#blaze bernstein

Blaze Bernstein (19) was a brilliant student at the University of Pennsylvania who went missing on January 3, 2018, while visiting his parents in Southern California for winter break. Described as a “high caliber mind with the heart of a poet” and part of the LGBTQ community, Blaze was found dead on January 9 at Borrego Park, in Foothill Ranch. His body had been partially buried and he’d been stabbed more than 20 times.

Tracing back his movements, police discovered that the night of January 2nd, Blaze had met a former classmate from high school named Samuel Woodward (20). Samuel initially told authorities that he had hanged out with Blaze for a while at the park, but that they had parted ways after a while: Blaze had apparently gone to meet someone inside the park, while Samuel had drove off to meet a girlfriend. He claimed he’d later come back to the park looking for Blaze but couldn’t find him.

But Samuel couldn’t remember the full name or address of this girlfriend he had visited. He had scratches in his arms, that he claimed were from a bar fight, and dirt under his fingernails. It didn’t take long for police to arrest him and charge him on January 17 with the murder of Blaze.

According to police sources cited by the LA Times and the Orange County Register, the reason Samuel gave for the attack during interrogation was that Blaze had tried to kiss him. That’s why authorities are considering the possibility of framing this as a hate crime, but nothing has been decided yet. Media has already been looking into Samuel’s social media and claiming he sympathizes with the white supremacist movement, has violent tendencies and also seems to be very religious.

“There is still much discovery to be done, and if it is determined that this was a hate crime, we will cry not only for our son but for LGBTQ people everywhere that live in fear or who have been victims of hate crime," Blaze parents said in a statement.

Anti-Gay Former Schoolmate Charged In Murder Of Ivy League Student To Stand Trial

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An Ivy League student was stabbed to death because of his love interest in a former schoolmate at the beginning of the year in Newport Beach, California.

According to the investigators of the murder case, the crime was committed by the love interest of the victim himself who is linked to Nazi groups.

Blaze…

Blaze Bernstein (19) was a pre-medical student at University of Pennsylvania when he disappeared in Lake Forest, California on January 2nd, 2018. At the time of his disappearance, Blaze was on winter break and was in his hometown in Orange County, California. On the evening of his disappearance, Blaze was picked up from his parents’ house by Samuel Woodward (then 20), an acquaintance Blaze knew from high school. He never returned home that night, and his parents reported him missing after he failed to show up for a dental appointment the following day. When investigators questioned Woodward, he told them that after he picked up Blaze, he drove the two of them to a nearby Hobby Lobby parking lot to “catch up.” Later, the two of them drove to Borrego Park. Woodward told police that Blaze got out of the car at the park and never returned. He said he waited for Blaze for an hour before driving to his girlfriend’s house. Police immediately noticed several inconsistencies in Woodward’s story. When questioned about his girlfriend, Woodward apparently could not remember her last name or where she lived—despite the fact that he told police that he went to her house after Blaze’s disappearance. Additionally, Woodward had abrasions on his arms, which he blamed on being in a fight club. On January 9th, 2018, Blaze’s body was found in Borrego Park. He had been stabbed to death. Just a few days later, Woodward was arrested for Blaze’s murder. The arrest came after investigators found DNA evidence that linked him to the crime scene. In fact, certain evidence they found made investigators believe that Woodward had returned to the crime scene days after the murder as well. While investigating the nature of Blaze and Woodward’s relationship, it was revealed that the two were not close friends in high school. They weren’t reportedly enemies either; they just simply didn’t run in the same social circles. However, police found text messages that Blaze sent to two different female friends in June of 2017 that indicated that Woodward had hit on him. Blaze, who was openly gay, seemed happy about this interaction. If Woodward had actually hit on Blaze, investigators found this interesting—because Woodward told had previously investigators that Blaze had kissed him on the lips as they sat in the car on the evening of January 2nd, 2018, and that the kiss was unwanted. Woodward told investigators that he pushed him away and called him derogatory names after that. After investigating Woodward’s background, police found that he was a member of a Neo-Nazi group called the Attomwaffen Division. The group is described as “relatively small, but incredibly anti-Semitic and hateful.” Noting that Blaze was both gay and Jewish, Woodward was charged with a hate crime as well. The Santa Ana District’s Attorney announced the enhancement in Woodward's charges after finding evidence on his cell phone, laptop, and social media accounts that revealed his hateful intentions. The DA also explained that the evidence included “a large number of texts and images that spew hate at every protected group.” The content was described as very homophobic, misogynistic and antisemitic. Woodward pleaded not guilty to the charges. Then, several years passed without any movement in the case. Woodward finally went to trial in 2024, during which evidence of his hateful actions and struggles with his own sexuality were revealed.