A look at the 2018 disappearance of Blaze Bernstein and the evidence that led to Sam Woodward‘s arrest and conviction in the hate crime murder.
Jan. 2, 2018
Bernstein family
Blaze, a 19-year-old Ivy League student, was spending the holidays visiting family in Orange County, California, when he went missing the night of Jan. 2, 2018.
Jan. 3, 2018
CBS Newws
After Blaze failed to show up to a dentist appointment and didn’t respond to texts and calls, his parents, Jeanne Pepper and Gideon Bernstein, checked his room. They didn’t find Blaze but found his wallet, keys and glasses still at the house.
They searched Blaze’s computer and social media accounts for clues. On Blaze’s Snapchat, they found messages from Sam Woodward, who had been Blaze’s high school classmate. The messaging showed that the night Blaze went missing, he had sent his address to Woodward. Gideon Bernstein reached out to Woodward, who claimed he had picked Blaze up and driven to local Borrego Park. Woodward said that Blaze then walked off in the dark to meet another friend.
“I didn’t see where he went,” Woodward told Gideon Bernstein. “I searched all over for him … I couldn’t find him anywhere.”
After that call, the worried Bernsteins filed a missing person’s report with police.
Jan. 6, 2018
CBS Los Angeles
Law enforcement repeatedly combed Borrego Park. By this point, news of Blaze’s disappearance had already spread across Orange County.
The Bernstein family, still hoping for good news, held a press conference, asking the public to keep looking for their son.
Jan. 9, 2018
Orange County Court
After days of searching, investigators found Blaze buried in a shallow grave in Borrego Park…
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