After that I’m not sure I can cope with the story !
A true crime book writer from Lincoln, Nebraska, working on a project about the 2017 dismemberment murder of 24-year-old Sydney Loofe allegedly developed a “romantic interest” with the Tinder killer inmate responsible for the horrific crime and extorted a corrections nurse at his behest before he was even sentenced to death row.
The investigation into Samantha Al-Rekabi, 55, began in March 2021 after another inmate reported a “romantic interest” between her and Aubrey Trail, now 57, and came forward with information about a “compromised” nurse, ABC affiliate KLKN reported.
The nurse, who reportedly left the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Reception and Treatment Center job in March 2021, had allegedly been “manipulated” by Trail into smuggling a phone and chewing tobacco behind bars.
An affidavit reportedly detailed that Trail successfully learned personal details about the nurse’s home life and used her unhappy marriage, with the help of Al-Rekabi, to convince her that there was an active murder-for-hire plot against the nurse’s husband.
State authorities, with the benefit of the nurse’s December 2021 interview with the FBI, reportedly alleged that Al-Rekabi committed theft by extortion, getting closer to the victim because they were “true crime buffs” and spending time bonding over that commonality at the suspect’s residence.
Trail allegedly told the nurse about the hit and convinced her that only $25,000 could call it off.
Al-Rekabi is accused of taking a ride with the nurse to a bank where the then-corrections employee withdrew the funds in February 2021. As the nurse was withdrawing the money, largely from retirement savings, Al-Rekabi was allegedly on the phone with Trail keeping him updated.
Lincoln Journal Star reported that investigators have Al-Rekabi on recordings with Trail talking about it being “crazy” that the nurse was “gonna get her pension out just (to) give it to us.” Al-Rekabi allegedly commented that the nurse’s first mistake was smuggling in a phone for Trail.
When reportedly confronted as recently as April by Nebraska State Patrol investigators, Al-Rekabi allegedly admitted she was the person on those recordings, but the suspect claimed she and Trail were “joking” about the extortion plot, and she further claimed that she, too, had been manipulated by the death row inmate. She was scared that the death row inmate would target her and her inmate son with violence next, according to her reported version of the story.
Judging by the felony charge Al-Rekabi faces, the alleged facts were no laughing matter to authorities.
and … yes .. there’s more
