Los Angeles police arrested 21-year-old singer David Burke, the alt-pop artist known as D4vd, on a probable-cause warrant for murder in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was discovered inside a Tesla registered to him. Burke is being held without bail, and Fox News Digital reported that police plan to present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office on Monday for filing consideration.
The arrest came months after the grim discovery and weeks after a grand jury investigation made Burke its named target. Hernandez, a seventh-grader from Lake Elsinore, California, a small city about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles, had been reported missing in 2024. She was just 14 years old.
Her remains were found on September 8 inside a 2023 Tesla Model Y that had been towed from a Hollywood Hills parking area. Tow yard workers noticed a foul odor coming from the vehicle. What they found inside was far worse than anyone could have expected.
Grand jury subpoena language, cited in court documents obtained by the Associated Press, described the scene in clinical but harrowing terms. Investigators found the body inside cadaver bags in the front trunk, or "frunk", of the Tesla. The remains were "covered with insects and a strong odor of decay."
Detectives partially unzipped the bag and observed a decomposed head and torso. When they removed the cadaver bag from the front storage compartment, they discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body. A second black bag underneath contained the dismembered parts.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office responded to the scene. Hernandez's cause of death has not been publicly revealed, AP News reported.
LAPD Captain Scot M. Williams told People magazine that investigators believe the Tesla had been parked at the location for several weeks before being towed, making it "very likely" Hernandez had been dead for weeks before the discovery. Newsmax reported that as of late September 2025, Burke had not been named as a suspect or charged, a status that changed dramatically with Thursday's arrest.
The case bears the hallmarks of investigations that take time to build, and the kind that haunt a community long after the headlines fade. In another case involving remains found in a vehicle, DNA confirmed an Oregon family missing since 1958 was found in a car submerged in the Columbia River, a reminder of how vehicles can conceal terrible secrets for years.
The investigation into Burke had been building quietly for months. In February, the Associated Press reported that Hernandez's body was found decomposed in an abandoned Tesla registered to D4vd and towed from the Hollywood Hills, citing court documents that had been sealed.
Those documents became public only after Burke's mother, father, and brother appealed grand jury subpoenas in Texas. The subpoenas, issued January 15, sought testimony from the three relatives. Prosecutors described the Houston-born singer as the target of the investigation.
The subpoena language was direct: "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]."
Investigators from the Washington Times reported that law enforcement sources believe others may have been involved in the death and disposal of Hernandez's remains, meaning Burke's arrest may not be the last in this case. The dismemberment and disposal, investigators believe, likely required more than one person.
That detail raises serious questions about who else may have known what happened to Celeste Rivas Hernandez, and when.
Burke's defense team, attorneys Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter, issued a forceful denial after the arrest. As Breitbart reported, the lawyers pushed back against the allegations:
"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."
The attorneys also emphasized the procedural posture of the case, noting that no grand jury indictment had been returned and no criminal complaint had been filed. "David has only been detained under suspicion. We will vigorously defend David's innocence," they said.
But the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division Commanding Officer, Captain Scot M. Williams, described a deliberate, methodical investigation. The New York Post reported Williams saying investigators came to a Hollywood Hills home with a probable-cause arrest warrant.
"They were able to put that aside and do the tedious, meticulous work that was needed to ensure we had an airtight case once it came time for an arrest."
That language, "airtight case", suggests investigators believe they have built something substantial, even as the defense insists the evidence will exonerate Burke. The District Attorney's office will now decide whether to file formal charges.
D4vd gained traction on TikTok in 2022 with "Romantic Homicide," a track that climbed to No. 4 on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released two projects, Petals to Thorns and The Lost Petals, in 2023.
He was on a U.S. tour at the time Hernandez's body was discovered and continued performing after the find. He later canceled the remaining shows and a planned European tour.
Celeste Rivas Hernandez, meanwhile, was a 13-year-old seventh-grader when she was reported missing from Lake Elsinore in 2024. Investigators now believe she was killed in spring 2025, and that her remains sat inside the Tesla for weeks before the September discovery.
She would have turned 15 the day before her body was found.
In Lake Elsinore, a memorial was left for Hernandez on Thursday. "She deserves justice," said Rubi Alonso, a resident who knew the family. The case involving a young victim and a public figure echoes other high-profile tragedies, including the capital murder case of 7-year-old Athena Strand, where a FedEx driver pleaded guilty after killing the child.
Several critical questions hang over this case. No formal charges have been filed. The cause and manner of Hernandez's death have not been publicly disclosed. And investigators have signaled that additional arrests may follow.
The relationship between Burke and Hernandez, a 21-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl, has not been publicly explained by authorities. How and when they came into contact, and what led to her death, remain open questions that prosecutors will need to address if charges are filed.
No statement from Burke himself has been made public. His attorneys have spoken on his behalf, but the gap between their denial and the investigators' confidence in an "airtight case" will be tested in court, if the District Attorney proceeds.
Cases involving prominent figures and violent death always draw intense public scrutiny. The death of former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax in a murder-suicide is another recent reminder that fame and public life offer no immunity from the darkest human conduct.
Burke's defense team may well mount a vigorous challenge. But the facts already on the public record, a missing 14-year-old girl, a dismembered body in cadaver bags, a Tesla registered to a rising pop star, and months of grand jury work, paint a picture that demands answers far beyond what any press statement can provide.
Meanwhile, in a case that also involved murder charges and an American victim abroad, the legal process ground forward methodically. The same will be expected here, and the people of Lake Elsinore, who watched a child vanish and never come home, will be watching closely.
A 14-year-old girl is dead. Someone put her body in a bag, severed her limbs, and left her in a car in the Hollywood Hills. The justice system now has one man in custody. The people who loved Celeste Rivas Hernandez deserve to know if it has the right one, and whether he acted alone.
