Bailey Boswell trial: Boswell brought to tears as photos of Loofe’s body are shown to jury

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Defendant Bailey Boswell cried in the Dawson County Courtroom as the prosecution showed photos of Sydney Loofe’s dismembered body.

Boswell is accused of participating in the November 2017 murder of Loofe.

Her co-defendant, Aubrey Trail, was found guilty of the same crime last year.

The seventh day of the trial started Thursday morning with FBI Special Agent Eli McBride on the witness stand.

McBride testified that he was part of the team that went to Clay County on December 4, about three weeks after Loofe went missing.

McBride said he arrived in Clay County on the afternoon of the 4th, and was alerted almost immediately that they had found human remains in a trash bag in a ditch.

“Three to five feet down from the road there was a plastic trash bag and it was apparent there was a body part in that bag,” McBride said.

They found part of an arm and a foot near that bag. They knew the arm belonged to Loofe because you could read her tattoo “everything will be wonderful someday,” still on her forearm.

McBride said it was too cold, dark and windy to continue their search on Dec. 4, so they secured the perimeter and started coming up with a plan to do a larger search the next day.

“From looking at the bag the day before I knew there were only certain body parts in it,” McBride said. “I knew it could not have contained the rest of Ms. Loofe. I knew we were going to be looking for additional evidence, additional body parts, we just didn’t know where.”

Fifty law enforcement officers were involved in the search from several different agencies.

McBride said they broke into teams of three and started doing a grid search in the area LPD Investigator Bob Hurley directed them to using cell phone RTT data.

When the teams found something, they would call McBride and he and some other team members would respond to process the evidence.

In the courtroom, McBride walked through more than a dozen different scenes where evidence was found.

Photos of each scene were shown; many of the photos were of Loofe’s body in plastic bags.

Boswell, started crying in the courtroom when they started showing these photos.

Her defense attorney, Todd Lancaster, objected to every gruesome photo. All objections were overruled.

McBride walked the jury through the different body parts that were found. Loofe’s legs were found in one scene, her feet in another, her head in another.

There was 14 different pieces. McBride said they only found 13.

“The one part of her body we did not recover would have been again from her left arm from above elbow to just beneath the shoulder,” McBride said.

McBride said there were additional attempts to locate this missing piece that were unsuccessful.

Investigators also found a bleach stained sheet, a t-shirt and a pair of star patterned pajama pants. They found discarded yellow gloves, an empty box for trash bags, a sauna suit, a pink animal leash, cut up women’s underwear and duct tape.

McBride said the search in Clay County lasted nearly twelve hours.

When the search concluded, McBride said they had more questions, and did a fourth search on the Wilber apartment on Dec. 18, 2017.

“For that search we were looking for any evidence we could find that would assist in learning how, when or where Ms. Loofe was killed,” McBride said. “That was to include physical evidence, digital evidence, forensic evidence, trace evidence.”

In that search, they seized a human anatomy book, tools, pipes and plumbing from throughout the home and a box containing a life insurance policy and advanced directives for Aubrey Trail.

McBride said they also tested several areas of the home using the chemical Luminol which lights up when it detects blood.

Parts of the carpet in the home tested positive for blood and were sent off for further testing.

McBride also searched Trail and Boswell’s vehicles at this time.

They knew based on surveillance video that Trail’s Ford 500 was the vehicle that traveled to Clay County, so they tested the vehicle for blood and found several surfaces inside also tested positive for blood using Luminol.

A Saline County Sheriff’s Deputy also testified about a search conducted on Dec. 5.

Sgt. Richard Zimmerman said they were looking for Loofe’s phone case and iPhone along Highway 41 and Highway 15.

“We started out strictly on foot utilizing metal detectors and some guys had rakes and we were just literally combing the ditches starting on the west edge of Wilber continuing westbound on both sides of the ditch,” Zimmerman said.

Over the course of three days they found the phone case cut into several pieces, Loofe’s driver’s license in several pieces and a credit card also cut into several pieces.

They also found Loofe’s phone broken and bent, in three different pieces.

Then, they found Loofe’s keys, with a Superman keychain on the loop.

In March, Zimmerman said they searched along Highway 15 a second time and found a white shirt and bra.

“We covered every mile of the highway of those highways,” Zimmerman said.

Saline County Sheriff’s Captain Russell Kalkwarf also testified about this search for the shirt and bra.

He said he was sent to Highway 15 at the direction of Lincoln Police Investigator Bob Hurley, who mapped the movements of Trail and Boswell’s cell phones on November 16.

Kalkwarf said he drove his truck through the ditches of Highway 15 until he came across a white shirt.

“It looked like the shift Sydney was wearing,” he told the jury.

The prosecution brought in the shirt they found and compared it to the shirt Loofe was seen wearing in the snapchat she posted on November 15.

Kalkwarf said he also found a multicolored bra a few miles away from the shirt.

Testimony wrapped up for the day around 4 p.m. They’ll continue calling witnesses Friday morning. The trial is scheduled to last two more weeks.

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