The murder trial for Logan Clegg is scheduled to begin Tuesday, nearly a year and a half after the bodies of a retired Concord couple were found in the woods near their apartment complex. 

Clegg, 27, remained free for six months following the fatal shooting of Steve and Wendy Reid last spring before he was tracked down by police and arrested in October. He is facing four charges of second-degree murder, four counts of falsifying evidence and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. 

Jury selection began Monday. On Tuesday, opening statements will begin with prosecutors presenting evidence, including Clegg’s former campsite and bullet casings near the murder scene, linking him to the crime. Defense attorneys will try to poke holes in the case by arguing that little physical evidence exists to link Clegg to the murders. 

Jurors will view the crime scenes before testimony begins, including from several walkers that passed Clegg around the time of the shooting, and Concord police detectives Marc McGonagle and Wade Brown who investigated Clegg for six months before his arrest in Burlington, Vermont. 

In their defense, public defenders Caroline Smith and Maya Dominguez will rely on the lack of DNA evidence tying Clegg directly to the crime scene, despite at least three rounds of testing conducted by the state, while the prosecution will focus on Clegg’s violent criminal past, the police department’s investigation and Clegg’s behavior in the days before and after the murders. 

The trial is expected to last at least three weeks and will begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning in courtroom 1 of the Merrimack County Superior Court at 5 Court Street in Concord. 

If found guilty, Clegg faces life in prison. He has remained held without bail in the Merrimack County House of Corrections in Boscawen since October. 

Background

The Reids were known for their years of humanitarian work around the world and had recently moved to Concord to retire. They were outdoor enthusiasts who frequently walked at the Broken Ground trails, family and friends said. 

They left their home in the Alton Woods apartment complex for a walk around 2:22 p.m. on April 18, 2022, and never returned. Their bodies were found there days later near the Broken Ground hiking trails after their family reported then missing and the case quickly gained national attention. 

Clegg, who was homeless, was known to live in a tent near the trail system and fled the area in the days following the murders, according to court documents.

The Concord Police Department launched an extensive investigation assisted by the New Hampshire State Police that led to Clegg’s arrest in South Burlington, Vermont, in October. In the days following the murders, he burned his tent side and fled the area, police said. 

Following his arrest and search of his campsite in Vermont, the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory was able to determine that the Glock 17 handgun found in Clegg’s tent was a match for the bullets, fragments and casings found at the crime scene, police said. 

Clegg was raised in Colville, Washington, a small mining town north of Spokane with a population of 5,000. He relocated to Spokane in 2014 and was questioned by police in 2018 for fatally stabbing a man during a fight on his way to work. The stabbing was ruled self-defense but Clegg had left the area before police could tell him he’d been cleared of all potential charges. 

In 2020, he was arrested twice in Utah for breaking and entering, burglary and illegal possession of a firearm. Per the requirements of his probationary period after he was convicted, he was not permitted to leave the state for three years. But 11 months later, he traveled to Europe for six months before arriving in Boston and making his way to Concord. 

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