A “closeted” neo-Nazi who brutally murdered his gay classmate told his victim’s parents he wanted to help find their son after his disappearance.

Samuel Woodward, 27, was sentenced in November to life in prison without parole for the murder of 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein seven years ago.

Woodward and Bernstein met over Christmas 2018 after Bernstein – who was also Jewish – spotted his former classmate on Tinder and started a conversation.

Bernstein was visiting his family in California over the winter holidays when he went out with Woodward and disappeared.

His body was found days later buried in a shallow grave in Borrego Park in Lake Forest after being stabbed repeatedly in the face and neck.

Seven years after his death, ABC News uncovered a phone call between Blaze’s father, Gideon Bernstein, and Woodward.

The elder Bernstein tells Woodward, “We haven’t heard from him all day.” He missed an appointment today, and then we started getting worried and I tried to figure things out. So they’re the first real clue to the mystery here.

Woodward replied, “Yeah, I feel like (expletive), honestly, I’m sorry.” “I want to find Blaze as much as you do.”

In that call, Woodward also told Bernstein that his son had suggested driving to a nearby park to meet another friend.

He told the worried father: “He got out of the car and I got out too and just asked him, ‘Who is this guy?’

“And (Blaze) just said, ‘You’re about to find out, you know. He’s a friend of mine.’

“And then I was like, ‘Okay, Blaze.’ And I just waited there by the toilet and he, I didn’t see where he went.”

The phone exchange left the concerned family with more questions than answers, and they contacted police to express their concerns about Woodward.

He was then placed under surveillance by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which later brought him in for questioning.

A comprehensive investigation into the missing teenager followed, which uncovered a social media exchange between the pair, who planned to meet in the park later that evening.

Bernstein’s body was later found in a shallow grave in the park. He had been stabbed repeatedly in the face and neck.

At Woodward’s sentencing, Bernstein’s mother admitted she finds comfort in knowing the fate of her son’s killer While he “rots in prison, we will be out here celebrating Blaze’s life.”

Prosecutors alleged Woodward was affiliated with the violent, anti-gay, neo-Nazi extremist group Atom Waffen Division.

However, Woodward’s attorney said his client did not intend to kill anyone or hate Bernstein.

Instead, Morrison insisted that Woodward faced difficult personal relationships due to a long-undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder.

Bernstein and Woodward attended the same high school, the Orange County School of the Arts.

The couple met on a dating app in the months before Bernstein’s brutal murder.

Woodward claimed that on the night of Bernstein’s death, he picked up his then-classmate, went to a nearby park and stabbed him repeatedly after attempting to obtain a cellphone that he feared was being used to photograph him had been, had failed.

During the trial, Woodward’s legal team also claimed he was confused about his sexuality.

The 27-year-old grew up in a politically conservative and devout Catholic family in which his father openly criticized homosexuality. The prosecution, however, told a different story.

They said Woodward repeatedly targeted gay men online by reaching out to them and abruptly cutting off contact, while also keeping a hateful, profanity-laced diary of his actions.

Authorities said they also found a black nuclear weapon mask with traces of blood, a folding knife with a bloody blade and a variety of anti-gay, anti-Semitic and hate materials during a search of his family’s home in Newport Beach, California.

As a result of his conviction, Woodward will spend the rest of his life in prison.