Kriti Mehrotra
The first episode of ‘Unsolved Mysteries‘, ‘Mystery on the Rooftop,’ baffles us with the perplexing death of 32-year-old writer and videographer, Rey Rivera in 2006. After rushing out of his home in Baltimore after receiving a phone call, he was never seen alive again. It was more than a week later that his body was discovered in an abandoned conference room at the Belvedere Hotel.
Since the room had a hole in the ceiling, it seemed as if Rey’s body may have fallen from the roof of the hotel, but the investigators declared his cause of death as undetermined. As time went on, his family grew more and more suspicious about foul play being involved, after all, his home was broken into twice within a week before his sudden disappearance and death.
Rey Rivera’s Note
When Rey’s body was discovered at the hotel, most of the police force thought that it was a suicide. However, Allison, his wife, never believed it. They had gotten married just six months before his disappearance and he seemed to be under no mental duress, so him taking his own life for no reason seemed highly improbable. Even his brother mentioned that most people who commit suicide leave some sort of a note or clue behind, but Rey had left none.
Well, he did. Allison found a note taped to the back of his computer in his home office. It was folded up and then tucked into the plastic. Along with the note was a black check, according to WBAL-TV. However, it did not appear to be a suicide note. Even professionals commented that although it was weird and cryptic, it was written by someone in a stream of consciousness, not as someone who was saying their last goodbyes.
It started off as: “Brothers and Sisters, right now, around the world volcanoes are erupting. What an awesome sight. Whom virtue unites, death will not separate.” This last sentence is related to the Freemasons. But, Allison said that it wasn’t extremely strange or out of place for Rey to mention something related to them because he was quite curious about the idea of secret societies, and them in particular.
However, when that got combined with the line, “I stand before you a man who understands the purpose and value of our secrets. That’s why I cherish them as secrets,” it gave rise to a lot of conspiracy theories that indicate that his death somehow closely involved the Freemasons. It wasn’t mentioned in his ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ episode, but Rey had called a local branch to inquire about joining the organization the day of his death and had even purchased the book “Freemasons for Dummies.”
One of the other pages of the note contained a list of names – celebrities who had died previously, as well as a list of some people who Rey knew on a personal level. Alongside it was a request for all of them to become five years younger. Although, his wife did point out that a lot of significant people were missed out on. The note also contained mentions of Wi-Fi, genetic engineering, Bluetooth, and airbags.
It concluded with a collection of movies that he liked and was a fan of. But, Allison, or anybody else for that matter, could not figure out why all of these were compiled in the manner that they were compiled. She did say that she knows that the note was written on the day of his death because she had found scraps of it in the garbage bin. A lot of theories on the internet suggest that all these form some sort of a code, breaking of which, would lead the police directly to his cause of death.
Read More: Rey Rivera’s Death: How Did He Die?
