MARY RICH (SETH RICH'S MOTHER): I want the people who started the lies, who are responsible for the lies, held accountable. This has got to stop.
TOM LLAMAS (ABC NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT): Twelve days after Seth's murder, WikiLeaks published more than 44,000 hacked DNC [Democratic National Committee] emails. U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia is behind the attack. But the Rich family says fringe political groups starting spreading a conspiracy theory that Seth, who worked for the DNC, leaked the emails.
JOEL RICH (SETH RICH'S FATHER): The fact that he worked for the DNC and the timing worked for those who had other motives.
LLAMAS: Seth's parents say there never any evidence connecting their son to WikiLeaks.
MARY RICH: His computer didn't have anything on it. He would never have done it.
LLAMAS: But they say that didn't stop Fox News. In their lawsuit the Riches claim a Fox investigative reporter and a Republican donor with ties to the network lied to the family to win their trust, promising to help solve their son's murder, when actually according to the lawsuit, they were planning to tie Seth to the DNC hack, painting their son as a criminal and a traitor to the United States. The story ran prominently on Fox News, including on Sean Hannity's show.
[...]
Roughly a week later, Fox retracting the story.
[...]
MARY RICH: They never called us to check any facts. They took a rumor and ran with it.
LLAMAS: The Rich family says their son's reputation is forever tarnished. They now hope to find justice in court.
MARY RICH: We lost his body the first time, and the second time we lost his soul. They took more from us with the lies, so we want our son's life and his soul restored, and I want our life back so we can move forward again.
LLAMAS: Now the Riches say they never received an apology from Fox News. The only thing that network is commenting on is that the Republican donor accused in the lawsuit of orchestrating this, Ed Butowsky, was never a contributor, as stated in the lawsuit, only an on air guest. Butwosky, for his part, telling ABC News, "I tried to help the Rich family find out who murdered their son. I thought and continue to think that is important. DC police have told us they're still investigating this case and looking for Seth's killer.
