By DAMIEN REID, InDepthNH.org
As the third week of the Logan Clegg trial started Monday, prosecution witnesses told jurors no blood or DNA samples were found linking him to the murders of Stephen and Wendy Reid.
Two forensic specialists testified on Monday when the trial resumed in Merrimack Superior Court in Concord, State Laboratory criminalists Bryant Kennedy and Katie Lynn Swango. Both expert witnesses testified about the evidence taken from the murder scene and from Clegg after his arrest.
In both cases, the experts did not find physical evidence to connect Clegg to the murders. Kennedy testified that no blood was found on any of the items Clegg possessed when he was arrested in October of 2022 in Vermont.
There was blood tested, all from the area where the Reids were found in the woods off the Marsh Loop Trail in Concord. According to Swango, DNA from that blood found on a pill bottle at the scene matched Wendy Reid, as did the DNA from the blood in a wood debris sample taken from where the bodies were found. There was no evidence presented of blood matching Stephen Reid or any other third party taken from the scene.
The case may end up revolving around the shell casings found at the murder scene a month after the Reids were killed. Clegg owned a Glock 17, 9 mm pistol, and he had a homemade target range in the woods near his tent site. Ballistic tests show the casings found at the murder scene were fired by his gun. However, testing on the bullet and bullet fragments found in the Reids do not link directly to Clegg’s gun.
The defense continued to hammer at the lack of control police had over the site where the bodies were found, and the large time gap around the discovery of the shell casings.
Concord Police Detective Wade Brown started Monday’s trial, taking the stand again and testifying about the searches in the days and weeks between the murders on April 18, 2022 and finding the shell casings on May 20.
The Reids’ bodies were found April 20, 2022, two days after their murders. In the three days after the grim discovery, police locked down the site and searched for evidence. The casings were not found until May 20, when former Senior Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Ward was walking through the site with detectives. Ward testified the casings were found in plain sight.
However, Clegg’s defense team plans to introduce a photo FBI agents took of the scene on May 10 which do not show the casings. There were several searches of the scene between April 20 and May 20, with police bringing in ballistic sniffing dogs and at least one metal detector. Those searches did not result in the casings being found.
Between April 24 and May 20, police did not have the location where the bodies were found secured to keep members of the public out. During that time, detectives installed game cameras, which are activated by movement. Brown testified the cameras took photos of at least two different people in the days before the May 20 search.
Clegg, an enigmatic homeless man from Washington State, has denied shooting the Reids in April of 2022. In the days surrounding the murders, Clegg burned the tent where he was living in the woods and disappeared under an alias.
When he was arrested several months later, Clegg had a passport, a fake Romanian identification, $7,000 in cash, a one-way ticket to Germany, and the Glock.
Clegg was wanted in Utah for probation violations for theft, shoplifting, and gun charges. He was also investigated for killing a man in Washington State, though that was later determined to be an act of self-defense.
Clegg reportedly told Brown he wanted to live in Europe where he could afford rent and possibly have a different life. Clegg told Brown he believed he was held back in the United States because he came from a poor background and did not have the connections to build a career. He told Brown he chose to live outdoors in tents in order to save money to go to Europe.
No motive for the killing has been presented by the state. Both Stephen and Wendy Reid had left their wallets at the Concord apartment when they went hiking, and Clegg is not accused of robbery or any other crime that would explain why he would want to murder the retired couple.