True-crime writer helped Tinder murderer in prison scheme: report

A true-crime author allegedly helped a Nebraska death row inmate, who murdered and dismembered a woman he met on Tinder, extort a prison nurse out of $25,000, according to local reports.

Samantha Al-Rekabi, who was reportedly working on a book about the 2017 murder of 24-year-old Sydney Loofe, was charged Wednesday with felony theft by extortion in connection with the incident, KLKN reported.

Aubrey Trail, a 56-year-old, was convicted and sentenced to death for Loofe's murder. Prosecutors said he strangled Loofe with an electrical cord and cut her body into 14 pieces, which he then dumped in various ditches along the sides of rural roads in Nebraska.

Trail's girlfriend, now 29, matched with Loofe on Tinder and solicited both the victim and Trail for group sex.

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In Al-Rekabi's quest for information about Loofe's murder for her true-crime book, she apparently developed a relationship with Trail and helped him extort the prison nurse in 2021 prior to his sentencing that same year, according to an affidavit obtained by KLKN.

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The suspect also befriended the nurse in her pursuit of information for her book. They thought of themselves as "true crime buffs," according to court documents obtained by KETV.

Trail eventually began communicating with the nurse, who told the killer that she was having relationship troubles with her husband. Trail allegedly manipulated the nurse, telling her that he hired a hitman to kill her husband, and the job could only be stopped if she paid him $25,000.

He also apparently convinced the nurse to smuggle contraband into prison for him, including a phone, chewing tobacco and a firearm, the Lincoln Journal-Star reported.

Trail told the nurse to "... bring me a gun so I can just kill everybody," he said in phone calls obtained by authorities, according to the Journal-Star.

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Al-Rekabi was apparently with the nurse when she took the funds from her bank account.

In an interview with the Nebraska State Patrol, Al-Rekabi reportedly said Trail manipulated her into swindling the nurse for money, claiming she thought he would kill her or her son, who was also an inmate, if she did not carry out the alleged extortion plot, KETV reported. The nurse quit her job in 2021.

"Trail also mentioned his intent to have a firearm smuggled into the prison," an investigator wrote in the affidavit, according to the Lincoln Journal-Star. He and Al-Rekabi "also discussed the compromised staff member and her desire to have her husband killed in order to prevent him from obtaining her pension (through divorce)."

Phone calls obtained by investigators, however, apparently show Al-Rekabi "joking" with Trail "about how they were going to swindle $25,000," according to documents obtained by KETV.

The true-crime writer appeared in Lancaster County court Wednesday and was ordered held on $5,000 bond.

Fox News' Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.