Police find missing teen’s remains in singer D4vd’s impounded Tesla

Police found the remains of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez inside the trunk of an impounded Tesla at Hollywood Tow after officers were called to the lot because of a foul odor coming from the vehicle. The discovery, made on Sept. 8, 2025, turned a missing-person case that began more than a year earlier into a death investigation centered on a car registered to David Anthony Burke, the musician known as D4vd.

The Tesla was a Model Y with Texas plates and had been reported abandoned in the Hollywood Hills before it was towed, according to investigators. It had sat on the tow lot for about five days before police opened the trunk. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said Rivas Hernandez was wearing black leggings, a tube top, a yellow metal chain bracelet and stud earrings when she was found. Law enforcement sources said the remains were not intact and had been in the vehicle for an extended period, and later accounts described the body as severely decomposed and dismembered.

Rivas Hernandez had been reported missing in April 2024 and was last seen on April 5, 2024, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office. Her death quickly became a major music-industry story because Burke, who was 21 at the time, was touring on his Withered World Tour when the body was discovered. Burke, who rose to fame with viral songs including “Romantic Homicide” and later gained wider attention for creating the anthem tied to Fortnite, is a Los Angeles resident originally from the Houston area. His family lives in Hempstead, Texas.

The investigation advanced through the fall and winter. A vigil for Rivas Hernandez was held in Lake Elsinore on Sept. 21, 2025. Court filings later showed Burke was the target of a Los Angeles grand jury investigation, and by Feb. 25, 2026, prosecutors had identified him as the official target of an active grand jury probe into the death, though no charges had been filed at that point. Burke’s team said he was aware of what happened and was fully cooperating with authorities, but he later canceled the rest of his U.S. tour and the European leg, and promotion for his planned deluxe album release was paused. On April 16, 2026, the Los Angeles Police Department said Burke had been arrested on suspicion of murder and was being held without bail, with the case set to be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Monday for filing consideration.