The family of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich strongly denied reports by Fox News on May 16 that Rich, who was gunned down in Northwest Washington last summer, had been in contact with WikiLeaks. On May 23, Fox News retracted the story.

Through a spokesperson, Rich's family called the report "unsubstantiated" and pointed out that Ron Wheeler, the private investigator who shared information with Fox News, is a Fox News contributor who was being paid by a third party and was not authorized to speak for the family.

"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," Brad Bauman, a spokesman for the family, said on May 16. "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."

Wheeler said a federal investigator who said he had reviewed an FBI forensic report -- which was written within 96 hours of Rich's murder -- and said he had examined the deceased's computer had told Wheeler, a former D.C. homicide detective, that Rich had made contact with the hacktivist group. Rich was 27 when he was killed.

It is alleged his point of contact was Gavin MacFadyen, a now-deceased American investigative reporter and director of WikiLeaks who was living in London at the time.

"My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks," Wheeler told Fox on May 16. "I do believe that the answers to who murdered Seth Rich sits on his computer on a shelf at the D.C. police or FBI headquarters."

Later that day, however, Wheeler distanced himself from the report, admitting to Fox News host Sean Hannity that while Rich's father, Joel Rich, signed a contract with him, he was being paid by an unnamed third party. He also said he not seen the emails or Rich's computer himself, and did not actually know where Rich's computer was.

"I have never seen the emails myself directly. I haven't even seen the computer that Seth Rich used," Wheeler told Hannity. "Here's the problem with all of this: I don't even know where the computer is. I checked with the police department, they say they don't know where the computer is, and with the FBI, they say they don't have the computer."

Wheeler said the information connecting Rich to Wikileaks came from "a very credible" FBI investigator who he refused to name.

"But, this person, we checked him out... very credible. He said he laid eyes on the computer and he laid eyes on the case file, and he came across very credible," Wheeler said. "When you look at that, with the totality of everything else that I found in this case, it's very consistent for a person with my experience to begin to think, 'Well, perhaps there's some email communications between Seth and Wikileaks.'"

"Maybe it is related to the DNC, and we don't know that for sure. It could have been a botched robbery," Wheeler added.

Rich's case remains unsolved, though police have previously claimed he was the victim of a "botched robbery."

Shortly after Rich's murder in July 2016, WikiLeaks published internal DNC emails that appeared to show top party officials conspired to stop Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont from becoming the party's presidential nominee. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned soon after the emails were published.