MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Rey Rivera

[00:00] Hi, Crime Junkies. It's Britt, and I have big news. One of my favorite seasonal shows, CounterClock, is back with a brand new season, and it is wild. Host Delia D'Ambra is digging into the 2008 Lane Bryant murders. I mean, this isn't just a recap. It is a reinvestigation. She's talking to law enforcement, people from the community, even sources who have never spoken publicly until now. And you know I love a show that asks all the questions. Listen to CounterClock Season 8 now, wherever you get your podcasts. [00:30] Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today is truly a head-scratcher. A happily married man with a great career and a loving family went missing from his home only to turn up over a week later in a way that no one ever dared to imagine, leaving behind deep, dark questions that linger to this very day. This is the story of Ray [01:00] Thank you.

[01:31] Following the release of this episode, representatives of Porter Stansberry contacted Crime Junkie to inform us of information regarding Ray Rivera's case that had not yet been made public. And we want to alert our listeners to that information for the sake of being exhaustive. [01:49] Not only did Porter Stansberry offer a reward to find Ray, he also hired a private detective to lead the search for Ray. Although previously reported accounts suggested that Porter did not cooperate with police, this appears not to have been correct. Porter did urge all of his employees and even all of his company's clients to contact the police with any information about Ray's whereabouts. [02:19] a gag order telling employees not to help the police. Porter, in fact, fully cooperated with the police after Ray's body was found, including being interviewed by the lead detective in the case on June 23, 2006. In May of 2006, Ray Rivera and his wife Allison have been living in Baltimore, Maryland for almost two years. Allison is in sales and Ray is a writer who just finished [02:49] and Associates. Basically, he wrote their like financial newsletter for investors all about stocks and where they should put their money next, stuff like that. Now, he's also doing some freelance video work for another finance firm called the Oxford Club under the same parent company as Stansberry and Associates. But this is all just temporary, the writing, the freelance work, even living in Baltimore. Ray and Allison had just put their house on the market and had

[03:19] you know, this was a good gig. The freelancing, you know, paid him well. They had a nice life and money wasn't a problem for them. On the morning of May 16th, 2006, which is a Tuesday, Allison gets up early to drive to Richmond, Virginia for business. Now, Ray's staying back in Baltimore with a colleague of hers named Claudia, who's actually staying at their house for a few days. And, you know, everything's totally normal on this morning. Allison lets Ray carry her little suitcase to the car. They load it up in the trunk. Then she kisses him [03:49] me. [03:49] tells him she loves him, and drives off. [03:52] Allison gets to her hotel in Virginia around 630 that evening and she decides to give Ray a call, but he doesn't answer. And it's a little bit weird. I mean, they talk so much, but a missed phone call isn't anything to freak out about. And she figures, you know, he's going to call back any minute except. [04:09] Ray never calls back. So at around 9 30 p.m. when she still hasn't heard from Ray, Allison decides to call Claudia, that woman that's staying with them, and see if maybe she knows what's going on. Well, Claudia tells her, you know, Ray isn't here. She says, I haven't seen him in a few hours, not since he got a phone call and just left. Now, Allison obviously pries a little bit and Claudia says, you know, I heard Ray's phone ring. You know, he's in the other room. I hear him pick [04:39] And then a couple of seconds later, Ray says, [04:42] Oh, s***. And then he ran out of the house in a hurry. [04:46] So does she know who had called or overhear anything?

[04:50] No, but she might not have been like actively listening. I mean, again, this is not super out of the ordinary to get the call. And sometimes you overhear things without meaning to like that kind of thing. All she heard was that last part, what he said, and then him leaving. So what time was that? So I found a couple of different things. So there's an episode of the new Unsolved Mysteries on this case, which, by the way, you guys, the new season comes out on July 1st and starts with this case. So you have to go watch it on Netflix. Yeah, seriously. [05:20] that episode, Allison said that Ray got this call around 6.30 p.m. [05:26] But according to Makita Brotman's book called An Unexplained Death, The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere, she says he gets this call around 5.30pm. [05:36] So the timelines differ a little bit from source to source in this case, but the progression of events is always the same. So this call comes in sometime, let's say, between 530 and 630. Claudia heard what she heard. She hears that last part of the conversation. She hears him rushing out of the house. And then she said that he came back in a couple of minutes later, almost like he forgot something. And then he left again, this time driving away in Allison's black SUV. [06:06] still hasn't come back. [06:08] And Allison starts thinking to herself, you know, maybe this isn't so weird. Ray was on a hard deadline at work with a video that was due that day. So maybe he finished it up. Maybe he went out for a drink or something came up when he finished. But then she keeps coming back to the idea that it is odd that he's not picking up his cell phone or taking her calls. Even if he was busy, even if he had gone out for that drink, it's weird. Yeah, right. It's weird that he's not taking her calls.

[06:38] times a day when one of them goes out of town. And it's not like when she went out of town, things were bad. Like it was a really normal day. Oh, yeah. Things were great. Again, they were a couple months into their marriage. They're still in that newlywed phase. So it's not like they were they were fighting and he'd have a reason not to talk to her. [06:56] But ultimately, she's again in Richmond, and if he's not picking up her calls, there's really nothing she can do about it tonight. So she heads to bed, hopeful, but a bit anxious. [07:06] As soon as she wakes up the next morning, Allison sees that Ray hasn't returned her calls the entire night. So she connects with Claudia again to see if Ray is home yet. And Claudia's answer makes Allison's stomach drop. Ray never came home last night. At this point, Allison knows in her gut something is wrong and she has to find her husband. She cancels the rest of her business trip and heads back to Baltimore to start searching for Ray. [07:36] all around to everyone she can think of, his family, friends, co-workers, asking any of them if they've spoken to him recently. And person after person, call after call, they all say no. No one has talked to Ray for the last two days at all. [07:52] A [07:54] When Allison gets back home, it's like the whole house is frozen in time. All the lights are on upstairs in the kitchen. There's an open like soda can, a bag of chips and Ray's clear retainers are sitting right there on the table, almost like he popped them out for a minute to have a snack and then just disappeared. There was nothing in the house to indicate that he wasn't coming back or that he even thought he wasn't coming back. I mean, he even left his computer powered on up in the office.

[08:23] Okay, am I the only one who thinks it might be a little bit weird that Claudia is just staying there? Like, I feel like I have a really good relationship with my husband, and if you were to stay here and I wasn't there... [08:33] It would be fine. But I don't know. I just get a weird feeling about it. If you look at this case, she comes up a lot. But as far as I can tell, like there's nothing going on there. I mean, I understand that's really easy to instantly think like, OK, maybe there was something between them. But it really does not seem like that. And honestly, she kind of fades out of the whole story once Allison gets back. So anyways, that same day, we're still talking May 16th, the whole extended family. [09:03] in Baltimore. Basically, they all drop their lives in Florida, Colorado, Puerto Rico, wherever they're living at the time to come together and help Allison look for Ray. Wait, has anybody called the police to report Ray missing? So not yet. And I think Allison is maybe sort of running on autopilot at this point, like hoping this is all just some misunderstanding. Right. Maybe like even in denial a little bit. Right. So according to an unexplained death, Allison and the family spend that whole [09:33] So it's not like they're just sitting at home. I mean, they're calling hospitals. They're calling to see if there's any John Doe's matching Ray's description that have turned up, all while trying to manage their growing sense of panic. But by Wednesday, the reality does start to set in. And Allison calls Baltimore police to officially report her husband missing. [09:53] Police ask her and Ray's family all the usual questions like, was Ray depressed or having trouble in his personal life? But they all say no. They all describe him as this really happy, family-oriented guy with big goals for his future who they say wasn't giving off any kind of warning signs. I mean, they reiterate, not depressed, not distraught, nothing.

[10:18] I mean, on the Unsolved Mysteries show, we even hear from Ray's brother, Angel, who says that this was super out of character for Ray. Like he would never just go MIA on his family without saying a word. But there is something that Allison does tell police. She tells them that some weird things have been happening around their house recently, like just within the last couple of days. Things that she think could be related. [10:48] isn't happening. And she says, you know, probably not. But it's worth mentioning just in case. She tells them that the day before Ray vanished at about one o'clock in the morning, their home alarm system went off. And Allison said that Ray was straight up, [11:05] terrified, like out of his mind scared, which scared her even more because in all the time that they know each other, she had never seen him scared of anything like this. And I mean, Ray is a big guy. We're talking six foot five, 260 pounds. He was an athlete. Nothing fazed him. So this was just way, way out of character. And I mean, granted, anything in the middle of the night, like scaring you, the alarm going off, I think anyone would be a little bit frightened. [11:35] level. But she said that police did respond that very night to the alarm that went off. And they say it's nothing. They say, you know, it's probably just a squirrel. There's there's no one here. It's no big deal, which, OK, that's pretty reasonable on the surface, except the next night at about one o'clock in the morning. Again, the same thing happens. The alarm goes off again. And I couldn't

[12:05] again. But Allison says that she found that one of the downstairs windows looked like it had been messed with, like someone was trying to get in their house. [12:14] Okay, I'm not buying the squirrel story for a second. Maybe once, but twice... [12:20] back to back at the same exact time. And we have this tampered with window that sets off literal alarm bells for me. Same. And Allison wasn't buying it either. In a 2009 article from Baltimore Magazine, Allison said that you had to basically push the screen back in order to trip the alarm. So it didn't make sense to her that a squirrel would do that. A little squirrel with a crowbar. Right. I mean, that's not going to happen once, much less twice. Right. [12:48] But that same article said that police dusted for prints on the window, but didn't find anything. Okay, but... [12:55] The person could be wearing gloves. That means nothing. Listen, I totally agree. And I think at this point, there's got to be a little bit of frustration on Allison's part, right? Like these two things happened right in a row. Now her husband is missing. So probably a lot of confusion. I feel like she's not getting a lot of support from the police. But luckily, she has a great support system around her in these early days of Ray's disappearance. Because not only does she have her family and Ray's family, but Ray's good friend Porter Stansberry gets involved to help. [13:25] puts up a thousand dollar reward for anyone who can give police information that leads to bringing Ray home. Porter Stansberry, like Stansberry and Associates, where Ray was working? Yes, that's him. Okay. So he actually founded the company and Ray's been working there ever since he got to Baltimore. He's known Porter, I mean, literally since they were teenagers. Like these guys went to prom together with their dates. That's how far back they go. So Allison trusts Porter to help and

[13:55] back just as much as they all do. [13:58] Even with the reward money and now with the police involvement, there's really no movement on Ray's case. It's like he basically just got up from the table halfway through a bag of chips and vanished into thin air. I mean, here's this guy again. Great marriage. Nice job. Big plans for the future. Who suddenly I mean, what are they supposed to expect? He just. [14:18] ran away. Like nothing about this is making sense. And it makes even less sense when police access his bank accounts and his credit cards and see that there's been. [14:28] No activity like none, zip, zilch, wherever Ray is. He's not making any ATM withdrawals. He's not touching his credit cards. And not only that, but he's also not using his cell phone, which is gone. And they're presuming is with him. [14:44] So because he's not using money, because he's not using his phone, everyone's kind of thinking he can't have gone far. So they doubled down on their search in Baltimore, hitting every street and every neighborhood, looking for even the smallest sign of Ray. But it's not until six days after Ray went missing that they finally catch the break they've been waiting for. [15:09] you [15:10] Cape Fear is a new series now streaming on Apple TV. This 10-episode psychological thriller is executive produced by Martin Scorsese and stars Academy Award winner Javier Bardem, Academy Award nominee Amy Adams, and Emmy nominee Patrick Wilson. When convicted murderer Max Cady is released from prison, he begins infiltrating the family of the married attorneys who helped put him behind bars. Watch Cape Fear streaming now on Apple TV.

[15:38] So Allison's parents who are in town to help search are driving around the Mount Vernon area of downtown Baltimore looking for Ray. And again, they've been doing this for a while. They've actually been in this exact area before over the last couple of days. And so have police, friends, family, everyone has been driving, walking all over Baltimore in all different kinds of areas that Ray may have gone looking for him, looking for his car, looking for anything that might point them in the right direction. [16:08] 1,[redacted address] in downtown Baltimore, that is when they spot what looks like Allison's black SUV, the one that Ray had been driving the night he disappeared. And it's parked in a lot near the old Belvedere Hotel. So hearts pounding, they pull over to check it out. And sure enough, it is Allison's vehicle. Now, there's no sign of Ray inside the car as far as they can see and no trace of him outside either. But according to an unexplained death, there is [16:38] ticket on the windshield dated May 17th, the day after Ray was last seen. So it's been there ever since. That's what everyone is assuming, that it's been in this lot for at least six days by the time it's discovered. [16:52] They know for sure that it wasn't there any earlier than that, because when police talked to the parking lot attendant who was working on the evening of the 16th, they say that the car wasn't there and they left work at six o'clock that night. But it was there when they got in the next morning. What's interesting, though, is that Ray's friends and family had driven through this neighborhood, like I said, several times already looking for Ray and looking for the car.

[17:22] before, they never saw it. And that might mean absolutely nothing. Like how many of us have looked everywhere for our keys, like only to find them, you know, in the same place we already looked? Don't get me started. Right. But it's still strange. You know, I just imagine like you're on kind of a heightened alert. Like this is more important than something like that. And it's bizarre that it wasn't noticed before. Now, this area called Mount Vernon is near the office building Ray used to work at. [17:52] now worked from home and only from home like he never went to those offices anymore and like I mentioned he was on a tight deadline so it didn't make sense that he would be going into the office again like he never went in anymore there was no reason for him to go in and he was working on a project at home so while it might have made a little bit of sense that he was close to it it actually kind of didn't make any sense at all. [18:15] But Allison doesn't even really have much time to come up with theories on why Ray had been in that part of town unexpectedly. Because just two days later, on May 24th, Allison gets the one call that she has been praying would never come. It is the police, and they tell her that they've found Ray's body at the Old Belvedere Hotel in downtown Baltimore. [18:45] Oxford Club decided to spend their lunch hour looking for him. [18:49] So when his friends from work learn that his car was found downtown, they keep thinking like he has to be somewhere in the area or there has to be some kind of answers somewhere in the area. So these three guys are walking around looking for clues, a phone, a wallet, a watch, anything. When one of them gets the idea to check out the top of this parking garage that's near the Belvedere building from up there, he's like, you know what? We'll be able to see all of the roofs of smaller buildings around.

[19:19] Now, when they first look around, they just see the kind of stuff you would expect to see on a roof. The middle of the city, rocks, cans, bits of trash. But then... [19:31] Something else catches one of their eyes. [19:33] On one of the Belvedere's lower roofs is... [19:37] A flip-flop. [19:38] A man's flip-flop. [19:40] Then one of the other guys points out a second sandal and then a phone and then what might be a wallet and then a set of keys. And then their eyes catch on something else. [19:54] A hole in the roof. [19:56] Sick with worry, these guys call 911 and police hurry down to the Belvedere. When the police arrive, the building manager takes them upstairs and opens the door to the conference room underneath this particular section of roof, the one with the hole in it. And it's the smell that hits them first. [20:15] According to lead detective Michael Byer on Unsolved Mysteries, it is here in the old conference room that they find Ray's body lying face up. They're not sure how long it had been there because the decomposition is already pretty extreme, probably due to the summer heat and humidity. And what happened? Well, that's what Ray's whole family wants to know. Pretty much right from the start, police are thinking that Ray died by suicide. But not everyone feels that way. [20:45] are adamant that Ray had no reason to want to kill himself, no history of depression or mental illness, nothing that would suggest he might be contemplating suicide. In fact, Ray had plans for the following weekend. He had a video editing suite for his freelance work booked for like May 20th, the Saturday after he died.

[21:07] His big brother Angel told the Washington Examiner that Ray and Allison were even getting ready to move back to Southern California, like I said, so Ray could pursue his dream of getting into filmmaking. And he already had several clients lined up. On top of that, Allison knows how badly Ray wanted to have kids and start a family. I mean, she keeps saying, like, if this isn't making plans for the future, I don't know what is. I mean, but to look at it from another side, just because you don't know that the future [21:35] there was a reason doesn't mean that a reason didn't exist in that person's mind. [21:39] Totally. And I think that that's why police were so willing to treat Ray's death as a suicide right from the start, even though they were getting all that feedback from his family. It just seemed like the most obvious scenario. [21:53] Now, the scene in the room where Ray's body was found doesn't tell them much of anything. There's nothing to indicate foul play or a struggle. And most obviously, there's this giant hole in the roof above where he was found, a hole that they think he must have come through. [22:10] According to this article from the Baltimore Sun, they believe in the early days that Ray must have jumped from the highest roof point on the Belvedere, which is like 118 feet above the ground. And then it was just his trajectory that like plummeted him through the ceiling into that conference room. And the medical examiner's report seems to confirm this theory.

[22:40] his body was when it was found. But the medical examiner estimates that Ray had been dead for at least a week, which fits right in with the timeline of his disappearance and the fact that there was no activity on, like we talked about, his phone or any of his accounts. [22:54] When they get the toxicology screen back, it's clean. So Ray had no drugs in his system when he died. It's worth noting there was just a little bit of alcohol, but the medical examiner can't determine if that would be actually from drinking or if it naturally occurred during decomposition while Ray was lying in that conference room. Now, the report also goes into detail about the injuries that Ray sustained and how [23:19] I mean, as you can imagine, they are severe. And Britt here, why don't you read actually some of the report for us? The autopsy report mentions 24 broken ribs, two punctured lungs, damage to the heart and liver, multiple skull fractures, torn neck muscles, a broken pelvis, a ruptured testicle and cuts and bruises on his arms, legs and torso. The cuts on his torso are on either side, like his rib cage. [23:49] and one of them is 9 inches by 7 inches, and the other is 9 inches by 4 inches. And it says his legs are broken and [23:59] cut to the point where the bones and muscles and tendons were visible. [24:03] So these injuries are consistent with a fall off of a roof, I assume. So, yes, the medical examiner concludes that it is indeed consistent with a fall like the one police assume Ray would have made from almost like 120 feet up in the air. And, you know, I'm not a physics person, but I do know that the higher you fall, the nastier it gets. Right. Human beings get broken from that height.

[24:28] But... [24:29] Here's the thing for how [24:32] mangled and broken Ray's body was, not everything at the scene is broken. What do you mean? Well, remember, again, how Ray's co-workers were up on that roof. They saw those flip-flops. Well, near that hole on the lower roof, police also find Ray's cell phone and his glasses. And get this, both of those are perfectly fine. What? I can't drop my phone from, like, the kitchen counter without the screen shattering. [25:02] I know. I don't know how that is physically possible. [25:05] possible like the phone is a little scuffed up but the screen isn't even correct and it still turns on i mean granted we aren't talking about an iphone which is made out of glass i don't know why apple insists on making phones out of glass it's like my biggest issue but i digress this is one of those like older phones brit that you and i would have had like in high school kind of boxy mostly plastic but even then going back to the glasses i wear glasses and have since i was like [25:35] glasses were fine. I cannot imagine a scenario where [25:39] the glasses are completely fine, like 24 broken ribs. [25:43] But the glasses, scratch free. I don't believe it. It is weird, right? And here's even something stranger or maybe stranger. I don't know. But Ray's flip flops are more damaged than his glasses and even his phone. They're those thong type of sandals with the Y shape, the kind you get like Old Navy or whatever. And one sandal has a broken strap. And the other one looks like the toe had been almost dragged or maybe folded under as he ran.

[26:13] Can't tell exactly what happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the shoes are damaged, but the glasses are perfectly intact. And the phone is perfectly intact. Wait, you mentioned the sandal... [26:24] may have been scuffed when he was running. Do we think he... [26:28] Ran? Ran? [26:29] So I don't know. I don't know anything. But according to Makita Brotman's book, the distance from the 14th floor rooftop that Ray was supposed to have jumped from to the hole on the lower roof below was 43 feet. And that's that's a distance. [26:59] Standard queen bed is six feet long from head to toe. So imagine six beds end to end plus a little bit more. I mean, that is how far of a leap we are talking about. So in order to make that kind of a jump, Ray would have had to have had a running start. And he would have had to like get up to at least 11 miles per hour, like fully sprinting. Wow. And in flip flops. Yeah. Listen. [27:27] Not my theory. And to be honest, there's definitely something, I don't know, like, [27:33] odd about the series of events that police are considering here. It's not that I don't think death by suicide from the top of a huge building is possible. It's always possible, even when it seems to come out of nowhere. But there are things that really don't make a ton of sense to me, like how Ray, again, he just like ducks out of his house with no warning in flip flops, unplanned that night, and how he would have had to take a running jump at 11 miles per hour in those flip

[28:03] the wall. [28:05] I'm not the only one who's at least a little sketched out by this because police at least have some reservations that I do. About it being a suicide? So not so much of that, but more the distance and the angles just like aren't fully adding up to them. So they wonder if maybe they've got the angle wrong or maybe even the exact rooftop wrong. Because even they're like, this isn't fully adding up. Like, I think at that point they still thought this was likely a suicide. But... [28:34] they couldn't make the math work. So they're looking at, you know, maybe he jumped from the parking garage, the one that his like three coworkers are on. But when they look at that closely, they're looking at, [28:44] It doesn't totally add up either. That fall would have only taken Ray about 20 feet down before he'd go through the roof. And while a fall from that height wouldn't be pretty, I mean, you could survive it. [28:58] And I have a hard time believing that a fall from just 20 feet would cause the kind of gruesome injuries that you were reading from his like medical examiner's report. Right. His body was truly broken. Mangled. Yeah. So are those the only two places he could have jumped from? There were no other plausible options. So not the only options. So the Belvedere is this like really ornate object. [29:22] old building. And there's this ledge that goes around the outside of the building on the 11th floor. It's wide enough to stand on. I mean, not easily, mind you, but totally doable. So police start thinking maybe like that's the other option. But even that's not a great theory either, because even to police, it seems impossible that a guy raised size would be able to climb out the window onto that ledge. And not to mention the windows aren't like publicly accessible, like

[29:52] in a hallway or anything. They're actually inside a nightclub on the 11th floor of the Belvedere. So he would have had to go into the nightclub, then climb out to the window on the ledge. And here's the thing about all of this ledge, no ledge, no one reported seeing Ray that day in the club, outside of the building, anywhere else for that matter. And like, [30:14] The entire building is private property. Like it's still called the Belvedere Hotel, but it's actually not a hotel anymore and hasn't been since the 90s. So at this point, it's like condos, offices, event spaces. And we've got that bar nightclub that I mentioned. And because it's privately owned, roof access at the Belvedere is super restricted. I read in an unexplained death that to get to the Belvedere roof, you have to climb up this ladder in the attic. [30:44] You have to either be able to unlock the elevator so it can take you up to the 12th floor or you have to go through the back of the nightclub. Now, to be fair, I also read that the nightclub staff used to keep the door to the roof unlocked. Like it was quicker for them to just go take their smoke breaks or whatever. Yeah. [31:01] But even with an unlocked door, I mean... [31:04] You still have to know... [31:06] Exactly where that is. Ray didn't go to this nightclub. He wasn't familiar with this. So how did he get to the roof if we're going to say it was the roof? How did he get to this window to the ledge if we're going to say it's the ledge? And how did he do it without anybody seeing him? And how did he do it without anyone seeing? Thank you. I'm going to assume there were no security cameras. Otherwise, you would have brought them up by now. So apparently there were security cameras up on the roof, but they were disconnected that day.

[31:36] There is no video evidence of it [31:40] anywhere. That's really shady. Oh, it's super shady. So at this point for Allison, none of what she's being told by police adds up to her at all. It feels super wrong, especially because of this one thing I haven't told you yet. Ray, [31:59] was terrified of heights. Like he didn't even like to get up on a ladder to put Christmas decorations up. That's how scared he was. Oh, wow. So he was the absolute last person in the world who would go up on the tall roof of a building 118 feet off the ground for any reason. I mean, even if he were going to take his own life, this isn't how this would happen. All of this, [32:29] and harder to see the truth, making this nightmare situation feel even more confusing. None of the police's theories make any sense and none of the evidence police find at the Belvedere convinces Allison or the Rivera's that Ray chose to end his own life. Not the phone, not the flip flops, none of it. [32:49] And the medical examiner's final ruling doesn't help lift that dark cloud. Because, again, they at first were like, you know, could have jumped, could have jumped, could have jumped. Everything kind of like lined up with what police were saying. But when they actually like put out the official report, Ray's manner of death comes back.

[33:08] as undetermined. And all of this just adds to Allison's suspicions that there is something else going on here besides a man deciding on an impulse to end his own life. [33:19] Because of the Emmy's ruling, police don't officially close the case, but they're pretty clear to everyone that they're all but certain Ray's tragic death was by suicide. But Allison is not willing to accept that on face value. She keeps searching. She is sure there is something somewhere that will help put her mind to rest, something that will either confirm that Ray died by choice or confirm that he didn't. [33:49] It's right there in her own very house that she makes a stunning discovery. [33:58] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. [34:17] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. Listen to the deck now, wherever you get your podcasts. [34:27] During her in-depth search of Ray's things, Allison finds a piece of paper taped to the back of Ray's computer in his office, and it's folded up into a little square. And when she opens it,

[34:41] It's a note. Is it a suicide note? Well, here, why don't you tell me? It's a super long kind of strange note. So just read me the first and the last line and tell me what you think. [34:55] So the first line is, quote, brothers and sisters, right now, around the world, volcanoes are erupting. What an awesome sight. What an awesome sight. [35:05] End quote. [35:06] Okay, and here is the last line. Quote, Whom virtue unites, death will not separate. [35:14] End quote. [35:15] If this is a suicide note, it must be written in some sort of code. So you're not too far off, really. That second part, whom virtue unites, death will not separate. According to Unsolved Mysteries, that's a Freemason thing. Like, [35:33] those Freemasons, Secret Society, Illuminati, like pick a rabbit hole. You can go all the way down here. I mean, you know, I live for this stuff. And people talk about the Freemasons like they're a super, super secret society. But I gotta say, like, if I can bring up like all your home pages and learn how to become a member in like 30 seconds, to me, I'm not sure what is so secret there. Doesn't seem so secret. Aren't they pretty much just a social club now? Yeah, that's the [36:03] So I looked at the Indiana Freemasons, which is the one obviously close to me, and their website describes it as, quote, world's oldest, largest and best known gentleman's fraternity.

[36:14] And they say they do like charity work and have a scholarship program. And to be honest, I mean, at least what they're putting on the website, like it all looks pretty above board to me. Nothing nefarious. But there's always been like a lot of mystery and intrigue around the Freemasons as a secret society, which is why Ray's reference to them in his note definitely raises some eyebrows. But Ray wasn't a member, right? [36:44] in secret societies. And An Unexplained Death goes one step further, claiming that on the day he disappeared, Ray actually bought a copy of Freemasons for Dummies and met with a local mason to talk about joining. [36:59] The Baltimore police theorized that Ray's interest in the Masons might not have been like a charity or club thing, but they think maybe it could have been related to a belief that Ray had that the Masons had some kind of clout in the movie industry and that being part of that group might help him like get in front of the right people when he break in. Yeah, when he got to L.A. [37:19] Now, [37:20] Here's the thing, the rest of the note, I mean, the end part. [37:24] about the Masons is confusing, but the rest of the note is just as confusing, if not more so, [37:29] It's not even... [37:30] really a note so much as it is this like stream of consciousness type thing like it lists a lot of movies ray liked important people in his life family members just kind of going on and on without having any kind of real direction like here i want you to read like a direct passage from makita brotman's book about like some of the meat of this note

[37:55] It says, quote, [37:56] The note mentions current participants and refers to the actor Christopher Reeve, who had died the previous year, and the director Stanley Kubrick, as well as a long list of Rivera's friends, colleagues, and relations, with a request to make them, and himself, five years younger. Okay. [38:15] This is followed by a list of recent inventions and technologies. [38:20] Portable Data Assistance, Flash Drives, the Human Genome, Genetic Engineering, [38:26] Viagra-type drugs. [38:27] the fuel cell, [38:29] Bluetooth, [38:30] overnight express shipping, airbags, computer operating systems, [38:35] thermal depolymerization, horizontal drilling, Wi-Fi, the DaVinci surgical system, hybrid engines, muscle milk, and heads-up displays. It also includes a series of media-related abbreviations. [38:49] VCD, DVD. [38:52] HDVD. [38:53] HDTV. [38:55] JPEG and MPEG. [38:57] End quote. [38:59] I'm sorry, what? I have no idea what any of that's supposed to mean. Like, honestly, even you reading out loud, like there's no logical sense there. It's it means nothing to me. And Allison has no idea what any of it means either. But she does know one thing for sure. This is not a suicide note. She is 100% sure. She knows that Ray liked to write down all kinds of stuff.

[39:29] that he could find, but even this is totally different than anything else that she has seen of his. So Allison actually hands it over to police and they try, but they can't make sense of it either. [39:42] And when they can't figure out what it is, the Baltimore police turn the note over to the FBI to see if they can figure out what Ray was trying to say in this note, if he was trying to say anything at all. But the FBI comes back and they agree with Allison. They say Ray's letter isn't what they would call a, quote, legitimate suicide note. And they say if this note is some kind of code like that. [40:05] We don't know what that code is. And to this day, nobody's ever been able to crack it again, if it is even a code. So if it wasn't a suicide note, we're assuming the Freemason thing was just a red herring. I mean, I guess it's totally possible. I mean, I think it's also possible that Ray was interested in that group and maybe thinking of joining. It might have just been on his mind when he sat down to write. I mean, none of this is necessarily evidence that, you know, there's some grand secret society mystery involved here. [40:35] There's literally no reason the Freemasons would want to kill Ray. Right. [40:38] Again, he's not even part of their club yet. Right. It doesn't make sense, and it feels like a red herring to me. Okay, but you said this note was... [40:45] like fold it up and tape to the back of his computer. Yeah, he had it folded up super tiny and tape to the back. Like you had to be looking hard for it. Yeah, I guess I don't understand what the reason for hiding it would be. That's the thing, too, is like it's all seems like nonsense. And Ray, according to Allison, used to like scribble down just like random thoughts. Like, why isn't this just so why protect this piece of paper? Yeah. And so here's the thing, too, that I didn't mention earlier. Like it was all typed out, but it was all like shrunken down

[41:15] long note fit on this tiny little like cutout of a page. [41:19] And that's what I don't understand either. [41:22] this stuff on a Word document in your computer? If it truly is just a stream of consciousness, we're just writing down things we're thinking about, why are we typing it, shrinking it, printing it, cutting it, and then taping it to the back of your computer? So all of this nonsense is hidden from who? Okay, but something that I have to ask, because you haven't brought it up yet, is... [41:41] Was there anybody who would have wanted Ray dead? I mean, that right there is literally one of the biggest questions around this entire episode. [41:51] case. Like, we can't find any reason he would want to take his own life. But like, why would he be worth killing? Like, who would have anything to gain? I mean, Allison certainly doesn't know the answer to that question. But she thinks that there might be someone who could shed some light on what happened. She wants to talk to the person who called Ray the night he disappeared. Because [42:21] that person on the other end of the line could give at least some insight as to why Ray just up and left his house that day. Like maybe they don't know how he died or when he died, but it's at least a piece of the puzzle. At least know why he left in the first place. Exactly, because we still don't know that yet. [42:38] So police pull Ray's phone records sometime during the first couple of weeks after his body is found. And they actually are able to determine where that call came from. It came from Stansberry and Associates. But according to Unsolved Mysteries, because of the way their phone system was set up at the time, the call was from an extension that was routed through a switchboard. So there was no way to track exactly who made the call. But it's interesting.

[43:08] Both Stansberry Associates and the Oxford Club, where Ray was freelancing when he died, are under the umbrella of this same big finance company called Agora. So even though Ray's not [43:22] on Stansberry and Associates direct like payroll or working full time there anymore. He's still under contract working for the same like overarching group of people that he was when he was still writing with Porter, his like friend that he grew up with. Right. So police obviously want to talk to the people at Stansberry and Associates, particularly Porter, because, you know, we already said not only is he one of Ray's old friends, like the one who actually put up the reward, which is [43:52] multiple times in that weird note on the back of Ray's computer. [43:58] But here's the thing. [43:59] As helpful as Porter has been throughout the search for Ray, things are about to take a really complicated turn. [44:09] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. [44:29] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. Listen to the deck now, wherever you get your podcasts.

[44:39] When police try to reach out to Porter Stansberry, they're surprised when he won't help police with their investigation into Ray's death. And not only is he not really willing to talk to police a whole lot, he won't let any of his employees talk to them either. Wait, this is the same guy who posted the reward and was helping with the initial search? It is. [45:03] Why will he not talk and won't let any of his people talk? So he says that it's because he doesn't think police will treat him fairly because he's been investigated by the SEC for fraud before. But that's a completely different section of law. Yeah, obviously, like these homicide cops in Baltimore have nothing to do with that. But that's what he says. And, you know, around this same time, it's very strange. Porter does this total heel turn and out of nowhere starts being really cold to Allison. [45:33] totally gutted by it, of course. I mean, here's Ray's best friend, the one guy she would have thought would have done anything to help find out what happened. Well, and who has been supporting her and the search for answers since the beginning. But now, I mean, not only will he not talk to police, he tells all of his employees that they can't talk to them either. [45:51] And he actually gets the Stansberry and Associates lawyers to institute a literal gag order for the whole company. So even if people wanted to help with the investigation, like literally they can't risk violating it. [46:04] This is a huge slap in the face for the Riveras, and it begins to make them question Porter and his motives overall. And for Allison, it makes her even more determined to find the answers by any means that she knows how. And she starts by going back to the medical examiner because she feels like there has to be more there. There are answers there because clearly the medical examiner wasn't willing to call it suicide like police thought.

[46:34] that made them list his death as undetermined. Because, I mean, it would have been super easy for them to just [46:40] go with what police think, go with the main theory, but something held them back. When Allison talks to the ME, they tell her that the way Ray's shins were broken is not consistent with a fall. And not only that, while Allison is there, the medical examiner also says to her, quote, I know what they're trying to do. [47:04] And we're not closing the case. [47:07] end quote what does that mean and who are they what are they trying to do [47:12] That is the million dollar question. But just wait, it gets even stranger. So remember how I said that the cameras up on the Belvedere's roof were disconnected the night that Ray died? Yeah, and that was super shady. Already super shady. But Allison finds out that every other camera in the Belvedere was working fine that night. It was only the rooftop camera that was disconnected. [47:42] Police are finished with the footage and it's returned to the Belvedere building manager. So Allison goes down to the Belvedere to sit with him and watch this footage. I mean, she wants to see with her own eyes whether her husband was in that building at any point the night he died. [47:58] So the footage starts on the night of May 15th and it looks totally normal. But then the whole thing just like skips ahead.

[48:06] past May 16th, the day that Ray died and jumps ahead to like more recent stuff like that one specific day of tape, the one that they need the most. It's just gone. It's just gone. [48:17] Almost like it's been deleted. Did the manager give... [48:21] any explanation for that? Was it always missing or did it come back that way? [48:26] Nope, he doesn't know any more than she does. So, I mean, it's like with every door Allison opens, she finds more questions. But I mean, at least she's feeling at this point like she's making progress. [48:41] Just then she gets another huge setback. Three weeks after Ray's death, the lead detective on the case, Michael Byer, gets reassigned off Ray's case. And listen, I fully understand that investigations shift around from person to person. I mean, we see this all the time. But usually that happens like in older cases, cases that can go on for years, even decades. This is crazy. [49:08] three weeks after Ray's death. And it probably wouldn't be suspicious, except the guy they took off the case was the only officer that I could find who thinks that Ray might not have took his own life. He was the only one looking at other possibilities. So he was the only one conflicting like the company line, essentially. I don't know. So for the people that believe Ray was murdered,

[49:38] up, right? Like there's nothing you can point to one thing and be like, yes, this proves something. But when it all comes together, I mean, the missing footage, the detective's reassignment, the phone, the screwy fall trajectory, it's all pointing to something sinister behind the scene and some kind of secret worth killing for. Even though Detective Byer is off the case, Allison isn't done. But the detective actually warns her. [50:03] Be careful. And even the author, Makita Brotman, who wrote An Unexplained Death, she keeps hearing the same thing over and over while she's researching the book. Be careful of who or what? I don't even know. Many people think that maybe it had to do with Ray's work, maybe going all the way up to Agora Financial, that big like parent company. I mean, they're a rich and powerful bunch worth like five hundred million dollars back in 2015, according to Mother Jones. [50:33] And as Allison says on Unsolved Mysteries, she thinks that Ray stumbled onto something that he wasn't supposed to and that it may have cost him his life. But again, suspicion isn't enough to prove murder or to rule out suicide. For those that believed Ray did actually take his own life, they say the evidence speaks for itself. Like they keep asking, what else would he have possibly been doing up on that rooftop? Yeah, but... [50:59] I don't even really buy that anymore. I guess. Can we talk a little bit about a murder theory and like what that would even look like? Well, I mean, I want to, but like no one really explores that theory in a lot of detail.

[51:11] And I guess in my mind, it goes something kind of like this, like Ray gets that phone call. It lasts a couple of seconds. Ray says, oh, rushes out of the house. [51:21] And I assume it was to meet someone or maybe someone lured him onto that roof somehow. I don't know what they would have said to get him up there. [51:31] He was running from someone. Maybe he was pushed. Again, why all of this happened, we still don't know. [51:38] Does it have something to do with someone that he was connected to through work? Maybe are the Freemasons somehow involved? Like, honestly, at this point, who the heck knows? There's just almost nothing about this case that makes sense. Like, to me, something is clearly up. You have the alarm going off around his house leading up to the day he left, the way he left in such a hurry, that weird note that he made super itty bitty tiny and then take to the back of his computer. [52:08] living for Ray. So what was happening around this time? What piece of the puzzle are we missing? [52:16] There are just so many lingering questions in this case and a lot of rabbit holes to get lost in. A lot of people will point to Occam's razor and say the simplest explanation is the best. He jumped. But I don't know. I mean... [52:31] I know enough to say that I don't think we can say that. We've done a lot of cases where someone has had a psychotic episode, or we even talked about how the decision to take one's life can happen so quickly, even though they make plans and are talking about the future. It doesn't mean they couldn't.

[52:48] Something. [52:49] Like that phone call. Why can no one talk about that phone call? And the injuries, the ones that didn't even make sense to the medical examiner. Every time I look at this case, I have more questions than answers. But I hope that one day there are some answers for Allison and for all of the Riveras who are still left wondering. [53:08] What really happened to Ray? [53:11] definitely check out ray's story on the new unsolved mysteries that premieres july 1st on netflix and if you want to see the other source material we use for this episode and the pictures visit our website crimejunkiepodcast.com and be sure to follow us on instagram at crimejunkiepodcast [53:41] We'll be back next week with a brand new episode, but stick around for a Puppet of the Month story. [54:04] Music [54:05] Bye. [54:06] . [54:07] . [54:07] *music* [54:10] *music* [54:12] Crime Junkie is an audio Chuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

[54:26] Okay, Ashley, are you ready to hear about a very special preppet named Willow? Yes, I can't wait. I feel like we haven't done this in so long. I know. So Willow's mom is named Dara and... [54:38] I feel like you and I are pretty smart, and a lot of our listeners are, like, incredibly smart. Dara is a paleontologist. Oh my gosh. Really smart. Yeah, like, way smarter than any of us here. So she's, like, really legit. Anyway, Dara was on a dinosaur dig in Montana over the summer. What? This is a life I cannot even imagine. That's so cool. So she was on this dig with the museum where she works, and she had actually left the dig to accompany some of the volunteers back to where they had lived. [55:08] And the day after she left, she started getting all these text messages. [55:12] about this dog that I... [55:13] just wander to the campsite. Which to her was really weird because [55:19] It had been like super stormy and terrible weather the night that she left. But her friends still at the dig were like, yeah, there was this huge thunderstorm and everyone at the camp had woken up by like this crazy barking. [55:31] And then like these yips and yaps and howls of coyotes. Oh no! And the crew chief went out to check things out and they ended up finding this little puppet and he came right up to the crew chief and rolled over at her feet, which... [55:47] I mean, poor Tommy Rubs, you have to give them. Yes, you do. They made a safe place for the Puppet to stay for the night underneath the trailer, [55:55] Assuming it'd sleep it off, rest up, and go back into the wild by morning, just...

[56:01] needed to be safe for the night. [56:02] But the next day, this dog was still there. [56:06] And she was obviously super skinny, and it was clear she'd been wandering on her own for a while, and was even kind of favoring one paw and, you know, kind of limping. [56:16] And everyone at the camp absolutely fell in love with this little pup. [56:21] And she became Willow the Paleo Pup, unofficial mascot of the dino dig. Oh, my goodness. I know. She would even follow the crew out to the actual dig. Stop. And help them dig up. [56:33] A Tyrannosaurus Rex. Oh, I bet she's the best digger there ever was. This dog is already like so much cooler than I am. Oh my gosh. She's literally digging up dinosaurs. As a job. And she just like wandered there. I'm in love. [56:47] So, while Dara was away from the camp, she still got updates on this dog, and other members of the team had tried to locate an owner, [56:55] asked around the area, but no one claimed this dog or even recognized her. And Dara had just moved to North Dakota and was totally ready to get a dog. [57:04] And the entire field team brought Willow back for her. [57:08] And what can I say? They have been besties ever since. Oh my gosh. Send pics? Wait, send pics? I have to see this pup. Okay, so give me just a second. I'll send you a pic. [57:17] She has ears for days. I know. She looks a little bit like a cattle dog, right? She's black and white, speckles on her paws, speckles on her chest, and literally just like satellites for ears. Yeah. So Willow is a Blue Healer Border Collie mix, which God bless you, Dara. I've had both of those. Energy. And they are...

[57:40] insanely smart little balls of energy. I would [57:44] not be able to keep up. And just like it had been reported back at the camp, she had a pretty serious injury to her paw, but it had mostly healed by the time Dara got her, and she's back to completely full health and being a total goofball. Dara said that some of Willow's favorite things to do are to run up and down stairs and do her zoomies in the yard, which I feel like is [58:14] So, so cool. Oh, that is amazing. So Dara and Willow are living their happiest life together and I'm so excited for them. [58:23] check out our website because [58:25] Willow's ears are to die for. [58:27] They're so cute. It will send you into another dimension mentally and emotionally. I love them so much. And as a reminder, instead of doing adoptable puppets, [58:36] because they keep getting adopted before we can even put the episode out. Which is great news. Great news. Yeah, a great problem to have. We're highlighting shelters or animal rescues. And this month, I want to feature the Humane Society of Western Montana, which obviously Montana is where Willow was found. So the Humane Society of Western Montana is an amazing organization committing to providing care in every aspect to animals, matching people with pets to enrich each other's lives, [59:06] line and engaging in their community to educate people on the issues surrounding animal welfare. So Montana folks, if you're in the market for a furry new best friend, check out the Humane Society of Western Montana and we'll be sure to link to them as well as

[59:21] So many pictures of sweet, sweet Willow the Paleo pup on our website. [59:27] Thank you. [59:33] Okay, crime junkies, you know I absolutely love a twist and a turn, especially when it comes to people who turn out to be someone they're not. That's why I have been obsessed with the podcast Chameleon. Every Thursday, host Josh Dean deep dives into a scam so bizarre, it will leave you wondering, how did they get away with that? [59:51] It is truly one of my favorite podcasts right now, and I've been listening for years. [59:55] I think you'll love it too. [59:56] Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.