WILBER, Neb. (AP) — A woman has testified that a man being prosecuted for killing and dismembering a 24-year-old Lincoln woman invited her to join his “cult” of a dozen women but said she had to kill someone first.

Ashley Hills told a courtroom in Wilber on Monday that Aubrey Trail bragged to her about killing several people and told her how she could gain powers as one of his “witches” if she tortured her victim before death.

Trail wasn’t in the courtroom Monday and hasn’t been since he slashed at his neck June 24. He and his girlfriend, Bailey Boswell, are charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Sydney Loofe. Her body parts were found in ditches along a state highway, weeks after her November 2017 disappearance.

Boswell is awaiting trial.