Murdered Penn student's family reflects upon the days after his disappearance
PHILADELPHIA -- Blaze Bernstein was a 19-year-old pre-med student at the University of Pennsylvania in January 2018. During winter break from college, meeting a former high school classmate ended in a deadly encounter.
In July 2024, Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 27, was convicted of first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement for the killing of Bernstein, who was gay and Jewish, in Foothill Ranch, California. In November, he wassentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
An all-new "20/20" episode, "The Last Text," which airs Friday, Jan. 3, at 9 p.m. on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu, features exclusive interviews with the Bernstein family and detectives involved in the case.
Woodward's parents, Blake and Michele, did not respond to an interview request from ABC News. However, they submitted a letter to the court at sentencing.
"In the past, you could look into Sam's eyes and be surprised at the level of sensitivity and warmth -- it's one of his best traits," the letter read, in part. "Now, he's too vulnerable to let you look him in the eyes. He committed a crime, but he is not a person without value, unworthy of respect."
Blaze grew up in Lake Forest, an upper-middle-class community of approximately 90,000 located about an hour south of Los Angeles. According to friends, Blaze was creative, thoughtful and enthusiastic. He was bright and interested in everything, they said.
READ MORE: Family, friends remember slain student at Penn
"A Renaissance young man," Arnie Rachlis, rabbi emeritus at University Synagogue who has known the Bernstein family for decades, told "20/20."
The 19-year-old pre-med college student attended the University of Pennsylvania and returned home to Southern California for winter break excited to see his family. Sadly, the reunion would leave the Bernstein family with lasting wounds and sorrow. On Jan. 3, 2018, just before Blaze was due to return to school, he went missing.
"My dad called me and was like, 'Hey, have you heard anything from Blaze? He's not picking up the phone,'" Beaue Bernstein, Blaze's sister, told "20/20." " 'It's really weird. Like, we -- just let us know if you hear anything.' " And I'm like, 'That doesn't sound right.' "
Blaze left his glasses, wallet, keys and bags packed for his return to college. Panicked and confused, the Bernsteins told "20/20" they called everyone they could think of to see if anyone had seen or heard from Blaze in the previous 12 hours. Unfortunately, nobody knew where he was.
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One of the first things the Bernsteins considered was using the iPhone "Find My" app, which allows users to share their location with others. However, according to Blaze's mother Jeanne Pepper Bernstein, the location services were turned off.
The Bernsteins confirmed with Verizon that Blaze hadn't made any recent phone calls. A quick check on his computer revealed no messages on iMessage or Facebook.
The family then turned to the Orange County Sheriff's Department and says an officer initially tried to reassure them.
SEE ALSO: Former classmate sentenced to life without parole in murder of gay teen Blaze Bernstein
"He was adamant that 100% of the time, these kids are out on a 'booty call,' or doing something," Jeanne Pepper Bernstein told "20/20."
Desperate for any information, the Bernsteins decided to search Blaze's social media accounts for any possible leads.
"I told my parents, I'm like, 'I can try and help you find everything that you need,' " Beaue, who was 14 at the time, told "20/20." "I am really good with Snapchat. I knew the names of a lot of his friends, so I was able to, like, text them and ask them if they knew what was going on."
Snapchat is a free mobile messaging application that allows users to share photos, videos and text messages. What sets the app apart is that everything shared, including text messages, disappears from the recipient's screen after just a few seconds.
The Bernsteins were fortunate because Blaze's username and password were saved on their iCloud keychain. While exploring his Snapchat account, the family discovered that Blaze had sent his address to someone. They didn't know this person, but discovering his name on Blaze's Snapchat account would turn their desperate search for their son upside-down.
Gideon Bernstein, Blaze's father, sent a direct message to Samuel Woodward, asking that Sam call him.
When Woodward called Gideon Bernstein, his daughter Beaue, recorded the conversation. "20/20" obtained a copy of the recording from the Orange County Superior Court.
"We haven't heard from him all day," Gideon Bernstein told Woodward on the phone. "He missed an appointment today, and then we started getting concerned, and I've been trying to figure things out. So, you're the first real clue to the puzzle here."
Woodward's response initially made him seem sympathetic to the Bernsteins' plight.
"Yeah, I feel like [expletive] ... honestly, I'm sorry," he said. "I want to find Blaze as much as you do."
During that call, Woodward told Gideon Bernstein that Blaze suggested they drive to a nearby park to meet yet anotherone of his friends, but never mentioned that friend by name.
"He got out of the car, and I got out the car too, and I just asked him, you know, 'Who is this guy?' " Woodward said. "And he was just like, you know, 'You'll find out in a little bit, you know. He's a friend of mine.' And then so I was just like, 'OK, Blaze.' And I just waited there by the bathroom, and he, I didn't see where he went."
It was a disturbing phone conversation that created more questions than answers for the Bernsteins. The family found out that Woodward briefly attended high school with Blaze and grew up only 30 minutes away in the wealthy coastal town of Newport Beach. With this information, the Bernsteins went to the police, who then looked into Woodward.
On Jan. 4, 2018, Orange County Sheriff's Department investigators brought Woodward in for questioning. During his interview with police, Woodward said that after he picked Blaze up at his house, they drove around for a while and eventually stopped at Borrego Park.
Woodward told officers that Blaze was meeting another friend at the park that night, saying he stayed behind as Blaze walked away and disappeared from sight. After several hours of questioning, Woodward was not charged and allowed to leave.
The police remained suspicious, so they decided to put Woodward under surveillance.
"There was a large team that was deployed into the field," Sgt. Dylan Jantzen told 20/20. "And we followed him anywhere that he went."
As concern for Blaze grew, the media was alerted and the public became aware of his disappearance.
"There was an immediate firestorm of attention to this case," Jantzen said. "We were absolutely inundated with tips from the public. There were hundreds in the first week, and that grew exponentially."
There was immense pressure for investigators to make progress on the case, according to Jantzen. On Jan. 9, when Blaze had been missing for seven days, investigators returned to Borrego Park after obtaining cellphone data showing that he and Woodward were there together.
There was a torrential downpour, Jantzen said. It was cold, it was raining, everything was wet, everything was muddy.
Police found Blaze's body covered with dirt and a tree branch. They also located a broken cellphone approximately 6 to 8 inches below the body.
"The autopsy revealed injuries, which I believe were a result of an extremely violent encounter," Jantzen said. "Blaze was stabbed 14 times in the left side of his neck and five times in the right side of his neck. He was stabbed in the knee. He had defensive wounds all over his fingers."
After further investigation, police had enough evidence to determine Woodward acted alone.
When Woodward was charged in 2018, the Orange County District Attorney's office evaluated the evidence against him and decided to charge Woodward for a hate crime because Blaze was gay, but not because he was Jewish. Woodward pleaded not guilty to the charges.
At trial, prosecutors argued that Woodward fatally stabbed Blaze while they were alone in Borrego Park because Woodward was driven by a hatred for gay people. They cited evidence that Woodward was affiliated with an anti-gay, neo-Nazi extremist group, and they said he lured Blaze to a park and stabbed him to death in a premeditated act of hate.
In a shocking twist, Woodward's defense attorney conceded that his client killed Blaze, but said that it was not a premeditated hate crime. Woodward's attorney claimed he joined the extremist group because of isolation and loneliness.
The defense said that Woodward himself was struggling with his sexuality, although Woodward denied that characterization when he took the stand to testify in his own defense. Woodward claimed that he fell asleep while at the park with Blaze and alleged that he awoke to discover Blaze photographing or video recording their encounter with his cellphone.
Woodward claimed that he was horrified at the idea that Blaze might publicly share a compromising picture of him and that this alleged discovery provoked him to stab Blaze repeatedly. However, investigators from the Orange County Sheriff's Department told "20/20" that they found no photographs or videos from that night on Blazes phone.
At the conclusion of the trial, Jeanne Pepper Bernstein made a statement to the assembled media.
"We are thrilled with the verdict, which holds Samuel Woodward accountable for the brutal, violent, painful murder of our son," she said, in part. "Justice has been served."
