Crime Weekly - S2 Ep71: Blaze Bernstein: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 1, 2022

The experience of going away to college is a memorable milestone in each person's life. It is usually the time when we transition away from childhood and start down the path of adulthood. We often meet new friends whom we would not have encountered in our hometowns, and we are exposed to different cultures and ideas that can be explored and enjoyed. This was what Blaze Bernstein was looking forward to when he began attending the University of Pennsylvania in the Fall of 2016, and for a young man who was already exceptional, a wider array of personalities and experiences served to bring to light the man he would surely become. Blaze always faced each new chapter in his life with curiosity and bravery, because his hunger for learning and growing was endless. But when he flew back home to California for winter break, he encountered a challenge that he could not defeat with his light and love. On the evening of January 2nd, 2018, Blaze left the home of his parents to meet up with an old friend, and he never came home. He was not on the plane that was supposed to fly him back to Pennsylvania for the start of the new semester on January 7th, and on January 10th, Blaze’s brutalized body was found in a shallow grave, his bright and promising life snuffed out by ignorance and hate. Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

The experience of going away to college is a memorable milestone in each person's life. It is usually the time when we transition away from childhood and start down the path of adulthood. We often meet new friends whom we would not have encountered in our hometowns, and we're exposed to different cultures and ideas that can be explored and enjoyed. This was what Blaise Berenstain was looking forward to when he began attending the University of Pennsylvania in the fall of 2016. And for a young man who was already exceptional, a wider array of personalities and experiences served to bring to light the man he would surely become. Blaze always faced each new chapter in his life

with curiosity and bravery, because his hunger for learning and growing was endless. But when he flew back home to California for winter break, he encountered a challenge that he could not defeat with his light and love. On the evening of January 2nd, 2018, Blaze left the home of his parents to meet up with an old friend, and he never came back. He was not on the plane that was supposed to fly him back to Pennsylvania for the start of the new semester on January 7th. And on January 10th, Blaze's brutalized body was found in a shallow grave, his bright and promising life snuffed out by ignorance and hate. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow. And I'm Derek Levasseur.

So today we are taking on a new case. This is a very upsetting case. It's really tough and heavy. So before we dive in, I sort of wanted to talk about something topical really quick because everybody else is talking about it. And I've been so busy this week. I haven't had a time to sort of talk with you the way I normally would as we do throughout the week. And obviously, I believe this just happened last night at the Oscars, right? Where Will Smith, he walked up on stage and it was the slap heard around the world. Yeah, he didn't hold back. I can't believe some people thought that was fake. Like, how? And I thought it was, I thought it might have been. Like when I first heard about it, because the only, I don't watch the Oscars because why? But when my husband came home

this morning, he was like, yo, did you hear about this? And I was like, no. And at first, my first thought was like, this is manufactured, you know, because nobody's watching the Oscars. Like, let's be honest, their viewership is very down. There's more important things going on in the world, I think. And people just aren't really that interested to see a bunch of, you know, Hollywood people dressed up and preaching at us from the stage. But I think, you know, I initially was like, oh, maybe this is a way to get more views or to, you know, get people talking about it. But then I watched the video and I was like, oh, no, no, this is not fake. You know, you could tell. What do you think of this, this whole thing? Because I didn't think it was going to be so controversial. But then I took to Twitter where, you know, it seems to make the most uncontroversial topics controversial on Twitter. But I took to Twitter and there's a lot of people who were defending this. And for me, I'm like, like, I understand, like, maybe the joke was in poor taste. The joke was, you know, not nice. But are we condoning physical violence now when you hear something you don't like like is that a thing where people are like it's okay to just walk up on stage and bitch slap somebody because you didn't like what they said is that is that where we are now as a society because i need to know i hope not but it does seem like it is interesting to kind of watch

a lot of like hollywood elite all kind of like they're getting interviewed after the show, like after it happened. And these are some of the most witty people. They're very intelligent people, right? They're professional actors in many cases, and they're fumbling over their words. They don't know how to navigate it because they're damned if they do, and they're damned if they don't. You know what I mean? They can't win. For me, if you just want to be pragmatic about it, it was an assault. It was an assault in every sense of the word. It's completely against the law. I think in California, I was seeing

somewhere that in some cases, even in simple assaults, I don't know how true this is, you don't need a victim's cooperation in order to press charges. I don't know if that's the case or not. I know with domestics here in Rhode Island, that's the case, but either way, I don't think Chris Rock will press charges if he has an option. The one thing that I take away from it, and there's like so many things you can look at and how you can kind of like analyze this, but it really does show you that although we talk about like racial inequality and all these things, there's one thing I think most people can agree on the rich and the famous live by a different set of rules than everyone else. Because if I went up on stage and smacked him as a participant in the crowd, I would have been arrested. I would not be able to go back to my seat and accept an

award an hour later and get a standing ovation. It wouldn't happen. But social economic status really does matter in this country. So when you hear people complain about the justice system and how poor people get absolutely railed in the justice system because they can't afford good representation and there's nobody to fight for them, how do you argue with that? It does kind of seem like the more money you have, some things don't apply to you. For sure. That's how it's been since money existed.

Let's be honest, right? It's just, it's the way of the world. Now, I'm not somebody who's advocating for Will Smith to be arrested. Okay. I understand that whatever led him. Yeah, no, it's not going to happen. No, whatever led him to walk up on that stage and do that. It wasn't that joke. This was brewing for a while, like something's going on. He needs to talk to somebody. I feel badly for him. And I have no problem with with Will Smith

and Chris Rock is two men hashing this out behind the scenes and like dealing with it. Right. But we shouldn't be like applauding it and saying, well, Chris Rock had it coming, you know, because I'm all for defending your family. And first of all, as a woman, I would be embarrassed if my husband did that. I would be completely embarrassed because I don't need you to white knight for me. I don't need you to go up and defend me. Like if I'm not happy about a joke, then we'll talk shit about Chris Rock later in our bedroom like normal married people. But I do not need you to go up there and physically assault this person and then get down into the audience and scream, get my wife's name out of your fucking mouth.

I don't need that to happen because I'll handle it myself or I'll move on like an adult. So that's embarrassing to begin with. But there's people who are like, oh, Chris Rock had it coming. You have lines to be drawn. There's words and then there's fists, and we shouldn't answer one with the other. Imagine if we were in a situation, and I've had it happen when I was on Big Brother, especially because really passionate fans. I've had people yell things when I'm at meet and greets or whatever, when I was initially coming off the show and they'd say something about my daughter or my wife or me. And like, imagine if I, because of what they were saying, I could just go up and punch him in the mouth. What kind of world we live in? You just can't, you just can't do it as much as there's been

times when I've wanted to. It's, you know, there's right and wrong. And, you know, I know that Will, since we started recording, you know, cause we've wrong and you know i know that will since we started recording you know because we've been talking for a while before we hit record will has put out a public apology on instagram directly towards chris now and there are underlying factors here which i agree with you there's more to it than even this but you know um jada has been dealing with alopecia and has been struggling with it a little bit and chris from what i've heard did not know about that so yeah the the joke was this day it shouldn. He shouldn't have made the joke. There was no need for it. And there was video going around where six years ago, Chris Rock was hosting

the Oscars and Jada didn't show up and protest for her husband who wasn't nominated for an award. And he crushed her for a solid minute. So there's probably some residual stuff going on there, but I don't see any of that ultimately justifying what happened. And thank God it was on late night. So you don't have your kids watching that or whatever. Most kids weren't watching. I don't think young kids, but it's definitely not something we want to promote. And although it doesn't take away, it doesn't make it any better. I am glad to see that quickly. Will has put out a public apology specifically addressing Chris Rock. I don't know how Chris as a man who probably had his kids watching that is going to feel about it. I'm sure in hindsight, he's probably like, I should have went after Will

as soon as he did that. How could he know? Nobody knew what was happening. He was in shock. I felt bad for him. He was in shock. Kudos to him, by the way, for collecting himself and getting through that. Well, he's a comedian. You know, they've got to be ready to sort of. Wow. I mean, damn. I mean, shout out to him for doing that, you know, in spite of what he said, which was I don't was a poor joke. But, you know, to, you know, get slapped in the face and still stay composed enough to get through that segment. Good for him, man. But, you know, again, it just goes to show you we're not all playing by the same set of rules. And that's we as in all of us, because none of us are making Will Smith type

money. And I don't think there's anybody listening or watching this who wouldn't have been arrested on the spot if they had done that. And it was recorded and seen by millions of people. It was so odd. You would be bailing me out right now, Stephanie. I mean, it depends how much your bail is i mean if it was me it's probably going to be a ton because i don't have a you know a million dollar lawyer and i don't you know i don't you know i didn't just win you know actor of the year congratulations by the way well it was well deserved it was a good movie it's a great movie that's a good movie

he did great he He was awesome. But that's like this whole thing overshadowed that. Like this was a momentous historic occasion. Amazing movie. I would say without a doubt best picture of the year. And then this is like on the tail end of that. You know, and I'm sure Will and Jada's kids were watching like just too much. First time winning an Oscar for that too.

Adults need to use their words. Okay. Use their words. Like if Jada and Will have a problem with Chris Rock, this should have done been handled long before this evening, but everybody's just keeps everything inside. Don't keep everything inside guys. Talk to people.

Yeah. Well, hope they work it out. Hope, you know, hope I'm sure they'll be fine. They'll go home to their mansions and it'll all be okay. They'll go home to their mansions and their private chefs.

Will will be nominated for multiple. He'll be in movies next year. And, you know, Chris Rock's going to go on and do his thing. And, you know, they're going to be okay. But terrible situation. Everyone's going to forget about this. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I think so.

I think especially because Will is so talented. He's talented unless we're talking about Aladdin. And that was horrendous. I liked Aladdin. You did not like his performance in Aladdin. I did. I'm a fanboy of Will Smith, though, to be honest. There's not a movie that he's done that I haven't loved.

Even Aladdin. I liked Aladdin. It was real bad. It wasn't his best work. it wasn't his best work wasn't his best work okay you play aladdin he didn't play aladdin playing aladdin after robin williams yeah exactly so don't do it big shoes to fill it was bad i'm seeing it in my head how he sort of like talked the songs he didn't really like but like just on on a last note you know he got in one little fight and his mom got scared. And she said, you're moving with your auntie and uncle to Bel Air. Okay.

I'm done. You were waiting for that. No, no. I can hear the trolls in our comments right now. I can hear them 12 minutes and they're still talking about Will. Get to the script. See, imagine. Okay.

You've seen Jay and Silent Bob, right? I know of them. See, imagine. Okay. You've seen Jay and Silent Bob, right? I know of them. Yeah, I know. So imagine if every person who said something mean to me in the comments of these videos, and there's many of you, if I just found out where you lived and waited for you to open the door to your house and punched you in the face because I didn't like what you said, I bet you wouldn't like that, would you? And I wouldn't do that because I'm a grown up.

It sets a bad precedent. And a couple of comedians have come out and said right out like that's the problem right like this man assaulted another man for making a joke a poor distasteful joke but he made a joke um and there are people who are like good for you oh you know you did the right thing and there's crazy people out there who will look at that and go well you know what if i see someone on stage a comedian or whoever and they make a comment that I don't like, I'm going to be like Will Smith. Cause he looks pretty cool doing it and nothing happened to him. And everyone's applauding him.

That's the precedent you want to set. I agree. I agree with that. And I wouldn't even had a problem if he walked out, you know, to Chris after the show and was like, man, that was messed up.

And then Chris was like, I don't care if you think it's messed up. And at that point, maybe you can punch him in the face. You know, if you've, if you've tried to talk to him, cause I do say some people need to be, but on stage in front of everybody when your kids

are watching, Chris's kids are watching, unnecessary. Try to talk it out first. And if that doesn't work, you know, do what you got to do. But yeah, let's dive into today's episode. I promise I won't Jay and Silent Bob anybody. So I actually want to take some time early in this episode to talk about the victim in this case, Blaze, because he was a truly special person. All the people that we speak about obviously are special, but some of them end up standing out a bit more because of, you know, how relatable they are to me specifically. And that's because I'm researching these cases and I'm writing the scripts and sometimes they stick to me a little bit more than than others. 1887 while they were both attending the University of Southern California in Santa Barbara, and five years later they were happily married and ready to launch their careers, their lives, and their

family. Blaze was the oldest of the three Bernstein children, and he had a younger brother named Jay and a younger sister named Bo. Gideon Bernstein, his father, became a successful financial analyst, and Jeannie Bernstein received her law degree from Pepperdine in 1995 before giving it all up to stay home and raise her children in 2000. At the time of his death, Blaze's grandmother was one of the very few remaining Holocaust victims still surviving, and the Bernstein family was proud of their Jewish culture and faith. The family rabbi, remembering Blaze, said, quote, he was one of these kids that absorbed every experience and did something with it. He was not somebody who just went through life. He took experiences as a gift and saw them as part of a whole, end quote. From a very early age, Blaze's parents knew that he was special, and his mother called him a unicorn. He was quirky and different in the best way.

He was smart, creative, and imaginative, and a very cuddly and loving child. As he grew, everyone around him recognized that he was a person who could turn the ordinary into something extraordinary, and he got a reputation for being something of a polymath, which basically means that Blaze was a person who had a wide array of knowledge and learning. He was just really good at everything he tried, and he threw himself 1 million percent into every activity, hobby, and passion. Blaze was a gay man, but he was so much more than that. He loved reading and writing from a very young age, and he devoured his first George Steinbeck novel in the fifth grade, which makes me really think

that he was a genius because Steinbeck can be very hard to get through, can be very dense sometimes. Fifth grade? I mean, my son is in fifth grade. He's definitely not reading Steinbeck. That's crazy to me. This kid must have been like a very early genius. Blaze also loved food, cooking it, and eating it, and he and his tight-knit family went on many trips together. Blaze loved getting to experience different cultures, and he became known as the bravest and the most daring of the group, climbing to the top of Angel's Landing in Zion National Park by himself at the age of 17, and he achieved legendary status when he agreed to taste the Icelandic specialty of fermented shark, a delicacy that chef Anthony Bourdain had once referred to as the single most disgusting and terrible tasting thing he had ever eaten.

From traveling abroad to his passion for cooking, his parents sharing this exclusive video of Blaise tasting fermented shark, a delicacy few can stomach. It doesn't taste good, but it's not bad. So Blaze began attending the highly prestigious Orange County School of the Arts, an institution that promised not only a quality academic education, but a quality art education as well. So once again, this is a school in California. It's basically centered and focused on the arts, very expensive, private school, the kind of school that really only people who can afford it will send their kids. And if they're very talented in art, they can get scholarships and stuff like that too. But this is where he lived out his high

school career. And it was good for him because he was very creative and he had a very huge talent for writing and creative things like that. And everyone who knew Blaze, whether they were an adult or an adolescent, they marveled at how naturally brilliant he was. But he still worked incredibly hard in school. He was in AP chemistry, and he participated in the Science Olympiad in the 11th and 12th grades, bringing home a first-place medal for his school in a chemistry tournament his senior year. His AP chemistry teacher, Heather Johnson, said that Blaze was a humble genius. The younger kids looked up to him, but he never went into

something hoping to impress others. Blaze also continued to develop his talent for writing in high school. In fact, when he first arrived, a teacher at the school, Jamie Lee Jocelyn, immediately sensed his skill level, and she would later say, quote, it was very clear to me that he was an excellent writer and an excellent student. I asked him if I could be his advisor, mostly to make sure he didn't go too far from creative writing because I wanted to keep him, end quote. When Blaze applied to the University of Pennsylvania, he wrote an admissions essay that said, quote, When I write, the world around me stops and the gears in my head turn at a million miles per second. Writing gives me my voice, which is why my stories are in a constant state of flux. End quote. still find a version of myself, a time traveler from the past, present, or future, sitting there

in the text and waiting to speak to me. End quote. Blaze was accepted to the Ivy League University and he started classes in the fall of 2016. So I see here how you're relating to Blaze, obviously, as a writer yourself. I feel like it kind of talks about you in a way, too, as well, because you do get lost in your writing to where I know when you start researching a case, I don't even try to contact you because I know you're deep in it at that point. So I can see how you see some of you in him. Right. Or I should say him and you. Yeah, for sure. I mean, he he's somebody that I think was able to because they said he was shy. You know, he was shy, but he also didn't have trouble sort of standing up for himself or giving his opinion. But he was most likely to do that in written form. And and I feel the same way.

You know, I'm I'm best in written form. No. Yeah. You're very passionate about writing. So I can see how as you're probably researching this, you're reading these things, these descriptions about them, and you're thinking, you know, I think we do that a lot too when we talk about these victims. It does happen. And I think we've mentioned it before, where you want to learn about the victim because in a lot of ways it humanizes them and it reminds you of yourself or maybe someone you know. And it just makes it that much more impactful as you hear about these stories, because if you see them, not just as another number, but as a person, you realize the significance of what you're talking about. And I think that's very important in what we do too, is to not just see them as a story, but as a living, breathing person who had a family,

had ambitions, had dreams, and they were taken from him. And I think when you come from that perspective, it gives so much more value to the story, to the victim, to their family, and to you guys as you're hearing it, because I think you can feel how we feel about the victims when we're talking about them. And it's extremely important. And he seems like an amazing person. I know what we're talking about here tonight, so it's unfortunate that that's the case. But we will never know. The world will never know these things because it's not anywhere to be found. And sometimes I'll spend hours like searching newspapers.com or going on Facebook, just trying to find personal anecdotes to humanize this victim, not just for myself, but for everybody listening. And with Blaze, I mean, he was so loved and such a huge impact on so many people. I didn't really have

to look that hard. There was a lot of people who had the most amazing things to say about him. Yeah, I can see it. Well, let's take a quick break and we will come right back. So in college, Blaze made friends easily, obviously. This is a difference between Blaze and I. I loved writing, but I wasn't smart in things like chemistry and I was not making friends easily either. He just seemed to be good at everything. Everything was easy for Blaze. He was smart and he was talented, but he was also super easy to like and easy to talk to. His friends said that Blaze had a skill for making you feel truly special. And when you talk to him, you knew you had his full attention. And this is a very amazing skill to have. He was fun to be with. He was always laughing, always looking forward to the next adventure and the next new experience. And his passion and his drive were infectious. At the University of Pennsylvania, Blaze continued to grow and come into his own. He became the copy editor for the Penn Review, and he even began writing for the school's food

magazine, Pen Appetit. He was also the copy editor for a Penn cookbook called Whisk, which is still in production today. Blaze found a way to bring together all his passions and talents in everything he did, including when it came to food. He was incredibly interested in the chemical process of creating and cooking foods, and his love for cooking and chemistry are evident in all that he wrote. He also became involved in activism, and in 2017, he wrote a letter to the editor of the Daily Pennsylvania in an effort to improve UPenn's safety and reform campus policies. After the letter, Blaise was invited to meet with the school's vice provost for university life, and together they discussed

ways on how to make UPenn better and more safe for its students. He even started a petition to bring the Baja men to perform at the college's spring fling dance, claiming that in 45 years, UPenn had neglected to include a musical group that represented the genre of Bahamian Junkanoo. I have never even heard of that musical genre before. The only thing I can think is Bahamian, but... Bahamian, like Bahamas. Well, you remember the Baja Men, right? No, I have no clue what you're...

Who let the dogs out? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that song. That was the Baja Men. Okay, so he wanted them to play at the school's spring fling because their genre of music had not been represented in the 45 years of spring flings. And this was very important to him. Blaze's apartment at UPenn illustrated all the things that were important to him, and

they made him who he was. In his refrigerator, you would find a few cases of La Croix and a jar of kombucha tea that he fermented himself. His cabinets were stacked with all different spices that he would use to create recipes he'd scribbled on in his notebook. In his bedroom, Blaze's clothes would be rolled up neatly, there was a to-do list taped to his full-length mirror to keep him on track because he was very organized, and there were small souvenirs from his travels with his family neatly placed here and there, like a small turtle he had brought home after a trip to Guatemala. Blaze loved being at UPenn, and he was flourishing there. But he also loved his family and being with them in the state of his childhood, California. So, in January of 2018, Blaze returned to his home

in Foothill Ranch, California for a much-anticipated holiday visit with his parents and siblings. It was a very happy reunion, and the family celebrated with get-togethers and dinners, most notably a dinner of butternut squash gnocchi that Blaze prepared for his family the night before he went missing. From their visit together, Blaze's family knew that he was in great spirits and he was enjoying being with them, but he was also looking forward to getting back to school for the new semester so that he could continue his journey towards greatness. But then, on the evening of January 2nd, 2018, at around 10.30 p.m., Blaze left his parents' home without saying a word to his mother or father. The next day, Blaze was supposed to meet his mother,

Jeannie, at a dentist appointment, but when he didn't show up, she immediately knew something was wrong, and both she and her husband, Gideon, rushed home to see if Blaze was there. He wasn't, but in his bedroom, they found most of his belongings, including his keys, his wallet, his credit cards, his retainer, and his eyeglasses.

Blaze did have possession of a cell phone that a member of his family had let him borrow for the week he was home, but when they tried calling the number, it went straight to voicemail, signifying that the phone was no longer powered on. Not knowing what else to do, Jeannie and Gideon were able to access some of Blaze's social media accounts through his computer, and it was at that point they discovered he'd been communicating with another young man on Snapchat the night before, and Blaze had given this individual his home address. The Bernsteins reported Blaze missing to the police, and a search for the 19-year-old began on January 3rd. Okay, so that's interesting because as you were going and you were talking about UPenn and all these things, I'm thinking, okay, this is going to be a situation where something happens at the school.

But as you said, he returned home to California, so he's across the country. so uh as we're talking here i know you just said the whole snapchat thing and all that before you even got to there i'm thinking if he left the house without telling anyone it was late he's probably going out to meet someone who's you know a former friend a former fling something that he expected you know to go do and come back pretty quickly yeah um hence why he didn't bring all these other belongings he wasn't planning on spending the night somewhere. So my initial thought, it's like a friend or a boyfriend from the past that he's home for a short period of time. So he's meeting up with them.

I know we're going to get into the Snapchat now and that may shed some light and may change direction. But I think for him to leave abruptly like that, you know, pretty late at night, you would assume it was because it was someone he knew. It wasn't just some random person, but we're very early in this. So who knows where this is going to go? And also kind of last minute too, right? Like maybe you're having a conversation and someone's like, Hey, you know, let's hang out really quick. Let's hang out tonight. And then, so you just sort of like walk out of the house, like you said, planning to come back within an hour,

maybe an hour and a half. And Snapchat, I think most people are familiar with Snapchat, but as for anyone who's not, the big thing about Snapchat is that when you're having a conversation with someone, unless you deliberately do it, that conversation is not saved. So if you're going to have conversations with someone that maybe you don't want to be shared or saved to a phone because you as the other end user are notified if the person screenshots it or saves it. So if you're talking about things that maybe you don't want others to see, you would usually do that on an application like Snapchat. So I'm not saying that's what happened here, but I do think it's significant that you mentioned

this wasn't on text and it was on Snapchat. So this is definitely someone where they're having a conversation where they either don't have each other's phone number or they're talking about something that maybe they don't want others to see. I agree with you for the most part. I do feel, at least now, a lot of the young kids will talk on Snapchat and stuff. They just do that.

I'm with you. Because they can send each other pictures and there's filters and stuff. So they just take their conversations to Snapchat. My daughter does the same thing. She's always talking on Snapchat. And for me, I'm like, what are you doing on Snapchat? What are you trying to hide? And she's like, no, it's just how we talk like old person you know so it could have been just their their mode of talking so they could send pictures and stuff too which may not be innocent the pictures may not be innocent right yeah yeah well the person that blaze had Yeah. Rego Park, an area that was only about a 10-minute walk from where the Bernsteins lived. Rego Park, it's a community park. It's not like a huge park. There is a quarter mile paved walkway around the outside of an athletic field. There's a nice little shaded playground, which is perfect for the little ones because it's very close to Foothill Ranch Elementary School,

where little Blaze had once been an eager grade schooler himself. Now, the person that Blaze had been with that night, he claimed he didn't know why Blaze had wanted to go to the park, but the two of them were planning to meet up with another friend from high school, and so they pulled into the parking area of the park right before midnight. At some point while they sat and waited in the car, Blaze got out of the vehicle and began walking down a path before disappearing behind some brush, heading in the direction of the Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. When he didn't return, this guy that he was with, he waited for about an hour, sending Blaze messages on Snapchat asking where he was. When he got no response, this individual drove away and went to his girlfriend's house around 1 a.m., but he did return to Borrego Park at about 20 minutes to 4 to see if Blaze was there. When asked what they had talked about before Blaze

vanished, this individual claimed that Blaze had been complaining about his grades in school, and he did seem to be depressed, but he'd never said anything about wanting to hurt himself. I'm not liking where this is going. A couple things stood out to me. First, I'm thinking Snapchat. I'm thinking maybe this is a former boyfriend or maybe someone that he might be currently having relations with. But then you just said the phrase girlfriend. So that is a little odd. And I don't love the idea that they go to this park for no reason at this point. Blaze decides to get out of the car and walk down this, you know, this trail or whatever you're describing it as without this

person, this person just sits in the car. Why wouldn't they go with them? In my experience, it sounds like separation. It sounds like this person is trying to separate themselves from Blaze. That's really all I have with it right now. It doesn't, it doesn't jive for me. Something's not jiving that this person's creating this separation where we've talked about this on previous cases, where there's an opportunity for something to have happened to Blaze that doesn't involve this person, right? There was a window of opportunity where this random person could have done something to Blaze. Interesting to see where this goes they met up late night they go to this park that they're around midnight he this person leaves and goes

and sees his girlfriend okay yeah when i first heard it too i was like he got out of the car and walked down the path for what like was there an argument did he see a bird he wanted to take a picture of like why did he walk down the path? Why did he get out of the car and walk down the path? Because it's not very clear. And this individual may have told the police something, but they didn't release it at the time. Why Blaze would have gotten out of the car? But they did initially say, don't worry, this friend, he's being cooperative and we don't suspect any foul play at this time. that is what the police initially said initially said that this individual that you haven't mentioned by name yet uh was they didn't believe that he was involved they said he was being cooperative

oh okay okay say no more so even though borrego park it was small it was directly next to whiting ranch wilderness park which is quite expansive. It encompasses approximately 2,500 acres of rolling hills, rock formations like Red Rock Canyon, and steep slopes of coastal scrub. There was a concern that maybe Blaze had gotten lost, but his parents knew that he had grown up hiking and camping, and from the first moment, they did not think that their son had gotten lost or run away. This is the last place that Blaze Bernstein was seen. This is just a small local park but it has a path that leads to the massive Whiting Ranch wilderness area just beyond that crest over there. Today throughout

the day crews met here and headed out looking for any sign of the teen. Adventurous, a little mischievous, but a happy kid who actually talked to his parents. That's how Gideon and Jeannie ADVENTUROUS, A LITTLE MISCHIEVOUS, BUT A HAPPY KID WHO ACTUALLY TALKED TO HIS PARENTS. THAT'S HOW GIDEON AND GENIE BERNSTEIN DESCRIBED THEIR 19-YEAR-OLD SON BLAZE. ONLY NOW, THE MAIN DESCRIPTOR IS MISSING. It's horrifying to think that he could be out there. A COLLEGE SOPHOMORE, BERNSTEIN WAS HOME FOR WINTER BREAK AND DISAPPEARED TUESDAY NIGHT. A FRIEND SAYS HE PICKED HIM UP AFTER 11 AND DROVE TO NEARBY BARREGO PARK. THE FRIEND SAYS HE STAYED IN THE CAR WHILE BERNSTEIN WENT INTO THE WHITING RANCH WILDERNESS AREA. A friend says he picked him up after 11 and drove to nearby Borrego Park. The friend says he stayed in the car while Bernstein went into the Whiting Ranch wilderness area.

Blaze's parents say the friend told them he doesn't know why Bernstein wanted to go there. They didn't even know he'd gone out until the next day when they couldn't find him. The fact that he didn't tell us he was going out tells us that he wasn't planning to be gone very long. HE WASN'T PLANNING TO BE GONE VERY LONG. AND HE ALSO LEFT BEHIND WALLET, I.D., MONEY, GLASSES, AND MEDICATIONS HE TAKES EVERY DAY. FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS WEEK, VOLUNTEERS WITH THE SHERIFF'S RESERVE BUREAU HEADED OUT TO SEARCH THE WILDERNESS PARK. TWO AERIAL SEARCHES USING THERMAL IMAGING HAVE FOUND NOTHING. IN A CRUEL TWIST OF FATE, HIS MOM SAYS THE VERY DAY HE DISAPPEARED, SHE TALKED TO HIM ABOUT PUTTING TRACKING ON HIS PHONE. HE SAID, WELL, DON'T WORRY, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO ALWAYS FIND

ME WITH MY IPHONE. YOU KNOW, THE LOCATION SERVICES WILL BE ON, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO FIND IT. BUT THEY HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO FIND IT OR HIM. AND AFTER FOUR DAYS, THEY SEEM TO BE GRASPING ONTO HOPE.

MAYBE HE'S AT SOMEBODY'S HOUSE, AND WE JUST HAVEN'T, YOU KNOW, SEEN HIM COME OUT OF THE HOUSE YET. WE DON'T KNOW. AND THAT'S NOT CHARACTERISTIC OF HIM. THAT'S NOT MY STORY. Maybe he's at somebody's house, and we just haven't seen him come out of the house yet. We don't know. And that's not characteristic of him? That's not my son.

It's not characteristic of him, but this whole thing isn't characteristic. My son would never do that. Never. The search for Blaze Bernstein went airborne Sunday, with more than a dozen drone pilots looking for the 19-year-old from up above. His mother, Jeannie Bernstein, says Blaze is a planner and would never just wander off alone. THE DEMO APPOINTMENT. THE DEMO APPOINTMENT WAS A PART OF A DEMO APPOINTMENT. THE DEMO APPOINTMENT WAS A PART OF A DEMO APPOINTMENT.

THE DEMO APPOINTMENT WAS A PART OF A DEMO APPOINTMENT. THE DEMO APPOINTMENT WAS A PART OF A DEMO APPOINTMENT. THE DEMO APPOINTMENT WAS A PART OF A DEMO

APPOINTMENT. THE DEMO APPOINTMENT WAS A PART OF A DEMO APPOINTMENT. THE DEMO APPOINTMENT WAS A PART OF A DEMO APPOINTMENT. THE DEMO APPOINTMENT WAS A PART OF A DEMO APPOINTMENT. THE DEMO APPOINTMENT WAS A PART OF A DEMO From the minute he didn't show up for that dental appointment, I knew something was really, really wrong.

And I need to give comfort and hope to everybody around me. The Sheriff's Department says the search and rescue effort in the Whiting Ranch wilderness area around Borrego Park has ended, but the investigation is still very active. Investigators are looking into all of Blaze's social media accounts for clues about where he could be. Okay, that's interesting. One thing I took from that, listening to mom in the second interview, she's indirectly saying that the guy that you're talking about is full of shit. She's saying all these things. He's brilliant.

He's a chemist. He's a planner. You know, he's not just someone who walks off into the, you know, into the abyss walks off into the abyss by himself. He's not doing that. That's not his style. She knows her son. And she's indirectly saying, there's more to this story. And by the way, they both seem very smart as well. Very smart. Very smart people. I mean, she's got her law degree, right? Yeah. They ain't stupid. You could just tell when you listen to someone, They're not stupid people. And it seems like they have a very, very close relationship with their son.

And so this to them, you can almost see it because they're very articulate and they're smart, but they know something's really wrong. They know he's not at a friend's house hanging out and just hasn't called them. So the way they're able to keep it together is very impressive. But there was a little thing there where this is still early in the investigation. There's nothing that's come from it yet. She's already telling the media this idea that he just got out of the car and walked away by himself. Not true. Sorry, not sorry. It's not true. When the dad was saying, you know, maybe he's at a friend's house, she was shaking her head already. She's like, nope, he's not at a friend's house. He didn't wander away. He didn't run away.

She cut him off. Yeah. She knew. A mom knows. A mom knows. Terrible. Mom knows something's up for sure. And when it's your son, like if you have the kind of relationship that you have, like I have with my son, if somebody told me something about my son that wasn't in his character, I would immediately know and I'd call bullshit.

And that's exactly what she's doing. Right. It feels like she's got to kind of play ball at this point because, you know, ultimately she's still hoping that he's okay or that this individual knows more than they're currently saying. So she's playing the game. She's playing the game. Like you said, she's got her law degree.

She's passively putting feelers out there saying like, we know there's more than this. We know there's more to this story. I'm just hoping that it involves the whereabouts of Blaze because he's not going to just walk in and be like, sorry, my bad. I took off for a few days ago, do my own thing. She might be thinking at this point he's being held captive or something like that. And she's just putting little hints out there that she knows there's more to the story than what's being told so far. Absolutely. And I mean, during the search, they did. They searched a lot. The wilderness park, it was searched on foot, from the air. They used helicopters, multiple drones.

They were hoping to find a sign of Blaze or his phone, but they came up with nothing. Thousands of flyers were put all over town and a Facebook page was created to get the word out and bring in tips, but still nothing changed until January 10th when law enforcement decided to search Borrego Park one more time before calling it quits. It was pouring rain on this day, but they still ventured out to give the park a once over, and it was then that they came across a mound of dirt hidden under a large, thick tree branch. Under that mound of earth, they found the body of Blaze Bernstein, and it was clear that he had been murdered. It's unbelievable what you people have done for us and our son and his memory. The parents of 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein spoke through tears after learning their son's body was

found in Lake Forest's Borrego Park. A University of Pennsylvania student went missing a week ago. The Sheriff's Department now calling this a homicide investigation. Needless to say, our family is devastated by the news. And we, like so many of you around the world, love Blaze. And we wanted nothing more than to seek his safe return. Blaze was a brilliant, colorful, and charismatic man who shined light on all of the lives of the people and communities that he touched. The Sheriff's Department shared few details about the investigation,

but did say a search warrant was served at a home in Newport Beach related to this case. Once again, I can't make any comments as far as persons of interest or anything like that. There are no suspects in custody at this time. Okay, so I'm not going to steal your thunder here. Let's take a quick break because then I got some questions for you. All right. So we're back from break and I know you're going to get into all this, but my guess is that the search warrant that was served probably on the house of this individual and that's kind of told him the story so far because you're saying it's in borrego park that his body was discovered that kind of goes against what has been said so far that he was going off into this

other area into that like that nature preserve remember he was supposed to be going to the whiting nature preserve yeah and for those of you who listen on audio and you can't see the visuals in the YouTube version, which you can come over and check out, it kind of showed a couple spots of Borrego Park at night, which is really telling for me because I was wondering about that. And it does have lampposts in there. It does seem like it's an area that can be walked at night. But I got to tell you, it's pretty dark. I don't know if it was the camera, but it was a pretty dark setting.

So could something happen off the beaten path that people may not know about, like a homicide and a burial of a body? Yeah, it definitely could. It looks like it to me. So tragic to hear the story. It kills me to see these parents get up there and have to speak to the press. I don't know how they do it. I don't.

I was thinking the same thing. I honestly don't. I've been through a lot in the press. I don't know how they do it. I don't. I was thinking the same thing. I honestly don't. I've been through a lot in my life. I don't know. How do you get up there and do that? I guess when things like this happen, you really see what humans are capable of because in this moment, I can't imagine being that composed. So my hat's off to them. The respect is through the roof because I don't think I could do it. No, I mean, in no way. And I don't know how long it was after that they stood up there and talked to the press, but I suppose you would have to, right? You want to tell your son's story. You don't want some stranger to do it. However, there's going to have to be a huge amount of personal strength you have to draw on in order to do that.

And I'm sure that it's only a few minutes before you're melting down and you just need to be alone. And you could see at some points, you know, Jeannie was kind of curling herself up into Gideon's neck because, I mean, she had sunglasses on. I can't imagine the amount that she cried when she found out her son was dead, even knowing something was wrong, even suspecting that it wasn't this innocent. He wandered off or he was at a friend's. You still hear your son's dead. Your precious son is dead. And there's nothing that can make that better. Nope. But as far as the investigation is concerned, I know we're going to get there.

But seeing that clip with the, I don't know if that was the lieutenant, whoever it was, saying, you know, they don't have a suspect yet. This person's of interest. Who would be your number one person of interest? The last person to be seen with them. Snapchat dude. Snapchat dude, we'll call him. And to even dive in on that more, if Blaze was going to meet someone else at this park, well, why wouldn't that person just come pick him up? Why would he have this person take him over there? So it's just not adding up. I don't know how this person is involved yet,

but something's not adding up with them. That I'm certain of. But we'll see as we go. I'm interested to see the cause of death, what the specifics of the death are, because that could be telling as well as far as how the murderer is related to Blaze. And that's where we're going next, because Blaze had been stabbed in the neck 19 times. He'd also suffered multiple defense wounds to his right palm, several of his fingers. And it doesn't take a law enforcement professional to understand what this kind of attack signifies. But to be thorough, without knowing anything about this case or who did this, what does it say to you?

It's a crime of passion. It's personal. Obviously, there's defensive wounds because there was an altercation. But this is something where 19 times in the neck is excessive. You have the major arteries in your neck. It's very easy with just one slice to kill someone just from bleeding out. So to have someone be stabbed 19 times, that's significant. And it suggests that this person was, you know, the offender was emotionally involved

with this homicide somehow. I don't know if it was a momentary thing that happened where there might've been some type of relationship there that went south or whatever the case may be. But this was a crime of, I don't want to say a crime of passion because it didn't happen in that moment, but it was personal. It's the definition of overkill. You know, like you said, you don't need to stab somebody in the neck that many times to kill them. This is anger. This is fueled by anger, hate, some kind of strong emotion. Blaze wasn't walking through the park and refused to give up his wallet because he didn't have it. And this individual, in the process of trying to rob him, decided to stab him 19 times in the neck before fleeing. It doesn't add up. Exactly. So on January 12th, 20-year-old Samuel Woodward was arrested and charged with the murder

of Blaze Bernstein. Sam had been the individual that Blaze had been communicating with the night of his murder, and though they had both attended the same high school, that was where their similarities ended. Sam Woodward was basically Blaze's polar opposite, and where Blaze had a reputation for being full of love and kindness, Sam had a reputation for being full of hate and anger. As it turned out, law enforcement had suspected Sam from pretty early on due to some odd behavior and inconsistent statements. After their first interview with him, detectives had questioned Sam again on January 4th at Borrego Park. He ended up just being there, by the way. They didn't, bring him there to question him. He was just just being there, by the way. They didn't, like, bring him there to

question him. He was just there, and they were there looking for Blaze, and they talked to him at that point. And at that time, they noticed he was nervous, he was breathing heavily, and visibly shaking. Law enforcement also noticed that Sam had scratches and abrasions on both of his hands, and when he was questioned about this, he claimed they were from a fight club that he had participated in. Investigators also noticed there was dirt under the fingernails on both of Sam's hands, and when they asked how his hands had gotten so dirty, Sam responded that he had fallen into a dirty puddle during one of his sparring sessions. At this time, detectives asked if they could look inside the rental car that Sam

was driving at the time, and when he opened the door for them, the detectives noticed that there was hiking and camping equipment in the back of the car, as well as a large empty plastic bin on the back seat and a black belt on the passenger seat floorboard. After this, detectives asked if Sam would continue talking to them at the sheriff's headquarters, and he agreed. Now, for the most part, Sam stuck to his initial story. But when detectives asked for information about his girlfriend, the one whose house he had driven to, on the evening of January 2nd, Sam claimed he could not remember her last name or her address. As he was leaving the sheriff's office, the police noticed that Sam was very careful to not touch anything with his bare hands. If he had to open a door, he would pull the sleeve of his jacket over

his hand to prevent his hand or fingers from touching any part of the door. Now, during this interview, Sam had claimed to the police that while he and Blaze had been sitting in the car, Blaze had kissed him on the lips, at which point he'd pushed Blaze away and Blaze had gotten out of the car and walked towards the Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. So now we have some more information on why Blaze may have gotten out of the car and walked away if we believe Sam that Blaze tried to kiss him or did kiss him and he got mad and they fought and Blaze left. But Sam also made some comments to the police officer saying things like, you know, he's not gay. Sam's not gay. And in fact, he finds homosexuality to be completely disgusting. And he well, he said he was with a girlfriend that night. So we got to find the girlfriend, right?

Or this person. Because one, they're going to be the best source to tell us the condition and the behavior of Sam immediately after this incident. Was it consistent with what he has been telling law enforcement? And then secondly, if that person doesn't even exist, well, that's even a bigger story because now we know he's deliberately lying to law enforcement to try to create an alibi or a different situation than what really happened. I'll save judgment on, you know, the motive behind this. I, you know, I can see where this could have gone south because of something sexual for whatever, you know, who knows? I don't even want to speculate at this point, but looking at it, it seems like police to your, for what I asked you earlier, we're saying the person was being cooperative, but what they weren't saying is we're not ruling him out. You know, we're ruling him out as a possible suspect.

He's not a person of interest. All they simply said, he was being cooperative. And then you have the person show up. He was being cooperative. At the last known location. And suspicious as fuck. They left that part out. They're like, he's being cooperative, but he's also really super suspicious. And why do they do that? Why do they do that at that point? They don't have enough to arrest them, right? So the best thing you can do is you don't want him to clam up and stop talking or get an attorney. So you make him feel like he's part of it.

Hey, you're helping us. We're on your side. Help us find Blaze. Blaze, yeah, he probably just went off with some other person. You're right. We believe you, Sam. Let's keep talking, though, because we don't think you're involved at all. We just want to make sure that we get the full story.

So this guy's yapping his gums, not realizing they're building a case potentially against him. They're looking for something that would rule him out. But if they don't find it, they're going to follow that trail of breadcrumbs all the way to what or maybe looking for evidence that he could get rid of. And he was under surveillance from very early on, which is something obviously he didn't know. And obviously they weren't sharing. So from, I think, pretty much the moment they spoke to him and the moment they found out that Blaze was with him, I don't think they ever believed this story. So they had him under surveillance to watch him. And that would make sense why they were following him, right? Was that why you brought up what was in the vehicle? Are they suggesting that the hiking equipment was possibly for him to take off and go hide out in the mountains? Or was that just a coincidence? I don't believe so. And another thing about a sleeping bag comes up at a later

time. So that's really going to come in in part two of this. But they were following him to see if he acted sketchy, which he did. He ended up acting super sketchy. Okay. So hiking equipment, not related to maybe possibly fleeing, but just there for no end. And clearly from what you were saying, he mentioned the fight club. He mentioned sparring.

There was a black belt on the, was it like a black belt, like a karate black belt or like a regular black belt? They don't say. Okay. But he is a fighter or at least he wants people to believe he's one right so at first i thought he's lying the fight club thing is just a cover for why he has like injuries on his hands and i still think it was a cover for why he had injuries on his hands but from what we find out about him later no he was like legitimately in some sort of fight club yeah okay yeah it's not as uncommon as you think we had him you know i we've stumbled upon them in the past in law enforcement they are not as like elaborate as the movie fight club but they do exist for a little

bit of you do like betting on it all that all that good stuff so um that it'll be interesting to see how if that plays into it all because that's kind of a masculine game. This person is more of a, if he's someone who's, you know, hasn't came out as, as being gay, he doesn't want that being exposed. Could that be a motive? Maybe it'll be interesting to see how, what, you know, what course this goes. Yeah. Like I'm getting the impression from him, you know, some sort of like self-proclaimed alpha male, right? Right. This is something that he does quietly and something was said or done that made him feel like he could be outed by Blaze. It's so much deeper than that, though. At the time of Blaze Bernstein's murder, Sam Woodward was a college dropout working part-time and living with his parents in Newport Beach. A search warrant was executed at his home, and in a drawer in Sam's bedroom, police found a knife that had blood on the tip of the blade. The DNA on that knife was a match for Blaze. They also

found bloodstains on the driver's side visor of the car Sam had been driving, and in the days after he was first questioned, Sam had been placed under surveillance and he was seen attempting to clean this car. The blood in the car matched both Sam's DNA and Blaze's as well. There was also what appeared to be bloodstains found on a sleeping bag that was located outside near the window of Sam's room. This morning, the Orange County District Attorney's Office filed one felony count of murder with a sentencing enhancement of personal use of a knife against 20 year old Newport Beach resident Samuel Woodward. As prosecutors, we have an ethical duty to file charges that are supported by the evidence. Evidence that's in our possession. Evidence

that would prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. This investigation is ongoing, and we're continuing to search for evidence that might support special circumstances allegations. As I just stated, the investigation is ongoing, but there are a few facts that we're able to release at this time. The suspect, Samuel Woodward, knew Blaze, the victim, from when they went to school at Orange County School of the Arts. Woodward is 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 185 pounds. Blaze was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 135 pounds. Woodward is accused of communicating with Blaze through Snapchat on January 2nd. Woodward is accused of picking up Blaze at his parents' home in Lake Forest after they spoke via social media. The exact time and place of the murder is still under investigation.

He's accused of having abrasions, scratches, and dirt on his hands. He's also accused of cleaning up the car that he used the night that he picked up Blaze. Woodward is still accused of visiting the crime scene days after the murder. This case was solved through old-fashioned detective work and surveillance, as well as sophisticated examination of digital, physical, and DNA evidence. This is a senseless murder of a young man who possesses a combination of a high caliber mind and the heart of a poet. We at the Orange County District Attorney's Office offer our sincerest

condolences to the Bernstein family. Blaise should be back at college right now doing what college kids do, going to class, organizing study notes, hanging out with his friends, dreaming about who they're going to become. I know he was treasured by his family and loved by his friends. No, it's well said. It's really well said at the end there. But it goes back to what we were talking about earlier too, about the search warrant. Sure enough, it was Sam's and it seems like they found as he, you know, laid out there in that, that speech, um, this was a combination of, uh, forensically analyzing digital and DNA evidence to link Sam to blaze, not only that night in question, but also, um, afterwards

with the knife and not only that, with the surveillance of Samuel, seeing his behavior after his night with Blaze and how suspicious it was as far as the cleaning of the vehicle, revisiting the crime scene, things like that. So it was a totality of circumstances. But ultimately, the smoking gun here is going to be that knife, right? You have Blaze's blood with his DNA match is going to be that knife, right? You have blazes blood, uh, with his DNA match on the tip of that knife. It's believed that the cause of death based on the stab wounds was a knife. Um, and then you also have some DNA mixture of Samuel, which indicates some type of altercation where he was cut or scraped by either blaze or by the knife. And there was a mixture of DNA between the two of them, which shows that there was a

direct interaction. So really, really solid case here presented against Samuel and going to be a hard case for him to explain away. And you heard what he said. Sam was 6'2", 180. Blaze was much shorter, 135 pounds. This is, I mean, If he's in his fight club, he's out of his weight class at this point. There's really not a good match here. Yeah. Very easy for him to physically overcome. And nothing against Blaze, but he doesn't seem like he was more of a writer,

not a fighter. I didn't even mean to do do that but it happened um so on top of the the experience using your hands like you just said the size difference the disparage the disparity there is huge and you know it would be very easy with even without a knife for for for samuel to overpower blaze um so it's gonna i can see how they're tying it all together they're telling a story um they're not giving us all the facts yet, but I think we're going to get them by the end of this. So it gets really dark from here on out. Just beware. I mean, this brought me to a whole new world that I had never been to before.

And I knew that people like this and groups like this existed, but I didn't realize how prevalent they were. So the detectives, they worked with a New Jersey-based company to gain access to Sam Woodward's locked iPhone. And they found more than 100 pieces of material making reference to something called Adam Waffen Division, including an image that Sam had used as the background for the wallpaper on his phone. Now, Adam Woffin Division is a neo-Nazi group that emerged around 2016, and they distinguished themselves through their extreme rhetoric that was influenced by the writings of neo-Nazi James Mason, who was an admirer of Charles Manson. Charles Manson preached to his followers that they would need to prepare for a coming race war, and the Atomwaffen division is preparing for the very same thing.

Pump that shit open, point it at them, and pull the trigger. The only right they deserve is the right of lead. Hail Hitler. A series of sinister online videos produced by the Atomwaffen division. The scenes include what the group calls hate camps, including firearms training. One recorded session occurred just outside the city of Concrete in Skagit County in an abandoned concrete plant called Devil's Tower. Why is Adam Woffin training and arming itself? Its members are followers of Adolf Hitler, but it is more telling that they also admire 1960s mass murderer Charles Manson. Manson's followers committed murders in hopes of sparking a race war between blacks and whites.

Atomwaffen has that same battle cry. Caleb Cole of Snohomish County is the leader of Atomwaffen's Washington cell, according to documents filed in King County Court. Authorities stripped him of nine firearms, including military-style rifles, using an extreme-risk protection order. They say Cole has been purchasing weapons, organizing hate camps and escalating threats about the coming war. The sooner the race war happens, the better. That's the kind of hate these guys are spewing. We should all be concerned.

These are red flags. This is called a red flag law. Everything about this guy is a red flag. The FBI has noted a couple of things about the Atomwaffen Division. Its members are young and they are prepared for violence. They're training for it right here in Washington and following the lead of three men, including one you've probably never heard of. Adolf Hitler, dead. Mass murderer Charles Manson, dead. James Mason, alive.

What are you doing? Are you stalking me? And residing in Denver, Colorado. You're a pretty prominent figure within the white supremacist movement, and I want to ask you some questions. I mean, the one question I do want to ask you is, do you feel any responsibility for the young people that have turned violent? JEREMY HOHOLA, KUSA, Not at all.

JOHN YANG, KUSA, No. No? That's reporter Jeremy Hohola from our sister station, KUSA, outing perhaps America's most prominent living Nazi. A lot of people take your words, and they're acting violent based on your words. JEREMY HOHOLA, KUSA, If they were acting on my words, they wouldn't be doing the things they're doing, throwing their lives away. A new generation of neo-Nazis, seen here training in Skagit County in Washington State, have been radicalized by Mason's writings and podcasts.

The Atomwaffen Division is preparing for Mason's prophesied race war, and Mason admits there are limits to his claim of nonviolence. I say don't do it, but if you're going to do it, for God's sake, do it right. Wow. Okay. So a serious group. There's a lot of groups out there like that, not necessarily under this name, but even on the East Coast, it's interesting because if Samuel was part of this group, I think it's reasonable to assume if they learned that he was gay, he more than likely would not have been accepted. So that could be something that he was genuinely concerned about as well. So listen, they're not just on the West Coast. Like this Atomwaffen, they're all over the United States. They're all over Europe, Ukraine, everywhere.

It's so pervasive. I read an entire like US Justice Department, like summary of this group. It's pretty messed up. And not only that, I think it's less, like I think you'll see that I don't believe Samuel was gay, but he would hate gay people. Not only that, he would hate Jewish people as well. Right.

So you're thinking as we go with this, this could be a situation where he went out of his way to basically set Blaze up because he knew who he was. Absolutely. That's interesting. I wonder if there's like an initiation factor to that or somehow. Anyways, we'll get there. But, you know, I wonder if this was part of a bigger thing. So Adam Waffen is the German phrase for atomic weapons, and their logo consists of a Waffen SS divisional insignia shield. For those who don't know the the Waffen-SS, they were basically Hitler's secret service. There was the German police, and that's the traditional symbol that's used to warn of ionizing radiation. The group's ultimate goal is to accelerate societal collapse, promote chaos,

and create a racially pure white society, and they seek to do this by committing violence against racial minorities, including those of Jewish descent and members of the LGBTQ plus community. They've created recruitment and propaganda videos, which you have seen some examples of, and their members have been linked to brazen acts of violence across the United States, including at least five murders. We're going to take a quick break, give everybody a chance to sort of process this, and we will be right back. So Samuel Woodward was an active member of this group, but before he belonged to this hate group,

there were still plenty of red flags that everyone he attended school with noticed. In fact, Blaze's closest friend, Ray Aarofsky, claimed that as soon as she heard Blaze had gone out to meet Sam that night, she immediately knew that Blaze was dead. Even as a student at the Orange County School of the Arts, Sam did not fit in, and he didn't want to. Where Blaze always had a smile on his face and a kind word for everyone, Sam walked around stone-faced looking angry. He was not the type of kid who would make a joke or laugh at one. He was just simply miserable. When the students were asked to create something for a graphic design class,

Sam proudly showed off a Confederate flag he had drawn, and in a social media post, Sam Woodward defended the flag, claiming it represented Southern pride, not racism. On another social media platform, Woodward said that if he had to be stranded on an island with two items, they would be the Bible and a Colt.45. And when asked what new skill he wanted to learn, Woodward responded with waterboarding. Sean Corfield, a classmate of Woodward's, said, quote, every high school has the kid who's just off. If there was going to be a shooting,

he'd be the guy, end quote. On Sam's phone, detectives found several emails he had written that were laced with homophobic slurs, and also they outlined his efforts to get gay men interested in him, saying, quote, I told sodomites that I am bi-curious, which makes them want to convert me, end quote. Sam went on to say that when individuals responded with interest, he would either ghost them or tell them it was a prank, saying, quote, they think they are going to be hate-crimed and it scares the shit out of them, end quote. During a playwriting class, the students were reading Raisin in the Sun, and Sam Woodward's copy allegedly had the N-word scrawled all over it when he handed it back in, and according to classmates, Sam had a reputation for being racist, homophobic,

and sexist. He was even known to spend a great deal of his time in class drawing guns in his notebooks. Now in school, there were rumors that Sam was interested in other boys, you know, that he could be gay. And one particular openly gay student had told some friends that Sam had made passes at him. This student, we'll call him Brian, he said that Sam would contact him and ask him things about being gay, like how he knew he was gay, how he had chosen to come out. Brian felt that Sam was searching for a sense of belonging. Maybe he was exploring his own sexuality. But when Sam asked Brian to meet up in person so they could hook up, Brian said no, claiming, quote,

it was all very confusing because he wasn't someone that was out, end quote. Brian stopped talking to Sam in the 10th grade because he was uncomfortable about the way things had escalated. But before they stopped talking, Brian had shown Sam's messages to Blaze and some other friends without Sam's knowledge. Now, after sophomore year, Sam left the Orange County School of the Arts and he began attending Corona Del Mar High School, where he became an Eagle Scout before graduating. But it was also around this time that Sam started spending a lot of time on the internet. It was on the photo sharing app iFunny where Sam met a teenage fascist who went by the name Bill. And this Bill person had already made a name for himself on the app,

posting short essays about fascism and the existential and spiritual decline of European societies. Before he knew it, Bill was the leader of iFunny's growing fascist community, and he started groups on other apps like Kik. After Blaze Bernstein's murder, Bill was asked if he remembered Sam, who went by the handle Saboteur on iFunny. When Bill was told that Sam had murdered someone, he was stunned, claiming that even when he had been young and stupid, trying to find his

identity through these extremist groups, he never would have taken someone's life. But as Sam Woodward gained his own following on iFunny, he talked with disdain about members of the LGBTQ plus community as well as Jewish people. Now, he used different words to refer to them, which I will not repeat now, but I'm sure you can imagine what they were. Sam also said he had a girlfriend who he made fun of for being a generic Trump supporter, and he talked about his fantasy of having sex with a teacher who was black. Now, you can imagine the kinds of conversations these young men are having. You know, women who get raped are asking for it.

Jewish people are trying to take over the world, etc. So lots of breakdown there. And first off, I had mentioned earlier about the idea that maybe Sam was gay and this was something that, you know, he didn't want out there, which is why things went south with Blaze. I've never personally worked a case like this, but I've read about cases that I've researched where you have someone who is from a group of people like the LGBTQ community, and they are gay, and they're realizing they're gay, and they hate themselves because they're gay, and therefore hate everyone else who's in that group as well. And I'm not here to psychoanalyze Sam, but I do wonder if his hatred for specifically

gay people, not necessarily Jewish people, but for gay people specifically, he had such a hate for them because he himself was confused about his own sexuality. And, you know, probably something that he didn't want for himself. But as we know, being gay isn't something you choose. You know, it's who you are. And he might not have liked that about himself, which might have explained why he was the way he was in school, which people described him as that person. He was trying to find himself and

he was very confused. And what happened was that confusion turned into hate, hate for himself and hate for others who represented something about himself that he didn't like. So that was one thing. And then you talk about all these other things that happened and we think about mass shootings and all these things that we're looking for now. And we should be looking for at the time when he was there, but these are telltale signs of someone who's depressed and needs to be monitored. And clearly, I don't know if he slipped through the cracks, but it seems like there wasn't a lot of information on this guy out there or he would have been put on some lists within the government well before this. And maybe he was, for all we know. Who knows?

So to your first point, I think it's very possible. Right. And I believe it was the district attorney who was asked this later. Like, was this kid just, you know, a self-hating gay person? And I've known people like this, okay? I've known people like this who I'm like, you know, they speak, they're so outspoken about hating it to the point where it's like, this is drastic, you know? Nobody talks about it this much. It feels very internalized at this point. And I know you didn't watch Euphoria because we've talked about Euphoria before.

But for those who have, Sam Woodward in this scenario would be Nate from Euphoria, a very similar sort of progression, a very similar sort of behavior. Somebody who just hates themselves and is constantly trying to fight their true nature. To your second point, I feel exactly the same way. If he's writing the N-word in his copy of Raisin in the Sun, if he's doodling guns all throughout class, if he's doing these things that are so obvious to the students around him, where are the administrators at this point? Are they just so progressive in this school where they're like, well, you know, you have to express art however you can. I can't imagine. And that's why with the Raisin in the Sun thing, I said allegedly, because I'd have to think that some administrator, some teacher somewhere, if they got that copy of Raisin in the Sun back with those words in there, they'd be like, what the hell is going on here?

Now, they could have brought it to Sam and they could have been like, how did these words get in here? And he could have been like, I don't know. It was like that when I got it, you know, and they just didn't have proof that he had done it. I'm not sure. But it doesn't seem like he got kicked out of the school. It seems like he left the school of his own accord. So I'm not sure how he was able to sort of get away with this stuff for so long. Even the teachers, some teachers were interviewed and they were like, yeah, he was always a bad apple, you know, And it's like, did nobody say anything? Did nobody do anything? Were there calls made home to the parents? We're not quite sure. Right. And you only have so much research you can do. But I do also wonder as a parent myself,

how much intervention took place. And maybe there was a lot and we just don't know about it, but it would be interesting because I'm sure that I know, not I'm sure, there's a lot of cases out there just like this. And you wonder what steps are being taken by the administration to identify kids that may be going through something and get them the help that they need. And this seems like a case where, again, he might have not received the type of attention that he required to maybe put him back on the right track. Yeah, well, so he's on these like internet forums, you know, iFunny and stuff like that. And he's getting involved with these other people who I suppose he considers to be like-minded and, you know, they're kind of like propping each other up. But it was only when Sam met an internet user named Cruz that he was introduced to the Adam Woffin group.

Now, Cruz had found out about this group on Twitter when Brandon Russell, one of the leaders, was promoting a book called Siege. This book had been written in the 80s by James Mason. That's the guy we heard and saw in the interview where he was like, if you're going to do violence, do it right. That's James Mason there. Now, according to the blog Mother Jones, and this blog, it was very helpful because they laid it out all very well. But according to Mother Jones, Mason admired Charles Manson and encouraged isolated acts of violence known as lone wolfing. In Adam Woffin, the life-changing experience of reading this book meant you had been siege-pilled. By April of 2017, Cruz had succeeded in getting Sam to read the book, but at that time there was a fracture in the group. One of Brandon Russell's roommates had

converted to Islam. This man, whose name is Devin Arthurs, he'd been a longtime member of Adam Woffin, and there were plans for Brandon Russell and Devin Arthurs to He'd been a longtime member of Adam Waffen, and there were plans for Brandon Russell and Devin Arthurs to sort of like travel around the country visiting different Adam Waffen chapters in each state. Some members did not want to have anything to do with Arthurs now that he'd converted to Islam, and Cruz told Arthurs that if he came to Texas, he was going to get fucked up. Then on May 19th, 2017, Devin Arthurs shot two of his roommates before walking across the street to the Green Planet Smoke Shop in Tampa, Florida, and holding several people hostage at gunpoint. He later told police that his roommates had been

disrespecting his new religion. When law enforcement searched the apartment, they found several pounds of bomb-making materials. Now, even though his circle of extremists were going through their own drama, Sam Woodward stayed on his path, seeking his lone wolf vengeance against those who he was filled with hate towards. From his activity on message boards, we know that Sam Woodward told his parents that he was pursuing Nazi ideals, and they were not super accepting of his new path. So he moved out and he began living in Texas with Cruz. I think that may be why the camping and hiking equipment and stuff was in his car, because it seemed like he wasn't really staying with Cruz. Sometimes they would like sleep in the car or like motels and stuff.

So there's more of a transient. Yeah. Kind of just going from place to place and not really having a cement or concrete place to live because his parents didn't accept him. But he also said in one of the messages, like, you know, I still love my father. He called he called his mother and his father some terrible names, but he definitely called his mother more terrible names. But as far as his father, he said he was sure he could get him to come over to his side of white supremacy. He was going to chip away at him little by little. So Sam, he connected with Blaze Bernstein in June of 2017 using Tinder. Now, Blaze recognized Sam's profile picture as someone

he knew from high school. And when the two of them matched, Blaze sent a screenshot of Sam's profile picture, someone he knew from high school. And when the two of them matched, Blaze sent a screenshot of Sam's Tinder profile to a friend with the message saying, OMG, we all knew it. Brian was telling the truth for once. Holy shit. So when you're on Tinder, I guess, and I've never been on Tinder, okay, but when you're on Tinder, you can't really see someone's profile, their full profile, I guess, until you match with them. So you like reach out to them and you're like, hey, I like you. And then they have to be like, I like you, too. And then you guys can sort of like message each other and you can see like their full profile and stuff. So the reason Blaze was was telling his friend like, oh, I'm G.

We knew that Sam was gay was because Sam would have had to have accepted his like initial nudge or whatever happens on Tinder. Does that make sense? Sure. So they matched or whatever, where there was a mutual interest. Yeah. And then I'll toss back to what we were saying earlier, you know, as far as people in high school, going back as far as high school, all seeing something that they kind of felt like maybe Sam was gay, you know, and, and here you are, here's the affirmation that this is something that they

felt for a very long time. And now you have Sam on Tinder and he's identifying as someone who's interested in men. You have to obviously put that information on Tinder for that to happen. So two ways you can look at it, right? He's on there fishing for gay men because he wants to hurt someone or you know he he might be trying to justify it in his own head that that's why he's on there but in reality it's because he's actually curious he's actually curious to see who he matches with and see what type of interest he gets yeah because if you think about it all this stuff with brian in high school um with with Sam hitting on him and asking him questions about being gay, that all happened before he got on these extremist message boards. So you could be right. He'll never admit to that, of course, but you could be right.

Yeah. This whole group, I mean, if you really think about it, it's sad to think of in one way, because here you have an individual who was confused about his own sexuality and potentially he linked up with a group that made him hate himself, right? Like their ideology made him hate himself and therefore you can't change who you are. So his way of dealing with it was going after others like him, maybe because he was jealous of them, that they were open and able to live their own lives. Who knows? But it's a really fascinating dynamic that you're breaking down here where it's a lot more than just he didn't like Blaze, right? It's a lot deeper than that. So it's from this screenshot, right? And others that Blaze took and sent that we have an idea of what happened. So Sam sent Blaze a message saying, quote, I'm on this app mainly because in terms of women, I've got jungle fever and fucked like five black chicks since I got on here a month ago. In terms of men, I'm looking for an outdoorsy person to be a spotter and assist me in deer hunting, end quote. So once again, he's sort of like posing, as he had said in those emails, as bi-curious.

Like, I like women, but, you know, I might be interested in men. But he's not coming straight on saying I'm interested in men for sex. He's like maybe a buddy, you know, somebody who can go deer hunting with me and like spot for me and stuff yeah he's definitely i feel like from what you're telling us he's trying to hide something that he really feels i don't feel like this is a complete fallacy that he's making up for this for the motive of like attracting these gay men and then hurting them i feel like there's a curiosity there where he is enjoying it and but he's still again trying to even fool himself because i do think as he's saying these things he's he wants to believe it he's enjoying flirting with a man and then he's yes feeling guilty and shame and hating himself

for enjoying it a A hundred percent. That's where I'm coming from on it. And what do we know? But that's what it sounds like to me. Yeah, it's possible. But after Sam and Blaze had been messaging for a while, Blaze sent his friend a message saying, oh shit, he's about to hit on me. He had me promise not to tell anyone, but I have texted everyone. That's an interesting comment.

And I don't know if it's going to lead anywhere, but it seems like Blaze, and this is no indictment on him whatsoever, may have been a gossiper a little bit, right? Nothing wrong with that. No crime against it. And I wonder if we're going to find out down the road, there was maybe a conversation where Sam got the impression that Blaze had told other people about their relationship. You know, like maybe Blaze had said to him, yeah, you know, we all kind of knew you were gay. We've been talking about it. I've been talking about it with people who knows what triggered it. Maybe

you're going to tell us eventually, but I'm really curious to know if there was a moment where this changed. Or Blaze sent these messages to a couple of people. They sent the messages to a couple other people. And then it gets back to Sam that Blaze promised not to tell anyone. But he has, in fact, told people. And now, you know, Sam's like, oh, shit. You know, people know. Are you giving me a spoiler right now?

I don't know. Okay. All right. All right. Not your style, so. But it would be, I mean, there could be several motives. It could be purely hate. It could be hatred towards blaze as well as hatred towards himself. And it could be this, this feeling of, you know, anger, like you exposed me to be something that I didn't want people to know I was something that I purport to be disgusted with. And now my whole reputation, because he's got a reputation on these boards, right? What if it gets back to his people on his boards? Oh, he's done. He's done.

In that group of people, he's done. So the following July, Sam Woodward and his buddy Cruz, they traveled to Denver, Colorado to meet James Mason, and Sam was in awe of the man. He said he was, quote, full of stories and he was like talking to a walking library, end quote. A library of bullshit, I would say, but okay. Sam was completely starstruck. Both Sam and Cruz were just completely head over heels for this James Mason fellow who's living in Denver, Colorado, of all places, which is an extremely liberal area to live. It's very odd to me why James Mason would decide to settle there. I feel like we're going to be a target for these people now because I was reading some stories, man, and they'll come after you.

They'll swat you. The news anchor we were watching or listening to who was talking about it, they came after him. I mean, there's something where these groups and we would have trainings through the FBI, the ATF, the EA, all of them, where these hate groups are trying to start a civil war. They're trying to start something between particular groups and they will disguise themselves by putting up, you know, racial remarks about people of their own race, right? In order to elicit some type of emotion and create dissension within the community. So it's something we all have to be aware of. I know as law enforcement officers, it was something we were very cognizant of, you know, when you, you know, go to a complaint of a, you know, a storefront or a wall or something being

vandalized and covered in, you know, racist remarks to not always assume who would put something like that, you know, to really look at all angles and try to find footage because sometimes you end up finding that the people doing it are the same people they're talking about. So these groups are all over the country. They're growing every day, especially in the world we live in now. And so it's something we all need to be aware of. So are you worried that they're going to like come after us because that's what they do

when you expose them or talk about them? They come after you? Us specifically? No, I don't think so. I think, like you said, we just played a whole report on it as far as a news report on it. Yeah, and they went after that, dude. I mean, listen, anytime we do cover a case, whether it's something like this or any case we cover, you run the risk of exposing yourselves to a group of people that may not necessarily be a group you want to be involved with. But I don't think they're too worried about a podcast.

I mean, ultimately, they're doing what they're doing. We're not impeding it. We're just bringing light to this case. And anything you're talking about here is public information already. So I'm not too concerned about it. Are you concerned about it? I'm always concerned about this stuff, man, because people are crazy, man. And watching those videos of them running drills and stuff, I'm over here like, man, they are armed to the teeth and incredibly organized.

And you have to wonder why the United States government appears to know that these groups exist and appears to know where their training facilities are because they have several. I think I saw one in like Nevada, one in Colorado, like they're all over the place. The U.S. government seems to be aware of this and yet they still carry on. So I'm not sure. It's almost like the government doesn't mind the chaos and the division that these kinds of groups bring to the world. Well, the scary part is it's not, and I'm sure this is part of the government's concern, is groups like Atomwaff, and I mean, it's something where there's the extremist, right, that you've discussed a lot tonight and you show these videos, but there are also members of these groups that walk amongst us every day. Yeah.

And they live normally. They could be CEOs and high profile people, politicians, who knows. And they're decision makers. They're shot callers. And so the government and everyone else has to be careful what information they put out there with that divulge because they could be in a room discussing this with an individual who's a member of it, who's just at the higher end. These are real things. It's not just in the movies. Yeah. Well, yeah. Now I'm not worried at all. Thank you. You're welcome. So by the fall of 2017, Sam was again living with his parents in Newport Beach,

and he had begun working a construction job, which he felt good about because he was spending time around real men being a real man. Now, at this same time, his buddy Cruz had relocated to Southern California, where he began to head a regional Atomwaffen chapter, and Sam was his second in command. Sam wrote to his Atomwaffen friends that he was saving up to buy farming materials, and to do this, he had taken a second job setting up bounce houses for kids' parties, saying, quote, And at one of these parties, he was enraged to find a white woman who had biracial children. In a diary he was keeping at this time, Sam described his interactions with what he called

sodomites, who he would meet on Tinder and Grindr. He would flirt with them and lead them on only to tell them it was all a prank and that they were stupid for falling for it. According to Sam, this was what he had been doing to his classmate Brian from high school, and he said it was so much fun to get an F word and then cuck him all the time. I mean, the language he used, obviously it's written in these articles, but I don't even feel comfortable saying it out loud. I've said stuff already in this episode that I don't feel comfortable saying. I think people get the point. They get the picture. Yeah. And so what you said

was also very important earlier. I wanted to touch on it, that sometimes you'll see graffiti and stuff and you have to keep in mind that it could be the person that the graffiti is directed towards who's putting that there. It's just all about this race war, right? Charles Manson did the same thing. When he committed his murders, he wrote things to make it look like, you know, a Black person had done it so that, you know, the black people and the white people would fight or the black people would come up and kind of like destroy everything. And Charles Manson and his little band of psychopaths would go underground where they

would turn into fairies and they would wait for the world to be destroyed. And then they would come up and take over because, you know because they were the only ones left, essentially. So that's very important to realize. And as you said, in today's climate, we see, without even trying now, a ton of division over every single issue. No one can meet halfway anymore. People are, a lot of people now, they're like, this is how I feel. And if you don't feel

exactly the same way as I feel, not only can we not be friends, not only can we not relate, but I hate you now. And now you're my enemy. And there's no middle ground. There's no people meeting each other halfway anymore. So we have to really understand that a lot of this climate of hate might be coming from these extreme groups on both sides. And we have to be cognizant of that so that we don't fall prey to it, because it is a societal breakdown that these groups want. And that's what we're going to give them if we continue down this path. Very well said. So that brings us to January 2nd, 2018. That's the day that Sam Woodward and Blaze Bernstein would meet each other in person for the

first time in a long time, and the last day that Blaze would have the gift of living his creative and full life. And that is where we'll pick up in the second and final part of this case. Yeah, I'm interested to see how this goes, because for me now, I think we have our person that, you know, committed the crime. But I want to know more of what made him tick, what the motive was. And I feel like we're going to get more of that as we get into the trial and all those different things, because I know he's writing these journal entries and in these journal entries, he's explaining his rationale, his reason behind reaching out to these people, specifically Brian.

But I still feel like it's a farce. It's almost something he's trying to convince himself of. And so that's where my head's at right now. And I'm You hate to see it. You don't want to see it. You want to feel that it's not real, that that doesn't exist, that people really don't hurt or kill other people simply because they're gay or Jewish or black or white or a cop or because of their religion, things like that. Like you don't want to think that it happens. And then you come across a case like this that makes it impossible for you to believe otherwise. So thank you for bearing with us on this. Let us know your thoughts in

the comment section if you're watching on YouTube. Also make sure to follow us on social media. Give us your opinions there in the comment section if you're not watching on YouTube. And you can find us at Crime Weekly Pod on both Twitter and Instagram. Wow. Look at you. Nailed it. I got there. Yeah.

And on a lighter note, because this was a heavy episode, when you guys hear this episode, I believe it'll be April 1st. So April Fool's. guys hear this episode i believe it'll be april 1st so april fools um and then on uh the youtube version it was a very like a very deflated april fools because at this point it's like yeah april april 6 will be the youtube version of this and i think i speak for both of us when i say we appreciate everyone who has used the code, uh, crime weekly for crime con. There's a lot of you. We are going to have a pretty big meetup. So that being the case, we're going to have to eventually stop taking, we, you guys have

been sending the email, still send them if you're doing it. But I think probably by next Friday when this, the YouTube version comes out. So we'll maybe put a cap of like, uh, I don't know, um, the 8th of April. Um, we'll probably stop right there with the, uh, the list because Stephanie and I are trying to find a venue that's going to allow us all to go and be together and we'll take care of it. But there's been a lot of you more than we expected and we're super appreciative of it. Um, So if you're going to CrimeCon Las Vegas and you're going to buy tickets and use our code, please, if you can, let us know as soon as possible. And if there's like an exigent circumstance, email us. Like if you're waiting,

you know, you don't have the money right now, whatever, we can work with you, but we just want to put a cap on it so we can start making plans based on a definitive number. If you're using the code for Crime Weekly UK, which is the same code, that's not till June. We've also had a lot of people use that code. So we're definitely coming to the UK. That's not till June. So keep using the code.

Go right ahead. We're not even worried about that one yet. We're focusing on CrimeCon US, which is at the end of April. And so we want to start getting plans together for that. And we got to eventually stop it because we don't want people buying tickets until the last day. I mean, it's not the end of the world, but it makes our life a little easier. At this point, it's going to be like a street party. We're just going to open it up into the street. We're going to get a couple of bottles of alcohol and some wireless speakers and just

go ham because there's a lot of people. We're all going to Stephanie's room. Yeah. I don't. There's not enough room. Yeah. There's not enough room. I'm just going to put out like a mass text.

Hey, room 303. I don't know. You get me kicked out. You get me kicked out of the hotel. Yeah. That's my plan. I'm going to be texting you like, hey, how's that street corner? Listen, we're going to have fun. The more the merrier. It's going to be great. We all know that after a long day of working at the convention, we're all going to be ready to let loose a little and enjoy

your company. So we cannot wait for it. Really, I can't wait. It's going to be awesome. If anybody's from Vegas and you're watching this video or you're listening and you want to comment on the video, by all means, if you know a place that's not going to basically force us to rent out an event space, but would allow for a large group of people to come in and order some food, some drinks, and you know somebody out there and you know a good spot, maybe you have a point of contact, by all means, hit us in the comments, DM us on Instagram. Ooh, a penthouse. If you know someone who's like a cool, sick-ass penthouse, overlooking the strip, like uh the hangover

style with the tiger and everything if you know someone like that let us know yeah if you know something like that let me know personally i want that person i want that but but yeah let us know we'll figure it out either way it's not gonna be in the world but it is the nfl draft weekend so everything is like crazy everything is crazy weekend. So we'll figure it out. Appreciate all the support. Any other things before we go? No, I think it's good. I'm going to hit, I'm going to hit the hay. It's after midnight, you know? Okay then. All right. Appreciate you guys joining us again. We'll see you next week for part two. Have a good night. Be safe out there. Bye.