LINCOLN, Neb. — The woman accused of killing and dismembering Sydney Loofe will spend the rest of her life in prison.

The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed Bailey Boswell’s convictions and sentences in an opinion issued on Friday. A jury found Boswell guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and improper disposal of human remains in 2020. The next year, two members of a three-judge panel said the State had proved an aggravating factor that warranted the death penalty, but a third judge dissented leading to a life sentence.

Boswell’s attorneys argued to the state supreme court that the district court erred in many of the evidentiary rulings made during the trial. Specifically, they argued the court erred in admitting photographs of Loofe’s dismembered body, evidence of sex toys, sexual fantasies, and sexual torture; testimony of witchcraft and the occult; and hearsay statements by codefendant Aubrey Trail under the coconspirator exemption. The state supreme court found no merit to any of Boswell’s assigned errors.

The case dates back to November, 2017, when 24-year-old Sydney Loofe was reported missing. Loofe, originally from Neligh, was working as a store clerk in Lincoln. Weeks later, investigators found her dismembered body disposed along the side of a county road. Authorities arrested Boswell and Trail for Loofe’s murder.

What followed were a pair of the most sensational trials in Nebraska history. Prosecutors alleged that Boswell and Trail participated in physical and sexual punishment and regular discussions of witchcraft and the occult as part of a plan to participate in torture and murder for sexual gratification. The state supreme court said that argument and its corresponding evidence was essential to the case.

“The sex and witchcraft evidence was integral to explaining how Boswell and Trail methodically recruited and groomed young women to participate in the planned torture and killing of another person by using sexual control and punishment, gradually testing the boundaries of obedience, and introducing and normalizing discussions of occult rituals, torture, and murder,” the court said in its opinion.

Trail was sentenced to death in 2021 and remains on death row.