By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Walking the scene of Stephen and Wendy Reids’ murders a month after the shocking crime, and weeks after police had combed the same area for clues, then-Senior Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Ward made a stunning find.
Ward testified Tuesday in Logan Clegg’s murder trial that as he walked around the woods on the Marsh Loop Trail close to where the bodies of the Reids were found, he looked down to find brass casings fired from a 9 mm pistol, the same caliber used by the killer.
The trial restarted Tuesday in Merrimack Superior Court in Concord after the long weekend with testimony from police detectives involved in the case, as well as Ward who was heading the New Hampshire Attorney General’s response to the April 2022 murders at the time. Ward has since moved on to become a federal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office in Concord.
His discovery of what could be key evidence in May of 2022 make him a potentially pivotal witness, a position he’s never been in before.
“I’ve certainly never testified in a homicide trial before,” Ward said from the stand.
The shell casings thought to be from the gun that fired the fatal shots were not found in the days immediately after the bodies of Stephen and Wendy Reid were discovered on April 21, 2022. In fact, it’s not clear if they were there at all when police first combed through the same woods.
Defense attorney Caroline Smith showed Ward a crime scene picture of the area when he found the bullet casings, and asked him if he could see them in the photo. Ward testified he could not be sure based on the photo.
“It looks like metal to me under that stick, but I can’t be sure,” Ward said.
However, when Ward went to the scene with police detectives on May 20, 2022, he testified the casings were easily spotted on the ground, though partially obscured by some sticks and pine needles.
Police closed off the area in the days after the Reids were discovered. The casings were not found during the first search. The trail and woods had reopened to the public for weeks when Ward made his findings. By this time, investigators already knew the Reids were killed by a gun firing 9 mm bullets, the most popular handgun caliber in the U.S.
The next big find were the eight 9 mm casings in an area close to where Clegg had a camping site, Concord Police Det. Danica Gotham testified. Clegg reportedly had set up a target range to shoot his Glock 17 handgun.
All of the casings, from the murder scene and Clegg’s target range, were 9 mm Sig Sauer brand ammunition. While ballistics testing has linked the casings to Clegg’s gun, the test results on the two bullets recovered from the murders are not definitive. The testing confirms only that the bullets were fired from a 9 mm pistol, possibly a Glock or other gun maker.
Clegg was living in a tent in the woods where the retired Reids were known to hike several times a week. Clegg fled the state soon after the murders. He was arrested in October of 2022 in Vermont where he was also living in a tent in a wooded area.
There’s no known motive for the crime. The Reids were not robbed, and Clegg did not know the couple. Clegg had $7,000 in cash, a one-way ticket to Germany, and a false passport when he was arrested.
Stephen Reid had recently retired from a career in the foreign service, working in African countries and Haiti for the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID. The USAID is the agency that administers foreign aid funds, among other missions for the U.S.