Los Angeles police arrested 21-year-old singer D4vd, legal name David Anthony Burke, on Thursday on suspicion of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose dismembered remains were discovered months earlier inside a Tesla registered to him. The arrest caps a months-long investigation that began when tow yard workers noticed a foul odor coming from the impounded vehicle last September.
Burke is being held without bail. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said the case would be presented to its Major Crimes Division for a filing decision, with an update expected Monday. No formal charges had been filed at the time of the arrest, and no grand jury indictment had been returned, facts Burke's defense team was quick to emphasize.
The case lays bare a grim set of facts: a missing 14-year-old girl, a famous young musician, a body hidden in bags in the front trunk of a luxury car, and an investigation that took more than half a year to produce an arrest. For the family of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, Thursday's news was a long time coming.
Hernandez's family filed a missing persons report in April 2024, telling officials she had a boyfriend named David. More than a year passed. Then, in September 2025, tow yard employees in Los Angeles reported a foul smell emanating from an abandoned 2023 Tesla Model Y. Breitbart reported that court documents say the body was found in bags inside the Tesla and that the victim's arms and legs had been severed.
The Tesla was registered to David Anthony Burke. The Washington Times reported that her remains were found in two cadaver bags in the front trunk, the "frunk", of the vehicle. At the time of the discovery, D4vd was on tour.
LAPD Captain Scot M. Williams told People magazine last year that investigators knew Hernandez had died and that someone placed her body in the trunk. But at that point, as Newsmax reported, investigators had not determined the cause or manner of death, and Williams acknowledged they did not yet know whether anyone bore criminal culpability beyond concealing the body.
"We know for sure that Celeste Rivas Hernandez died and someone placed her body in the front trunk area of David Burke's Tesla. We don't know for sure if anyone has any criminal culpability for her death beyond the concealment of her dead body."
That uncertainty hung over the case for months. Investigators believe the Tesla had been parked for several weeks before it was towed on September 8, suggesting the body may have been inside the vehicle for a prolonged period.
By February, the Daily Caller reported, D4vd had been identified as a "target" of a grand jury investigation. The grand jury heard testimony from several witnesses associated with the singer, including his daily manager Robert Morgenroth and his friend, streamer Neo Langston.
Cases involving dismembered remains found in vehicles are rare but not unheard of. In other missing-person investigations, vehicles in law enforcement custody have proved central to building cases against suspects.
Then on Thursday, LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division moved in. Burke was arrested at the Los Angeles home where he had been staying. Fox News reported that LAPD announced the arrest and confirmed Burke was being held without bail, with the case to be presented to the District Attorney's office for filing consideration.
LAPD Captain Williams told the New York Post that the department had been working carefully under public pressure to build what he described as a solid case. The Post reported that Williams said detectives moved once they developed probable cause.
"Once we developed probable cause to arrest him for murder, then we were on him pretty diligently."
Burke's attorneys, Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter, issued a statement to TMZ shortly after the arrest. They denied Burke killed Hernandez or caused her death, and they stressed the procedural posture of the case: no indictment, no criminal complaint, only a detention on suspicion.
"Let us be clear, 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. There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion. We will vigorously defend David's innocence."
That statement raises a question the public will be watching closely. A grand jury heard testimony from multiple witnesses. Investigators spent months building the case. Yet as of the arrest, prosecutors had not filed charges. The DA's office said prosecutors would review the facts and evidence to determine whether sufficient evidence existed to proceed.
The gap between arrest and formal charges is not unusual in complex homicide cases. But it means the legal process is only beginning.
Celeste Rivas Hernandez was 14 years old. Her family reported her missing in April 2024. The source material notes one striking detail: she and D4vd shared identical tattoos of the word "Shhh..." on their right index fingers. No official agency has been identified as confirming the nature of their relationship, though the family told officials she had a boyfriend named David.
The discovery of remains long after a person vanishes is a pattern that recurs in missing-person cases across the country. In one recent case, hikers discovered the remains of a missing Washington mother more than a year after she disappeared.
Several major questions remain unanswered. The cause and manner of Hernandez's death have not been publicly disclosed. No motive has been stated by investigators. And perhaps most significantly, the Washington Times reported that law enforcement sources believe others may have been involved in Hernandez's death and the disposal of her remains. Sources cited by ABC News, as relayed by the Washington Times, said investigators believe the dismemberment and disposal likely involved more than one person.
That detail matters. If prosecutors believe the killing and concealment required accomplices, Burke's arrest may be the first, not the last, in this case.
In other high-profile disappearance cases, forensic evidence and multi-suspect investigations have proved essential. DNA evidence in one disappearance case helped link a suspect to the crime scene, illustrating how forensic work can take months to yield results.
Celeste Rivas Hernandez's father responded to the arrest with relief. In a statement provided through the family's attorney, he said simply:
"Thank God... justice for Celeste."
Rubi Alonso, a Lake Elsinore resident who knew the family, told the Washington Times: "She deserves justice."
D4vd, a singer who had performed at Coachella as recently as April 2025 and attended industry events like Variety's Power of Young Hollywood, now sits in a Los Angeles jail without bail. His attorneys promise a vigorous defense. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to file charges. And a family that spent more than a year searching for a missing girl now waits for the courts to determine what happened to her.
In cases where major law enforcement operations have produced detentions in disappearance cases, the road from arrest to conviction has often been long and contested. This case shows every sign of following that pattern.
Celebrity does not make a person guilty. But it does not make a person immune, either. A 14-year-old girl is dead, her body was found in pieces inside a car registered to a famous man, and the justice system now has to do its job, thoroughly and without favor.
