Unsolved Mysteries has been intriguing mystery-lovers for over thirty years, with the Netflix reboot proving to be just as popular as the original. A second batch of rebooted mysteries dropped earlier this week, quickly rising to the number two spot on Netflix’s top ten lists. But have any of the previous mysteries been solved?
To celebrate the release of Unsolved Mysteries volume two, we thought we’d investigate whether there have been any developments on the earlier mysteries. After all, viewer tips from the original series have already helped solve a number of classic mysteries.
If you haven’t watched season one yet, beware: spoilers ahead! If you haven’t watched volume two yet, don’t worry… we wouldn’t do that to you.
Keep reading to find out which mysteries are closer to being solved…
‘Mystery on the Rooftop’: The death of Rey Rivera
Recap: Freelance writer, Rey Rivera, goes missing from his home after receiving a mysterious telephone call (2006, Baltimore). He leaves in a hurry, and isn’t seen or heard from again. Eight days later, Rey’s body is discovered in a disused hotel. Above him, a hole in the ceiling leads to the outside rooftop. Some of Rey’s belongings are found on the rooftop above, but his injuries and position are inconsistent with a fall.
While the case of Rey’s death has not yet been solved, there have been some small updates.
According to the showrunner for Unsolved Mysteries, Terry Dunn Meurer, investigative journalists are working on the case, and new leads are coming in via the tip website, unsolved.com.
When speaking on Netflix’s true-crime podcast, You Can’t Make This Up, Meurer also revealed a number of pieces of information that weren’t included in the series.
Firstly, he clarifies that the Unsolved Mysteries team did manage to have a conversation with Porter Stansberry while producing the show:
“I actually personally spoke to Porter Stansberry and asked him to interview for the episode. We had a long conversation and he declined to be interviewed, ultimately.”
Meurer also shares something weird that happened in the early days of the investigation:
“When Allison [Rivera’s wife] went to the police station to pick up Rey’s computer, the detective mentioned someone had called a couple of times and asked to pick up the computers and was very interested in the status of the computers. Alison was very troubled.”
The fact that an unknown third-party was interested in trying to interfere with Rey’s computer after his death could point to foul play.
And finally, Meurer suggests reason to believe that Rey was concerned about his safety in the weeks before his death:
“There was an incident that happened about a week before Rey disappeared. Alison was training for a triathlon and she wanted to go to the local track and do some sprints. Normally she would just go by herself – Rey was working on a deadline for his project. But he insisted on going with her this day,” Meurer said.
“It was raining, so there was not a lot of people on the track. But there were two guys that came up on the track and when that happened Rey came flying out of the car, according to Alison, and seemed unusually concerned.”
Volume one viewers will remember that the Riveras’ home security alarm went off a couple of night before Rey’s disappearance, and Rey dashed outside with a baseball bat to investigate. In the morning, the Riveras’ found evidence suggesting that someone tried to enter their home.
As yet, nobody has come forward with any substantial evidence in the case. However, there’s plenty of theories to be found on Reddit, especially about that strange note…
‘No Ride Home’: The death of Alonzo Brooks
Recap: Alonzo Brooks was a young man who disappeared after a house party in Kansas, 2004. He was supposed to catch a ride home with friends, but they mistakenly left without him. His body was later found in a nearby creek. His family believe he was the victim of a racially motivated hate crime.
According to Meurer, Alonzo’s case is the one that has received the most tips. Speaking to You Can’t Make This Up, he said: “they are interviewing people every single day. They are very active trying to solve that case.”
Since the broadcast of the show, the FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of anyone that may be responsible for Alonzo Brooks’ death. Alonzo’s grave has also recently been exhumed so the FBI can re-examine any evidence that might be there.
The episode director, Marcus A. Clarke, recently told You Can’t Make This Up that he thinks there are discrepancies in the testimonies of Alonzo’s friends:
“There are discrepancies in the stories of the friends that do not add up. However, I’m not going to put it all on them because they did speak to us and, to me, there is merit and integrity in people coming forward, however confused they might be.”
We can only hope that Unsolved Mysteries unearths some information that will bring justice for Alonzo and his family.
‘House of Terror’: The search for Xavier DuPont De Ligonnès
Recap: When an aristocratic French family aren’t seen for several days, their friends and neighbours become suspicious (2011, Nantes). The bodies of the mother and four children are found buried on the property. The father, Xavier DuPont De Ligonnès, is traced to the south of France before disappearing. An Interpol warrant is out for his arrest.
According to the showrunner, Meurer, there were a lot of leads for this case, coming from almost every continent. Certain tips stood out:
“We got tips about sightings of him, but what was interesting is that there was a cluster of tips that came in from Chicago. And you always look for a cluster because it means more than one person is seeing this person, and these are all unrelated people.
“We had clusters in countries like Italy, and Great Britain, and France, but they did not have anything as narrowed down as Chicago and we’ve learned that there’s a large ex-pat French community in Chicago.”
There was also a potential sighting in Chicago, where the photo was sent to the unsolved website. Meurer told Variety:
“Somebody was actually in Chicago, I think they were on Lake Shore Drive, and they heard this guy talking French and they looked at him and they had just seen the episode. They sent us a photo, and it really did look like Xavier. It was striking. So we sent that tip on. But again, this is just a stranger — we don’t have a name, we don’t have anything specific.”
Episode director, Clay Jeter, revealed some interesting additional information about the state of the DuPont’s marriage when speaking to the You Can’t Make This Up podcast:
“What we know is that Agnes was very religious, as is mentioned in the episode. Xavier I think was theoretically religious and interested in it, but not really in practice but Agnes had been posting stuff on some forums and having some dialogues and expressing to some people in these smaller communities the issues that she was having with Xavier and with their relationship and the darkness that was coming between them.”“She even says at one point, and don’t quote me exactly on this, but something to the effect of that Xavier had told her: ‘All of us dying in a mass suicide would not be the worst thing for us.’ She had posted this, she had typed this out.”
Netflix Synopsis: "Real cases of perplexing disappearances, shocking murders and paranormal encounters fuel this gripping revival of the iconic documentary series."
