EP271: The Murder of Blaze Bernstein

oh putting the eyegel stuff. And I'm like, yes, oh my gosh, my bow.

I'll tell you it's a Taurus? H too. Torres just coupled a week in. He was born to his parents, Gideon Bernstein and Jeanie Pepper. And His parents were both from Santa Barbara, California, and they met one another in nineteen eighty seven while they were both attending college at the University of California. Five years later, in nineteen ninety two,

Gideon and Jeanie were married in Los Angeles, California. Gideon worked as a chartered financial analyst and he went on to make quite the name for himself in leisure capital management in Costa Mesa, California. Jeannie got her law degree in nineteen ninety five from the Pepperdine School of Law. She left her job as a litigator in two thousand to be a stay at home mother to her son,

Blaze and his siblings. He has two younger brothers, Bo and Jay, and believe it or not, Gideon's mother, Leah Bernstein, who was born in nineteen thirty six Romania, was a retired teacher in the art of language, and she was also one of the last known survivors of the Holocaust. Oh this case is about the life that was taken from a creative young man who was known as a brilliant teenage boy who had the greatest sense of humor along with the most gentle soul and to his family,

he was often known as the renaissance man. Those aren't quotes, and he lived for the culinary arts and music. He also enjoyed writing art performing to entertain others around him. He was charismatic, a great communicator, and he had such a quick wit about him. And as soon as Blaze was born, his parents knew that their son was going to change the world at some point in his life. His mother always called him a unicorn because he was so rare. Blaze was named after one of his grandfathers, Nathan,

as his middle name. He was also given his first name after the French mathematician named Blaze Pascal Pascal. While he was an inventor, mathematician, and physicist, he was the first creator of the calculator in the seventeenth century. I love when a name has a background like I was named after Blaize Pascal. Since he was named after such an astonishing man, his family always expected the best to

come from Blaze's life. Blaize went on to go through his early childhood academic career with flying colors, and he even went on to attend one of the best high schools in the United States, the Orange County School of Art also known as oh CSA. And while he was in high school, he participated in a lot of extra curricular activities, and this included working at the synagogue on Saturdays as the classroom aid. And while he was in his junior year and senior year of high school, he

thrived and participated in the school's Science Olympiad. He even brought home the first place medal in the state for his high school in chemistry. During his senior year, he was in his school's advanced chemistry class, and his teacher said, quote, Blaze seemed to always be looking for a place to make his mark and be a leader and to contribute end quote. According to everyone around him throughout high school,

he was known as a humble genius. All of his younger classmates looked up to him because Blaze never worked to impress a single person. His intelligence and personality were what characterized him throughout his entire high school career, and after graduating high school, he went to study at the University of Pennsylvania where he studied poetry, biochemistry, food writing, psychology, and community activism. Now, needless to say, Blaize had a

lot on his plate. He was striving to make his entire family proud of him, and he was going to attempt success at all costs. Everyone who knew him loved the fact that he was always up for any adventure that came across his path. He loved adventures, whether it was a late night drive with family or friends, or whether it was working quietly in a room on a project that he was passionate about. Whatever life threw at him, Blaze put his entire heart and soul into it, and

this was a trade that everyone cherished. At the age of seventeen, Blaze went hiking and decided to climb the entirety of Angels Landing all by himself. This trail is located in Zion National Park in Washington County, Utah, and this is not something that someone would normally do alone. The altitude alone is pretty strenuous at five thousand, seven

hundred and ninety feet regardless of the terrain. Blaze accomplished this in twenty sixteen, and this trail is known to be pretty dangerous with steep cliffs and treacherous hiking paths, So the kids got some good discipline.

the show notes. He was always one who would do anything, in everything to experience the beauty of the nature that surrounded him on his outdoor adventures, no matter how difficult it was to achieve. He even went to Iceland on a family trip and he was able to discover a bird lookout within the Western Islands. Even with the freezing temperatures, he sat patiently to watch for the Atlantic puffins as the rest of his family waited in the van with the heat on. Oh my god, so tenacious. I love it.

I know they're adorable. When Blaze got to the University of Pennsylvania, he was entering his college career as a creative writer who was hopeful to get into the world of medicine. When he got to the university, he was known around campus as a pretty shy guy, but once people got to know him, he would never shy away from his opinions on matters that were important to him.

He began his college career with his fantastic communication skills to become the editor of the Penn Review, the campus's superior literary magazine, as well as the university's foodie magazine known as Penn At Petite I Love. He was voted to be the head of editor for the magazine, and he was eventually given the job as copy editor for a University of penn cookbook titled whisk And This was still in the developmental stages at the time of his murder.

By October of twenty seventeen, Blaze had become quite a community activist around campus, and he even wrote a letter to help better the University of Penn's safety and hopes to also reform the campus's policies. The letter was written to the university's student run nonprofit organization called The Daily Pennsylvanian. This letter led to the meeting with the university's head of University Life, and the meeting consisted of how the campus could be made safer for all of the students.

Blaize was looking forward to helping with any improvement ideas that he could provide, but his life was taken from him before he was able to make any real progress within the organization. His family knew that he was going to take his time to find himself since he was a young Jewish man who was also a member of the gay community. When winter break in his sophomore year came around, Blaze was looking forward to being at home

with his supportive family. They were going to spend Hanikah's family, and as Blaze was practicing his culinary talent, he cooked his family one of the best meals they ever had in their lives. Blaize would eventually sneak out of his parents' home on the night of January second, twenty eighteen, and this would be the last day that anyone in

his family ever saw him alive. That night, nobody in his family had known that he had snuck out of the home, and that the following day his parents had just assumed that he was sleeping in since they hadn't seen him. The following morning, on January third, Blaze had a dentist's appointment and he was supposed to meet up with his mother, Jeanie, But when he never showed up, his mother knew something was seriously wrong when he did answer any of her phone calls. She called Gideon and

he asked if Blaze ever came home. She immediately began to yell she had no idea. You know. Panic is beginning to set in. Something was wrong and their responsible son was missing. Gideon was at work at the time Jeanie had called, and when they both came to realize that their son was in trouble, they both sped home to come up with a game plan to find him

as soon as possible. When both Gideon and Jeanie got back to the house, they went into Blaze's room and they were shocked to discover that all of his essentials were still in the home, and yet he was nowhere to be found. These essentials were his retainer, his wallet, his glasses, his keys. These were all still left in his room. His parents were completely shocked at what was happening.

Their son was home for a winter break and wanted nothing more than to spend time with the people he loved the most, and yet he was missing without a trace. His mother had called and left voicemails on his phone throughout the entire day, but nobody ever heard back from him. This was so highly unusual. The only thing Gideon and Janie knew to do next was to get law enforcement involved and to try to get into Blaze's Facebook account.

Maybe his profile or Facebook messages could tell them who their son was in contact with leading up to his disappearance. His parents were able to get onto their son's computer, and with some help, they were able to log into Blaze's Snapchat account. Now, Snapchat nowadays seems to be the

most intimate of all social media among young adults. These messages immediately erase according to the settings that are set up by each user, and for most teenagers, this seems to be the most secure way for them to communicate.

The communications between friends are almost too private, although settings are set to where most messages disappear after being opened by the recipient, Chats can be saved when typing to a friend, and that was how Blaize's parents were able to tell that he had sent his address to someone. The person he had sent his address to was a

kid named Sam Woodward. Neither Genie nor Gideon had ever heard of the name Sam Woodward before, since Blaze had never once told them about any kind of conversation he had with them with him, so they were immediately worried about this random stranger found on his son's Snapchat account, like who was this kid? Gideon sent Sam a message to try to get a hold of Sam, and the

message said please pick up. Snapchat allows friends to make calls through the app, and that was how Gideon was able to finally get a hold of Sam when he answered the call. Once the call connected, the Bernstein family decided to record the phone call. While on the phone with Sam, Gideon said that he knew that he had been trying to locate Blaze through Snapchat and that Sam was the first clue to the puzzle regarding their son's disappearance. Sam was the person who had met Blaze around the

Bernstein's family house. When the Bernstein family demanded to know how Sam Woodward knew their son, Sam said that their meeting was purely a spur of the moment quote unquote type of deal, and Blaize was the one who had asked to hang out, to which Sam agreed. Now, Sam confessed to Gideon that he had picked him up around eleven that night. He then said that he had driven him near Barrago Park. Once they got to the park,

both he and Blaize got out of the car. According to Sam, nineteen year old Blaze walked down a path to quote unquote meete a friend, and from the path he vanished into thin air. Sam, while on the Snapchat call with Gideon, said that he shouted Blaze's name multiple times, but he was no longer able to see him, nor

did he hear anything back. Gideon had Sam's phone number and asked if that was the best way to contact him if he ever heard anything from Blaze, and Sam gave Jeanie and Gideon a sense of hope that he was also looking forward to eventually hearing from Blaze. While on the phone with Gideon, Sam said, quote, I want to find him as much as you do unquote. But neither Gideon nor Ginie ever heard about Sam, so they

had no clue what to believe. They were just trying everything they could to be the most optimistic about the entire situation. So Sam and Blaize were friends in high school, so they had known each other for a few years. Leading up to Blaze sending Sam his address, other friends of Blaze's from high school found out that Blaze was missing. The last that Blaze's high school friends had heard was that he had been last seen with a kid named Sam Woodward and his friends all appeared to be shocked

that Blaze would ever hang out with Sam. Sam had a reputation of being crazy. They were polar opposites. According to one of Blaze's oldest friends from high school, Sam was known to doodle while he was in classes at the Orange County School of Art, and they weren't just innocent doodles. Sam was known to draw guns on his notebooks while in class, and this was to the point that his classmates noticed that something just wasn't right with Sam. Most of his classmates were terrified.

of any sort of friend group altogether. When Blaze's friends were told about Sam being the last person to see him alive, they could only think of a few reasons on why that would happen. Blaze being a gay man, just wanted to hook up with Sam, or he just wanted Blaze dead. Huh, those are the two. So if Blaze picked Sam, it was to either hook up with him or Sam was gonna kill him. Wow, wow, Well we're gonna find out. Those were the only two reasons

that anyone could think of. According to the people who knew Sam from high school, Sam Woodward was known to be anti gay, a homophobe, and he was also known to be extremely racist. Blaze was so, I'm telling you, polar, polar opposite.

you know. So they were like they approached him before he had approached them. Gideon and Jeanie went to the Orange County Police and they told them everything that they knew about their son's last meetup with a kid named Sam. Law enforcement had no other choice than to speak to Sam about the whole ordeal. Sam then told the police that he had picked up Blaze from his home, that Blaze wandered off by himself and then disappeared all on

his own. The police then sent out a certa party for the missing nineteen year old, and that search party was massive. Both of his parents got onto the local news to ask for help from the public so that they could locate their sun as soon as possible. Jeanie said, quote, please keep your eyes open for my baby. I want him home with me now end quote. The search and rescue teams consisted of helicopters as well as an entire team searching the woods that were nearby Barroigo Park, which

was where he was last seen by a kid. Everyone in his high school feared. Thousands of flyers were put up around the surrounding areas and at the synagogues that the Bernstein family attended. Blaize's face was everywhere the flyers read his name that he was nineteen years old. He was around one hundred and thirty pounds at around five foot nine inches in height, and he had brown hair

with blue eyes. He was last seen wearing long dark pants, white tennis shoes, slash sneakers, and possibly a gray colored hoodie, and he was last seen on January two, twenty eighteen, at around ten thirty at night. Blaze was an active member at university Synagogue located in Irvine, California. The synagogue also viewed him as a role model, so they had no problem helping with the search. Blaze always was one to embrace his heritage as a member of the Jewish community.

Blaze was also one to embrace his heritage as a member of the Jewish community, and he was also one to not shy away from confrontation from hatred of the Jewish faith and heritage. Blaze was related to a Holocaust survivor, and that in and of itself is astonishing, so he had no problem talking about the concentration camps along with what his ancestors dealt with throughout the duration of World

War II. Those who were known to be outwardly and proudly racist would hate someone like Blaze, you know, someone with a beautiful heart and a genuine soul even within the Jewish community. Along with all of his friends and family, were hoping for a light at the end of the very dark tunnel, and sadly it would never come. Those who were hoping for good news was the last person known to be with Blaze, Sam Woodward. He was hopeful for good news. For those who had known Blaze personally,

and closely. They did not have high hopes for Blaze's well being after hearing that his last known whereabouts were with Sam, because you know Sam's extreme racism, homophobia and supremacy. Yeah, and that's who this sweet guy was last with. Right. Oh. For an entire week after Blaze had disappeared, the police, along with a huge search party, went on and searched

high and low inside and outside of Barrego Park. Blaze's missing person's case was so well known that even Kobe Bryant and Green Abdul Jabbar shared the story on their Twitter pages in hopes that the Bernstein family could get even more help. Wow Wow. More people to spread awareness of Blaze's story were two stars from the Real Housewives

of Orange County, Vicki Gunvelsen and Tamrad Judge. All of these people before they decided to call off the search, everyone was up for one last look, just to make

sure that no stone was left unturned. Mother Nature did not let up with heavy rains as the search crew went out for one final time, and it wasn't until an officer turned to look at a spot in the brush and noticed that there was a mound of the dirt that was located under a massive tree branch, and underneath the wet brush and mud was Blaze's dead body.

Two days after Blaze was reported missing, Sam was taken by the detectives out to where he had last seen Blaze, and while they were out, the detectives noticed that Sam's hands and knuckles had bruises and scrapes on them. Gideon had told the detectives that Sam had been the very last person to ever see Blaze alive, and Sam was the missing piece to the puzzle of what had happened to him. So when he was asked about, you know, those marks on his hands where they had came from.

Sam said that he was in quote, a fight club, and as we all know, whatever happens in fight club stays in fight club. Yeah, so Sam's Sam's working on a story.

The two communicated through Snapchat. Sam had agreed to meet Blaze at the family home, where he drove him to a parking lot off of Lake Forest Hobby Lobby where the two men were supposed to just hang out and catch up. Sam told the detectives that Blaze said that they were going to meet up with another friend that they had known from high school, and the two of them arrived at Barago Park a little before midnight on

January second. Sam said that Blaze was the only one to get out of the car and he went alone into the park to meet up with that friend. While Sam was telling this information to the investigators, he was talking very quick, noticeably shaking and out of breath. Well, those are the three telltale signs that someone's lying, right.

There was also blood found in the car that belonged to both Sam and Blaze. After the search of the car was completed, officers then went to search the home where Sam lived, and while at the residence, officers found the murder weapon, a knife that still had Blazes blood on it. I'm really just sloppy, Yeah, I mean, give me, you know what, I think if Gideon hadn't if the parents didn't have the wherewithal to go into the social media, yes, oh my gosh, you know this, he would have gotten away with.

in such a brutal way. He was found completely butchered. The Bernstein family home was only a ten minute walk from the park where Blaze's body was eventually found. The following Wednesday, over three hundred people gathered at Barago Park for a candleate vigil to honor Blaze and to celebrate his life. Now. Not long after, Sam Woodward was arrested on January seventeenth, twenty eighteen, and he was taken into custody for Blaze's murder with the personal use of a knife.

Sam told the investigators that he had driven Blaze to Barago Park, but after Blaize got out of the car, he never came back. Sam said that he would cooperate with the police, and for the most part, his story remains pretty consistent. At some point, though, Sam's story became a little worrisome. He told the detectives that he had driven to his girlfriend's house after he knew that Blaze

was not coming back out. When Sam was asked the name of his girlfriend and where she lived, he said he couldn't remember her last name or what her address was, so sure.

though Blaze never responded. Sam told detectives that Blaze had confided in him that he was depressed about his grades while at the University of Pennsylvania, but according to Sam, he never told him that he was in any way suicidal. No, you're just trying to lay that, you know, groundwork, Sam Dick. According to the autopsy done on Blaze's body, he had been killed by being stabbed multiple times in the neck an throat. He had been stabbed more than twenty times.

His cell phone was also found in the shallow grave as well. This told investigators and district attorney that there was so much hate behind the brutality of Blaze's murder. When Blaze's parents were made of their son's cause of death, they were inconsolable, as any parent would be. Sam went through his arraignment and he pled. Guess what he pled? Not guilty?

Tom Woffen. This group specifically targets those of the Jewish faith along with those who are members of LGBTQ community. Blaze was a double whammy, and Sam specifically targeted him for this group. This group even had propaganda videos and hopes to getting more to join their hate group. Their goal is to completely destroy the world because they hate it so much, and their endgame is to completely start a new reign of terror. I'm so fucking bored with

this is in everyone's playbook. Destroy the world and let's take over, destroy the world and rerun it.

her son's defense team. Her main object was to prove that her son had grown up with a very toxic household and that that's.

Michelle it appeared, was not ready to completely throw her entire family under the bus in order to save her neo Nazi son. The defense attempted to pull out of her that he had been undiagnosed with a form of autism which led to this dark and violent personality. Sam's father, Blake, had previously given the defense team his stance on the LGBTQ plus community, and with his statement he felt that being homosexual was a sin.

friends about potentially seducing his right winged former classmate. Blaze even wrote to Sam saying that he would always keep his secret and never out him. The defense used Blaze's final text with his friends to try to persuade the jury members that Sam's murder was never premeditated. It was purely something done after Blaze had provoked him to lash out violence. Okay, sure, yes, with Blaze's fault to provoke

somebody to lash out like that. Blaze's parents, Jeanie and Gideon, were called to testify for the prosecution on April tenth, twenty twenty four, and Jeanie said that she knew that many things were going to be said throughout the trial that wouldn't be true, but she was going to do the best that she could to get justice for her son. Both parents testified to defend their boy, and they were among the total of twenty three witnesses that would be

called by the prosecution. The prosecution presented evidence that Sam's murdering Blaze was purely premeditated, as he had agreed to meet up with Blaze. Sam never intended to meet up unarmed. He had brought his knife and Adam Woffen mask. Apparently the group wears the mask and a shoveling object to barry Blaze with once the murder had been successfully completed.

Towards the tail end of the trial, Sam was looking a lot like Charles Manson, as you most aptly described, as he sat with his long, greasy hair and beard. He told the jury that on the night that he took Blaize's life, he had smoked some weed. He also said that Blaze was teasing him and had threatened to out Sam as a homosexual. So I swear to God if there fucking blaming weed. As for violent outbursts, I'm about done with that bullshit lie.

His defense team had trained him to take forever to answer the most simple questions thrown to him. Oh my gosh, can you imagine that fucking trial. Yeah, this trial was postponed for years after his defense team had tried to say that Sam's mental capacity was the reason behind the

brutal murder. On July third, twenty twenty four, Sam was found guilty a first degree murder along with the additional hate crimes, and on October twenty second, twenty twenty four, sam would show his face for sentencing while Jeanie Bernstein gave her victim impact statement. She said, quote, no mother should ever have to bury her child. My heart was so broken and yet unable to accept the reality that

he was no longer part of our world. I will never forget hearing for the first time that Blaze had been stabbed twenty eight times. End quote. She went on to say that hearing how her son died was one of the most painful things that any mother would ever have to hear. Now, thankfully, oh right, I just it's heartbreaking, Yes, thankfully. Samuel Woodward was sentenced to life in prison without any possibility of parole, and he can spend the rest of his days hating himself in his own life for what

he did to Blaze Burnstein in his family. So I that is bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter sweet ending to life in prison, no parole. I don't even know why you signed up to come here.

My grandma keeps it at a brisk eighty degrees on this eighty degree day because she's, you know, one hundred and two, so she's always chilly. So finally it's like we get into this school house and it was just you know, Levi's in his little baby swing, Brooks right next to him on her phone, you know, going through some stuff. I'm in the kitchen, I can, you know, see down, And I thought, my god, not having a

toxic mail in the house is all the difference. I can't even believe how beautifully wonderful this is, like a kiss from on my forehead from the Lord. I'm so, you know, just to notice it, like a fucking toxic mail. And I think of Sam's how Blaze's parents were like, okay, I think you know, I'm sure they had the conversation. I think Blaze is gay cool. That's you know, parents are like, okay, here's you know, you can fall here, you get soft cushion, blow will always be and then

you on the opposite side of the spectrum. You have Sam's parents who may suspect that Sam's gay, and then he gets all these hateful slurs, punching, hitting, Where's that going to go? But I see what the difference of loving your children and hating your children two very different outcomes.

You can get an additional episode week yea price, yes, yeah, check out Patreon dot com, slash tnt Crimes or like I said, you can find it on the Apple podcast app. And I think that's all the business that we have. So Shannon, thank you again. I'm gonna let you get back to Mimi.