Justice for Stephen and Djeswende Reid

Steve Reid was one of five children, the second oldest, born in March of 1955. His future wife, Djeswende “Wendy” Pasgo, was born 11 months later, in February of 1956, a world away, in West Africa, in the country of Togo.

Their extraordinary lives would bring them together. They would have two children. They would leave their mark on the world. And they would be murdered between 2:54PM and 2:59PM on the afternoon of Monday, April 18th, of this year.

Steve’s early life

Steve was a high schooler in one of the most tumultuous times in modern US history, from 1969 to 1973. And despite his non-confrontational and shy disposition, he was forced to take a side. Students in his town of Concord, New Hampshire, were facing the prospect of being drafted to fight in the Vietnam war, and wearing your hair long, other than a choice of personal style, was often interpreted as a statement of defiance against the war.

A classmate of Steve’s, Susan Faretra, remembered him “as a quiet, nice boy who always wore his hair short.” Steve, though he wouldn’t shirk from confrontation, did was expected of him.

Another friend from high school, Mike Serard, remembered him as “kind, conscientious, and intelligent.” Steve was a defensive back for the Concord High School football team, and a teammate of his recalled that “he tried hard at sports, but that wasn’t his strength. His smarts were.” Though it may not have been his strength, he did manage to set a new record for the most number of interceptions in a single game.

After graduating in 1973 he went on to the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated with highest honors five years later with a Bachelors in English. And despite taking the LSAT’s and receiving several full scholarship offers to different law schools, Steve instead decided to join the Peace Corps, an organization that provides help to those in countries that most need it.

Steve’s early career

As a young man of 24 years old, Steve arrived in Niger, a western African country dominated by the Sahara Desert. He worked in a town called Madoua as an English teacher in a local middle school for 4 years. Fellow Peace Corps colleagues and friends that he met there, Cass and Mike Naugle, remembered him as the “epitome” of a Peace Corps volunteer: “honest, hardworking, a good listener, and just plain nice.” Not only did he learn French, which was required of all volunteers in the region, he also immersed himself fully in the local language, Hausa.

Cass later said, “I think if anyone could represent our country anywhere, he would be the perfect person.”

Steve meets Wendy

In 1982, Steve returned to the United States to take a position at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C., as a liaison to several West African countries. But more importantly, Steve met Wendy.

Djeswende Pasgo, who went by “Wendy,” was in DC at the same moment as a college student on a basketball scholarship. Wendy was the eldest of 9 children and grew up in Togo, another West African country, where she played for the Togolese National Basketball Team. She had competed internationally in places like Shanghai, Buenos Aires, Cairo, and Mexico City. She spoke French, English, and Moore, the language of her extended family, who hailed from Burkina Faso, one of Togo’s neighbors. Even today, there are strong gender roles in West Africa, and it was through the support of her father, who was a prominent pastor, that she was able to pursue her dreams in athletics.

A mutual friend had introduced them to one another, knowing that they had some shared experiences in West Africa. Wendy was stunned to find an American who spoke French and the Niger language of Hausa. She was beautiful and athletic and ambitious, and Steve was interested. Some of their first dates were on the tennis court, and they bonded over their shared desire for adventure and fitness.

Within a year, Steve brought Wendy to his hometown in Concord, NH, to introduce her to his family and friends, and she made a great impression.

A far-flung wedding

They got engaged, and Wendy put her studies on hold when Steve was given a promotion to associate director in Senegal. With their blossoming romance and Steve’s impending move, Wendy put her studies on hold and returned to West Africa with him. In 1984, they married in Senegal, as Steve was leading numerous projects relating to reforestation, water supply, language training, and community development.

In 1986, Steve and Wendy returned stateside for her to give birth to their daughter, Lindsay Wenkouni Reid.

Steve left the Peace Corps to attend Syracuse University where he got his master’s degree in public administration while Wendy worked to support their growing family.

In 1990, their final child, Brian Daniel Reid, was born.

Steve & Wendy’s international career

Steve was recruited by the U.S. Agency for International Development, abbreviated USAID, to work in Burkina Faso. He directed projects relating to food security and climate change across West Africa while Wendy worked in the American Embassy in the capital city.

Steve was soft-spoken and humble and he gained the respect, admiration, and trust of those he served. And Wendy was often by his side, accompanying on field visits, organizing logistics, and translating and editing documents in French and English.

Once the kids were a bit older, Wendy returned to her studies, completing her degree in business administration in 2003, magna cum laude, in one of the largest and most urban cities of West Africa: Dakar, Senegal. Suffolk University, a Boston-based institution, has a campus there. She then got a job for the university as an admissions counselor, recruiting and supporting students from West Africa.

Steve’s long career in international development took them many places, and they found themselves in Haiti in 2010 when a catastrophic earthquake hit. Though many other Americans fled the country, Steve and Wendy stayed to help and even took in two of their colleagues to live with them for seven months. Mark Reid, Steve’s brother, remembered his sentiment: “we’re not going to abandon the project that we came here to do, especially now.”

Retirement

In 2019, after a 30-year career, Steve and Wendy Reid retired, returning to Steve’s childhood home in New Hampshire. Wendy was nervous about the cold of New England—most of her life had been spent close to the equator in West Africa. But Steve got her set up with a cozy red winter coat, a good pair of mittens, and winter hiking gear to embrace the cold. She ended up hiking through the winter with her sister-in-law, Barbara, even doing day-hikes in Franconia Notch in the White Mountains.

Wendy continued to work for a non-profit called the New Hampshire Minority Health Coalition, and donated her time to help new immigrants succeed in the US.

Initially, Steve’s siblings wondered if he would be able to settle back into Concord and adapt to a slower pace of life, but it became clear to them that he was at peace. Steve started playing doubles tennis with his brother, Peter. Peter said the he was improving quickly, reading tennis books, watching YouTube tutorials, and sharpening his skills. Peter recalled, “He kept getting better and better, and then he started beating people.”

Steve and Wendy were settling into their new life and moved into a sprawling apartment community called Alton Woods, just north of Concord.

Wendy still celebrated her African culture, especially in her cooking. She’d spend days cooking some of Steve’s favorite dishes, and the family all recalled her famous ‘leaf sauce’, a meal that took three days to make. It was made with spinach, chunks of beef, huge shrimp, and Maryland blue crabs. But Wendy loved New England cuisine, too. She was a big fan of lobster. They were starting to think about Thanksgiving and the prospect of hosting the family at their new home in Alton Woods in 2022.

Meet Logan Clegg

As the Reids were settling down for retirement, another man who they had never met, Logan Clegg, was making his mark on the world out west.

He was born in January of 1996, younger than either of Steve and Wendy’s two children, and was an only child. His father, Randy, died at 38 years old, when Logan was just 12. He and his mother, Tisha, lived in her family’s home of Colville, Washington, a rural town of 4,000 in the mountains of northeast Washington State. Little is known about his youth. The Boston Globe reached out to Colville residents and people didn’t seem to remember him.

By the time he was 22, in May of 2018, he fatally stabbed a man in Spokane, Washington. According to Logan, he was on his way to work, walking on foot, when Corey Ward, a 19-year-old, started yelling at him and calling him names from his apartment window. Things escalated, Corey left his apartment, and confronted Logan outside. Logan said that he had told him, “I’m here. Let’s go.” Logan saw that the man was bigger than him and he feared he would be badly beaten, so he decided to defend himself. He pulled out a small knife that he kept in his front pocket, stabbed Corey several times, and then continued his walk to work at McDonald’s, arriving with a facial injury and blood on his hand. As he was clocking in at work a mile away, a neighbor heard Corey yelling out that he had been stabbed, and they called 9-1-1. Paramedics arrived just before midnight and found him lying on the grass near the roadway. They discovered numerous cuts and stab wounds on his jaw, chest, left arm, and back, and though they tried to save him, it was too late. He was pronounced dead just after midnight.

Corey’s mother, Lisa Ward, said that her son’s last words were, “I was beating someone up and he stabbed me in the heart.” But she believes it was Logan that provoked Corey, not the other way around. She suspects that he was trying to break into his car, and Corey went out to confront him.

Police searched both men’s devices and concluded that there was no prior communication between them. The incident seemed like a strange violent escalation with no motive and no explanation. The district attorney’s office reviewed the facts of the case and decided not to bring any criminal charges against Logan, but it wouldn’t be the last bit of senseless violence that Logan was involved in.

Logan gets in trouble with the law

Logan was largely homeless during this time. He lived out of tents, used cash, and had no social media presence. He was off the grid. But he had saved up some money, had a valid US Passport, and a penchant for travel. In October of 2019 he flew from Denver, Colorado to Paris, France, and returned 10 days later, flying into Las Vegas, Nevada.

In July of 2020, Logan stole a .45 caliber handgun from a sporting goods store in a small town in northern Utah. He wasn’t caught right away, but the store owner reported the serial number of the gun to the authorities. A month later, Logan was in Salt Lake City and shoplifted from a local Walmart. They caught him immediately and three officers converged on him. In the police report, it read that Logan complained that, quote, “three officers taking on just him wasn’t fair,” and “he wished had had the chance to pull [the gun] out and fight one on one.” He said that “he’d rather die than go to prison.” In addition to the shoplifting charges from Walmart, the police ran the serial on his gun and discovered it had been stolen and charged him for that as well.

Just a couple of weeks later, back in northern Utah, Logan was arrested again in response to a “burglary in progress” 9-1-1 call. He tried to flee from the officers when they arrived, but they quickly caught him and discovered a second stolen handgun—a 9mm Czech-made handgun that was reported stolen by the same sporting goods store. It would be his third stealing-related charge in just a couple months. Before booking him they searched the rest of his things and found a set of lockpicks in his bag. When asked about them, Logan said, “A friend [of mine] in Europe sent them to me to practice with. He has a hardware store and a locksmith business in Europe and offered me an apprenticeship when I arrive.” He served four days in jail until he was released on bail.

In November, in a likely plea deal, Logan pled guilty to felony-level theft charges, and was placed on 35 months of probation in Utah with the condition that he must attend courses, serve 72 days in jail, maintain employment, and maintain contact with a probation officer. He was prohibited from owning a gun, too.

Logan goes off the grid

But just six months later, he left the country again, flying from Chicago to Lisbon, Portugal. He stayed in Europe for 6 months, didn’t contact his probation officer, and missed a court date on July 7th of 2021, which triggered a judge to issue an arrest warrant for him. He finally returned to the US on November 7th, 2021, flying into Logan International in Boston, Massachusetts.

Logan decided to stay New England, abandoning his probation in Utah. He bought a tent and supplies and continued to stay off the grid. He found a forested area north of Concord called Broken Ground and made his home in the woods. Through the winter—from November of 2021 to April of 2022—Logan survived in the wilderness. He submitted an application to McDonald’s on November 10th, was hired right away, and worked there from November 19th until February 6th. His manager thought that he might be homeless because it appeared to her that he was living out of his backpack. It was about a 2 mile walk from McDonald’s to his campsite. He kept warm with small disposable propane tanks that he bought from a nearby Walmart that he used in a portable heater.

In February, 6 days after he quit at McDonald’s, he traveled to Barre, Vermont, 120 miles away, where he went to R&L Archery, a sporting goods store, and used cash to purchase a Glock 9mm handgun and 3 boxes of Sig Luger ammunition. The store asked him for identification and he presented a Vermont license with the name Arthur Kelly. They ran a search on the license, and discovered it was, quote, “not on file”, indicating it was likely fraudulent, but they sold the gun to him anyway.

At the end of February, Logan had booked a flight from Boston to Reykjavik, Iceland, but he didn’t show up for his departure. In March, he mail-ordered two 17-round magazines for his handgun from a shop in Iowa and had them shipped to Concord.

Which brings us to Monday, April 18th, 2022, the day after Easter Sunday.

Steve and Wendy go for a hike in the woods

Steve and Wendy had just spent Easter Sunday with his family and decided on Monday to go for a hike on a nearby trail that they were familiar with called Marsh Loop Trail, located within a heavily forested area called Broken Ground. It was early April, and the ground was still wet from the thaw. Trees were still bare, but hints of green were starting to arrive. Crocuses and other early spring ephemerals were in bloom. Spear-like daffodil leaves had broken the ground and were gathering sunlight. It was chilly—in the low 50’s—and it had just frozen overnight.

They left their home in the early afternoon, at 2:22PM, walked to the back of their apartment complex, cut across a powerline field, took a left on Portsmouth Street, which crossed under the interstate, and took them to the trailhead. They started down Marsh Loop Trail into the forest.

As they were making their way to the trailhead, Logan Clegg left a grocery store nearby—Shaw’s supermarket—just a 1/2 mile from their front door, at 2:30PM. He crossed busy Loudon Road on foot and started walking the same field that they had just traversed.

At 2:54PM, Logan encountered the two hikers, fired five shots with his 9mm handgun, and killed Steve and Wendy Reid. He quickly dragged their bodies off the trail and into the forest.

Steve and Wendy reported missing

When Steve and Wendy didn’t return home, nobody noticed right away. They didn’t live with anyone else and they were still new to the community. The sun set that Monday night, and their bodies remained hidden in the forest and preserved by the cold spring air. On Tuesday there were phone calls that weren’t answered, and concern was growing, but it wasn’t until Wednesday morning, when Steve didn’t show up for his weekly tennis game, that Steve’s family reported them missing to the Concord Police Department.

The family went to Alton Woods to check in on them, and a property manager let Steve’s son, Brian, into their apartment to look around. He recalled that “the bed was neatly made, a window was open, and both of their phones were still in the apartment.” Both of their cars were there and so was his father’s wallet. How could they simply disappear?

A family member sent out an alert through an app called “Neighbors by Ring” along with a photo of them, requesting anyone with a Ring Doorbell—which takes motion-activated video recordings—to check their footage for any sign of Steve and Wendy.

Concord Police conducted a search of the Alton Woods apartment community and the woods behind it.

The first double homicide in 40 years

The sun set again on Wednesday night with no hint as to what had happened to them, but on Thursday night, their bodies were discovered in the woods. It is unknown who discovered their remains or how, but the police did not claim credit for it. The police, however, quickly responded and immediately realized that they were dealing with a homicide.

They cordoned off the crime scene and K-9 units were immediately dispatched to search for bullets and electronics.

On Friday, news of the double-homicide broke. Medical Examiner Mitchell Weinberg conducted an autopsy on Friday and confirmed the obvious: that they had both died of multiple gunshot wounds. The attorney general’s office held a press conference with the Concord Police and requested the public’s help. They asked that any of the homes or businesses in the area with video surveillance to check their footage for the Reids. Concord Police Chief Brad Osgood tried to reassure people, saying, “Concord is one of the safest cities in one of the safest states in the United States. This was a tragedy—it came out of nowhere—and we’re going to be doing our due diligence, investing all our resources [to find out what happened].”

Geoffrey Ward, with the AG’s office, said, “We have no specific information that would lead us to believe that the public in general is at risk, but with that being said, be vigilant. Concord Police will continue to be vigilant with patrols in areas where there are public outdoor recreational spaces.”

City Councilor Fred Keach said, “I don’t recall a double homicide in the last 40 years. It’s a very unusual situation, which is why it got so much attention—because it doesn’t happen in Concord.”

As the chieftains gathered with the press, local police officers, state police, and game wardens processed the crime scene. By Saturday, they appeared to have been mostly done. Andrew Brinker, a Boston Globe reporter, walked the paths. He noticed that the trails were desolate. The only signs of life were the orange-, yellow-, pink-, and blue-colored ribbons that fluttered in the breeze and marked out the areas where the police had conducted their search. The only people he encountered were officials making a last sweep of the area.

Family speaks out

On Sunday, the Reid family released a statement, signed by Steve and Wendy’s children, Brian and Lindsay, that conveyed a snapshot of their lives and asked the public for help. They also acknowledged the “extraordinary efforts in the investigation.”

Early rumors suggested that they might have been targeted because of their mixed races, but there was no evidence that proved or disproved that notion.

Lives celebrated, deaths mourned

2 months after their murder, the family held a memorial service at a winery in Derry, a town in southeast New Hampshire, just 45 minutes from Boston. Perhaps they chose it, in part, because of its proximity to a major international airport, because people came from all over the world to celebrate their lives and mourn their deaths.

Brian and Lindsay discovered a sealed letter, written by their father, in his apartment, to be read in the event of his death. It served as a roadmap for how Steve wanted them to live out their lives without him.

Steve’s brother, Mark Reid, said, “[just that alone] could have been the eulogy, because it was his own words to his wife and children and on the importance of values, living your life to the fullest, and being humble regardless of whether you were talking to a maid or a CEO of a company. It was his life in a letter.”

More than 250 people attended the memorial. One of Wendy’s siblings, her brother, Jacob Pasgo, came all the way from Burkina Faso. Friends and colleagues came from Haiti. Peace Corps members came from everywhere. Family members each gave their own eulogies and letters from friends who could not attend were read aloud.

The family discovered and shared some of Steve’s writings. He had written dozens of love letters to Wendy, and his messages were beautiful with complex but precise language. Peter Reid was stunned to discover that his taciturn brother had such a beautiful and prolific voice on paper.

The first major clue

Unbeknownst to the public and to the family, a key witness had come forward in the case the day after their bodies were discovered. She has never been publicly identified, and so I’ll call her Laura.

Laura told police that on the day that Steve and Wendy were killed, she, too, was hiking on Marsh Loop Trail. She had even encountered the Reids. She was out with her dogs and Steve and Wendy were moving at a faster pace than she was, so she pulled over on the side of the trail and let them pass. Just minutes later, she heard the five gunshots that killed them. She told police that they sounded close-by, and she thought that they sounded more like they came from a handgun than a rifle. Laura was startled, and so were her dogs, but ultimately she decided to continue down the trail. Just five minutes later, at 2:59PM, she saw a young man standing on the right side of the trail looking into the woods. He didn’t say anything to her, but as she continued to walk, she glanced back and found him staring at her. When she looked back again, minutes later, he was gone. They weren’t far from the trailhead, and he appeared to be heading in that direction, so she assumed he had left the trail.

Police later confirmed that where she had seen the man hesitating on the trail was just where Steve and Wendy’s bodies were discovered.

She described him to police as white, in his late twenties or early thirties, about 5’10” and slender, with short brown hair and a clean-shaven face. He carried a black backpack, and brown plastic grocery bag that looked heavy and weighed down with numerous items. She saw the outline of a can or a similar circular object pressing through the bag. From his appearance, she got the impression that he was homeless.

Though the experience made an impression on her, neither Laura nor anyone else within earshot placed a 911 call in response to the multiple gunshots.

Mountain Dew Man

On the day when Steve and Wendy were reported missing, Concord Police encountered a man in the woods behind the apartment complex. They asked for his name, and he identified himself as Arthur Kelly. His appearance was very similar to Laura’s description, and police believed that he was homeless. He was carrying several cans of Mountain Dew Code Red, and after a search for an Arthur Kelly in the area turned up nothing (suggesting that the name might be fake), police dubbed him “Mountain Dew Man.”

That same day, a Concord resident took a photo of a burnt campsite and showed it to Concord PD. He took an officer to the site to show him what he found. The central tent, along with other debris, had been burned. The recent damage to the nearby trees suggested that it was a fresh burn, perhaps just a day or two prior. At the site police found 155 small propane tanks, 47 Mountain Dew and Coca-Cola cans, cooking equipment, clothes, European coins, silverware, food packaging, cans, jars, and mugs. It was clear that this was a months-long homeless camp, and not just a weekend camper. And the campsite was in the Broken Ground Woods complex, not far from Marsh Loop Trail. And though they didn’t know it then, it was only a quarter mile from where Steve and Wendy had been killed.

As luck would have it, on the Friday before Easter another resident called the Concord PD to report the campsite. It was still intact at that point. Officer Brian Cregg had responded and discovered a tent, zipped up and padlocked, with boots neatly placed outside. The resident told Brian that he had first noticed the tent in January and that it had been there all winter. Once news of the campsite got around the station, the police put two and two together and established the window of time—between Friday and Wednesday—that the camp had been burned, coinciding with Steve and Wendy’s deaths.

Investigators believed that Mountain Dew Man and the man that Laura saw on the trail were likely the same person, and they believed that the campsite likely belonged to him. They were on a hunt to find him, so they asked Laura if she would work with an FBI artist to produce a composite sketch. On May 17th, a month after the Reids were killed, a composite sketch was released to the public, showing a white man in profile view along with a description of him. Along with the sketch was a plea to the public for their help in identifying this, quote, “person of interest.”

An ever-increasing reward

In addition to this major update, the case stayed in the news because of the reward that was initially offered and regular updates on its ever-increasing size. On May 5th, law enforcement announced a $5,000 reward that was being offered by Concord Regional Crimeline. By May 17th, the reward had increased to $33,500, in large part due to an anonymous donor who contributed $20,000. The balance of the increase was from another anonymous donor ($5,000), the Concord Police Patrolmen’s Association, the Concord Police Supervisors Association, and the Retired New Hampshire State Police Troopers Association. There was an expiration on the large anonymous contribution though: 60 days. But by July 7th, the reward had increased to $50,000.

Hundreds of tips

And the tips kept coming in. By April 25th, Crimeline reported they had gotten 60 tips. By May 5th, police said that they had received 130 tips. And 240 tips were reported by May 21st, 110 of which were new since the release of the composite sketch.

But there was some skepticism about the value of the sketch. Matt Bowser, a leader with the New England Mountain Bike Association, who helps to maintain Broken Ground trails, said that “the sketch looks like 90 percent of the population of Concord. [It] could be anybody.”

Increased Patrols

And to alleviate concerns about using the trails, police stepped up patrols in Broken Ground. A powersports store in Manchester lent the department two ATV’s, and they used those along with mountain bike officers to increase their presence on the trails. There had been an ongoing feud between the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and the Concord PD about using off-road vehicles, and the Fish and Game Department agreed to lift their ban temporarily for the sake of the community during this fraught time. Police had frequently complained that they had no way to address complaints from residents of the unauthorized use of motorized vehicles on trails if they didn’t have any of their own.

Other recent murders

The Alton Woods community had good reason to fear for their safety. In addition to Steve and Wendy’s death, there had been another homicide 6 months prior in the community. 31-year-old Cody Tewell was killed in October of 2021 and was also shot. Rounds struck his head and his neck, and no one had been charged. But the AG’s office said that his death was completely unrelated.

Another death, in nearby Manchester, in 2015, had never been solved, and was eerily similar. 62-year-old Denise Robert was shot and killed when she was out for a Sunday evening hike in the woods. Her brother, who is the family spokesperson for the case, said that he has gotten the impression that police had little to go on.

FBI involvement

But in Steve and Wendy’s case, there were leads, and they were following them.

The Concord Police, on the Monday following the discovery of the bodies, got a call from the FBI. They had a simple message: they were willing to help in the investigation. It’s not clear why the FBI took an immediate interest, but it may have something to do with Steve and Wendy’s long and international career with USAID.

The AG’s office and Concord PD declined the help, though, and it was reported on by a Patch.com reporter, Kristen Setera.

Sure enough, the next day, they had changed their position and issued a press release saying, “We are actively working this high-priority case with our law enforcement partners, including the FBI.”

And it was the FBI that helped to put together the sketch of Laura’s mystery-man.

Mountain Dew Man on camera

In July, a few months after the shootings, police were reviewing security footage from Shaw’s Supermarket from the day of the killings, and they discovered a man wearing a similar outfit at 2:30PM. The detective who encountered Mountain Dew Man looked at the footage and confirmed that it was the same man he had encountered in the woods. And the man matched the description of Laura’s mystery man. Unfortunately, the man wore a blue bandana over his face and used cash to pay for the groceries, so they weren’t able to unmask his identity or provide a better image to the public.

A return to the crime scene, bullets found

So they returned to the scene and tried to find more clues. On May 20th, a month after the killings, police searched the woods again and discovered two spent cartridges marked ‘Sig Luger 9mm,’ just five feet from where the shooting was believed to have happened. The medical examiner confirmed that the caliber was consistent with the size of the wounds in bodies, and the forensic ballistics examiner confirmed that both rounds had been fired by the same gun.

Toward the end of summer, on August 25th, they returned again to the burnt campsite and discovered several spent 9mm cartridges with the same label: ‘Sig Luger 9mm.’ They were found within the footprint of the burned tent, and forensics confirmed that they were fired by the same gun that shot the rounds found near Steve and Wendy’s body.

Police found 8 more shells about 15 feet from the tent site, a few feet from one another, and detectives thought that it looked like someone might have been doing to shooting practice. They found multiple trees with bullet scars nearby.

On August 30th and 31st, detectives returned to the tent site with metal detectors and found another 10 shells, all with the same inscription, and more damage to trees. They saw, what they described as “a natural shooting lane” and found embedded bullets and damage along the corridor. They even dug some bullets out of the ground.

At this same time, they returned to the site where Steve and Wendy were shot and dug up three bullets that were embedded 8-10 inches in the ground. They believed these were the rounds that killed them, writing, “it was highly probable that they passed through the Reids.” The bullets were all 9mm and matched the bullets found at the campsite.

A break in the case: propane tanks

In early September, police got the break that they needed.

They asked the Concord Walmart if they could search their sales history data for purchases of small propane tanks. Right away, a member of Walmart’s security team recalled a man who came in and bought tanks throughout the winter. And his description matched Mountain Dew Man. He never interacted with anyone at the store, and he always used the self-service aisle to check out. The store pulled together footage from January and February and found many instances of him checking out, but he always paid cash, and he always covered his face with a mask. They expanded the search and found more transactions between Nov 2021 and April 2022—47 in total. And he hadn’t been so careful to use cash every time. There were twelve purchases where he used plastic, and Walmart identified five different methods of payment. The cards were issued by MetaBank Payment Services in South Dakota and Sutton Bank in Ohio. Detectives got a search warrant for the transaction records associated with those five cards on September 8th. In just 4 days, MetaBank responded with their records, and unfortunately there was no name associated with the accounts. It again, seemed like it could be a dead end, but police started looking into each of the transactions on the log, hoping that one of them could provide some new information about Mountain Dew Man. There was a purchase from an online supplement store (bulksupplements.com) in early December 2021. On September 13th, detectives contacted the store, provided information about the transaction, and asked if there was a name or address linked to the order. The store told them it had been shipped to a Walgreens a half-mile down the street from the Shaw’s, but more importantly, they gave detectives a name that they hadn’t heard before: Logan Clegg. They tracked down the delivery receipt for the package and found that it was signed for by Logan Clegg. They were also given an email address associated with the order: rkxkelly@gmail.com. And rkxkelly sounded awfully similar to “Arthur Kelly”, the alias that they had been given the day that Steve and Wendy went missing.

But what if Logan Clegg were simply another alias? Another dead end?

They searched law enforcement records nationwide and discovered arrests of a Logan Clegg in Utah. They got copies of the booking photos from Utah law enforcement and once they saw the mug shots, they knew they had the right guy. Logan Clegg had been unmasked. Now they just had to find him.

Do you know Logan Clegg?

Armed with a photo, investigators canvassed fast food restaurants in the area, and when they got to the McDonalds on Loudon Road, they had a hit. Logan’s old boss recognized the photo and confirmed that the had worked there. She described him as “quiet,” and “without friends.” She got the impression that he was homeless because he “appeared to be living out of his backpack.” They got his employment records from McDonald’s and found that he had used the same email, rkxkelly@gmail.com, when he applied, and he indicated that email was his preferred method of communication. What they were hoping for was a working cell phone.

Another multiple homicide

Another multiple homicide had just occurred in August of 2022 in Northfield, an hour north of Concord. The three victims were a mother and her two young children: Kassandra, Mason, and Benjamin Sweeney. And though the circumstances seemed quite different, the shock of another multiple gunshot homicide scared people and increased the pressure to find Logan Clegg.

More clues to finding Logan

Law enforcement requested information from Google about Logan’s email address, and on October 7th, they responded with his records. They discovered that the account had been created in November of 2021 with the name Arthur Kelly, and the final sign-in was just a month later in December. Since then it had not been used at all, and there was no other content connected with the account: no photos, no location history, not even logins (which might have had useful IP address information, a clue to his location).

Around the same time, they subpoenaed Greyhound Bus Lines for any records relating to Arthur Kelly or Logan Clegg, and on October 3rd, Greyhound responded. They had a record of Arthur Kelly taking a bus from Boston to Albany, switching to Vermont Translines, and arriving in Burlington, Vermont. The trouble was that it was old data: the bus ticket was for May 15th. But perhaps it was a clue that Logan was still in Vermont.

A flight and phone number betray him

On October 11th, Homeland Security contacted Utah police, warning them that a man with an outstanding warrant had booked a flight out of the country, scheduled to depart in 3 days from JFK airport in New York to Berlin Germany. It was a fairly standard procedure that happened whenever people with certain types of warrants are getting ready to fly internationally. It was a redeye flight, leaving just after midnight and arriving in Berlin the next afternoon. Which meant that they really only had two days, the 12th and the 13th, to find Logan, or to hope that they could find him at the airport.

Utah police were aware of the situation with him, so they contacted Concord police right away and provided them with something new: a phone number that Logan had used to purchase the ticket. It was linked to a prepaid Verizon Wireless TracFone with a Vermont area code: 802 498 8657. In addition to the phone number, Logan provided a street address in Burlington. It was the address of the federal courthouse. Perhaps he was still in Vermont.

Tracked to Vermont

Concord Police contacted Verizon and asked for their help to provide real time tracking information on the phone. They were able to pin it down right away to Centennial Woods—a forested nature preserve in Burlington, bounded by an interstate and apartment communities, very similar to Broken Ground in Concord. They figured he was camping there.

On the 12th, the day before Logan would need to head to New York for his flight, they got a ping on his phone at a store called Price Chopper. At 9:33AM, Logan was spotted. By 10:00AM, Concord Police were trailing him. He was walking down Route 2, the main drag that Price Chopper was located on. They contacted Burlington and Vermont State Police and explained the situation. Concord cops didn’t have the jurisdiction to be able to arrest him.

At 1:10PM, Vermont State Police arrested him at the South Burlington Public Library on the outstanding warrant from his probation violation in Utah. He was found with a laptop in his black backpack. While in custody, Logan waived his rights to silence or to an attorney and spoke to a Concord detective. He acknowledged that he had lived in Concord but denied that it was anywhere near Alton Woods apartments. He also denied that he had ever used the alias Arthur Kelly, that he possessed any firearms, or that he was involved in the murder of Steve and Wendy Reid.

He was booked on a fugitive from justice charge in relation to the Utah charges and transported to Northwest State Correctional.

Held without bail

The next day, at 10:30AM, he was arraigned at Chittenden Superior Court by video conference. The judge ordered him held without bail. Logan and his court-appointed attorney, Josh O’Hara, had to decide whether Logan would waive extradition. If he refused to go to Utah willingly, then they would have to get what’s known as a “governor’s warrant” to compel him back to the state. On Thursday, October 13th, the Concord PD broke the news to the press that their person of interest had been apprehended in Vermont.

Key evidence found

Using location data provided by Verizon Wireless, police were able to locate his campsite in Centennial Woods. They matched the models of the tent (Ozark Trail), and a sleeping bag to a receipt from Walmart in Concord the day after the murders, a purchase made by Logan. They also found a camouflage-colored tarp and several Mountain Dew Bottles. They obtained search warrants the same day for the campsite in Burlington and for his backpack, and police confiscated a 9mm Glock handgun that was fully loaded with rounds labeled “Sig Luger”—just like the ones found at the crime scene. They found a valid US Passport with his legal name, Logan Clegg, and a fake Romanian passport bearing the name Claude Zemo with a photo of Logan enclosed in an envelope addressed to Arthur Kelly. They also found $7,150 in cash, and two Vanilla gift cards. A search of the tent site recovered two boxes of the Sig Luger ammunition, gun cleaning equipment, ear plugs for hearing protection, and another magazine for the handgun.

The next day, Friday, October 14th, Logan’s gun was taken to the New Hampshire state crime lab where their ballistics department analyzed whether it was the gun that fired the rounds that had likely killed the Reids. They found that the bullets were a match, but not a unique match. The shell casings, however, were a dead match.

Logan officially charged

On Tuesday, Logan appealed his bail decision to the Vermont Supreme Court. The court ruled against him, keeping him in jail, but it didn’t matter: this was the day that judge David Anderson, in Merrimack County Superior Court, signed the order that officially charged him with the murder of Steve and Wendy Reid, and the flicker of hope of getting out on bail was completely extinguished.

On Wednesday, Concord Police broke the news to the press. They said that they believed that Logan had acted alone, and that he was their only suspect. In light of the more serious murder charges, a state attorney in Utah announced that they would be dropping their charges. Logan waived extradition, and New Hampshire was making arrangements to pick him up and bring him back to Concord. As part of the second charges—the fugitive from justice charges in connection to the two murders—a Vermont detective had to write an affidavit. In that affidavit, he summarized the case against Logan, conveyed to him by Concord detectives. Lawyers for both the state and for Logan sought to seal the affidavit, but the judge explained there was no legal authority for him to do so. It was obtained immediately by the press and reported on, and is, in large part, the basis of our understanding of the case.

On Thursday, October 20th, Concord Police Chief stepped up to the mic and said, “Six months ago, this senseless tragedy became our number one priority. We hope that today will allow for a sense of healing for the community and the Reid family.” Lindsay Reid also thanked the community for the information and for the contributions to their reward fund.

Reflecting on Steve and Wendy’s extraordinary lives

Steve’s brother, Mark, had a prescient observation: “It’s a cruel irony to think of where they lived—in some incredibly dangerous places and large metropolitan areas. To have them come back with the plan of retiring here, buying a home, with the lowest homicide rate in the entire country, and to have that happen to them…” It boggled the mind.

And though they had only been back to Concord for a couple of years, around town they were already growing roots and building a network of friends and family. They were active and in excellent health, and had some of the best years of their lives ahead of them.

Steve brother, Peter, said, “They were very happy [in Concord] and finally rested. It was such a shame that this happened.”

Mark Reid still has voicemails on his phone from his brother, Steve. He replays birthday messages left by Steve and his wife, Wendy—a chance to hear their voices one more time. Mark said, “To hear it, I feel like they’re still here. I mean, it’s just impossible…”

Steve’s siblings will miss the time they lost, the things they never got to do.

But despite what was taken away, Steve and Wendy left their mark on the world and paid it forward with the lives they touched. Their obituary said, “This exceptional couple will be remembered for an impressive list of humanitarian accomplishments. Their lifelong contributions to making the world a better place have left an indelible mark on the lives of many people around the world, their children, and all who knew them. It can be said that the two were loved and respected by all of those with eyes to see and ears to hear.” They dedicated their professional lives to helping the less privileged.

Steve and Wendy provided their kids with a rich and diverse childhood, and, quote, “instilled in them a sense of global community, love of humanity, hard work, courage, and integrity.” Their daughter, Lindsay, followed in her parents' footsteps into a career in international development.

The outpouring of grief from the worldwide community was heartbreaking.

Logan stole their future, and he also stole from Concord their sense of safety. Steve’s sister-in-law, Barbara Reid, said, “After living in Concord for 40 years, I no longer walk the trails alone. It’s not because of the memory of Wendy’s death—it’s now I don’t feel comfortable out there. I can’t even imagine… This is so unsettling for this have happened in Concord.” Her husband, Mark, said, “We recognize now that violent crime can happen anywhere in the United States. We just didn’t ever think it would happen here—happen to us.”

Steve and Wendy Reid were both devout Christians. Wendy’s father was a pastor in Burkina Faso. They were, quote, “soulmates who traveled the world, pursued adventures and supported one another in their work dedicated to helping others.” And if there is any small blessing from this tragedy, it is this: they were together for the majority of their 66 and 67 years of life, and if there is an afterlife, I’m sure they are there together for all time.

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Sources For This Episode

Newspaper articles

Various articles from AP State Wire (NH), Boston Herald, Concord Monitor, New Hampshire Union Leader, The Boston Globe, The Eagle Tribune, The Lowell Sun, The Nashua Telegraph, and the Valley News, here.

Written by various authors including Andrew Brinker, Brackett Lyons, Cassidy Jensen, Dean Shalhoup, Dugan Arnett, Hanna Krueger, Jamie L. Costa, Joan T. Stylianos, John Ellement, John Ellement, Laura Crimaldi, Kevin Landrigan, , Mark Hayward, Michael Cousineau, Michaela Towfighi, Mike Damiano, Nancy West, Nick Stoico, Paul Feely, Ray Duckler, Shawne K. Wickham, Todd Bookman, Travis Andersen, Jonathan Phelps, and Jeremiah Manion.

Online written sources

'Search Grid At Concord Homicide Scene Shows Sprawling Clues' (Patch), 4/25/2022, by Tony Schinella

'Man called person of interest... ordered held without bail in separate case' (WMUR9), 10/13/2022, by KC Downey

'A person of interest in homicide of NH couple arrested at South Burlington library' (NBC5), 10/13/2022, by KC Downey

'South Burlington Police Twitter Page' (Twitter), 10/13/2022, by South Burlington Police

'Man who claimed self-defense in Spokane stabbing now 'person of interest'...' (KXLY Spokane), 10/14/2022, by Erin Robertson

'Person of Interest'... Arrested on Utah Warrant at a Public Library in Vermont' (Law and Crime), 10/14/2022, by Jerry Lambe

'Vermont Supreme Court rejects bail for 'person of interest' in couple death' (News Center Maine), 10/19/2022, by AP

'Update: Following the trail of evidence in Concord double-homicide' (Concord Monitor), 10/19/2022, by Jamie L. Costa

''Wonderful' couple remembered, as charges are announced for double murder suspect' (NBC5), 10/20/2022, by Jack Thurston and Mark Fortier

'Arrest in murders of Steve and Wendy Reid brings 'sense of relief' to city' (Concord Monitor), 10/20/2022, by Michaela Towfighi

'Timeline - Concord couple killed; get updates on case, suspect' (WMUR9), 10/20/2022, by KC Downey

'Man charged in Concord killings waives extradition to New Hampshire' (WMUR9), 10/20/2022, by Tim Callery and Jennifer Crompton

'Concord Detectives Use Bullet Evidence, Alias To Find Suspected Killer' (Patch), 10/20/2022, by Tony Schinella

'Logan Clegg, accused of killing New Hampshire couple, emerges as a globetrotting drifter...' (Boston Globe), 10/21/2022, by Dugan Arnett and Hanna Krueger

'A Romanian passport, $7,000 in cash, and Mountain Dew...' (Boston Globe), 10/21/2022, by John R. Ellement and Travis Andersen

Official documents

Affidavit supporting the fugitive from justice charges, signed 10/19/2022, here.

Vermont Supreme Court Decision on bail appeal, issued 10/18/2022, here.

Video sources

'Authorities charge man captured in Vt. with murder of NH couple' (WCAX3), 10/19/2022

'NH authorities tracked murder suspect to Vt. after killings' (KWCH 12 News), 10/20/2022

'Man called person of interest... ordered held without bail in separate case' (WMUR9), 10/13/2022

'Man who claimed self-defense in Spokane stabbing now 'person of interest'...' (KXLY), 10/14/2022

'A person of interest in homicide of NH couple arrested at South Burlington library' (NBC5), 10/13/2022

'Timeline - Concord couple killed; get updates on case, suspect' (WMUR9), 10/20/2022

'Man charged in Concord killings waives extradition to New Hampshire' (WMUR9), 10/20/2022

Photos

Photos from Google Maps and various newspaper articles.

Credits

Vocal performance, audio editing, and research by Kristen Seavey

Written by, research, and photo editing by Byron Willis

Murder, She Told is created by Kristen Seavey