True Crime Society – The death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez – is d4vd involved?

In this blog, we are going to discuss the ongoing case regarding the singer d4vd and the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Celeste was 14 when her body was found in d4vd’s abandoned Tesla in September 2025. The investigation is still ongoing.

We are going to run through what we know to date in the case and we will start with the backgrounds of both d4vd and Celeste.

D4vd was born David Anthony Burke on March 28, 2005. He was born in Queens, New York. He would later move with his family to Houston. When David reached the seventh grade, he started to be homeschooled. He apparently listened to nothing but gospel music until he was 13. He played piano and also sang in a church choir.

He once said in an interview with Astrophe Magazine: “I get my personal power from God for sure. I am a heavy believer in the Christian faith.”

D4vd enjoyed playing Fortnite and he liked watching montages made by fans of the game. He began to make his own edits but became dejected when they were demonitised for copyright. His mother suggested that d4vd make his own music, and he did just that.

His first big success in the music industry was in 2022 when his songs ‘Romantic Homicide’ and ‘Here With Me’ went viral.

“The thing about the music [he made] for Fortnite is that they were also great songs. I made the songs for videos in the gaming community, and they were able to be used in that context. But when I was making those songs I never thought, ‘OK, I’m a gamer, I’m going to make a song specifically for this. I’m going to be super corny with it, it’s just going to be for these people in a particular audience and I’m going to box myself into this persona’. I knew what I liked, what I didn’t like, my inspirations and my passions. And music was weaving its way into my life very subtly and sneakily.”

Due to being homeschooled, his music often referenced situations that he was yet to experience himself. “When I started making these songs, I realised that I was talking about very complex things in love and relationships, feelings and emotions that I wasn’t experiencing at the time. I was able to be a conduit for the people in my life, talking to my friends about their relationships, or relationship problems and how their breakups affected them.”

Celeste was born on September 7, 2010.  She lived in Lake Elsinore, California.  Celeste attended Lakeland Village High School. Celeste’s friend Rubi Alonso described her as ‘sweet and studious.’ 

Her home life appears to have been quite troubled – she was reported missing at least three times in 2024, when she was 13/14.   The most recent missing report for Celeste was made in April 2024. 

An ex-boyfriend of Celeste’s spoke to NewsNation about her home situation.

“He said that she would say that her parents were really mean, and that she didn’t like being at home,” TMZ’s Charles Latibeaudiere told “Banfield”.

Damien Hernandez, 15, who dated Celeste in middle school, revealed that when he first connected with Celeste, she was kind and looking for something serious.

Damien said that Celeste talked often about running away from home.  She did not indicate though that there was any abuse.  

“It was just more about her not liking the environment that she was in,” Damien said.

Despite Celeste being reported missing in April 2024, there is video online which shows her at the family home.  So it is thought she visited them at least once after she ran away.

Celeste’s mother has later spoken to the media and said that she believed her daughter was dating a man named David when she ran away.

There is a really comprehensive timeline on reddit which outlines a lot of the case from 2022 onwards.

D4vd released Romantic Homicide on September 7, 2022 which was coincidentally Celeste’s 12th birthday.  D4vd would have been 16 at the time.

Around this time, Celeste and d4vd were interacting publicly on the Discord platform.

The two would interact on Discord until Celeste went missing in 2024.

On September 7, 2023, Celeste’s 13th birthday,  d4vd posted ‘birthday suicide’  on Discord.  

He posted a picture with Celeste on December 13, 2023.  Ten days later, he released a demo song titled ‘ Celeste’. 

Lyrics:

Oh, Celeste

The girl with my name tattooed on her chest

Smell her on my clothes like cigarettes

I hear her voice each time I take a breath

I’m obsessed

Oh, Celeste

Afraid you’ll only love me when undressed

But you look so damn gorgeous in that dress

Missing you so much makes me depressed

But I digress, because

I love you so, so much

D4vd went live with Celeste on January 11, 2024.  

Celeste ran away from home on February 14, 2024 ( Valentine’s Day).  She returned home in March 2024 and ran away for the final time in April 2024. 

In June 2024, d4vd posted a TikTok that included Celeste.  She was seen backstage with him on June 27, 2024.

According to the reddit timeline, this was the last time that Celeste was confirmed to have been alive.  There are online comments that Celeste was still in contact with her close friends until around July/August 2025. 

In September 2024, d4vd got a ‘shh’ tattoo.  After she was found dead, Celeste would be found with a matching one.

In February 2025, D4vd posted a video of him cleaning Celeste’s shoes.

It gets a bit complicated here, because in July 2025, d4vd started hanging out with another girl, also named Celeste.  Her last name is Herrera and she was 23 at the time.

Around June/July 2025,  Celeste H was seen wearing Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s hoodie – this was the item of clothing that she was wearing when her family last saw her.

On July 30, 2025, d4vd apparently performed and threw a funeral for his ‘alter ego.’  The performance had a hearse/casket/funeral service.  

This info about some of d4vd’s other music is from NewsNation:

Observers have noted that some of the R&B singer’s music is eerily macabre, with him performing in what looks like a bloodied shirt, a coffin on stage and lyrics like, “In the back of my mind, I killed you// And I didn’t even regret it// I can’t believe I said it// But it’s true// I hate you.”

There is also a music video, released in February this year, that features a body being dragged and put into the trunk of a car.  

A private investigator who has been involved in the case would later come out and say that the Tesla was parked on the curb outside d4vd’s home from ‘late July.’  

“I’m not sure exactly when the parking complaints about the Tesla began, but it was closer to the beginning part of August,” Captain Williams told the Los Angeles Times.

On August 5, 2025, d4vd started to tour for his latest album ‘Withered.’  

On September 3, 2025, d4vd’s Tesla was cited for violating a 72-hour parking ordinance.

On September 5, 2025, his Tesla was impounded and taken to a Los Angeles tow yard.

On September 8, 2025, workers at the yard reported a foul odour coming from the Tesla.  They also said that the vehicle was attracting flies.  LAPD attended and announced that a body had been found in a bag in the front trunk of the Tesla.   News sources did also indicate that the body may have been dismembered.

The body was identified as being Celeste Rivas Hernandez.  Her remains were found the day before her 15th birthday.  

Her body was so “severely decomposed” that the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office could not distinguish her eye color or race and listed her weight as 71 pounds. “She appears to have been deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found,” the medical examiner’s office said in an online report.

The LAPD would also confirm that the car had been ticketed for 11 days before Celeste was found, which strongly indicates that she was in the trunk for that entire period.  

Matthew Rivas’ – allegedly Celeste’s brother – spoke to NBC and said “I’m just trying to stay positive. I’m just trying to move forward. My mom’s grieving really bad. My dad’s grieving really bad.”

After Celeste was found, police searched the Hollywood Hills mansion where d4vd had been staying.  The home had been rented by d4vd’s manager.  

The home’s owner, Mladen Trifunovic, says he had no idea d4vd had been living there.  

“This all came as a complete shock to me. I only found out about the police activity this morning,” Trifunovic told Rolling Stone. “Until then, I had no idea anything had happened at the house or what was going on with D4vd and the missing girl. I never knew D4vd, and I wasn’t aware that he had ever lived in the house.”

The lease began in February 2024.The contemporary house in the affluent Birds Streets neighborhood off Sunset Boulevard (which rents for $13,999 per month, according to rental site apartments.com) is only about 500 feet from the parking place on nearby Bluebird Ave where D4vd’s Tesla was abandoned for at least three weeks before it was towed to the impound lot.  

During a search of the home, electronics including a computer were seized.  Shortly after the search, d4vd’s manager terminated the lease and d4vd moved out.   He also retained a criminal defense attorney, Blair Berk.

On September 16, 2025, a spokesperson for d4vd made a statement.  “d4vd has been informed about what’s happened. And, although he is still out on tour, he is fully cooperating with the authorities.”

On September 19, 2025, d4vd cancelled the remainder of his tour.  

Around this time, the admin of d4vd’s Discord server released a statement:

On September 29, 2025, The LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division said that they were ‘ thoroughly examining every aspect of this case to uncover the truth and seek justice for Celeste Rivas Hernandez and her family.” 

A vigil was held for Celeste and she was buried at the Queen of Heaven Cemetery and Mortuary in Rowland Heights, California on October 6, 2025. 

On November 19, 2025, despite earlier reports of d4vd being cooperative in the investigation, a source revealed otherwise.   This information is from NBC:

Singer D4vd has been identified as a suspect in the death of a 15-year-old girl who was found dead in a vehicle he owned in September, according to a Los Angeles Police Department source with direct knowledge of the investigation
He has not been cooperative, the source told NBC Los Angeles. The teen most likely died in the spring, and D4vd most likely had help dismembering and disposing of the body, the source said.

The case started getting even messier in November.  There were some reports (from TMZ) that Celeste’s body had been found dismembered and partially frozen (in Los Angeles in August/Sept?)  but authorities have since debunked that.

This was part of the initial reporting:

Celeste Rivas’s body had been frozen, and as a result, it looks the L.A. County Medical Examiner will not be able to establish a cause of death … sources directly connected to the investigation tell TMZ.

According to those sources, the medical examiner received the body in horrendous condition … it was decapitated, and, while the torso was intact, the limbs had been removed and cut into multiple pieces.

We’re told all of the body parts were “partially frozen” … and had, apparently, been thawing out while sitting in the trunk of D4vd’s Tesla.

It is possible that some of the misinformation came from this excerpt from the Medical Examiner.

It’s interesting … in one document from the Medical Examiner, it reads, “The decedent was not live scanned due to waterlogged fingers.” Translation … the M.E. was unable to fingerprint Celeste’s body.

This is the response regarding the misinformation from the LAPD:

LAPD Captain and commanding officer of Robbery-Homicide Division, Scot Williams, tells PEOPLE exclusively that Rivas Hernandez was not frozen and was not decapitated as previously reported by local media.

“Celeste’s body was not frozen,” Williams says. “She was not decapitated.  The whole frozen thing doesn’t even make sense.  Her body was in the car for weeks.”

Williams continues, “Even if she had been frozen solid when she was put in the car (which there is NO evidence to suggest she was), five or more weeks in the trunk of a car in sweltering heat in the middle of summer would not have resulted in a partially frozen body being discovered on September 8th.”

This is part of the official statement released by authorities:

“The body of Celeste Rivas was not frozen when it was discovered on September 8, 2025. She had not been decapitated,” the department said in a statement posted online. “We have evidence that D4vd travelled to the Santa Barbara area sometime during the Spring of 2025. The reason for that trip is still under investigation, and we’ve drawn no conclusions at this point about the relevance of the trip to this case.”

Steve Fischer is a PI who has been hired by the owner of the home where d4vd was staying.  He has spoken about his investigation into the freezer and the home.

‘The freezer still had its shelves installed, along with food and beverage items that had clearly been there for months,’ said Fischer.

‘I [also] tested key areas of interest in and around the home with Luminol and BlueStar [to look] for blood evidence and did not get any positive results.’

Steve did also speak about other things he allegedly found.

‘There were multiple of these items that could all be used together… [that] you’d never need in a Hollywood Hills home. You’d be more likely to find them on a farm.’

Fischer, in interviews with Court TV and Law & Crime earlier this month, described the items recovered from the property as ‘sadistic’, suggesting that they could potentially be ‘used to get rid of a person.’ He reiterated those claims on Wednesday, without offering further explanation. 

Bottles of prescription pain medication were also recovered inside, as were various items of drug paraphernalia. The condition of the home and the items found inside were otherwise normal, according to the PI.

On Monday, Nov. 24, the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner announced that they received a court order, initiated by the LAPD, to place a security hold on Celeste’s case.  

“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 medical examiner said. “The Department understands the public’s interest in this case and remains committed to transparency when possible. Information will be made available once the court order is lifted.”

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.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo said such security holds are “virtually unheard of in other counties” in California.

“We are dedicated to serving our community with full transparency; however, the law precludes us from doing so while the court order remains in this case,” Ukpo said.

On November 26, 2025, we learned that a Grand Jury has been convened in this case.

According to the Times, prosecutors led by Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman have possibly called multiple witnesses before the panel, according to a court filing describing the probe. Sources say that the Grand Jury was convened in mid-November, but it’s unclear if prosecutors have finished presenting evidence.

The LA Times stated that the court petition they recently obtained  (the LAPD blocking the release of Celeste’s death records) contained a “Grand Jury” number, confirming their suspicions. The Grand Jury review marks the first time the case has entered the “formal” judicial pipeline, however, this particular Grand Jury can only “recommend” charges. 

An “investigative” Grand Jury cannot return an indictment; they can return subpoenas for witnesses and other evidence needed, and could sometimes take months to hear evidence as they are used for complex and unclear criminal cases.