‘Netflix and kill: Masons and a mystery?’

     

A 32-year-old man went missing in Baltimore one day in 2006. A week later, his corpse was discovered inside an unused hotel conference room, the body apparently having torn through the roof from a height of 14 stories.

Suicide was the investigators’ estimation, but those who knew Rey Rivera deny he could have been motivated to do himself in. This month, Netflix reboots Unsolved Mysteries, the docu-drama so popular it ran for more than two decades on several television networks before everybody started buying their entertainment from, well, Netflix.

The first of ten episodes is available today. “Mystery on the Rooftop” tells the story of the late Mr. Rivera, but why am I telling you about it? There may be some link to Freemasonry.

Depending on the extent of your involvement in the fraternity, you might have added your own hotel conference room joke already, but this story concerns a newly married man, employed as a writer and with aspirations of penning Hollywood screenplays, who also had an interest in Freemasonry.

Writing for All That’s Interesting, Natasha Ishak reports:

Then, there was an obscure note uncovered from Rivera’s computer. The note was typed in small print, folded up in plastic, and taped to his home computer screen along with a blank check.
The note was addressed to “brothers and sisters” and referred to “a well-played game.” It also named famous people who had died, including Christopher Reeve and Stanley Kubrick, as well as ordinary people who Rivera knew in real life. The note included a request to make them and himself five years younger.
The finding was so puzzling that investigators sent the letter to the FBI. The Feds determined it wasn’t a suicide note.
The cryptic letter pointed to another weird detail about Rey Rivera’s circumstances: his growing interest in the Freemasons. The note he left behind began and ended with phrases used in the Masonic Order.
A representative at a local Maryland lodge confirmed that Rivera inquired about membership on the same day he went missing, but didn’t recall anything unusual about their conversation. Shortly before his death, Rivera was also reading books related to Masonry, such as The Builders.