Los Angeles charges TikTok star D4vd with killing teen Celeste Rivas Hernandez

Los Angeles prosecutors have charged musician David Anthony Burke, known as D4vd, with murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez and hiding what they say was a brutal killing behind a public image built on fame and music.

The complaint includes murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains. Prosecutors also filed special-circumstance allegations of murder of a witness, murder for financial gain and lying in wait. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said Burke faces death or life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted, although prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek capital punishment.

Investigators allege Celeste was invited to Burke’s Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, and was never seen again. Her decomposed and dismembered body was later found on Sept. 8, 2025, in the front trunk of a car registered to Burke that had been impounded after being reported abandoned. Prosecutors said Burke cut up her body and placed the remains in two bags inside the car’s front trunk.

Burke pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on April 20, 2026, at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. His attorneys have maintained his innocence and said, “The actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death. We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.”

The medical examiner’s report released April 22, 2026, listed Celeste’s cause of death as “multiple penetrating injuries.” The report said the torso wounds may have been sharp-force injuries, but the exact objects used were not identified. Decomposition was so extensive that the autopsy could not determine the official time of death. The report also said the body had been found in a zippered cadaver bag, with a second bag of remains in the trunk.

Celeste’s family, in their first public statement, thanked the Los Angeles Police Department, the District Attorney’s Office and the people of Lake Elsinore. “We miss her deeply. All we want is justice for Celeste,” the family said.

The case now moves toward a fight over intent, cause of death and the circumstances prosecutors say turned a missing-person report into a capital case.