More than a week after the murder of Wendy and Steve Reid, Concord residents are on edge as they await more information from police and investigators. The double homicide has been particularly disturbing for a city with a violent crime rate far below the national average, where murders are rare and usually quickly solved.
Concord Mayor Jim Bouley urged residents to be patient and share any information about the Reids’ deaths with police. Many worried constituents have called him and sent emails, Bouley said.
“The whole city mourns for the Reid family, but I am confident that all the law enforcement are working together and that if the community lets them do their job, hopefully we’ll solve this soon,” Bouley said Thursday. “I’m sure they’re working as fast as they can to solve it.”
The Reids, who were in their 60s, disappeared on April 18 after leaving their Alton Woods apartment for a walk at the nearby Broken Ground trails. Their bodies were found on April 21 near the Marsh Loop trail. The well-traveled and adventurous couple, who returned to Concord three years ago to retire, had been shot multiple times.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and the Concord Police Department have released little information about the case since April 22, when the results of the Reids’ autopsies confirmed both were murdered. Concord Police, who are working with the New Hampshire State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigations on the case, have repeatedly asked the public to come forward with any information no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.
The violent crime rate in Concord has fallen slightly over the past 10 years. The total number of violent crimes reported has not increased significantly since the early 2000s, even as the city’s population has grown.
Between 2002 and 2020, there were on average 84 violent crimes a year in Concord, according to data reported by the Concord Police Department to the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The FBI’s definition of “violent crimes” includes murder and manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. The definition of rape changed in 2013, which led to more incidents being reported since that time.
In order to compare violent crime rates between different-sized communities, the number of violent crimes reported is divided by the population and multiplied by 100,000 to find the crime rate per 100,000 people.
An average of 226 violent crimes per 100,000 people have been reported in Concord between 2010 and 2020, about 50% lower than the violent crime rate in the United States during the last decade but slightly higher than New Hampshire’s overall violent crime rate.
Population estimates for Concord and other New Hampshire cities came from census data from the years 2010 and 2020 and, for other years, from population estimates found in the Department of Safety’s public crime database. Those population estimates are used to calculate overall crime rates reported by individual agencies.
Violent crime in Concord was at its peak in the last two decades in 2011, when 122 violent crimes were reported, for a crime rate of 286 per 100,000 people.
Overall, the number of violent crimes has not budged significantly since 2002.
Crime rates don’t necessarily convey how people feel about safety. Although rates of violent crime have declined by nearly 50% since the early 1990s, a Pew Research Center study conducted last year found that a majority of American adults said that violent crime was “a very big problem,” an increase from the previous year.
While murders increased year over year between 2019 and 2020, the overall murder rate is down significantly since the early 1990s, according to an analysis from the Pew Research Center.
Concord’s violent crime rate has stayed lower than in Manchester and Rochester over the last decade, while tracking more closely with the violent crime rates in Nashua and New Hampshire overall. New Hampshire had the second-lowest violent crime rate in the United States in 2019.
Dover, the state’s fifth-largest city with a population of 32,741 in 2020, has maintained a lower crime rate than Concord.
The Monitor also compared Concord’s violent crime rates in 2010 and 2020 to those of five other New England cities and towns: Burlington, Vt., Portland and Lewiston, Maine, Salem, Mass. and Southington, Conn. All the communities had populations between 36,000 and 68,000 during the last decade. Reported violent crimes are from FBI data, while population estimates came from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Out of all six, Concord had the second-lowest violent crime rate in 2010, with a higher crime rate than Southington, a suburb of Hartford with a population of 43,069 in 2010.
In 2020, Concord was in the middle of the six communities in terms of crime rate, after Portland’s violent crime rate fell just slightly below Concord’s.
About half of violent crimes reported in Concord over the last two decades resulted in an arrest, charge and prosecution of a suspect, according to FBI data.
The FBI defines the “clearance” of a crime as either an arrest – meaning someone has been arrested, charged with the reported crime and turned over for prosecution – or a crime cleared by “exceptional means.”
Cases cleared by “exceptional means” happen when police have identified a suspect and gathered enough information to arrest and charge the individual but for other reasons, the arrest wasn’t made. Extenuating circumstances that prevent arrest can include the suspect’s death, a victim’s refusal to cooperate or the denial of extradition.
Not all crimes are cleared in the same year that they are reported, which is how the FBI tracks clearances, but the numbers reveal an estimate over time of how many reported crimes end in arrests.
Between 2002 and 2020, just under half of the violent crimes reported in Concord were “cleared.” That rate is slightly above the nationwide clearance rate in 2019 of 45.5%, which has held fairly steady since the 1990s.
One of Concord Police Department’s goals in 2013 was attaining an 80% clearance rate for Part I violent crime, meaning murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, according to budget documents.
Clearance rates for murders nationwide have historically been higher. Most recent homicides in Concord have led to the identification of a suspect and an arrest.
Jocarl Bureau was convicted in the 2016 killing of his daughter after pleading guilty, while Daswan Jette was convicted of manslaughter in 2017 for his role in the death of Sabrina Galusha.
In 2019, Concord experienced four homicides, two of which were murder-suicides. Emerson Figueiredo was sentenced to 45 years in prison for stabbing his wife Nathalia DaPaixao to death in 2019.
Joseph King Hanright was arrested and accused of killing Marshall John Villeneuve, also in 2019. Police said the two men were not strangers.
In March, an elderly man accused of strangling his wife in 2021 was found incompetent to stand trial.
Most murders in New Hampshire involve people who know one another, and typically a high percentage involve domestic violence, said Associate Attorney General Jeff Strelzin. “It’s extremely rare that you have random homicides,” Strelzin said.
“Every case is horrific for the victim and their family, but fortunately in New Hampshire, we have a very low violent crime and murder rate,” he said. “It sort of helps to put things in perspective when you think about what it’s like to live here, and safety.”