One of the billboards soliciting information about Seth Rich’s murder. (Photo by Rachel Kurzius)

Seth Rich is one of 65 unsolved D.C. homicides in 2016, but the murder of the Democratic National Committee staffer last July is unique in its ability to capture the public imagination.

Billboards and flyers with Rich’s face still paper the Bloomingdale neighborhood where he lived and died. Now, a Republican lobbyist who says he tasked himself with investigating Rich’s death to “bring closure to the family” claims to have “the first real break in the case we’ve had in almost 8 months of tireless work.” In September, Jack Burkman offered a $100,000 reward for information that would lead to a conviction in Rich’s murder. Burkman and the Rich family held a joint press conference in late November to announce a new push for information that included the billboard campaign.

Burkman’s new theory is as outlandish as the other conspiracies the Rich family has said sully their son’s memory: “Seth discovered, shortly before he died, Russian involvement in the hacking [of the DNC], and the Russians did away with Seth,” he claims.

The Rich family isn’t having it. Despite Burkman’s insistence that he has their backing, one family member says they didn’t learn about the lobbyist’s latest twist until he started promoting it in news interviews.

“It’s hurtful, and it’s very distracting as we’re still very early in grieving and dealing with all of this,” says the family member, who asked to remain anonymous for privacy reasons (DCist was able to verify the person’s identity). “We don’t believe there’s any involvement of any of the different conspiracy theories. We’ve made that clear multiple times. Putting out statements with absolutely nothing tangible and no hard facts—that’s what I want to stop.”

The family member describes learning about the latest conspiracy theory as being like “having a semi come up and t-bone you in the intersection when you think you’re doing fine. It catches you so off guard that you don’t just pause, you step backwards.”

Burkman’s theory about a Russian hit job comes from a source who he is “certain” is a former U.S. intelligence officer. “If he was playing me, it’d be quite an act,” says Burkman. “He’d deserve an Emmy or an Oscar.” Burkman met with the man for an hour and a half at the Four Seasons Hotel.

He was convinced of the veracity of the claims by the officer’s claim that he worked with the SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police and intelligence force, in Iran. Burkman, who “studied the Middle East,” says very few people know about the SAVAK, though it has its own Wikipedia page.

The proof, he says, is that the “timeline matches up perfectly”—that Rich was murdered in early July and the hacked emails were released later that month.

The DNC declined to comment on the record about this latest theory, but on background said that Rich’s job did not involve cyber security. Instead, Rich “was responsible for managing all of the data and analysis needs of the DNC’s voter protection/expansion programs.”

27-year-old Rich was fatally shot in Bloomingdale around 4:20 a.m. on July 10. His watch, wallet, and credit cards were still at the scene when police found him wounded at the corner of Flagler Place and W Street NW, before he died of his injuries at a nearby hospital.

The area had been plagued by a number of incidences of gun violence in the weeks leading up to his murder, but conspiracy theorists online almost immediately began tying his death to the hack of the DNC.

While the U.S. intelligence community believes that a Russian military unit was responsible for the hack, one version of the conspiracy paints Rich as a martyr who released the DNC emails to Wikileaks and was then murdered by Hillary Clinton or one of her associates.

Wikileaks, which published the hacked DNC emails, encouraged the conspiracy in August by offering a $20,000 reward for information that would lead to the conviction of Rich’s killer, in addition to the $25,000 reward MPD offers for information on any unsolved homicide. Founder Julian Assange had implied, without proof, that Rich was killed because he could have been responsible for the DNC email leaks.

Burkman doesn’t buy the theory that the Clintons were involved. “I think all of that is nonsense. The Clintons went to Yale,” he says. “That stuff is crazy. I never took that stuff seriously right from the start.”

Rich’s father, Joel, told the show Crime Watch in October that the family “won’t talk about” rumors of Clinton’s involvement in his son’s death. “Seth would be so offended at anyone thinking anything less of him, of caring for other people, of caring for America,” Mary Rich said.

The family has maintained that Rich was the victim of a botched robbery attempt.

Burkman says he doesn’t believe that theory, either. “Nothing was taken,” he says. “You can credibly dismiss the theory.”

The Rich family member disagrees with the idea that, because nothing was taken, it couldn’t have been a robbery. “That’s why it’s an attempted robbery, not a successful robbery. Everyone seems to miss that word.”

D.C. Police say they haven’t found any links between Rich’s job and his death. “Seth Rich’s homicide remains open and we encourage anyone with information to contact 202-727-9099,” says MPD spokesperson Rachel Reid. When asked directly about Burkman’s theory that it was a Russian hit job, she responded that “MPD does not speculate on theories.”

That’s fine by Burkman. “The cops have done pretty much what they can do,” he says. “It’s my job to focus on this, not theirs.”

The Rich family feels differently. “We still have full faith in the Metro Police to resolve this murder,” the family member says. “That is one thing we have not lost faith in.”

Burkman has been making the media rounds this week to publicize his claims. In a fawning segment on Fox 5 on Wednesday morning, he spent more than five minutes airing his theory without any pushback from anchors Steve Chenevey and Allison Seymour, who never demand evidence supporting his claims.

Instead, they asked questions like “What do you think Congress could find that you haven’t been able to find on your own?” and “Are you fearful at all? If this is true, why shouldn’t you be a target?”

When asked for comment on the segment, the Fox 5 newsroom directed inquiries to Fox’s corporate office in New York, which has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Does Burkman think it’s irresponsible to air these unproven claims in public? After all, he still can’t answer basic questions about the theory, like how the Russians would have figured out Rich knew about their involvement in the hacking. (“Those are good questions,” he told DCist. “Those are the questions I want to ask at a Congressional hearing.”)

He says that “the mere discussion is valuable. I’m glad there are people talking about Seth and keeping his memory alive. I’m honoring my commitment to Mary Rich.”

The Rich family member says that talking about Seth Rich in relation to conspiracies “chip away at his legacy.”

“I just don’t want to lose who Seth was and what he stood for,” the family member says. “He wanted to help people. He wanted to make a difference. The quickest way to meet him at a party would be to be the person sitting in the corner, because he would go and say hi and bring you into the conversation. All he wanted was to make sure everyone had the chance to have their voice heard.”

Does the family member have a message for Burkman, who also told Washingtonian he is going to hire actors to reenact the murder in the spring with the family’s go-ahead?

“Right now, I can’t answer that question,” the family member says. As for future collaborations between Burkman and the Rich family, “it’s unclear what the path forward is.”

So if Mary Rich asked Burkman to stop promoting this theory, would he? Burkman answered the question several times by saying different variations of “My job is to follow the evidence wherever it goes.” The fourth time, he answered, “I wouldn’t choose, but it’s a good question.”

Police are asking anyone with information about Rich’s death to call 202-727-9099 or text 50411.