Four years before Concord couple Steve and Wendy Reid were shot to death walking near their home, the homeless man charged with their murders fatally stabbed another man but was never charged with a crime.
Logan Clegg, 26, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and remains in Vermont, awaiting to be brought back to New Hampshire to face the criminal charges.
On the night of May 18, 2018, in Spokane, Wash., on his walk to work, Clegg fatally stabbed a man in what he claimed was self defense, according to police records. Spokane police investigated, but never charged him with a crime because it did not meet “prosecution standards” because Clegg was in “fear for his life,” according to court documents.
When police arrived on scene around midnight, they found the victim, Corey Ward, laying on the grass, conscious and bleeding from multiple stab wounds to his chest, jaw, left arm and back, police said. Ward told officers that he was fighting with someone when he was stabbed.
Paramedics and police attempted life saving measures but Ward died from his injuries.
Police observed two trails of blood, a sheath for a knife and a cell phone. Clegg, who police had not identified at this point, fled the scene.
With the help of the K9 unit, police began tracking the trail of blood that led away from the scene of the stabbing.
While following the trail, Clegg’s coworker at a Spokane McDonald’s contacted police to report that Clegg arrived to work with a head injury from an assault and was taken to a nearby hospital for medical attention, police said.
Clegg was interviewed at the hospital where he waived his rights and told police that the stabbing was an act of self defense. Police noted facial lacerations and a stab wound to his left hand. Clegg told police that he was attacked by Ward, a larger man who punched Clegg numerous times and knocked him to the ground where Ward continued to punch Clegg before he pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the stomach and the chest.
Clegg told police that after the assault and the stabbing, Ward stood up and walked away, which is why Clegg did not call 911.
As a result of the investigation, witness testimony and Clegg’s account of the incident, police determined that Ward “acted in a way that would have caused reasonable fear and apprehension of substantial bodily injury to Clegg,” court documents stated. “Clegg was in fear of his life from Ward and the unprovoked assault.”
Police did not find motive in Ward’s attack and did not find any evidence that Ward or Clegg knew each other prior to the attack. In a search of Ward’s apartment, police found drug paraphernalia.
Ward’s mother, Lisa, has been outspoken about her son’s death and has told multiple publications that because her son died, there was no way of knowing what really happened. The Monitor made contact with her but she did not comment on either case.
Clegg has not committed any additional felonies or misdemeanors in the state of Washington, according to the Spokane Police Department. Police reports and any documents related to the stabbing have been requested.
After the assault, Clegg moved to Utah where he committed numerous felonies in 2020 before he fled to New Hampshire in 2021 while on probation for the Utah crimes.
He is accused of shooting the Reids while they were walking on a trail near their home in April. Concord police have not indicated a possible motive.
Days after the shooting, Clegg fled the area, traveling by bus first to Boston and then to Albany, N.Y., before choosing Burlington as his final destination, according to court records.
Over the last six months, the Concord Police Department, with the help of Vermont State Police and the Burlington Police Department, led an exhaustive investigation, which included searches of video, phone and bank records, ballistics testing and multiple investigations of the crime scene and a nearby tent site. The investigation brought police to a Vermont public library on Oct. 12 where Clegg was taken into custody and held without bail at the Northwest State Correctional Facility on unrelated charges out of Utah.
At the time of his arrest, Clegg was considered a person of interest in the shooting and had booked a one-way ticket to Berlin, Germany, out of John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City for Oct. 14, two days after his arrest.
During his arraignment at the Franklin County Superior Court in Vermont last week, Clegg voluntarily waived extradition and will return back to the state of New Hampshire to answer to the charges filed by the Concord Police Department.
Clegg remains at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Vermont and has yet to be brought back to Merrimack County by Concord police, jail administration said.
The murders remain under investigation by the Concord Police Department.