Who Was Seth Rich?

[liminalOyster]

Media is running with notion that he was murdered by "a serial killer" or "hired killer." I darkly lol-ed. As per latter, well you dont say......? I will be curious if Seth is soon "discovered" to have had say some sort of gambling debt. If so will be interesting (and sad) when his parents find their allies jumping ship.

[Cordelia]

Media is running with notion that he was murdered by "a serial killer" or "hired killer." I darkly lol-ed. As per latter, well you dont say......? I will be curious if Seth is soon "discovered" to have had say some sort of gambling debt. If so will be interesting (and sad) when his parents find their allies jumping ship.

Exactly; an official, collective sigh of relief will resonate Capitol Hill if there's reason to blame the victim for a vice, or potentially dangerous activity. No reason to diligently investigate Rich's murder if there's any indication that he might have 'brought it on himself'!

Edit to add--the possibility of a 'Serial Killer' could ignite panic in affluent wards, resulting in real demands on MPDC so that theory can't gain traction.

[liminalOyster]

The only divergence is that he has not yet been setup as a potential drug addict (as Michael Hastings was) who could've owed money to a local dealer. This surprises me as it seems the most obvious and expected route.

Did Wikileaks tweet a response?

edited: yes they did but pretty empty

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/877220736473190400

ps. how do I embed a tweet in this old jalopy?

[Cordelia]

^^^ don't know, even on my new model (w/too many choices, apps, bells & whistles I can't--don't even want to--figure out)


Looks like mainstream media may well go w/'Serial Killer' cop-out; Newsweek anyway:

Seth Rich Murder: Likely a Serial Killer, Not a Robbery

Forensic-psychology experts with the Profiling Project spent three months trying to confirm or debunk conspiracy theories about Democratic National Committee emails and WikiLeaks.

A serial killer is likely behind the murder of North Carolina Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, according to forensic-psychology students and instructors, who spent three months investigating the homicide. Those researchers, who volunteer at the Profiling Project, an independent group, published their findings on Tuesday in an 83-page report.

The Profiling Project, based in Arlington, Virginia, consists of around 20 volunteers who are current and former George Washington University forensic-psychology graduate students and instructors. The report states that Rich’s July 2016 “death does not appear to be a random homicide” or “a robbery gone bad,” as police had suggested. Instead, the report says, the “death was more likely committed by a hired killer or serial murderer,” and that the killer is likely still at large.

“The person folks [should be] looking for and considering isn’t a robber who kills, but really is a killer, and maybe a killer that doesn’t rob,” says Kevin Doherty, a recent George Washington University graduate and one of the volunteers with the Profiling Project. “The fact that this person has gotten away with it shows a level of proficiency.”

http://www.newsweek.com/seth-rich-murde ... ect-627634

[liminalOyster]

Wonkette etc will do a puff piece on DC serial killers on history shortly I imagine. Plotline will be written into CSI shortly I trust with nice little reminder reveal that sometimes the world is just scary and chaotic and crazy people invent CTs to assuage their discomfort. On this note I currently am staying in DC area for a few months and my gut says serial killers are still not too big a concern. OTOH I will continue to make special effort not to leak the damning emails of power brokers if and when i should come acroas them in my line of work.

[Cordelia]

From Newsweek article:

Those researchers, who volunteer at the Profiling Project, an independent group, published their findings on Tuesday in an 83-page report.

I wonder how 45 pages became 83. Oh well, I guess another round to further bury this case in bullshit. Good job, MM, PP, MPDC,etc...

https://www.scribd.com/document/3518056 ... from_embed

[liminalOyster]

BOOM !!!

Page 10:

We were unable to ascertain if Seth used drugs, but he did seem to be a heavy drinker. His Reddit profile indicates that he had in-depth knowledge of sports betting metrics and may have engaged in sports betting. Reportedly, in his last Facebook posting prior being shot, Seth posted “I have family and friends on both sides of the law” which may indicate an understanding of the criminal system.

How can they be this fucking obvious about it?

Prediction: Seth Rich is going to be remembered as the poster-boy of some sort of anti-gambling PSA.

[JackRiddler]

Seth posted “I have family and friends on both sides of the law” which may indicate an understanding of the criminal system.

which may indicate nothing the fuck at all.

"in-depth knowledge of sports betting metrics" = half the urban professional male population?

[liminalOyster]

Seth posted “I have family and friends on both sides of the law” which may indicate an understanding of the criminal system.

which may indicate nothing the fuck at all.

I'd go even further and say it may even negatively indicate against any understanding of "the criminal system" wherein many if not most parties operate on both "sides" of the law.

Edit: Also - what the fuck is "the criminal system." And where do I apply to do admin, analysis or integration for it?

[liminalOyster]

Just created a Google Alert for +"Seth Rich" +gambling. Will report back if unfolds as I predict.

edit: Don't want to create more clutter so editing this one. The report is pretty much stupid and similar to an undergraduate honors thesis in quality, in a nutshell. It operates on the assumption that Seth not being executed rules out various theories. IOW, he can't have been the leaker, for instance, because the killer didn't simply ensure he was finished off. No space for - why might he have been shot in this manner by someone seeking to make "an example" out of him. Much less, god knows, for - if someone in the MPD had been in on the crime, could they have gamed the events that followed and why might they have wanted to do so?

[Cordelia]

Just created a Google Alert for +"Seth Rich" +gambling. Will report back if unfolds as I predict.

edit: Don't want to create more clutter so editing this one. The report is pretty much stupid and similar to an undergraduate honors thesis in quality, in a nutshell. It operates on the assumption that Seth not being executed rules out various theories. IOW, he can't have been the leaker, for instance, because the killer didn't simply ensure he was finished off. No space for - why might he have been shot in this manner by someone seeking to make "an example" out of him. Much less, god knows, for - if someone in the MPD had been in on the crime, could they have gamed the events that followed and why might they have wanted to do so?

I agree. And w/o the autopsy & toxicology reports (will a FOIA request, which, with DC Govt., can take a very long time, be granted detailed or summary reports?) or access to the case file (not available to anyone), isn’t the report based more on statistics and feeding whatnot information into whatever specialized software?

Still, I’m finding it kind of an interesting read (though the 90 degree angle on the unsolved 2016 data is hard on my neck). Maybe not so much about Rich, but in general. It also points out how his not knowing he’d been shot, therefore most likely didn’t face his attacker(s), further confirms the outrageousness of the ‘botched’ robbery story put forward by police and media. If not to send a message, why not call it a rare ‘random’ murder?

[liminalOyster]

Intrepid: /s

A Lobbyist’s “Report” About Seth Rich’s Death Is Just More Fodder for Conspiracy Theorists
Written by Benjamin Freed | Published on June 20, 2017

Apparently, neither the family of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich nor the police investigating his murder can get more than a few weeks’ break before getting dragged back into the conspiracy theories swirling around his killing last July. The latest: a “preliminary report” released Tuesday by a research group established by Washington lobbyist Jack Burkman, which claims that Rich’s early-morning slaying was carried out by a “hired killer or serial murderer.”

The 45-page report—the product of Burkman’s Profiling Project made up of forensics students at George Washington University—backs up its conclusions on a series of hunches, rather than actual evidence. More troubling than that is the potential effect it will have in undermining the public credibility of the ongoing investigation by DC’s Metropolitan Police Department, which has stated numerous times that Rich’s death appears to be the result of an attempted robbery that escalated into violence.

Here’s what is known, according to previous police statements: Rich was shot about 4:19 AM last July 10 outside his home in the Bloomingdale neighborhood and was taken to a hospital, where he died of his wounds. While Rich’s wallet, watch, and other belongings were on his body, bruises on his hands, knees, and face were consistent with signs of a physical struggle, as was a tear to his watch band. But the shooting went down in a poorly lit area and without much coverage by surveillance cameras, making Rich’s killing difficult to investigate.

Unfortunately, the combination of Rich’s employer, an embarrassing dump of Democratic Party emails by Wikileaks, and a tough crime scene was ripe for an emerging political wing made up of people easily convinced by unfounded conspiracy theories. Burkman says he does not subscribe to the theory that claims Rich was gunned down because he was Wikileaks’ source. Rather, he has made equally unfounded claims that Rich was killed as cover for the Russian government’s hacking of DNC computer systems.

Today’s document actually tries to knock down Burkman’s guess, saying it’s unlikely Rich was killed at hands of Kremlin goons “unless a toxin was introduced into Seth.” (It makes the same argument to discredit the claim that a DNC hit squad did it.) But even after months of reviewing media reports, Rich’s social media profiles, and the location of the killing, this privately financed and conducted report is a series of guesses that is more likely to stoke the conspiracies rather than put them to bed.

Why is that? Because the police investigation is still ongoing, and the department is not going to release any evidence into the public while it continues to investigate Rich’s death. But the police are in a tricky spot here. Showing their work before the case is closed would likely damage the investigation, while their official—and correct—refusal to comment is manna for the conspiracy theorists. This was the situation last month, when Fox News Channel and local Fox station WTTG ran reports citing a private investigator named Rod Wheeler, who claimed to have seen evidence that Rich was in communication with Wikileaks before he died. And even though the stories quickly fell apart when it was revealed that Wheeler had just repeated a Fox News staffer’s guesses back to her, it fueled the amateur sleuthing for days both online and on television, where Fox News host Sean Hannity spent the better part of a week stoking his empty guesses. Meanwhile, the police had to try to shout above the conspiracy noise to remind people that it is investigating Rich’s death as a homicide that resulted from an attempted robbery, and that murder investigations are often be long, painful, and unsatisfying processes.

Burkman might be on a different wavelength than Hannity, but he comes from the same spectrum. The lobbyist, who’s also said he’s offering a $105,000 reward for information that solves the Rich case, recently sued the District to release the police department’s initial ballistics report and a medical examiner’s report. And at a press conference Tuesday to release his report, he added that Rich’s death must not be a “street crime” because of the rewards offered by him, DC police, and other entities.

“We know these aren’t street crimes,” he said. “For God’s sake, you’ve got $340,000 in reward money. If this was a street crime people would be all over that.”

In other words, absence of evidence is the basis for one’s desired conclusion, and there’s no new evidence from Burkman’s Profiling Project.
Amid this, it’s easy to lose sight of Rich’s family, who once stood alongside Burkman when he offered his initial reward but have since distanced themselves from the lobbyist. A spokesman for the family, Brad Bauman, says the Riches have nothing to do with today’s stunt and would prefer the public to follow the police investigation.

“The Rich family was not provided a copy of the preliminary report, never saw the report or was otherwise consulted in the preparation of the report,” Bauman says. “As noted, by the report’s own methodology, ‘The Profiling Project was given no special access to any materials, evidence or persons and due to case sensitivity, conducted only informal, limited interviews. Given that fact, the family hopes that the general public takes the findings at face value—valuable experience in research collection and report writing for students at George Washington University but in no way should take any findings contained within as new, credible or otherwise lending credence to conspiracy theories surrounding the circumstances of Seth’s death. We further hope that this doesn’t continue to impede the Metropolitan Police Department’s ability to find the killers and give folks who might have information leading to their arrest cover to stay silent.”

https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/06/2 ... theorists/

[Elvis]

A serial killer is likely behind the murder of North Carolina Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, according to forensic-psychology students and instructors

"North Carolina"? Where the hell does that come from?

This is all so funny; dreaming up every possible scenario to avoid the most likely.

Somewhere, someone wrote that Seth's girlfriend was at least willing to consider the killing could be a "hit"; I wonder what she thinks?

[km artlu]

Media is running with notion that he was murdered by "a serial killer" or "hired killer."

It could be an elephant or a giraffe. Hard to say, with them both being mammals. Hey guys - let's have a crime investigation and entirely discount and conflate the factor of motivation. Sadistic reveling in murder as a dark and twisted blood sport or cold calculated execution in pursuit of practical ends. Really hard to see any difference there.

[Cordelia]

Off topic I know, but the 'Profiling Project' report lists the names of the victims of other unsolved D.C. murders in 2016 in a (literally) haphazard way. They’re only factored in statistically and racially, but their names deserve faces; their families suffer too.

https://mpdc.dc.gov/page/major-caseunso ... cides-2016

(Only two of the original 66 cases have been closed--which doesn’t necessarily mean solved—this year.)