Detective testifies Clegg had time to shoot and conceal the Reids before he was seen
Published: 10-13-2023 5:05 PM |
Last spring, Concord Detective Wade Brown hooked his arms under a weighted dummy and dragged it through the woods off the Marsh Loop Trail to the site where the bodies of a missing Concord couple were found.
A minute later, he dragged a second, lighter one to the same spot. Then he ran back up.
The two dummies, borrowed from the Concord Fire Department, were weighted to match the victims, Steve and Wendy Reid, who were found about 30 yards from the trail on April 21, 2022.
They were shot while hiking on the trail on April 18 and their bodies were concealed in the woods by the killer, police said.
“I took the path of least resistance along areas believed to be the drag path and did not attempt to cover the dummies with leaves or sticks,” Brown explained to jurors on Friday.
It took Brown two minutes to complete the exercise with the dummies and another three to regain his composure and catch his breath, he said.
The purpose was to see if the defendant, Logan Clegg, 27, who is on trial for the murder of the Reids, could have dragged the bodies to their final resting place in the five minutes between the time witness Nan Nutt heard gunshots and when she saw the defendant standing on the trail staring into the woods where the bodies were later recovered.
During her testimony last week, Nutt said Clegg did not appear winded, out of breath or disheveled. Based on the results of Brown’s exercise, it would have been possible for Clegg to have completed the task within five minutes and appear composed when approached by Nutt.
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However, Clegg would not have had time to conceal the bodies.
Brown testified that, while walking at a brisk pace, it took him eight minutes to arrive at the Portsmouth Street parking lot from the Alton Woods Apartment complex where the Reids lived and another four minutes to walk from the parking lot to the crime scene, for a total of 12 minutes. This is the same walk the Reids would have taken the afternoon they were killed.
When the Reids left their apartment complex last spring at 2:22 p.m., Clegg was inside Shaws supermarket on Loudon Road. He was seen on surveillance leaving the grocery store at 2:28 p.m.
If the Reids were walking at the same pace as Brown, they would have arrived at the crime scene by 2:34 p.m., giving Clegg a six-minute window to complete his walk from Shaws to the crime scene. But when the couple passed Nutt on their hike, she testified it was closer to 2:52 p.m., a time stamp consistent with the route tracked on her Apple watch.
Given that timeline, the Reids and Clegg were on the Marsh Loop Trail at the same time and likely crossed paths.
On Friday afternoon, prosecutors played an audio recording for jurors taken the first time Clegg was interviewed after his arrest in October. Clegg is heard waiving his right to silence and agreeing to speak to detectives.
In the recording, Brown asks Clegg a series of questions about his involvement in the Reid murders, if he ever owned or shot a firearm while living in Concord, if he shopped frequently at Walmart, where he lived while living in Concord and when he left the city.
Clegg denied any involvement with the Reids or their murders, claimed he did not own or shoot a gun while living in Concord, said he left the city in February, two months before the shootings, and denied shopping at Walmart often. Police have testified he was seen on surveillance video in Walmart 21 times between December 2021 and April 2022.
Additionally, he claimed that while living in Concord, his campsite was located in a tall, grassy area between Shaws and Home Depot on the southern side of Loudon Road, three-quarters of a mile from the burnt tent site in the Broken Ground trail system where police say he lived. He also denied living in a tent and said he slept outside and rigged an old tarp for shelter.
When told that several witnesses reported seeing a man on the Broken Ground trail system matching his description – a white male in his mid 20s to early 30s, medium height and slender build, with black pants and shoes, a brown jacket and a black hat and backpack – between November 2021 and April 2022, Clegg denied it. When told coworkers identified him by name when they saw footage of him shopping in Walmart, he said “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“That is exactly what the guy that went to Walmart wore,” Brown told Clegg. “You’re not being truthful. I’m trying to solve this for the family.”
Clegg also denied being affiliated with the name Arthur Kelly, speaking to police while living in the city or giving a false name to police. When Clegg denied using an email address associated with Arthur Kelly, Brown said that the same email was used on his McDonald’s application and listed as his preferred form of communication. Clegg said he didn’t remember.
Brown then transitioned his line of questioning to ask Clegg what his life was like before he arrived in Concord. Clegg said that, after leaving Utah in the wake of his felony convictions in 2021, and while still on probation, he traveled to Germany.
When asked why he fled to Europe, he said he didn’t like living in America and felt he’d have a better chance of getting a job overseas. When his visa expired after six months abroad, he booked a flight to Boston and took a bus to Concord.
When asked about friends and family, Clegg said that he didn’t know anyone overseas, or in New Hampshire and that his father committed suicide when he was 12. He hadn't talked to his mother since, he said.
Clegg’s defense attorneys have maintained his innocence and continue to argue that his elusive behavior before and after the fatal shootings was a result of his previous felony convictions and paranoia to keep his identity hidden from police, not an indication of guilt.
Clegg is facing four charges of second-degree murder, four charges of falsifying evidence and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, felonies. If found guilty, he faces life in prison. He has remained held without bail in the Merrimack County House of Corrections in Boscawen since his arrest last fall.
The Reids were known for their years of humanitarian work around the world and had moved back to Concord to retire. They were outdoor enthusiasts who frequently walked at the Broken Ground trails, family and friends said. He was 67 and she was 66 years old.
Detective Brown will continue his testimony on Monday.