The family of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer who was fatally shot in July, is calling on a private investigator to stop speaking publicly about the case.

Rod Wheeler, a former Washington DC homicide detective, had been working with the Rich family to solve the murder, which the Metropolitan Police Department has said appears to be a botched robbery. But conspiracy theorists have claimed the killing was ordered by the Clintons in retaliation for leaking thousands of DNC emails to WikiLeaks.

Those theories took off on social media and right-wing websites on Monday when Fox 5 in Washington DC aired an interview in which Wheeler — a Fox News contributor — said he could confirm evidence of emails between Rich and a WikiLeaks contact.

Wheeler then walked back that statement, claiming that the news station's report was inaccurate and took his statement out of context. He told BuzzFeed News he had no personal knowledge of any emails, and he'd only heard about such evidence from a FoxNews.com story citing an unnamed federal source.

On Friday, Wheeler told BuzzFeed News he's considering legal action against Fox 5. He wants the station to release the full interview, instead of the clip where he appears to confirm emails between Rich and WikiLeaks.

"It made it seem like I knew this information first-hand," he said.

The FBI is not investigating Rich's death. In any case, Wheeler's statements were included in a FoxNews.com story, and he has appeared multiple times on Fox News to discuss Rich's death.

"I don't know for sure, I don't know as a matter of fact, if the emails went out to the WikiLeaks or anybody else, but it sure appears that way," Wheeler told Sean Hannity after his original interview had been discredited by BuzzFeed and other news outlets.