Suspect in Texas murder case brought back from Kansas

Waco, Tx (FOX 44) - UPDATE: The suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in a brush fire in Robinson last year has been brought back to McLennan County from Kansas, where he was being handled on other charges.

Derek Joseph Daigneault remained held in the McLennan County Jail Monday in lieu of a $1 million bond on the murder charge. He was named as a suspect in the death of 26-year-old Mandy Rose Reynolds, whose body was found near Heston Circle in Robinson in April 2023.

Robinson Police had identified Daigneault as a suspect early in their investigation, and found evidence to link him to the Wichita, Kansas area. Robinson investigators contacted authorities there to keep an eye out for him.

Daigneault was spotted in a vehicle reported stolen out of Texas, and when Wichita officers tried to pull him over on April 8, 2023, he sped off and rammed several police units during a high speed chase. He was ultimately taken into custody and held on a total of 15 charges in the Sedgwick County, Kansas Jail.

In January 2024, he entered guilty pleas to fleeing or attempting to elude an officers, aggravated battery, criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and theft. In March, a judge in Kansas sentenced him to 111 months, or just over nine years, in prison on those charges.

Robinson Police said neither the victim nor the suspect had any ties to the area and appeared to be passing through when the body was taken to the location where it was found.