South Burlington Police Division; New Hampshire Division of Justice
A 26-year-old transient man recognized as a “particular person of curiosity” within the brutal April murders of a retired couple was formally charged over the slayings Thursday, the New Hampshire Lawyer Basic’s Workplace mentioned. Logan Levar Clegg, 26, faces two counts of second-degree homicide for “knowingly” inflicting the deaths of Stephen and Djeswende “Wendy” Reid.
Clegg, described by authorities as “extremely harmful,” is being held with out bail in Vermont, the place he was arrested on a fugitive-from-justice cost over a separate Utah break-in case final Wednesday. Investigators discovered he’d bought a one-way ticket to Germany that might’ve seen him fly out of New York Metropolis’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport two days later, they mentioned.
On April 21, Stephen, 67, and Djeswende Reid, 66, have been discovered fatally shot in a wooded space close to a mountaineering path they ceaselessly walked. They’d final been seen 4 days earlier, and have been reported lacking the day earlier than their our bodies have been recovered, in accordance with state authorities.
In an announcement issued shortly after, the Reids’ household thanked regulation enforcement for his or her diligence, in accordance with CBS Information. They memorialized the couple as lifelong kindred spirits, saying, “Steve served 4 years within the Peace Corps in West Africa proper after school. He met his future spouse and soulmate Wendy, who was from West Africa, whereas she was finding out in Washington D.C. on an athletic scholarship. They bonded over their mutual love of journey and health.”
The Harmony Police Division inspired anybody with data on the Reids’ murders to come back ahead. Then six months glided by.
It was not instantly clear what proof investigators had collected to call Clegg an individual of curiosity within the case. His arrest led authorities in South Burlington to look a close-by forest final week, turning over a variety of gadgets discovered there to New Hampshire regulation enforcement, The Boston Globereported.
Information obtained by the Globe revealed that Clegg had beforehand been investigated in reference to the deadly stabbing of a 28-year-old in Spokane, Washington in 2018. Clegg mentioned he’d been appearing in self-defense when he stabbed the opposite man, Corey Ward, and was by no means charged over the incident.
A local of Washington himself, Clegg was 22 years previous when Ward was killed. The 2 males did know one another previous to the confrontation, which started—in Clegg’s later telling—with Ward calling him “an asshole.” Clegg defined to police that he’d responded by flipping the bigger man off, “telling him he was mentally retarded.” Ward tackled him, and Clegg “determined that the one manner he was not going to be severely harm was to begin defending himself,” police wrote in a report.
Clegg pulled out a small knife and commenced stabbing Ward repeatedly. An post-mortem would later discover that Ward had been stabbed at the very least 10 instances, with a further six lacerations throughout his physique. However Clegg didn’t trouble calling for assist, telling police he was as a result of work a shift as an in a single day janitor at a close-by McDonald’s. (His supervisor there reported to investigators that Clegg had been “a wonderful worker.”)
In an interview with the Globefinal week, Ward’s mom mentioned she didn't consider her son had instigated the deadly battle. “My son was a variety of issues. He was a hard-working child, however when he wasn’t working, like for his job, he was as lazy because the day is lengthy,” she defined. “He would have by no means come out of his condominium, run down two flights of stairs, simply to begin a battle.”
At a Thursday press convention, Harmony Police Chief Brad Osgood introduced Clegg’s fees and mentioned he hoped the information would possibly carry “a way of therapeutic” to the “shocked” group. State Lawyer Basic John Formella commented that he knew “this has been a troublesome few months” for household and pals of the Reids.
“I can’t get into particulars, however we don’t have any data to consider anybody else was concerned,” Formella added, in accordance with The Boston Globe.
Authorities didn't element a motive for the killings.
At an arraignment the identical day, Clegg waived extradition, in accordance with WMUR, clearing the best way for authorities to carry him again to New Hampshire to face fees.