CBS News: UPenn Student Stabbed Up To 20 Times In California Park
SANTA ANA, Calif. (CBS) -- New details have emerged into the murder of a University of Pennsylvania student found dead in a park near his California home, while he was home for winter break.
Authorities say 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein was stabbed as many as 20 times before his body was shoved into a shallow grave in an Orange County, California park, according to CBS News.
The Penn student was first reported missing by his family on Jan. 3, and his body was found four days later.
READ: Arrest Made After Missing UPenn Student Found Dead In California Park
Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 20, was arrested Friday afternoon and is expected to be formally charged Wednesday.
A local Santa Ana newspaper, the Orange County Register, reports Woodward told investigators Bernstein tried to kiss him in the park the night Bernstein went missing.
Bernstein's parents have released a statement following the latest details of their son's death.
"We are saddened to hear, on the day we laid our son to rest, that gruesome details of the cause of his death were published. Our son was a beautiful, gentle soul who we loved more than anything. We were proud of everything he did and who he was. He had nothing to hide. We are in solidarity with our son and the LGBTQ community. There is still much discovery to be done and if it is determined that this was a hate crime, we will cry not only for our son, but for LGBTQ people everywhere that live in fear or who have been victims of hate crime."
