Neb. Supreme Court upholds conviction of woman who tortured, killed her female Tinder date

LINCOLN, Neb. (TCD) -- The Supreme Court of Nebraska upheld the conviction and sentencing of a woman who tortured, killed, and dismembered her Tinder date in 2017 with her boyfriend’s help.

The state’s Supreme Court released its decision Friday, May 10. Bailey Boswell had appealed her conviction after she was found guilty in 2020 of premeditated first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and improper disposal of human skeletal remains in connection with the death of 24-year-old Sydney Loofe. Boswell’s boyfriend and co-conspirator, Aubrey Trail, was convicted of the same charges. He is on death row and Boswell is serving a life sentence.

During Trail’s trial in 2019, he reportedly yelled, "Bailey is innocent, and I curse you all," then slit his own throat, according to WOWT-TV. He survived the injury.

Prosecutors argued Boswell and Trail "formed a conspiracy to murder someone for sexual gratification," which led them to Loofe. They also said Boswell and Trail recruited other women "into dominant-submissive sexual relationships that included grooming the women, through physical and sexual punishment and regular discussions of witchcraft and the occult, to plan and participate in torture and murder for sexual gratification."

Loofe and Boswell, who was using the name "Audrey," matched on Tinder in November 2017. They went on a date Nov. 14, 2017, and a second one a day later. Loofe did not show up to her job at a hardware store on Nov. 16, so she was reported missing.

Surveillance video reportedly showed Boswell and Trail following Loofe to work on Nov. 15. That same day, Boswell and Trail bought a hacksaw, hacksaw blades, drywall blades, a knife, chemical drain cleaner, and other items at various stores around Lincoln. Boswell purchased bleach, trash bags, and cleaner on the morning of Nov. 17. Police spoke with Boswell on Nov. 17, and she admitted she and Loofe went on a date, but she said she dropped her off at a friend’s house.

On Nov. 18, 2017, Lincoln Police conducted a welfare check at Trail and Boswell’s apartment, where they "noticed a strong smell of bleach." Investigators used cell tower data and tracked Boswell and Trail’s movements around the time Loofe disappeared.

In December 2017, investigators began searching remote areas and eventually discovered a trash bag with severed remains. They located other bags spread around the area and collected 13 body parts.

In addition to the human remains, investigators found other evidence nearby, including an extension cord, Loofe’s cut-up license and credit card, plastic tarps "with what appeared to be blood and bodily fluids," a sauna suit with a hole in the genital area, a sex toy, and more. DNA from Loofe, Trail, and Boswell was reportedly found on the items.

The medical examiner took photographs at Loofe’s autopsy, which were used at Boswell’s trial to illustrate the pathologist’s conclusions.

According to the court opinion, Boswell objected to the photographs being used, the testimony about "witchcraft and the occult," evidence about her sexual fantasies and sexual torture, and other comments Trail made during his trial.

Boswell claimed the photos were "irrelevant, were more prejudicial than probative, and were needlessly cumulative." The court, however, argued photographs in a first-degree murder case "can also provide visual proof from which a jury could reasonably infer that the homicide was committed purposely and with 'deliberate and premeditated malice.'"

The justices said they "agree that the photographs of Loofe’s recovered body were graphic and gruesome, but so too was the crime. The photographs accurately depict the stark reality of a horrific crime that involved strangulation, torture, dismemberment of the body into 14 segments, and disposal of those segments in plastic trash bags left in rural ditches and fields."

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