If he was working with Assange, which Assange has hinted at, then Rich would have been given instructions from the start on having secure means of contact and decoys.
I listened to Assange the other day, the way he responded and how the newsguy challenged him to plainly say that Rich had been the leak, and a truly random thought occurred to me: what if the leaker had used Rich’s work computer to prepare the information in a way that didn’t implicate him or her from the logs.
Pure 100% unsubstantiated speculation but it would match up to implying Rich had been murdered as the leak and yet not saying he was the leak, who might still fear for their life.