Rich had a lot on his mind. He'd gotten another job opportunity: a position with the campaign of Hillary Clinton, who had by then won the Democratic nomination. There was only one problem: The job was in Brooklyn. The girlfriend was in D.C. This was causing friction.

"He was having some problems with his girlfriend," Capone said. "Mostly about moving away and seeing if they could survive it. He was upset. He loved her."

Sometimes he'd join bartenders for drinks at after-hours places, but more often than not he'd walk the 1.8 miles home alone, using the time to catch up on phone calls because he got poor cellphone reception in his house.

On the last night of his life, Rich stayed at the bar until it closed around 1:30 a.m., according to a Lou's bartender.

Two hours and 49 minutes later he would be lying on a sidewalk, dying.

A log of Rich's phone calls, compiled by the family, accounts for a large chunk of that time — about two hours 15 minutes. But it doesn't explain why he took so long to make a walk home that should have taken about 40 minutes.