A Foul Smell At A Tow Yard
In September 2025, workers at a Hollywood impound lot noticed a foul smell coming from a towed Tesla. What they found inside would lead to one of the most disturbing murder cases in recent memory. The decomposing, dismembered body of 14 year old Celeste Rivas Hernandez was discovered wrapped in plastic in the trunk.
The Tesla was legally registered to David Burke, a 21 year old Queens born pop star known professionally as D4vd, best known for his viral hit "Romantic Homicide." Rivas had been reported missing by her family from Lake Elsinore, California in April 2024.
Seven Months Of Investigation
The LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division spent seven months building their case before arresting Burke at a home in the Hollywood Hills on April 16, 2026. He was taken into custody without incident and is being held without bail.
Captain Scot Williams of Robbery Homicide told reporters exclusively that investigators were "behind the eight ball from the beginning" because Rivas had been dead for a long time before the discovery.
"She had been dead for a long time before that, and so we were behind the eight-ball from the beginning. We had to backtrack through the evidence to make a determination as to when she died and then work our way forward from there."
The Horrific Details
Prosecutors revealed that D4vd used a chainsaw to dismember Celeste Rivas in his garage. A "burn cage" incinerator advertised to burn at 1,600 degrees was discovered at the Hollywood Hills mansion he was renting at the time. Investigators also found a "significant" amount of child sexual abuse material on Burke's iPhone.
Burke had been in the midst of a world tour that included a sold out show at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. He canceled all remaining shows amid the investigation. From the beginning, his attorneys say, he cooperated with authorities.
The Family Is Devastated
Rivas's family said they are facing "indescribable pain" after learning the brutal details of how the 14 year old died. A vigil was held in her memory in September 2025 shortly after her body was identified.
Burke's defense attorneys, Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter, maintain his innocence, stating that "the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez." The case is expected to go to trial.
