Alleged witchcraft plot part of testimony on Wednesday in Boswell trial

A former Tinder date of Bailey Boswell’s testified on Wednesday that Boswell and Aubrey Trail, the couple accused of fatally strangling 24-year-old Sydney Loofe after wooing her on the dating app, convinced the witness that they controlled a coven of witches who gained their powers by killing people.
Boswell, 26, is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and improper disposal of human remains for her role in the 2017 slaying and dismemberment of Loofe, a cashier at a Lincoln Menards. She has denied any involvement in the murder.
“To get your power, you have to breathe in their last breath,” a witness, referred to on the stand as A.H., testified in Dawson County Court on Wednesday, recounting her months-long relationship with Bailey Boswell and Aubrey Trail in 2017, according to NTV News.
A.H. also testified Wednesday that Trail touted he was a vampire and Boswell was the “queen of the witches.”
Prosecutors allege Boswell conspired for weeks with Trail, her 52-year-old boyfriend, to lure Loofe to her death. Loofe was missing for 19 days after the Tinder date before her body was found in garbage bags scattered among ditches and farm fields in rural Nebraska. Last July, Trail was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
On the 11th day of testimony in Boswell’s trial, A.H. described in graphic detail how she believed she was lured into the couple’s world after matching with Boswell, who went by “Jenna,” on Tinder in June 2017.
The witness, one of three women expected to testify for the prosecution, detailed Boswell and Trail’s “rules”—including not wearing clothes in the apartment and mandatory checks with the 52-year-old every three hours—and frequent discussions about “killing and torture.”
A.H. said that, about three weeks after matching with Boswell, she learned the 26-year-old’s true identity and her “sugar daddy” relationship with Trail—an agreement Boswell allegedly said Trail extended to A.H. During their first meeting, A.H. said Trail began to show her pictures of “anywhere from 10 to 12” women on his phone, individuals she would later learn were members of his coven, according to NTV News.
Eventually, A.H. agreed to a “sugar daddy” relationship with Trail, in which the 52-year-old would give her a $2000 “weekly allowance” to go on shopping sprees with Boswell.
“I enjoyed being taken care of,” A.H. testified Wednesday, NTV News reported.
Throughout her sexual relationship with the couple, A.H. said she also became involved in their antiques business and their “witch coven.”
The woman said Boswell, who was understood to be the “queen” of the coven with about a dozen witches under her, told A.H. she was a “healer” in the coven and could only get her power by torturing and breathing in someone’s final breath. She said that Boswell talked “multiple times” about wanting to torture people, even describing her preferred methods in graphic detail, the Omaha World Herald reported.
“I think I just got caught up in the what ifs of life,” A.H. testified, stressing she no longer believes what the couple told her, according to 1011 News.
Trail, she added, spoke about a ritual during full moons in which witches would go into an open field to “leave their bodies”—an act that would apparently “take care of the bad in their world.”
A.H. also said Trail claimed he was a flying, mind-reading vampire who said she could leave the group whenever she wanted until she killed someone to gain her powers. After that, Trail said he would erase her memory, NTV News reported.
An eager participant in the coven, A.H. said she once drove to a Walmart with the couple to meet a woman she was supposed to kill. She testified that Trail told her the murder would take place in the woods where a tarp would be laid out “to do everything over.” Afterwards, Boswell and A.H. would go back home to shower one another while the Trail would dispose of the body and burn the pair’s clothes.
Part of the plan included having Boswell’s “kill kit,” which included a hammer—and A.H. said she was told she’d receive her own to replenish after every kill.
“At the time I was ready for it,” A.H. said, referring to a solidified plan for her to kill a woman in their group who Boswell found “annoying” and said needed to be “dealt with.” The plan, she said, was to kill the woman on the way to Pennsylvania and dump her body along their way to antique stores.
But, when she was at a local TJ Maxx to try on clothes for the killing, she said she had a panic attack and told Boswell she wanted out, NTV News reported.
The woman said she left the group shortly after, just months before Loofe went missing.
“Some of these people are just pieces of the puzzle. And they might not make sense when you hear them individually,” Assistant Attorney General Sandra Allen told the jury during opening statements when the trial began last month, according to the Omaha World Herald. She added that, in the end, “it will all make sense to you.”
Boswell’s defense attorney, however, took aim at the prosecution’s case and witnesses during his opening statement last month, cautioning jurors against thinking emotionally.
“Remember when you start getting emotional, when you start getting upset about this, think about why the state's giving you that evidence,” the defense attorney said. “It's because their case is weak and they want to rule your emotions up.”
