[theme music playing]
MAN: The thing inside of me, it's like...
the appetite -- it's like a wolf that's...
feeling the hunger.
[soft piano music playing]
FEMALE REPORTER: Sydney Loofe
was meeting up for a date with someone she met online
and hasn't been seen since.
She was last heard from last Wednesday
when she sent a photo on Snapchat --
it was captioned "Ready for my date."
The most unusual thing about it is,
it's almost like they're holding their own press conference.
Their choice to go public and then use, like,
a social media broadcast sort of to do it,
rather than getting an attorney
and going in and talking to the police.
They're going to speak directly to the public
and say, "We're just innocent. and we're being maligned."
And with psychopathy, it's usually
linked to that sense of,
they're going to be in control.
They're not going to let someone else
send information out or control the message.
They want to have a say to control our attention
and what we think about them.
Boswell has, like, the hood up and the big almost glamour
Hollywood glasses.
She doesn't seem to want to show her full face
and say I'm an innocent person.
So it might be in the vein of
creating an image like Bonnie and Clyde or something.
I just think it's odd
if they're getting online to clear their name,
and then to be so covered up.
Aubrey Trail's criminal history includes a variety
of crimes,
a variety of categories of crimes.
And with psychopathic individuals,
one of the factors that we look at
is what we call criminal versatility.
While Trail told police that he was into the business
of dealing and trading antiques,
what we actually know is that while he was selling antiques,
he was stealing those antiques
and then putting them on the market.
He was stealing gold coins
and other coins of value, and then selling those.
Something that's really important about psychopaths is
they get immense pleasure from deceiving others.
Conning others makes them feel great.
Why?
Because they feel superior, grandiose --
they can lord it over you.
When Aubrey comes and he says,
"Let's party," it's extremely foolish.
He's not taking this seriously, and he's glib and arrogant.
This point, it's been two weeks since Sydney Loofe
went missing.
Investigators have no leads.
They're talking to Trail trying to
identify if this girl is even alive,
but Trail is not worried about anything
related to Sydney Loofe.
He is making attempts to control the interview.
He's making attempts to control the investigation,
and he's actually confident and arrogant enough
to think he can negotiate with the detectives
about where he's transferred,
what happens to Bailey Boswell,
what timeframe those decisions need to be made in --
and very confidently and smugly just says to them,
"This interview is over if that doesn't happen."
With Sydney Loofe, he's not concerned
about her well being,
but he is using her as a pawn to negotiate his own terms.
RAGHAVAN: The way Aubrey Trail talks about Bailey Boswell is this
impression management that he's a hero
that will protect her, and he's very noble,
and he's a good guy.
And, when you see this kind of age difference and you see
dominant submission activities,
that's typically a power imbalance.
And the power imbalance can manifest in different ways.
But it is an odd pairing that suggests something is not right.
SAHNI: While there isn't that much known about Bailey Boswell,
in part, because Trail had instructed her
not to talk to law enforcement,
it's important to note that the way those two met
was Boswell actually posted an ad on a defunct sex site
looking for a sugar daddy, and Trail responded.
So the beginnings of their relationship as a couple was
mutually transactional.
And that gives us a little bit more information
about Bailey Boswell, that she's
maybe not this damsel in distress.
She may not be this young female who has just
been victimized,
but herself has a more psychopathic presentation
in that she's willing to use people.
And she knows what she needs out of people,
and she doesn't want a whole lot more.
One of the things we talk about when we think of
psychopathy is the cat and mouse,
the toying with people.
He's going to say some very provocative things and then
back away from some of the comments,
and he's enjoying it.
He's leaning back and relaxed.
He's in charge of the interview at that particular point.
The more we learn about him,
it sounds like he was able to lure women in,
who either needed money or they liked some drugs,
and he would invite them into his sphere
where he seems to be the only dominant male.
And then is the provider, the granter of wishes.
It looks like a recruitment, seduction, and grooming
sort of pattern.
Where he's got Bailey Boswell helping him
find women online, and then to bring them over.
After more than two weeks of endless searching
for a missing Lincoln woman,
her family took to Facebook to announce the news.
The body of 24-year-old Sydney Loofe has been recovered.
MALE REPORTER: Police say her body had been
dismembered and scattered across multiple rural sites
100 miles outside Lincoln.
Aubrey Trail and Bailey Boswell are now prime suspects
in her murder.
MORGAN: He's joking.
We call that superficial charm in psychopathy,
because he doesn't really have a relationship with them.
He is inappropriately making jokes --
that's not why they're there to see him,
but he's making light of it.
And people with psychopathy do that.
He's playing with them.
Trail is not willing to talk about any real details --
why he killed her, who was in the room.
Trail is still trying to control and steer
the investigation.
He's getting in front of what he thinks is the train and
trying to make sure that Bailey Boswell
is not implicated.
To make sure that these other females that
they pulled into this violent sex ring are not implicated.
This is definitely the power play.
He's pushing to find out what else they know,
like, who are you going to put on the stand?
And they're going, we're not going to tell you.
And then he moves to a different strategy,
which is you don't want the families to go through
the circus of hearing all the details again.
So he's saying, I'm trying to be considerate.
But in fact, what he's doing in the interview itself
is still throwing out emotionally provocative
material without filling in any detail.
So the psychopath is saying, I'm smarter than these people.
I can run circles around them,
so I'm going to tell you how this is going to go.
Despite Trail saying he's not
playing games with the detectives,
it's really obvious that he is.
If he really wanted this whole thing to be over,
the simple solution would have been to give them a very clear
and detailed answer about how he lured Sydney in.
What happened the night she was murdered,
who dismembered her body and disposed of it,
who was a witness to it, and why they went on the run,
but Aubrey Trail isn't giving them any of that information.
MALE REPORTER: There is breaking news tonight, and it is major.
In the death and disappearance of Nebraska woman,
Sydney Loofe.
First-degree murder charges have been lodged
against Aubrey Trail and Bailey Boswell.
There they are right there.
If you recall, Loofe set up an online date with
Bailey Boswell,
then went missing for days.
I don't think we can totally believe anything he's saying.
And the version that he's maintaining that there was
this autoerotica scenario
and he accidentally strangled Sydney Loofe,
just doesn't add up.
The detectives aren't buying this.
They now know what the evidence that's continued
to come out.
That this was a far more elaborate, calculated,
and premeditated scheme.
And that Sydney Loofe essentially never had a chance
the minute she walked into the clutches of Aubrey Trail
and Bailey Boswell.
He obviously gets pleasure from deceiving people.
He gets pleasure from exploiting women's bodies,
and he must get excitement or thrill from hurting women
and humiliating them.
So he's, you know, a sexual psychopath, and part
of that is enjoying hurting them and killing them.
MORGAN: After making the date appointment,
Bailey Boswell and Trail
went to the store to buy the bleach, the bags,
the tarp -- even the sauna outfits.
So, this was not as Aubrey Trail has described it
as an accident that happened during a sex film.
When you look at all the details,
this is a team that worked on finding young women,
getting them into that circle and they were actually planning,
ahead of time to kill them and dismember their body.
And Bailey Boswell is
not an innocent player in this.
She is a female psychopath and is as callous as Aubrey Trail.
It's easier to think of Aubrey Trail,
a man, as the significant psychopath in this story.
But I think she's an equal player because
she had to go out and get the victims.
She knew what she was doing, and it didn't bother her.
One of the interesting dynamics that emerges in this
version of Trail's story,
is that he essentially is acting as a pimp.
It's the ultimate act of disregard
for another human being,
because it is human trafficking.
You are making money off the acts of somebody else.
Parasitic lifestyles are something that we oftentimes
see with psychopathic offenders.
That pimp lifestyle is consistent with what we see
with parasitic behavior.
MORGAN: He wants to be Charles Manson where he can be looked up to
and almost, like, worshiped.
He's like a cult leader.
He has these women he's lured into the house,
he calls them his girls.
Manson had an entourage of women around him
that were dependent on him.
So he's created his little world where these women
need him.
He supports them.
It's entirely possible that this belief system
that he's talking about is something
that helped them think about him
in a greater-than-human, sort of, way --
like, he's a vampire,
he's a warlock,
he's special.
But I think it's a narrative that's used
to control other people
rather than reflecting something he
believes in, like a religious belief.
The whole story of this ritual feels very shallow,
very glib, and disingenuous.
A large part of psychopathy,
and we see this very clearly here,
is the intense narcissism, the grandiosity,
the need for admiration.
Now, if you think about this guy Aubrey Trail,
he's not good looking,
by most standards.
He's not particularly charismatic, by most standards.
He is not particularly intelligent, by most standards.
So how do you lure vulnerable women if you're
not charismatic,
talented, or intelligent?
And so in his narcissism, he creates a cult to
enrich himself,
but also to make himself feel really important so that he
could be worshiped as this powerful vampire,
and then abuse girls and exploit them.
SAHNI: Trail is not taking responsibility
for how he's exploiting these women.
He's actually admitting to the fact that he looks for
disenfranchised, down-on-their luck females
who have addiction issues,
who have psychological instability,
who are essentially vulnerable and needy.
And he preys on them
And he doesn't see it that way.
And like some psychopaths, he's just failing
to take responsibility for any part of this.
What we see is a real disregard for women.
There isn't any regret or remorse for what he's done.
Talking openly about how he needed to
use these young women to enrich himself.
It does feel honest, but he's also bragging.
Look at me, I'm such a straight shooter.
I'm telling you the truth.
I love money,
because you're a hypocrite and you won't admit it.
He's arguing that these relationships are transactional,
but it's not. It's exploitative.
Transactional,
both parties know exactly what they're getting into.
Most relationships with psychopaths are exploitative.
We often wonder, can a psychopath fall in love?
Right? I think the answer to that is... kind of.
I think that psychopaths can become very attached to people
because they are useful.
That they're -- they're as useful as
your favorite pair of shoes,
your favorite car.
It's useful, you like how it runs.
It gets you there.
And I think in some way,
Bailey Boswell was useful to Trail, and it might have been
because she generated good business.
That she turned out to be really good at
recruiting women online
and bringing more women into his cult.
If Trail has a goal of trying to have Bailey Boswell charged
with a lesser crime, he's got a plan.
There's a plan on his mind about what he needs her for
in the future, because I don't think that she means anything
more to him than any of the money.
MALE REPORTER: Prosecutors called three females in their early 20s
to testify --
all talked about having sexual encounters, being controlled.
And told that they are part or could be a part of
the 12 to 13 girls in Trail's witchcraft covenant.
Trail claimed he was a vampire with special powers.
The first said Trail and Boswell told them
she'd have to kill to fully become a witch.
TRAIL: Bailey is innocent, and I curse you all!
-[Trail screams] -MAN: Oh, Jesus!
WOMAN: Stop recording.
MALE REPORTER: In the middle of court, Aubrey Trail,
on trial for the first-degree murder
of Sydney Loofe,
actually slashed his throat.
SAHNI: Trail snuck a razor into court.
He sliced his neck, and
it was nothing other than more strategy and gameplay.
While media reported
that he slashed his throat, it was far less dramatic
than that.
He took a razor blade and sliced his neck superficially.
The fact that Trail chose to do that,
there's no doubt that that was a manipulative act
to simply try and derail the trial.
TRAIL: Until now, I have never told the truth about how and why
Sydney died.
Once I set Sydney down and started explaining
how we made money,
some of our criminal activities, and about the group
sex and other things,
Sydney somewhat freaked out.
The truth is, I killed Sydney
because of her reaction to what I had told her.
I have always told the truth when
I said Bailey was not in the bedroom
when I killed Sydney.
I don't think it occurs to him to even pretend to be
remorseful, because what he's much more motivated by,
what is his driving impulse,
is to hold an audience. To be admired.
To be seen as successful. To be seen as dangerous.
It's his last time to get audience to listen to him.
To really take the opportunity and be the center of attention
for as long as he could.
MALE REPORTER: One witness testified that quote, Trail
and Boswell talked about murder and torture often.
Quote, she mainly talked about dismembering people,
breaking fingernails, breaking fingers.
And that when Bailey described various torture methods,
she was quote joyful --
she would smile and giggle. Her eyes would light up almost.
At that point when that video is made,
they know that Sydney Loofe is dead.
They know that they've dismembered her.
They know that they've disposed of her body parts.
And if Trail is to be believed...
They know they drank her blood.
They know they disposed of her organs.
They know that they obstructed the investigative process,
and the two of them are doing that together.
MORGAN: Bailey Boswell is not the innocent victim
in this whole story,
although Aubrey Trail wants to paint her in that light.
He wants to describe her as, she had been victimized by
an abusive, stalking boyfriend,
and he's rescued her.
To be clear,
she's been a partner in this criminal enterprise.
Bailey Boswell, not only recruited Sydney Loofe,
but she also went out and purchased the equipment that
would be used to dispose of the body.
The female psychopath,
the ruse they can use is to do the,
I'm a weak, sensitive female, I'm vulnerable. I'm fragile --
nothing fragile about Bailey Boswell.
I think she may try to present that
and that helps fool people, but she's a killer.