A Nebraska woman who lured a woman to her death on a dating app will spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Bailey Boswell initially faced the death penalty for her role in the murder of 24-year-old Sydney Loofe. Loofe came to know Boswell and her boyfriend, 55-year-old Aubrey Trail, after Boswell set up a Tinder account under the name Audrey. She connected with Loofe, and the two went on a date on November 14, 2017.
They planned a second date for the next day, but Loofe had no way of knowing she was becoming part of a depraved plan between the couple.
Ahead of Boswell and Loofe's second date, Boswell and Trail were caught on video at a Home Depot buying supplies that would be later used in the murder. Loofe met up with Boswell on the night of November 15.
The next day, Loofe was reported missing after her family and friends were unable to get in touch with her and she didn't show up to work. Investigators got to work after performing a welfare check on November 17, during which time there were no signs of Loofe, but also no signs of a break-in or struggle.
On November 29, police declared Boswell and Trail persons of interest in the case. The couple bizarrely took to Facebook to proclaim their innocence in a nine-minute video.
"We're not trying to defend anything, we're not trying to make you believe anything," Trail says while sitting with Boswell in what looks to be a parked car.
"We just feel we should get to say our side since everyone else gets to say theirs."
The two were eventually released but found themselves arrested on unrelated charges months later. During that time, Trail initially confessed to suffocating Sydney to death during a consensual sexual encounter. Later, he admitted it was premeditated but said that Boswell was not involved in anything but the cleanup.
Investigators found Loofe's remains dismembered in several trash bags along a gravel road in rural Clay County, Nebraska. She was laid to rest about a month before Trail's confession.
In October 2020, Boswell was found guilty on three charges: first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and improper disposal of human remains. At that point, a three-judge panel was asked to rule on whether Boswell's role in Loofe's death met the legal standard of "exceptional depravity."
Though Trail was sentenced to death in June 2021, the same determination was not made for Boswell. She will serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"The murder was coldly calculated, Boswell relished the murder, there was needless viewed mutilation of the body," Presiding District Court Judge Vicky Johnson said during the hearing, per KETV.
"The murder was senseless and Sydney Loofe was a helpless victim."
"Ms. Loofe was needlessly mutilated by Trail and Boswell as part of the plan to satisfy her sexual desire," Judge Johnson continued.
"The mutilation was not done as an afterthought to hide the body."
Still, Judge Peter Bataillon said prosecutors failed to prove that Boswell should be sentenced to death.
"I could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that the state of Nebraska met [its] burden of proof as to this aggravating circumstance," he said.
"Nothing in this decision diminishes the senselessness of the murder of Sydney Loofe and the great pain it's caused her family and friends."
"I believe that she's as guilty or guiltier. If it wasn't for her, my daughter would never have been there," George Loofe told the Omaha World-Herald, per the Lincoln Journal-Star.
