Prosecutors: Video shows suspects buying tools to dismember Tinder date's body
OMAHA, Neb. -- A Nebraska woman who went missing in November was still alive when the duo accused of killing her was caught on store surveillance video buying the tools that police think they used to dismember her, prosecutors allege in newly unsealed court documents. Aubrey Trail, 51, and Bailey Boswell, 23, appeared in Saline County Court on Tuesday to face charges of first-degree murder and the improper disposal of human skeletal remains in the killing of 24-year-old Sydney Loofe, of Lincoln.
Trail is representing himself. The Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, which is representing Boswell, declined to comment Tuesday.
Authorities say Loofe met Boswell through the Tinder dating app and that they went on a date Nov. 14 and planned a second one for the following night. Loofe's mother reported her missing on Nov. 16, and her dismembered body was found in December stuffed into garbage bags that had been dumped in a field near Edgar, about 90 miles southwest of Lincoln.
Since he and Boswell were arrested weeks after Loofe's disappearance, Trail has told several news outlets that her death was accidental. He told the Omaha World Herald Loofe had been a willing participant in a sex game that went wrong, and that she had something around her neck when she died. He said he believes he should receive the death penalty, the paper reports.
"It wasn't supposed to go to the extreme it went, of course not," he told the paper. "It wasn't meant that she was to die."
The charges, however, indicate prosecutors believe they planned the murder. In the unsealed arrest affidavit, investigators said Trail and Boswell were captured on video at a Home Depot in Lincoln on Nov. 15 buying tools used to dismember Loofe, hours before Loofe's death and while she was still at work.
In the newly unsealed documents, prosecutors allege that Trail told investigators he strangled Sydney Loofe with an extension cord. Investigators believe Boswell, who lived with Trail in Wilber, helped Trail dismember Loofe and get rid of her remains.
Trail and Boswell were quickly named as people of interest in the case and were arrested in late November in Branson, Missouri, on unrelated fraud charges.
They have been held in the Saline County jail since then, though the charges in Loofe's death weren't announced until Monday.
Shortly after Loofe's November disappearance, the pair posted a Facebook video in which they maintained their innocence, reports CBS affiliate KMTV. Boswell said in the video she and Loofe did drugs at her house before she dropped Loofe off at a friend's house. Boswell said they had planned to go to a casino that weekend, but she hadn't heard from Loofe since.
The video was a deleted a few hours after it was posted to the "Finding Sydney Loofe" Facebook page.
Authorities haven't suggested a motive for the killing. The Nebraska Attorney General's office, which is prosecuting the case, said it is considering seeking the death penalty.
