Mandy Rose Reynolds, 26, was found “dead beyond recognition” in April 2023. Her dog helped police identify her and her killer Derek Daigneault.

The 2023 murder of an Idaho woman was solved with the help of an unlikely source: the victim’s dog.

Mandy Rose Reynolds, 26, was found burned and “dead beyond recognition” in April 2023 by authorities responding to a brush fire in Robinson, Texas, according to the McLennan County Prosecutor’s Office.

His cousin, Derek Daigneault, 29, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, November 7, for his murder, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. a liberation last week.

The investigation began on April 5, 2023, after police found Reynolds’ body, initially unrecognizable, burning in a field next to a white dog that was “barking frantically at officers and refusing to leave the area.” area of ​​the body, but also refused to allow the police to do so.” to capture him,” according to the prosecutor’s press release.

The next day, the dog was still there after the body was removed, when a citizen notified animal control who tracked the dog’s owner using a microchip placed on him. Police were later informed that the body likely belonged to Reynolds and learned the dog’s name was Titan.

That information led police to Reynolds’ home, where they discovered all of his belongings were missing and his house was completely empty, the prosecutor’s office said. The victim’s car was also missing, prompting police to enter his vehicle information into a license plate database. They determined the car was in Wichita, Kan.

Wichita police, after being notified of the vehicle’s presence, spotted Reynolds’ car on April 8, 2023, and met with Daigneault, according to the district attorney’s office. He fled the scene on foot and hid on a shelf at a grocery store where he was arrested, police said.

Investigators discovered a handgun inside the car that matched the shell casing found inside the container where police said Reynolds’ body had been burned.

Meanwhile, Walmart security footage obtained by police in San Marcos, Texas, showed the killer purchasing a plastic storage container – “identical” to the one Reynolds was later found in, a shovel and a can of gasoline the day before Reynolds’ body was found. The footage also showed Titan with his head sticking out of Reynolds’ car window, according to police.

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In a GoFundMe created after her murder, Reynolds’ mother said the victim had moved from Idaho to San Marcos and was planning to start college before the murder. Daigneault contacted Reynolds, his mother said, under “false pretenses.”

This “led to Mandy traveling to Kansas to bring Derek to Texas for a brief visit,” her mother, Karleen Hardy, wrote in the fundraiser.

Other details about the circumstances of the killing, such as the motive, have not been revealed.