The body of a University of Pennsylvania student who went missing while home in Southern California on winter break has been found and his death is being investigated as a homicide, authorities said on Wednesday.
Authorities had been searching for 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein for days when his body was found Tuesday afternoon in brush surrounding a neighborhood park in the Foothill Ranch area of the city of Lake Forest, the Orange County sheriff’s department said in a statement.
Bernstein, who was home visiting his family, was last seen around 11pm on January 2 while entering Borrego Park. Authorities have said witnesses said Bernstein met up with a friend and the two drove there, and he got out of the vehicle and went into the park.
The body of Blaze Bernstein, 19, was found Tuesday afternoon in some brush surrounding Borrego Park in Lake Forest, California
Search and rescue crews looked for Bernstein for several days, with assistance from drone pilots.
Authorities declined to release additional information about Bernstein’s cause death, saying their investigation was ongoing. An autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday.
They said they are exploring multiple leads, but have no suspects in custody.
Bernstein, a sophomore, was planning to major in psychology and later study medicine, the Orange County Register reported his father, Gideon Bernstein, saying last week.
The University of Pennsylvania sophomore went missing on January 2, when he went to meet a friend in the park
Search teams had been looking through the park for days
At 9.30pm, he was said to have texted a friend with his address to discuss something with a third person, as per a family lawyer friend, Annee Della Donna.
His parents added that the friend picked Bernstein up around 10.30pm and drove to Borrego Park.
Donna said that the teen went into the park by himself while the friend waited at the car.
About half an hour later, he sent his last text to a female friend.
The friend who drove Bernstein texted him later and when they got no response, the buddy left.
Bernstein’s parents Gideon and Jeanne pictured above. They said they don’t know why their son left that night
But by 4am, the friend returned to the location to look for Bernstein.
The lawyer said that the 19-year-old’s location tracking system stopped working and that the phone was turned off at 11.30pm.
His family realized something was off when he didn’t show up for a dental appointment on Wednesday.
Bernstein’s parents say he had a ‘zero tolerance’ for drugs and alcohol and don’t believe he was going to meet someone to get illegal substances.
Bernstein’s parents say he had a ‘zero tolerance’ for drugs and alcohol and don’t believe he was going to meet someone to get illegal substances
His dad said that he had a passion for cooking and was a creative writer. He had recently been named to the staff of Penn Appetit magazine at school
‘The only thing I can think of is that maybe he was abducted,’ his mother Jeanne said Sunday. ‘I can’t figure out why anybody would want to hurt my son.’
‘The fact that he didn’t tell us he was going out tells us he wasn’t planning to be gone very long,’ she added to KCAL. ‘And he left behind his wallet, ID, money, glasses and medications he takes every day.’
‘I feel like we’ve explored everything that we could in regard to what happened. But all that we really know is that he ran off into the wilderness and we don’t know why,’ she told KABC.
He was scheduled to return back to school on Sunday.
His dad said that he had a passion for cooking and was a creative writer. He had recently been named to the staff of Penn Appetit magazine at school.
A friend at school told WPVI that she had been communicating with Bernstein over break over ideas for the magazine for the next semester.