Blaze Bernstein Stabbed 20 Times In Rage Killing: Police

Blaze Bernstein on a recent trip to Iceland. Image by Facebook

By Dave Goldiner January 16, 2018

Blaze Bernstein was reportedly stabbed more than 20 times, and the prime suspect in the brutal slaying, an ex-high school classmate of Bernstein’s, told police that Bernstein kissed him the night of the murder.

The Orange County Register reported that suspect Samuel Woodward claimed he pushed Bernstein away when they met on the night the popular University of Pennsylvania student disappeared.

Police have not officially said how Bernstein, who was home on winter break, was killed or commented on a motive for the murder.

The shocking report came out just hours after Bernstein was mourned in a private funeral attended by hundreds in which his parents pleaded for well-wishers to make the world a better place in his honor.

Authorities suspected Woodward after examining Bernstein’s social media accounts, according to a police report obtained by the Register.

Bernstein told two friends about an earlier romantic interaction with Woodward last summer.

Bernstein reportedly claimed that Woodward “made me promise not to tell anyone … but I have texted every one, uh oh.”

The affidavit also says Woodward claimed that Bernstein kissed him when they met on Jan. 3 before the Ivy League student disappeared and was later found in a shallow grave in a nearby park.

Detectives said Woodward clenched his jaw when discussing the incident and claimed “he wanted to tell Blaze to get off of him.”

Dave Goldiner is the Forward’s director of digital media. Dave is a veteran journalist who has spent two decades working at newspapers in the United States and Africa. A native New Yorker, Goldiner wrote for the New York Daily News, where he covered some of the biggest stories of our time, including the attacks of September 11, along with thousands of stories of hope and heartbreak. He also studied and worked in Southern Africa and has written for publications in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He holds masters degrees in journalism and public administration from Columbia University. Dave can be reached at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter @davegoldiner

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO