Singer D4vd charged with murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez
Prosecutors charged D4vd with murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez after her remains were found in his impounded Tesla more than a year after she vanished.
Los Angeles County prosecutors charged musician David Anthony Burke, known as D4vd, with first-degree murder in the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old girl whose remains were found in the front trunk of his impounded Tesla on September 8, 2025. Burke, 21, pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail as the case moves forward in Los Angeles County.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide and said the cause was multiple penetrating injuries caused by object(s). The office released its autopsy findings on April 22, 2026, adding a grim medical record to a case that had already drawn intense scrutiny because the victim was a child, her body was hidden in a celebrity’s vehicle, and investigators spent more than a year tracing what happened after she disappeared.
Celeste was reported missing on April 5, 2024. Her family’s first public statement was brief and devastating: “all we want is justice.” Her disappearance and the later discovery of her remains put a spotlight on the gap between a missing-child case and a homicide prosecution that took nearly a year to reach charges.
At a hearing, prosecutors said Celeste was under 14 when Burke allegedly engaged in repeated lewd and lascivious sexual relations with her. They also alleged Burke used a chainsaw to dismember her after stabbing her to death and that he possessed a significant amount of child sex abuse images on an iCloud account. Burke’s lawyers deny any involvement.
The criminal case has now become one of the most closely watched in California, not only because of Burke’s celebrity but because of the allegations surrounding a minor victim, sexual abuse, and concealment of the body in a car registered to him. With Burke in custody and prosecutors pressing first-degree murder and related charges, the case will test how Los Angeles County presents evidence of violence, exploitation, and the warning signs that may have gone unheeded before Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found.
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