> 00:10:18,576
Nothing. They--
They put the posters up, so...
159
00:10:18,909 --> 00:10:20,953
It starts getting get real scary. But...
160
00:10:21,037 --> 00:10:23,623
you feel that you gotta be strong
in front of everybody,
161
00:10:23,706 --> 00:10:25,499
and not, you know, not lose hope.
162
00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:28,336
Or sort of let those worst thoughts
come into your mind.
163
00:10:28,419 --> 00:10:30,421
You're fighting that. I'm fighting that.
164
00:10:30,755 --> 00:10:33,591
But, um... it gets daunting.
165
00:10:37,219 --> 00:10:38,429
Where is Rey?
166
00:10:40,306 --> 00:10:42,224
Where could he possibly be?
167
00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:49,315
Family and friends say
Rivera left the house in a hurry,
168
00:10:49,398 --> 00:10:51,317
as if he was late for an appointment.
169
00:10:51,734 --> 00:10:53,903
For the 11 News I-Team, I'm Jayne Miller.
170
00:10:55,738 --> 00:11:01,911
My interest in Rey Rivera's story
was because it seemed just so unusual
171
00:11:01,994 --> 00:11:06,165
to have a 32--
I think he was 32 years old at the time...
172
00:11:06,540 --> 00:11:07,583
popular,
173
00:11:07,667 --> 00:11:10,753
no evidence
that he was trying to run from something
174
00:11:10,836 --> 00:11:12,254
or distraught about something,
175
00:11:12,338 --> 00:11:14,423
that he kind of just, poof! Vanished.
176
00:11:16,092 --> 00:11:19,387
Baltimore City police are
searching for a missing 32-year old man.
177
00:11:19,470 --> 00:11:22,431
Anyone with information should call
Baltimore City police at...
178
00:11:22,556 --> 00:11:26,394
So, we're now
six days into him being gone.
179
00:11:28,062 --> 00:11:29,647
I'd come home from searching,
180
00:11:30,398 --> 00:11:33,651
and my mom and dad wanted to go
to look for the car
181
00:11:33,734 --> 00:11:35,069
in different parking lots.
182
00:11:37,154 --> 00:11:38,447
They were on their own,
183
00:11:38,531 --> 00:11:41,200
and Mom said, "Let's pull into this one."
184
00:11:41,283 --> 00:11:42,743
And my dad was driving
185
00:11:42,827 --> 00:11:46,956
and she looks over to talk to my dad,
and through my dad,
186
00:11:47,039 --> 00:11:50,543
she's like, "Tom, that's the car."
And Dad said, "No, it's not."
187
00:11:50,710 --> 00:11:53,713
She's like, "Tom, that is the car."
188
00:11:54,755 --> 00:11:56,549
The search took a turn last night
189
00:11:56,632 --> 00:12:00,136
when Rivera's car was found
behind a building on St. Paul Street.
190
00:12:02,805 --> 00:12:05,307
My mother and father
found the car right here.
191
00:12:06,350 --> 00:12:07,893
This parking spot, number seven.
192
00:12:11,105 --> 00:12:14,650
By the time I got here,
which was about ten minutes, um,
193
00:12:14,734 --> 00:12:16,736
there were cops everywhere,
194
00:12:16,819 --> 00:12:18,654
uh, the media was everywhere.
195
00:12:20,239 --> 00:12:22,616
When we found the car,
there was a ticket on it.
196
00:12:23,325 --> 00:12:26,537
The parking attendant said
that the car must have been parked
197
00:12:26,620 --> 00:12:28,456
the evening that Rey disappeared.
198
00:12:28,539 --> 00:12:31,375
Because the parking attendant
had found the car
199
00:12:31,459 --> 00:12:33,794
when he arrived at work the next morning.
200
00:12:36,338 --> 00:12:38,340
So it's six days of him missing.
201
00:12:38,424 --> 00:12:40,050
The sixth day, we found the car.
202
00:12:40,134 --> 00:12:42,636
So we knew
the car had been sitting there six days.
203
00:12:44,638 --> 00:12:45,973
I just like, looked around,
204
00:12:46,056 --> 00:12:48,642
and I was looking, you know--
I was looking at these buildings.
205
00:12:48,726 --> 00:12:51,312
I just-- I was like, "Why are you here?
Why are you here?
206
00:12:51,395 --> 00:12:53,981
Why would you be here?
Why, why, why, why, why?"
207
00:12:56,442 --> 00:12:57,943
When they found the car,
208
00:12:58,444 --> 00:13:02,031
that really, you know,
accelerated the interest in the case,
209
00:13:02,114 --> 00:13:05,326
because now you had a clue.
210
00:13:08,245 --> 00:13:13,793
The area where the car was found
is a parking lot near the Belvedere Hotel.
211
00:13:15,336 --> 00:13:17,630
It used to be an old hotel.
Now it's a condominium.
212
00:13:19,381 --> 00:13:21,884
But it was also located
in the area of town
213
00:13:21,967 --> 00:13:25,262
where the company that he worked for,
Stansberry, is located.
214
00:13:25,971 --> 00:13:30,684
So it wasn't unusual, on its face,
that he would know that part of town.
215
00:13:31,602 --> 00:13:35,105
But it became this mystery, right away.
216
00:13:35,189 --> 00:13:38,984
It was like, "Where is he?
His car is here. What happened to him?"
217
00:13:39,068 --> 00:13:41,904
Now, it really started
to have the appearance of...
218
00:13:42,696 --> 00:13:44,907
Hmm. Foul play?
219
00:13:46,283 --> 00:13:47,576
His phone was missing.
220
00:13:47,660 --> 00:13:49,453
Was his phone recovered in the truck,
or no?
221
00:13:49,537 --> 00:13:51,247
No, there is nothing in the truck,
222
00:13:51,330 --> 00:13:53,916
nothing of evidentiary value in the truck.
223
00:13:53,999 --> 00:13:57,795
There is nothing to indicate
a theft of the vehicle.
224
00:13:58,379 --> 00:14:01,966
There is nothing
that we've uncovered in his background,
225
00:14:02,049 --> 00:14:03,551
up to this point,
226
00:14:03,634 --> 00:14:08,556
that gives a logical reason
for him just to disappear.
227
00:14:10,266 --> 00:14:11,976
We went down this block, about ten blocks.
228
00:14:12,059 --> 00:14:13,727
Targeting a bunch of local businesses.
229
00:14:13,811 --> 00:14:15,479
Couple of people said they knew him.
230
00:14:16,438 --> 00:14:18,524
After the car was located,
231
00:14:18,607 --> 00:14:22,236
all of these folks started to organize
these kind of searches
232
00:14:22,319 --> 00:14:24,655
in that area around the car.
233
00:14:27,533 --> 00:14:30,661
The next big thing that happened
is that...
234
00:14:31,871 --> 00:14:33,706
someone discovered this hole in a roof
235
00:14:33,789 --> 00:14:34,957
of the Belvedere Hotel.
236
00:14:39,044 --> 00:14:41,755
Three of Rey's co-workers decided to go
237
00:14:41,839 --> 00:14:45,509
on the top of the parking garage
next to the Belvedere.
238
00:14:48,888 --> 00:14:50,431
They looked over the edge,
239
00:14:51,015 --> 00:14:55,102
and they spotted flip-flops
on the lower roof area, near a hole.
240
00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:00,524
The only way to find the hole
241
00:15:00,774 --> 00:15:02,818
was to be on top of the Belvedere,
242
00:15:03,319 --> 00:15:06,238
or to be on top of the--
the parking structure.
243
00:15:07,239 --> 00:15:09,617
It just looked like a black spot
244
00:15:09,700 --> 00:15:11,952
on this white roof.
245
00:15:15,497 --> 00:15:16,707
It's not a big hole.
246
00:15:17,333 --> 00:15:18,500
You'd be just like, "Oh, well,
247
00:15:18,584 --> 00:15:21,003
must've-- you know,
rain must've caused a leak or something."
248
00:15:23,422 --> 00:15:29,053
And then, the three men
who found the hole called the police.
249
00:15:31,138 --> 00:15:34,058
Detectives came in. They said,
"Where's the manager of the building?"
250
00:15:34,141 --> 00:15:37,144
They said, "Gary, can you open up
this door for us?" You know.
251
00:15:37,227 --> 00:15:40,439
And the space
was the old Racquetball Club.
252
00:15:40,522 --> 00:15:42,524
We called it the old church space.
253
00:15:42,608 --> 00:15:45,903
A lot of people probably wouldn't know
that it was used at all.
254
00:15:47,154 --> 00:15:48,238
I open the door up,
255
00:15:48,530 --> 00:15:51,575
and the first thing I did,
I smelled the-- this stench.
256
00:15:52,826 --> 00:15:54,161
The smell was a dead body,
257
00:15:54,244 --> 00:15:55,788
and you could see the wall
258
00:15:55,871 --> 00:15:59,500
where the blood had came down,
and his legs were towards the door.
259
00:16:01,669 --> 00:16:04,338
I looked up, and I saw outside.
260
00:16:05,047 --> 00:16:06,757
That roof there was metal.
261
00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:08,509
So he came right through the metal,
262
00:16:08,592 --> 00:16:09,843
and right through the ceiling.
263
00:16:11,345 --> 00:16:13,222
Still today, when I open up a door,
264
00:16:13,681 --> 00:16:16,266
sometimes I still see that body.
265
00:16:16,350 --> 00:16:18,727
It's just something
that I would never want to see again.
266
00:16:27,069 --> 00:16:28,487
We get the call
267
00:16:29,446 --> 00:16:32,783
to go down
to Baltimore Police Headquarters.
268
00:16:35,494 --> 00:16:41,291
And that was the longest, quietest drive
I can ever recall.
269
00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:45,254
This guy is sitting behind his desk,
270
00:16:46,005 --> 00:16:48,549
and he's like,
"Would you like some water?"
271
00:16:48,632 --> 00:16:50,134
So he gave me
272
00:16:50,801 --> 00:16:52,970
a coffee mug full of water.
273
00:16:53,929 --> 00:16:55,514
And that's when they confirmed
274
00:16:55,597 --> 00:16:58,183
that the body that they had found
was Rey's.
275
00:16:59,435 --> 00:17:03,272
My hands, they went like this.
Like, the water went everywhere.
276
00:17:03,355 --> 00:17:05,107
You couldn't even, um...
277
00:17:05,232 --> 00:17:06,400
You couldn't even hold it.
278
00:17:06,942 --> 00:17:10,070
And I was just like shaking, and I just...
279
00:17:10,654 --> 00:17:12,489
uh, I sat down and just screamed.
280
00:17:12,948 --> 00:17:13,949
It was just...
281
00:17:14,283 --> 00:17:15,117
anguish...
282
00:17:15,701 --> 00:17:16,535
heartbreak.
283
00:17:17,619 --> 00:17:18,620
Um...
284
00:17:19,371 --> 00:17:21,582
I mean--
It's your little brother, you know?
285
00:17:22,458 --> 00:17:24,668
And so, I remember...
286
00:17:26,295 --> 00:17:27,880
everyone just starting to cry.
287
00:17:29,131 --> 00:17:30,090
Um...
288
00:17:32,885 --> 00:17:34,386
Ah, man. And, uh...
289
00:17:35,888 --> 00:17:38,807
Trying to put, you know, putting arms
around each other and everything.
290
00:17:38,974 --> 00:17:39,808
So...
291
00:17:41,351 --> 00:17:45,230
the reality-- reality of it
starts setting in at that moment.
292
00:17:46,482 --> 00:17:47,316
Didn't...
293
00:17:48,650 --> 00:17:51,361
think about the who, what,
and the where, or how,
294
00:17:52,446 --> 00:17:56,909
probably until later on when we got back
to Allison and Rey's place.
295
00:18:00,913 --> 00:18:03,540
I was at their house, waiting,
296
00:18:03,624 --> 00:18:06,835
and I, you know,
and I knew when they walked in
297
00:18:07,628 --> 00:18:08,462
that...
298
00:18:11,090 --> 00:18:11,924
Yeah.
299
00:18:17,304 --> 00:18:20,390
And I looked up at Allison...
300
00:18:25,229 --> 00:18:26,980
and she was crying rivers.
301
00:18:27,940 --> 00:18:29,817
She was just crying rivers.
302
00:18:30,275 --> 00:18:31,485
And, uh...
303
00:18:32,319 --> 00:18:35,447
I-- I-- I just held her. I just...
304
00:18:48,335 --> 00:18:50,003
We used to have a saying there:
305
00:18:50,129 --> 00:18:51,839
"Meet me at the Belvedere."
306
00:18:52,005 --> 00:18:55,425
And that was the biggest thing
that was going on in South Baltimore City,
307
00:18:55,509 --> 00:18:56,552
was the Belvedere.
308
00:18:57,177 --> 00:19:01,140
Real ritzy, high-class place,
you know, real nice.
309
00:19:02,724 --> 00:19:05,894
Anybody that was somebody
stayed at the Belvedere.
310
00:19:08,397 --> 00:19:10,149
I spent 30 years of my life there.
311
00:19:13,193 --> 00:19:17,156
Started off as a, uh, busboy,
making $2 and something an hour.
312
00:19:18,991 --> 00:19:20,242
And then when I left,
313
00:19:20,325 --> 00:19:22,077
I left as a property manager.
314
00:19:24,329 --> 00:19:25,956
A lot of great memories.
315
00:19:26,039 --> 00:19:27,374
Lot of great memories.
316
00:19:27,833 --> 00:19:29,710
But not that memory of Rey Rivera,
317
00:19:29,793 --> 00:19:31,712
that was not a great memory at all.
318
00:19:41,555 --> 00:19:43,682
We got that call on the 24th of May,
319
00:19:43,932 --> 00:19:47,477
I believe, that a body was found in a room
in the Belvedere.
320
00:19:47,811 --> 00:19:48,729
Um...
321
00:19:49,021 --> 00:19:53,483
So we, of course, responded out
to the room where the body was located.
322
00:19:59,323 --> 00:20:01,491
The body, pretty much,
was in a prone position.
323
00:20:01,575 --> 00:20:04,703
Decomposition was pretty extreme
at that point.
324
00:20:04,786 --> 00:20:06,788
He had been missing for eight days.
325
00:20:10,167 --> 00:20:11,418
That's what really hurt.
326
00:20:11,501 --> 00:20:14,963
The decomp is gonna destroy
most of the evidence
327
00:20:15,047 --> 00:20:18,967
that you could see instantaneously
if you got to that body right away.
328
00:20:24,973 --> 00:20:26,058
Rey's autopsy,
329
00:20:26,141 --> 00:20:27,517
it was some brutal reading.
330
00:20:28,435 --> 00:20:30,395
Multiple, multiple ribs fractured,
331
00:20:30,812 --> 00:20:32,105
punctured lungs,
332
00:20:32,898 --> 00:20:35,400
lacerations, seven, nine inches,
333
00:20:36,526 --> 00:20:38,028
damage to his skull.
334
00:20:38,987 --> 00:20:41,782
The right leg
had two different breaks in it,
335
00:20:41,865 --> 00:20:45,160
to the point where the bone
was actually protruding through the flesh.
336
00:20:46,328 --> 00:20:47,788
With the extent of the injuries,
337
00:20:47,871 --> 00:20:50,666
it seemed like
the man came from such great heights
338
00:20:50,749 --> 00:20:52,251
when he went through that hole.
339
00:20:54,670 --> 00:20:57,881
The hole was pretty clean
and it wasn't that large.
340
00:20:57,965 --> 00:21:01,093
I could fit through the hole
with only a little clearance around me.
341
00:21:01,176 --> 00:21:02,761
So that's how small the hole was.
342
00:21:02,844 --> 00:21:05,013
It wasn't this massive cave-in of a roof.
343
00:21:05,722 --> 00:21:08,392
He came vertical through that thing
like a projectile.
344
00:21:11,728 --> 00:21:16,358
The biggest question is:
Where did he come from?
345
00:21:16,441 --> 00:21:19,111
How did he get through that hole?
346
00:21:22,197 --> 00:21:24,700
The first theory was that he jumped off,
347
00:21:24,783 --> 00:21:26,743
or fell off, or was pushed off,
348
00:21:26,827 --> 00:21:30,497
but came off the very top roof
349
00:21:30,998 --> 00:21:33,750
and then went through that lower roof,
350
00:21:34,001 --> 00:21:35,377
ten or eleven stories down.
351
00:21:38,588 --> 00:21:40,173
The very top of the hotel roof,
352
00:21:40,799 --> 00:21:45,304
at best, maybe from point-to-point,
was maybe a 40-foot open area.
353
00:21:45,387 --> 00:21:47,848
Of course, there's air ducts,
there's air conditioning units,
354
00:21:47,931 --> 00:21:50,142
there was a lot of different structures
up there.
355
00:21:52,394 --> 00:21:54,187
The hole was quite a distance out.
356
00:21:55,355 --> 00:21:57,733
The rough angles I could get were 45 feet
357
00:21:57,816 --> 00:22:00,068
from the Belvedere to where the hole was.
358
00:22:06,241 --> 00:22:10,954
Even to attempt a jump, a running jump,
to get to the point where the hole was,
359
00:22:11,371 --> 00:22:14,708
was, in my mind, virtually impossible.
360
00:22:14,875 --> 00:22:19,880
He's a tall, fit man,
but he also was in flip-flops.
361
00:22:21,923 --> 00:22:24,760
The hole never made sense,
like where it was.
362
00:22:25,427 --> 00:22:27,262
So my dad and I went up on the roof.
363
00:22:28,930 --> 00:22:30,390
I'm afraid of heights,
364
00:22:30,849 --> 00:22:32,392
Rey was afraid of heights,
365
00:22:32,893 --> 00:22:36,480
and being up on the roof
scared me to absolute death
366
00:22:36,563 --> 00:22:38,482
because there's no railing up there.
367
00:22:39,608 --> 00:22:41,276
And it's very far down.
368
00:22:44,321 --> 00:22:46,490
I couldn't imagine
why he would be up there.
369
00:22:49,368 --> 00:22:53,622
Immediately, nothing about the evidence,
at that point, felt good to me.
370
00:22:55,457 --> 00:22:57,584
The rooftop, the location of the hole,
371
00:22:57,834 --> 00:23:00,587
I didn't believe
that Rey went off that top of the roof.
372
00:23:02,297 --> 00:23:04,633
So after that,
we went over to the parking garage,
373
00:23:04,716 --> 00:23:06,301
right adjacent to the building.
374
00:23:09,304 --> 00:23:12,099
From the perspective
of the garage, the hole is too far away.
375
00:23:12,474 --> 00:23:15,185
I mean, he'd have to, like,
go way out there
376
00:23:15,268 --> 00:23:17,354
to reach that area where the hole was.
377
00:23:19,523 --> 00:23:22,192
The top of the garage roof
is only 20 feet.
378
00:23:22,275 --> 00:23:25,529
So, to me, it seems feasible
a man could survive that,
379
00:23:25,612 --> 00:23:27,697
even with going through the rooftop.
380
00:23:27,781 --> 00:23:30,242
Now, the extent of the injuries
to the body
381
00:23:30,325 --> 00:23:31,743
were pretty-- pretty intense.
382
00:23:32,244 --> 00:23:35,997
So, that theory went to rest pretty quick.
383
00:23:41,002 --> 00:23:43,880
There was theories
that he came off the 11th floor.
384
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,138
There's a ledge
that wraps around the building.
385
00:23:53,932 --> 00:23:55,517
From there, it's possible.
386
00:23:56,017 --> 00:23:57,436
But to get to those ledges,
387
00:23:57,519 --> 00:24:00,105
you had to go through
somebody's personal property.
388
00:24:00,188 --> 00:24:02,899
You had to go through an office.
You had to go through a room.
389
00:24:02,983 --> 00:24:04,609
You had to go through a condo.
390
00:24:04,693 --> 00:24:07,237
None of the hallways
just left out to the ledge.
391
00:24:08,738 --> 00:24:11,199
And the windows are half windows,
392
00:24:11,283 --> 00:24:13,493
which barely even open
if they opened at all.
393
00:24:15,537 --> 00:24:17,038
And then, the ledge,
394
00:24:17,581 --> 00:24:18,582
it's not a catwalk.
395
00:24:19,583 --> 00:24:20,959
It's a ledge.
396
00:24:21,293 --> 00:24:24,546
And this is a really old building,
so, it's ornate.
397
00:24:25,130 --> 00:24:28,216
You'd really have to be pretty nimble
398
00:24:28,300 --> 00:24:30,760
to maneuver that
without falling off the building.
399
00:24:35,182 --> 00:24:38,560
So, that hole still is a mystery.
400
00:24:38,810 --> 00:24:40,729
Which part of that building
he came off of.
401
00:24:43,899 --> 00:24:45,567
During the investigation,
402
00:24:45,650 --> 00:24:47,694
around the hole on the rooftop,
403
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:49,613
we find his cell phone.
404
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:54,201
The phone was in totally working order.
405
00:24:57,454 --> 00:25:00,874
This is his cell phone
that was found on the roof,
406
00:25:00,957 --> 00:25:03,835
and there is not
a crack in the screen, um...
407
00:25:04,252 --> 00:25:06,880
which I find really strange.
408
00:25:08,173 --> 00:25:11,343
The phone is one of those things
that I will never forget.
409
00:25:14,137 --> 00:25:17,098
I mean, you can go anywhere right now
and drop your phone from three stories,
410
00:25:17,182 --> 00:25:18,975
and something's gonna happen to it.
411
00:25:19,059 --> 00:25:21,144
Even from the garage roof.
412
00:25:24,231 --> 00:25:26,691
His eyeglasses, when they were found,
413
00:25:27,817 --> 00:25:29,277
there wasn't a scratch on them.
414
00:25:32,155 --> 00:25:34,032
His injuries were severe...
415
00:25:34,824 --> 00:25:35,659
and fatal.
416
00:25:36,159 --> 00:25:38,119
And it's just odd that,
417
00:25:38,662 --> 00:25:40,789
for the force it took for him
to go through that roof,
418
00:25:41,206 --> 00:25:45,168
that the cell phone and glasses
would survive that force.
419
00:25:45,460 --> 00:25:46,294
It's odd.
420
00:25:47,337 --> 00:25:49,047
None of these objects are damaged,
421
00:25:49,256 --> 00:25:51,091
yet he is brutal.
422
00:25:52,717 --> 00:25:54,219
One flip-flop was broken.
423
00:25:54,302 --> 00:25:57,597
The other flip-flop--
They both were laying on the rooftop.
424
00:25:58,473 --> 00:26:01,977
These are his flip-flops
that were also, um, on the roof.
425
00:26:02,644 --> 00:26:05,188
There's drag marks here
that are pretty fresh.
426
00:26:05,438 --> 00:26:08,775
And then this one is, you know,
this one is-- is broken.
427
00:26:08,984 --> 00:26:11,069
I don't know how that...
428
00:26:12,445 --> 00:26:15,407
how all of this-- how this even happened.
429
00:26:16,366 --> 00:26:18,785
The flip-flops, phone, his eyeglasses,
430
00:26:18,868 --> 00:26:22,247
they were almost like--
Just to me, it looked staged.
431
00:26:27,168 --> 00:26:28,461
It raises that question:
432
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:32,465
Well, did they really fall with him
or did someone put them there,
433
00:26:32,924 --> 00:26:33,842
after the fact?
434
00:26:37,053 --> 00:26:39,514
What wasn't found with Rey was, um,
435
00:26:39,598 --> 00:26:42,642
the money clip I bought him
for a wedding gift
436
00:26:42,726 --> 00:26:45,937
and then engraved his initials "R.R."
on it.
437
00:26:47,355 --> 00:26:50,483
He would have, you know, his IDs,
money, all that kind of stuff in it.
438
00:26:50,567 --> 00:26:51,484
You know. Um...
439
00:26:51,568 --> 00:26:54,446
So, yeah, he like--
It was his thing, his little...
440
00:26:54,904 --> 00:26:55,947
signature piece.
441
00:26:56,448 --> 00:26:58,533
That has never been recovered.
442
00:27:00,368 --> 00:27:03,079
When I got the car back
from the police department,
443
00:27:03,163 --> 00:27:05,915
I turned that car upside down
444
00:27:06,333 --> 00:27:07,584
for that money clip.
445
00:27:07,667 --> 00:27:09,836
'Cause there was just
something that I was like,
446
00:27:09,919 --> 00:27:11,671
that-- that doesn't seem right
447
00:27:11,755 --> 00:27:13,089
that that's just gone.
448
00:27:19,638 --> 00:27:21,181
Naturally, you think, right,
449
00:27:21,264 --> 00:27:23,224
if this guy fell off the building,
450
00:27:23,308 --> 00:27:25,268
someone's gonna have seen something.
451
00:27:26,353 --> 00:27:28,605
So, shortly after Rey's body was found,
452
00:27:28,688 --> 00:27:31,149
I literally, like, wandered
throughout the hotel,
453
00:27:31,483 --> 00:27:33,902
and just tried to talk to anybody,
454
00:27:33,985 --> 00:27:35,862
and asked them the same question:
455
00:27:35,987 --> 00:27:37,113
Did you see him?
456
00:27:37,322 --> 00:27:38,573
Did you hear anything?
457
00:27:39,616 --> 00:27:41,910
I mean, this happened in a public building
458
00:27:41,993 --> 00:27:43,787
where people are going to a restaurant.
459
00:27:44,663 --> 00:27:46,998
You know,
Mount Vernon is a bustling neighborhood.
460
00:27:47,082 --> 00:27:48,500
There are people all over the place.
461
00:27:49,084 --> 00:27:51,795
And this guy just ends up
dropping out of the sky
462
00:27:51,878 --> 00:27:53,755
and ending up in a conference room,
463
00:27:53,838 --> 00:27:55,632
and no one knows anything?
464
00:27:59,177 --> 00:28:01,137
You have all those windows
in the building,
465
00:28:01,221 --> 00:28:03,348
and no one came forward and said,
466
00:28:03,431 --> 00:28:05,684
"Oh, I saw, I heard,
467
00:28:06,017 --> 00:28:07,644
I looked down, I was like,
"What is that?'"
468
00:28:08,061 --> 00:28:09,979
Nothing. I mean, there just--
It seemed to happen
469
00:28:10,063 --> 00:28:12,273
without anyone seeing anything.
470
00:28:14,234 --> 00:28:17,237
There's no way my brother
just walks into the Belvedere Hotel,
471
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:19,155
walks through the lobby, and you...
472
00:28:20,407 --> 00:28:22,033
get to the top of that building.
473
00:28:23,243 --> 00:28:24,119
I tried to do it.
474
00:28:24,828 --> 00:28:27,664
I tried to walk up there.
I tried to walk through that lobby.
475
00:28:28,331 --> 00:28:29,999
It's not something that just...
476
00:28:30,083 --> 00:28:32,711
anyone casually can do
walking off the street.
477
00:28:34,838 --> 00:28:38,466
You have to go through, like,
these back stairwells that lead up,
478
00:28:38,550 --> 00:28:42,178
that in some cases are locked,
or are not open to the public.
479
00:28:42,762 --> 00:28:45,682
And then you go, sort of,
navigate this labyrinth...
480
00:28:46,391 --> 00:28:49,936
...to then get out through a door
that's usually locked,
481
00:28:51,354 --> 00:28:52,981
to get to this roof area.
482
00:28:54,023 --> 00:28:57,152
So, in order to get there,
you would have to know how to get there.
483
00:28:59,195 --> 00:29:01,030
At the beginning of the investigation,
484
00:29:01,114 --> 00:29:05,493
I tried to determine whether Mr. Rivera
was in the hotel at all.
485
00:29:06,911 --> 00:29:09,080
So, I checked the cameras in the hotel,
486
00:29:11,583 --> 00:29:13,626
and there was no footage of him anywhere.
487
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:18,631
The camera on the rooftop was not working.
488
00:29:18,715 --> 00:29:19,758
It was disconnected.
489
00:29:21,384 --> 00:29:24,345
I was like, are you kidding me?
You know, that night,
490
00:29:24,429 --> 00:29:28,016
the night Rey is supposed to have been
wandering up in the hotel,
491
00:29:28,099 --> 00:29:29,642
and there's no video?
492
00:29:29,768 --> 00:29:31,394
Like many elements of this case,
493
00:29:31,478 --> 00:29:33,313
it's just like another roadblock.
494
00:29:35,106 --> 00:29:38,401
No one could give us any indication
that Rey was inside that building.
495
00:29:38,485 --> 00:29:40,028
No one saw this man that night.
496
00:29:40,653 --> 00:29:41,654
No witnesses,
497
00:29:41,821 --> 00:29:42,989
no phone calls,
498
00:29:43,156 --> 00:29:45,241
no jailhouse snitches.
499
00:29:45,533 --> 00:29:46,409
We had nothing.
500
00:29:49,704 --> 00:29:51,831
Here's a look
at the morning's top stories.
501
00:29:51,915 --> 00:29:52,791
Baltimore Police say...
502
00:29:52,874 --> 00:29:55,210
Rey Rivera jumped
from the roof of the Belvedere
503
00:29:55,293 --> 00:29:57,337
and crashed through a lower roof.
504
00:29:58,546 --> 00:30:01,132
This was a solid running story
in Baltimore
505
00:30:01,216 --> 00:30:03,468
for about seven to ten days,
506
00:30:03,676 --> 00:30:05,011
and then it was kind of...
507
00:30:06,930 --> 00:30:07,972
"determined"...
508
00:30:08,598 --> 00:30:12,393
um, to be suicide,
so the interest in it faded.
509
00:30:14,562 --> 00:30:18,274
Police, from the jump,
were leaning to suicide.
510
00:30:19,192 --> 00:30:22,278
The circumstances, the-- the evidence,
511
00:30:22,362 --> 00:30:24,614
the hard evidence that we have,
512
00:30:24,697 --> 00:30:28,243
really point to this, uh,
probably being a suicide.
513
00:30:30,036 --> 00:30:32,539
But... there wasn't a lot of evidence.
514
00:30:33,331 --> 00:30:35,333
He wasn't shot in the head.
He wasn't stabbed.
515
00:30:35,708 --> 00:30:38,127
There was nothing suggesting
he'd been beaten,
516
00:30:38,211 --> 00:30:39,254
or he'd been strangled.
517
00:30:39,337 --> 00:30:41,548
He ended up in a hole,
and he fell off a building.
518
00:30:41,631 --> 00:30:43,508
What else do you want to say about it?
519
00:30:44,759 --> 00:30:46,845
It was, you know, "He committed suicide."
520
00:30:47,262 --> 00:30:49,681
That was the posture of the--
of the police department.
521
00:30:52,100 --> 00:30:54,060
That part of it was very disheartening.
522
00:30:55,979 --> 00:30:57,689
They don't know Rey.
They don't know my brother.
523
00:30:58,273 --> 00:31:00,567
And they're not, obviously,
listening to us.
524
00:31:00,733 --> 00:31:04,028
We're telling them,
"No, he wasn't under any mental duress.
525
00:31:04,112 --> 00:31:08,074
No, he wasn't under any kind of
psychoactive medications or anything.
526
00:31:08,157 --> 00:31:09,075
None of those things."
527
00:31:09,158 --> 00:31:11,744
You know, the drug test comes back,
indicates that, you know?
528
00:31:11,828 --> 00:31:13,496
Um, so...
529
00:31:14,038 --> 00:31:18,126
there's no reason for that
to be the first thing that you go to.
530
00:31:18,209 --> 00:31:22,338
They wanted to, like, big guy,
off a building, through a roof.
531
00:31:22,422 --> 00:31:24,382
You know, like, he-- he jumped.
532
00:31:25,425 --> 00:31:26,843
And I'm the grieving widow
533
00:31:26,926 --> 00:31:30,054
and I wouldn't want to believe
my husband would commit suicide.
534
00:31:32,807 --> 00:31:33,933
He just got married.
535
00:31:34,142 --> 00:31:37,604
No indication of, you know,
someone that was sour at life.
536
00:31:38,104 --> 00:31:40,189
Typically, people that commit suicide,
537
00:31:40,273 --> 00:31:42,400
there's plenty of markers along the way.
538
00:31:42,483 --> 00:31:45,028
There's none of that in my brother's life.
539
00:31:46,487 --> 00:31:48,656
He is not a guy
that would jump off a roof.
540
00:31:49,198 --> 00:31:50,158
He's not a...
541
00:31:50,783 --> 00:31:54,037
Especially where we were in our lives.
542
00:31:54,412 --> 00:31:56,372
He was so excited.
543
00:31:56,539 --> 00:31:58,499
He wanted a baby so bad.
544
00:31:58,583 --> 00:32:00,627
He wanted a family so bad.
545
00:32:03,212 --> 00:32:04,964
No one will accept suicide,
546
00:32:05,048 --> 00:32:06,174
we know that.
547
00:32:06,591 --> 00:32:08,635
But this case just didn't have...
548
00:32:08,801 --> 00:32:10,553
it-- it just didn't have that...
549
00:32:11,054 --> 00:32:12,639
specter about it.
550
00:32:13,056 --> 00:32:15,141
Because there just wasn't any evidence
551
00:32:15,850 --> 00:32:16,976
that he was...
552
00:32:18,019 --> 00:32:20,021
somebody who was ready--
ready to take his life.
553
00:32:23,191 --> 00:32:25,818
Part of my trying
to figure all of this out
554
00:32:25,902 --> 00:32:27,987
is that I wanted to talk
to the medical examiner.
555
00:32:28,696 --> 00:32:31,199
I had a whole list of questions
on how Rey died...
556
00:32:32,075 --> 00:32:33,451
or the possibilities.
557
00:32:33,993 --> 00:32:35,787
I met with the medical examiner,
558
00:32:35,954 --> 00:32:37,205
and she closed the door,
559
00:32:37,789 --> 00:32:38,706
and she said,
560
00:32:38,790 --> 00:32:40,792
"I know what they're trying to do
561
00:32:40,875 --> 00:32:42,502
and we are not closing this case."
562
00:32:45,838 --> 00:32:48,716
They said that,
what wasn't consistent with the fall
563
00:32:49,217 --> 00:32:51,386
was the way that his shins were broken.
564
00:32:52,512 --> 00:32:53,638
And that's all she would say.
565
00:32:54,138 --> 00:32:57,266
They did not say anything
of what would cause the breaks.
566
00:32:57,892 --> 00:32:59,769
They just said it was inconsistent.
567
00:33:01,354 --> 00:33:03,940
So, with the questionable incidence
568
00:33:04,023 --> 00:33:06,943
of how Rey came through the hole
569
00:33:07,652 --> 00:33:09,904
and the unusual circumstances behind it,
570
00:33:10,738 --> 00:33:13,825
the medical examiner decided
to declare it undetermined.
571
00:33:16,661 --> 00:33:18,287
When you rule a case undetermined,
572
00:33:18,371 --> 00:33:22,208
what you are saying as a medical examiner
and a forensic examiner is,
573
00:33:22,291 --> 00:33:26,212
"We don't have enough information
to conclude
574
00:33:26,295 --> 00:33:28,673
this person took his or her own life
575
00:33:28,756 --> 00:33:30,425
or someone else took their life."
576
00:33:30,717 --> 00:33:32,677
And so, you can't close the case.
577
00:33:40,226 --> 00:33:41,436
When Rey was missing,
578
00:33:42,103 --> 00:33:43,813
I just went through the entire house
579
00:33:43,896 --> 00:33:47,066
trying to figure out any clues
of where he might be.
580
00:33:48,609 --> 00:33:50,611
We were looking through the office,
581
00:33:50,695 --> 00:33:53,239
and that's when we found a note
582
00:33:53,322 --> 00:33:55,241
that was behind the computer.
583
00:33:57,368 --> 00:33:59,120
Often in a suicide, you have a note.
584
00:33:59,620 --> 00:34:02,540
Most people who contemplate suicide
and commit suicide,
585
00:34:02,623 --> 00:34:04,917
they don't want to leave their family
in the lurch.
586
00:34:05,001 --> 00:34:06,919
They want them to understand
what happened.
587
00:34:08,921 --> 00:34:13,426
The note was probably about,
you know, this big...
588
00:34:13,718 --> 00:34:14,552
um, in all.
589
00:34:16,137 --> 00:34:18,389
So it was shrunk down
really, really small.
590
00:34:19,557 --> 00:34:23,269
And I know that he wrote the note
the day he disappeared,
591
00:34:24,479 --> 00:34:26,939
because there were scraps
in the trash can.
592
00:34:29,067 --> 00:34:31,569
The note starts out,
"Brothers and sisters."
593
00:34:31,652 --> 00:34:33,237
"Brothers and sisters,
594
00:34:33,404 --> 00:34:36,699
right now, around the world,
volcanoes are erupting.
595
00:34:37,075 --> 00:34:38,326
What an awesome sight.
596
00:34:39,202 --> 00:34:41,996
Whom virtue unites,
death will not separate."
597
00:34:43,664 --> 00:34:45,291
It was a very unusual note.
598
00:34:45,374 --> 00:34:47,335
It had different names on it,
599
00:34:47,418 --> 00:34:49,587
some movie star names on it,
family names on it.
600
00:34:49,670 --> 00:34:50,838
It was very unusual.
601
00:34:54,217 --> 00:34:57,303
There's a whole page of people he knew.
602
00:34:58,930 --> 00:35:01,516
But he's missed some significant people,
603
00:35:01,724 --> 00:35:02,725
so that seemed strange.
604
00:35:04,936 --> 00:35:06,521
There were movies,
605
00:35:06,646 --> 00:35:09,524
and the movies were the ones
that really stuck to him.
606
00:35:11,818 --> 00:35:14,612
I know what all of these things were,
607
00:35:14,695 --> 00:35:16,447
nothing was really a surprise.
608
00:35:16,531 --> 00:35:19,325
It was just why they were all compiled,
609
00:35:19,408 --> 00:35:21,786
and in the format they were compiled.
610
00:35:22,620 --> 00:35:26,082
"I stand before you a man
who understands the purpose and value
611
00:35:26,165 --> 00:35:29,252
of our secrets.
That's why I cherish them as secrets."
612
00:35:31,170 --> 00:35:32,964
Because it was so weird,
613
00:35:33,047 --> 00:35:35,591
I just took that first sentence
614
00:35:35,675 --> 00:35:37,885
and laid it into Google search.
615
00:35:39,554 --> 00:35:42,223
And the first thing that came up
was Freemasons.
616
00:35:44,517 --> 00:35:49,272
He definitely was, you know,
kind of curious in, just secret societies,
617
00:35:49,355 --> 00:35:51,315
the Freemasons, um...
618
00:35:51,399 --> 00:35:55,862
And-- And maybe he was looking
to do a screenplay.
619
00:35:58,531 --> 00:36:00,366
I would describe the letter as cryptic.
620
00:36:00,950 --> 00:36:02,577
It's kind of like reading tea leaves.
621
00:36:02,994 --> 00:36:03,870
In fact,
622
00:36:03,953 --> 00:36:05,830
someone I used as a consultant
623
00:36:05,913 --> 00:36:07,665
when we were doing this story said,
624
00:36:08,166 --> 00:36:09,917
"You know, maybe it's written in code."
625
00:36:11,335 --> 00:36:12,795
"That was a well-played game.
626
00:36:13,171 --> 00:36:15,631
Congratulations, to all who participated."
627
00:36:16,757 --> 00:36:19,594
Rey was a prolific writer
and he wrote all sorts of stuff,
628
00:36:20,136 --> 00:36:20,970
everywhere.
629
00:36:21,137 --> 00:36:23,514
A lot of what he wrote down
was just random thoughts
630
00:36:23,598 --> 00:36:25,349
that didn't necessarily connect.
631
00:36:25,433 --> 00:36:27,852
It could be from a phone number
632
00:36:28,227 --> 00:36:31,731
to a philosophy idea
633
00:36:31,814 --> 00:36:34,984
of why the sky is blue, or work.
634
00:36:35,067 --> 00:36:38,196
Um, and all in one pad of paper
635
00:36:38,279 --> 00:36:40,239
can be all of those things,
636
00:36:40,323 --> 00:36:42,074
with not any rhyme or reason.
637
00:36:43,451 --> 00:36:46,120
"Life is a test
to see if you can control your spirit.
638
00:36:47,747 --> 00:36:50,291
Take care and enjoy the festivities."
639
00:36:50,750 --> 00:36:54,295
I, uh, didn't know what to do with it,
gave it to the police immediately.
640
00:36:56,631 --> 00:36:59,133
We actually sent the note to the FBI lab.
641
00:36:59,217 --> 00:37:02,053
They came back
and the FBI kind of cleared the note as...
642
00:37:02,220 --> 00:37:05,514
just an unusual note,
but not suicide intent.
643
00:37:06,474 --> 00:37:09,685
This note I hate
because I don't understand it.
644
00:37:10,019 --> 00:37:11,979
But this is definitely not a suicide note.
645
00:37:12,063 --> 00:37:13,147
I do know that.
646
00:37:17,068 --> 00:37:20,238
One of the other
interesting elements in this case,
647
00:37:20,488 --> 00:37:23,658
was on the day that he disappeared,
648
00:37:23,866 --> 00:37:25,826
whatever happened
seemed to happen in a hurry.
649
00:37:28,996 --> 00:37:30,831
Yeah, he left the house in a hurry,
650
00:37:31,123 --> 00:37:33,125
he seemed to park in a hurry,
651
00:37:33,209 --> 00:37:35,127
he didn't have much with him.
652
00:37:35,211 --> 00:37:39,006
It just seemed that whatever sent him
to the Belvedere Hotel building
653
00:37:39,465 --> 00:37:40,883
seemed to happen in a hurry.
654
00:37:45,513 --> 00:37:51,727
This room is where, um, Claudia,
my business colleague, was staying.
655
00:37:53,354 --> 00:37:55,356
She had heard the phone ring
656
00:37:55,439 --> 00:37:57,900
and she just heard him push off
657
00:37:57,984 --> 00:38:01,195
from-- from this room over here, his desk,
658
00:38:01,279 --> 00:38:02,697
and run down the stairs
659
00:38:02,780 --> 00:38:04,657
and then out of the house that night.
660
00:38:07,535 --> 00:38:11,497
Based on what we're hearing
from that friend of the wife,
661
00:38:11,872 --> 00:38:13,708
it was a brief conversation,
662
00:38:14,208 --> 00:38:18,587
uh, concluded with an exclamation of "Oh."
663
00:38:19,046 --> 00:38:23,175
Like a surprise type of response.
664
00:38:26,512 --> 00:38:28,347
This guy was working at home,
665
00:38:28,639 --> 00:38:30,141
received a phone call,
666
00:38:30,850 --> 00:38:32,268
left out his house quick.
667
00:38:33,019 --> 00:38:34,603
The police traced the call,
668
00:38:35,104 --> 00:38:38,399
and found out the call came from
Stansberry & Associates,
669
00:38:38,733 --> 00:38:39,900
where Rey worked.
670
00:38:40,151 --> 00:38:42,987
But there was no way to figure out
who made the call
671
00:38:43,070 --> 00:38:45,197
because the call
came from the switchboard,
672
00:38:45,281 --> 00:38:47,867
and they couldn't track down
the caller's extension.
673
00:38:49,368 --> 00:38:50,745
The phone call was critical
674
00:38:50,828 --> 00:38:53,831
because it seemed like
the phone call caught him by surprise,
675
00:38:53,914 --> 00:38:56,250
and he was like," I gotta go."
Like kind of in a panic.
676
00:38:56,709 --> 00:39:00,129
Unfortunately, the company
he worked for, Stansberry,
677
00:39:00,212 --> 00:39:02,715
the minute the body was located
678
00:39:02,798 --> 00:39:04,508
and I started inquiring about it,
679
00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:06,761
put a gag order on all their employees.
680
00:39:08,429 --> 00:39:10,806
Now, every possible person that knew Rey,
681
00:39:10,890 --> 00:39:13,309
worked with Rey,
or had any answers for me,
682
00:39:14,143 --> 00:39:17,605
weren't allowed to legally talk to me
according to their company lawyers.
683
00:39:17,688 --> 00:39:21,108
That's within hours
of his body being discovered.
684
00:39:21,859 --> 00:39:23,486
His friend, Porter Stansberry,
685
00:39:23,569 --> 00:39:25,946
and Porter's offices
of Stansberry & Associates,
686
00:39:26,155 --> 00:39:27,281
have lawyered up.
687
00:39:29,950 --> 00:39:31,243
This type of case,
688
00:39:31,327 --> 00:39:33,871
we need a task force
with grand jury powers
689
00:39:33,954 --> 00:39:37,833
to subpoena people,
and to require them to testify
690
00:39:37,917 --> 00:39:38,793
and give statements.
691
00:39:38,876 --> 00:39:42,922
But for a homicide detective
to try to break those walls,
692
00:39:43,005 --> 00:39:46,050
if somebody doesn't want to talk to ya,
I can't force you to talk to me.
693
00:39:47,051 --> 00:39:49,929
And Rey's best friend, Porter Stansberry,
694
00:39:50,846 --> 00:39:52,098
would not even return our calls,
695
00:39:52,181 --> 00:39:54,767
would not talk to us,
would not give us any answers.
696
00:39:55,643 --> 00:39:58,687
So, to me, as a homicide detective,
697
00:39:59,271 --> 00:40:02,149
I think to the normal person,
to me, that's really suspicious.
698
00:40:07,780 --> 00:40:10,950
Porter and Rey were
very good friends for a very long time.
699
00:40:11,617 --> 00:40:14,161
Rey has known Porter since he was 15.
700
00:40:14,954 --> 00:40:16,622
They-- They were pretty thick.
701
00:40:18,999 --> 00:40:21,502
They were in the same swimming team,
702
00:40:22,086 --> 00:40:23,587
the same water polo team.
703
00:40:24,505 --> 00:40:26,465
They went to prom together.
704
00:40:29,009 --> 00:40:30,302
Now I'm mad.
705
00:40:30,845 --> 00:40:32,680
We move out here for him,
706
00:40:33,055 --> 00:40:37,226
and Porter was not going
to speak to the police.
707
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:40,521
And that's when it started
to get really strange for me.
708
00:40:42,398 --> 00:40:44,900
He's your friend and you have no comment?
709
00:40:46,193 --> 00:40:47,027
Why?
710
00:40:59,039 --> 00:41:00,541
At the time Rey disappeared,
711
00:41:00,624 --> 00:41:04,211
he was a freelance videographer
working for Stansberry & Associates,
712
00:41:04,753 --> 00:41:08,674
producing documentaries
or producing videos of conferences.
713
00:41:09,383 --> 00:41:10,301
Prior to that,
714
00:41:10,384 --> 00:41:13,304
Rey was working on a newsletter
called the Rebound Report,
715
00:41:13,596 --> 00:41:15,848
which is a newsletter that, uh,
716
00:41:15,931 --> 00:41:17,725
gives you stock tips to buy stocks
717
00:41:17,808 --> 00:41:19,977
that are like, you know, not doing well,
718
00:41:20,060 --> 00:41:22,062
that are going to rebound in the future.
719
00:41:22,730 --> 00:41:27,651
Now before Rey came out to join Porter
in his business and work with him,
720
00:41:27,818 --> 00:41:32,656
Stansberry puts out a letter
under a firm called Pirate Investors
721
00:41:33,073 --> 00:41:35,409
that touts the investment
in a Russian firm
722
00:41:35,493 --> 00:41:37,870
that's going to, like,
discover uranium or something.
723
00:41:37,953 --> 00:41:40,498
The tip didn't work out
and investors complained.
724
00:41:40,998 --> 00:41:42,166
And subsequently,
725
00:41:42,249 --> 00:41:45,669
the SEC filed fraud charges
against Stansberry,
726
00:41:45,878 --> 00:41:48,047
and fined Stansberry
over a million dollars.
727
00:41:48,631 --> 00:41:50,382
The company said that, you know,
728
00:41:50,466 --> 00:41:53,761
it was absolutely
their First Amendment right
729
00:41:53,844 --> 00:41:55,346
to make-- give this advice.
730
00:41:55,429 --> 00:41:57,097
But, according to the SEC,
731
00:41:57,181 --> 00:41:59,183
the advice was fraudulent.
732
00:42:00,017 --> 00:42:03,312
The SEC thing with, um, Stansberry,
733
00:42:03,395 --> 00:42:07,358
it's part of what Rey needed to do
when he came out initially,
734
00:42:07,441 --> 00:42:09,693
was, a little bit,
clean up Porter's reputation
735
00:42:10,778 --> 00:42:13,572
while he was also
writing financial newsletters.
736
00:42:18,536 --> 00:42:20,204
About two weeks before he died,
737
00:42:20,496 --> 00:42:22,623
there was something that was worrying him.
738
00:42:25,125 --> 00:42:26,669
At that time,
739
00:42:26,752 --> 00:42:28,420
I didn't really think much of it.
740
00:42:30,047 --> 00:42:33,384
But then,
that Monday before he went missing,
741
00:42:33,801 --> 00:42:34,885
the alarm went off.
742
00:42:37,471 --> 00:42:38,889
It was, like, 1:00 a.m.
743
00:42:39,473 --> 00:42:41,934
And that thing had never gone off.
744
00:42:43,018 --> 00:42:44,770
That's the master bedroom window,
745
00:42:45,312 --> 00:42:47,439
-so it was blaring.
746
00:42:48,649 --> 00:42:49,733
And I went down,
747
00:42:49,817 --> 00:42:52,069
um, I went down the stairs
and around the corner,
748
00:42:52,152 --> 00:42:54,405
and Rey came flying out with this big bat.
749
00:42:56,115 --> 00:42:59,159
And the fear in this man's eyes...
750
00:43:00,035 --> 00:43:01,662
scared me to death.
751
00:43:02,830 --> 00:43:05,082
That guy was never afraid of anything.
752
00:43:08,836 --> 00:43:11,797
The police,
even though I brought them out,
753
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:12,881
said it was a squirrel.
754
00:43:14,216 --> 00:43:15,467
Then again,
755
00:43:15,926 --> 00:43:18,762
the following Tuesday at 1:00 a.m.,
756
00:43:19,263 --> 00:43:20,097
it went off.
757
00:43:22,266 --> 00:43:24,184
It was this window right here,
758
00:43:24,268 --> 00:43:27,396
um, and all of this foliage,
none of this was here.
759
00:43:27,563 --> 00:43:31,025
You could walk directly
up to the window, um, with screens on it.
760
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:34,403
And it was this window that was kinda--
it was tampered with.
761
00:43:36,030 --> 00:43:38,032
Somebody was trying to get in the house.
762
00:43:38,365 --> 00:43:40,576
I believe that it was connected
to his death,
763
00:43:40,826 --> 00:43:44,079
because it was-- that evening is when
764
00:43:44,955 --> 00:43:46,165
he never returned home.
765
00:43:52,338 --> 00:43:55,299
I just think something foul
happened to Rey.
766
00:43:56,091 --> 00:44:01,180
Somebody or something got a hold of him
and did something horrible to him.
767
00:44:03,599 --> 00:44:09,355
I believe that Rey had
some kind of information.
768
00:44:09,938 --> 00:44:11,315
He may have stumbled on it,
769
00:44:11,398 --> 00:44:13,484
maybe didn't know that he stumbled on it.
770
00:44:15,277 --> 00:44:16,654
I believe Rey was murdered.
771
00:44:19,657 --> 00:44:22,284
What I can't get in my head though is,
772
00:44:22,701 --> 00:44:24,620
what would that information be...
773
00:44:26,705 --> 00:44:29,291
for somebody to kill him?
774
00:44:32,086 --> 00:44:35,381
The motive, in my mind,
is probably about money.
775
00:44:36,632 --> 00:44:38,300
Rey's publication gets put out,
776
00:44:38,926 --> 00:44:41,887
someone lost a lot more money
than they were anticipating.
777
00:44:42,429 --> 00:44:44,973
And... ultimately, I think, you know,
778
00:44:45,057 --> 00:44:47,142
money makes people...
779
00:44:47,893 --> 00:44:49,937
do really bad things.
780
00:44:52,106 --> 00:44:54,566
We always considered
all these different possibilities.
781
00:44:54,650 --> 00:44:55,901
Did someone push him off?
782
00:44:56,485 --> 00:44:58,404
Did someone force him to go off?
783
00:44:58,946 --> 00:44:59,863
Gun to his head?
784
00:44:59,947 --> 00:45:02,366
Did he do something on a dare
with someone?
785
00:45:02,866 --> 00:45:04,576
Was it some kind of game?
786
00:45:06,412 --> 00:45:08,706
It never felt to me like,
oh, he jumped off the roof
787
00:45:08,789 --> 00:45:10,582
and killed himself,
and that was the end of it.
788
00:45:10,666 --> 00:45:14,253
It felt like
this was some much darker story...
789
00:45:15,087 --> 00:45:17,214
that, honestly,
there are probably a lot of people
790
00:45:17,297 --> 00:45:20,300
who would have a great interest
in keeping it quiet.
791
00:45:23,762 --> 00:45:26,181
When I met with Rey's wife, Allison,
792
00:45:26,557 --> 00:45:29,143
I advised her
that she needed to be careful.
793
00:45:29,226 --> 00:45:31,937
'Cause she was working as hard as I was,
794
00:45:32,020 --> 00:45:33,981
if not harder, to investigate this.
795
00:45:34,398 --> 00:45:37,901
She was determined to turn every stone
that can be turned.
796
00:45:37,985 --> 00:45:41,989
All the way to his company,
to his friends, every aspect of it.
797
00:45:42,698 --> 00:45:46,243
And if she's this afraid
of what might have happened,
798
00:45:46,660 --> 00:45:49,621
she needed to be very cautious
about who she talks to,
799
00:45:49,705 --> 00:45:52,291
when she talks to them,
and how she goes about it,
800
00:45:52,833 --> 00:45:55,836
and just, she had to watch her back.
801
00:45:58,297 --> 00:46:02,050
I was probably the only one
on the homicide floor
802
00:46:02,134 --> 00:46:04,428
that did not believe
this thing was suicide.
803
00:46:05,387 --> 00:46:10,184
And I believe there is-- was enough
to investigate it as a homicide.
804
00:46:11,769 --> 00:46:14,730
And then, unfortunately,
three weeks into the investigation,
805
00:46:15,522 --> 00:46:16,482
I was reassigned.
806
00:46:16,565 --> 00:46:20,402
I was being detailed
to the FBI Safe Streets Task Force,
807
00:46:20,861 --> 00:46:22,404
so I was, uh, off this case.
808
00:46:26,033 --> 00:46:28,327
The week that I got back
from the memorial,
809
00:46:28,410 --> 00:46:32,372
I called Detective Baier, and he said
he was being transferred off the case.
810
00:46:32,998 --> 00:46:36,293
He says,
"I'm no longer your lead detective."
811
00:46:36,376 --> 00:46:38,879
I said, "Are you on the case at all?"
And he said, "No."
812
00:46:40,047 --> 00:46:41,256
It was very frustrating
813
00:46:41,340 --> 00:46:42,800
and I was angry.
814
00:46:44,927 --> 00:46:49,223
After a while, I called the police station
to follow up on the case.
815
00:46:49,306 --> 00:46:51,308
They were like,
"You need to get through your head
816
00:46:51,391 --> 00:46:53,018
your husband committed suicide."
817
00:46:54,645 --> 00:46:56,605
And then I got pissed and I said,
818
00:46:58,232 --> 00:46:59,483
"I'll get that through my head
819
00:46:59,566 --> 00:47:02,152
when you show me evidence
that that happened."
820
00:47:07,991 --> 00:47:10,953
I was just talking to someone
in the police department the other day,
821
00:47:11,578 --> 00:47:12,788
"Oh that's suicide!"
822
00:47:15,249 --> 00:47:16,083
So...
823
00:47:17,167 --> 00:47:19,336
the posture of
the Baltimore Police Department is
824
00:47:19,419 --> 00:47:20,629
that Rey killed himself.
825
00:47:23,131 --> 00:47:26,844
The fact that the medical examiner
left the case open,
826
00:47:26,927 --> 00:47:29,096
in terms of manner of death
as undetermined,
827
00:47:29,179 --> 00:47:30,973
is what the case is all about,
828
00:47:31,056 --> 00:47:35,644
is that it doesn't have
a firm conclusion to it.
829
00:47:38,564 --> 00:47:40,107
There are a lot of open cases,
830
00:47:40,190 --> 00:47:41,191
but they aren't open
831
00:47:41,275 --> 00:47:42,526
like this one is open.
832
00:47:45,487 --> 00:47:46,905
To solve this, somebody...
833
00:47:48,699 --> 00:47:50,075
somewhere has to come out.
834
00:47:50,492 --> 00:47:51,869
Somebody that knows Rey.
835
00:47:51,952 --> 00:47:54,121
Somebody that knows
who that phone call was.
836
00:47:54,204 --> 00:47:55,706
Somebody that worked with Rey
837
00:47:55,831 --> 00:47:57,624
is gonna have to come out of the woodwork,
838
00:47:58,333 --> 00:48:00,794
and give police somewhere to start with.
839
00:48:07,551 --> 00:48:08,677
In losing somebody,
840
00:48:08,760 --> 00:48:10,888
there's a lot of people around
immediately.
841
00:48:11,889 --> 00:48:13,473
And then, um...
842
00:48:13,724 --> 00:48:16,143
And then, you know,
it's kind of your world,
843
00:48:16,226 --> 00:48:17,769
and you have to pick up the pieces
844
00:48:17,853 --> 00:48:19,897
to figure out what's next and...
845
00:48:21,523 --> 00:48:23,567
I came into this city with everything,
846
00:48:26,486 --> 00:48:27,696
and I left with nothing.
847
00:48:33,160 --> 00:48:35,871
I just remember saying to my mom,
I was like, "You know, Mom,
848
00:48:35,996 --> 00:48:38,248
I know God only gives you
what you can handle
849
00:48:38,332 --> 00:48:41,668
and somehow, I'm supposed to handle this.
I don't know how I'm gonna do it."
850
00:48:42,836 --> 00:48:47,132
But I think that Rey continues
to give to me in ways that
851
00:48:47,507 --> 00:48:50,302
his strength will always wrap around me.
852
00:48:51,970 --> 00:48:54,890
When somebody you love that much,
853
00:48:55,432 --> 00:48:56,850
that they're so young
854
00:48:56,934 --> 00:49:00,020
and they have a whole life
ahead of them...
855
00:49:00,812 --> 00:49:01,939
dies...
856
00:49:04,191 --> 00:49:05,901
a part of you dies too.
857
00:49:09,029 --> 00:49:10,864
Trying to deal with Rey's death
858
00:49:11,615 --> 00:49:16,703
has probably been the single
most difficult thing I've had to do.
859
00:49:17,913 --> 00:49:18,747
Period.
860
00:49:19,331 --> 00:49:20,707
We're not the same family.
861
00:49:21,166 --> 00:49:23,168
The pain is still so raw
862
00:49:23,502 --> 00:49:25,295
that it gets in the way of...
863
00:49:26,004 --> 00:49:28,215
us really feeling for each other
864
00:49:28,715 --> 00:49:29,883
as a family unit.
865
00:49:29,967 --> 00:49:31,468
Life has moved on for us.
866
00:49:32,052 --> 00:49:33,637
You know, I have a couple kids,
867
00:49:34,137 --> 00:49:35,722
my sister has a couple kids.
868
00:49:35,973 --> 00:49:39,226
And there should be a lot of joy in that,
and there is,
869
00:49:39,309 --> 00:49:40,477
but right behind that,
870
00:49:41,144 --> 00:49:42,312
you know, I'm thinking,
871
00:49:42,396 --> 00:49:43,605
you know, Uncle Rey.
872
00:49:46,984 --> 00:49:50,195
He is missed in everything.
873
00:49:58,495 --> 00:50:02,165
I didn't watch the wedding video
for six years after he died.
874
00:50:02,541 --> 00:50:05,043
I had seen stills of him.
875
00:50:05,961 --> 00:50:08,005
But when you see him move,
876
00:50:08,088 --> 00:50:10,966
it becomes a little more real, so...
877
00:50:12,426 --> 00:50:13,468
Sorry.
878
00:50:16,555 --> 00:50:18,306
-No matter what, Allison,
879
00:50:18,849 --> 00:50:20,058
I'll love you forever.
880
00:50:23,353 --> 00:50:25,939
As sad as it was,
there was also this magic
881
00:50:26,064 --> 00:50:30,318
to remember how much love
there was between us.
882
00:50:38,577 --> 00:50:41,079
I loved him
more than anything in the world.