Testimony: "Best Friend" Supplied Major Lead to ID Loofe's Accused Killers

June 20, 2019, 7:53 p.m. ·

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Murder Trial Tinder Clue

After Sydney Loofe’s murder in 2017 her best friend’s personal investigation may have provided police with one of the earliest and best leads.



Friends and family used social media in the hopes of locating Sydney Loofe late in 2017. (Photo: Facebook)


Bailey Bowsell, accused co-conspirator, in custody.

She detailed the story on the witness stand in Saline District Court, where Aubrey Trail faces murder charges.

Sydney Loofe posted on Snap Chat she had a date on the November night she disappeared. It was someone she selected on the Tinder dating app and met once before…a woman identified as Audrey. Loofe shared her picture with a friend.

As family and friends became more concerned Sydney was not responding to calls and texts, her best friend, Brooklyn McCrystal took action.

Called as a witness by the prosecution, McCrystal, who described herself as Loofe’s best friend, told the jury “I was trying to find Sydney.”

She got ahold of the photo being circulated among Loofe’s worried friends and took it upon herself to locate the woman identified as 25 year old “Audrey” on the app.

“I was trying to figure out who she was” McChrystle testified, so she set up a fake Tinder profile. And started swiping through profiles to find the woman believed to have picked up Loofe that night.

The photo of “Audrey” was fairly distinctive: a portrait of a brunette wearing a crown of digital wild flowers. It took McCrystal a few attempts, but she finally located the same photo, identified as Audrey and in the same vicinity. She alerted the Tinder user of her interest in chatting. A response came the next morning.

“I saw that I had a notification on Tinder that I matched with somebody and there was only one person I swiped right with,” McCrystal told the court. “I was actually very excited.”

McCrystal sent the woman a message through Tinder and was able to get a phone number which she provided police.

Audrey turned out to be Bailey Boswell, companion of Aubrey Trail and accused of being co-conspirators in the murder of Loofe. Armed with the number provided by McCrystal, police were able to quickly make direct contact with Boswell, and from there Trail initiated the first contact with investigators.

The personal investigation launched by Loofe’s best friend even earned a compliment from the attorney for man on trial for murder. As Joe Murphy rose to cross-examine McCrystal he told her “I for one applaud your initiative. I remember reading these reports I was impressed with what you did.”

Testimony about how investigators used cell phones to locate Sydney Loofe’s remains will be heard later in the trial.