Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 20, has been arrested in connection with the death of Blaze Bernstein. Police say DNA links Woodward to the case
Authorities in Orange County used the Snapchat of an Ivy League college student whose body was found in woodlands to trace the man suspected of killing him.
Using the social media platform – famed for the sending of videos and pictures which ‘disappear’ once they are viewed – detectives traced a friend of slain Blaze Bernstein, 19.
That friend told officers he had picked the victim up the night before he was reported missing on January 3, but that the University of Pennsylvania pre-grad had walked off in Borrego Park, Anaheim, according to the LA Times.
The information led officers to arrest Bernstein’s former classmate – 20-year-old Samuel Lincoln Woodward.
He is accused of killing Blaze Bernstein, 19, though there is no obvious motive behind the incident.
Woodward and Bernstein had attended the Orange County School of the Arts together.
The victim was at home on a break from his studies at Penn.
Over the weekend it emerged Woodward defended the Confederate flag and wrote disturbing posts on social media, according to The New York Post.
He wrote in one post that the rebel flag ‘represents Southern pride, not racism.’
On another social media platform called askfm, Woodward said if he could have two items while being stranded on a deserted island, it would be ‘The Bible and a Colt .45’.
On his profile, Woodward picks the torture method ‘waterboarding’ as a new skill he wants to learn and in another message, someone states to Woodward: ‘You are violence. It scares me.’
The body of Bernstein (pictured), a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, was found on Tuesday at Borrego Ranch Park in Southern California. Bernstein was home for winter break when he went missing on January 2
Woodward, in a previous interview with police, said he had sustained scratches while participating in a fight club
Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 20 wrote in one post that the infamous rebel flag ‘represents Southern pride, not racism’ (Pictured: Woodward’s image placed in front of Confederate Flag)
In another message, someone states to Woodward that ‘You are violence. It scares me,’ to which he replies ‘I wouldn’t fight anybody unless they attacked me’
The Newport Beach man says in his reply: ‘I wouldn’t fight anybody unless they attacked me.’
On Friday, Undersheriff Don Barnes said that Orange County police collected DNA evidence which links Woodward to the crime. Details of Bernstein’s death aren’t being released.
Barnes says investigators are still trying to determine a motive. Woodward was the last person to see Blaze Bernstein alive, Barnes says.
Authorities say the suspect previously told them he had left Bernstein at the park to go see his girlfriend, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Woodward could remember neither the name nor address of his ‘girlfriend’, police said.
Woodward also had scratches on his hands, which police say he told them he had sustained while participating in a fight club.
Woodward also had dirt under his fingernails, which he told authorities was due to falling into a ‘dirty puddle’ while sparring.
Bernstein was visiting his family in Foothill Ranch during winter break from the Ivy League school when his high school friend Woodward picked him up on January 2 and drove with him to several places before winding up at Borrego Park in Lake Forest, 6ABC reports.
Bernstein’s body was found in brush at the park on Tuesday after recent rains partially exposed it.
Woodward has asked for an attorney, authorities say.
During a meeting with authorities earlier this week, police say Woodward put his jacket over his hand so that his bare skin would not touch any part of the doors he opened and closed on his way out of the police station.
Authorities had previously said they were investigating the death as a homicide.
Orange County Undersheriff Don Barnes, left, takes a questions as District Attorney Tony Rackauckas looks on during a news conference about the death
Gideon and Jeanne Bernstein speak on January 10 during a news conference
Jeanne Bernstein tweeted about the news that an individual had been arrested in connection with her son’s murder
‘Nothing will bring back my son so we ask the world to please honor Blaze’s memory by doing an act of kindness today – don’t wait – do it now. Celebrate the goodness that still exists in this world in-spite of these acts of senseless evil. People are good and Blaze knew that,’ Bernstein’s mother Jeanne told the Los Angeles Times.
She tweeted, when hearing the news: ‘Finally. My thoughts are: Revenge is empty. It will never bring back my son.
‘My only hopes are that he will never have the opportunity to hurt anyone else again and that something meaningful can come from the senseless act of Blaze’s murder.
‘Now Do Good for Blaze Bernstein.’
Pictured is the park in which Bernstein was found. The Ivy League student was planning to major in psychology and later study medicine, his father said
Pictured is another view of the park. His father had said his son had a passion for cooking and was a creative writer
When he was arrested, Woodward was wearing a shirt that read: ‘Keep the peace.’
A woman who lived at the house where Woodward lived would not comment on the matter to the Los Angeles Times.
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.
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.