Found Deceased CA - Blaze Bernstein, 19, Lake Forest, 2 Jan 2018 #1

[DAnthrplgst]

I read that in one of the links provided above. The article said it had something to do with what he text to his friend around 11:30 pm. I'd like to know what that was.

DAnthrpigst, thank you for your insight about how gays hook up now and how things changed. I did not know any of that and it could even up being valuable to this case. It's too early to tell yet but secrets have come out during cases before.

What you say makes sense and that would explain the secrecy in the media about why he was there, etc. I think the family just wants to find him without having to give information out as to why he was there or why the friend left, and all that. Just a feeling.

The fact of the friend leaving after looking for him also gives me possible hook-up vibes. Under this scenario I can see the friend thinking that Blaze didn't return because he hit it off with the other person and they decided to take off, this idea maybe being solidified when he entered the park looking for Blaze but didn't find him, so the friend leaves, thinking Blaze is having a grand ol time with whoever he met.

I don't think this is drug related because his parents have stated that Blaze was very anti-drug and if it was weed related (assuming Blaze didn't consider weed a "drug") I don't think he would be buying weed in a park at night since recreational weed became legal in Calif on Jan 1st. Since Blaze was 19 I think he was legally able to buy it.

 

[Whiteorchids]

This seems plausible. May I ask, how long would such a meeting - if all goes well - in a park last? Apparently he had asked his friend in the car to wait for him, so he probably didn't expect to be gone long.

It might also be a drug deal gone wrong.

What other reasons are there for kids to meet someone in the park at night?

bbm

https://mynewsla.com/orange-county/...isappearance-of-college-student-from-oc-park/

Did it say in another article that he sent someone a text at 11.30 pm? Or did I misunderstand this? That would have been one hour after he left his friend in the car (who is a female btw per same article).

Was the phone turned off after that text?

It was first reported the friend waited in the car but later reported the friend waited by the restrooms. Perhaps as a lookout person?

 

[jnblsm]

It was first reported the friend waited in the car but later reported the friend waited by the restrooms. Perhaps as a lookout person?

The "friend" was a female?

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[DAnthrplgst]

This seems plausible. May I ask, how long would such a meeting - if all goes well - in a park last? Apparently he had asked his friend in the car to wait for him, so he probably didn't expect to be gone long.

It would depend on what they agreed to do but at that age it could be as short as maybe 10min or as long as maybe 30min. Generally speaking a quickie hook-up is just that, quick. When I used to do that sort of thing (damn, getting older SUCKS) if I were on the prowl for a quickie all would be said and done within 20-30min. Don't forget, we're talking about a 19yo here, they have a...umm...hair trigger if you will.

 

[Whiteorchids]

The "friend" was a female?

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No it was a male who took him to the park. It was a female friend he supposedly texted.

 

[UCLAEigenguy]

What implies that there was a drug deal, or drugs were even involved?
What implies that there was a gay hookup involved here?
Should we look at only those implications?
What else could it be?

Take what we think are implied, what do we have?


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Nothing... except being dropped off at a dark park at 11pm. Not being sarcastic. There's no evidence that we have, but also no mundane reason to be at that park at that hour.

 

[kkdj]

Naw, bathroom hook-ups are a thing of the past for the most part. Local LE have cracked down for years on those types of venues, going so far as to send in decoys for the express purpose of entrapping gay men. Now that we have the sex offender registry if you get busted for even propositioning someone for sex you will be placed on the registry as a sex offender, so the vast majority of gay men just don't risk it anymore, at least not in enclosed spaces like bathrooms. Public cruising as also been mostly replaced because of the advent of the phone apps, so instead of going somewhere and risking the cops hassling you, you just hop on the app and find someone.

I agree about the friend, I wish he or LE would reveal who Blaze was meeting that night but IF this was a hook-up I can certainly see why they would hold that type of info back, especially in Orange Co, which is a die-hard Republican strong-hold.

This is ill informed of us Orange Countians regarding gays.(as I interpreted your postings)
I hope they / we find this young man. He loves and is loved by many. Hope he is found quickly.

 

[Whiteorchids]

It would depend on what they agreed to do but at that age it could be as short as maybe 10min or as long as maybe 30min. Generally speaking a quickie hook-up is just that, quick. When I used to do that sort of thing (damn, getting older SUCKS) if I were on the prowl for a quickie all would be said and done within 20-30min. Don't forget, we're talking about a 19yo here, they have a...umm...hair trigger if you will.

What's a hair trigger and what exactly is done in a 20 min hookup? I don't know about this stuff. I'm heterosexual and never had hookups with males in a park and I dated a lot in my young HS modeling days. It is so different now a days. Don't people make love anymore? Have meaningful loving relationships or just these quickies in a public place? How sad this is what the young folks are doing these days.

 

[DAnthrplgst]

What's a hair trigger and what exactly is done in a 20 min hookup? I don't know about this stuff. I'm heterosexual and never had hookups with males in a park and I dated a lot in my young HS modeling days. It is so different now a days. Don't people make love anymore? Have meaningful loving relationships or just these quickies in a public place? How sad this is what the young folks are doing these days.

hair trigger = When we men are young we tend to get sexually aroused very quickly and can achieve orgasm relatively fast. That's the meaning of a hair trigger in this context. I don't want to get any more descriptive as I don't want to offend anyone who may find sexual talk objectionable.

As for a 20min hook-up. A lot could be done in 20 min, anything from strictly oral sex to intercourse. In my youthful days I could easily have intercourse and both of us reach orgasm within 20min easily, it's just the way the young male body is wired.

I can assure you that hook-up culture is only one part of heterosexual or homosexual relationships. Many people still make love and have lasting relationships. I could explain the nuances and history of hook-up culture in gay communities to you but you'd have to sign up for my semester long lecture on Gay Social History to get the gist of it.

 

[KooshBall]

I am trying to picture this park. When I think of local parks I think of being able to sit in the car and have a good visual on most of the park, which would mean the friend could see where he went. Was this park more of a forest?

 

[UCLAEigenguy]

I am trying to picture this park. When I think of local parks I think of being able to sit in the car and have a good visual on most of the park, which would mean the friend could see where he went. Was this park more of a forest?

Yes. So it's surprising to me that both Blaze and the friend would be ok being alone there. It backs up to a ranch as well as a pretty large wilderness. It's not like a community park in that it doesn't cover a small area.

I don't think the pin is in the correct spot. It should be the green finger to the left I believe.

 

['Ailina]

I perused his Facebook and didn't see any indication that he might be gay so this is complete speculation on my part and making a very big assumption.

The story as we know it now screams late night hook-up to me. Let's say for a moment that is what happened. With Blaze being home on break he couldn't have company at his parents house, he could have met someone who couldn't host either so the person suggests they meet in a private, isolate location, like a park. Blaze calls his friend for a lift over there (which frankly seems odd to me to begin with, if the park was that close why didn't he just walk, but I digress), Blaze goes to the park and walks in for his quickie hook-up (these types of hook-ups happen more frequently then many of you may be aware) once at the appointed spot one of a few scenarios could have happened:

1. Blaze and the guy do their thing, afterwards the guy (maybe someone suffering with internal homophobia) in a fit of anger kills Blaze. It's exceedingly rare that this scenario happens but it does happen.

2. Blaze goes into the park for his meeting but the person who suggested the meet-up only lured him there for the purpose of robbing him and beating him up. Since Blaze failed to bring his wallet, the guy or guys could have gotten angry and killed him. This is becoming more common place, gay men are being lured by gang members on gay dating apps for the purposes of robbing and beating them up. There is a current case out of Houston, TX of two cousins who lured multiple gay men for this purpose, they are known to have murdered at least two men but police suspect many more victims.

3. Blaze and the guy do their thing and Blaze, overcome with guilt and disgusted by himself after the fact, runs off. Again, this doesn't happen too often anymore but it does happen.

Having once been a young and foolish gay man I am not proud to admit that I put myself into situations that could have gone VERY wrong, very quickly and I know young gay, and especially bi or bi-curious, men still put themselves into very questionable situations in order to have a sexual liaison.

This was my first thought, because...I had a friend -- I'll call him "Randy" -- years ago who left the house in the same way, around the same timeframe, heading to a park. Randy didn't know the guy he was going to meet, so our mutual friend, "Tim," explained he was gonna drive him "just in case." They came back about an hour later.

Reading your speculation here seemed way plausible to me, especially with so many hookup apps and the way those encounters can unfold in a protracted period of time.

Just a guess, but the driver friend may have intended to wait around for a while and then got that last text that may have said something along the lines, "Everything's cool. I'll text you later when I'm ready," or something like that. I can see the friend figuring everything was good, leaving, going to sleep, then waking up later and becoming very concerned that there was no more word from Blaze.

If this is at all close to what happened, I'm hoping Blaze was using a hookup app or site, and in that case, there will be an electronic trail. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't it take a bit of time to go through the proper channels to obtain that kind of evidence?

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[Whiteorchids]

This was my first thought, because...I had a friend -- I'll call him "Randy" -- years ago who left the house in the same way, around the same timeframe, heading to a park. Randy didn't know the guy he was going to meet, so our mutual friend, "Tim," explained he was gonna drive him "just in case." They came back about an hour later.

Reading your speculation here seemed way plausible to me, especially with so many hookup apps and the way those encounters can unfold in a protracted period of time.

Just a guess, but the driver friend may have intended to wait around for a while and then got that last text that may have said something along the lines, "Everything's cool. I'll text you later when I'm ready," or something like that. I can see the friend figuring everything was good, leaving, going to sleep, then waking up later and becoming very concerned that there was no more word from Blaze.

If this is at all close to what happened, I'm hoping Blaze was using a hookup app or site, and in that case, there will be an electronic trail. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't it take a bit of time to go through the proper channels to obtain that kind of evidence?

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This sounds plausible so if this could have been what went down where is he and what could have happened during this encounter?

 

[Whiteorchids]

You would think there would be surveillance cameras in that park. There is a children's playground and located in a very nice area. Wouldn't there be other cars in the parking lot?

 

['Ailina]

You would think there would be surveillance cameras in that park. There is a children's playground and located in a very nice area. Wouldn't there be other cars in the parking lot?

I doubt there would be other cars at the time of night Blaze was there. But from what I could tell, the surrounding area might have plenty of surveillance cameras -- shopping center, library, Kawasaki corporate headquarters, et al. And there's a toll road that runs straight through it all. Surely, this person was caught on video.

As someone mentioned earlier, the park is also next to a wilderness park that features a very long hiking trail leading up into hills and an observation point.

I don't think Blaze ended up in the wilderness park though. If this was foul play, I think the person responsible would've wanted to distance themselves from the "take-point" as quickly as possible.

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[katydid23]

I am also still wondering about a possible 'self harm' situation.

Something hit me when the parents said that he had made them dinner before he went missing. Then he leaves his belongings behind and has his friend drop him off alone at the park at 11 pm...19 can be a very rough age....:candle:

 

['Ailina]

I am also still wondering about a possible 'self harm' situation.

Something hit me when the parents said that he had made them dinner before he went missing. Then he leaves his belongings behind and has his friend drop him off alone at the park at 11 pm...19 can be a very rough age....:candle:

I think that's plausible, too. From the article https://patch.com/california/lakeforest-ca/missing-lake-forest-have-you-seen-blaze-bernstein :

"He recently became managing editor of the foodie magazine at the University of Pennsylvania, called Penn Appetit," he said. "So he was very excited about that. He was working on that over the winter break and showed us the magazine they just published, which he significantly contributed to."

He said his son is a sophomore planning to declare a major in psychology with a minor in chemistry and "pursuing it with a pre-med focus."

------

It was exhausting and stressful just reading his major plans.

This scenario would also make sense if the toll road sighting was true. That was at 5:30 AM. He might've been wandering around the parks for hours, thinking, then decided to hitchhike. If that's the case.... [emoji852]️



(Edited for typo)

 

[JerseyGirl]

It is now being reported that Blaze was 'upset' at the time:

Bernstein texted a friend from high school, asked him to pick him up and take him to Borrego Park to meet someone. The friend told detectives Bernstein was upset at the time. The friend waited in the car, then tried texting Bernstein without luck. The friend left the park and came back at 4 a.m. to look again, but Bernstein wasn’t there.

Bernstein is described as meticulous, always on time always returned text messages and has a zero tolerance policy for drug use.

“He left behind his wallet, his glasses that’s not him,” his dad said. “He’s a planner. He was intending to come home that night.”

His mom recalls a recent conversation, asking him to turn on the location services on his phone. Because he was in school so far away, she wanted a way that she could always find him. The feature however was turned off. The phone is dead.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2018/01/05/missing-student-from-foothill-ranch/

bbm

 

[inmyhumbleopinion]

I’m afraid I do not have anything to contribute in terms of sleuthing as I really don’t know what to think (so many possible scenarios ...).

I just wanted to post the following link to a list of MSM stories a close friend of Blaze and his family has compiled (it appears the document is being updated on a regular basis, which is great, IMO):

https://m.facebook.com/groups/169267027168089?view=permalink&id=169547793806679

It appears the page has two admins at the moment (Blaze’s Dad and the aforementioned friend):

https://m.facebook.com/groups/169267027168089?view=permalink&id=169611537133638

 

[Timekeeper65]

DAnthrplgst thank you sharing your perspective.