d4vd Charged With Murder After Teen Girl’s Remains Found in Tesla

David Anthony Burke, the musician known as d4vd, was charged with murder in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose remains were found in a Tesla tied to him after she had been reported missing from Lake Elsinore, California, in April 2024. Burke, 21, has pleaded not guilty.

The Los Angeles County medical examiner ruled on April 22, 2026, that Rivas Hernandez died from multiple penetrating injuries caused by object(s) and that the manner of death was homicide. The office said a deputy medical examiner examined her on September 10, 2025, and that a court order had delayed release of the findings until now.

Investigators found the body in the front trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke after the car had been towed from a Hollywood Hills area. Reports at the time described the remains as badly decomposed and dismembered. Authorities had identified Burke as a suspect months before the arrest, according to major outlet reporting.

The case has drawn intense attention because Burke built his early fame through music tied to Fortnite gameplay montages before later releasing Fortnite’s first official anthem, Locked & Loaded, in September 2025 through a partnership with Epic Games. That online visibility helped make him a recognizable figure far beyond music circles, even as prosecutors now accuse him of far more serious conduct.

Reporting from The New York Times says prosecutors alleged Burke sexually abused Rivas Hernandez before killing her with a sharp weapon and mutilating her body. Rivas Hernandez’s family thanked the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for their work and said they want justice.

The case has become a grim example of how internet fame can collide with a violent criminal investigation, leaving a teen girl’s disappearance, a musician’s celebrity, and a family’s loss at the center of a homicide case now moving through the courts.