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D4vd was arrested on suspicion of murder after Los Angeles police found the badly decomposed body of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez in the trunk of his impounded Tesla on September 8, 2025.
“Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery and Homicide Division have arrested David Burke, a 21-year-old Los Angeles resident, for the murder of Celeste Rivas. Burke is being held without bail,” police said in a social media post on Thursday, April 16. “The case will be presented to the district attorney’s office on Monday for consideration of an indictment.”
This development follows months of strict information blackout by authorities, who even obtained a court order preventing the Los Angeles County morgue from releasing the results of Rivas’ autopsy. The coroner’s office publicly objected to the security freeze, saying it prevented the agency from “serving our community with complete transparency.”
Body in the trunk
The then 20-year-old musician, real name David Anthony Burke, was on a tour across the United States when his dented 2023 Tesla Model Y was towed from the upscale Bird Streets neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills on September 5, 2025. The towing company called the police because the impounded vehicle was impounded, according to one of ROLLING STONE The search warrant, which was viewed, “emitted a foul odor and attracted flies.”
When investigators opened the trunk, they found Celeste Rivas’ remains in a black trash bag. The 15-year-old was later identified by friends and family as a missing girl from Lake Elsinore, a city about 120 kilometers southeast of Los Angeles. Online flyers show that her family reported her missing in February 2024 and again two months later in April 2024.
The body was so “severely decomposed” that the Los Angeles County coroner’s office could not determine the color of the eyes and reported the victim’s weight at 32 kilograms. “She appears to have been deceased in the vehicle for an extended period of time prior to her discovery,” an online coroner’s report said. The cause of death was listed as “pending” at the time.
Tattoo as a connection
Celesta’s mother reportedly told TMZ that her daughter was dating someone named “David” before her death. Photos shared online by people who have followed Burke’s career appear to show him with a girl who bears a striking resemblance to Celeste. Burke’s attorney did not respond to ROLLING STONE for comment despite repeated requests. Another strange detail: According to the coroner, Celeste had a tattoo on her right index finger that read “Shhh…”. A Getty Images photo showed Burke with a similar tattoo.
The Rivas family declined to speak to reporters who gathered outside their home on September 17. A friend who visited the house described Celeste as kind and “hardworking” and said the girl used to attend Lakeland Village School with her own child. “It’s so sad,” the friend, Rubi Alonso, tells Rolling Stone. “She was very beautiful.”
Sources in the area where the Tesla was last parked told Rolling Stone that the vehicle had been spotted in various locations over the past few months. The limousine had been parked at its last location on Bluebird Avenue for at least three weeks, and had been parked a few blocks south since the end of May, the sources said. “It changed locations,” a source said. “That’s frightening.”
Tour continued
When the body was first discovered, a law enforcement source confirmed that the Tesla was registered to Burke at an address in Hempstead, Texas. Burke was briefed on the investigation and a spokesman said at the time that he was “cooperating” with authorities. He continued touring uninterruptedly until his Sept. 17 show in Seattle was canceled after the missing girl was positively identified. At a concert in Minneapolis on September 9, Burke threw Labubu figurines into the audience.
Although Burke appeared unfazed until the victim was identified, fashion brands Crocs and Hollister withdrew from a campaign in which the musician had promoted a collaboration between the two companies. “We are aware of this developing story. Given the current situation, we have removed campaign content featuring D4vd while the investigation continues,” the brands said in a joint statement to Footwear News.
Burke was born in New York but grew up in Texas and has enjoyed an impressive rise in recent years. In 2022 he achieved his breakthrough with the hits “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me”, which went viral on TikTok and now have over a billion streams on Spotify. In May 2023 he released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns”.
Kali Uchis distances herself
Burke’s first studio album “Withered” was released in April 2025 by Interscope. It debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200 and features the single “Crashing” featuring Kali Uchis. After Rivas was identified as the girl found in the trunk of the Tesla, Uchis clarified on Instagram that she was not “friends” with Burke and sought to have their shared song removed from streaming platforms while the investigation was ongoing.
