D4vd arrested on suspicion of killing teen girl whose body was found in his Tesla | US crime
R&B singer D4vd has been arrested in connection with the murder of a teenage girl whose severely decomposed body was found in her Tesla, Los Angeles police said Thursday.
The 21-year-old musician, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, is being held without bail, according to city officials.
In September, LAPD detectives were called to a tow truck in Hollywood after receiving reports of a foul odor emitting from a car seized in Burke’s name. The car was towed from the Hollywood Hills after appearing to be abandoned.
Authorities found a dismembered body, later identified as 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. He was reported missing in 2024 and was last seen in Lake Elsinore, about 60 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles medical examiner’s office determined that Rivas Hernandez died in the vehicle “for an extended period of time before he was found.”
Police said Burke’s case will be presented to the district attorney’s office on Monday.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office acknowledged the arrest in a statement to the New York Times on Thursday and said it expects the case to be presented to the Major Crimes Division.
“Prosecutors will review the facts and evidence to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to file charges,” according to the statement.
The arrest comes as Burke faces a grand jury investigation Regarding the death of Rivas Hernandez.
In September, a spokesperson for the singer told NBC News that Burke was “fully cooperating with authorities.”
That month, police executed a search warrant for the Hollywood Hills home where Burke was staying, ABC News reported. Detectives detained a computer, among other items.
The singer’s legal team, Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter, defended his innocence in a statement to the Guardian.
“There was no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal charges were filed. David was detained only under suspicion,” the attorneys said. “The actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not kill Celeste Rivas Hernandez and that he was not the cause of her death.”
Burke, who grew up in Houston, became a breakout star around 2022 after a string of viral TikTok hits, including Romantic Murder, which re-examined lyrics about death.
Her popularity online has led to collaborations with stars SZA and Kali Uchis. Burke was on a tour when Hernandez’s body was discovered, but it was later canceled.
As questions swirled around the circumstances of Rivas Hernandez’s death, the case spurred online sleuths searching for clues connecting Rivas Hernandez to Burke.
Rivas Hernandez’s brother, Matthew. said She said on NBCLA in September that she went to see a movie with Burke before her sister went missing.
Authorities did not comment on the nature of the relationship between the two.
