Jun 14, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 10 segments
**Nebraska, 2017:** After a successful first date with a girl called Audrey, 24 year old Sydney Loofe headed out for their second. Only, after this date, Sydney vanished. The following day a search…
Eleanor NealeHost
24-year-old Sydney Loofe thought she was going on a second date with a woman that she'd really hit it off with.
She got ready, she put on her outfit, snapped a selfie captioned, "Ready for my date." A date that she would never return home from.
As the days went by, her best friend became the unofficial lead detective on this case, going undercover on Tinder to find the exact person that had lured her best friend on a date, and it quickly became clear this person wasn't real.
The profile was fake, and in the hours before they'd met up with Sydney, this person had been all over town buying saws, bin bags, and bleach.
[insects chirping] Outlaw.
I'm Eleanor Neale, and in today's episode we're in Nebraska in 2017 where the disappearance of 24-year-old Sydney Loofe would begin with one simple question: who was the last person to see her? And at first, that question seemed answerable.
There were messages, there was a name, there was a profile, there was a final plan Sydney had made before she vanished.
But every time investigators found what looked like an answer, it only led them deeper into something else.
Because the person Sydney thought she was meeting up with that day wasn't who they said they were, and they wouldn't be alone either.
In case you didn't already know, this month is Pride Month, and throughout the month of June here on Outlaw Podcast, we're centering LGBTQ+ cases that need to be spoken about.
And Sydney's case really struck a chord with me, I think because it speaks to a very modern problem for many queer folks.
We all wanna find love, but for LGBT people, especially those living in more rural areas, the dating pool is very small and hard to find actually.
It can feel like online dating and dating apps are the only realistic way to meet someone.
But unfortunately, with that reliance on technology comes a very real vulnerability because when you're dating online, people can pretend to be anything, anyone they want.
There's catphishers, there's scammers, people waiting to collect explicit photos and then blackmail people in return.
It's the Wild West out there at best, and at worst it can lead to cases like this one.
And that's what makes Sydney's case so devastating because Sydney wasn't looking for danger or drama, she was simply looking for love and connection, but someone chose to exploit that.
Now, before we get into it, I wanna give my usual disclaimer that I mean absolutely no harm or disrespect to anyone that we talk about in today's case.
This episode has been made with the utmost care to not only honor and memorialize those who lost their lives, but also to recognize the profound grief their loved ones continue to endure.
And given the nature of today's episode, we'll be covering some very sensitive topics, including murder, dismemberment, coercion, sexual themes, mental health struggles, and LGBTQ vulnerability and targeting.
This episode is created with the hope to raise awareness, to inspire change, and to further victim support.
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24-year-old Sydney Loofe thought she was going on a second date with a woman that she'd really hit it off with.
She got ready, she put on her outfit, snapped a selfie captioned, "Ready for my date." A date that she would never return home from.
As the days went by, her best friend became the unofficial lead detective on this case, going undercover on Tinder to find the exact person that had lured her best friend on a date, and it quickly became clear this person wasn't real.
The profile was fake, and in the hours before they'd met up with Sydney, this person had been all over town buying saws, bin bags, and bleach.
[insects chirping] Outlaw.
I'm Eleanor Neale, and in today's episode we're in Nebraska in 2017 where the disappearance of 24-year-old Sydney Loofe would begin with one simple question: who was the last person to see her? And at first, that question seemed answerable.
There were messages, there was a name, there was a profile, there was a final plan Sydney had made before she vanished.
But every time investigators found what looked like an answer, it only led them deeper into something else.
Because the person Sydney thought she was meeting up with that day wasn't who they said they were, and they wouldn't be alone either.
In case you didn't already know, this month is Pride Month, and throughout the month of June here on Outlaw Podcast, we're centering LGBTQ+ cases that need to be spoken about.
And Sydney's case really struck a chord with me, I think because it speaks to a very modern problem for many queer folks.
We all wanna find love, but for LGBT people, especially those living in more rural areas, the dating pool is very small and hard to find actually.
It can feel like online dating and dating apps are the only realistic way to meet someone.
But unfortunately, with that reliance on technology comes a very real vulnerability because when you're dating online, people can pretend to be anything, anyone they want.
There's catphishers, there's scammers, people waiting to collect explicit photos and then blackmail people in return.
It's the Wild West out there at best, and at worst it can lead to cases like this one.
And that's what makes Sydney's case so devastating because Sydney wasn't looking for danger or drama, she was simply looking for love and connection, but someone chose to exploit that.
Now, before we get into it, I wanna give my usual disclaimer that I mean absolutely no harm or disrespect to anyone that we talk about in today's case.
This episode has been made with the utmost care to not only honor and memorialize those who lost their lives, but also to recognize the profound grief their loved ones continue to endure.
And given the nature of today's episode, we'll be covering some very sensitive topics, including murder, dismemberment, coercion, sexual themes, mental health struggles, and LGBTQ vulnerability and targeting.
This episode is created with the hope to raise awareness, to inspire change, and to further victim support.
