Speaker 1: This episode MA contained content of a graphic nature, including
Speaker 1: descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: Hi. I'm Shannon. Hi I'm Tanya, and we are Crimes
Speaker 2: and Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast. Hey Shannon, Hey Tanya.
Speaker 2: How are you.
Speaker 3: I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 2: How are you? I'm doing good, doing the grandma things
Speaker 2: a mimi. And that's been fabulous. And let's see what
Speaker 2: were we talking about just before? Oh, that's right, lavender marriages. Yeah,
Speaker 2: just before we started recording. How I would not pooh
Speaker 2: pooh a lavender marriage. He has to be able to.
Speaker 2: I don't know how to style my clothes. I need
Speaker 2: a stylist. And I do love that one guy on
Speaker 2: TikTok and he's all like, girl, we'll take our mental
Speaker 2: health meds together and we'll just oh, I love him,
Speaker 2: oh putting the eyegel stuff. And I'm like, yes, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, my bow.
Speaker 3: A lavender marriage.
Speaker 1: You remember when I was in law school, I had
Speaker 1: a friend and he was gay, and he was cute
Speaker 1: as a button, adorable, and I always used to tell him,
Speaker 1: I'm like, we should get married. He's like I go,
Speaker 1: I'll put you on my health insurance. Yes, exactly, exactly,
Speaker 1: We'll be able to date whoever we want.
Speaker 2: Yes, our weekends are Yes, are our own? I need
Speaker 2: yes that see and with the male perspective, I need
Speaker 2: that whole whole scene for me. I would love it.
Speaker 2: The decorating. Are you kidding me? I know? Oh my god,
Speaker 2: I have the best success stories.
Speaker 3: Ever Brittany and Kylie together.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it would have been great fun. But he goes
Speaker 3: like this one problem, and I.
Speaker 1: Thought he was gonna say I'm gay, but he's like,
Speaker 1: you're married, and I you know, I have been married,
Speaker 1: so's I was married at the time. And I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that is a problem. I guess we can't get married.
Speaker 2: But you're right there in first position. Should I ever
Speaker 2: need another? Should I ever have the opportunity to be
Speaker 2: wet again?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: So well, let's get to this story I want to
Speaker 2: tell you about. It's going to be about a wonderful
Speaker 2: young man whose life was taken very tragically and suddenly
Speaker 2: and too young. Tell you about him. His name is
Speaker 2: Blaize Nathan Burns Stein. And before I go any further,
Speaker 2: if you guys hit that subscribe button. He will never
Speaker 2: miss any of our episodes, so let me continue. Laiz
Speaker 2: Nathan Bernstein was born in South Orange County, California, on
Speaker 2: April twenty seventh, nineteen ninety eight. What is that time you?
Speaker 2: I'll tell you it's a Taurus? H too. Torres just
Speaker 2: coupled a week in. He was born to his parents,
Speaker 2: Gideon Bernstein and Jeanie Pepper. And His parents were both
Speaker 2: from Santa Barbara, California, and they met one another in
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven while they were both attending college at
Speaker 2: the University of California. Five years later, in nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 2: Gideon and Jeanie were married in Los Angeles, California. Gideon
Speaker 2: worked as a chartered financial analyst and he went on
Speaker 2: to make quite the name for himself in leisure capital
Speaker 2: management in Costa Mesa, California. Jeannie got her law degree
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety five from the Pepperdine School of Law.
Speaker 2: She left her job as a litigator in two thousand
Speaker 2: to be a stay at home mother to her son,
Speaker 2: Blaze and his siblings. He has two younger brothers, Bo
Speaker 2: and Jay, and believe it or not, Gideon's mother, Leah Bernstein,
Speaker 2: who was born in nineteen thirty six Romania, was a
Speaker 2: retired teacher in the art of language, and she was
Speaker 2: also one of the last known survivors of the Holocaust.
Speaker 2: Oh this case is about the life that was taken
Speaker 2: from a creative young man who was known as a
Speaker 2: brilliant teenage boy who had the greatest sense of humor
Speaker 2: along with the most gentle soul and to his family,
Speaker 2: he was often known as the renaissance man. Those aren't quotes,
Speaker 2: and he lived for the culinary arts and music. He
Speaker 2: also enjoyed writing art performing to entertain others around him.
Speaker 2: He was charismatic, a great communicator, and he had such
Speaker 2: a quick wit about him. And as soon as Blaze
Speaker 2: was born, his parents knew that their son was going
Speaker 2: to change the world at some point in his life.
Speaker 2: His mother always called him a unicorn because he was
Speaker 2: so rare. Blaze was named after one of his grandfathers, Nathan,
Speaker 2: as his middle name. He was also given his first
Speaker 2: name after the French mathematician named Blaze Pascal Pascal. While
Speaker 2: he was an inventor, mathematician, and physicist, he was the
Speaker 2: first creator of the calculator in the seventeenth century. I
Speaker 2: love when a name has a background like I was
Speaker 2: named after Blaize Pascal. Since he was named after such
Speaker 2: an astonishing man, his family always expected the best to
Speaker 2: come from Blaze's life. Blaize went on to go through
Speaker 2: his early childhood academic career with flying colors, and he
Speaker 2: even went on to attend one of the best high
Speaker 2: schools in the United States, the Orange County School of
Speaker 2: Art also known as oh CSA. And while he was
Speaker 2: in high school, he participated in a lot of extra
Speaker 2: curricular activities, and this included working at the synagogue on
Speaker 2: Saturdays as the classroom aid. And while he was in
Speaker 2: his junior year and senior year of high school, he
Speaker 2: thrived and participated in the school's Science Olympiad. He even
Speaker 2: brought home the first place medal in the state for
Speaker 2: his high school in chemistry. During his senior year, he
Speaker 2: was in his school's advanced chemistry class, and his teacher said, quote,
Speaker 2: Blaze seemed to always be looking for a place to
Speaker 2: make his mark and be a leader and to contribute
Speaker 2: end quote. According to everyone around him throughout high school,
Speaker 2: he was known as a humble genius. All of his
Speaker 2: younger classmates looked up to him because Blaze never worked
Speaker 2: to impress a single person. His intelligence and personality were
Speaker 2: what characterized him throughout his entire high school career, and
Speaker 2: after graduating high school, he went to study at the
Speaker 2: University of Pennsylvania where he studied poetry, biochemistry, food writing, psychology,
Speaker 2: and community activism. Now, needless to say, Blaize had a
Speaker 2: lot on his plate. He was striving to make his
Speaker 2: entire family proud of him, and he was going to
Speaker 2: attempt success at all costs. Everyone who knew him loved
Speaker 2: the fact that he was always up for any adventure
Speaker 2: that came across his path. He loved adventures, whether it
Speaker 2: was a late night drive with family or friends, or
Speaker 2: whether it was working quietly in a room on a
Speaker 2: project that he was passionate about. Whatever life threw at him,
Speaker 2: Blaze put his entire heart and soul into it, and
Speaker 2: this was a trade that everyone cherished. At the age
Speaker 2: of seventeen, Blaze went hiking and decided to climb the
Speaker 2: entirety of Angels Landing all by himself. This trail is
Speaker 2: located in Zion National Park in Washington County, Utah, and
Speaker 2: this is not something that someone would normally do alone.
Speaker 2: The altitude alone is pretty strenuous at five thousand, seven
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety feet regardless of the terrain. Blaze accomplished
Speaker 2: this in twenty sixteen, and this trail is known to
Speaker 2: be pretty dangerous with steep cliffs and treacherous hiking paths,
Speaker 2: So the kids got some good discipline.
Speaker 3: You know, just sitting.
Speaker 2: Wow, the jois de vive for real. Now to many
Speaker 2: of this would be pretty daunting, but not to him.
Speaker 2: He originally went with a group of friends, but as
Speaker 2: the height got more and more dangerous, the more people
Speaker 2: were bowing out of the hike altogether. Out of the
Speaker 2: entire group that he was with, Blaize was the only
Speaker 2: one to make it to the very top and he
Speaker 2: was so proud of his feet and this is documented
Speaker 2: in his obituary along with some photos. If any of
Speaker 2: our listeners would like to see them, they'll be in
Speaker 2: the show notes. He was always one who would do anything,
Speaker 2: in everything to experience the beauty of the nature that
Speaker 2: surrounded him on his outdoor adventures, no matter how difficult
Speaker 2: it was to achieve. He even went to Iceland on
Speaker 2: a family trip and he was able to discover a
Speaker 2: bird lookout within the Western Islands. Even with the freezing temperatures,
Speaker 2: he sat patiently to watch for the Atlantic puffins as
Speaker 2: the rest of his family waited in the van with
Speaker 2: the heat on. Oh my god, so tenacious. I love it.
Speaker 2: I know they're adorable. When Blaze got to the University
Speaker 2: of Pennsylvania, he was entering his college career as a
Speaker 2: creative writer who was hopeful to get into the world
Speaker 2: of medicine. When he got to the university, he was
Speaker 2: known around campus as a pretty shy guy, but once
Speaker 2: people got to know him, he would never shy away
Speaker 2: from his opinions on matters that were important to him.
Speaker 2: He began his college career with his fantastic communication skills
Speaker 2: to become the editor of the Penn Review, the campus's
Speaker 2: superior literary magazine, as well as the university's foodie magazine
Speaker 2: known as Penn At Petite I Love. He was voted
Speaker 2: to be the head of editor for the magazine, and
Speaker 2: he was eventually given the job as copy editor for
Speaker 2: a University of penn cookbook titled whisk And This was
Speaker 2: still in the developmental stages at the time of his murder.
Speaker 2: By October of twenty seventeen, Blaze had become quite a
Speaker 2: community activist around campus, and he even wrote a letter
Speaker 2: to help better the University of Penn's safety and hopes
Speaker 2: to also reform the campus's policies. The letter was written
Speaker 2: to the university's student run nonprofit organization called The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Speaker 2: This letter led to the meeting with the university's head
Speaker 2: of University Life, and the meeting consisted of how the
Speaker 2: campus could be made safer for all of the students.
Speaker 2: Blaize was looking forward to helping with any improvement ideas
Speaker 2: that he could provide, but his life was taken from
Speaker 2: him before he was able to make any real progress
Speaker 2: within the organization. His family knew that he was going
Speaker 2: to take his time to find himself since he was
Speaker 2: a young Jewish man who was also a member of
Speaker 2: the gay community. When winter break in his sophomore year
Speaker 2: came around, Blaze was looking forward to being at home
Speaker 2: with his supportive family. They were going to spend Hanikah's family,
Speaker 2: and as Blaze was practicing his culinary talent, he cooked
Speaker 2: his family one of the best meals they ever had
Speaker 2: in their lives. Blaize would eventually sneak out of his
Speaker 2: parents' home on the night of January second, twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: and this would be the last day that anyone in
Speaker 2: his family ever saw him alive. That night, nobody in
Speaker 2: his family had known that he had snuck out of
Speaker 2: the home, and that the following day his parents had
Speaker 2: just assumed that he was sleeping in since they hadn't
Speaker 2: seen him. The following morning, on January third, Blaze had
Speaker 2: a dentist's appointment and he was supposed to meet up
Speaker 2: with his mother, Jeanie, But when he never showed up,
Speaker 2: his mother knew something was seriously wrong when he did
Speaker 2: answer any of her phone calls. She called Gideon and
Speaker 2: he asked if Blaze ever came home. She immediately began
Speaker 2: to yell she had no idea. You know. Panic is
Speaker 2: beginning to set in. Something was wrong and their responsible
Speaker 2: son was missing. Gideon was at work at the time
Speaker 2: Jeanie had called, and when they both came to realize
Speaker 2: that their son was in trouble, they both sped home
Speaker 2: to come up with a game plan to find him
Speaker 2: as soon as possible. When both Gideon and Jeanie got
Speaker 2: back to the house, they went into Blaze's room and
Speaker 2: they were shocked to discover that all of his essentials
Speaker 2: were still in the home, and yet he was nowhere
Speaker 2: to be found. These essentials were his retainer, his wallet,
Speaker 2: his glasses, his keys. These were all still left in
Speaker 2: his room. His parents were completely shocked at what was happening.
Speaker 2: Their son was home for a winter break and wanted
Speaker 2: nothing more than to spend time with the people he
Speaker 2: loved the most, and yet he was missing without a trace.
Speaker 2: His mother had called and left voicemails on his phone
Speaker 2: throughout the entire day, but nobody ever heard back from him.
Speaker 2: This was so highly unusual. The only thing Gideon and
Speaker 2: Janie knew to do next was to get law enforcement
Speaker 2: involved and to try to get into Blaze's Facebook account.
Speaker 2: Maybe his profile or Facebook messages could tell them who
Speaker 2: their son was in contact with leading up to his disappearance.
Speaker 2: His parents were able to get onto their son's computer,
Speaker 2: and with some help, they were able to log into
Speaker 2: Blaze's Snapchat account. Now, Snapchat nowadays seems to be the
Speaker 2: most intimate of all social media among young adults. These
Speaker 2: messages immediately erase according to the settings that are set
Speaker 2: up by each user, and for most teenagers, this seems
Speaker 2: to be the most secure way for them to communicate.
Speaker 2: The communications between friends are almost too private, although settings
Speaker 2: are set to where most messages disappear after being opened
Speaker 2: by the recipient, Chats can be saved when typing to
Speaker 2: a friend, and that was how Blaize's parents were able
Speaker 2: to tell that he had sent his address to someone.
Speaker 2: The person he had sent his address to was a
Speaker 2: kid named Sam Woodward. Neither Genie nor Gideon had ever
Speaker 2: heard of the name Sam Woodward before, since Blaze had
Speaker 2: never once told them about any kind of conversation he
Speaker 2: had with them with him, so they were immediately worried
Speaker 2: about this random stranger found on his son's Snapchat account,
Speaker 2: like who was this kid? Gideon sent Sam a message
Speaker 2: to try to get a hold of Sam, and the
Speaker 2: message said please pick up. Snapchat allows friends to make
Speaker 2: calls through the app, and that was how Gideon was
Speaker 2: able to finally get a hold of Sam when he
Speaker 2: answered the call. Once the call connected, the Bernstein family
Speaker 2: decided to record the phone call. While on the phone
Speaker 2: with Sam, Gideon said that he knew that he had
Speaker 2: been trying to locate Blaze through Snapchat and that Sam
Speaker 2: was the first clue to the puzzle regarding their son's disappearance.
Speaker 2: Sam was the person who had met Blaze around the
Speaker 2: Bernstein's family house. When the Bernstein family demanded to know
Speaker 2: how Sam Woodward knew their son, Sam said that their
Speaker 2: meeting was purely a spur of the moment quote unquote
Speaker 2: type of deal, and Blaize was the one who had
Speaker 2: asked to hang out, to which Sam agreed. Now, Sam
Speaker 2: confessed to Gideon that he had picked him up around
Speaker 2: eleven that night. He then said that he had driven
Speaker 2: him near Barrago Park. Once they got to the park,
Speaker 2: both he and Blaize got out of the car. According
Speaker 2: to Sam, nineteen year old Blaze walked down a path
Speaker 2: to quote unquote meete a friend, and from the path
Speaker 2: he vanished into thin air. Sam, while on the Snapchat
Speaker 2: call with Gideon, said that he shouted Blaze's name multiple times,
Speaker 2: but he was no longer able to see him, nor
Speaker 2: did he hear anything back. Gideon had Sam's phone number
Speaker 2: and asked if that was the best way to contact
Speaker 2: him if he ever heard anything from Blaze, and Sam
Speaker 2: gave Jeanie and Gideon a sense of hope that he
Speaker 2: was also looking forward to eventually hearing from Blaze. While
Speaker 2: on the phone with Gideon, Sam said, quote, I want
Speaker 2: to find him as much as you do unquote. But
Speaker 2: neither Gideon nor Ginie ever heard about Sam, so they
Speaker 2: had no clue what to believe. They were just trying
Speaker 2: everything they could to be the most optimistic about the
Speaker 2: entire situation. So Sam and Blaize were friends in high school,
Speaker 2: so they had known each other for a few years.
Speaker 2: Leading up to Blaze sending Sam his address, other friends
Speaker 2: of Blaze's from high school found out that Blaze was missing.
Speaker 2: The last that Blaze's high school friends had heard was
Speaker 2: that he had been last seen with a kid named
Speaker 2: Sam Woodward and his friends all appeared to be shocked
Speaker 2: that Blaze would ever hang out with Sam. Sam had
Speaker 2: a reputation of being crazy. They were polar opposites. According
Speaker 2: to one of Blaze's oldest friends from high school, Sam
Speaker 2: was known to doodle while he was in classes at
Speaker 2: the Orange County School of Art, and they weren't just
Speaker 2: innocent doodles. Sam was known to draw guns on his
Speaker 2: notebooks while in class, and this was to the point
Speaker 2: that his classmates noticed that something just wasn't right with Sam.
Speaker 2: Most of his classmates were terrified.
Speaker 1: Out of them.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so I don't know how you get into
Speaker 2: the Orange County School of Art.
Speaker 3: Yeah, on a terror, I know, right, what's up with that?
Speaker 2: I'm not sure. But even though a lot of kids
Speaker 2: were scared of him, Sam was super quiet and never
Speaker 2: really conversed with his classmates. Wait till you see the pictures. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they are polar opposites, and Sam does come across as
Speaker 2: ghastly and would not see him with someone like Blaze.
Speaker 2: But as all high schools have their various types of groups,
Speaker 2: whether it be the emo kids, the nerds, the jacks,
Speaker 2: or the popular kids, Sam kept to himself and out
Speaker 2: of any sort of friend group altogether. When Blaze's friends
Speaker 2: were told about Sam being the last person to see
Speaker 2: him alive, they could only think of a few reasons
Speaker 2: on why that would happen. Blaze being a gay man,
Speaker 2: just wanted to hook up with Sam, or he just
Speaker 2: wanted Blaze dead. Huh, those are the two. So if
Speaker 2: Blaze picked Sam, it was to either hook up with
Speaker 2: him or Sam was gonna kill him. Wow, wow, Well
Speaker 2: we're gonna find out. Those were the only two reasons
Speaker 2: that anyone could think of. According to the people who
Speaker 2: knew Sam from high school, Sam Woodward was known to
Speaker 2: be anti gay, a homophobe, and he was also known
Speaker 2: to be extremely racist. Blaze was so, I'm telling you, polar,
Speaker 2: polar opposite.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Blaize was.
Speaker 2: Pretty much still in the closet when he was still
Speaker 2: in high school, and he only told his oldest and
Speaker 2: closest friends about his sexual orientation, people he trusted. Yeah,
Speaker 2: even before he had come out to his parents. Jeanie
Speaker 2: and Gideon, you know, just had a feeling that Blaze
Speaker 2: was gay. Our parents aren't dumb, right, right, And they
Speaker 2: were actually the ones who addressed this to him by
Speaker 2: telling him that whatever your sexuality is, will always love you,
Speaker 2: you know. So they were like they approached him before
Speaker 2: he had approached them. Gideon and Jeanie went to the
Speaker 2: Orange County Police and they told them everything that they
Speaker 2: knew about their son's last meetup with a kid named Sam.
Speaker 2: Law enforcement had no other choice than to speak to
Speaker 2: Sam about the whole ordeal. Sam then told the police
Speaker 2: that he had picked up Blaze from his home, that
Speaker 2: Blaze wandered off by himself and then disappeared all on
Speaker 2: his own. The police then sent out a certa party
Speaker 2: for the missing nineteen year old, and that search party
Speaker 2: was massive. Both of his parents got onto the local
Speaker 2: news to ask for help from the public so that
Speaker 2: they could locate their sun as soon as possible. Jeanie said, quote,
Speaker 2: please keep your eyes open for my baby. I want
Speaker 2: him home with me now end quote. The search and
Speaker 2: rescue teams consisted of helicopters as well as an entire
Speaker 2: team searching the woods that were nearby Barroigo Park, which
Speaker 2: was where he was last seen by a kid. Everyone
Speaker 2: in his high school feared. Thousands of flyers were put
Speaker 2: up around the surrounding areas and at the synagogues that
Speaker 2: the Bernstein family attended. Blaize's face was everywhere the flyers
Speaker 2: read his name that he was nineteen years old. He
Speaker 2: was around one hundred and thirty pounds at around five
Speaker 2: foot nine inches in height, and he had brown hair
Speaker 2: with blue eyes. He was last seen wearing long dark pants,
Speaker 2: white tennis shoes, slash sneakers, and possibly a gray colored hoodie,
Speaker 2: and he was last seen on January two, twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: at around ten thirty at night. Blaze was an active
Speaker 2: member at university Synagogue located in Irvine, California. The synagogue
Speaker 2: also viewed him as a role model, so they had
Speaker 2: no problem helping with the search. Blaze always was one
Speaker 2: to embrace his heritage as a member of the Jewish community.
Speaker 2: Blaze was also one to embrace his heritage as a
Speaker 2: member of the Jewish community, and he was also one
Speaker 2: to not shy away from confrontation from hatred of the
Speaker 2: Jewish faith and heritage. Blaze was related to a Holocaust survivor,
Speaker 2: and that in and of itself is astonishing, so he
Speaker 2: had no problem talking about the concentration camps along with
Speaker 2: what his ancestors dealt with throughout the duration of World
Speaker 2: War II. Those who were known to be outwardly and
Speaker 2: proudly racist would hate someone like Blaze, you know, someone
Speaker 2: with a beautiful heart and a genuine soul even within
Speaker 2: the Jewish community. Along with all of his friends and family,
Speaker 2: were hoping for a light at the end of the
Speaker 2: very dark tunnel, and sadly it would never come. Those
Speaker 2: who were hoping for good news was the last person
Speaker 2: known to be with Blaze, Sam Woodward. He was hopeful
Speaker 2: for good news. For those who had known Blaze personally,
Speaker 2: and closely. They did not have high hopes for Blaze's
Speaker 2: well being after hearing that his last known whereabouts were
Speaker 2: with Sam, because you know Sam's extreme racism, homophobia and supremacy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's who this sweet guy was last with. Right. Oh.
Speaker 2: For an entire week after Blaze had disappeared, the police,
Speaker 2: along with a huge search party, went on and searched
Speaker 2: high and low inside and outside of Barrego Park. Blaze's
Speaker 2: missing person's case was so well known that even Kobe
Speaker 2: Bryant and Green Abdul Jabbar shared the story on their
Speaker 2: Twitter pages in hopes that the Bernstein family could get
Speaker 2: even more help. Wow Wow. More people to spread awareness
Speaker 2: of Blaze's story were two stars from the Real Housewives
Speaker 2: of Orange County, Vicki Gunvelsen and Tamrad Judge. All of
Speaker 2: these people before they decided to call off the search,
Speaker 2: everyone was up for one last look, just to make
Speaker 2: sure that no stone was left unturned. Mother Nature did
Speaker 2: not let up with heavy rains as the search crew
Speaker 2: went out for one final time, and it wasn't until
Speaker 2: an officer turned to look at a spot in the
Speaker 2: brush and noticed that there was a mound of the
Speaker 2: dirt that was located under a massive tree branch, and
Speaker 2: underneath the wet brush and mud was Blaze's dead body.
Speaker 2: Two days after Blaze was reported missing, Sam was taken
Speaker 2: by the detectives out to where he had last seen Blaze,
Speaker 2: and while they were out, the detectives noticed that Sam's
Speaker 2: hands and knuckles had bruises and scrapes on them. Gideon
Speaker 2: had told the detectives that Sam had been the very
Speaker 2: last person to ever see Blaze alive, and Sam was
Speaker 2: the missing piece to the puzzle of what had happened
Speaker 2: to him. So when he was asked about, you know,
Speaker 2: those marks on his hands where they had came from.
Speaker 2: Sam said that he was in quote, a fight club,
Speaker 2: and as we all know, whatever happens in fight club
Speaker 2: stays in fight club. Yeah, so Sam's Sam's working on
Speaker 2: a story.
Speaker 3: That's his story, and he's sticking to it.
Speaker 2: That's right. You've heard about it, you know, Brad pitt
Speaker 2: ed Norton.
Speaker 3: You don't talk about fight club, thank you.
Speaker 2: So next question. Yeah, not only did Sam have scrapes
Speaker 2: on his hands, but he also had actual dirt under
Speaker 2: his fingernails, almost like he was either playing in the
Speaker 2: dirt without a shower, or he had buried the body
Speaker 2: of a victim. You know, you're just so gross. Dirt,
Speaker 2: that's what they were describing. So the search Weren't for
Speaker 2: Sam consisted of sixteen pages, and according to the affid David,
Speaker 2: Sam had spoken with Blaze on the night that he disappeared.
Speaker 2: The two communicated through Snapchat. Sam had agreed to meet
Speaker 2: Blaze at the family home, where he drove him to
Speaker 2: a parking lot off of Lake Forest Hobby Lobby where
Speaker 2: the two men were supposed to just hang out and
Speaker 2: catch up. Sam told the detectives that Blaze said that
Speaker 2: they were going to meet up with another friend that
Speaker 2: they had known from high school, and the two of
Speaker 2: them arrived at Barago Park a little before midnight on
Speaker 2: January second. Sam said that Blaze was the only one
Speaker 2: to get out of the car and he went alone
Speaker 2: into the park to meet up with that friend. While
Speaker 2: Sam was telling this information to the investigators, he was
Speaker 2: talking very quick, noticeably shaking and out of breath. Well,
Speaker 2: those are the three telltale signs that someone's lying, right.
Speaker 1: The.
Speaker 3: Shaking, car is founding, It's.
Speaker 2: Like everyone's sitting here, why is this happening. At one
Speaker 2: point Throughout the investigation, Sam led the detective inside of
Speaker 2: his car, which happened to be a rental and they
Speaker 2: were able to take a look around and while renting
Speaker 2: and I guess you can look I guess. While searching
Speaker 2: the vehicle, camping and hiking gear was found in the
Speaker 2: back seat of the car, along with a huge plastic
Speaker 2: container that was on the back seat. A black belt
Speaker 2: was also found on the floor of the back seat.
Speaker 2: There was also blood found in the car that belonged
Speaker 2: to both Sam and Blaze. After the search of the
Speaker 2: car was completed, officers then went to search the home
Speaker 2: where Sam lived, and while at the residence, officers found
Speaker 2: the murder weapon, a knife that still had Blazes blood
Speaker 2: on it. I'm really just sloppy, Yeah, I mean, give me,
Speaker 2: you know what, I think if Gideon hadn't if the
Speaker 2: parents didn't have the wherewithal to go into the social media, yes,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, you know this, he would have gotten
Speaker 2: away with.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is just sloppy.
Speaker 1: This is it really is who just I guess he
Speaker 1: thinks he's never gonna get caught.
Speaker 3: I don't know. Why don't you clean up exactly?
Speaker 2: Now? They say, don't judge a book by its cover.
Speaker 2: I say, judge, that fucking cover that book is exactly
Speaker 2: what you're looking at. And when you see the fucking
Speaker 2: pictures of.
Speaker 1: Oh girl, did you look you see he looks like
Speaker 1: Charles Manson?
Speaker 2: O you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he looks like he looks like fucking crazy Charlie
Speaker 1: because and Blaze is like the sweet.
Speaker 2: Sweetest thank you, I mean truly a star, a starlight
Speaker 2: And like, did you.
Speaker 1: Look like this when you met up with Blaize? Because
Speaker 1: he looks like a fucking crazy person. He does crazy
Speaker 1: Charles Manson.
Speaker 2: Untempt he doesn't bathe. I'm so yes, very surprised. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I was like, wait till you see him, Wait till
Speaker 2: you see him.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Blaze's family was so thankful that the rain had not
Speaker 2: let up that day. The heavy downpour was what helped
Speaker 2: uncover Blaze's face. The funeral for Blaze took place at
Speaker 2: the University Synagogue, and the Bernstein family created a catchphrase
Speaker 2: for him called hashtag Blaze It Forward and Blaze spells
Speaker 2: his name b Laze Blaze it forward. Yes, mm hmm.
Speaker 2: So many people throughout Orange County came to pay their
Speaker 2: respects to the beautiful soul that the world had lost
Speaker 2: in such a brutal way. He was found completely butchered.
Speaker 2: The Bernstein family home was only a ten minute walk
Speaker 2: from the park where Blaze's body was eventually found. The
Speaker 2: following Wednesday, over three hundred people gathered at Barago Park
Speaker 2: for a candleate vigil to honor Blaze and to celebrate
Speaker 2: his life. Now. Not long after, Sam Woodward was arrested
Speaker 2: on January seventeenth, twenty eighteen, and he was taken into
Speaker 2: custody for Blaze's murder with the personal use of a knife.
Speaker 2: Sam told the investigators that he had driven Blaze to
Speaker 2: Barago Park, but after Blaize got out of the car,
Speaker 2: he never came back. Sam said that he would cooperate
Speaker 2: with the police, and for the most part, his story
Speaker 2: remains pretty consistent. At some point, though, Sam's story became
Speaker 2: a little worrisome. He told the detectives that he had
Speaker 2: driven to his girlfriend's house after he knew that Blaze
Speaker 2: was not coming back out. When Sam was asked the
Speaker 2: name of his girlfriend and where she lived, he said
Speaker 2: he couldn't remember her last name or what her address was,
Speaker 2: so sure.
Speaker 1: The telltale sign also that you're lying, yes, he did
Speaker 1: fuck up.
Speaker 2: Oh memory loss of I.
Speaker 1: Don't remember her last name or where she lives or
Speaker 1: any details about her, so don't ask yes.
Speaker 2: So that's where his story becomes worrisome. Sam said that
Speaker 2: he waited for Blaze for roughly an hour and when
Speaker 2: he never came back to the car, he tried to
Speaker 2: get a hold of him through Snapchat, and after he
Speaker 2: was done waiting, he then said he drove to this
Speaker 2: alleged girlfriend's house that was located in Tustin, which is
Speaker 2: a little over a twenty minute drive. Sam then said
Speaker 2: he returned to the park around three forty am, even
Speaker 2: though Blaze never responded. Sam told detectives that Blaze had
Speaker 2: confided in him that he was depressed about his grades
Speaker 2: while at the University of Pennsylvania, but according to Sam,
Speaker 2: he never told him that he was in any way suicidal. No,
Speaker 2: you're just trying to lay that, you know, groundwork, Sam Dick.
Speaker 2: According to the autopsy done on Blaze's body, he had
Speaker 2: been killed by being stabbed multiple times in the neck
Speaker 2: an throat. He had been stabbed more than twenty times.
Speaker 2: His cell phone was also found in the shallow grave
Speaker 2: as well. This told investigators and district attorney that there
Speaker 2: was so much hate behind the brutality of Blaze's murder.
Speaker 2: When Blaze's parents were made of their son's cause of death,
Speaker 2: they were inconsolable, as any parent would be. Sam went
Speaker 2: through his arraignment and he pled. Guess what he pled?
Speaker 2: Not guilty?
Speaker 3: Of course?
Speaker 1: Uh. The killed himself. He stabbed himself over twenty times
Speaker 1: in the neck.
Speaker 2: Yes, probably that friend he was going to meet in
Speaker 2: the wood.
Speaker 3: When I was at my random friend, my girlfriend's house.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this is fucking lies. It's like you
Speaker 2: fucking liars. So yes, Sam went through his arrangement and
Speaker 2: he pled not guilty. The detectives knew that they needed
Speaker 2: to gather more evidence in order to put Sam Woodward
Speaker 2: away for Blaze's murder. The more they dug into Sam's
Speaker 2: past and present lifestyle, the more they were able to
Speaker 2: find out about the things that Sam had failed to
Speaker 2: tell the investigators. Sam had actually been affiliated with the
Speaker 2: neo Nazi group known as and Tom Waffen Division and
Speaker 2: Tom Woffen. This group specifically targets those of the Jewish
Speaker 2: faith along with those who are members of LGBTQ community.
Speaker 2: Blaze was a double whammy, and Sam specifically targeted him
Speaker 2: for this group. This group even had propaganda videos and
Speaker 2: hopes to getting more to join their hate group. Their
Speaker 2: goal is to completely destroy the world because they hate
Speaker 2: it so much, and their endgame is to completely start
Speaker 2: a new reign of terror. I'm so fucking bored with
Speaker 2: this is in everyone's playbook. Destroy the world and let's
Speaker 2: take over, destroy the world and rerun it.
Speaker 1: It's like any you're like, okay, well, if you just
Speaker 1: okay number one, if you destroy the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you destroy the world, that's okay. It's gonna
Speaker 3: take a long time.
Speaker 1: There's like, how many billions of people, like six billion
Speaker 1: people on the Earth right now, and you're gonna.
Speaker 3: Take over and then you're gonna take over?
Speaker 2: What what are you taking over? Thank you?
Speaker 3: What are you taking over? Exactly?
Speaker 2: It's so boring. Can someone else think of something else
Speaker 2: to do? Jeez, Lou, I know. Needless to say, swastikas
Speaker 2: were their jam. They want to know.
Speaker 3: I'm bored with that too.
Speaker 2: I'm about dud yes, big Yarner on the fucking swastika
Speaker 2: that's what I think. You boring fucks. Yeah, Well, they
Speaker 2: wanted to create a new world where only white people
Speaker 2: existed without anyone disagreeing with them. They wanted nothing more
Speaker 2: than a race war. In one video, they literally shout
Speaker 2: the words race war now and unison while shooting guns.
Speaker 3: And it's a bunch of white dudes, right.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is disgruntled white dudes. Aspiring members could join
Speaker 2: online through their website. Sam even had a Facebook post
Speaker 2: as he posed in front of the Confederate flag stating
Speaker 2: that he was quote unquote unquote feeling rebellious unquote.
Speaker 3: Oh what a badass.
Speaker 2: I know. Oh in my book, that's called feeling like
Speaker 2: a pussy. For someone who always has issues making friends,
Speaker 2: Sam was able to fit right in with this crowd.
Speaker 2: Sam was charged with first degree murder and numerous hate
Speaker 2: crime charges. These additional hate crime charges were added on
Speaker 2: August two, twenty eighteen. Opening statements took place on April ninth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four and Sam's mother came to his defense
Speaker 2: as she gave many pages of their family history to
Speaker 2: her son's defense team. Her main object was to prove
Speaker 2: that her son had grown up with a very toxic
Speaker 2: household and that that's.
Speaker 3: Who hasn't you I hate?
Speaker 2: And that who hasn't right, and that was what left
Speaker 2: Sam feeling like he needed to be a part or
Speaker 2: something bigger than himself. Yes, also known as neo Nazis.
Speaker 2: So I needed to become a neo.
Speaker 1: Don't don't join like a Christian church, or don't join
Speaker 1: like some volunteer group and help animals and ship. No,
Speaker 1: you find the fucking neo Nazis. Okay, Yeah, you want
Speaker 1: to belong to a group, and that's the one you choose.
Speaker 2: What is that saying? It's like, be careful what you
Speaker 2: wish for, You just might get it. Like, what do
Speaker 2: you think you're fishing? What do you think you're going
Speaker 2: to pull up in this blake of hate with these people?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna tell you what he pulled up? So
Speaker 2: but sally for Sam, his mother, Michelle was not the
Speaker 2: most useful witness as she testified for her son. She
Speaker 2: had a really hard time being consistent in her timelines
Speaker 2: along with her son's past. The defense was trying everything
Speaker 2: they possibly could to have the jury believe without reasonable
Speaker 2: doubt that Sam was not in his right mind as
Speaker 2: he stabbed his Jewish and gay victim, Blaisee Bernstein to death.
Speaker 2: Michelle it appeared, was not ready to completely throw her
Speaker 2: entire family under the bus in order to save her
Speaker 2: neo Nazi son. The defense attempted to pull out of
Speaker 2: her that he had been undiagnosed with a form of
Speaker 2: autism which led to this dark and violent personality. Sam's father, Blake,
Speaker 2: had previously given the defense team his stance on the
Speaker 2: LGBTQ plus community, and with his statement he felt that
Speaker 2: being homosexual was a sin.
Speaker 3: Well, there you go, there you go, and.
Speaker 2: Michelle testified that the Catholic religion was prominent within her household.
Speaker 2: She also said that her husband, along with Sam's older brother,
Speaker 2: would often use homophobic slurs frequently now Clay, Sam's older
Speaker 2: brother had even called Sam a F word jit when
Speaker 2: they thought that Sam could have been gay. Oh oh,
Speaker 2: the gay F word. Yes, yes, the gay F word.
Speaker 2: And so maybe it was a hookup maybe Sam, you know,
Speaker 2: like that self loathing, that's like.
Speaker 3: It could be.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he hated that part of himself, maybe and that's
Speaker 1: why he lashed out at Blaze exactly.
Speaker 2: Michelle testified that being a homosexual was more of an
Speaker 2: issue for Blake, her husband, than it was for her,
Speaker 2: and she had even seen her husband hit Sam multiple times,
Speaker 2: so Sam's diary was read aloud in the court, and
Speaker 2: within the writings, Sam admitted that he would lead gay
Speaker 2: men on so that he could shame and humiliate them.
Speaker 2: He had no issue writing homophobic slurs and calling homosexual
Speaker 2: men sodomites. Blaze, on the other hand, was texting his
Speaker 2: friends about potentially seducing his right winged former classmate. Blaze
Speaker 2: even wrote to Sam saying that he would always keep
Speaker 2: his secret and never out him. The defense used Blaze's
Speaker 2: final text with his friends to try to persuade the
Speaker 2: jury members that Sam's murder was never premeditated. It was
Speaker 2: purely something done after Blaze had provoked him to lash
Speaker 2: out violence. Okay, sure, yes, with Blaze's fault to provoke
Speaker 2: somebody to lash out like that. Blaze's parents, Jeanie and Gideon,
Speaker 2: were called to testify for the prosecution on April tenth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, and Jeanie said that she knew that
Speaker 2: many things were going to be said throughout the trial
Speaker 2: that wouldn't be true, but she was going to do
Speaker 2: the best that she could to get justice for her son.
Speaker 2: Both parents testified to defend their boy, and they were
Speaker 2: among the total of twenty three witnesses that would be
Speaker 2: called by the prosecution. The prosecution presented evidence that Sam's
Speaker 2: murdering Blaze was purely premeditated, as he had agreed to
Speaker 2: meet up with Blaze. Sam never intended to meet up unarmed.
Speaker 2: He had brought his knife and Adam Woffen mask. Apparently
Speaker 2: the group wears the mask and a shoveling object to
Speaker 2: barry Blaze with once the murder had been successfully completed.
Speaker 2: Towards the tail end of the trial, Sam was looking
Speaker 2: a lot like Charles Manson, as you most aptly described,
Speaker 2: as he sat with his long, greasy hair and beard.
Speaker 2: He told the jury that on the night that he
Speaker 2: took Blaize's life, he had smoked some weed. He also
Speaker 2: said that Blaze was teasing him and had threatened to
Speaker 2: out Sam as a homosexual. So I swear to God
Speaker 2: if there fucking blaming weed. As for violent outbursts, I'm
Speaker 2: about done with that bullshit lie.
Speaker 3: You know, I've never known a violent podcast.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Don't you dare say anything about cannabis in
Speaker 2: that kind of way. Dare you? Sam even went as
Speaker 2: far as accused his victim of sexual assault. But there
Speaker 2: was never any evidence that Blaze ever did or would
Speaker 2: have done such a thing. Sam was merely trying to
Speaker 2: get anything to stick on. Yeah, you know, stick in
Speaker 2: his own way of slandering Blaze's good name.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Blaze isn't there to defend him, that's.
Speaker 2: Right, So let's make it sound like he's the fucking monster.
Speaker 2: When you're the monster, Sam, So shut up. Sam then
Speaker 2: told the jury that he stabbed Blaze to death, and
Speaker 2: when asked why he carried a knife, Sam said that
Speaker 2: he was in the Boy Scouts and he had chosen
Speaker 2: always to carry one ever since. So what would the
Speaker 2: boy Scouts say about him? Now? Right? His testimony went
Speaker 2: on for five days as he tried to portray to
Speaker 2: the jury members that he was somehow on the spectrum.
Speaker 2: His defense team had trained him to take forever to
Speaker 2: answer the most simple questions thrown to him. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: can you imagine that fucking trial. Yeah, this trial was
Speaker 2: postponed for years after his defense team had tried to
Speaker 2: say that Sam's mental capacity was the reason behind the
Speaker 2: brutal murder. On July third, twenty twenty four, Sam was
Speaker 2: found guilty a first degree murder along with the additional
Speaker 2: hate crimes, and on October twenty second, twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: sam would show his face for sentencing while Jeanie Bernstein
Speaker 2: gave her victim impact statement. She said, quote, no mother
Speaker 2: should ever have to bury her child. My heart was
Speaker 2: so broken and yet unable to accept the reality that
Speaker 2: he was no longer part of our world. I will
Speaker 2: never forget hearing for the first time that Blaze had
Speaker 2: been stabbed twenty eight times. End quote. She went on
Speaker 2: to say that hearing how her son died was one
Speaker 2: of the most painful things that any mother would ever
Speaker 2: have to hear. Now, thankfully, oh right, I just it's heartbreaking, Yes, thankfully.
Speaker 2: Samuel Woodward was sentenced to life in prison without any
Speaker 2: possibility of parole, and he can spend the rest of
Speaker 2: his days hating himself in his own life for what
Speaker 2: he did to Blaze Burnstein in his family. So I
Speaker 2: that is bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter sweet ending to
Speaker 2: life in prison, no parole. I don't even know why
Speaker 2: you signed up to come here.
Speaker 3: I don't neither. Oh, that's just it's just so incredibly sad.
Speaker 2: Why they hate me? But are you sleeping with him?
Speaker 2: Are you. People's sexual orientation should not interfere with who
Speaker 2: they are as a person, because I really don't care
Speaker 2: about what you do. When I'm not talking with you
Speaker 2: with my clothes on, Yeah, I'm not thinking like, why
Speaker 2: does it?
Speaker 1: Man? I don't understand why people get so upset. To me,
Speaker 1: it's like, just worry about yourself.
Speaker 2: That you have. We as individuals have so much on
Speaker 2: our plates that we can work on about ourselves. I
Speaker 2: didn't want to look at your plate. I got so
Speaker 2: much on my f.
Speaker 1: I you know, the only thing I can control in
Speaker 1: my life is the things that I do and how
Speaker 1: I react to yeah, and how I react to things exactly.
Speaker 1: So just fucking worry about yourself. Mind your business, mind
Speaker 1: your business, and don't worry about what every fucking other
Speaker 1: person does. I could get on my soapbox, but I'm
Speaker 1: not done.
Speaker 2: So every time we do one of these stories, all
Speaker 2: I can have a peaceful week and then it'll be
Speaker 2: like tying to record and I'll be like this motherfucker,
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. You know it's funny. Earlier, so Brooke
Speaker 2: and Eye, you know, it's like Sunday and Brooke and
Speaker 2: I are just having a nice Sunday, we went to
Speaker 2: go see Levi's great great grandmother. We went, we came home.
Speaker 2: I'm kind of it's like nice, it's cool in the house.
Speaker 2: My grandma keeps it at a brisk eighty degrees on
Speaker 2: this eighty degree day because she's, you know, one hundred
Speaker 2: and two, so she's always chilly. So finally it's like
Speaker 2: we get into this school house and it was just
Speaker 2: you know, Levi's in his little baby swing, Brooks right
Speaker 2: next to him on her phone, you know, going through
Speaker 2: some stuff. I'm in the kitchen, I can, you know,
Speaker 2: see down, And I thought, my god, not having a
Speaker 2: toxic mail in the house is all the difference. I
Speaker 2: can't even believe how beautifully wonderful this is, like a
Speaker 2: kiss from on my forehead from the Lord. I'm so,
Speaker 2: you know, just to notice it, like a fucking toxic mail.
Speaker 2: And I think of Sam's how Blaze's parents were like, okay,
Speaker 2: I think you know, I'm sure they had the conversation.
Speaker 2: I think Blaze is gay cool. That's you know, parents
Speaker 2: are like, okay, here's you know, you can fall here,
Speaker 2: you get soft cushion, blow will always be and then
Speaker 2: you on the opposite side of the spectrum. You have
Speaker 2: Sam's parents who may suspect that Sam's gay, and then
Speaker 2: he gets all these hateful slurs, punching, hitting, Where's that
Speaker 2: going to go? But I see what the difference of
Speaker 2: loving your children and hating your children two very different outcomes.
Speaker 1: Right, it's yeah, exactly, and that's why we have the
Speaker 1: problems that we have.
Speaker 2: Mother Teresa said this one thing. It's like, you want
Speaker 2: to have a peace in the world, go home and
Speaker 2: love your family. Yeah, and that's so true.
Speaker 1: Start, there's some wise words right there, and very much so.
Speaker 2: But yes, that's the story of Sweet Blaze Burnsteemly.
Speaker 3: His poor family. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Everyone.
Speaker 1: Please hit the subscribe or follow button on whatever app
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Speaker 1: You can find us if you are enjoying our episodes.
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Speaker 1: check out Patreon dot com, slash tnt Crimes or like
Speaker 1: I said, you can find it on the Apple podcast app.
Speaker 1: And I think that's all the business that we have.
Speaker 1: So Shannon, thank you again. I'm gonna let you get
Speaker 1: back to Mimi.
Speaker 2: Duties all right. I'm on my way and you too. Girl.
Speaker 2: You have a wonderful rest of the weekend, and our
Speaker 2: listeners have a wonderful week till we see each other again.
Speaker 3: Until we see each other again, I'll talk to you
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 2: Leve me guy. Bye.
Speaker 1: Si