Mystery deepens after missing schoolgirl found dead in pop star’s Tesla

The day after a body was found in his car in Hollywood, singer D4vd was performing his TikTok hit Romance Murder (a thought-provoking breakup song about killing an ex-lover with no remorse) to a sold-out crowd in Minneapolis.

The US recording artist self-started his music career from his sister’s closet while working a part-time job at Starbucks. This led him to viral fame, millions of followers online, and a global tour.

But everything came to an abrupt halt last month when a severely mutilated body was found in the front trunk of a Tesla.

The body was identified as that of 15-year-old runaway Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

A month later, the teenager’s death and his relationship with the 20-year-old singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, still remain a mystery.

An in-depth examination of his macabre works, replete with references to death, remembrance, violence and gory motifs, has led some to question whether life imitates art and vice versa.

The young singer has yet to comment publicly about the incident or the gruesome discovery in his car. His spokesman said only that he was “cooperating fully with authorities” and has since hired a leading criminal defense attorney who has represented celebrities including Mel Gibson, Lindsay Lohan, Kanye West and Britney Spears.

Representatives for the singer, including her lawyer Blair Berk, Universal Music Group, Darkroom Records and Sony Music Publishing, did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment.

Rivas Hernandez’s cause of death has not yet been determined.

The district coroner said the body was “severely decomposed” when found and deferred ruling on how he died; They said the investigation could take months.

Police also did not name any suspects or persons of interest in the case, even weeks after finding her body.

The Los Angeles Police Department did not offer many details about the case or investigation, saying it was an open death investigation. The ministry did not comment on multiple questions asked by the BBC about the case, the investigation and the singer’s possible links to Rivas Hernandez.

“This is a very strange situation,” former prosecutor and Los Angeles lawyer Neama Rahmani told the BBC. “It gets weirder every day that goes on without being arrested.”

This lack of information also seems to fuel the intrigue. Fans, true crime enthusiasts, and internet sleuths launched their own investigations, latching onto details that appeared to connect the young girl to the actress-turned-songwriter once heralded by GQ as the “Mouthmaker of Generation Z Heartache.”

Rivas Hernandez, who lived about 75 miles from where her body was found, was last reported missing by her family in April 2024, but this wasn’t the first time she escaped from their Lake Elsinore home.

The first-generation daughter of immigrants from El Salvador, neighbors knew her as the girl who visited the corner store almost every day to buy candy and soda. According to the Los Angeles Times.

He first went missing on Valentine’s Day 2024, and his family reported him missing the next day.

Posters of his face appeared in his neighborhood, and his mother pleaded in Spanish on Facebook for him to return; public offerings that apparently offend young people.

Over the next two years, her parents would file at least two more missing persons reports.

Family and friends told the newspaper that each time Rivas Hernandez ran away, he would eventually return and re-involve himself in her life as a middle school student.

When the teenager’s remains were found in a bag in D4vd’s Tesla on September 8, the coroner said she was wearing a tube top, small black leggings and jewellery, including yellow metal earrings and a yellow metal chain bracelet.

He also had a tattoo on his index finger that read “Shh…”; it was almost identical to the tattoo on the pop singer’s own index finger.

Investigators said the decomposition on his body indicated he had already “been dead for several weeks.”

Her family, who described her as a beloved daughter, sister, cousin and friend, said they were “deeply saddened and devastated by this tragic loss.” They have since requested money from the crowdfunding website to cover funeral expenses, which took place earlier this month.

D4vd’s rise to stardom, fueled by TikTok and online gaming, is a paradigm for his generation.

Growing up near Houston, Texas, she was homeschooled and said she listened only to gospel music until she was 13. He became an avid Fortnite player in 2017 and began his music career using pop songs to soundtrack gameplay montages he posted on YouTube.

He started making his own music when he encountered copyright obstacles. He started in 2021 by recording songs on The BandLab app and uploading his work to SoundCloud.

He soon found his music breaking new ground with thousands of streams. He later released Romantic Murder and Here With Me, which would become his two biggest hits ever.

The songs went viral on TikTok and led to billions of streams on Spotify, garnering 33 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

She signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released her debut EP Petals and Thorns in 2023. That same year, she was named to Variety’s Young Hollywood list and appeared on SZA’s SOS tour.

This past spring, she made her debut at Coachella, the festival for up-and-coming talents to rise to mainstream fame. He was also commissioned by Fortnite to create the game’s first official anthem, Locked & Loaded, which he says shaped his story as an artist.

But his rise to fame was interrupted when his Tesla was pulled into a parking lot after someone complained about the foul smell, and authorities found a bag containing Rivas Hernandez’s decomposing remains in the front trunk.

A few days after the discovery, her world tour was canceled and Sony Music Publishing reportedly suspended promotion of her sophomore album.

Los Angeles police soon raided the luxurious Hollywood Hills mansion where the singer lived just a few blocks from where his Tesla was towed.

US retailer Hollister and footwear giant Crocs have dropped D4vd from their marketing campaigns, and Telepatia singer Kali Uchis has announced the removal of their collaboration Crashing.

But as his career came to a screeching halt, Authorities have remained silent on the investigation into Rivas Hernandez’s death.

Investigators have not released any new information about the case since Sept. 29.

The agency also said: It is not yet clear whether there was any criminal activity beyond the concealment of his body..

While online sleuths are quick to speculate, legal experts say there’s still a lot we don’t know.

“You have a bond with David that seems quite strong,” former prosecutor Rahmani told the BBC. “There’s a lot of smoke, but look, he could definitely be innocent and there could be someone else who has access to his vehicle.”

Mr. Rahmani said that although there are many questions in this case, the biggest question for him is “why is it taking the LAPD so long?”

“They haven’t released any real information,” he said. “This is not a good look for the LAPD and it’s a terrible look for D4vd.”

He added that a case like this adds to the pressure: It involves the death of a teenage girl, it makes headlines around the world, and the investigation involves a celebrity.

Mr. Rahmani said the potential for technology and video footage would likely be a “treasure trove” for researchers. Telsa vehicles come with advanced technology that tracks vehicles, notifying users when things like the trunk are open, and are also equipped with multiple cameras as part of their Sentry Mode systems.

Moreover, there were cameras in the Hollywood house where he lived. When authorities searched the home last month, investigators recovered a DVR that stored video and other data from the surveillance system.

Malden Trifunovic, owner of the Hollywood Hills home D4vd is renting, told the BBC he hired a private investigator to uncover what may have happened in his multimillion-dollar home.

D4vd’s manager Josh Marshall, founder of Mogul Vision, rented the house to D4vd and moved away from the singer. He vehemently denied rumors that he was linked to the death investigation.

In addition to the mystery surrounding Rivas Hernandez’s cause of death, it remains unclear what kind of relationship the young man had with the 20-year-old singer.

Rivas Hernandez would have turned 15 the day before his body was found by police.

The age of consent in California is 18.

Her family, friends and those who knew her told local media that she was dating a guy named David and that he was a musical artist.

A former middle school science teacher attributed her last attempt to run away from home in the spring of 2024 to dating a musical artist she met online.

“He’s been missing since I taught him,” the teacher said in a viral video after Rivas Hernandez’s body was identified.

Online sleuths linked him to the singer through a variety of means, from matching tattoos to photos he posted online that appeared to show them together.

However, neither D4vd nor the police addressed the rumors.

Like many people who don’t follow indie pop music, Mr. Trifunovic, the owner, said he had never heard of D4vd until news of the discovery broke. He didn’t even know that the person renting his house was D4vd because the contract was signed by the singer’s manager, Mr. Marshall.

“I share, like everyone else, the same concern and desire to understand what happened to poor Celeste,” Mr Trifunovic told the BBC.

Although he says he trusts the LAPD to conduct a thorough investigation, he, too, is concerned about the information.

“There is absolutely no doubt that a crime has been committed,” he said.

“He did not put himself in the front trunk of the Tesla or drive the vehicle to its location.”