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Home / World

Sydney Loofe murder case: Nebraska man sentenced to death for dismembering Tinder date

news.com.au
13 Jun, 2021 01:00 AM3 mins to read

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Sydney Loofe, 24, was brutally murdered by 54-year-old Aubrey Trail, who was sentenced to death in a Nebraska court. Source / KMTV 3

A US man has been sentenced to death for the brutal murder of a young woman lured to an apartment by his girlfriend.

Nebraska woman Sydney Loofe, who worked in a hardware store, was just 24 when she was reported missing on November 16, 2017.

Her body was found weeks later on December 4, dismembered and stuffed into garbage bags left in a field.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel sentenced 54-year-old Aubrey Trail to death, saying he had displayed a "cold, calculated" level of planning when it came to Loofe's murder, Norfolk Daily News reported.

Sydney Loofe was murdered in November 2017. Photo / Supplied
Sydney Loofe was murdered in November 2017. Photo / Supplied
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"There is no reasonable doubt that this aggravating circumstance against Aubrey Trail justifies an imposition of a sentence of death," Judge Vicky L Johnson said of the decision, according to WOWT.

"Ms Loofe was needlessly mutilated by Trail in order to satisfy his intellectual and sexual curiosity."

Trail was previously convicted of first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy to commit murder and improper disposal of human remains, alongside his girlfriend, Bailey Boswell.

Loofe was reported missing the day after she told family and friends she was going on a Tinder date.

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From the beginning, police labelled her disappearance as "concerning", issuing a public plea for information over her whereabouts.

Her dismembered body was found in a field three weeks later. Photo / Supplied
Her dismembered body was found in a field three weeks later. Photo / Supplied

Boswell had connected with Loofe on Tinder four days before she disappeared, with the two women meeting up on November 13.

Loofe met with Boswell for a second time on November 15, this time taking the young woman to the apartment she shared with Trail.

Loofe made one last social media post before disappearing, sending a friend a selfie on Snapchat saying she was "ready for my date".

Trail would first claim Loofe had died from suffocation after agreeing to act out a sexual fantasy with him and two other women while Boswell was passed out, he told local newspaper Omaha World-Herald in 2018.

Before her death Sydney Loofe shared this selfie on Snapchat. Photo / Supplied
Before her death Sydney Loofe shared this selfie on Snapchat. Photo / Supplied

"It wasn't supposed to go to the extreme it went, of course not," he claimed. "It wasn't meant that she was to die."

But he later revealed her death had been no accident during sex and instead he had killed Loofe after she arrived at their apartment and "freaked out".

Boswell had invited her there in the hopes of getting Loofe to join the sex ring and criminal lifestyle she led with Trail.

The couple liked to have group sex with other women and would defraud antique dealers, the Des Moines Register reported.

Aubrey Trail. Photo / Supplied
Aubrey Trail. Photo / Supplied

Trail said he had been "willing to do anything to protect" his lifestyle with Boswell.

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Boswell and Trail were both charged and arrested over Loofe's death in June 2018.

Bailey Boswell. Photo / Supplied
Bailey Boswell. Photo / Supplied

Reading from a prepared statement at his sentencing this week, Trail said: "Nothing I can say here will change in the least what I did to Sydney.

"I won't say I'm sorry, as that would be an insult to you after what I put you through," he said, "And I won't ask for forgiveness as I don't believe there is such a thing."

Boswell will be sentenced on June 30.

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