CONCORD, NH – Evidence found at two tent sites more than 150 miles away, including bullet casings, was the focus of the second day of testimony in the trial of Logan Clegg, charged with second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Concord residents Djeswende and Stephen Reid.
Concord Police Department Det. Nicole Murray, continuing from Wednesday afternoon, spent all day Thursday on the stand, testifying about evidence collected from a “burnt tent site” in the Broken Ground Trail System police believe was occupied by Clegg in the weeks before the Reids were killed. After finishing direct testimony in the morning, Murray was grilled by defense attorney Mariana Dominguez about the process for collecting evidence and asked to identify and explain the collection of dozens of pieces of evidence throughout the afternoon. Dominguez’ cross examination also touched on the fact that evidence from the Reids’ clothing was processed for DNA evidence. Police believe the person who killed the Reids dragged them off the trail, and would have possibly left DNA on the Reids as they did so.
Murray, who’s been with the Concord Police Department for 16 years, collects and processes crime scene evidence and either collected or photographed the evidence that was testified about Thursday.
Murray’s cross-examination will continue when the trial resumes at 10 a.m. Friday in Merrimack County Superior Court.
The Reids’ bodies were found April 21, 2022, off the Marsh Loop Trail in northeast Concord near their Loudon Road apartment after they were reported missing when family members couldn’t reach them. Police believe they were killed while on an afternoon walk on the trail April 18, 2022.
Murray testified Thursday that she collected evidence at the scene where the Reids were found, as well as a tent site about a quarter mile from there, in April and August 2022. She also collected evidence six months after the shooting from a garbage-strewn tent site deep in the Centennial Woods Natural Area in Burlington, Vermont, where police say Clegg was living when he was arrested on Oct. 12, 2022.
Under questioning from Assistant Attorney General Ryan Olberding, Murray testified that nine bullet casings were found at the Concord tent site Aug. 25 and 26, 2022, more than four months after the Reids were killed.
Investigators used metal detectors to comb the debris in the footprint of the tent, which had been filled with about 150 camping-size empty propane tanks and other debris and set afire sometime between April 15 and April 22, 2022.
The Sig Luger 9mm casings were found after Concord police detectives earlier that month sorted and lined up the burned debris left at the tent site off the Profile Avenue connector. Items found at the site included the propane tanks, which were lined up by police in a neat rectangle of about 15 lines of about 10 tanks. From April 2022 until police sorted out the items four months later, the tanks and other debris had been in a pile, along with burned pots and pans, cans, plastic grocery bags and soda bottles and other debris, in the footprint of where the tent had been.
Murray testified that between the day the Reids’ bodies were discovered and Aug. 25, 2022, when casings were first found at the site, she had visited it, as well as the crime scene about a quarter mile away along the Marsh Loop Trail many times to collect evidence, make measurements and more.
Murray testified that none of the casings could be seen in photos before they were found with the metal detector or be seen easily by the naked eye. She described a process of going over the scene with a metal detector, then sifting through leaves, pine needles and dirt to find the casings when the detector alerted.
At the scene in Vermont, four Sig Luger 9 mm casings and four bullets were found in a wide swath of rubbish that included soda bottles and cans, food containers and wrappers, store receipts, electronics, a pair of men’s size 12 boots, and more.
The debris was next to a gray Ozark tent that contained a rumpled sleeping bag and two black kitchen-size rubbish bags with men’s clothing, earphones, two packs of Sig Luger 9mm ammunition (one with nine bullets missing), gun cleaning equipment, a Sig Luger 9 mm magazine and more.
Dominguez, in her cross-examination, had Murray review items of Stephen Reid’s clothing, including his boots, socks and jeans and belt.
Those items were sent to DNA Labs International in Florida, some in June 2022. Some items were also sent twice, going back for more testing this past summer, Murray said.
Dominguez asked if the reason boots and socks were sent was because the police believed the Reids were dragged off the trail, and there might be DNA evidence on places the killer would’ve gripped.
Murray said that was “one theory.”
The prosecution did not say in its opening statements that it would be introducing DNA evidence, but defense attorney Caroline Smith said that the defense case will show there is DNA on the items that doesn’t match the Reids or Clegg.
Dominguez pressed Murray on the collection process for evidence at the New Hampshire tent site, including the bullet casings. The defense indicated in opening statements that the credibility of the ballistics that the prosecution said ties Clegg to the Reids’ homicides will be a major part of their case.
Several times, Dominguez asked Murray if she would agree that she was “methodical,” “meticulous,” “thorough,” and “good at her job.” Murray, seeming uncomfortable with being asked to tout herself, responded “yes” or “I try to be.”
Dominguez also noted how small some of the evidence items are – for instance, blood spots on leaves and a small bullet fragment. She asked Murray about evidence that was collected that turned out to not be useful, but other items that were for a “very specific purpose,” for instance to test for DNA.
“I think we should endeavor to find anything we can” on any items that seem relevant, Murray said.
Dominguez led Murray through how the portion of the Marsh Loop Trail that was under investigation was closed to the public for several days, and how investigators had to log in and out in order to establish who was at the scene and when.
She also questioned Murray about the thoroughness of the examination of the scene where the Murrays were found, about 50 yards down an incline from the Marsh Loop Trail, as well as on the trail itself, where police believe the shootings took place.
“There were many, many detectives searching [the site] for evidence,” Murray said.
The afternoon was consumed with Murray identifying evidence bags, and in many cases, removing evidence to identify it at Dominguez’ request.
Murray donned purple gloves to handle the evidence, some of which was laid out on paper on a table for the jury to inspect.
Dominguez also pressed Murray on why evidence, from the scene to the courtroom, was handled with gloves and laid on paper in court. Murray said it was to protect evidence from contamination.
The cross-examination also focused on the tent site in Vermont, where similar bullets and casings were found on Oct. 13, 2022, the day after Clegg was arrested in South Burlington.
There was a trail of garbage several feet long at the site, as well as a separate pile of garbage, both near the tent.
Dominguez asked Murray if pieces of black in the photos of the strewn rubbish could be pieces of garbage bag, similar to black plastic bags in the tent that contained other items. She asked Murray if the garbage could possibly have been scattered by a raccoon ripping into the bags.
“That’s quite a large area for racoons [to scatter on] only one night, but I suppose anything’s possible,” Murray said.
“You may have a point about it being only one night,” Dominguez said, adding, “Have you ever had any issues with wildlife getting into your trash?”
“I can’t say that I have,” Murray said.
Dominguez also questioned Murray about some of the items found both in New Hampshire and Vermont – a small camp stove, a box that held broth, pots and pans.
“Would it be fair to say the person staying here was preparing food?”
Murray agreed it would be.
Dominguez also zeroed in on an empty baking soda box that was found at the Vermont site and introduced during direct testimony Thursday morning. Murray had testified Wednesday that a white powdery substance had been found scattered over the pile of leaves and sticks that covered the Reids. She was not asked, and did not say, what the powdery substance was determined to be.
The baking soda was a Price Chopper brand, which is a store in Burlington.
Dominguez asked Murray if she knew of any Price Chopper stores in Concord. Murray didn’t.
The afternoon ended with Murray and Dominguez unloading the tent found at the site from its large evidence bag. Dominguez pointed out, and asked Murray to acknowledge, a tear on one side of the tent, about a foot long, that someone had attempted to repair with duct tape.
The trial began Tuesday with opening arguments and a site visit to the Broken Ground Trail System, with testimony beginning Wednesday in Merrimack County Superior Court, with Judge John Kissinger presiding. The trial is expected to last until Oct. 20.
Clegg is charged with two counts of second-degree murder for “knowingly causing the death” of each of the Reids, two alternative second-degree murder charges for “recklessly causing” their deaths, three counts of falsifying physical evidence and one count of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and one count of falsifying physical evidence (a Class B felony) was added.
He’s been held in Merrimack County Jail since he was extradited to New Hampshire following his arrest on a Utah fugitive warrant in South Burlington, Vermont, Oct. 12, 2022.