A dog who refused to leave his owner’s side has been credited with helping solve her murder in Texas.
The killer, Derek Daigneault, was sentenced to life in prison on Nov. 7. Prosecutors gave some of the praise to Titan, a white Labradoodle owned by the victim, Mandy Rose Reynolds.
“The keys to this case were a heroic and loyal dog named Titan and extraordinary cooperation between law enforcement agencies in multiple jurisdictions and states,” the McLennan County district attorney’s office said in a Facebook post.
Cops first happened upon Titan on April 5, 2023, in the south Waco suburb of Robinson, according to authorities. He was found at the scene of a fire, where a woman’s body had been set ablaze.
“Nearby was a white dog which barked frantically at officers and refused to leave the area of the body, and also refused to allow police to capture it,” prosecutors wrote.
Titan was microchipped, allowing cops to quickly identify her owner as Reynolds, a 26-year-old resident of San Marcos, Texas. Investigators suspected she was the victim and searched her home, finding it empty.
Reynolds’ car was tracked to Wichita, Kansas, where police tried to pull it over on April 8. But the driver, later identified as Daigneault, led them on a high-speed chase until he crashed, bailed and was captured in a grocery store.
Daigneault, 29, has been behind bars ever since and was convicted last week. He and Reynolds were cousins, and cops said the two were living together for about a month in San Marcos until Daigneault fatally shot her and torched her body.
