Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Blaze Bernstein Murder Suspect Posted About Guns And Torture On Social Media

The suspect in the murder of college student Blaze Bernstein reportedly posted violent material on social media.

Samuel Woodward, who went to high school with Bernstein in suburban Los Angeles, praised the Confederate flag and said he would take a gun with him if stranded on a desert island, television station KCAL9 reported.

Woodward, 20, picked “waterboarding” as a new skill he hoped to learn, the New York Post reported.

Bernstein apparently went to meet Woodward at a park near his home on Jan. 3 and never returned. The University of Pennsylvania sophomore was later found in a shallow grave.

Woodward was identified by police from Bernstein’s SnapChat account and was linked by DNA evidence to the crime, police said.

He acted nervously when questioned by police, avoided touching door knobs and had unexplained cuts on him, they said. He listed “nerf games” as his occupation on a police form.

Bernstein’s heartbroken parents mourned his death by lighting Shabbat candles in his honor.

A funeral is planned for Monday for the popular premed student, who was home on winter break from the Ivy League school.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.