Topline
Teenager Celeste Rivas Hernandez was likely dead for weeks before her body was found in the trunk of a car registered to the singer D4vd earlier this month, the Los Angeles Police Department told multiple outlets Monday, as authorities investigate how and when she died (D4vd has not been accused of wrongdoing, and no suspect has been identified).
LAPD Capt. Scot Williams confirmed to the Los Angeles Times on Monday that Hernandez had been dead for weeks before her body was found on Sept. 8 in the trunk of D4vd’s car, which was impounded at a lot in Hollywood.
Police also said the car was ticketed by authorities 11 days before her body was found because it had been parked on a street for so long that it drew complaints from nearby residents, which led to it eventually being impounded at the lot.
“I’m not sure exactly when the parking complaints about the Tesla began, but it was closer to the beginning part of August,” Williams told the Los Angeles Times, though it’s unclear when the body came to be in the car.
D4vd, a 20-year-old singer whose real name is David Anthony Burke, has not commented since police found a decomposing body in a Tesla vehicle registered under his name, though the singer’s representatives have confirmed to multiple media outlets he is cooperating with authorities.
Burke cancelled the remainder of his U.S. and European tour, including performances planned for this month in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and he balked on an album release that was previously planned for Sept. 19.
Forbes has reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department for comment.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the body as that of Celeste Rivas, a 15-year-old girl who was reported missing from Lake Elsinore, a town situated southeast of Los Angeles, in April 2024. The LAPD confirmed to Forbes officers searched a home on Doheny Place in Los Angeles on Sept. 17 part of the investigation, where they recovered several items that will be analyzed as evidence, though police declined to comment on what the items were. Law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times Burke had been living in the home. The search came than a week after police responded to reports of a foul odor coming from a vehicle in a tow yard on Sept. 8, the LAPD confirmed to Forbes. Police found human remains in the car, which multiple reports say is registered under Burke’s name. Fox 11 Los Angeles reported the vehicle was impounded at Hollywood Tow, where workers noticed the foul smell, and that the body was found wrapped in a bag. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office identified the body as Rivas and listed her cause of death as “deferred.” The medical examiner’s office said in a statement her body was found “severely decomposed” and “appears to have been deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found.” The Los Angeles Times reported, citing the medical examiner, that Rivas had a tattoo on her index finder that said “Shhh…” and noted multiple recent pictures of Burke depict him with a similar tattoo on his finger that also says “Shhh.”
Gisel Vera, a relative of Rivas, told the Los Angeles Times her family has no comment on the case, though she confirmed her family launched a GoFundMe to raise funds for Rivas’s funeral. The GoFundMe page says Rivas’s family is “heartbroken and devastated by this tragic loss” and called Rivas a “beloved daughter, sister, cousin, and friend.”
Burke achieved fame in recent years with several viral songs on TikTok. His first few songs to hit the U.S. charts were “Here With Me” and “Romantic Homicide,” both released in 2022. Both songs now have more than 1.5 billion streams each on Spotify, where Burke has 35 million monthly listeners. Burke signed to Interscope Records shortly after the success of his TikTok-viral songs, and he achieved further fame opening for SZA during her “SOS Tour” in 2023. The singer released his debut album, “Withered,” in April, which peaked at No. 13 on the U.S. albums chart. Burke performed at the Coachella music festival in April, where he went viral for attempting and failing at a backflip.
The case has gone viral online, with many users scrutinizing Burke’s song lyrics. His biggest hit, “Romantic Homicide,” surged from No. 76 to No. 13 on the U.S. Spotify chart Thursday. In the song, Burke sings: “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.” In an interview with Genius in 2022, Burke said the lyrics are figurative. “I didn’t kill her physically, but in the back of my mind, she died,” Burke said. TMZ also claimed in a report Wednesday a leaked demo of an unreleased Burke song refers to someone named Celeste.
Celeste Rivas, 15, went missing a year ago. She was found dead in singer D4vd’s Tesla in the Hollywood Hills (Los Angeles Times)
D4vd Linked to House Blocks From Where Tesla With Body Inside Was Towed (Rolling Stone)