Discovery of Djeswende and Stephen Reids’ bodies detailed in Logan Clegg trial

CONCORD, NH – A pile of leaves and sticks in the woods, alerted on by a state police sniffer dog named Oakley, was carefully raked, one tiny piece at a time, to slowly uncover the bodies of Djeswende and Stephen Reid, three days after they were reported missing.

The discovery of the Reids’ bodies as night fell April 21, 2022, was revealed photo by photo in a silent Merrimack County Superior Court courtroom Wednesday during the first day of testimony in the trial of Logan Clegg, 27, charged with second-degree murder in the Reids’ shooting deaths.

Concord Police Department Det. Nicole Murray, whose job is to collect crime scene evidence, was led by Assistant Attorney General Ryan Olberding during the afternoon session.

The more than 100 photos first followed Murray’s route along the power lines that led to the Marsh Loop Trail in the Broken Ground Trail System, then down the trail itself. Earlier in the evening, State Trooper Brett Barry’s dog Oakley had alerted on the pile of leaves, sticks and other woodland detritus, through which Barry had spotted what looked like part of a human head.

At the scene under a pop-up tent to protect it from rain forecast to fall that night, Murray took photos as another investigator raked the pile.

“It’s a very slow process,” Murray said. In order not to disturb potential evidence, the raking must be done “very carefully, layer by layer.”

The photos revealed first part of a head, then an ear, then more, until both of the Reids were revealed, Stephen lying face up, and Wendy face down, her legs draped over his. Wendy was wearing black yoga pants, a black top and a yellow jacket or pullover that was pulled inside out and mostly off, much of it discolored by blood. Stephen’s clothes, jeans and a windbreaker, were also disheveled.

A gunshot wound to the ear area of each of the Reids was visible to investigators at the scene.

Family members, including the Reids’ two adult children and Stephen Reid’s sister, Susan Forey, who had testified earlier, sat stoically as Murray’s testimony unfolded.

Forey had reported the couple missing from their apartment at the Alton Woods complex on Loudon Road, a short walk from the trail system. When she reported them missing April 20, 2022, they hadn’t been heard from since Monday, April 18.

“It was clear to us where we found Stephen and Wendy appeared to be a secondary location,” Murray testified Wednesday. What appeared to be drag marks on the ground, as well as the condition of the clothing, which indicated the pair had been dragged, led police up an incline about 50 yards from where the bodies were found to the Marsh Loop Trail. On the trail, near the base of a large pine tree, they found a bullet fragment, as well as blood on some leaves.

Murray also testified about searching the Reids’ apartment earlier on April 21. After the search, which revealed nothing that would lead to their whereabouts, she returned to the police station. Shortly after, another investigator doing a digital search got a ping on the last location of Stephen Reid’s cellphone. The ping coordinates led investigators, including Barry, the police dog handler, to the woods near Marsh Loop Trail. It was an area the search for the Reids hadn’t focused on.

Murray’s testimony will continue Thursday when the trial resumes.

Clegg, dressed in the blue shirt and black pants he’s worn each day since Monday’s jury selection, appeared to listen intently throughout the day, his hand in his chin, or taking notes.

Morning testimony focused on the search for the Reids after Forey called New Hampshire State Police to report them missing the evening of April 20.

Testimony in the trial began with Forey, Stephen Reid’s sister. Assistant Attorney General Joshua Speicher asked Forey if she had brothers, and how many.

“I do,” she said. Then she seemed momentarily at a loss for words before continuing. “I have three brothers. I had four brothers.”

Forey said that late afternoon April 20, she got a text from her brother Peter that Stephen hadn’t shown up for a tennis match that morning and no one could reach him or Djeswende, who went by Wendy.

“That was very unusual for him, he was very polite,” Forey said. He wouldn’t have left people hanging without letting them know he wasn’t going to show up.

Forey’s concerns grew after she went to the Alton Woods complex and saw Wendy and Steve’s cars in the parking lot. She got the apartment complex manager to let her in.

The apartment was clean and neat, with cellphones, eyeglasses and wallets all visible in the kitchen, living room and bedroom.

Forey called family members and friends to see if anyone talked to the couple. No one had. “I realized something was terribly wrong and I had to report them missing,” she said.

Forey is a former state trooper who retired as an executive major after 26 years with the force, and testified that she called state police, rather than the Concord Police Department, because she knew that the department had the resources, search dogs and the ability to jump on the case immediately. She said she believed her colleagues at the state police department would give her concerns credibility. She said she knew the state police would take care of notifying the Concord Police Department.

When Speicher asked Forey if she knew of anyone who would want to harm the Reids, she responded, “No. No. Not.” She paused. “No.”

Defense attorney Mariana Dominguez pressed Forey on that issue during cross-examination.

Dominguez pointed out that when Forey talked to investigators early in the investigation, she’d speculated that refugees who had moved to the area and were familiar with Stephen Reid through his humanitarian work in Africa work could have been responsible for killing the couple.

But Forey responded that she was asked by investigators to speculate on who could’ve done it, and that’s all it was, speculation. She didn’t know of any people or situations that would support that theory.

“That’s in the context of ‘who’d want to harm them,’” she said. “Brainstorming.”

Dominguez also focused on the intended destination of the Reids when they set out for their walk on the afternoon of April 18. They’d earlier in the day declined to join Stephen’s brother Peter and his wife on a walk, saying they wanted to avoid ticks.

Dominguez asked Forey to look at screenshots of text messages about the conversation and also asked her about walking routes the Reids were known to take.

Forey, though, didn’t have much to add. She said she wasn’t familiar with where the couple walked, but only knew what other family members had told her.

Also testifying Wednesday were New Hampshire state troopers James Powers, of Troop A, and Barry, both dog handlers who’d been called in to help search for the Reids on April 20 and 21, and Concord Police Department Det. Kristieann DeSilvio.

In the hours after the search began, Powers came upon a man in a tent in woods near the Alton Woods apartment complex.

The man, who was white and in his 20s or 30s, didn’t come out of the tent, but stuck his head out of the flap. He told Powers that his name was Arthur Kelly, Powers testified in response to questioning by Olberding.

That encounter, and a subsequent one by DeSilvio and CPD Det. Garrett Lemoine, later became key to the investigation into the Reids’ homicides.

The man who identified himself as Arthur Kelly told Powers that he had arrived there earlier in the day and hadn’t seen anyone else. One notable thing about his camp, Powers testified, was a pile of Mountain Dew cans outside.

After Powers left the tent site, he contacted the Concord Police Department and let them know that the man was there.

DeSilvio testified that she and Lemoine went to check out Kelly after Powers notified them about “a homeless encampment” in the woods. While walking to the site, DeSilvio called in an ID check for Arthur Kelly in New Hampshire. The name didn’t come up, she testified under questioning by Assistant Attorney General Meghan Hagarman.

The man told DeSilvio and Lemoine the same thing he’d told Powers – he’d just come up from Boston, Mass., that day and hadn’t seen the Reids or anyone else. He told them he wanted to be left alone.

DeSilvio testified she and Lemoine also noticed the pile of Mountain Dew cans.

In cross-examination of both Powers and DeSilvio, defense attorney Caroline Smith drilled down on the details of what led them to the tent site, and how quickly they focused on it during the search for the Reids.

Smith asked DeSilvio if she was taking the search for the Reids “very seriously” that night. Silvio said she was.

Smith said, “It was a very serious matter, and someone was in the exact place you’re searching.”

DeSilvio acknowledged that was true.

Smith asked DeSilvio if the fact that there was a pile of 15 to 20 Mountain Dew cans, as DeSilvio testified, meant that the man in the tent had probably been there longer than he said he had.

“Possibly,” DeSilvio said.

Barry, of Troop C, testified that he and Oakley had been called in to search for the Reids. After a fruitless day of searching April 21, he and two other state troopers were notified about the ping leading to Stephen Reid’s location.

After Oakley alerted on a large pile of leaves and sticks, even trying to dig into it with her snout, Barry pulled the dog away and saw what looked to be part of a human head and hair.

Barry pulled her away and Concord Police Department detectives, who had made their way to the location along the Marsh Loop Trail, took over.

Clegg is charged with two counts of second-degree murder for “knowingly causing the death” of each of the Reids, two alternative second-degree murder charges for “recklessly causing” their deaths, three counts of falsifying physical evidence and one count of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and one count of falsifying physical evidence (a Class B felony) was added.

He’s been held in Merrimack County Jail since he was extradited to New Hampshire following his arrest on a Utah fugitive warrant in South Burlington, Vermont, Oct. 12, 2022.

Prosecutors have listed 89 possible witnesses in the case, and the defense has listed 63. The trial is scheduled through Oct. 20.