Man Convicted Of Murdering Sydney Loofe Seeks To Represent Himself In Death Penalty Appeal

A Nebraska man who was convicted of killing and dismembering a woman is seeking to represent himself during the appeal of his death sentence.

Aubrey Trail, 55, was convicted in June of killing 24-year-old Sydney Loofe in 2017. He was sentenced to death later that month. He and his girlfriend Bailey Boswell, 27, lured the hardware store clerk to their apartment after Boswell matched with Loofe through the dating app Tinder. 

Trail filed a request last week with the Nebraska Supreme Court to fire his court-appointed attorneys and represent himself during the appeals process, the Omaha World-Herald reported. The appeal is automatic.

The convicted murderer complains in his paperwork that his lawyers are not supporting his request to sell about $25,000 in antiques and rare coins so he can donate to a memorial fund for Loofe. However, both he and Boswell are already under orders by the court to pay $400,000 to a couple from Kansas that they scammed with a fake rare coin in a separate case.

The couple killed Loofe, a hardware store clerk, after she rejected their lifestyle of group sex and crime. Trail strangled her to death with an extension cord and then dismembered her body with the help of Boswell. They wrapped her remains in garbage bags, which they dumped in ditches along rural roads. Her remains were discovered 19 days after her brutal murder.

Boswell was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and improper disposal of human remains last year. She is scheduled to be sentenced in November. Prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty for her. If she is sentenced to death, she would become the first female sentenced to death in the state’s history.