A southern California jury has convicted Samuel Woodward of the 2018 murder of former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein, following a three month-long trial that re-excavated a brutal killing that made international headlines for the perpetrator’s membership in the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division organization.
Bernstein, a 19-year-old pre-med student at the University of Pennsylvania, disappeared on 2 January 2018 after meeting up with Woodward, then 20, that evening. The pair, who had attended the Orange County High School for the Arts together, had reconnected over the dating app Tinder. Bernstein’s body was found six days later, buried in a park in Orange county. Woodward was the last person Bernstein was in contact with, and immediately fell under suspicion.
