Singer D4vd arrested in death of missing 14-year-old Celeste Hernandez

The arrest in Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s death brought a new legal turn to a case that has gripped Los Angeles for months and placed a 14-year-old girl from Lake Elsinore at the center of a homicide investigation. Los Angeles police said David Anthony Burke, the 21-year-old singer known as D4vd, was taken into custody on April 16 and is being held without bail.

Celeste’s remains were discovered on Sept. 8, 2025, inside the front trunk of an impounded Tesla registered to Burke after officers were called to a Hollywood tow yard because of a foul odor coming from the vehicle. Authorities identified the victim as Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old from Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, California, who died before her 15th birthday.

Police had been investigating the case as a homicide for months before the arrest. The Los Angeles Police Department said the case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Monday for filing consideration, setting up the next step in a prosecution that comes more than seven months after the body was found.

Celeste had been reported missing multiple times in 2024, according to reporting that cited Riverside County Sheriff’s Office records. Earlier reporting also said she and Burke had been dating before her disappearance. Other coverage said some of Burke’s friends believed she was 19 and a USC student because she had been seen at age-restricted events, underscoring how the case has raised questions about how a child could have moved through adult spaces without being recognized as a minor.

Burke, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, was described in local reporting as being from the Houston area, with family living in Waller County, Texas. The singer was living in Los Angeles when investigators linked the impounded Tesla to the death. The arrest has drawn broader attention because of the age gap, the long disappearance, and the discovery of Celeste’s body in a vehicle tied to a rising music star.

For Celeste’s family, the case now moves from search and identification into the criminal justice process. What remains unchanged is the human loss at its center: a teenage girl who disappeared in 2024 and never came home.