Trail again not present Wednesday, more evidence revealed on discovery of Loofe's body

WILBER - For the second day in a row, accused murderer Aubrey Trail was not present at his trial Wednesday in Wilber at the Saline County Courthouse.

Trail has been absent since his outburst and self-inflicted wound to the neck on Monday morning.

He has reportedly received stitches, but his condition isn't exactly known. Judge Vicky Johnson says Trail has chosen not appear the last two days.

"The jury is instructed to not take this into consideration," she said.

Despite Trail's absence, testimony has moved along. More details were released Wednesday morning about the discovery of Sydney Loofe's remains in rural Clay County. Once her body parts were found on Dec. 5 2017, they were sent away to be examined.

"Once they were recovered, they were taken to the Douglas County Medical Examiners' office to be stored there for an autopsy," FBI special agent Eli McBride said.

McBride says Loofe's body was cut into 14 pieces. All but one piece, the upper left arm, was recovered. Almost internal organs were found.

While more than 50 investigators searched for Loofe's remains in Clay County on Dec. 5, the Nebraska State Patrol searched the entire route Boswell and Trail took from Wilber to the intersection of Nebraska Highway 74 and Road S.

"We drove those routes a lot," NSP Lt.  Lt. Lonnie Connelly recalled.

Connelly collected six pieces of evidence along Nebraska Highway 41 just west of Wilber on Dec. 8.

The items found there were described as large men's underwear, a green, long-sleeve shirt with bleach stains, a size seven Ugg-like women's boot, a green dishwasher glove and two black men's socks.

An additional search of Trail's Wilber apartment in Dec. 2017 was conducted, where multiple tools such as tin snips, a hatchet, a knife, duct tape, a lock cutter and cotton rope were found.

"There were a lot of tools throughout the apartment," McBride noted.

In total, 89 items were seized from Trail's apartment that he shared with girlfriend Bailey Boswell.

Among those items found was a book titled "Human Body Atlas." There was also a receipt for drop cloths from the Wilber Dollar General found. It was dated Nov. 15, 2017 - the last day anyone heard anything from Loofe.

There was also an additional search of Trail's Black Ford 500 conducted in March 2018. Hairs were found in the trunk, as well as both the passenger and drivers' seats.

Mellissa Helligso, a forensic DNA analyst with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said tests of this hair did not match Loofe's DNA.

Investigators removed a door handle, trunk lining, the back seat, front seats, upholstrey and the floor mats.

Luminal and Hemastix were used to test for blood all throughout the vehicle. Positive results were found from the floor mats as well as the car jack stored in the trunk.

McBride noted that cleaning agents and other things like urine can create a "false positive" during this type of testing.

FBI forensic analyst Marcy Plaza tested numerous items recovered from Clay County, looking for DNA samples.

Blood stains that matched Loofe's DNA were found on a glove, a towel, cut-up pieces of jeans and pajama pants.

In mid-February 2018, there was a search conducted on a silver 2006 Chrysler Sebring - the vehicle Trail and Boswell were traveling in at the time of their arrest on Nov. 30, 2017.

A black backpack was recovered from that search. Sex toys and toiletries were seized.

A green Chrysler 300, which belonged to Boswell, was also searched. Ten items were taken from this vehicle. In addition, hair samples were found in both the drivers' seat and front passenger seat.

Trail faces the death penalty if convicted of first degree murder. Boswell faces the same charge, and she's set to stand trial in October.

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