Swipe Right on the Devil: The murder of Sydney Loofe
On 15th November 2017, 24-year-old Sydney Loofe left work to meet a woman from Tinder. The pair had been on a date before, so Sydney didn't think she had any reason to worry.
However, the Tinder date soon turned deadly, and it would be the last time anyone saw Sydney alive. In the following article, the Crime+Investigation team examines how a Tinder match became a carefully planned murder.
Who was Sydney Loofe?
‘She had a way of making everyone feel very comfortable around her,’ Terra Gehrig said after her friend’s murder. Those who knew Sydney echoed this sentiment. Family, friends and colleagues remembered her for her limitless generosity and kindness. But behind the scenes, she struggled with bouts of anxiety and depression.
To stay on top of this, she loved to fish and play sports. Her home city of Neligh, Nebraska, offered plenty of opportunities to get outdoors, sitting along the Elkhorn River and surrounded by open countryside.
After graduating high school, she moved to Lincoln and found a job at a local Menards store. Her manager, Donald Maxson, later told reporters how she had helped a struggling colleague. When asked why, Sydney replied: ‘Everybody needs a chance, somebody to help them out.’
Meeting ‘Audrey’
Like many young people in the city, Sydney was looking for love. She downloaded Tinder to meet like-minded people and eventually matched with a woman called Audrey. Despite initial reservations, Sydney agreed to meet her for a date on 14th November 2017.
Audrey picked Sydney up from her address, and the pair spent a couple of hours together before she dropped her back home. Believing she had no reason to worry, Sydney agreed to a second date the following day.
However, Audrey wasn't who she claimed to be. Her real name was Bailey Boswell, a 23-year-old woman who lived with her boyfriend, Aubrey Trail, in a basement apartment in Wilber.
The following evening, Boswell picked Sydney up again. This time, however, she drove her back to her apartment. Sydney would never be seen again.
The Tinder date murder
Sydney had no idea what was about to happen. Earlier that day, Boswell and Trail had bought a hacksaw, tin snips and a utility knife. Prosecutors would later argue that the tools were evidence of premeditation.
After arriving at the apartment, Sydney was brutally murdered. What exactly happened remains a mystery, largely because Trail repeatedly changed his story about the events of that night.
At one point, Trail claimed that Sydney had accidentally died while being strangled during consensual sex. However, he later admitted that was a lie. Medical evidence provided a more concrete picture. It showed that Sydney had been strangled and suffered blunt-force trauma around the time of her death.
Following the murder, Trail and Boswell dismembered Sydney’s body and dumped her remains in rubbish bags at several roadside locations. Investigators would eventually recover 13 of 14 body segments. Some of Sydney's remains were never found.
Investigation and arrests
When Sydney didn't turn up for work the following day, her worried friends and family desperately tried to contact her. They knew she had been on a Tinder date, but had little information about the woman she was meeting.
However, one of Sydney’s best friends, Brooklyn McCrystal, had a photo of 'Audrey'. She created a Tinder profile and began searching for the mysterious woman. Eventually, she found her profile and passed the details on to the police.
When police contacted Boswell, she admitted to going on a date with Sydney but claimed that she had dropped her off at a friend’s house afterwards. The following day, officers visited her apartment. The first thing they noticed was a strong smell of bleach coming from the basement.
Investigators subsequently turned to Boswell and Trail’s phone records. Location data showed their phones travelling west from Wilber into rural Clay County on the day after Sydney’s disappearance.
Investigators focused their search on the area and soon discovered dismembered remains.
Trial and sentencing
Investigators eventually arrested Trail and Boswell in Missouri after several weeks on the run. Although the pair were tried separately, prosecutors argued that Sydney’s murder had been premeditated in both cases.
Trail’s trial should have been straightforward, but it wasn’t. He repeatedly changed his account of Sydney’s death and shocked the courtroom by slashing his own neck with a hidden razor blade while proclaiming Boswell’s innocence.
However, the jury saw through his theatrics, and he was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He was later sentenced to death.
Boswell faced a similar fate. Prosecutors argued that she had deliberately lured Sydney into the couple’s plans, using Tinder to gain her trust. She was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and improper disposal of human remains.
Boswell was sentenced to life in prison.
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