Seth Rich, Facebook
Following a three month long investigation into the murder of Seth Rich, the Profiling Project, a volunteer group of current and former George Washington University forensic psychology graduate students and instructors, have found that his death “does not appear to be a random homicide.”
Additionally, the group found that it does not appear to have been a botched robbery — and that it “was more likely committed by a hired killer or serial murderer.”
The organization, whose main goal is assisting police with profiling, added that there may be additional surveillance footage and that the resolution of prosecuting the individual(s) responsible appears to be hindered both actively and passively.
The 45-page report details that the crime-scene appeared to be “almost sanitized,” as no firearms casings were reported to be found, and no physical evidence was reported. The PP also found that there did not appear to be excessive force used, as only two shots were reported, so the offender does not appear to be psychotic. The report also noted that “the offender did not display excessive emotion at the crime scene, did not appear to act from hate, anger, fear, gain, jealousy or revenge, all motivations for murder.”
“If Offender actively managed the crime scene, intentionally leaving no evidence or insight, Offender may be an experienced, sophisticated criminal with in-depth knowledge of law-enforcement procedures. Such an Offender would lend to the notion that Seth was targeted, as the experienced criminal would leave little to chance. With little to no knowledge of Seth’s physical capabilities, the impulsive Offender most likely would have selected a more desirable victim,” the report stated.
The PP also believes that whoever the shooter was, this was not their first kill.
“We do not believe Offender is a robber, nor a robber who killed. Offender had the ability to kill, and brought with them an instrument to do so. Though we do not know what other items Seth may have had in his possession, his watch, phone, wallet and necklace were not stolen. Nor was Seth’s body reported to have been further accosted or degraded. With such a sanitized crime scene and no emotional indications, this is not Offender’s first kill,” the report asserts.
In going over each possible theory for the murder motive, the PP laid out very fascinating cases. They determined that a robbery gone wrong was “not likely,” but that the theory that his death involved him being a source for WikiLeaks was “not likely,” pending unanswered conditions.
The report states that it is not likely that he was killed for providing the information to WikiLeaks, “unless a toxin was introduced into Seth.”
“The first hurdle this theory needs to overcome is that a professional killer would have been the offender. Seth did not die at the scene. A professional killer, whose sole job would have been to terminate Seth did not accomplish their mission prior to escaping. Positive toxicology reports would be needed to support this theory,” the report states.
As noted at the beginning of their report, the group believes that a hired killer is more likely than the botched robbery theory, but that it is unlikely a hired assassin would have left the scene without the mark being confirmed as dead.
“Any forgiven substance in Seth’s system could support this theory. Any poison or radiation indications would support the professional killer theory, as the killer would have known that once the matter entered the bloodstream it would take effect,” PP added.
As we have previously reported, tech entrepreneur and friend of WikiLeaks, Kim Dotcom, has offered to provide Congress with proof that Rich was the source of the leaked DNC emails.
“I know this because in late 2014 a person contacted me about helping me to start a branch of the Internet Party in the United States. He called himself Panda. I now know that Panda was Seth Rich,” Kim wrote in his statement. “Panda advised me that he was working on voter analytics tools and other technologies that the Internet Party may find helpful.
I communicated with Panda on a number of topics including corruption and the influence of corporate money in politics.”
Dotcom wrote that, “he wanted to change that from the inside.”
Amidst claims by Dotcom leading up to his statement, Julian Assange tweeted that though WikiLeaks won’t identify sources — sometimes their sources reveal themselves to other people. He also included the #SethRich hashtag in his tweet.
Though Assange has infamously expressed interest in Rich, he has always maintained that WikiLeaks will never name a source. To this day, he continues to refer to Chelsea Manning as an “alleged source.”
The organization did offer a $20,000 reward for Rich’s murderer however, and has retweeted articles that asserted he was their source without providing any additional comment.
Without conclusive evidence that Rich was WikiLeaks’ source, PP had one more theory to offer — that the “full-scope of Seth’s injuries were not recognized initially as life-threatening. As such, Seth was not urgently transported to a hospital and the crime scene was not given the attention that a murder crime scene would receive.”
When police had arrived at the scene, Rich was alive, conscious, and speaking to law enforcement — though what he was saying to them remains unknown.
Rich was shot in the back in the early morning hours of July 10, 2016, near his home while he was on the phone with his girlfriend — 12 days before the publication of the DNC emails by the controversial publisher. The police initially ruled that it was a botched robbery — but his wallet, watch, and necklace were still on his person when he was discovered by police.
Reddit and Twitter accounts which are believed to have belonged to Rich strongly indicate that Rich was a fan of Bernie Sanders — which has also been independently confirmed to Big League Politics by a source who was close to the victim. If so, this may provide a motive to leak the information which implicated the DNC in sabotaging the Sanders campaign.
In an aggressive statement following reports that Rich was the WikiLeaks source, Brad Bauman, the spokesman for the Rich family, who just so happens to be a Democratic Party crisis PR consultant, claims that even if an email [to WikiLeaks] was found, it would not be evidence of foul play.
As Big League Politics has previously reported:
Bauman is a well-known Democratic crisis communications consultant and former Democratic staffer. He is a co-founder and partner of the firm the Pastorum Group. Fellow co-founder Josh Cohen has written for The Atlantic Council, the George Soros-funded think tank that targets pro-Trump journalists, and fellow co-founder Michelle Coyle Edwards was an executive at Rising Tide, which was a Ready For Hillary client.
In releasing their report, PP stated that their findings were given to the family prior to being made public.