Kamal Ghorui
Singer D4vd has been arrested on suspicion of killing a 14-year-old girl whose decomposed body was found last year in an apparently abandoned Tesla registered to him that was towed from the Hollywood Hills, police said Thursday.
D4vd arrested without bail in murder case
As reported by the Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles police shared in a statement, “Homicide Division have arrested David Burke, a 21-year-old resident of Los Angeles, for the murder of Celeste Rivas. Burke is being held without bail. The case will be presented to the District Attorney’s office on Monday for filing consideration.”
Body of teen girl found in D4vd’s car
News of D4vd’s arrest comes over seven months after the police first found the decomposing body of the 14-year-old in his car. As reported by NCB, the body of Celeste was found in the trunk of the singer’s abandoned car on September 8, 2025. The car was impounded at Hollywood Tow. Officers were called to the lot because of a foul odor coming from the vehicle.
D4vd was ‘target’ of murder case
The singer had been under investigation by an LA County grand jury looking into the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. The probe was officially secret, but its existence – and the designation of D4vd as its target – was revealed on Feb. Singer D4vd was the target of a Los Angeles County grand jury investigation. The documents were obtained by The Associated Press. They were sealed in California, where the grand jury investigation has been kept secret. But they were made public by an appeal of the subpoenas in Texas from the singer’s mother, father and brother.The documents say the “Target may be involved in having committed the following criminal offenses against the laws of the State of California, to wit: One count of Murder.”Authorities had not publicly named D4vd – pronounced “David” – as a suspect in the case.
Victim’s body found decomposing in car
She was a 13-year-old seventh grader when her family reported her missing in 2024 from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. Authorities give her age as 14 when she was killed in the court documents.The subpoena says police investigators searching the 2023 Tesla Model Y in a tow yard found a cadaver bag “covered with insects and a strong odor of decay.”It says “detectives partially unzipped the bag and observed a decomposed head and torso.”Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office responded to the scene.“Upon removing the cadaver bag from the front storage compartment, it was discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body,” the document says. “A second black bag was discovered underneath the cadaver bag. Upon opening the second bag, the dismembered body parts were discovered.”
Court prevents release of information on case
The medical examiner’s office said in a statement that it has received a “court order, initiated by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), to place a security hold” on Rivas Hernandez’s case. The order issued on Friday demands that “no records or details associated with the case, including the cause and manner of death and Medical Examiner report, can be released or posted on the website until further notice,” the statement said.The order came several days after multiple Los Angeles TV stations reported police consider the Houston-born alt-pop singer a suspect, citing anonymous sources. LAPD Capt. Mike Bland said the security hold was not sought to undermine transparency, but to maintain the integrity of the police investigation, which is ongoing by detectives with the Robbery Homicide Division.“It was done so that our investigators get the information before the media and the public,” Bland said.
D4vd cancels tour following discovery of body
When the body was discovered, D4vd had been on tour in support of his first full-length album, “Withered.” Later, the last two North American shows, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with a scheduled performance at LA’s Grammy Museum, were canceled, as was the European tour that was to have begun in Norway.
