WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A Robinson police detective testified Tuesday that he was “extremely confused” when he received a phone call from someone posing as Mandy Reynolds the same day officials tentatively identified the body found burned without being recognized the night before as Reynolds.

Crime scene officers and technicians from Robinson, Wichita, Kansas and San Marcos testified Tuesday during the second day of Derek Joseph Daigneault’s murder trial in 19th District Court in Waco.

Daigneault, 29, of Wichita, Kansas, is on trial in the April 2023 death of Reynolds, Daigneault’s 26-year-old cousin, whose badly burned remains were found in a Robinson subdivision in Heston Circle, just off Greig Drive, east of Interstate 35. .

Neither Daigneault nor Reynolds, who lived together in San Marcos, had ties to McLennan County, and authorities were able to identify Reynolds as the crime victim after he caught a white Labradoodle named Titan, who initially eluded authorities, but refused to leave the charred spot where Reynolds’ Body was found.

Authorities later tracked Daigneault to San Marcos and later to Wichita, where he was arrested driving Reynolds’ black Honda Accord and led police there on a frantic, high-speed chase that reached speeds over 100 mph.

He crashed, ending the car chase, but it continued on foot as he ran to a grocery store and was arrested by a dozen officers in a dramatic episode that sent frantic shoppers fleeing the store.

After Robinson officials caught the Titan, they learned that it was microchipped and that Reynolds was its owner.

Robinson Police Detective Perry testified Tuesday that the microchip company sends owners text or email alerts when lost dogs are found.

Perry, who spent four hours at the crime scene the night before in a storm that included hail, testified that he was reviewing crime scene photos and other evidence in his office the next morning when he received a call that thrown for a loop.

In a recorded phone call that prosecutors Ryan Calvert and Alyssa Killin played for the jury, the caller told the detective she was Mandy Reynolds. When the call came in, Perry and former Robinson crime scene technician Kayla Williams were looking at Reynolds’ Facebook page and saw that Reynolds was short in stature. They immediately suspected the appellant was impersonating Reynolds, both testified Tuesday.

“The pictures I saw were of a small, tiny woman, and the voice on the phone didn’t match her photos,” Perry said. “So I was very confused.”

Williams testified that while she was looking at Reynolds’ Facebook page, the images on the page began to disappear before her eyes and the page was deactivated.

So Perry started doing what any good detective would do. He began asking personal, identifying questions, including Reynolds’ social security number, address, phone number, date of birth and hometown. Surprisingly, he said, the caller got the correct information, except there was a one-digit error in the Social Security number.

The caller said “she” was on her way to Wichita, Kansas from San Marcos when she stopped at a gas station near Robinson and the Titan jumped out and ran. The caller said it was around 1 a.m. on April 6, 2023, which the detective said he knew was a lie because authorities had seen Titan at the crime scene at 10 p.m. the night before.

The caller said she was on her way to Wichita to see her boyfriend’s sick grandmother.

As Perry continued to descend, the caller became agitated and hung up.

“What is the interrogation about?” the caller asked. “That’s my dog ​​you have. What is this interrogation about, detective? I’m coming to the pound to get Titan. Goodbye.”

Authorities used a license plate reading system known as Flock to track Reynolds’ Honda to Aquarena Springs Drive in San Marcos at the time of the call. A photo of the car showed it driving in heavy rain, and Calvert replayed the call to point out to jurors the rhythmic, screeching sound of the windshield wipers.

Perry said she called Reynolds’ phone back about 15 minutes later and told the person on the other end that she thought they got off on the “wrong foot” and explained that she was just trying to return the dog to its rightful owner.

He told appellant, who testified he was convinced Daigneault was posing as his cousin, that Titan was found at the scene of a gruesome murder. “Oh my God,” the caller explained, apparently becoming emotional. “Oh wow. I’m just stressing about Titan. I paid a lot of money for it. I just wonder how long he had to sit out.”

After several more questions, the appellant again became confrontational and uncooperative.

“I can’t waste my whole day talking to you,” said the caller. “I’m at work and I won’t be questioned when my puppy ran away. You are very pushy for one and two, you treat me like a criminal.”

The caller again mentioned coming to Robinson’s to pick up the dog, but Perry said Titan was on “police hold” and would not be available.

“Well, I’ll have my lawyer call you,” the caller said.

Perry told the jury he never heard from an attorney about Titan.

Working with San Marcos police, Perry was able to obtain video footage of Daigneault purchasing a shovel, a gas can and a large plastic storage container at a Walmart in San Marcos on April 4, 2023. The video showed Titan’s head sticking out from the passenger side window after Daigneault loaded the items into Reynolds’ Honda.

In other prosecution testimony Tuesday, officers in Wichita, Kansas, testified about their efforts to locate Reynolds’ Honda after the license plate was picked up by the Flock system on April 8, 2023, in west Wichita, a city about 395,000 inhabitants.

Daigneault saw the officers behind him and immediately took off through residential neighborhoods at a high rate of speed. Police said the chase lasted about 30 minutes and reached speeds of more than 100 mph before Daigneault crashed into another car and crashed into a busy grocery store.

Calvert and Killin played dash cam footage of the chase, as well as video from the grocery store that showed jurors how officers followed Daigneault into the store and found him hiding on the bottom shelf of the canned goods aisle , as customers left the store and fled. for their cars.

Officers testified they found a Bersa .380 semi-automatic handgun in the floor of the Honda Accord, which Calvert told jurors Monday turned out to be the murder weapon. Reynolds was shot in the head before her body was set on fire in Robinson.

Prosecution testimony will resume Wednesday morning.

If convicted of murder, Daigneault faces 15 years to life in prison.

Copyright 2024 KWTX. All rights reserved.