Woman Says Trail Encouraged Her To Become 'Witch' By Killing

EDITOR'S NOTE: Media was not allowed to photograph or record the woman who testified on Monday. Her name and testimony are public record and the judge did not previously prohibit reporting her name.


A wide-eyed crowd watched in stunned silence Monday as a young woman told the courtroom how she was invited to join Aubrey Trail's cult as his thirteenth "witch" if she tortured and killed someone. Again, Trail did not appear in court.

A.H., 22, said she met "Jenna," who later identified herself as Bailey Boswell, in July of 2017 through the Tinder dating app. Hills said Trail picked her up for her date with Boswell, drove her to Wilber and showed her photos of "his girls" on his phone. She said there were 10-15 women photographed, and "none of them were clothed."

​When they arrived in Wilber, A.H. said they waited for Boswell to return from an antique delivery in Iowa. While waiting, Trail showed her some coins, they watched TV, and he claimed he could provide her with "a different lifestyle." When Boswell arrived, A.H. said they smoked marijuana together and she drove her home. Trail gave A.H. $200 for missing work to meet them and said that would be her weekly allowance. He also offered to make her car payments and pay for school. She decided to return to Wilber a couple days later.

Boswell picked her up this time, paying to get their nails done, buying dinner and shopping for lingerie with money from Trail. Then they went to Wilber where Trail requested the women to change into their newly purchased lingerie. A.H. said she and Boswell then went outside in robes and smoked marijuana before they entered the bedroom to have sex while Trail watched.  

Not long after her second date, she said Trail told her more about "his girls."

"They were witches and everyone had their role to play in the cult," A.H. said he explained. "There were 12 other women and I would be 13."

Trail told her she could become a witch when she took her "first soul," which meant "to kill someone," she said.

"At that point, he made it sound real," A.H. said. 

Trail had told her he had killed before, but now he "doesn't get anything from it." He said he now pays the women to do it, possibly $10,000 for 10 people.

She was told that "if you torture, that's how you get stronger powers." A.H. said a set of rules to follow was laid out by Boswell, which included at least one 24-hour stay in Wilber and hours working on antiques each week. She said she priced antiques for them and Trail gave her some antiques for her own booth in a Lincoln antique mall. A.H. said she earned around $1,000 and then Trail told her Boswell had been getting the antiques for her booth.

"He told me I had to start stealing my own," she said. However, A.H. said she did not, and she gave the mall a vacate notice on Sept. 17, 2017.

When asked by the prosecution, A.H. said she, Trail and Boswell never used bleach to clean any of the antiques.

She said Trail wanted to be called "Daddy" and he asked her use the names "Tina" or "Katie" when she was making phone calls or meeting someone. A.H. said she was paid $50 per phone call and still received a $200 weekly allowance, as well as paid rent and car payments on occasion. About one month in, she met one of "the girls," Anatasia Golyakova.

"Aubrey told me she was a cute little thing that might become one of us," A.H. said. 

She was told that "Ana" was Boswell's "watcher," Boswell was "the queen witch," and Trail was "a vampire." A.H. said Trail explained that "a watcher" was someone who watched the witches as they left their bodies once a month during a specific moon cycle. She said Trail was very convincing, and, "At that point, I still believed everything he said." A.H. said she was told that witches had powers, such as a healer, like Boswell. Trail claimed his powers were that he could "fly and read minds."

In August of 2017, Trail identified a woman in a Beatrice WalMart who Hills could kill to become a witch. A blonde-haired woman, who stood about 5-6 and wore glasses walked in.

"Aubrey asked me if I wanted her to be my first kill," she said. "At that point, I said 'yes.'"

After 1-2 weeks passed, A.H. asked about the woman, and Trail said she had some trouble to take care of in California, so they "would find someone else to kill." In the meantime, he told A.H. to think about how she and Boswell wanted to torture someone that would "turn us on." She said torture "was just a regular conversation for him."

A.H. said choking was sometimes part of her sexual acts with Trail and Boswell. She said he used his hands, belt or a scarf on her and a belt on Boswell.

Trail later told her that Golyakova would be killed somewhere along the way when they took a trip to Pennsylvania. He explained to A.H. that Golyakova was "too nice."

One day when she and Boswell were shopping, A.H. said she "looked in the mirror and just started shaking." She didn't recognize the woman she had become and decided to return to her hometown in western Nebraska in the beginning of September. A.H. said she was told if she spoke about anything that had happened, Trail said he "would kill my family and everyone would think I was crazy." She said they invited her to meet them in Kansas a short time after she moved.

"I was scared they were going to kill me, so I said I couldn't get out of work," A.H. said.

Sydney Loofe disappeared just two months later, after going on a Tinder date with Boswell on Nov. 15, 2017. Trail and Boswell posted several videos to Facebook claiming their innocence in Sydney's disappearance, but one of those videos eventually led investigators to their arrest in Missouri on Nov. 30, 2017.

FBI Agent Mike Maseth testified that Trail was interviewed about a dozen times after his arrest — with his story changing from one of innocence to one where he "accidentally" killed her.

"He said 50 percent of what I tell you is bull----," Maseth said of one interview with Trail.

At one point, Trail began to describe a group of "treacherous women." The agent said Trail wanted to go off camera in the bathroom, and whispered, "Witches kill, witches kill. A life for a life and they get more power when they kill."

Maseth said Trail often would say he "needed time to think" before answering questions. When investigators found Sydney's remains, he told a new account of what happened: Sydney had agreed to be paid $5,000 for a sexual fantasy and accidentally died. He clarified that it was not Sydney's fantasy, but that of two other women. Trail later drew a map where her dismembered remains could be found. He said disposal of her body was in line with his belief system so "reincarnation could occur faster." Trail later told Maseth that they had "missed two bags — one containing the blood and one containing the soul."

When Joe Murray cross examined Maseth, he asked the agent how long it would take to drain a body of blood.

"I have absolutely no idea," he replied.

In their redirect, Mike Guinan of the Attorney General's Office asked Maseth how many roasting pans were found after Boswell purchased three or four. He said they only found two, and they never found the wastebasket that Boswell was seen purchasing in surveillance footage.