Latest / The Mind of a Man / From Tinder Match to Tragedy _ The Case of Sydney Loofe
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: He said, witches kill, witches kill, life for a life,
- 0:06Speaker 1: and they gain more power when they kill. Bailey is
- 0:09Speaker 1: innocent and I curse you all.
- 0:12Speaker 2: Jesus Christ!
- 0:15Speaker 3: You know that.
- 0:16Speaker 4: I killed her.
- 0:18Speaker 2: A detective stood in the biting cold of a windswept
- 0:21Speaker 2: prairie in the early morning hours. In their gloved hands,
- 0:24Speaker 2: they held a large trash bag. Unbeknownst to them, inside
- 0:27Speaker 2: that bag... was the key to solving a several-week-long mystery
- 0:31Speaker 2: revolving around cults, vampires, sadism, and online dating. They unfurled
- 0:36Speaker 2: the plastic, revealing a severed arm. The minute they laid
- 0:40Speaker 2: their eyes on the dismembered remains, they knew who it
- 0:43Speaker 2: belonged to. Etched into the skin of the bicep was
- 0:47Speaker 2: a reminder to preserve. A tattoo that read, Everything will
- 0:51Speaker 2: be wonderful someday. That tattoo belonged to 24-year-old Sidney Loof,
- 0:56Speaker 2: who deserved that wonderful someday. but instead found herself at
- 1:00Speaker 2: the center of one of the most heinous, mind-blowing cases
- 1:04Speaker 2: of all time.
- 1:05Speaker 4: The women say Trail told them he was a vampire,
- 1:08Speaker 4: and that they could gain special powers as witches by
- 1:11Speaker 4: torturing and killing someone.
- 1:18Speaker 2: Sidney Irene Loof had always faced life and struggles with
- 1:21Speaker 2: a smile. Born in Broken Bow, Nebraska in 1993, she
- 1:25Speaker 2: moved to the even more rural town of Neely when
- 1:27Speaker 2: she was a young kid. She spent her days playing
- 1:30Speaker 2: in the creeks, outfishing her whole family, and bonding with
- 1:33Speaker 2: her siblings Kenzie and Levi, who doubled as her best friends.
- 1:37Speaker 2: Heading into high school, where her small graduating class was
- 1:39Speaker 2: less than 30, she was well known for being a
- 1:42Speaker 2: basketball standout. Her life revolved around her team, nature, her friends,
- 1:47Speaker 2: and golf. Tragically, She was diagnosed with scoliosis halfway through
- 1:51Speaker 2: high school, which made even swinging a golf club a
- 1:54Speaker 2: painful challenge. Athletics, which had been her life, were snatched
- 1:58Speaker 2: away from her, and as a result, she found herself
- 2:01Speaker 2: struggling with anxiety and depression. In addition, she realized that
- 2:05Speaker 2: she wasn't swooning over boys like most of her classmates.
- 2:08Speaker 2: She found herself drawn to women, and by at least 2014,
- 2:11Speaker 2: was identifying as a lesbian. At a time when same-sex
- 2:15Speaker 2: marriage wasn't even legalized, she found herself in a wildly
- 2:19Speaker 2: rural and conservative area. Soon after she graduated high school,
- 2:23Speaker 2: she got a job at Menards as a head cashier
- 2:25Speaker 2: and moved to Lincoln near her siblings in hopes of
- 2:28Speaker 2: establishing a life for herself. Soon after she moved, she
- 2:31Speaker 2: turned to Tinder, the dating app, in search of companionship.
- 2:35Speaker 2: She visited her siblings nearly every day and doted on
- 2:38Speaker 2: her cat, Mimsy. But in a world surrounded by couples,
- 2:42Speaker 2: she wanted... and deserved someone to love. In early November 2017,
- 2:46Speaker 2: she thought that person may be Audrey, a woman from
- 2:49Speaker 2: nearby Wilbur, Nebraska. But Audrey didn't exist. Sydney matched with Bailey,
- 2:56Speaker 2: or Audrey, and from there, sparks flew. They talked endlessly,
- 3:00Speaker 2: swapping stories and jokes from the get-go over Tinder. It
- 3:03Speaker 2: was a distraction and a light that Sydney needed in
- 3:05Speaker 2: her life. Because on November 13th, Sydney went to a
- 3:09Speaker 2: doctor's appointment with her parents' support. Her depression had recently
- 3:13Speaker 2: been ramping up, and she wanted to start a new
- 3:15Speaker 2: medication to see if it would help mitigate her symptoms.
- 3:18Speaker 2: Sydney and her parents had a close enough relationship that
- 3:21Speaker 2: Sydney felt comfortable turning to them for advice and comfort
- 3:24Speaker 2: in hard times, and her parents were proud that Sydney
- 3:26Speaker 2: was advocating for herself. They parted ways, hopeful this was
- 3:30Speaker 2: a bright new beginning for Sydney. Little did her parents
- 3:33Speaker 2: know this would be the last time they would ever
- 3:36Speaker 2: see their innovative, kind, hard-working daughter again. Sydney went on
- 3:40Speaker 2: her first date with the girl she believed to be
- 3:42Speaker 2: Audrey on November 14th, 2017. Little is known about Sydney
- 3:46Speaker 2: and Audrey's first date other than the fact that they
- 3:48Speaker 2: went on a drive and seemed to enjoy their time together. Bailey,
- 3:52Speaker 2: who was pretending to be Audrey, eventually posted her retelling
- 3:55Speaker 2: of their first date on social media.
- 3:57Speaker 5: Hi, good morning. I'm Bailey, Audrey on Tinder and a
- 4:02Speaker 5: few other names because I have warrants, but... This really
- 4:07Speaker 5: isn't about me. This is about Sydney. And I'm just
- 4:11Speaker 5: kind of want to tell you what I've already told
- 4:14Speaker 5: the Lincoln police more than one time. I met her
- 4:19Speaker 5: on a Tuesday. We drove around Lincoln, smoked weed, had
- 4:25Speaker 5: a great time.
- 4:25Speaker 6: We hit it off.
- 4:27Speaker 5: I dropped her off at home.
- 4:29Speaker 2: However, it's important to know that Bailey is likely trying
- 4:32Speaker 2: to paint a specific picture of Sydney here. It's a
- 4:35Speaker 2: tactic she will continue to use, much to the heartbreak
- 4:38Speaker 2: of Sidney's family. The next day, November 15, 2017, Sidney
- 4:43Speaker 2: made plans to meet with Bailey again. In their text,
- 4:46Speaker 2: Sidney repeatedly asked if it would just be the two
- 4:48Speaker 2: of them hanging out, and Bailey assured her it would be.
- 4:52Speaker 2: But it wasn't just Bailey's name that she was lying about.
- 4:55Speaker 2: Bailey didn't live alone in her apartment. She lived with
- 4:59Speaker 2: her boyfriend, Aubrey Clifton Trail, who was 51 years old.
- 5:03Speaker 2: more than double her age. Sidney wasn't going to be
- 5:06Speaker 2: the first woman who had been lured into their home
- 5:09Speaker 2: under false pretenses. Whatever purpose you think they brought women
- 5:13Speaker 2: to their home for, the reality was much, much worse.
- 5:18Speaker 4: He says Trail told her he was a vampire and
- 5:20Speaker 4: controlled 12 witches.
- 5:23Speaker 2: At around 10.25am, security footage at a Home Depot near
- 5:26Speaker 2: Sidney's job captured Aubrey and Bailey on a little shopping spree.
- 5:30Speaker 2: Less than 24 hours before Sidney was murdered and dismembered,
- 5:34Speaker 2: they were caught purchasing a foot-long saw, drop cloths, a
- 5:38Speaker 2: sharp utility knife with backup blades, and wire cutters. But
- 5:42Speaker 2: they weren't done yet. After this, they went to a
- 5:45Speaker 2: nearby antique store, where they purchased food grinders, a folding saw,
- 5:48Speaker 2: and weed cutters. About an hour after the couple left
- 5:51Speaker 2: the antique store with their horrifying haul in hand, they
- 5:55Speaker 2: followed Sidney to her job at Menards. Aubrey went into
- 5:58Speaker 2: the store alone, seemingly to scope out Sidney. Sidney had
- 6:02Speaker 2: no idea that she was about to cross paths with
- 6:04Speaker 2: her murderer. Aubrey looks back at Sidney over his shoulder.
- 6:08Speaker 2: Investigators would come to believe that this was his chance
- 6:11Speaker 2: to see her in person for the first time before
- 6:13Speaker 2: he and Bailey set their plan into motion. At Menards,
- 6:17Speaker 2: he purchased Drano, cotton cordage, protein bars, and lighters. Several
- 6:22Speaker 2: hours later, Sidney would come into contact with Aubrey and
- 6:24Speaker 2: Bailey again, only this time, It was at their apartment.
- 6:28Speaker 2: Sidney's friends and family last heard from her when she
- 6:31Speaker 2: posted this Snapchat story. She's beaming, clearly excited for her
- 6:36Speaker 2: date with a woman she thought she may have a
- 6:38Speaker 2: happy future with. Sidney's phone turned off forever at 8.31pm
- 6:43Speaker 2: on November 15th. The following morning, November 16th, Lincoln found
- 6:48Speaker 2: itself bitter and blustery as the sun crept over the horizon.
- 6:52Speaker 2: It was well below freezing. With Thanksgiving only a week
- 6:55Speaker 2: away and the holiday season ramping up, Bernard's was in
- 6:58Speaker 2: for a busy day, but they had a problem. Sidney,
- 7:02Speaker 2: one of their opening cashiers, was nowhere to be found.
- 7:05Speaker 2: Every call her co-workers made to her went to voicemail. Immediately,
- 7:09Speaker 2: they suspected something was wrong. Sidney was punctual and hardworking.
- 7:14Speaker 2: She had never missed a day of work unannounced and
- 7:16Speaker 2: was very close friends with several of her co-workers. One
- 7:20Speaker 2: of them contacted Sidney's mother, who knew something must have
- 7:23Speaker 2: happened to her. she sent a series of texts to
- 7:26Speaker 2: her daughter to no avail. Upon searching her apartment, her
- 7:29Speaker 2: family discovered that her car was sitting in the driveway,
- 7:31Speaker 2: her cat hadn't been fed, and her purse was still inside.
- 7:35Speaker 2: By the afternoon of the 16th, less than 24 hours
- 7:38Speaker 2: after Sydney had disappeared, she was reported missing to police,
- 7:41Speaker 2: and the investigation began in Ernst. But it wasn't a
- 7:44Speaker 2: seasoned investigator who made the first discovery that cracked open
- 7:47Speaker 2: the case. It was Brooklyn McChrystal, Sydney's best friend of
- 7:51Speaker 2: several years. Brooklyn knew that Sydney had met Audrey on Tinder,
- 7:55Speaker 2: and that that was who she went on a date
- 7:56Speaker 2: with the night she disappeared. Though Brooklyn provided police with
- 8:00Speaker 2: that information, they suspected Audrey wasn't her real name, leaving
- 8:04Speaker 2: them at a standstill. Brooklyn took it upon herself to
- 8:07Speaker 2: make a Tinder account and match with Audrey. Just a
- 8:10Speaker 2: few hours into making one, on November 17, 2017, Brooklyn
- 8:14Speaker 2: did what she set out to do. She exchanged several
- 8:17Speaker 2: messages with the Audrey account, flirting and planning a date,
- 8:20Speaker 2: until she finally convinced Audrey to give her her number.
- 8:24Speaker 2: As soon as Brooklyn received that number, she passed it
- 8:26Speaker 2: on to the police, who quickly discovered Audrey was actually
- 8:30Speaker 2: Bailey Boswell. Even more revelatory was the fact that Bailey's
- 8:33Speaker 2: address in Wilbur matched the final location where Sidney's phone pinged.
- 8:37Speaker 2: As police scrambled to get their documents together to deliver
- 8:40Speaker 2: a search warrant to Aubrey and Bailey's apartment in Wilbur,
- 8:43Speaker 2: the couple's landlord was having problems of their own. On
- 8:46Speaker 2: November 16th and 17th, the landlord and their family were
- 8:49Speaker 2: choking on the strong smell of bleach emanating from Aubrey
- 8:52Speaker 2: and Bailey's apartment. The vapors and the smell were so
- 8:55Speaker 2: severe that one household member was vomiting and peppered with hives.
- 8:59Speaker 2: In addition, Aubrey and Bailey had both fans and air
- 9:03Speaker 2: conditioning running. This was highly suspicious, considering the average temperature
- 9:07Speaker 2: was only 38 degrees over those two days. On the 19th,
- 9:12Speaker 2: law enforcement delivered a search warrant to the address. By then,
- 9:15Speaker 2: Aubrey and Bailey were nowhere to be seen. Police found
- 9:18Speaker 2: themselves in an empty apartment that reeked of bleach and
- 9:21Speaker 2: had clearly been wiped down to conceal evidence. A few
- 9:24Speaker 2: days later, with Sydney still nowhere in sight, police officially
- 9:27Speaker 2: labeled Aubrey and Bailey persons of interest. They didn't take
- 9:31Speaker 2: it well.
- 9:33Speaker 6: Good morning, Lincoln and Omaha and probably several other places.
- 9:37Speaker 6: This is Aubrey Trail and this is Bailey Boswell. I
- 9:40Speaker 6: guess y'all also know her as Audrey. But we spent
- 9:45Speaker 6: the last few days watching ourselves being slammed and crucified
- 9:49Speaker 6: in the newspapers and the news and everything else. So
- 9:55Speaker 6: we thought it was time we had our say.
- 9:58Speaker 3: Uh we're not trying to defend anything we're not trying
- 10:01Speaker 3: to make you believe anything we just feel we should
- 10:04Speaker 3: get to say our side since everyone else gets to
- 10:06Speaker 3: say theirs unlike the lincoln police department and saline county
- 10:12Speaker 3: police department and all those folks Everything we're going to
- 10:16Speaker 3: tell you, you're going to be able to pick up
- 10:18Speaker 3: the phone or have a newspaper pick up the phone
- 10:22Speaker 3: and very easily verify it.
- 10:24Speaker 2: This video was posted publicly on Facebook in an attempt
- 10:27Speaker 2: to defend themselves. But in reality, it did the opposite.
- 10:33Speaker 2: Aubrey Trail's criminal history is much more extensive than he's
- 10:35Speaker 2: making it out to be. When he was just a teen,
- 10:38Speaker 2: he was put into a facility for armed robbery. Throughout
- 10:42Speaker 2: the rest of his years, he was jailed on multiple
- 10:44Speaker 2: occasions for forgery, theft, and writing worthless checks. He would
- 10:48Speaker 2: often target small antique dealers, buy items with fake checks,
- 10:52Speaker 2: and then sell the items he stole online for more money.
- 10:56Speaker 2: He wasn't alone in his criminal history, however. 23-year-old Bailey
- 11:00Speaker 2: had quite a past herself. Oddly enough, a sweet, amazing
- 11:04Speaker 2: girl is how many would have described Bailey just a
- 11:07Speaker 2: few short years before this incident. Despite her father being
- 11:10Speaker 2: murdered when she was just an infant, Bailey flourished in
- 11:13Speaker 2: high school in her small hometown of Leon, Iowa. She
- 11:16Speaker 2: was a successful athlete, even earning a scholarship to play
- 11:19Speaker 2: basketball in college. But all that came tumbling down soon
- 11:22Speaker 2: after she graduated. To cope with an allegedly toxic relationship,
- 11:26Speaker 2: she turned to substance use. Soon after she began the relationship,
- 11:30Speaker 2: she had a daughter with the soon-to-be husband. Over the
- 11:33Speaker 2: next few years, she racked up multiple charges for possession.
- 11:36Speaker 2: When her daughter was a toddler, She was removed from
- 11:38Speaker 2: Bailey's custody due to her and her husband's substance use.
- 11:42Speaker 2: From there, Bailey was desperate to escape her relationship and
- 11:45Speaker 2: build a new life for herself. She went on Backpage,
- 11:48Speaker 2: a long-gone site where people advertised escort services. She found
- 11:53Speaker 2: Aubrey there, and soon, he became her sugar daddy. The
- 11:56Speaker 2: two shared a disdain for law enforcement, as you're about
- 11:59Speaker 2: to see in the final moments of the nine-minute-long video
- 12:02Speaker 2: they posted on Facebook. Despite their claims that they weren't
- 12:05Speaker 2: on the run, law enforcement soon located the couple hiding
- 12:08Speaker 2: in a budget hotel in Branson, Missouri, six hours south
- 12:12Speaker 2: of Lincoln. They had sleeping bags, hiking shoes, wads of cash,
- 12:15Speaker 2: and a map outlining a route to Mexico. Initially, the
- 12:19Speaker 2: couple was taken into custody on warrants unrelated to Sidney's disappearance.
- 12:23Speaker 2: This allowed law enforcement to extra the couple to Nebraska,
- 12:26Speaker 2: where their interrogation began in Ernst. As the pair was questioned,
- 12:30Speaker 2: the FBI worked to trace their phone records to the
- 12:33Speaker 2: day that Sidney disappeared. Using forensic analysis to determine what
- 12:37Speaker 2: towers their phones utilized at what times, they determined that
- 12:41Speaker 2: the couple had spent a long span of time in
- 12:43Speaker 2: one specific location. That led investigators to a rural field
- 12:47Speaker 2: north of Edgar, Nebraska, about an hour outside of Lincoln.
- 12:51Speaker 2: It was a desolate area with nothing but golden prairies
- 12:53Speaker 2: for miles. As soon as law enforcement saw an array
- 12:56Speaker 2: of trash bags littering the side of the gravel roads,
- 12:59Speaker 2: their hearts sank. Strewn across an extensive area covering 17
- 13:03Speaker 2: separate sites were dozens of 30-gallon trash bags. Inside, they
- 13:09Speaker 2: discovered Sidney's body, which had been dismembered into 14 parts.
- 13:13Speaker 2: To this day, only 13 of those parts have been recovered.
- 13:17Speaker 2: The marks where her body had been dismembered were consistent
- 13:19Speaker 2: with the teeth on the saw that Bailey and Aubrey
- 13:21Speaker 2: had purchased the day Sidney disappeared. Sidney's internal organs had
- 13:25Speaker 2: been removed, and her head displayed signs of abrasions and trauma.
- 13:29Speaker 2: Her one arm that was recovered, the arm with the tattoo,
- 13:32Speaker 2: showed signs that she had been restrained against her will.
- 13:35Speaker 2: Along with the bags were several items of clothing, trash,
- 13:38Speaker 2: and more distressing, handcuffs, adult toys, a leash, rope, and
- 13:43Speaker 2: a dog collar. It was clear that Sydney had faced
- 13:46Speaker 2: a horrible death. Though her friends and family were initially
- 13:49Speaker 2: spared the details, their grief was immense. Justice was on
- 13:54Speaker 2: the horizon with Bailey and Aubrey in custody.
- 13:57Speaker 5: But.
- 13:57Speaker 2: would they confess to any involvement and give the family peace?
- 14:02Speaker 2: It would take several weeks and several convoluted stories before
- 14:05Speaker 2: the truth would come out. Initially, Aubrey continued with their
- 14:08Speaker 2: claim that they had dropped Sidney off at a friend's house.
- 14:11Speaker 2: When Sidney's phone analysis revealed that that wasn't the case,
- 14:15Speaker 2: he changed the story, stating first that Sidney accidentally died
- 14:18Speaker 2: of health causes, and then stating that she accidentally died
- 14:21Speaker 2: as a result of sex gone wrong. He told law
- 14:24Speaker 2: enforcement that Sidney had consensually engaged in rough sex with
- 14:28Speaker 2: Bailey and himself, and that during choking that Sidney insisted
- 14:32Speaker 2: he perform, things took a turn. It was during these interrogations,
- 14:37Speaker 2: and interrogations with Aubrey's former lovers, that a twisted picture
- 14:40Speaker 2: began to emerge. Aubrey was running a cult of sorts,
- 14:44Speaker 2: which himself and the members referred to as the Vampire
- 14:48Speaker 2: Daddy Sex Cult. Aubrey would find women on Backpage and
- 14:51Speaker 2: agree to support them financially if they joined his group
- 14:54Speaker 2: of witches. Bailey, his main partner, was referred to as
- 14:58Speaker 2: the Queen Witch. In this group, he had a set
- 15:01Speaker 2: of rules for the women in exchange for their financial stability.
- 15:04Speaker 2: The women had to ask him permission before they did anything.
- 15:08Speaker 2: They had to check in every three hours. They couldn't
- 15:11Speaker 2: speak with any other men. Lastly, they had to be
- 15:14Speaker 2: naked at all times in the presence of Aubrey. In addition,
- 15:18Speaker 2: the women, who were largely young, vulnerable women struggling with
- 15:21Speaker 2: addiction and homelessness, were ordered to call him Daddy or
- 15:25Speaker 2: Vampire Sugar Daddy. As time went on, Aubrey's strange demands
- 15:29Speaker 2: for the group increased in severity. He told the women
- 15:33Speaker 2: that to be a full witch, they had to kill
- 15:35Speaker 2: another person and breathe in their last breath.
- 15:38Speaker 1: He said, witches kill, witches kill, life for a life,
- 15:43Speaker 1: and they gain more power when they kill.
- 15:46Speaker 2: One woman who escaped the cold told law enforcement that
- 15:48Speaker 2: she went with Aubrey to Walmart at some point and
- 15:50Speaker 2: picked out a woman that they were going to kill together.
- 15:53Speaker 2: Soon after, they got cold feet and never moved forward
- 15:56Speaker 2: with killing the stranger. Aubrey reportedly threatened to kill the
- 15:59Speaker 2: women and their families if they told anyone what the
- 16:01Speaker 2: group was doing, which is a common tactic used by
- 16:04Speaker 2: dangerous and manipulative partners. On June 11, 2018, both Aubrey
- 16:08Speaker 2: and Bailey were formally charged with first-degree murder and improper
- 16:11Speaker 2: disposal of human remains. Aubrey eventually confessed to strangling Sidney
- 16:15Speaker 2: with an electrical wire that was discovered on the desolate
- 16:18Speaker 2: highway where her body was disposed of. Aubrey seemed to
- 16:21Speaker 2: be willing to take all the blame for the crime,
- 16:24Speaker 2: denouncing the notion that Bailey was involved in any way.
- 16:27Speaker 2: But on June 23, 2018, things changed, and all hell
- 16:32Speaker 2: broke loose in the courtroom. After claiming he was innocent
- 16:36Speaker 2: of killing Sidney, Aubrey sliced open his own throat with
- 16:39Speaker 2: a concealed item. He was rushed out of the courtroom,
- 16:42Speaker 2: bleeding profusely. Aubrey recovered from his injuries and returned to
- 16:45Speaker 2: court soon after. Throughout the trial, his main goal was
- 16:48Speaker 2: to avoid a death sentence. However, in June 2021, a
- 16:51Speaker 2: jury agreed in just a couple of hours to find
- 16:54Speaker 2: Aubrey guilty and sentence him to death by lethal injection.
- 16:57Speaker 2: Bailey's defense team claimed that she had been manipulated by
- 17:00Speaker 2: Aubrey and that she only went along with his plan
- 17:03Speaker 2: because she was forced to. Her family pleaded for her life,
- 17:07Speaker 2: telling the jury that their daughter had been struggling emotionally
- 17:09Speaker 2: for several years and that she had had her own
- 17:12Speaker 2: daughter to live for. When asked what would happen to
- 17:14Speaker 2: Bailey's daughter if Bailey received the death penalty, her father responded,
- 17:25Speaker 2: Bailey was sentenced to life in prison, where she remains
- 17:27Speaker 2: to this day. At the publishing of this video, Aubrey
- 17:31Speaker 2: remains incarcerated on death row. Sidney's family and the communities
- 17:35Speaker 2: of Nebraska have banded together to create parks and benches
- 17:38Speaker 2: in her memory, urging people to spend time in nature,
- 17:41Speaker 2: just like Sidney loved to.