The silent stones inform either side of an epic tale, the lifestyles and loss of life of Blaze Bernstein. They’re a marker of a violent homicide, but in addition a promise within the trust of a higher long run. A monument to the most efficient of humanity, and the very worst of human conduct.
You’ll to find the stones in a tranquil nook of Borrego Park, in suburban Orange County, California. There are masses of them, hand-painted, with messages of tolerance, love and peace. “And they are getting despatched to us from all over the international,” says Gideon Bernstein. “It is nice to peer the messaging. It is all the time certain,” provides Gideon’s spouse Jeanne Pepper.
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Jeanne and Gideon are the oldsters of Blaze Bernstein. On Jan. 2, 2018, then-19-year-old Blaze left his space. Someday later that night time, he was once murdered in Borrego Park, stabbed 28 instances; his frame buried there in a shallow, muddy grave.
Through all accounts, Blaze was once an outstanding younger guy — an Ivy League scholar on the College of Pennsylvania, bearing in mind a occupation in medication, a author and budding chef. “I name him a unicorn,” Jeanne Pepper tells “48 Hours” correspondent Tracy Smith in an encore of “The Lifestyles and Demise of Blaze Bernstein,” airing Saturday, June 28 on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Theirs is a loss they proceed to reside with to this present day. “I consider Blaze at all times, as a result of once I see issues, I feel to myself, ‘what would Blaze be doing now?'” says Pepper.
Blaze died on account of one thing way more elementary. He was once focused, and in line with investigators, slaughtered, on account of who he was once – a homosexual, Jewish guy. Tony Rackaukas, then the Orange County district legal professional, says this was once a hate crime. Government say Blaze’s killer was once a neo-Nazi, a member of a small violent hate team referred to as “Atomwaffen,” whose ideals have been deeply anti-LGBTQ + in addition to virulently antisemitic.
The killer is Samuel Woodward. He had as soon as been Blaze’s classmate again in highschool. That is about all Blaze and Woodward had in commonplace, in line with classmate Raiah Rofsky, who tells Smith, “They have been so other … about as other as it is advisable be.” Rofsky recalls Woodward’s unsettling presence. “He was once very quiet — very withdrawn, did not in reality communicate to folks.” Rofsky tells Smith Woodward had a name. “Racist, homophobic, sexist.”
And when phrase unfold that Blaze had long gone lacking whilst house in California on school iciness ruin, and that the ultimate particular person recognized to have noticed him was once Woodward, Rofsky’s response was once rapid. “The one explanation why I may call to mind Sam assembly up with Blaze is as a result of both primary, he sought after to connect to him, or two, as a result of he was once making plans to homicide him.” That was once January 2018.
Detectives arrested Woodward simply 10 days after Blaze disappeared in Borrego Park.
It’s been six painful years. There have been COVID delays, and a revolving door of protection attorneys who raised questions with the court docket about Woodward’s psychological well being and talent to protect himself. All of it left Jeanne Pepper and Gideon Bernstein pissed off and looking ahead to justice. “Gradual justice is not any justice,” says Pepper. “It is not honest to sufferers and it is not honest to the deceased.” In 2022, Woodward was once discovered competent to face trial. After all, in April 2024, the homicide trial started.
Remarkably, in spite of everything they have got persisted, the couple became their grief into hope. They based what they name “a kindness motion” – selling “positivity” and random acts of kindness in Blaze’s title. They name their motion “BlazeItForward.”
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In Borrego Park, the place Blaze took his ultimate breath, there may be that ordinary reaction — the loads of hand-painted stones, maximum left by way of overall strangers, within the reminiscence of Blaze Bernstein.
The silent stones discuss of tolerance and Blaze’s transformation into a type of martyr; his homicide a marker of rabid hate. His spirit offers inspiration to LGBTQ + folks, anyplace they reside and with whomever they love.
Jeanne Pepper tells Smith, “Blaze’s lifestyles mattered and he has a legacy, to create excellent information, to encourage folks to be higher, to be kinder. And to paintings on repairing the sector, as a result of it is not too overdue and we will make it higher.”
On July 3, 2024, Sam Woodward was once discovered to blame of first-degree homicide with a hate crime enhancement. On Nov. 15, Woodward was once sentenced to lifestyles in jail with out parole.
