A 20-year-old high school friend named Samuel Lincoln Woodward was arrested Friday and charged with the death of Blaze Bernstein.
Nineteen-year-old Bernstein’s body was discovered in a shallow grave in Borrego Park on Tuesday.
According to the Orange County Register, Woodward admitted to communicating with Bersntein via SnapChat before he disappeared on January 2. He claims they met and drove to a Hobby Lobby parking lot to “catch up,” and from there went to the park. Woodward claims he “left the park alone,” went to visit a girlfriend then returned but could not find Bernstein. Woodward was allegedly “unable to provide his girlfriend’s last name, phone number or address,” when questioned by investigators.
Bernstein’s body was found after rain washed away soil on his grave in the park.
Woodward allegedly had scratches on his hands and “dirt beneath his fingernails during one of his meetings” with detectives. Moreover, an affidavit indicates that Woodward “covered his hands with clothing before touching door knobs” when departing after being interviewed at the sheriff’s building.
Orange County Undersheriff Don Barnes said, “We believe Mr. Woodward was acting alone.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange