What happened to Rey Rivera? Theories on the Unsolved Mysteries case

7 July 2020, 17:04 | Updated: 7 July 2020, 17:08

Details on the Rey Rivera case from Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries. Picture: Netflix

Episode one of Netflix docuseries Unsolved Mysteries looks at the case of Rey Rivera.

Unsolved Mysteries dropped on Netflix on July 1, and viewers are already obsessed.

The show - which originally aired in America between 1987 and 2010 - has been rebooted, and the docuseries tells the story of a number of unsolved cases.

Episode one looks at the mysterious death of Rey Rivera.

What are the details of the Rey Rivera case?

Rey was a 32-year-old writer.

Just prior to his death, he had got married to Allison Rivera, and the pair were planning to start a family.

Rey was newly-married before his death. Picture: Netflix

He received an urgent phone call on May 16 and rushed out of the house, and his body was found in an empty conference room in a hotel in Baltimore a week later.

His death was ruled as suicide, as they could not identify any suspects.

However, some people in his family have said they suspect foul play.

What are the theories about what happened to Rey Rivera?

Theory one: he took his own life

There is one theory that Rey jumped to his death, as he plunged through the roof of the Baltimore Hotel he was found in.

Rey was found dead in 2006. Picture: Netflix

Theory two: the jump was 'staged'

In Rey's episode, some reporters and detectives have expressed their doubt that Rey took his own life.

The camera on the roof that Rey is presumed to have fallen through was disabled, and Rey's phone and glasses were both intact when he was found.

A medical examiner also claimed that the injuries to his shins weren't consistent with the fall.

Theory three: Rey was murdered

At the time of his death, Rivera had recently started a job working for his old friend Porter Stansberry.

According to The Baltimore Sun, the business was ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution and civil penalties for "disseminating false stock information and defrauding public investors through a financial newsletter."

Stansberry has denied any wrongdoing.

Rivera's home alarm went off twice on the week of his disappearance, and he also picked up a call from work on the night he went missing.

However, it was impossible to tell who had called him because it came from a switchboard.

Stansberry declined to be interviewed, and no one from the company has been implicated in Rey's death.