Parents of slain DNC staffer beg for information about son’s death
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The parents of murdered Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich are vowing to not let his case go unforgotten and unsolved.
In a press conference Monday afternoon, Mary and Joel Rich, accompanied by GOP lobbyist Jack Burkman, begged the media for help in solving their son’s case. Seth Rich was shot twice in the back and killed in July in what police say was a botched robbery — despite his wallet, phone and watch not being stolen.
In the months since the killing, no arrests have been made. But Mary Rich compared herself to a mother bear looking out for her cubs, saying she refuses to give up on the search.
“My cub is dead, but that doesn’t mean anything. We will find his murderer,” she said. “But, we need all of you to help us bring his murderer to justice.”
Mary Rich said her son fought with two people in the early morning hours of July 10 and was fleeing the area when he was shot twice in the back. She said whoever killed her son would have had bruises, cuts and possibly blood on their body following the struggle.
She asked anyone who might have seen something to contact D.C. police.
Joel Rich said it will be up to the general public to help police solve the case. He begged anyone who might have heard a rumor or knows someone connected to the case to get in touch with police.
“We need help. We need people who knew what was going on,” he said.
“We need your help from whoever can give the police some more information about what happened.”
Burkman, who is offering a $100,000 reward on top of the $25,000 already being offered by police for information on the case, said Rich’s parents deserve to get the closure of seeing their son’s killer brought to justice.
Burkman said he got involved in the case because he remembered thinking back to his mother always telling him to be careful when he walked around Washington, D.C., some 30 years ago when he first moved to the city.
While he thought her concerns were silly, he now realizes how devastating it must have been for Mary Rich to get the call his mother thankfully never did.
“This will never go into the cold case file, at least as long as I’m alive and as long as Mary and Joel are alive, this will go on and on and on,” Burkman said. “Planet Earth is only so big. It’s not a very big planet after all, and we will find people. It’s just a matter of time.”