By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – When Logan Clegg appeared in court Monday accused of murdering Stephen and Djeswende Reid last April, it was unknown if his mother Tisha Clegg or any family members were watching via Webex from Washington state.
Tisha Clegg works as a paralegal in Spokane, Wash., and could not be reached by phone or Facebook Monday. Clegg’s father Randy Clegg reportedly committed suicide when Logan Clegg was 12.
According to published reports, Clegg has mostly been estranged from his family and has preferred living off the grid, often alone in a tent as he did in Concord, or traveling the world as he was also known to do.
Logan Clegg, 27, has proved so far to be a mystery man, having traveled to Europe, and when arrested in Burlington Vt., police found a loaded Glock handgun, a ticket to Berlin, Germany, $7,150 in cash and a Romanian passport bearing Clegg’s photo with the name Claude Zemo.
But one mother, Lisa Ward, was watching Clegg’s appearance in New Hampshire closely via Webex as allowed by the court from Spokane because Clegg stabbed her son, Corey, to death on May 17, 2018. Authorities ruled it self-defense at the time.
Ward never believed it and thinks Corey was trying to stop Clegg from stealing his car; Corey was unarmed when Clegg fatally stabbed him. Clegg continued that night on his way to work at a McDonald’s there after stabbing Corey.
Ward has read the news coverage and police reports about Clegg in New England and various blogs and podcasts about the New Hampshire murders.
“He appeared sickly,” Ward said Monday after Clegg’s appearance in Merrimack Superior Court in Concord. She wondered if he might have contracted COVID-19.
Clegg, who has been held without bail, appeared thin, wore a face mask and said nothing in court. He waived arraignment. His appearance before Judge John Kissinger was his first since being arrested last October.
Stephen, 67, and Djeswende Reid, 66, had retired to Concord after Stephen’s 30-plus year “career as an international development specialist in service to the world’s most vulnerable through USAID humanitarian projects,” according to a statement the family released after their deaths.
On Monday, Clegg’s attorney argued against prosecutors’ request to unseal a police affidavit they had previously asked to seal.
Clegg’s public defender Caroline Smith argued against unsealing.
“This is essentially a one-sided summary of the state’s best case or law enforcement’s best case,” Smith told the judge, who didn’t immediately rule on the motion.
Lisa Ward in Spokane is hoping the Reid family sees justice.
“I am happy for the Reid family that the trial was set for July and not later this year. I pray that they will get some type of closure after the trial,” Ward said. “I am confident that justice will be served.”
Clegg is accused of murdering the Reids as they walked along a nature path near their home in Concord, not far from a tent where Clegg had been living while working at a McDonald’s in Concord.
Police say Clegg moved and tried to hide their bodies and set fire to his tent after their deaths.
Clegg is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly shooting the Reids “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference” on April 18, 2022.