Grand jury probe targets singer after teen's body found in Tesla

The discovery of a decomposed teenager in the front trunk of a Tesla parked for weeks in the Hollywood Hills set off a sealed grand jury investigation that stayed hidden for months before police arrested singer David Anthony Burke in Hollywood.

Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old from the Lake Elsinore area in Riverside County, was identified as the victim after her remains were found on Sept. 8, 2025, in an impounded Tesla registered to Burke. Police said workers reported a foul odor after the car was towed from the Hollywood Hills lot, and NBC Los Angeles reported the remains were found a day after what would have been her 15th birthday. By then, she had been missing for nearly a year and a half.

The grand jury secrecy mattered because it kept the investigation from spilling into public view while prosecutors and detectives built their case. Court filings later unsealed in February 2026 confirmed Burke had been the target of a Los Angeles County grand jury probe. In those filings, District Attorney Nathan Hochman alleged Burke may have been involved in Celeste’s death and that she may have been a victim of foul play, framing the case as a homicide investigation rather than a simple death inquiry.

The filings also laid out the condition of the remains in stark detail. They said Celeste’s body was severely decomposed and dismembered, with her head and torso in one bag and her arms and legs in another. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner later received a court order on Nov. 21, 2025, to place a security hold on the case, blocking release of the cause and manner of death and other records while the hold remained in place. That restriction underscored how much of the evidentiary record was still being protected.

The investigation widened beyond California because Burke’s parents and brother, who live in Texas, fought subpoenas seeking their testimony. Their challenge moved through Texas courts before a stay was issued, showing how the case’s legal reach extended across state lines even as detectives kept their evidence tightly controlled.

On April 16, 2026, LAPD said it arrested Burke in Hollywood on a probable cause warrant and held him without bail. Police said the case would be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Monday for filing consideration. The arrest marked a major step, but it did not by itself establish guilt, only that investigators believed they had enough evidence to detain him and seek charges.

Burke, known professionally as D4vd, rose to fame in 2022 after songs he recorded on his phone for Fortnite videos went viral on TikTok. “Romantic Homicide” helped him land a deal with Darkroom/Interscope Records. Before the arrest, his attorney Blair Berk said there was no publicly disclosed evidence linking him to a crime and stressed his rights during an active investigation.