Syncs Most Sinister: Samuel Lincoln Woodward and Blaze Bernstein

Samuel Lincoln Woodward

News broke on January 12, 2018, of the high profile arrest of a "Lincoln" tied to several lexilink/name syncs.

I wrote on January 7th, "Something tells me, let's call it a hunch, that Lincoln will be one of the names giving us pause in 2018."

Blaze Bernstein

The Timeline:

January 2, 2018.

Blaze Bernstein, a 19-year-old Jewish student at the University of Pennsylvania, went missing on Tuesday, January 2, 2018, from his parents’ Southern California home, reported The Times of Israel.

January 9, 2018.

Bernstein’s body was found Tuesday, January 9, 2018, in brush surrounding Borrego Park in Lake Forest, California, his hometown, CBS News reported. 

January 10, 2018.

His death was investigated as a homicide and an autopsy was performed on Wednesday, January 10, 2018.

Samuel Lincoln Woodward

Blaze Bernstein (right) and Samuel Lincoln Woodward

January 12, 2018.

On Friday, January 12, 2018, Samuel Lincoln Woodward was arrested in connection with the death of Blaze Bernstein​, whose body was found in Borrego Ranch Park, a week after he was reported missing by his family.

Woodward as taken into custody shortly after leaving his home in Newport Beach. He was booked into Orange County jail booking # 3034445 on January 12, 2018. He had told homicide​ investigators that he drove Bernstein to Borrego Ranch Park on the night of January 2, 2018.

Woodward’s hands were scratched and had dirt on them one of the times he was interviewed by detectives. He told them the scratches and dirt came from participating in a Fight Club​.
Woodward stated he left the park, visited a girlfriend and went back to look for Bernstein hours later in the early morning. He also stated he did not remember his girlfriend’s last name or where she lived. 2

Jeanne Pepper Bernstein, mother of the deceased student, told The Los Angeles Times: "Celebrate the goodness that still exists in this world in spite of these acts of senseless evil."

January 15, 2018

The Times of Israel noted: "Authorities said Monday that a 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student whose body was found buried in a shallow grave in a California park had been stabbed more than 20 times. No weapon has been found."

January 18, 2018

The Los Angeles Times headlines their story this date with a confusing headline: "LGBTQ college student is stabbed 20 times, but was it a hate crime?"

The article reveals some alleged facts behind the death of Blaze Bernstein. "

Woodward would go on to tell detectives that Bernstein had kissed him, according to a law enforcement source who was unauthorized to discuss the case publicly and requested anonymity. Woodward, the source said, also told investigators he had wanted to call Bernstein a “faggot.”

Woodward and Bernstein

Samuel Lincoln Woodward and Blaze Bernstein went to the Orange County School of the Arts together.

Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men; Reporters Woodward and Bernstein.

Online comment makers in Los Angeles mentioned the bizarre coincidence of the Woodward/Bernstein names in this case, and the names of the two individuals who broke the Watergate case.

Names defined

Blaze is a very large or fiercely burning fire (like the wildfires in southern California in late 2017).

Bernstein is a Jewish surname meaning "amber." Amber is a jewel name that became popular in the 19th century, from the name of the yellowish fossil resin used in jewellery-making.

We do not know why Woodward was named "Samuel Lincoln."

Samuel is a male given name and a surname of Hebrew origin meaning either "name of God" or "God has heard." 

Lincoln, see "Name Game: Lincoln," January 7, 2018.

Woodward is a name deriving its meaning from an occupation name for "a forester employed to look after the trees and game in a forest." Forest warden. Middle English woodward (from the Old English). Perhaps also from an Old English personal name Wuduweard, composed of the elements wudu "wood" + weard "guardian," "protector." Wuduwose, "wild man of the woods," reveals the same origins.

The Borrego name has an association with the "Borrego Sandman," the so-called southern California desert Sasquatch. Native peoples in the area are said to have lived with knowledge of large, fowl-smelling, wild men in the area, and avoided their reported home (called towis puki "camp of the devil") on the southern bank of the Santa Ana River. Specifically, "borrego" translates as "lamb" or "bighorn sheep" (to some) from Spanish; the word may be a derogatory term for someone of Portuguese descent, or a gentle, foolish, or gullible person. The Bernstein murder occurred in the Borrego Park in Lake Forest, California. The Sandman reports are referenced most often to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Bernstein Bears

Another bizarre link to this is the "Bernstein"/Mandela Effect thoughts that are immediately brought to mind with this murder. The victim's name, Blaze Bernstein brings forth these notions. 

Some theorists "believe that the name of the books was actually Berenstein at one point, but we've shifted into a parallel universe — an alternative timeline, if you will — where the title of the books is The Berenstain Bears. There's actually a name for this theory: The Mandela Effect." ~ Aug 5, 2015

Snopes.com discounts this phenomenon:

No single example of the Mandela Effect has generated more online buzz than that of the children’s book series and animated TV show The Berenstain Bears. Quite a few people who grew up with the series, it turns out, remember the title being The Berenstein Bears, with the name ending in “ein” instead of “ain” (with some even going to go so far as to maintain that the fictional bears’ surname was changed along the way to make it “less Jewish”).

h/t to S.L. and others. 

Sources, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.  See also, Name Game: Lincoln.