Seth Rich was murdered in Washington D.C. on July 10, 2016, and his death remains an unsolved mystery. A lot of people believe that Rich was murdered by the Democratic National Committee or someone connected to the Democratic Party or Hillary Clinton in retaliation for Rich allegedly being the source of the leaked DNC emails released by Wikileaks in 2016. Seth Rich had been a DNC staffer before his death, and could potentially have had access to the leaked emails. According to Buzzfeed, Julian Assange and Wikileaks have offered a $20,000 reward for help solving the case, and Assange has said things to imply Rich is the source of the leaks, though he has not come out and explicitly made that claim.

While it’s true that the circumstances surrounding Rich’s death lend themselves readily to the narrative that he was killed in retaliation for leaking the Podesta emails, the “evidence” available requires a lot of conjecture to reach that conclusion. This is evident in response to a recent story about a private investigator named Rod Wheeler who claims his unnamed sources told him Seth Rich had made contact with Wikileaks before being murdered, according to Fox News.

“My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks,” Wheeler said. “I do believe that the answers to who murdered Seth Rich sit on his computer on a shelf at the DC police or FBI headquarters.”

Contrary to early reports by Fox News and other right-wing media sources, Rod Wheeler was not hired by Seth Rich’s family to investigate Rich’s case. According to a subsequent report in Fox News, Wheeler was hired by a third party and did not have permission from the family of Seth Rich to discuss his case with the media.

“Even if tomorrow, an email was found, it is not a high enough bar of evidence to prove any interactions as emails can be altered and we’ve seen that those interested in pushing conspiracies will stop at nothing to do so,” a spokesman for the family said. “We are a family who is committed to facts, not fake evidence that surfaces every few months to fill the void and distract law enforcement and the general public from finding Seth’s murderers.”

Fox News is also claiming that an unnamed “federal source” has made similar claims to Wheeler’s, stating that he has read emails sent between Seth Rich and Gavin McFayden, a deceased former Wikileaks director.

“I have seen and read the emails between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks,” the unnamed source allegedly told Fox News.

It’s worth noting that these latest allegations come from an unnamed source to Fox News and from Rod Wheeler, who has been employed as a commentator by Fox News in the past, having appeared on the network numerous times over the past decade. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Rod Wheeler appeared on Bill O’Reilly’s show in 2007 making the outrageous claim that “gangs of lesbians” were going around the country raping young girls, even alleging that the gangs carry pink guns.

“Now, the other thing, too, that our viewers are going to find very, very interesting, is the fact that they actually carry—some of these groups carry pink pistols,” Wheeler told Bill O’Reilly. “They call themselves the pink-pistol-packing group. And these are lesbians that actually carry pistols. That’s 9-millimeter Glocks. They use these. They commit crimes, and they cause a lot of hurt to a lot of people.”

It's all coming out now! Federal Investigator: DNC Staffer Seth Rich Contacted Wikileaks On Laptop Before His Murder https://t.co/uKyhrZrqqF pic.twitter.com/mytGh74KQU — ????Wayne Dupree (@WayneDupreeShow) May 16, 2017

The Southern Poverty Law Center site also lists some background information on Wheeler.

“According to Wheeler’s personal website — www.rod007.com — he is a member of Jericho City of Praise, a conservative Christian megachurch in Landover, Md., whose leadership publicly advocates against equal rights for gays and lesbians,” the Southern Poverty Law Center website says. “The website details Wheeler’s 500-plus appearances on MSNBC, Court TV, and Fox News Channel shows including The O’Reilly Factor, On the Record With Greta Van Sustern, and Hannity & Colmes.

While the murder of Seth Rich remains a mystery, and it’s important to consider all possible motives, it’s also important to avoid jumping to conclusions based on scant evidence.

[Featured Image by Seth Rich/Facebook]