D4vd arrested in teen death case after remains found in Tesla

Los Angeles police arrested D4vd in Hollywood on April 16, 2026, in connection with the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose remains were found months earlier in the front trunk of an impounded Tesla registered to the singer, David Anthony Burke. Police said Burke was being held without bail.

The arrest has put a stark criminal case beside a fast-rising music career. Burke, who performs as D4vd, released his debut studio album, WITHERED, on April 25, 2025, through Darkroom and Interscope. That same year, a press release said he had teamed with Epic Games to release Fortnite’s first-ever official anthem, “Locked & Loaded (Official Fortnite anthem),” while touring on a sold-out WITHERED world tour.

The death investigation centers on Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose remains were identified by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner in September 2025. Authorities said the body was found on September 8, 2025, in the Tesla’s front trunk after the vehicle was taken to a Hollywood tow yard. Reports said Rivas Hernandez had been missing since 2024 from the Lake Elsinore area of Riverside County, and NBC News reported that she was 15. Other accounts described her as 14 or 15.

Her family created a verified GoFundMe after the identification, describing her as a beloved daughter, sister, cousin and friend and saying the family was heartbroken and devastated by the loss. The family’s public response, and the medical examiner’s identification, made the case personal long before the arrest brought Burke into custody.

Burke’s lawyers said they would vigorously defend his innocence. The case has drawn unusually wide attention because the discovery of decomposed remains in an abandoned vehicle at a Hollywood tow yard collided with the public image of a young artist in the middle of a breakthrough year, turning a missing-person inquiry into one of the most closely watched death investigations in Los Angeles.