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WASHINGTON - It has been eight months since a Democratic National Committee staffer was murdered near his home in Washington D.C. Police still do not know who killed Seth Rich last July. Now, his family is asking for the public's help raising money so they can continue their own investigation.
Rich's brother, Aaron, said they want to help direct the investigation back toward solving Seth's murder and their goal is to raise $200,000 through a GoFundMe page to help maintain public awareness of the unsolved murder as well as to help hire forensic services to aid police in the investigation.
His family has been watching the news coverage from their home in Nebraska and was shocked at the conspiracy theories regarding Rich's death.
Some theorists believe his death was tied to the WikiLeaks release of a barrage of DNC emails. Rich's death happened 12 days before the email dump and WikiLeaks has even put up reward money to help find his killer.
Then GOP lobbyist Jack Burkman, who also donated reward money toward the investigation, claimed a former U.S. intelligence officer told him the Russians were behind his death.
Rich's family is outraged saying the claims are false and they want to redirect the focus back to catching his killer.
D.C. police and his family believe he was shot and killed during a robbery attempt steps from his home in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of the city. However, police said his wallet was not taken.
His family said they now need financial help that is free from any "ulterior motives or with any strings attached."
"We started looking at different ideas that people would either come to us or we come up with such as direct flyers to people in the general area," said Aaron Rich. "But all ideas do take some level of resources or funding that we don't have."
He added, "There are a lot of stones that we want to turn over and we want to look through, but we need the ability to do that."
So far, the family has raised $4,600 as of Tuesday night since opening the account a few days ago. Seth's brother said they pledge to hold the money raised in a separate account and will provide regular updates on how they spend the money on the investigation.
Previous coverage on the death investigation of Seth Rich:
Republican lobbyist says murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich linked to Russian operatives
DNC honors murdered staffer Seth Rich with memorial bike rack outside of headquarters
Republican lobbyist offers $100K reward in murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich
Mother of murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich pleads for public's help
WikiLeaks founder addresses death of DNC staffer Seth Rich in Fox News interview
Comments by Julian Assange fuel speculation that murdered DNC staffer may have been WikiLeaks source
WikiLeaks offers $20K reward in murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich
What happened during final hours slain DNC employee Seth Rich was alive?
Parents of slain DNC employee make emotional plea to help find son's killer
Vigil held for slain DNC staffer in Bloomingdale
DNC employee fatally shot in Northwest DC