Drones used in hunt for missing O.C. student
Jeanne Pepper Bernstein has been searching for her 19-year-old son since he went missing in Lake Forest on Tuesday. On Sunday afternoon, she had a message for him.
“If there’s any way you can come home, whatever has happened, wherever you’ve been, whoever you’ve talked to, it doesn’t matter,” she said in an interview with The Times. “We love you so much that we would give up everything we have to have you back.”
As she offered her wrenching plea, family and friends used drones to canvass the Foothill Ranch area of Lake Forest, where authorities believe Blaze Bernstein was last seen by a friend in Borrego Park. Meanwhile, Orange County sheriff’s investigators were “actively following leads” to solve his mysterious disappearance.
Sheriff’s officials said Bernstein, a pre-med student at the University of Pennsylvania, never returned to his parents’ home in Foothill Ranch late Tuesday night after visiting the park with a friend.
The friend told investigators that he went into a restroom at the park and when he came out, Bernstein was gone, said Carrie Braun, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff ’s Department. The friend last saw him about 11 p.m. Officials don’t believe foul play was involved and said the friend is not a suspect.
Bernstein left belongings behind — including his keys, wallet, credit cards and eyeglasses — when he left his parents’ home to see the friend “without saying goodbye — we didn’t even hear him leave,” said his father, Gideon Bernstein.
Pepper Bernstein felt something was off the next afternoon when Bernstein, the oldest of three children, didn’t show up for a dentist appointment. She’d hoped to have lunch with him before driving with him to the appointment. When Bernstein didn’t come home, she and her husband assumed he would meet her at the dentist.
The young man was scheduled to catch a f light to Pennsylvania early Sunday, Pepper Bernstein said, though there’s no sign he returned on his own. She said her son was excited to return to school. Over the weekend, she found a note on his computer describing how important it was to be an optimist. Bernstein, she said, managed his stress with school by cooking and writing.
Search efforts were expected to continue Monday. Sheriff’s investigators are urging anyone with information about Bernstein to call (714) 647-7000.
alene.tchekmedyian @latimes.com maria.cardona @latimes.com