Officers from three agencies testify about Amanda Reynolds' murder investigation

WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A Robinson Police Department detective testified Tuesday that he was “extremely confused” when he received a call from someone posing as Mandy Reynolds on the same day officers found the body unrecognizable the night before. was found burned, tentatively identified as Reynolds.

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

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 on Heston Circle, just off Greig Drive east from 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 murder victim after capturing a white Labradoodle named Titan, who initially evaded officials but refused to leave the charred spot to leave where Reynolds’ body was found.

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

He crashed, ending the chase, which continued on foot as he fled to a supermarket and was arrested by a dozen officers in a dramatic episode that sent panicked customers fleeing the store in panic.

After Robinson officials caught Titan, they learned that he had a microchip and that Reynolds was his owner.

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

Perry, who had spent four hours at the crime scene the night before in a severe thunderstorm with hail, testified that the next morning he was reviewing crime scene photos and other evidence at his desk when he received a phone call alerting him to confused.

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

“The pictures I saw were of a small, frail woman, and the voice on the phone did not match her pictures,” Perry said. “So I was very confused.”

Williams testified that as she looked 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 place of residence. Surprisingly, he said, the caller got the information correct, except for 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 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 the night before at 10 p.m.

The caller said she was on her way to Wichita to visit her friend’s sick grandmother.

As Perry continued to press, the caller became irritated 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 just coming to the pound to pick up 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 repeated the call to alert jurors to the rhythmic, screeching sound of the car’s windshield wipers.

Perry said he called Reynolds’ phone back after about 15 minutes and told the person on the other end that he thinks they were misled. He explained that he was just trying to get the dog back to its rightful owner.

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

After a few more questions, the caller again became confrontational and uncooperative.

“I can’t waste my whole day talking to you,” the caller said. “I’m at work and I’m not questioned if my puppy runs off. For one, you’re very pushy, and for two, you treat me like a criminal.”

The caller again said he would come to Robinson to pick up the dog, but Perry said Titan was on “police watch” and would not be available.

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

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

Working with the San Marcos Police Department, 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 of the passenger side. window after Daigneault loaded the items into Reynolds’ Honda.

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

Daigneault saw the officers behind him and immediately sped through the neighbors at high speed. Officers said the chase lasted about 30 minutes and reached speeds of more than 100 mph before Daigneault crashed into another car and ran into a busy supermarket.

Calvert and Killin played police body camera footage of the chase, as well as video from the supermarket that showed jurors how officers chased Daigneault into the store and found him on the bottom shelf of the canned goods aisle as customers left the store and ran. for their cars.

Officers said they found a Bersa .380 semi-automatic pistol in the floorboard 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.

The witness hearing will resume on Wednesday morning.

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