Following up with the finish of yesterday's testimony:
One of the investigators in on the search, is Nebraska State Patrol investigator Pedro Nabegh.
“We were looking for things that could establish a timeline for Sydney Loofe or the residents, for DNA evidence that could be Sydney Loofe’s or the residents for later comparisons,” Nabegh said.
Nabegh walked the jury through dozens of photos he took inside the (Wilbur) apartment.
They found a prescription bottle with the name Kaitlyn Brandle on it, a receipt with the name Anastasia Golyakova, bottles of bleach, a stained bedsheet and torn up receipts.
Prosecutor Mike Guinan held up the bleach bottles in court.
Nabegh confirmed they looked like the same bottles he saw in the house.
Defense attorney Todd Lancaster questioned him about this piece of evidence.
“Do you have any idea when they (the bleach) were purchased, when they were used,” Lancaster said. “All you know is they were in the house.”
“Correct,” Nabegh said.
Guinan also displayed the gray bedsheet that was taken off the bed.
Nabegh pointed out some yellow stains on the sheet.
During opening statements, prosecutor Sandra Allen said a sheet was found with Loofe’s body. Allen said the sheet appeared yellow, like it had been a darker fabric that was washed with bleach.
Lincoln Police Investigator Cynthia Koenig-Warnke was also involved in searches in the Wilber apartment.
Her role was to use lights and chemicals to look for blood evidence. She testified that she used a tool called BlueStar to test an area in the living room.
“It was a unique reaction I had never seen before,” Koenig-Warnke said. “It illuminated and it had that sparkle and it had a circular pattern. It was a unique reaction both to have some kind of false positive and illumination that was positive for blood.”
Koenig-Warnke said false positives can be caused by household cleaners, among other chemicals.
The next notable witness is Lincoln Police detective Matt Franken.
Franken helped fill in the blanks between Sydney’s disappearance and Boswell and Trail being arrested.
Franken said he became aware of Loofe’s disappearance on the 19th, and was immediately concerned.
“The circumstances surrounding her disappearance was very suspicious to us, the smell of bleach was very suspicious,” Franken said.
Franken’s first step was to go to Saline County to meet with Saline County Sergeant Richard Zimmerman to discuss the initial searches of Boswell and Trail’s apartment and to secure a search warrant for an in-depth search.
He said they then found out Boswell and Trail were traveling with a young blonde woman with a thick Russian accent in October, and once they found the antique receipt with her name on it, a crew headed to Antique Aardvark Mall.
Another team headed to Ameristar Casino in Council Bluffs.
The security at the hotel and casino had capture Boswell on surveillance video.
Franken said Boswell and Trail were seen on camera at the hotel with a third person identified as Kaitlyn Brandle on November 17.
By the time they arrived on the 19th, they weren’t there anymore.
“Typically in the 21st century, we catch a lot of people using their phones,” Franken said. “That wasn’t working so we had to do the things we did before cell phones existed.”
Franken said he found out Boswell’s grandmother was sick and would likely die very soon and her funeral would be the week of November 25. He said he had the FBI wait at the funeral in Leon, Iowa just in case Boswell showed up, which she didn’t.
They also started a tip-line. They got two tips that Boswell and Trail were spotted in Iowa.
At the end of it, it was Boswell and Trail who lead to their own arrest. Franken said they posted a video on Facebook which allowed police to track them to a hotel in Branson, Missouri on Nov. 30, 2017.
At this time, they still didn’t know where Loofe was.
Lincoln Police investigator Bob Hurley, who lead police to Loofe’s body using cellphone data is likely to testify Wednesday.
Bailey Boswell Trial Day 5: Boswell, Trail’s landlords discuss strong bleach smell
