Sydney Loofe Case: Trail and Boswell Trials and Sentencing

The Sydney Loofe case is the 2017 Nebraska murder of a 24-year-old Lincoln woman who met Bailey Boswell through Tinder and was killed by Boswell and her boyfriend Aubrey Trail, who strangled Loofe, dismembered her body, and scattered the remains across rural Clay County. Trail was sentenced to death and remains on death row. Boswell was sentenced to life in prison without parole after a three-judge panel split on whether she should become the first woman on Nebraska’s death row.

Who Sydney Loofe Was

Sydney Irene Loofe was born on August 21, 1993, in Broken Bow, Nebraska, and grew up in Neligh, graduating from Neligh-Oakdale Public Schools in May 2011. At the time of her death she was living in Lincoln and working at Menards, where coworkers and customers spoke well of her. Her obituary described her as a caring person who loved the outdoors, fishing, golfing, and animals.¹

The Tinder Date and Disappearance

Loofe matched with Bailey Boswell on Tinder and went on a first date on November 14, 2017. That night she posted a Snapchat photo captioned “ready for my date.”² A second date was set for November 15. Earlier that day, while Loofe was at work, surveillance video captured Boswell and Aubrey Trail at a Lincoln Home Depot buying the tools prosecutors would later say were used to dismember her body.³ When Loofe failed to show up for work on November 16, she was reported missing.

How Investigators Found Her Killers

Loofe’s best friend, Brooklyn McCrystal, gave law enforcement its first solid lead. Knowing from Loofe’s Snapchats that her date was a woman going by “Audrey,” McCrystal created a fake Tinder profile using a photo Loofe had shared, matched with the same user, and obtained a phone number that she turned over to investigators. That number identified Bailey Boswell and put police in contact with both Boswell and Trail.⁴

On November 29, 2017, Trail and Boswell posted a nearly ten-minute video to a Facebook group searching for Loofe. Filmed inside a parked car, the video showed the pair denying any involvement; Boswell claimed she had picked Loofe up, smoked marijuana with her, and dropped her off at a friend’s.⁵ The next day, the FBI and U.S. Marshals arrested the pair at a Branson, Missouri, motel on unrelated warrants.⁶

After a three-week search involving roughly 50 officers across about 30 square miles, Loofe’s remains were found on December 4 and 5, 2017, in garbage bags dumped in ditches and fields near Edgar in Clay County.⁷ Her body had been cut into 14 pieces.⁸ Investigators identified a portion of her arm by a tattoo that read, “Everything will be wonderful someday.”⁹

The Prosecution’s Theory

Both Trail and Boswell were charged in Saline County with first-degree murder and improper disposal of human skeletal remains. Trail also faced conspiracy to commit murder. Court filings alleged Trail had been planning a murder for months, between July and November 2017, and that Boswell used social media to recruit young women, with the pair selecting a victim and buying tools to kill and dismember her.¹⁰

Prosecutors argued Boswell lured Loofe to an apartment in Wilber under the pretense of a second date, where Trail strangled her. The pair then dismembered her body and scattered the remains across rural southeastern Nebraska.⁸ Trail gave shifting accounts. He first claimed the killing happened when “a sex act went wrong,” later said he feared Loofe would expose their activities, and at his sentencing said he killed her because she had become uncomfortable with his and Boswell’s lifestyle.¹¹

Testimony About a Cult-Like Group

Some of the most disturbing evidence came from women who had been part of Trail and Boswell’s inner circle. Witnesses described a group that functioned like a cult. Trail claimed to be a vampire who could fly and read minds. He said he led a “coven of witches” who could gain supernatural powers by killing people. Boswell was called the “Queen Witch,” and members had to call Trail “Daddy.”¹²

Boswell recruited young women through Tinder, sometimes using the alias “Jenna.” One witness testified Trail offered to pay her car, rent, and school expenses and told her she would be the 13th member of his group. Members were required to spend at least one night a week at Trail’s Wilber apartment, and those sleepovers frequently involved sexual activity. The witness described Trail as “very convincing” and said the experience felt “almost like she was hypnotized.”¹³

Another witness, identified as A.H., described a more coercive dynamic. Trail paid her bills in exchange for a “sugar daddy” relationship and punished rule-breaking with whipping, choking, and smacking. She testified to weekly discussions with Trail and Boswell about torture methods and described a Walmart trip where the group was scouting for a potential victim. Trail allegedly told her he and Boswell would handle the “cleanup” while A.H. and Boswell would do the actual killing. She left after having a panic attack.¹⁴ FBI agents also found a list of 12 to 13 women in Boswell’s purse, each name paired with a “special power” such as “healing,” “see danger,” or “fire.”¹²

Aubrey Trail’s Trial and Death Sentence

On the third day of Trail’s Saline County trial, he shouted “Bailey is innocent, and I curse you all!” and slashed his own throat with a razor blade he had smuggled into the courtroom. He was stitched up and returned to jail. District Judge Vicky Johnson ordered him kept in handcuffs for the rest of the trial, individually questioned each juror about impartiality, and denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial.¹⁵

The jury convicted Trail of first-degree murder and criminal conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He entered a no-contest plea to improper disposal of human skeletal remains.¹⁶¹¹

Trail’s Appeals and Current Status

On November 10, 2022, the Nebraska Supreme Court unanimously affirmed Trail’s conviction and death sentence, rejecting arguments that Nebraska’s sentencing scheme was unconstitutional and that the trial judge should have declared a mistrial after his self-harm. Writing for the court, Justice John Freudenberg called the crime “utterly senseless and cruel” and said Trail “relished the killing and was bereft of any regard for human life.” The court described the courtroom incident as a “calculating gesture” and wrote, “We will not permit Trail to benefit from his own bad behavior during trial.”¹⁷¹⁸

In August 2023, Trail waived his remaining appeals and asked the state to set an execution date. In a letter to the Lincoln Journal Star he wrote, “You gave me the death penalty so now use it,” and framed his decision as an apology to the Loofe family in the hope it “will give them some type of closure.”¹⁹ The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services responded that it was “not in possession of any lethal-injection chemicals,” and no execution date has been set. Nebraska has not carried out an execution since 2018, when Carey Dean Moore was put to death.²⁰

Trail later filed a motion for post-conviction relief. The Saline County District Court denied it as untimely, and on May 30, 2025, the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed that denial.²¹ He remains on death row at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.⁸

Bailey Boswell’s Trial and Life Sentence

Boswell was tried separately. Because of extensive publicity around Trail’s trial, a judge granted a change of venue in September 2020, moving her case to Dawson County in Lexington.²² In October 2020, a Dawson County jury convicted her of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and improper disposal of human remains.²³ Her attorney, Todd Lancaster, argued throughout the case that Boswell had been coerced by Trail and acted under his emotional dominance, presenting evidence of her history of trauma including sexual assault and physical abuse.²⁴

Sentencing raised a question Nebraska had never answered: could Boswell become the first woman on the state’s death row? Corrections director Scott Frakes testified the state had no plan in place to house a female death row inmate and would need to draft new policy. The defense argued that confining a woman under the same restrictive conditions as male death row inmates could amount to cruel and unusual punishment.²⁵

On November 8, 2021, the three-judge panel split. Two judges voted for death, finding the murder “exceptionally depraved”; Judge Vicky Johnson said Boswell’s “actions and words demonstrate that she had no regard for the life of Sydney Loofe beyond her own pleasure.” Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon voted for life, saying he “could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that the State of Nebraska had met its burden of proof.” Nebraska law requires a unanimous vote for a death sentence, so Boswell received life in prison without parole, plus a consecutive 50 years for conspiracy and two years for the disposal of remains.²⁴

Boswell’s Appeal

Boswell appealed, challenging the admission of graphic photographs of Loofe’s dismembered remains, testimony about the couple’s alleged occult fantasies and sexual torture interests, and hearsay statements by Trail. On May 10, 2024, the Nebraska Supreme Court unanimously upheld her conviction and sentences. Justice Stephanie Stacy wrote that the challenged evidence was “relevant and probative to show Boswell’s motive and intent.”²³²⁶ She is serving her life sentence.

How the Family Has Remembered Sydney

Loofe’s family has worked to preserve her memory. The Omaha-based Set Me Free Project created a Sydney Loofe Memorial Scholarship for students majoring in criminal justice or cybersecurity.²⁷²⁸²⁹

After Boswell’s sentencing, George Loofe called his daughter a “kind soul” who was “gullible” in her willingness to see the good in people. He and his wife, Susie, said they were grateful their daughter’s killers “will never see the light of day.” George also said, “If this doesn’t warrant the death penalty, I feel Nebraska should just get rid of it.”²⁸

1
Snider Memorial Funeral Home. Sydney Loofe Obituary
2
ABC News. Persons of Interest in Sydney Loofe’s Disappearance Indicted
3
WBAL-TV. Two Charged With Murder in Case of Woman Who Disappeared After Tinder Date
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Nebraska Public Media. Testimony: Best Friend Supplied Major Lead to ID Loofe’s Accused Killers
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People. Missing Sydney Loofe Persons of Interest Post Facebook Video
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KY3. Two Arrested in Taney County in Connection to Missing Woman’s Case
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WOWT. Court Documents Reveal Information About Death of Sydney Loofe
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WOWT. Nebraska Supreme Court: Bailey Boswell Murder Conviction Stands
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Nebraska.TV. Law Enforcement Testimony Describes Discovery of Sydney Loofe’s Remains
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KETV. New Charges in Sydney Loofe Murder Case
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Nebraska Public Media. Aubrey Trail Sentenced to Death for Murder, Dismemberment of Sydney Loofe
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Nebraska Public Media. Witness Describes Aubrey Trail as Vampire Leading Coven of Witches
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WOWT. Sex Cult Member Testifies Trail Said He Was a Vampire Who Could Fly
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Nebraska.TV. Trail and Boswell’s Previous Girlfriends Take the Stand
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KETV. Aubrey Trail to Be in Handcuffs for Remainder of Trial Following Attempt to Slash Own Throat
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FindLaw. State v. Trail
17
CBS News. Aubrey Trail Loses Appeal, Sentenced to Death for Killing Tinder Date Sydney Loofe
18
Nebraska Public Media. Court: Aubrey Trail Death Sentence Justified, Constitutional
19
Death Penalty Information Center. Death-Sentenced Prisoner Aubrey Trail Waives Appeals and Petitions Nebraska for Execution Date
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WOWT. The History of Nebraska’s Death Penalty and What It Means for Aubrey Trail
21
1011 NOW. Nebraska Supreme Court Rejects Aubrey Trail’s Death Sentence Challenge
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KLKN-TV. Timeline: What Led Up to Boswell’s Trial
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CBS News. Bailey Boswell Murder Conviction, Life Sentence Upheld
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Death Penalty Information Center. Nebraska Narrowly Avoids Sending First-Ever Woman to Death Row
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Nebraska Public Media. No Plans for Women on Death Row Raised in Boswell Murder Hearing
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KETV. Nebraska Supreme Court Denies Bailey Boswell Appeal
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KETV. Organization Creates Scholarship in Memory of Sydney Loofe
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Lincoln Journal Star. Loofe Family Reacts to Boswell Sentencing
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Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. Sydney Loofe Memorial Bench