Police in New Hampshire are searching for a brown-haired white man in his twenties or thirties who was seen in the area where a middle-aged couple were brutally murdered on April 18 while out on a hike near their home in Concord.
The bodies of Stephen, 67, and Djeswende Reid, 66, who were avid hikers and former international aid workers, were found on April 21 after their family reported them missing. Both had been shot on the trail multiple times, according to autopsy reports.
On Tuesday, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and Concord Chief of Police Bradley Osgood released a sketch of a man they called a “person of interest,” who was reportedly seen in the area at the time. They also increased the reward to $33,500 for information about the man—who they say was wearing a dark blue jacket, khaki pants, and carrying a black backpack that day. He is described as approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall with a medium build. He was clean-shaven at the time.
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Anonymous donors gave $20,000 and $5,000 toward the reward money, police said in a Facebook post.
When Stephen Reid didn’t show up for his tennis date the day after they went for a hike, a friend called the couple’s son Brian, who went to their apartment complex. He called police who determined there was no sign of foul play, forced entry, or anything that led them to believe they were targeted first in their home. “The bed was neatly made and a window was open. Both their phones are still in the apartment,” the son said at the time. “My dad’s wallet is also still in the apartment, and both their cars are here.”
Police canvassed the area, asking anyone with a home-surveillance camera to check footage to see where the couple might be, or who else might have walked near their home. It is unclear if these videos led to the identification of the person of interest.
The couple were both aid workers and Peace Corps volunteers, avid basketball players, and adventurists. They lived and worked in Senegal, Chad, and Niger during their life together. “Steve’s 30-plus-year career as an international development specialist in service to the world’s most vulnerable through USAID humanitarian projects could not have been made possible without the love, care and support of Wendy, who also helped recently resettled refugees acclimate and thrive in the United States,” the Reid family wrote in the statement after their bodies were discovered.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Concord Police Department at (603) 225-8600, Concord Regional Crimeline at (603) 226-3100 or Crimeline website.
