WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A Robinson police detective testified Tuesday that he was “extremely confused” when he received a call from someone pretending to be Mandy Reynolds, the same day authorities tentatively identified the body found burned beyond recognition the night before as Reynolds.

Officers and crime scene technicians from Robinson, Wichita, Kansas and San Marcos testified Tuesday in 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. Reynolds’ remains were found badly burned in the Robinson subdivision at Heston Circle, just off Greig Drive east of Interstate 35. .

Daigneault and Reynolds, who lived together in San Marcos, had no ties to McLennan County, and authorities were able to identify Reynolds as the murder victim after capturing a white Labradoodle named Titan who initially fled authorities but refused to leave the charred area. Reynolds’ body was found.

Authorities then tracked Daigneault to San Marcos and then to Wichita; where Daigneault was arrested while driving Reynolds’ black Honda Accord, leading police there on a wild, high-speed chase that reached speeds of more than 100 mph.

He crashed, which ended the car chase, but the incident continued on foot when he fled into a grocery store and was arrested by a dozen police officers in a dramatic incident that sent frantic shoppers fleeing the store in panic.

After Robinson authorities captured Titan, they learned that he had been microchipped and that his owner was Reynolds.

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

Perry, who spent four hours at the crime scene the night before in a severe storm and hail, was at his desk reviewing crime scene photographs and other evidence the next morning when he received a phone call that threw him 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. Perry and former Robinson crime scene technician Kayla Williams were looking at Reynolds’ Facebook page when the call came and saw that Reynolds was short. They immediately suspected the caller was pretending to be Reynolds, and both testified Tuesday.

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

Williams stated that while looking at Reynolds’ Facebook page, the images on the page began to disappear before his eyes and the page was disabled.

So Perry began doing what any good detective would do. He began asking personal, descriptive questions about Reynolds, including his Social Security number, address, phone number, date of birth and hometown. Surprisingly, the caller said he had the information correct, but there was a single-digit error in the Social Security number.

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

The caller said her boyfriend was driving to Wichita to see his sick grandmother.

As Perry continued talking, the caller became agitated and hung up the phone.

“What is the query about?” the caller asked. “That’s my dog ​​you have. What’s this interrogation about, detective? I’ll be coming to the shelter to pick up Titan. Goodbye.”

During the search, authorities used a license plate reading system known as Flock to track Reynolds’ Honda to Aquarena Springs Drive in San Marcos. In a photo showing the car being driven in heavy rain, Calvert repeated the call to show jurors the rhythmic, screeching sound of the car’s windshield wipers.

About 15 minutes later, Reynolds called Reynolds’ phone and told the person on the other end that he thought they had gone the “wrong way” and that he was just trying to return the dog to its rightful owner, Perry said.

He told the caller (who he believed was Daigneault posing as his cousin) that the Titan had been found at the scene of a grisly murder. “Oh my God,” the caller explained, seemingly getting emotional. “Oh, wow. I’m just stressing about Titan. We paid a lot of money for it. “I just wonder how long he has to stay out.”

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

“I can’t spend all day talking to you,” the caller said. “I am at work and will not be interrogated when my dog ​​runs away. “Once, you are very persistent, and twice, you treat me like a criminal.”

The caller once again said he was coming to Robinson to pick up the dog, but Perry said Titan was in “police custody” and would not be available.

The caller said, “Okay, I’ll have my lawyer call you.”

Perry told the jury he had not heard from any attorneys about Titan.

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

In another prosecutorial deposition Tuesday, officers from Wichita, Kansas, testified about their efforts to locate Reynolds after the license plate on his Honda was retrieved from the Flock system on April 8, 2023, in west Wichita, a city of about 395,000.

Daigneault noticed the officers behind him and immediately sped away from his residential neighbors at a high rate of speed. Officers said the chase lasted about 30 minutes and Daigneault reached speeds of more than 100 mph before hitting another car and crashing into a crowded convenience store.

Along with police body camera footage of the chase, Calvert and Killin played jurors video showing how officers chased Daigneault into the store and found him hiding on the bottom shelf of the canned goods aisle as customers ran out of the store. for their cars.

Officers testified they found a Bersa .380 semi-automatic pistol in the floorboard of the Honda Accord. Calvert told jurors Monday that it proved to be the murder weapon. Reynolds was shot in the head before his body was set on fire at Robinson.

The prosecution’s testimony will continue on Wednesday morning.

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

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